TAIWAN!!!

May 2025

located in daodong district, ningxia, daodong night street market

with NTNU's president

rare group photo including the purdue students at tamsui!

Taiwan, thanks to you, this has become a trip I will never forget.

As a first-generation college student who was accepted into Carnegie Mellon, NYU, and several other prestigious institutions known for media, I ultimately chose UT Austin for financial reasons. At the time, I thought my experience at UT would be just alright. However, choosing to UT Austin was the right decision, going on this trip—and experiencing my first research trip to UCLA, both fully funded.

I couldn’t be more grateful.

In high school, I had a bucket list that included traveling during college. My 12th-grade self might have wondered why I didn’t attend the University of Bristol or Oxford in England. Little did she know, I’d be accepted into Taiwan's top 5 universities, National Taiwan Normal University's Mandarin Program with a full-ride scholarship, including meal plans and living expenses.

Taiwan was never on my original travel list, but it ended up being one of the best surprises of my life. After avoiding learning Mandarin for the longest time (because I thought it was too hard), I was amazed at how quickly I picked it up—reading pinyin and even speaking basic Mandarin phrases with local Taiwanese people. I even exchanged USD to NTD at the bank completely in Mandarin! (我要换钱，三百美金。)

There was not a single moment where I was upset or mad, I enjoyed every single moment. All the people I studied with in Taiwan, they are such a bliss that made my trip even better. It was surprising to me that I was so content that I did not know that I could laugh this much during my time in Taiwan.

You made me dream. It thrills me to want to become a producer. I can travel all around the globe and to see how the world revolves where I can see unique individuals and cultures.

The University of Texas at Austin, National Taiwan Normal University, and especially to our Texas Global Advisor, Daniel Ach, thank you for selecting me out of 500 applicants as one of the 10 recipients. That is literally 0.02% acceptance rate...

Taiwan, once again, thanks to you I was able to travel out of U.S. AGAIN. You made the 15 year old me who wished to go abroad happy. SMILING BRIGHTLY.

Sincerely, until next time, see you soon.

now... be ready for a long, very long photo dump!!!!!!!!!!!!!

national theatre hall, taipei

top night view of the elephant mountain hiking aka xiangshan

united airlines, airplane food! apple pancakes, it was very sweet, but it was pretty soft and warm.

tamsui old street! kate was so nice enough to take this wonderful photo!

us girlies eating THE TOFU PUDDING!!!

us girlies getting handmade hairpins (zan!)

us girlies, again, getting our boba (in taipei 101) at tao tao boba.

THE BEST SASHIMI i ever had in my life.

hiking up the elephant hiking trail! omg it was so high up that i was showering in sweat... anyways, here is me at the top with taipei 101 at the back!

ximending! i also took the risk and got a haircut here ahaha...

you might be wondering what this ai photo is doing here... it is actually made by my chinese teacher, li, trying to give a introduction of our class to other UT students... this photo was inspired by one of our oral finals when our class had to order full chinese at 50 lan... here is rohail and i talking to akiko after ordering our drinks. i believe we were talking about our order in this situation... meanwhile soni at the back... where are her legs???

of course, as a student, we cannot leave out late night hot pot instant ramen!!!

at the top of the jiufen with nicole... nicole, chris, emma, and i were lucky enough to eat dinner for only 5 bucks with FREE PLUM WINE!!! what a steal... because it is a tourist place, near by shops are usually priced x10...

tamsui sunset with emma! ugh, the sunset was so gorgeous...

ningxia night market michelin star recognized restaurant, yuan huan bian... ordered the famous oyster omelet, clam soup, and the oyster soup. the oyster and clam was SO fresh, you would be surprised that the clam soup was actually better than the oyster. i will say though, the oyster omelet was so interesting... it was SLIMY

one of the many group 0.5 photos, this photo was taken front of our hotel at night.

xiao long bao!!!

at taipei 101, night scenery!

in the metro going to the national concert hall! national taiwan normal university students preformed a wonderful orchestra concert.

sun moon lake! taken this photo on the wharf, but the camera did not do it's justice.

there was no way that rose would have ever imagined that she was going to do some tea picking in taiwan...

raohe night market with the girlies! as we arrived right after the concert, it was a speed run trip. honestly we had to make it so quick before the last metro at 12 am passed by... it was lowkey stressful to make it on time as we RANNNNNNNNNN to the metro station before 11:50 PM. i do not regret visiting though... like... i will not get to experience running to the metro station after eating in raohe at11:50 pm in america...

a picture i took of emma at taipei 101!

would you be surprised that at the age of 20, this was my first shopping splurge for myself?! except 2 of these aren't mine.

taipei 101 with marc, soni, nicole, anastasia, and emma!

taipei daylight view!

nicole, after dinner, when she spilled her boba drink on the floor inside taipei 101, in front of THE din tai fung. i spy spilled drink on the floor (can you see it?)