Exploring Taipei with a New Friend

By Ronaldo Huerta (2024 Spring-term student in Taipei)

It would be an understatement to say I’m glad to meet my friend in Taipei. Before I came to Taipei to study, I was barely learning Chinese on my own until I decided to make it my minor. I was using different resources such as learning language apps to connect with locals to learn everyday Chinese. To my surprise, I made a friend who happens to live in Taipei. When I told him that I was going to study there, he insisted that he would take me to the most popular areas and to all the places I wanted to visit. Two days after I arrived, he and I met for the first time in Da’an park where we saw the Gundam statue. We walked around the park for a little bit and found out that we have similar taste in music. We both like a lot of international music so we started sharing music with each other. When we got to the end of the route, we didn’t know where to go. It turns out that he also likes fashion, so our first destination was Xinyi district since he remembered that I always wanted to go to GU (since the only location in the U.S is in New York). Of course we had to check out adidas afterwards since they had the Lunar New Year collection that wasn’t available in the U.S.  We met up again a few days later in the Xinyi department stores next to Taipei 101. The mall was decorated for Lunar New Year and wanted me to see before heading to the Pokémon center. It was a last minute decision to go since we happen to walk by it. I’ve always wanted to go to a Pokémon center but the only places that had it (from what I know) was in New York and Japan. Apparently, the store was very new and was a popular tourist spot. We then headed to Ximen to meet with the rest of the students who were in the same program as me; but since I didn’t know where they were and were a little scattered, we just visited the night market on our own and showed me the lanterns on display on the street and the over cross. I had stinky tofu for the first time that night; the flavor over all was not bad but because the chef freshly cooked it, I didn’t realize how hot it was. I didn’t want to spit it out so I just let it cool as I was eating it. He made fun of me for making the most ugliest face when I was eating it. 

He was one of the very few people (if not, the only one) who I get to open up to. In the beginning of the program, I was experiencing a sense of loss and confusion. In a way, I thought it was selfish of me for leaving my family behind without knowing what would happen if I wasn’t there to assist/provide for them in any way. I thought I was abandoning them for my own personal ambitions. To add fuel to the fire, I was entering a country with little to no knowledge of Chinese that would end up getting me into situations where I would embarrass myself. I started to have a sense of relief when I continued to be around my friend more often since he was starting his military service by the time the spring semester started. Though it was a little disheartening when he started and had limited access to his phone but whenever he has the time, he would always make the effort to stay in contact.