Postcard Getaway

A Day in My Life as a Taiwan Fulbrighter

Written by Kaelie Piscitello

Thankfully, my first day as a Fulbrighter in. Taiwan does not reflect the rest of my experience. Fulbright expected everyone to arrive by 6 am, and after a few hours of waiting at Taoyuan Airport, the program finally whisked us away onto a bus. We didn’t know exactly where. 

We spent most of the day in a conference room, making small talk and filling out paperwork. The day felt extraordinarily long, but it gave all of the Taipei Fulbright grantees an excellent chance to get to know each other. 

The rest of my experience has turned around since then, and while I have experienced the expected struggles of navigating language barriers and culture shock, I’m finally starting to find my footing on the other side of the world.

Settling into School

After a lengthy process where I ranked eight schools (and then another six two days later) on a preference form, I finally found out that I am teaching at Minquan Junior High School this year! 

I teach around 500 students, and my schedule allows me to work with each seventh and eighth-grade class once weekly. As you can imagine, I have trouble keeping track of all the students’ names. The kids are all so sweet, so I’m trying to remember them better. 

I’m teaching a few PE classes, which I was wary of at first, but I like my co-teachers and have appreciated the opportunity to get to know another side of the students.

In addition to PE, I teach scouting, which introduces survival skills that American children learn through boy and girl scouts. Additionally, I have started a club where eighth-grade students and I learn about countries from all around the world. So far, we have visited Mexico, the United Kingdom, and South Africa!

Next week, I will begin teaching a pen pal workshop to facilitate a cultural exchange program between the seventh graders and a school in Malaysia. I’m excited to teach writing again and can’t wait to meet the Malaysian teachers virtually.

My favorite class so far is We Care, or as my school calls it, “the special class.” It’s a civics-based class where my co-teacher and I introduce our students to community service and environmentally responsible activities. 

Last week, we took a class trip to Carrefour. The students engaged in a self-guided scavenger hunt, finding signs on products that marked them as products of ethical companies. Afterward, they got to practice acting as responsible consumers and purchasing groceries. 

We have also made window covers to prevent birds from flying into them and pretended to be chickens in different egg-raising settings to increase awareness about how companies treat the animals we eat. We Care has genuinely been a very special class to teach.

The School Community

Many friends and family from home have asked me if I struggle with the language barrier at school. While I can sometimes find co-planning lessons in Chinese challenging, the struggle has bonded me with the teachers I work most closely with. We’re all in the same boat because I’m trying to improve my Chinese and the teachers want to practice speaking with me in English. So, we all help each other out when we come across gaps.

I love Minquan Junior High School’s positive working community. It goes far beyond anything I have seen in the U.S. The teachers frequently plan activities to get everyone together outside of school. They started right away, too, with a beach cleanup that we all attended one of my first weeks here.

MQJHS also hosted a teacher appreciation day barbecue that many of my coworkers attended. We cooked and played games together. I also performed a few songs on the piano, which was fun because I don’t get many opportunities to do that anymore. 

Some teachers invited me to participate in a weekly Zumba club, and I loved going! I feel lucky that Fulbright placed me here because I immediately felt so welcomed.

A New Home

Many people have asked me where I live, and I can’t complain. Yes, there’s some mold in my apartment and it lacks a drying machine, but that seems standard in Taipei. I also like all of my roommates. 

I live with three other Taiwan Fulbrighters and we all have our own rooms. I love having someone to get dinner with every night and debrief after a long school day.

Beyond my place, I’m slowly finding “my spots” in my new neighborhood. I live near Ximending, a giant shopping area in Taipei, and I’m trying to compile a thorough Google Maps list of all the best places to eat there. 

So far, my favorite place is Papa Chiang Noodles, a restaurant I found with my boyfriend. They sell beef noodles in a tomato broth. Usually, the cooks boil beef noodles in regular beef stock, so the tomato adds a kick that I like.

What am I up to Outside of School?

Of course, I mainly explore Taiwan! I’ve taken several day trips near Taipei with some other Taipei Fulbrighters, including Keelung City and the Yingge Pottery Street.

I’ve also recently started taking overnight trips to places further away like Kaoshiung and Taichung. Kaoshiung was a memorable trip because I met up with the daughter of one of my dad’s friends. She was sweet and took my friend and I around some of her favorite spots, and we visited a fortune teller! 

Comment below if you want to hear more about my travels around Taiwan!

Besides traveling around, the big group of Fulbrighters has gotten together a few times to celebrate birthdays and take in Taipei’s nightlife. I really liked walking around Maji Square because I could bar hop easily, and everywhere had free admission. In the daytime, if I’m home on weekends, I go to cat cafes to work on this blog! I miss my kitties back home endlessly, so hanging out with some fluffy friends while I’m here is excellent.

One of the best parts about moving to Taiwan is getting back into dance. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a whole lot of time to join the dance clubs at my college, so I’ve enjoyed getting back into doing something that I love. I attend hip hop and street jazz classes at Lumi Dance School, and I love every second of returning to my roots in such a new and unfamiliar place.

This post and blog are not affiliated with Fulbright or the Foundation of Scholarly Exchange. All of this work is my own.