It is crazy that I have been in Taiwan for over a month. Before flying from JFK to TPE, I had misgivings and worried too much about whether I would survive the flight and other things. I felt so comfortable living in the U.S. and didn't want to leave Boston. But there was a reason I wanted to MISTI Taiwan in the first place, which was going back to Taiwan and visiting some parts of my past.
Getting a SIM card at the airport was difficult, but exchanging currency and other matters worked out fine. The journey was smoother for me since I lived in Taiwan as a kid for a while. Also, my Chinese reading and speaking ability is quite good for getting around places in Taiwan.
Currently, I am conducting research at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at the Academia Sinica in Taipei, which is like the NIH in the U.S. Academia Sinica consists of many labs covering different fields from biology to chemistry to the humanities. My project focuses on improving drug delivery for cancer by using antibodies and PEGs. This project is more interesting than the UROPs I did at MIT. Unlike previous UROPs, this one has forced me to do a lot of self-learning about how to design experiments and read protocols online. It's something that I am not used to, but probably will be good for me in the long run. On some days, however, I don't have anything to do. If I have nothing to do, I prepare for internships next year, like writing cover letters, editing my resume, or reading online resources.
During the weekends, I spend my time exploring Taipei. Although I lived in Taipei for two years in middle school, my memories became hazy over time, so I revisited key landmarks like the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall and Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall. I also went to other attractions like Taipei 101 and the National Palace Museum. A week ago, I got to explore Longshan Temple and Ximen with Karen '26, which was super fun and I got to know Karen better from the excursion.
Karen and I at Longshan Temple
Living in Taipei has its pros and cons, just like any other place. When I feel sad or lonely, I sometimes wish I was in the U.S., though such thoughts aren't very helpful because it's not like I can teleport and go back to MIT. But when I am in a good mood, I am happy that I am in Taiwan. Despite having lived in Taiwan as a child, some observations I made of the place feel new. I was pleased that the streets have been pretty clean with no strong odors, as my recollections somehow made this aspect of Taiwan worse than it actually is. When I lived in Taiwan, I didn't recall that many garbage cans around places, which made things super inconvenient. In my neighborhood, however, there are quite a few garbage cans, and people do a good job of recycling and being accountable for their trash.
I remember Taiwan being humid, but I forgot what it felt like to leave the nicely air-conditioned office building and then walk out with the humidity feeling like a wave that hit you. It took me around a week or two to get used to the humidity. If there's one thing I miss about the U.S., it is the weather. I find it hilarious that my weather app forecast says rain and thunderstorm for the next 7 to 10 days all the time, with a couple exceptions here and there. While the rain makes the environment feel cooler, the rain here is so unpredictable it is frustrating because I can't really plan for say a rainy day or a sunny day. Even the intensity of the rain varies a lot. Sometimes it rains so hard that an umbrella won't be of much help.
Even though the weather here isn't as ideal, one interesting thing I noticed is that I don't miss the food in the U.S. at all. Not even burritos or falafel or donuts. Sure, these foods are yummy, but I guess they don't carry a lot of stories or nostalgia compared to what I ate in Taiwan. Eating fruits like passion fruit, wax apple, and guava brought me so much joy that it felt so strange. I never had a gastronomic experience in which eating something so simple and ordinary made me so happy. I loved how the sour yet sweet passion fruit juice and seeds made my tongue tickle with delight and how the wax apple had the right balance of sweetness and crispness. These are fruits that I didn't eat in the U.S. partly because they were so expensive and not fresh. Another wonderful experience I had was having lots of local street food and drinks, such as soy milk and mango shaved ice.
Beef noodle soup, xiaolongbao at Din Tai Fung, and oyster omelet
In my opinion, the best thing about coming to Taiwan is the culinary experience. There are so many options in the night markets and streets that it is overwhelming, from tofu pudding to grass jelly to stinky tofu. Maybe I haven't looked carefully enough when I explored Chinatowns in the U.S., but it's honestly not that easy to find some local Taiwanese dishes abroad, such as hujiao bing ( 胡椒餅）and oyster omelet (蚵仔煎）. I thought a lot of my nostalgia about Taiwan would also include niche stores, but I realized that a lot of my nostalgia had to do with food.
Another benefit of living in Taiwan is that I get to practice my Chinese and be immersed in the local culture. I learned a lot of Chinese idioms and slang from my housemate and in return, I taught her some English words. It's a good exchange. I also enjoy conversing with the locals here because they are very curious about life in the U.S. and what's it like being a Chinese overseas. From my interactions in my apartment and lab, I learned a lot about current events in Taiwan as well as other cultural things, such as placing Kuai Kuai (乖乖）corn puffs on top of machines in the hopes that the machines won't break. In Chinese, 乖乖 (guai guai in Hanyu Pinyin) means obedient. It's funny that I never noticed this when I lived here even though the phenomenon was a thing ten years ago.
I will be in Taiwan until mid-August and I can't wait to explore more places in Taipei and around Taipei. I have at least twenty more items on my food bucket list to check off before I fly back.
