Author Archives: Alejandro Fuentes

As sad as it is to say, but the final week of the summer session of my time in Taiwan has arrived, and thus my final blog post for the summer. Overall, it has been a very fruitful summer for … Continue reading →

The more time I spend in Taiwan, the more I realize how much more Chinese I have to learn. In a conversation I had with a friend, we compared many differences in the words used between the mandarin spoken in … Continue reading →

This week was an exciting one! After class, my teacher treated my classmates and I to some traditional Taiwanese food. Afterwards, we all headed together to take a class on tea brewing and culture. When we arrived, we started by … Continue reading →

This week, I mostly took it easy and spent a lot of time thinking about how my experience with learning Chinese in Taiwan compares to learning it back in the states. The biggest difference is that in Taiwan, everyday and … Continue reading →

No surprises here, but the weather in Taiwan continues to be extremely hot! This weekend I took the chance to go with some friends to 烏石港, another beautiful beach in the northern part of Taiwan that is a popular surfing … Continue reading →

One of the things that has surprised me a lot about Taiwan is the different communities of foreigners. For instance, I have been able to befriend a lot of fellow Latinos that have come to Taiwan (mostly from South American … Continue reading →

This week I tried out a new form of transportation: the Maokong Gondola (貓空纜車)! This is a 4.03km gondola system that brings you to Maokong, an area of Taipei known for tea cultivation. Going immediately after classes, we were very … Continue reading →

Midterm season has arrived, but it is no where close to how stressful they feel back at Williams! 🙂 This week I focused most of my time studying for my midterm exam, but I still found sometime to go out … Continue reading →

At long last, I am finally able to attend classes in-person at the Chinese Language Division (CLD) at NTU! I am especially excited  because this will be the first time since my freshman fall (2019) that I am able to … Continue reading →

饒河夜市（Raohe Night Market） One of the many amazing aspects of Taipei is its many night markets! Here you can find all kinds of foods, drinks, clothes, and other goods. And the best part is that it’s very affordable! Though I … Continue reading →

Exploring the Queer scene in Taipei As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriages, it was only fitting that I was able to spend pride month (June) in Taiwan! I headed over to 西門 (Ximen) where a lot … Continue reading →

Move-in day: The taxi ride from the quarantine hotel to the apartment I will be staying at this summer was the most surreal experience after being in isolation for a week. Immediately, I was welcomed by Taiwan’s scorching weather (thought … Continue reading →

First Quarantine Experience To summarize my experience in quarantine, it was not the worst experience in the world, but definitely not the most fun one either. I am beyond grateful that we only had to quarantine for a week as … Continue reading →

Journey to Taiwan The journey to Taiwan was a long one that started around 3:00 a.m. EST on May 26th, 2022 from my hometown of Greensboro, NC. I didn’t sleep the night before due to excitement (and last minute preparations). … Continue reading →