Out the door at 7:30am this morning, we piled on a crowded bus for a 45 minute ride to National Chengchi University, a public research university here in Taipei (enrollment 16k).
They are currently building a subway stop there, but for now it’s bus-only. While on the bus I met a young woman from George Washington U, in D.C. who is here for a 1-year study abroad at NCCU. She told me that she doesn’t speak any mandarin, attends classes in English, feels like the city has to be the safest she’s ever encountered, and the people have been very nice to her.
The first stop was to a lecture hall where our students attended a class for an hour.
They paired off with mandarin-speaking students in the room.
After class we took a walking tour of campus. It has begun to rain for the first time this week. Almost everyone was unprepared for the rain. This wasn’t your typical Portland drizzle. This was some thick jungle rain coming in buckets! Yang Laoshi bought a dozen umbrellas and we headed out.
Our destination was the Dah Hsian Seetoo Library.
It is the most beautiful and impressive library in Taiwan. Seven stories of book shelves wrap around an open atrium. An NCCU freshman gave us a tour.
We all stood at the edges to gaze across the open space.
The library is open to the public as well as students.
Finally, we gathered in a classroom and they fed us boba tea and some really delicious potstickers for lunch, while a few speakers told us about the school.
One of Yang Laoshi’s former students (Ellie, Cleveland Class of ‘22) told us about her experience at NCCU. She made it in the last UO flagship program cohort, before it closed down this year. She said it’s sad but hopefully it will open up a broader range of study abroad options in China. Oh, and she said it costs about $1000USD total per semester here!!
After saying goodbye we headed out to catch a bus to Maokong. The rain has subsided so hopefully we won’t get too wet. Just outside the building the entrance was now inundated with umbrellas left there by students who entered here. It’s just so unexpected that you can leave anything outside and it will still be there 2 hours later!
More to come!