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Feel free to share this video with your friends!

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Happened to run into pants in Kaohsiung and had to take a picture with a local legend. They say never to meet your heroes, but pants was very gracious and approachable. This and meeting Jerry were probably the two most memorable moments for me, but I was too nervous to ask Jerry for a selfie.

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I went up to the top of Mount Kaohsiung and was chased by the military. I'm not sure how or why these cats were here, but they were very obliging for the first 15 photos I took.

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Tainan - my favorite day of the maymester 

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Tainan - my favorite day of the maymester 

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(Sorry I wrote a lot)

The night before we were also quite busy so I thought I would be exhausted but it ended up being wonderful. Our bus came bright and early at 8:30am and we arrived around 11am at a temple (presumably near Tainan). Not only was the temple pretty but also the winding lake which surrounded it. We were given the opportunity to ride on a (low to the water) boat which moved us across a scenic river where we could appreciate the wildlife and the extremely low trees (some of which almost wiped out my classmates). Next we went to a restaurant that served 台南 style food which is often on the sweeter side. Then we went to an old town market in Tainan that sold a variety of tchotchkes and night-market-esqe foods. At the old town we also passed through a Dutch colonization museum and a massive temple. When we went back we dropped some people off at the thsr and a few of us went out to dinner at sushi row for the second time cause it was just that good. I am still not over the sushi there (crying inside at my hometowns lack of sushi conveyer belt shops). We also went shopping at the thrift store and found some good finds. After we were happily fed and silly we went exploring some more and found a photo booth where we took a bunch of super cute photos as a group and also some people took some duet photos. Finally we went back (one group took a Uber back and another proceeded to walk a mile to the nearest youbike stop and we biked back across the near empty streets back to our hotel). Finally we went to one of our rooms and ate the cake that Sara’s mom (via her cousin) got for her. A whole bunch of us were just crammed into a room that barely fit 2 people much less around 10. Regardless we chatted till late in the night, watching music videos and playing a few card games. This was probably my favorite day of this maymester

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The language exchange partners and our memories with them inside and and outside the classroom has got to be the most memorable part of the Maymester. They truly helped us assimilate into Taiwan by teaching us new and/or common phrases/slang, how to navigate Taiwan, which restaurants we gotta try, clubs to participate in on-campus (archery !!!), when the gym is free to go to, and most importantly, giving us a ride on their scooter! Being with them forced me to think, speak, and read in Chinese as well as feel like a regular student at 中山大学. Their kindness and hospitality did not go unnoticed. 台湾人真有人情味。

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another one of my favorite experiences: kaohsiung public library

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another one of my favorite experiences: kaohsiung public library

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i love this library sm! it's so beautiful especially on the roof! again this was one of those experiences where looking down from the buildings made me realize how grateful i was to see a skyline view of a new country. the bookstore next to it was very beautiful too! (photo creds to Isaac)

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this was probably one of my favorite places to go to. it's located at in taipei, not too far from taipei 101. i didn't have enough time to explore unfortunately but just looking at the images i took at night, i started tearing because it made me feel really grateful for everything i've experienced in taiwan

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My favorite part was our language exchange partners! They helped us improve our Chinese so much and I feel like I gained so much fluency from just speaking with them outside of the classroom.

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One of my memorable yet unassuming experiences was at Lukang on the way home from our trip at Sun Moon Lake. When we stopped for a bathroom break, I was anticipating a short stop, but instead we visited Xingong village for nearly 3 hours and met so many amazing people, including the man I shook hands with in the photo above, and many other locals who were so happy to talk to foreigners. The village was so lively, and I was able to buy so many gifts for my friends. I will never forget the people that live here, and I want to come back in the future when my Chinese improves.

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Without Kaohsiung's MRT and Light Rail system, our Taiwan Maymester would be infinitely more frustrating and inconvenient. I think the interconnected public transit system is something we take for granted--a part of Taiwan that we will miss (latently) when we return to USC. Some of the best conversations I've had were on 40 minute train rides to Ruifeng Night Market or on short 10 minute rides to Formosa Boulevard. I'll also miss the U-Bike system, except for when the bus nearly runs us over or a scooter cuts us off. After getting out of a full day of classes, our favorite activity is taking the U-Bikes down to the ferry and grabbing huabing nearby, then returning back to the hotel to nap and then chip away at our homework. Besides bonding, you can admire the beautiful scenery.

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KTV with the Taiwan cohort was very fun - there weren’t many English songs, but we were able to sing our hearts out on many of them. Not many people knew the chinese songs the same, but we got to see Freda and the service worker spit bars on the spot.

YJ

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We enjoyed Hakka tradition and customs. There was awesome snail fishing and tea making. Not only that but we made our own food in cool stone furnaces. It was a great daytrip and a great experience as I have never done anything like this before. The food was great, the tea was calming, and the snails were crawling... (I got the most)

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The most memorable experience was the field trip to sun moon lake. The view was really nice and I just can’t think of anywhere else that is as good view as there. There was also the cycling and going in the rain being soaked. The hotel was so good and it provided such a great morning view to the lake. Everything about it was amazing and of course my whole experience too.

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There were some anime girls in front of a maid cafe in the train station that we really wanted to take a picture with. I had to use my Chinese skills to find someone to help us take a picture. However, it was around the end of the school day, so there were pretty much only middle schoolers in the train station. I approached a middle schooler to ask them to help take a picture of us, and they looked terrified of us at first. However, eventually we got one to take a picture for us. Chinese is really useful!

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We took a daytrip to see very cool Hakka cultural customs! We engaged in traditional Hakka food making traditions which resulted in a yummy feast of various dishes. We also mashed our own ingredients to make a tasty tea. Throughout the day we also played different Hakka games with each other and competed for fun prizes! Snail fishing was also an insane experience that I personally have not done before. (I got the most snails) After this we also visited the Buddha Museum which is quite the spectacle. There is a giant golden Buddha and huge pagodas leading up to the temple. It was very cool.

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We went to an internet cafe called Leader E-sports. It was a really cool experience and the internet was really fast (for those who know, LoL only had 9 ms ping) and the PCs were really good. Unlimited soft drinks while you are there too! It was really fun to game with the language exchange partners.

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I tried many fun places to eat and experience for the first time. Eating at a new place with friends always added excitement. Above is a picture I took of my friends and I eating at Sushiro conveyor belt sushi in Dream Mall. We reached one hundred plates. I highly recommend going with a hungry group for a fun time!

James Wang

jameshw@usc.edu

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Robert在他最喜欢的商店

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Robert在他最喜欢的商店

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This Maymester was a great way to start the Summer! I got to try a lot of yummy foods I've never had before (NiuRouMian and SiGuaTang to name a few) and meet lots of cool people. There are lots of cool sights around Kaohsiung, such as the Fine Arts Museum and Pier 2, where you can see some cool art and buy lots of nice clothes (which are really cheap here so take advatange of that). If you can, try to make a trip to Taipei to see the memorial hall in the pic! For good going out spots in Kaohsiung, Muse and Brickyard are your best bets.

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My favorite experience in the entire trip is hard to choose since there is a lot to choose from. I would probably say that my favorite is probably making new friends that I would not regularly have. I loved being able to explore the city and go out with everybody. one memory that comes to mind is when we all got Din Tai Fung after the we got our stipend. I also had a great time with the language exchange and getting to meet all the native speakers and learning so much from them. It was really a fun time, and I am so grateful that I decided to do this trip. Here is a picture of us in the Hakka culture farming for snails.

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The most memorable experience of the Maymester was going to the Aboriginal village. I had a lot of fun at the amusement park and learning about the Indigenous Taiwanese culture. I also loved meeting all of the people on the Maymester and making a bunch of new friends.

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In Taiwan, the weather is very different than Los Angeles. However, because I am used to humidity and rain, I enjoyed traveling here, especially Sun Moon Lake. The view from my hotel room is one that I could not get over. I think anyone who comes to Taiwan should go here.

Feel free to contact me for any details on the rest of my Maymester experience!

Instagram: @dianamcarpio

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One day we were walking around a internet cafe we were going to go to, looking for a place to eat. We wanted noodles but we wanted to find a place to eat. We eventually stumbled upon a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant. In front of the restaurant, there was a small display with very unappetizing, dry cow organs. However, they had noodles on the menu, so we all ordered a bowl of duck noodles and some small sides. The surprisingly ended up being really good. Don't judge a restaurant by its front in Taiwan!