It had been almost three months between the day I received the acceptance letter and the departure date. It’s a little bit exhausting to deal with the preparation process, but I know all the effort is for a better future. As the plane slowly got the wheels up and flew to the sky, my exchange student adventure officially began. It took me nearly 12 hours to fly from Taiwan to San Francisco. The flight was so long that I finished watching all Daniel Craig 007 movies. After that, I took a domestic flight to New York and arrived in Philadelphia by bus.
It’s kind of weird that I departed from Taiwan on Jan 4th and the date was still Jan 4th when I went to bed in Philly. Fortunately, since I left Taiwan in the morning and arrived at night, I could still have a “regular schedule.” That helped me avoid the jet leg issue. It just felt like Jan 4th went into overtime and I was the player.
I gradually got used to the American type of life in the first week, which was faster than I expected. One of the most memorable culture differences is that the drivers here are incredibly polite. Wherever I stand on the street, these drivers always make way for me. In the first few days, I was quite doubtful whether I should directly walk across the crosswalk or not, but the drivers always show their manners and that makes me flattered.
Cooking is another brand-new experience for me since I don’t really cook in my hometown. In Taiwan, there are all kinds of food stands or affordable restaurants in the street. But here in the States, most of the dishes are quite expensive comparing to Taiwan. That’s why I find it essential to cook by myself. The good thing is my roommate is coincidentally a great chef. I would have lived a life with countless frozen food if I didn’t meet him. Luckily, I get to taste a lot of delicious cuisines and learn some tips about cooking. I have to admit that it fosters the sense of accomplishment when you bring out the dishes from scratch.
Even though I prefer to have meals at my own place, I’ve still tried several restaurants around the campus, including Five Guys, Honeygrow and Chipotle. Among all these restaurants, Chipotle is my favorite without a doubt. It specializes in tacos and burritos that are made to order in front of the customer. I didn’t recognize the name of the toppings and sauce when I visited there the first time. The only thing I could do was point at the ingredients and try to build a senseful combination. But I guess Chipotle is probably too good to fail.
New life aside, what I want to do the most here is to meet more friends from around the world. It is obviously a pity that we couldn’t meet other international students in the first two weeks due to the pandemic situation. We finally got to have a physical meet-up by the end of January, which was a blessing in disguise. It felt completely different to meet a “real” person, getting to chat and laugh together. Even though there was a rough start, I believe we would only get better. I can’t wait to embrace the upcoming semester and all the events.
