Heather West

2010-11 Outbound to Taiwan

Hometown: Jacksonville, Florida

School: Creekside High School

Sponsor: Bartram Trail Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida

Host: Shulin Fangyuan Rotary Club, District 3490, Taiwan

Bio

Heather's Bio

Hello! My name is Heather West, and I am sixteen years old (but not for much longer!). I have lived my whole life in Jacksonville, Florida, and I spend my weekdays in Creekside High School. But this all changes after this summer when I go to Taiwan!!!

One thing I am passionate about is music. If you are ever in my room there are sure to be stacks of CDs everywhere, and the musician most revered in my eyes is definitely Bob Dylan. Besides that, I spend most of my time with either a good book or friends doing normal teenage things. My favorite of which is the beach.

When I heard that I was accepted as an alternate I thought maybe, if I was accepted, I wouldn’t get any of my preferred countries. It might sound negative, but there was something really exciting about getting a country I knew little about. Now that I have read about Taiwan I really think it was a good choice for me and that I will (of course) enjoy my year as a foreign exchange student even if it will be difficult at times. I feel so privileged for this opportunity and couldn't be any more excited!

September 9

As I set out to write this journal, I realized that almost exactly three weeks ago I was leaving Taiwan. It’s odd because although I feel like I’ve been here for so long I also know that my time here is just beginning, and that makes me very happy because I already love this country!!

I began my long, long journey to Taiwan on August 19th at four in the morning. I remember the week before I left everyone kept asking me if I was nervous, and I was very proud that I hadn’t freaked out yet. Then came the morning of my departure; I had stayed up all night (which I do not advise to any future exchange students) and for some reason around 3 in the morning I completely panicked and was convinced I was not going to be at the airport on time. Then I ran around doing some last minute packing, making sure I had everything, and taking a bunch of useless things out of my carry on after realizing it weighed about 50 pounds. Eventually all my luggage and I made it into my dad’s car and to the airport. Then after getting my ticket my family, two friends and I made our way towards the gate. I had never really cried about leaving Florida until that moment although at the same time I knew I would see everyone again so it wasn’t as hard as I had thought it would be to walk away (if that makes any sense).

he flight from Jacksonville to Chicago was not fun. I was completely exhausted and after I fell asleep for about an hour, I woke up and felt sick. Then luckily I got better after we arrived in Chicago and I got off the plane. I don’t really remember the flight from Chicago to San Francisco, so it must have been ok. Then it was time for the ten hour flight from San Francisco to Japan. I was dreading this flight the most but it turned out to be as good as a ten hour flight can possibly be since the plane was pretty comfortable. After finally arriving in Japan a short time later (I was lucky enough not to have any really long layovers) we , which was about 17 other exchange students and I, boarded the light to Taipei, Taiwan. I fell asleep pretty quickly and was woken up when we were about 15 minutes or so away from the airport. Unfortunately I felt sick again which made me so mad because I really wanted to be at my best when I greeted my host family.

After getting off the plane I started to feel a bit better and was really happy when I went to baggage claim and my two suitcases made it to Taipei because I had been worried about that. Then I made my way through immigration and nervously walked towards the exit wondering where my host family was waiting. Before I left I had no contact with my host family, just a lady who is in my host club and my counselor, so I was very nervous about meeting them and for a while totally convinced myself that there would be no one waiting for me at the airport. I was very wrong. After turning a corner all of a sudden I saw a TON of Taiwanese people waving signs around looking for their exchange student. There was a group to the left and another to the right and after finding a huge sign with my name and picture on it I hurried off to the right. All of a sudden about 10 ladies with pink blazers and two men on run up to me and ask me if I’m Heather. Of course I say that I am and am then introduced to my first host mother who greets me with some flowers and a hug. After her I hugged all the rest of the ladies who it turns out are all members of my host Rotary club which is all women (the pink blazers are their uniform) and shook hands with the men, one of whom was my first host father and the other was my third host father. Then my third host mother, who speaks English very well, asked me if I would like to do first night questions tonight or another time. Even though I was sleep deprived and wanted more than anything to take a shower I said yes. We went out to my host families car and after putting my luggage in drove about 25 minutes to my new home which is an apartment that consists of five floors, the first two being my host parents’ office. Although I regretted saying yes after they asked me if I would like to do the first night questions that night I ended up being glad I did. As I said I was very nervous about never having spoken to my first host family before I left and their answers to all the questions made me feel so much more at ease in their home. I feel like I got extremely lucky having such nice and welcoming people as my first host family.

The next day began my first week in Taiwan. I arrived at about 9 at night and went to bed at 11:30 so thankfully my jet lag wasn’t bad although I still felt tired a lot of the time during the first few days. Also I wasn’t able to eat much the first few days and at times felt a little sick. I’m just glad my host family understood it wasn’t the food, I just wasn’t feeling well. After I started to feel better and eat more, I came to realize that I shouldn’t have been so nervous about the food here. It is taking some getting used to and I do miss the food I ate back home quite often, but I think with time I’ll adjust. One thing I noticed right away when I arrived is how much food they eat!! I went out to an Italian restaurant the other day with my host family and they looked at me like I was crazy after I ate my huge plate of spaghetti and said I was full. One of the first things I learned how to say in Chinese is “I’ve had enough, thank you” which comes in handy when every time I finish something my host mom offers to put more on my plate. In my first week I was in love with everything here in Taiwan. Every time I went out into the city I live in I felt like Harry Potter when he first went to Diagon Alley right after he found out he was a wizard: “Harry wished he had about eight more eyes. He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, and the people doing their shopping.” I live in Shulin City and it’s much different from where I live back home because (as the name suggests) it’s a city. I love it! Anywhere you go you can see the mountains surrounding the city which I think is so beautiful!

One of the many valuable pieces of advice my friends Morgan, who was an exchange student last year, gave me was that the second week could be very hard, so I was very apprehensive about it. At first the second week wasn’t bad. I started school and it was all very new and exciting, but then all of a sudden I started to feel awful. It wasn’t even really that I was homesick. I didn’t want to go home to Jacksonville but at the same time I didn’t want to be here. After a few days the excitement of school wore off and school was very hard for me. All of the students are so nice but the constant attention got overwhelming. The low point was when I started crying last Thursday in math class at school. Luckily my teacher took me out of class and talked to me, and I felt a little better. My saving grace during that week was a fellow exchange student at my school going through the exact same thing. I consider myself very lucky to be at a school with 4 other exchange students. Eventually the homesickness wore off and now my life here feels completely normal.

Every day I wake up at 6:30 and get into my uniform (a shirt and sweatpants every day except Thursday, which is when I wear a button up shirt, skirt, and high socks) then go downstairs one floor to the kitchen where I eat breakfast with my host mother and father. I love breakfast here! I never ate breakfast back in Florida but here it’s my favorite meal. I usually have cereal, some sort of Taiwanese food, cake (sometimes), and either milk tea or juice. Then I pack up my backpack and take the bus to school. I have to say that in Sammy’s journal when he said being at Taiwanese school makes you feel like a celebrity he was so right. People take pictures of me and with me, tell me I have beautiful hair, eyes, or that I’m just beautiful in general, ask to be my friend, ask me where I’m from, if I like Justin Bieber, and/or what I think of Taiwan. Every time I go from class to class people say hi to me and people give me gifts all the time. I remember reading that Taiwanese people are very nice, and I think it is so true. I remember during my second week here I was at a restaurant with my host father and brother and after the waiter learned I was from the U.S. he brought me this popular Taiwanese drink and told me “Welcome to Taiwan.” Anyways, at four school ends and I walk to my bus stop and then the bus takes me home. I’m proud to say that today was the first day I successfully made it home without getting off at the wrong bus stop or getting on the bus at the wrong bus stop (I’m prone to getting lost). Then after I come home I shower because it’s insanely hot here. Although I think it’s pretty much the same temperature as Florida it feels hotter because some places don’t have air conditioning or don’t use the air conditioning they have a lot of the time. For example at my school we have air conditioning, but most of the time they just turn on these fans that line the ceiling. I am getting used to sweating though so it doesn’t bother me anymore, and luckily my room has its own air conditioning unit. I always eat dinner with my host family around 6:30, then I try and stay awake until ten. Last weekend I went to Taipei and went to Taipei 101, saw a movie, and then went to Shilin Night Market which was my first night market. The next day I had Rotary orientation.

I remember starting this journal having no idea what on earth I was going to say, and now I just realized how much I have written. It still only feels like I’ve described a small piece of what my exchange has been like so far, so much of the last three weeks it would be impossible to describe. Hopefully my next journal will be more organized; I just kind of typed whatever came to mind in this one! I would like to thank EVERYONE in Rotary who made my exchange possible and of course my parents (and sister!) who I also could’ve have done this without!

November 25

I have now been in Taiwan for three months which is unbelievable to me. It’s impossible to keep track of the time and every time I hear the date and stop to think about how long I’ve been here it always surprises me how fast the time has gone by.

These past three months have probably been the hardest of my life. I never thought exchange was going to be some kind of vacation, but I had no idea it would be this hard. I remember when I think of the summer before I came to Taiwan I thought I had some idea what it would be like but now I look back and realize I had absolutely no idea. I don’t think I could ever have been prepared for what it’s like being so far from your family and friends, in a country where you don’t speak the language, away from everything familiar. It being the hardest thing I’ve ever done doesn’t mean it isn’t the greatest thing I’ve ever done because it is. I think taking myself out of Florida where I have the people I love and everything I’m comfortable with helped me realize who I am.

I think the reason the past few months have been so hard for me because for a while because every time something went wrong all I thought was, “If I go home everything would be ok again.” I felt like it was the only solution to any problems I was having. Then I just kept comparing Taiwan to Florida, which was just an awful idea. I think my life in both places is amazing in completely different ways and that they can in no way be compared. I realized that I needed to wake up and stop thinking these things when I realized I wasn’t really trying to be happy in Taiwan. I think that may make it sound like I don’t like it here or something, but that’s not true. The thing is when things got difficult for me or when I changed from a host family I loved to a completely new host family and I felt like it was my first day in Taiwan all over again (having to learn to abide by completely different rules and just a different way of doing things) I just stopped trying to be positive. Now I know that my life here is amazing and that if I try to get along with people even though at first we don’t really understand each other at all and just have a completely different way of thinking and living it really isn’t that difficult.

I know this was a kind of introspective journal but I cannot think of what to write that will do justice to what I’ve experienced since I wrote my last journal!!! That’s all for now.

February 16