Many times, I was asked why Taiwan and not elsewhere
After graduating from University, I want to study abroad immediately, instead of looking for a job or resting. In addition, I also had the opportunity to exchange and learn in Taiwan before and found Taiwan quite interesting to me. So, without hesitation, I chose Taiwan as the next destination for my journey.
I had been in Taiwan several times before I started to study in Taiwan, so it didn't take me too much time to get used to it. I didn't feel homesick for most of my time in Taiwan (of course, I miss my home sometimes but not as usual).
For study abroad, I think the most important thing is to have a clear goal or pathway to follow. Because if you got confused or uncertain, it would take your time, money, and even your health (primarily mental health). To be honest, I started up the study abroad with the thought that I would enjoy the time in Taiwan and traveling around, that why I was not working hard enough for the entire time (so sorry for that matter), but I do think that my study performance was not too bad. I end up with the thought that balancing between working and entertaining plays an essential role in developing your own life.
Learning
To be honest, to deal with projects and courses in the Institute and GeoHydraulic Lab, I have learned from zero. My background from undergraduate school is environmental management. I commonly worked with social life, strategies, and communication instead of math, numerical model, and coding. However, I got a lot of help and support from Prof. Wang and my lab mates the entire time. I am lucky to have 信宏 and 建語 as my "lab-class" mate. We do have a good connection and communication in the study and even in real life.
In addition, our Lab has supported lots from the equipment such as computer, iPad, etc. In the Lab, we have a group meeting every week. You can share everything you want in the group meeting, such as new knowledge, research, paper review, or hobbies. Commonly, Lab members would share their own research or paper review. However, sometimes I felt my work was a bit boring because I speak so often about that, so I also occasionally talk about my personal hobbies. The best advantage of the group meeting is that I do not need to prepare in detail every time I have a midterm report, conference, or even the thesis defense because everything was well-prepared in the group meeting.
To me, the most challenging thing that I faced is scientific writing. I commonly wrote everything as I have learned for the IELTS test. Follow the academic essay, I avoided overlapping my vocabulary, so I often use synonyms for some terms, but it causes me a huge mistake. Some terms in the scientific writing need to CONSIST, and I am also a very careless person, so I made Professor angry a lot of time about that issue *crying emotion*~.
Personal Life
I had a fantastic time in Taiwan. I met and made friends from other countries like Taiwanese (of course), Russian, Belizean, Indonesian, Korean, etc. I also have a lot of new experiences, new friends, and visit many fascinating places. Personally, I archive my goal, which is "escaping from my comfort zone". As a super introvert, sometimes I just impress myself for that.
In some ways, I became a part of the community, speak a little Chinese, enjoy Taiwanese food, and use public transport without google map XDDD.
Last but not least...
I appreciate Professor. Wang, for all the knowledge you gave me, all of your patience with me.
Thank our Lab mates for all the good things you did for me.
