Intern Life and Student Life: Taipei vs. Taichung

So as I mentioned in the previous post, I have moved down from Taipei to Taichung for a summer internship. People are always impressed when I tell them about my internship, but actually the real credit goes to my home university of Connecticut College. You see Conn has what we call "Academic Centers" which are basically, according to the website, "centers for interdisciplinary scholarship, each with a different focus: international studies, the environment, arts and technology, public policy and community action, and the study of race and ethnicity." Basically, being a scholar of one of these centers consists of a senior integrative project (SIP) and a funded summer internship. The senior integrative project is basically an idea you come up with that ties together your major and your center and the summer internship is supposed to be related to your project idea. You apply to be part of a center first semester of your sophomore year and, if you get in, take center-specific classes second semester of your sophomore year. Senior year (after everybody has come back from their internship) is when you either do a senior thesis or complete an independent study.

For the internship, of course you have to find it yourself, but what the centers do is helps you with writing a resumé, personal statement, and cover letter if necessary after which they help you send it to your internship contacts.

As you can probably guess, I am a scholar of the center for international studies, aptly named the Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts, or CISLA.

As it is a center for international studies, CISLA requires that its scholars study a foreign language and complete their funded internship abroad in a country that speaks their studied language.  Since my major is ethnobotany and my language Mandarin, my project has to do with Traditional Chinese medicine and its usage and evolution under different East Asian cultures (namely that of Taiwan's and South Korea's) and alongside western medicine and new technology. As such, my internship is at 立夫中醫藥展示館 (the Lifu Museum of Chinese Medicine) at 中國醫藥大學 (China Medical University) in Taichung City, Taichung 台中 (not to be confused with the China Medical University in Mainland China), where I hope to learn more about Chinese medicine, its history, usage, and evolution.

Because the museum is part of a university, I actually get to live in a student dorm, which is pretty nice in terms of commute and cost. Of course I still have to pay for the room, but it is significantly cheaper than living in a hotel. Thus far, most of my duties consist of administrative duties: welcoming in visitors to the museum, picking up the phone, opening and closing the museum; I also have some translation duties when there are documents or events and I just recently finished helping with a multilingual audio guide for the museum. Also, the museum is trying to undergo a renewal process to be more visitor-friendly, more interactive with audiences, and more multi-lingual, which I have a rather big part in, in terms of brainstorming. Actually this past Thursday and Friday I was part of a bilingual museum tour to four museums in Taipei to help get ideas for how to better Lifu.

台中 Taichung versus 台北 Taipei

So after having lived in 台中市 Taichung City for about three weeks now, of course I'm bound to have noticed some differences compared to 台北市 Taipei City. First off, I would like to say that the life of an intern is a little different from that of a student's. For one thing, I work Mondays to Fridays from 9 am to 5 pm with a two-hour lunch break from 12 pm to 2 pm, meaning that I actually eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner as opposed to just breakfast/brunch and dinner, which I did back at NTU. Also as I don't really have assignments, projects, and studies to keep up on (although I really should continue to study Chinese), I now have free time in the evenings and on weekends. It's almost kind of a strange feeling, to still have to go to work but not have any assignments to do afterwards. Of course, there are some internship-related things that I still have to take care of sometimes after work (either for CISLA or for Lifu) but it's hardly the same as having to complete homework assignments or having to study for tests.

Now in terms of life in the two cities:

• Weather
  Maybe because I am indoors for most of the day but I feel that the weather down here in Taichung is definitely not as hot and humid as it was in Taipei. Yes it is still bright, sunny, hot, and humid, but I don't think to the extent that Taipei was. Moreover, even at night Taipei still feels humid, while in Taichung it actually feels cooler at night. Also it doesn't feel as hot in the dorms here in Taichung--I don't even have to turn on the air conditioning sometimes whereas back in my NTU dorm I would turn on the A/C every day (in the summer).
• Food
  I had friends who told me that food in Taichung is cheaper than in Taipei, which I found a little hard to believe because food is already pretty cheap in Taipei (I pay NT$60 to NT$90 per meal--that is about US$2 to US$3), but it's actually true. I find that I spend about NT$30 to NT$70 per meal--that's about US$1 to US$2.33 per meal. Of course there are some expensive places too, especially for Western, Japanese, Korean food, some of which are comparable to the prices back in Taipei, but for the most part, meals are cheaper.
• Public Transportation
  I have yet to post about the joy that is the Taipei Mass Rail Transit (MRT), but trust me, the subway system is a wonderful, convenient, comfortable mode of transportation in Taipei--on time, clean, smooth, and efficient. Of course there are buses too, but I only took that once or twice when it was absolutely necessary. Here in Taichung, I find myself taking the bus often because well the bus system is a lot more extensive than the metro system. Actually taking the bus isn't too bad (although I still prefer subway any day) and you can still use the EasyCard that is used in Taipei, but best of all, if you travel a distance of less than eight kilometers, the ride is free! In fact I don't think I have had to pay for a single bus ride since I have been in Taichung.
• Mopeds
  I have never seen as much mopeds in my life as I have seen in Taiwan. Everywhere you go, you are bound to encounter a bunch of bikes and motorbikes alongside the cars on the streets. However, I have noticed a lot more mopeds here in Taichung than in Taipei. Furthermore many people just park their motorbikes on the (sometimes) already-narrow sidewalks, meaning that there is no walking room leaving people to walk out on the streets. Hence it is also not uncommon to see people riding their motorbikes on the sidewalks as well.
• Dormitory
  I guess I can't really judge the dorms on the basis of only two dorms, but I will say that the CMU dorm here is quite different from that of Shui Yuan's back at NTU. For one, the rooms here are a quad--in other words, four people to a room--and second, are very compact at that: the beds are high up, with the desk area beneath. Apparently, from what I have heard, this seems to be the norm for college dorms in Taiwan.
  
  Another difference between the dorms (and this one kind of bothers me) is that here, I have to take the trash out to the trash area on the first floor, whereas back at Shui Yuan there were trash rooms on every floor. Now this wouldn't bother me so much were it not for the mosquitoes and giant rats that I have seen down there--I even went back to my room with my trash once because I saw the rats on the stairwell. I also can't look out the windows because the windows are frosted, so not much natural light coming in, not that it will reach my desk under the bed, but still. Other than that, the dorm here isn't too bad. 

L: Shui Yuan Dormitory R: CMU dormitory

• Culture
  The last thing I want to talk about is the culture. Taichung in a way, still retains a bit of that more traditional culture, I guess from not having as much Western influence as Taipei. For one thing, there is a lot more people speaking Taiwanese here than there were in Taipei, especially a lot more kids speaking Taiwanese too and you can also hear a bit of that in the way they speak Mandarin. Also a lot of store owners and people in the street will just speak to students in Taiwanese as well and they will understand (even if they answer in Mandarin). Another thing is that there is much less English speaking here. Don't get me wrong, there are still people who speak fantastic English, but a lot of students and shop owners of smaller places might not be so fluent in English as you would find in Taipei. Also as Taichung is a little more steeped in tradition, you'll also find a lot more squatter toilets (even in department stores) in most places.

I really recommend coming to Taichung if you ever get the chance, just to experience a different side of Taiwan. I like being in Taichung and am glad for the different experience although I have to admit, sometimes I miss being in Taipei. Taichung feels smaller sometimes and to be honest, sometimes I'm not sure what there is to do around here (nor do locals of Taichung, it seems) and although I'm one for taking spontaneous trips on the bus to random stops (which I used to do with the metro back in Taipei) it's not as convenient or easy to find my way back as if I were taking the metro. Still it's nice to see this side of Taiwan. And being in Taichung means shorter commutes to other regions down south, which hopefully I have the chance to visit!