My life at NCTU: Campus Life

I arrived in Taiwan about 2 years ago for attending NCTU’s EECS international graduate program’s master degree. Since then it has been a roller-coaster ride. To many of us a roller-coaster ride may seem very scary, but to a person like me who enjoys the rollercoasters, it has been a great journey so far. From the green lush, the cherry blossoms (just can’t get enough of them!) and the lakes on the campus to the infrastructure facilities, a student can’t be asking for more. I like the fact that I can hang out with my friends over food in the dining halls of the university where the food option is so diverse that I get confused! Not only the food but the variety of tea that we get on the campus itself is just so amazing to me. I come from a country of tea lovers and before I came to Taiwan, I had a notion that no one could love their tea more than Indians, Taiwan proved me wrong, in the most astonishing way possible!

                      

 

           

Living on campus is a great deal of fun for me. I can go on night walks when I am stressed over work, and feed the fish by the pond near the activity centre which is my personal favourite (sort of like meditation). There have been quite a few nights when I have hung out with friends by the lake near the north gate, which is such a great way to de-stress. At this point, I think mentioning the fact that I have been able to meet great people who have become such good friends from our EECS graduate program as well as from the Chinese classes is an obvious thing. Luckily enough, most of my friends have become my family and a great support system at this home away from home. It makes one understand that there are so much kindness and warmth in people around the world. And because of the fact that I joined and International graduate program, I have been able to meet with people from so many different nationalities, and understand and know about so many cultures.

At the end of my first semester in 2016, our Chinese language instructor took us on a one day trip to Maokong in Taipei. I think she wanted us, foreigners, to experience a glimpse of the Taiwanese culture, and what better way to show that than taking us to the place you reach using a gondola! Maokong, as I have read, used to be the biggest tea growing area in Taipei, has a wide variety of restaurants, stalls and tea houses (obviously!). The restaurant that our instructor took us to have lunch was quite different. Every kind of dish that they served has tea as its ingredient, be it seafood or meat or even an omelette. I think it is because it was my first trip to Taiwan, I was mostly taken by surprise by a lot of things and the whole new experience of it overall.

The fact that all the places in Taiwan are so well connected, it makes the experience of travel and visiting the amazing and beautiful places so much more convenient. Often, when we as foreigners have found ourselves lost or just confused, the warm strangers unhesitatingly have offered to help us. I particularly enjoy meeting old people and taxi drivers who are fascinated when they meet us foreigners and try to practice their English with us. It is quite adorable to me. This makes me realize that even when we don’t understand each other’s languages, it is so easy to understand each other’s warmth and hospitability.

Speaking of hospitality, life on NCTU campus has been so much easier because of all the help we receive from our EECS department staff and the Office of international affairs. Every single (and little) problem that I have faced I go to the staff office. They never disappoint and have been so patient and great with us foreigners who sometimes even receive emails in Chinese and when even google translate fails (haha). Not only are our EECS office staff great with the office work, they have always made sure that we get enough fun after the end of our mid-term and end-term exams. The EECS mid-term and end-term gatherings are something I always look forward to. The combination of the delicious food and seeing my friends who get busier with time and the load of work is always a delight.

                                        

I have spent most of my study time, in my first semester, in the library. It has been so resourceful and helpful to be able to read and prepare for exams in the library’s environment. The smell of the books around, the quiet rustling of my fellow students. The couple, friends and the classmates who study together. The busy-ness of it all in the quiet is quite relaxing indeed.

Reliving some of the moments from time to time while looking back at the pictures as memories is always a pleasure. While writing this blog, I was able to revisit the experience in my first year as a graduate student in NCTU. Surely my stay in Taiwan has been an absolutely great experience and wish that for many more of that to come, both for myself and the new students at our university.