As I struggled to carry my two gigantic pieces of luggage throughout the airport, I furrowed my brow in worry. I had not been back to Taiwan in 11 years and wasn’t even sure if I could recognize what my cousins looked like anymore. They, too, expressed the same concern about me to my mom. How would I find my way home? Even more unfortunate was my deteriorating Chinese speaking skill. I knew that by the end of the trip, I would have to make sure to improve both my Chinese speaking, reading, and writing skills.

I was sitting on the cold waiting chairs of the airport thinking about what to expect from this program and trip back to Taiwan. Most likely, I would have the most fun at orientation, make a few friends, but never see them again. One week was not long enough to form good bonds! I would probably end up going to my internship every day and coming straight home. Most likely, I wouldn’t be able to go out that much since I won’t have any friends to go with me and I did not want to burden my family too much. My internship was also a little bit of a worry. I had heard that internships were a fairly new concept in Taiwan and that most companies did not know what to do with their interns, which meant that they ended up learning and doing nothing. What about the culture here? It was very different from America, what if I was rude and I did not mean to be? How was I going to immerse myself in the culture? I was lost in my thoughts when I finally heard my name on the loudspeaker, “Mary Lin你 Please come to the front desk, your relatives are looking for you.” Almost tripping over my carry-on, I excitedly grabbed my luggage and rushed over to the front desk. I immediately saw my cousin, Tonya, and recognized her. Sure she was a little older, skinnier, more beautiful, and had different hair, but I could’ve recognized her anywhere. How could I have been so worried about not being able to identify her? She, too, immediately knew who I was and rushed over enveloping me in a big, warm hug. This was the beginning of the most unforgettable summer of my life.

I was almost right about orientation. It was a lot of fun and all the people in my group were incredibly warm and friendly. One of the boys in our group even who looked like a local Taiwanese celebrity! Our group leader was also amazing. He treated us to so many different kinds of teas when it was too hot out, and ran around to get water for us when we were dehydrated. He was clever and funny and an amazing group leader. However, after we made our small friendships, we went our separate ways and started our internships. I was sitting at a restaurant with my grandparents, aunts, and cousins when I received that first phone call from Mark. “Do you want to watch Transformers? I will invite others from group 21 as well.” I was shocked. I couldn’t go unfortunately, but this was only the beginning. The boys in group 21 ended up going to watch Transformers together with the exception of a few that went to Tainan. The second time, our entire group 21 (except the Tainan people) went shopping at Shilin (士林) Night Market, Gong guan (公館), and toured National Taiwan University (台大). From then on, our group hung out almost every day. Our group members in Ping Dong and Hsinchu came up to Taipei almost every weekend to go to night markets with us and wander the streets of Taipei together. These people were the most amazing, kindest, most considerate, trustworthy people that I had ever met. Maybe it was the Taiwanese culture seeping into our beings, or the atmosphere of good people everywhere, or maybe it was just the way that they were, but they made the country feel like home. We did everything together and sometimes we were a little crazy and silly, but we had a lot of fun. We planned group outings and visited Green Island (綠島) and spent every second together during the Taiwan Tech Trek Yilan trip. We ate dinner together as much as we could and visited every night market known to us in Taipei at least twice. We waited for the buses together until everyone was home safe and we called each other if we needed someone to talk to. We were a family for each other and we loved each other as one.