Hello, this is KU, CHUN-JEN. I’m a student of NUU. My major is electronic engineering and I decided to study aboard when I was a senior student. I’m so glad that I have this opportunity to take part in the exchanging student project to exchange to the United State. The university I went to calls University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK). It’s located in Nebraska where is in the middle of the US. And at a small city calls Kearney.
It was January when I departed from Taiwan. After I got my time-taking VISA. It was all set and I’m good to go. Thanks to my parents, I don’t need to worry about the funds. It cost quite a lot. By the way, the flight ticket was so complicated. Like I said, Kearney is a small city. I couldn’t take a direct flight to there, instead, I have to take two connecting flight to my destination. First section is from Taiwan to san Francisco, second one is to Denver, and finally the last section is from Denver to Kearney. During the trip, it was like a dream. I never know that I will enjoy to travel alone this much. And I pretty enjoy it!
Once I got to Kearney, the only thing I felt is cold. Freaking cold! It was like minus 20 degreed C. Moreover, it was night time and of course it was snowing outside. Thankfully, students who came to pick me up arrived soon. They weren’t on time because my flight was delayed, too. The fun part is they are Japanese! It’s because there are a lot of Japanese full time students there, picking the freshman is like their part time job. The time I got there was a little bit late actually. There was only one week left until the semester begins. During that week, all of the international students were gathered together to know each other. I think I blended in really quick. I made lots of friends from different countries, Japan, Korea, Nepal, India, and of course America.
I picked four classes: “mathematic”, “political science”, “geography”, and “learning skill”. Miss Chang helped me a lot, she is a woman who works in UNK international student office and she was born in Taiwan. And also thanks to Ryo Suzuki, they helped me on picking classes, so that I could know which professor is more kind and which are not. And what’s more, I was able to take more time on enjoy the culture in the US instead of studying every day. However, I still learned a lot from there, first, the way they teach math has a huge different from Taiwanese way or Asian way. They are more focusing on the understanding the logic of it and the application of a knowledge; second, they really do care about the international issue, unlike most of the Taiwanese students we don’t care about it at all; third, I’ve never took American geography before. And they learned American geography for sure, therefore, they were all new knowledge for me; the last one will be the class called learning skills, I learned how American talks, and how to read articles faster, and lots of culture, too, in fact, this course is opened for international students.
There are some vacations in the us education system, the most famous is the Christmas and three-month summer vacation. Unluckily, I missed both of them, the breaks I met were spring break, there was a spring break, it was a 10-days break. And the first week of summer vacation. I went to Denver to watch NBA which is the biggest basketball association in the world during the spring break. It was the first time I watched NBA. And the home team Denver Nuggets won the championship this season. It was awesome. As to the first week of summer vacation, which is also right after the end of this semester, I went to New York with my friends from Japan and Korea.
Although it was really fun and exciting traveling around the us. The most important parts are still the daily life. Compare to the other states, the time in Kearney was also unforgettable. It is countryside but beautiful. The residents, students, professors, stuffs, friends, they are so kind. I’m still missing them right now. I miss their kindness, their smile, and their curiosity of Taiwan. There was an event called international tables, we share our own languages and cultures to those who are interested in. I was in Taiwanese table and share Taiwanese culture, and I was enjoyed. As to the food there, it’s not that different from what we have in Taiwan, I’m fine with the food there. Anyway, I really enjoyed the time I spent in Kearney. I’m so glad that I picked UNK and I really miss it.
During these five months, I think I’m more
independent than before. I accomplished this journey by myself and returned to
Taiwan safely!! This will be one of the best memory and experience in my life.
I won’t forget about this. I wish I could go back to UNK somedays, as Ryo said
in graduation ceremony.“Once you are Lopers, you are always Lopers!” It’s
worthy to go to study in the US. And I love it.
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