ANR: 622536
Name: Shirley Goossens
E-mail: Shirgoossens@hotmail.com
Exchange semester: fall semester 2014
Academic year: 3rd
Host University: National Chengchi University
Country: Taiwan
TOPIC: Admission, arrival, housing
How was your arrival organized? Did someone pick you up from the airport/station? Was an orientation or introduction activity organized? How was accommodation organized? Does the university provide you with accommodation? What kind of accommodation does the university provide? Did you have to book your accommodation in advance or did you have to search for a place to live after you arrived?
When you are accepted to go to NCCU, you will get two or three buddies assigned. These buddies will make sure to pick you up from the airport and take you to the place where you have to, or want to go. The University organized an introduction activity where they mainly show you around and give you all the practical information. After three weeks of the start of the academic school year they threw a welcome party. My piece of advice: make sure to join everything that your fellow students organize in order to get to know each other and to make friends. The University throws some parties, but those are definitely not the parties that you are used to and most of the times everybody has made their group of friends by then already!
The University offers you to join the I-house, try to get in if possible! There you will meet many fellow students and you will live close to University. Please keep in mind that University is 40 minutes away from the city center by bus or MRT. But taxis, buses and MRT are extremely cheap, so don’t worry about the transportation costs!
Unfortunately I did not get into the I-house and formed a roommates group with fellow students I found via Facebook. One of my future roommates went to Taipei earlier and she found an apartment
(which was pretty difficult by the way). You can also book rooms via facebook from the person intaipeiapartments. This person is trustworthy and has reasonable prices.
TOPIC: Location of university/city
Please describe the city you lived in. Where is the university located in the city? What is the best place to go to eat/drink/dance/do sports/etc.? What are interesting things to see and do in your host city? What was different than in Tilburg?
Taipei is a vibrant city with very many friendly people. One downside is that only few Taiwanese people speak proper English. This can cause quite some frustration sometimes, especially when you have to arrange something.
The university is located approximately 40 minutes away from the city center, depending on the part of the city (40 minuted away by bus from Daan Park). You can go out near Taipei 101, at ATT4fun.
There are many clubs where you can ge t in for free as a girl if you enter before eleven o’clock. Most clubs have the concept of open bar, which means that when you paid entrance (0€, or 5€ for girls, depending on the time of entrance and between 10 and 20 for guys), you can drink whatever you want in the amounts you want. You get one glass with which you can get cocktails, beers, shots, whatever. So clubbing is veeeery cheap in Taiwan (Most of the times I only paid for my cab, 3€ roundtrip)!
One thing you should really do is going to din tai foo (or something like that). It is a one Michelin star restaurants where they sell dumplings. You can have a nice meal for the price of 8€. Besides that, climb up the elephant mountain, go to makong (from Taipei zoo you can take the gondola). And you should definitely go to the night markets, they are really fun!
Things that are different is that there is a lot of street food. People go out for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Food is very cheap, but please don’t underestimate your expenses on food. Western food is more expensive and sometimes you are kind of done with the Taiwanese food. Besides that, it just adds up to eat out two or three times per day, so I think I spent around 9€ per day on food, on average.

TOPIC: Academics
Which courses did you take and why? Which courses would you recommend? What did the courses add to your program at Tilburg University? How does the university compare to Tilburg University concerning the level of the courses, use of extra material, level of English, workload, etc.? Overall, were you happy with your academic achievements during your exchange? Please describe the campus of your host university.
I took the courses investments, International investments, Australian economic relations, Harvard business case studies, How to exploit innovativeness, Industrial Economics and Competition policy. I chose them only because they fit my schedule ( now I only had class from Monday evening till
Wednesday 5 o’clock). Besides that, these were the classes that were finished mid-december. If only some of your courses continue to mid January, try to talk to the professor and convince him to finish your course earlier, because you have class at the beginning of January ;). In that way you will have a loooooot of time to travel!
I would definitely recommend international investments and industrial economics and competition policy. The courses did not really add anything to my program, since the academic level in Taiwan is really below the level in Tilburg. Even some of the professors can’t really express themselves in
English properly. Sometimes I had a take-home exam and I could easily find the answers of the exams online.
The campus is approximately as big as the campus at Tilburg University. There is a part up and down the hills. The buildings are really old and the chairs were not comfortable at all. Besides that, there were no normal toilets, only the ones with holes in the ground. Classes last for three hours, you have
3 blocks of 50 minutes with a 10 minutes break inbetween.
TOPIC: Social life
Which social activities organized by the university or students? Did you have contact with local students? Did you have contact with other exchange students? How did you get along with the local students and other exchange students? Did you travel to other places/countries during your exchange?
They organized an information day and a welcome and goodbye party. Besides that, they organized some small trips. I had two buddies, they were the only locals that I really got in touch with. I noticed that the Taiwanese people are really nice and kind, but there is a big culture gap between us. I got along well with the other exchange students and traveled to many other places during my exchange. I went for example to Tokyo for five days, went to Malaysia for another five days, went to hong kong for
4 days and to Penghu islands in the south of Taiwan for five days as well. After my semester (mid
December it was done) I want to Vietnam for 16 days, then to Singapore for another 2 days and I ended up in Indonesia, where I stayed 11 days.
TOPIC: Living costs
How did you finance your exchange period, apart from the grant you received from Tilburg University?
What were your living expenses abroad like compared to Tilburg? What did you spend most of your money on? What would you advice future students to spend their money on? Please outline your approximate monthly budget whilst on exchange: housing, food, textbooks, etc.
First of all, I did not receive any grant. I financed it with the money I got from the government (380€), money I got from my parents (500€) and the rest I took from my savings account. I have worked from the age of 13 so I had enough money on my account. The living expenses were quite cheap, but keep in mind that it all adds up. You have a nice dinner for 3€, same price for your lunch and breakfast (if you want cereals plus milk) is another 1€. My rent was 370€ per month, but I lived in the middle of the city centre (daan park). If you want to have internet on your cell phone, buy a sim card and top it up at
7eleven. You pay 4,5€ for 1GB. I spent most of my money on trips. Every weekend I went somewhere, like Hualien, green islands, kaochiung, kenting. You should definitely go there!

The total amount of money I spent on exchange was 9000€, but this was including my trips to Tokyo, hongkong, Malaysia, Penghu and traveling for one month through Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia.
I did not include my plain tickets from the Netherlands to Taiwan in the 9000€.
So in total I spent way more than I always do in Tilburg, but this is mainly due to the higher rent and the fact that I went on trips almost every weekend. Also a trip inside Taiwan will approximately cost you 150€.
TOPIC: Culture
Did you experience culture shock while on exchange? How would you compare your host culture to your own culture? What did you learn about your own culture while on exchange? What was different about your host culture than you expected? What did you like and not like about your host culture? Do you feel you learned a lot about your host culture, and if not, what would you like to learn more? How would you describe your host countries culture? If you travelled to other cities/countries during your exchange, were they different than your host city/country, and how?
I did not really experience a culture shock. The people in Taiwan are in general more friendly than dutch people, but they are also way more shy and don’t really have the guts to say no. I expected the people in Taiwan to speak English more properly. I really liked their friendliness and did not like their inefficiency and the fact that their English was so poor. In each other country I traveled to, they spoke way better English.
TOPIC: Personal development
What did you learn from the people you met during your exchange? Would you do things differently if you had the chance, and what would you do differently? What was your best experience, and what was your worst experience? What will you remember for ever about your exchange period? What was the most important lesson you learned about yourself during your exchange period?
I learned to be more open-minded and that my prejudices most of the times are wrong. What I would do differently is not sticking to the first group I met, but just being more open-minded and get to know more different people. My best experience are all the wonderful trips I made, especially going to
Hualien with a group of 20 people. The worst experience I had was that I had to fix my bag. Went to a tailor market somebody recommended me and wandered around for at least an hour, asking people how to fix my bag and who could help me. Nobody could speak English properly and nobody wanted to help me. After one hour I left, very frustrated and with a broken bag.
TOPIC: Tips for future students
Would you recommend an exchange period? Would you recommend your host university? What should prospective students bring with them/leave behind? What preparation is required for going on exchange to this destination? Was there anything you should have done in preparation that you didn’t do?
I would definitely recommend an exchange period, you become really independent and you will learn a lot about yourself. The host University I went to, was fine. It could have definitely been better if there would be a campus where everybody could stay or if they would organize REAL parties to get to know everybody. But of course, you can also organize these parties yourself  . Overall I would recommend my university. To go on exchange you have to get your VISA. Fill out the document they will send you, print it out and go to the ambassy of Taiwan in the hague.
For any questions, feel free to contact me by sending me an email or through facebook!

TOPIC: A picture is worth a thousand words
If you took any pictures or made any videos that you would like to share with future exchange students, please include them (or e-mail them separately). Pictures that show your daily life or symbolize your exchange period are especially interesting for future exchange students.