The Orientation

At the beginning of every exchange year, your host district overseas will hold an orientation to go over the rules, as well as the particular events of your host country’s exchange program. It’s also where you are introduced to the other exchange students in your area. It was kind of awkward, especially in the beginning. I saw really nervouse since my host family just dropped me off at the door and I had to go in alone. We sort of stuck to people within our own country at first, but then as more time wore on, we started to connect with everyone else. At my Orientation I learned about holidays and other famous events in Taipei. We also had to get up and introduce ourselves to everyone, all fifty odd foreign people whom before this point we had not really met before. Believe me, there are few things more nerve-racking than that moment standing at the front, with fifty pairs of eyes fixed on you, trying to see what this new exchange student will be like. Of course, in the end there was nothing to worry about. These fifty pairs of eyes would belong to the people who would become my closest friends and my strongest support while I was overseas.