Halloween In Taiwan

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Izabelle Brande

<i>"Hello" in your host country's language:</i> ไฝ ๅฅฝ๏ผ <i>Home Institution (your U.S. University/College):</i> Smith College <i>Expected graduation year:</i> 2023 <i>Destination city & country:</i> Taipei, Taiwan <i>Program provider:</i> CET <i>Major/minor:</i> English & East Asian Languages and Cultures / Translation <i>Demographics:</i> Multi-Racial <i>Future career aspirations:</i> Working in publishing as an editor and translator <i>Top 3 goals for your time abroad:</i>

Spooky season greetings!

From my time zone it is officially ไธ‡ๅœฃ่Š‚โ€” Halloween! I miss the festive spirit my hometown has around this time. The cool, crisp autumn air, the orange and brown tinge everything has, the darkness that grows longer and longer every day as the temperatures drop. I especially miss carving pumpkins with my mom.

But my classes here have had their own way to celebrate the day by having us dress up! I wrote before about how I was excited to see what everyone in the other classes might do for their costumes, but I was so disappointed to see that not a lot of people dressed up at all! My class certainly didโ€” even a student who had not been able to come the whole week prior. Our ่€ๅธˆ teacher is just too good at keeping us up to date, and we as her students are just too good at keeping the atmosphereๆฐ”ๆฐ› peppy at all times. It makes the days go by much faster.

Not that work doesnโ€™t go by fast either! In the week prior I got a big task of helping an applying grad-student from Taiwan edit her application essay. She was quick to admit to me that she wrote it while holding a glass of wine at 3am on her couch, but only that made ice break in a funny way. She had a strikingly creative essay, and I was happy to help her edit the grammar. This is something I had been studying how to do for years now, and editorial work is a goal of mine down the line, so Iโ€™m happy I finally got a chance to do it one on one.

Over the weekend other students from the CET program threw a Halloween party, but it wasnโ€™t just for American Students, a few language partners could join too and join they did. We were more than happy to tell them about our Halloween customs in the United States.

As mentioned in the previous entry Halloween is not a major thing here. ่€ๅธˆ said that knocking on peopleโ€™s doors is strange to people here, so parents take their kids to the local 7/11s (ๅฐไธƒ!) to ask for candy. ็ป™ๆˆ‘็ณ–่ฟ˜ๆฃ่›‹โ€” trick or treat!

Speaking of 7/11s I canโ€™t believe I havenโ€™t mentioned the absolute number of them. Every street corner youโ€™ll see at least two! Before coming to Taiwan, I was told that the island has more than double the 7/11s per each resident. These arenโ€™t the style of 7/11 youโ€™re used to seeing in the US either, you can do anything you can think of in there. Itโ€™s a cafรฉ, restaurant, printing press, bank, clothing storeโ€” anything!

I praise 7/11 and all, but Iโ€™m much more of a family mart gal ๏ฟฝ

๏ฟฝๅฎถ๏ฝžๆˆ‘็ˆฑไฝ ๅ“Ÿ๏ผ

Well, at this point now I only have 3 weeks left. Itโ€™s gone by so fast; I canโ€™t believe it!