But, actually it’s not even necessary to go on these trips. Taipei and its surroundings have got so many gorgeous things to offer. There’s lots of beautiful nature – ranging from waterfalls to mountains – where you can hike, climb, swim, slide of just look at. The city itself has a nice and relaxed atmosphere, is well organized and the Taiwanese are incredibly friendly and helpful.

Bubble tea

They do, however, have some strange habits. They are, for instance, completely in love with their bubble tea (some sort of sweet cold tea with milk and jelly bubbles in it) and teachers do not act surprise when one of their students falls asleep during a lecture.

The level of the education here is nothing special. Most courses are doable and often interesting. I study at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST or Taiwan Tech), where the atmosphere is pretty similar to that at the TU/e. Most of my courses are from the MBA department, which often leads to funny situations.

Most lecturers here try to teach case studies in a similar way to that of the Harvard Business School. However, the Taiwanese students do not seem to be the best audience for that. The lecturers try really hard to find interaction, but almost solely find this with the international students. The Taiwanese are often too shy to ask questions or reply to them in English. Especially with teachers that use funfair-like randomizers to force some sort of interaction, this can lead to pretty awkward situations.