A Darkened Path
Of course it isn’t easy being thrown into a completely new culture with equally new people, and the darkness accompanied by the feeling of being alone is suffocating. Although it would sound more poetic if I said that I was able to bypass the culture shock of leaving my small, northeast Iowa farming community behind in exchange for the hustle and bustle of urban Taiwanese life, but I would be lying.
Being the research fanatic I am, I thought I had the Taiwanese lifestyle just about figured out after doing some Google searching and article analyzing. I made sure to be as over-prepared as possible, packing everything ranging from clothesline to shampoo sheets and a lint roller to anti-fungal cream. I was ready to blaze my own path in Taiwan. However, throughout my extensive research and preparation, I never came to the realization that there was no amount of preparedness that could brace me for a complete immersion into a new, vibrant culture that differs significantly from my own, and thus my carefully lit fire of anticipation was quickly extinguished. My moment of realization could have been when a lizard crawled up my arm and lunged at my face after I went to turn my room’s door handle, when I searched every nook and cranny in my research center for another person after lunch only to find out almost everyone tends to rest at that time, or when I questioned my foolish decision of not riding a bicycle for almost 9 years and having to ride one in Taiwan on a daily basis (saddle soreness is a real thing people!!!). Let’s just say at least one, if not a combination of many spectacular events, quickly changed my perspective on how difficult it is to adapt to a different culture on my own, or at least I thought I was alone.
Before long, I quickly came to realize the Taiwanese people are some of the friendliest and most courteous in the world, and to my astonishment they were beyond willing to lead me along my uncharted path that only they owned the map to. While adventuring through the city of Tainan, almost everyone around me was willing to help me navigate through the city. Even with a language barrier present, many people were willing to resort to extravagant, nonverbal methods of communication simply to show the way to the next museum or to the nearest bus stop to the extent that it felt as if I was playing charades. They displayed a tremendous amount of care towards one another, demonstrated when I was viewing Taiwan’s ornate dragon boat festival races only to have my attention diverted by nearly twenty Taiwanese citizens rushing over to help a woman who happened to have fallen off her motorized bike.
Although many of the Taiwanese people rest during the day, they are far from lazy, and work with unfaltering passion and care in their laboratory duties. While being taught how to subculture my oomycete fungal pathogen with one of the laboratory workers, she was able to flawlessly explain the subculturing protocol associated with my pathogen using minimal English. Afterwards she asked me to assist her in a second task of transferring a separate group of fungal pathogens and told me to simply follow her lead. She commenced her work at rate of what I would describe as 100 miles per hour to cut, move, slice, and mix her fungal pathogens. Before long, two other laboratory workers came over and worked at the same speed, if not faster. Against my sudden urge to pretend as if there was other work for me to tend to, I picked up a scalpel and tried my hardest to keep up, eventually resorting to working at a slower speed to keep myself from messing up. Nonetheless, they were very supportive and encouraged the development of my fungal culturing techniques.
Being only one week into my summer research internship in Tainan, Taiwan, I can already say this has been one of my most transformative involvements on improving my cultural understandings. Although it often feels as if I am tumbling down an unguided path darkened with doubt, I can rest assured that the light at the end will be filled with appreciation for the unparalleled scientific and multicultural experiences gained through this internship.
