My Fulbright Year in Taiwan

Yesterday our program coordinator, Kelly, gave a session on “keeping safe and healthy.”

First she had to tell us about typhoons. This was especially important because of the imminent arrival of the typhoon that eventually caused work to be cancelled for the next day. Kelly told us to stay indoors, because when the wind is strong, people can get hit by flying debris. She showed some videos on YouTube that an ETA took in previous years, showing people walking on the street and being blown over by strong typhoon winds. Some ETAs started giving each other nervous looks.

Then Kelly talked about driving. The ETAs will have to commute to their schools, so they will have to buy scooters. Many of the ETAs were apprehensive about driving a scooter in the first place. When she covered topics like defensive driving and what to do if you get in a scooter accident, some of the ETAs asked if anyone had ever gotten in an accident before. Kelly had to admit that yes, it happened. “How bad?” they asked. Well, one person broke her leg and had to be in the hospital for a month. That didn’t go over well with the ETAs.

Then Kelly had to move on to the next topic, which was avoiding predatory behavior from the local male population. Kelly asked the female ETAs not to go out too late alone, not to give out their cell phone numbers to people that they just met, and not to take a taxi alone at night. “Is harassment common in Taiwan?” some asked. Again, Kelly had to say yes, it does happen.

Next topic: earthquakes. By this point, we were all overwhelmed, so it was just funny. Many ETAs are from California, and others have been in China before, so few have never experienced an earthquake before. Still, it’s a scary topic. One of the local English teachers, whose English name is Ellen, had some advice for everyone. If you’re in a bad earthquake, don’t stand in a doorframe, but get as close as possible to your refrigerator. If the building collapses, and you get trapped in the rubble, you can survive on the food in the fridge until the rescue teams are able to pull you out. 😀

By this point, a lot of people were freaking out. I can remember having a similar feeling when I was about their age, the realization that yes, I am mortal, and am not immune to the bad things that can happen to people. So I thought that I should jump in and remind the ETAs that although some of the dangers that Kelly talked about are specific to Taiwan, nevertheless we face other dangers in the US as well. I talked about foreign scholars at Michigan State getting into accidents and having health problems. There are dangers everywhere, I reminded them, so you should always be careful.

It’s probably a good idea to give them a sense of caution, especially when they are still getting familiar with the environment here in Taiwan. Still, they had a pretty heavy afternoon yesterday.