East Meets West: Studying in Taiwan

Cal State Long Beach sent 13 students to Taipei City, Taiwan, in September on fully paid scholarships to spend the 2007-08 academic year at Ming Chuan University.

MCU is a family-owned university that was founded in 1963 and is known in Taiwan for its specialization in business and management.

John Tsuchida, chairman of the Asian and Asian American studies department, launched the beginning of the international exchange program with MCU after making arrangements with the university's dean of law.

"The biggest obstacle going overseas is finance," said Tsuchida, "and our job is to make it possible for students to experience studying abroad."

In this program's first year, MCU accepted all of the 13 students who applied for the one-way exchange and provided them with free tuition and board. In addition, the Taipei Economic Cultural Office, located in Los Angeles, donated money toward the students' airfare and awarded two of them with additional $10,000 scholarships.

Some of the students who were selected were personally recruited by professors from the AAAS department. According to Chad Tsuyuki, the AAAS department's administrative support coordinator, the students who were chosen to study abroad at MCU have diverse majors.

Candace Walsh, one of the selected students, is an English major with an emphasis in creative writing, and graduate student Man Ng is majoring in Asian studies.

Regardless of their majors, the students will be taking an array of Mandarin classes, and have been assigned accordingly based on their skill levels.

Tsuchida said that the goal of this program is to "make students more global. American students do not think speaking a foreign language is an asset these days, but it is."

In an effort to expand the cultural and language learning process even further, one of MCU's faculty members, Joe Wang, set up a home-sponsoring program for the students from CSULB. Different families in Taipei volunteered to host some of the students and allowed them to visit their homes.

Although this supplementary learning experience was offered to all 13 students, only a few of them took it.

Man Ng, one of the students that signed up for the home-sponsoring program, said "[He] learned Chinese better with a host family than in class." "I personally am enjoying learning Chinese here and experiencing the culture in Taiwan. I think this was a great trade-off."

The students will be returning at the end of MCU's spring semester in July and as far as the future of the exchange program goes, Tsuchida said he has plans to improve and establish stable ties with MCU. He is working on a semester program for those students who cannot commit to a year-long session.

He understands that most college students have job commitments or other circumstances that they cannot sacrifice by going abroad.

Also in consideration is a summer program next year for students who have taken one or two Chinese language classes and are interested in studying in Taiwan.

"There are a lot of intangible benefits from studying abroad, and our job here is to make opportunities happen," Tsuchida said.

the birthday suit fad

Word on the street is, people are getting more and more comfortable being in the nude. According to a survey conducted by the American Association for Nude Recreation , 19% of Americans have skinny-dipped in a non-private setting and 18% are actually willing to go to a nude beach.

As we travel through the 21st century, where the leisure industry is booming, people are going above and beyond to find that ultimate unique experience. USA Today relates this growth in interest to the increase in nude recreation advertisements floating around the media. According to the same survey,“the 18-34 age group is more willing to bare it all and visit a clothing-optional resort or nude beach than their baby boomer counterparts age 45-54.” The article draws a connection between the statistic and our century's version of pop culture.

Laurie Dwyer, a senior at CSULB says, “Sexuality is getting more and more prevalent, and [nude beaches] are just another way for them to explore that.” After surveying a diverse set of 25 CSULB students, 16 agreed that they would be willing to go to a nude beach, 4 were unsure, and 5 students were just repulsed at the idea of it. “There are only a few of them in the world,” Dwyer adds “and people these days are into doing what they’re not supposed to.”

Do you agree? Well if you ever decide to change your mind and explore the world in your birthday suit, here are the Travel Channel’s Top Nine Nude Beaches.

9. Little Beach, Hawaii

8. Haulover Beach, Florida

7. Red Beach, Greece

6. Praia do Pinho, Brazil

5. Hedonism II, Jamaica

4. Samurai Beach, Australia

3. Wreck Beach, British Columbia

2. Ocho Rios, Jamaica

1. Montalivet, France


photo credit: Little Beach, Hawaii By John Fischer

I go abroad!

So for my 21st birthday my parents had sent me to Greece for a week-long cruise aboard the Sea Diamond. It was a trip that I will never forget! read on and you'll see why..


Safety first! After all 1,300 passengers were aboard the Sea Diamond, the Captain led us through a drill that we all should've taken a little more seriously. Instead, my cabin mates and I pose with our matching neon orange outfits.




This is the first modern Olympic Stadium ever, and it's located in Athens. Surprisingly, it's open to the public at all hours of the day and if you look closely enough you can see little boys roller blading in the stadium's epicenter. According to my cab driver, the same boys are there every day.




First of many meals that come with feta cheese. Actually this was only a third of the appetizer portion of our seven course dinner!




First stop, Mykonos! Home of the whitewashed houses and blue-domed churches. All the homes on this island must be painted white and must have either blue or green trimming (rooftop, door frames, etc.)




If you decide to paint the trimming another color (red is the only other color allowed by the city), just like the house on the right, you have to pay a monthly fee.




It's not every day that you see two pelicans sunbathing on the doorstep of a very busy gelato parlor. I'm lucky these birds didn't poke my eye out.




This is a bazaar in Kusadasi, Turkey. This is where I bought my favorite pair of hand-made leather sandals. (Quality that you can feel!)




Next stop is Patmos. This is the doorway that leads to the room where St. John is known to have written the book of Revelation.




Rhodes! This is home to the infamous Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. This is a picture of one of the main castles on the island.




Crete is the more urban, industrialized portion of Greece. Check out this car! I bet you can fit four of those in 50 cent's Hummer.




This picture is of one of the smaller city streets that my friend and I ended up in when we got lost in Crete. Even the "ghetto" side of Greece is breathtaking.




Here is a picture of the grand Sea Diamond, two hours before it sank.

Yes way! On April 6, 2007, the Captain of the Sea Diamond of Louis Hellenic Cruise Lines ran the ship aground a volcanic reef off the island of Santorini. The best and final stop of our Aegean tour was interrupted by an emergency siren and a panicked voice over the intercom announcing "the evacuation plan."

With what I can remember, my turn to board a safety boat took four and a half hours, so luckily the ship was sinking a lot slower than the Titanic. With the exception of two French passengers, the majority of the people aboard made it safely to shore. Nothing was salvaged, all belongings made its way to the bottom of the Aegean Sea along with the ship, including a necklace from my great grandmother.

On a brighter note, I still had enough sense and audacity to grab my camera. Here are some pictures you probably didn't see in the news..



Here is a picture of the ship on a tilt and people trying to climb out from one of the emergency ladders. My friend Tory had taken this picture from a safety boat. She was one of the first to be saved. Notice the people on the very top deck, as if they're all waiting for permission to jump.




Either the camera angle is skewed, or the ship is sinking and everyone is gravitating to the right.




That's me on the middle deck waiting to be rescued. My friend that took the picture from one of the safety rafts was trying to cheer me up. It almost worked.




I waited four and a half hours for a turn on the jumbo slide!




After all the madness and hullabaloo, Santorini awaits with open arms. Never in my life have I stepped foot on land so beautiful.


After the event, all I could be thankful for is my life and one heck of a 21st birthday present!

Couchsurfing?

Students are known to lack two things: time and money. Couchsurfing.com solves both those problems. It's a buddy network that helps fellow travelers find places to stay in different countries. This website currently holds 315, 914 official couchsurfers from all around the globe essentially sharing the same goal; to travel for cheap. Bernard Choi from Channel 5 news in Seattle tells us more..

No passport, No fun

DO NOT forget your passport because you "can't leave home without it." If you don't own a passport then apply for one right now by visiting this website. Just type in your zip code and find the facility nearest you. The actual process takes up to 8 weeks so leave plenty of time for it to deliver.