My mom and aunties have a saying: generally speaking, moms either have a rough pregnancy and a semi-decent delivery[1], or a semi-decent pregnancy and a rough delivery[2]. That’s what happened with all their kids, but I think the more general point is that even when life (or your baby) is kicking you in the guts, karma often finds a way to even things out. At least that’s more or less what happened with the Fulbright Taiwan 2021-2022 cohort.
Let’s back up. After applying for the Fulbright grant last fall, I received my acceptance letter in early April. Hurray! Having visited Taiwan and studied abroad in Shanghai and Hong Kong during college and absolutely fallen in love with East Asian daily life, I’d been itching to return since the pandemic’s onset. As my mom’s family is Taiwanese, the food, culture, and language have always been bedrocks of my identity and happiness. And of course, I was also looking forward to returning to my tutoring/teaching days and working at a local school to co-teach English. Our original arrival date was scheduled for the end of July.
However, as everyone alive in 2020-2021 knows, COVID has a mind of its own. While Taiwan originally did a spectacular job keeping the virus out, in May of this year, an outbreak broke through the nation’s strict prevention guidelines, causing a rash of 300+ cases/day tolls. In response, the Taiwanese government imposed a “Level 3” lockdown and shut down visa processing offices all around the world. Ruh-roh. Suddenly, all Fulbright Taiwan plans were frozen as we waited for caseloads to drop and the visa offices to reopen.
We stayed in limbo for three agonizing months. The Taiwanese government would extend the Level 3 lockdown for two weeks, we’d go about our business, see caseloads go down, and get our hopes up, only for the lockdown to be extended again. This happened about five or six times, aka all summer long. Even after the government downgraded the lockdown to a Level 2, they still kept visa offices closed, meaning no foreigners could enter the country unless they had medical or humanitarian emergency purposes. This limbo period was incredibly stressful as it left us with barely any information to make major life decisions. For weeks on end, I wondered: Would Taiwan ever allow us into the country? Should I start making alternate plans?
With the ever-constant back and forth between hope, despair, and endless waiting, waiting, waiting, the summer was relentless in its emotional turmoil and second-guessing. To make matters more complicated, I was also working full-time and suddenly facing the difficult choice of leaving a job I loved for an unsure prospect, or closing the door on an opportunity I may never be able to replicate.
Just when I was losing all hope that Fulbright would ever go ahead, we received a surprise email announcing that Fulbright’s Taiwan Commission had struck a deal with the Taiwanese government to get us special visas into the country. Hurray! But also: ahhhhhhh, now we had to rush to get our visa papers in order, renew the documentation that had expired during limbo, complete nightly online training at 9:30-11:30pm ET (gotta love that 12-hour time difference), and get packing.
The lead-up to my mid-September flight was very nerve-wracking since we had to gather a very confusing and ever-changing array of travel documentation, secure COVID test appointments within a narrow window of time, and oh yeah, manage not to get COVID during the Delta variant’s peak. Luckily for me, after a very rough summer gestating on the will we, won’t we question, I had a fairly smooth delivery to my long-dreamed-of destination.
After gathering my documentation and nabbing a negative PCR test, I hopped a plane from DC, first to Houston, and then to Taipei. The trans-Pacific red-eye was nearly empty so I lay down across three seats and slept for eight hours! Upon arriving at Taoyuan International Airport, we were immediately swept into Taiwan’s very impressive and efficient COVID-prevention bureaucracy. Going through immigration, customs, and the airport health checks took about two hours but it was a swiftly-moving two hours as airport officials guided us through the half dozen steps to freedom. After acquiring local sim cards and phone numbers (crucial to contract tracing) we were ushered into quarantine taxis to take us to our quarantine hotels.
All foreigners and local residents who arrive in Taiwan from abroad (except airline staff who operate under different regulations) must quarantine at a designated quarantine hotel for 14 days, and then conduct seven days of “Self-Health Management” after that. And when I say “quarantine,” I mean that in the strictest sense; no leaving your room to take a stroll, in fact, no leaving your room at all. If you do, you will be fined heavily; the Taiwanese mean business and that’s why they’ve been so good at fighting COVID. The only times you can open your door are 1) to pick up the meals left outside your room 2) to deposit your daily trash and 3) to take a PCR test on your 12th day of quarantine. The hotel delivers three meals a day to your room, and you are also allowed to order delivery via UberEats or Foodpanda. Travelers are required to pay for the hotel and meals, but luckily, the Fulbright Association paid for all our accommodations.
The 146 Taiwan ETAs are divided into 14 counties across Taiwan’s main and outer islands. Based on our county’s geographic location, we were scattered across a couple main cities: Taipei, Kaohsiung, Hualien, and Taichung, for our quarantining. I was placed in Kaohsiung, one of Taiwan’s major southern cities. Since Taipei is in northern Taiwan, this did mean that after 20 hours of flying, I had a four-hour taxi ride between the airport and my hotel. But because I slept so well on the flight, I was actually fairly awake for the taxi ride and enjoyed listening to music as the countryside whizzed by my window. Four hours later, I checked into my hotel, dragged my suitcases to my room, and shut the door. And that was basically my last physical contact with the outside world for two weeks.
My quarantine hotel room and some of the meal highlights
While many Fulbrighters dreaded the quarantine period, I found it fairly relaxing. After many months of chaotic uncertainty on top of working full-time, the chance to spend two weeks with few obligations, free meals provided, a big TV, and endless time to catch up on Netflix was much appreciated! Granted, I may have stayed at one of the nicer hotels; after all, my WiFi was fairly strong and my toilet had a bidet! I also have a soft spot for the bento-style meals the hotel served: boxes with divided portions for rice, a meat entree, and a few vegetable/protein side dishes. (Being an omnivore definitely helps in this respect, as there are far more meaty protein options than vegetarian ones).
In terms of passing the time, I’ve always been fairly good at entertaining myself, a skill that’s come in handy during the pandemic. In addition to attending Fulbright’s online orientation sessions, I spent my days reading, writing, watching TV, watching the people outside my window, following YouTube yoga and exercise workouts, and chatting with friends/family at home and fellow ETAs in quarantine. My Taiwanese relatives even mailed me a care package of snacks and mooncakes to honor the recent Mid-Autumn Festival, which was so sweet of them! While I did miss going for spontaneous walks, browsing stores and markets, and choosing/picking up food myself, it also felt nice having an excuse to stay inside and chill. I imagine the next ten months in Taiwan are going to be packed with teaching, lesson planning, traveling, and exploring, so having a two-week period to recharge and adjust to the time zone felt like a good way to prepare.
Anyway, the most important part is that I made it to Taiwan!!! Before arriving, I'd told a few friends that I wouldn't get excited about the grant until I was actually standing on Taiwanese soil. Now it's been nearly two weeks and the realization is still sinking in. Having largely recuperated from the previous months and weeks of chaos, I'm looking forward to rejoining the outdoors, familiarizing myself with my new neighborhood, and officially starting my grant work.
Even so, it feels trite to say that all those months of agonized waiting and indecision were simply "worth" the end result. Instead, I think it's better to include them in the narrative, as I've done here, and portray the full story so future me and my audience can reflect. And so I can feel gratitude that after the spring and summer's rough limbo period, so far, the fall has brought a smooth arrival to Taiwan.
Here's to my upcoming adventures!
Moment of Joy/Humor: I ordered fruit via delivery since that’s the one food item the hotel didn’t include in its meals. (And I am a true Asian in that I must have fruit at every meal or I will wither away and perish). Anyway, I ordered some grapes and oranges. What I got was a lovely box of grapes and one orange. I couldn’t stop laughing at that one lonely orange.