Zara Miller's Adventures Abroad 🌎🇺🇳

September 8th, 2025 to May 8th, 2026 Changes  Since my last blog, spring has brought a wave of unforgettable experiences. Alongside my daily Mandarin classes, I’ve taken a day-long trip to a temple, celebrated Tomb Sweeping Day, gone camping with my host family, made new friends, joined the Wenzao Ambassador program, and even returned to painting. Somehow, we’ve arrived at the final month in Taiwan. During one of our last peer tutoring sessions, our tutors asked us, in Chines

At the end of our midterm Mandarin exams, the NSLI-Y Kaohsiung cohort took a week-long break, heading to the mountains to do an exchange with a local indigenous elementary school. This school, called the Padan School, is an experimental school, largely since it incorporates aspects of Bunun culture, one of the 16 recognized indigenous groups in Taiwan,  into each class. While the curriculum emphasized Bunan culture, the students came from incredibly diverse backgrounds, inclu

As I’m nearing the end of my third month learning Chinese, the NSLI-Y cohort had our first week-long holiday break. Last Friday, the ten of us boarded the high speed rail at Zuoying Station. Flying through the countryside at almost 190 mph, it only took us around 40 minutes to step out into the central county of Taiwan: Nantou!  Nantou is famous in Taiwan and beyond, as it’s the home to the vast majority of Taiwan’s tea-making farms. Scattered on every corner of every street