My experience in Taiwan           author/KATE

I’ve had an amazing opportunity to come to Taiwan and be a volunteer for the Science Park Community. I spent here 6 unforgettable weeks full of cultural experience, fun and interesting work. During my staying, I worked on a cultural project of an organisation AIESEC involving young people from USA, Japan, Russia and my country. The aim of this project for me was to promote Slovakia in my community and help it with its everyday activities. At the same time, all of us volunteers had a chance to get to know some interesting facts about Taiwan and its unique culture.

My main responsibility at the community at the beginning of my staying was preparation for Lantern Festival. Nice ladies from our community were dressed in Slovak-style costumes and danced a Slovak dance in order to present my home culture to Taiwanese. We spend two weeks by preparing the costumes and learning a dance, which was presented on the Lantern Festival in front of the City Hall. Besides this pleasant responsibility I also had a chance to make several presentations of Slovakia to different groups – primary school students, junior high students, a special class and elderly Hsinchu inhabitants. My strongest memories are connected to handcraft classes with elder people and gardening with mental handicapped students.

People from the Science Park community are very nice; I met a lot of local citizens of different age. All of them were welcoming and helped me feel very well here. I visited lots of homes, saw 7-eleven shop background and spent great time with all of them. Despite the fact that I cannot speak Chinese and most people I worked with cannot speak English, we were surprisingly able to communicate quite effectively, also due to willingness of people to learn or to help and translate when I felt lost.

In my free time I had a chance to travel to a few Taiwanese most beautiful places, including my favourite Hualien and Kenting, which are places I will never forget. I also joined a trip organized by the Science Park Community to four temples, where I travelled with a bus full of people singing karaoke – another unforgettable moment for me.

I would like to thank both to the Science Park community and to AIESEC CTLC for this nice time and great cultural experience. Especially I thank to people working and volunteering at the community, which made my work here really pleasant and full of fun; a few persons that always stopped by when I needed somebody to translate or explain me Taiwanese traditions and everybody who welcome me openly and with a smile. Thanks to you and your country itself, I enjoyed my staying in Taiwan very much.

我的台灣經驗          國際志工--KATE

我得到了個令人艷羨的機會，來到台灣為科園社區當志工，在這裡停駐的六週，令人難忘，充滿了文化體驗，文化趣味，工作又有趣。我的工作是AIESEC組織名下的一個計畫，其中包含來自美國日本蘇聯及我國(斯洛伐克)的年輕人。這個計畫對我而言即是在我這個社區(科園)推廣斯洛伐克且協助每日活動。同時我們全體志工都會有機會了解一些有趣的台灣真實面貌及台灣特有的文化。

在此社區我的首要責任一開始是準備元宵節。我們社區優雅的女士身著斯洛伐克服裝跳斯洛伐克舞，向台灣民眾呈現我家鄉文化。我們用了二週準備服裝及舞蹈，元宵節當天在市府前表演。除了此項快樂的責任外，我亦有很多機會把斯洛伐克呈現給不同的團體，像小學學生，國中生，特教班，及新竹市的老人家看。我印象最深的是身心障礙班，他們有老人家及照護著精神障礙的學生。

科園社區的人很好，我遇到不同年紀的居民，都很歡迎我們且非常幫忙。潘嬰娣和志工們，帶著我去過很多社區老人的家訪問，老人親切和藹，還到處看到7-11，跟他們快樂的相處。雖然我不會說中文，我共事的人大多不會說英文，我們還是可以很有效率的溝通，真令人驚奇，這些都要歸功於大家願意學習協助，而且在我聽不懂時充當翻譯的緣故。

閒暇之餘，我有機會去幾個台灣最美的地方旅行，包括我偏愛的花蓮及墾丁。都是我永遠不會忘懷的地方。我也參加科園社區所組的一次旅遊去參觀四座廟宇。我們搭巴士，一堆人唱著卡拉OK，更是令人難忘。

我想表達我對科園社區及 AIESEC CTLC的感謝，讓我度過這麼棒的時光，讓我有這麼棒的文化體驗。特別感謝在此社區中與我共事的志工們。他們讓我在此地工作非常愉快且工作時充滿樂趣。有幾個人總是在我需要翻譯時過來或將台灣的習俗講解給我聽；每個人都開懷的歡迎我且面帶微笑。感謝您們感謝這個社區，我十分享受我待在台灣的這段時光。