The very first time in my life...

 

 

For the very first time in my life, I travelled to another country without a companion.  It sounds hard at first especially to my family as it was just like a mission impossible to them. Somehow, I made it and reached home safe with a BETTER ME. Thanks to AIESEC UNMC for giving me such a great chance to join this remarkable programme to travel to Taiwan for the life-changing experience.  

 

Let’s talk about the project that I matched with. Basically there were 2 parts in my project: Involved myself in the summer camp in NCCU for the first 2 weeks and worked in Jump Jump Farm until the end of my project. It was amazing that I had a chance to experience two totally different working environments at once in Taiwan.

 

The summer camp which named ‘Light Ur Vision (LUV)’ was organised by the CCU AIESECers, targeting 15- to 18-years-old of high school students with the aim of broadening the students’ global perspectives. As an exchange participant (EP), I was helping out in organising and worked as international team supporter during the four-days-camp. I have also done my culture sharing presentation and introduced a Malaysian culture game, Congkak to the local students. We were working hard every day from early morning until late of midnight. It was tiring but fun to work with all the interesting people.

 

To me, the best things of the camp were the bunch of EPs and the local AIESECers that I met over there. There was a total of 6 EPs in the camp that came from New York, Czech Republic, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and of course me from Malaysia. We were so close and eventually built up a strong relationship between each other. Guess what? We are still having our group chat every day even though we are hundred/thousand miles apart from each other nowadays. Isn't It Awesome?!!! =D

 

After the first 2 weeks, I was going into the second part of my project about ecotourism in Jump Jump Farm. Most of you mistakenly assumed that it is a poultry farm or plantation but it’s not like what you think at all. Jump Jump Farm is an Eco-resort that can provide tourists a relaxing yet amazing getaway. Tourists will be staying in wooden cabin and that was also my accommodation in the farm. The farm offers a list of recreational activities such as adventurous training, paintball game, DIY tutorial class, jungle trekking, and barbeque. I learnt a lot of DIY stuff such as leafy bookmark and making of taro ball to work as helper in class. I also did housekeeping jobs and played around with the adorable child visitors in the farm.

 

Jump Jump Farm is somewhere in the middle of mountain which is around 2 hours of driving distance from city. This simply means that we have no chance to escape from the forest during weekdays. Besides the inconvenience of transportation, another trouble that I faced was the high frequency of ‘meeting’ spider or any other insects in room. I guess most of the girls will scream out loud when saw an insect in the room, so did I. I was totally broke down on my second day in the farm as I found a giant spider on my bed, cockroach on desk and a huge frog waiting outside my door to stop me from seeking help from my friends. Well, I was alone and all on my own… *ARGHH! PIAK! BOOM! *(let me skip the violent part)… Since that day, they never sleep on my bed and I was friends with the ‘visitors’ in my room. To sum up, the only way to survive is to become stronger.

 

Apart from working, I guess I have travelled around the whole Taiwan except Taitung. It’s amazing to travel with the EPs and special credits to the CCU AIESECer for bringing us to play around Taichung and Tainan. The local AIESEC’s support was so strong and it was very heart-warming. Another bonus that I received for my GAP was the BE MY FRIENDS programme organised by the AIESEC NCCU which gave me a chance to stay with local host family for a weekend. My host was from New Taipei who brought me around Sanxia and Yingge and also tried on fabric dyeing as well as the making of ceramic. Besides, the students that I met in the camp offered us to stay in their house at Taipei and treated us like VIP guest.

 

 I was glad that I met so many awesome people in Taiwan and all of their kindness was so much appreciated. What I have experienced was unforgettable and life-changing. In short, no regret for spending my summer breaks with AIESEC Global Ambassador Programme. Thumbs up!!

 

Hope you enjoy reading my LONG story. Thank you! =)