Final Few Days

WELCOME TO THE LAST BLOG!!! I am writing this at home, in Seattle, and it's crazy to believe that the trip is now over. I believe it’s been a week since the last blog, so here’s an update on the last few days of our trip. 

09.09.2026

Whole squad at the night market!

We were reaching crunch time on our final project, so the morning was all focused on getting feedback on our current progress and continuing to finalize the final product. Then in the afternoon, we went on a walking tour of downtown Tainan, which included going to one of the oldest department stores in Taiwan. It was cool to hear about Tainan’s history, especially because it’s the oldest city in Taiwan. But we were mostly excited for the night market that we went to that night! We got to try out so many Taiwanese snack foods, ride on carnival-style rides, and play games (I won a Pochacco stuffed animal!). I loved trying out new foods and familiar foods, and hearing the din of all the voices in a night market. We then YouBiked home – another beautiful ride through the city!

Tea experience

09.10.2026 

Our morning began with a traditional tea experience, which was probably one of my favorite things that we did on this trip. The owner read/sang us poems that he wrote about tea and Tainan and walked us through where the tea comes from. Then we got to brew our own pots of oolong tea, trying out two varieties. We were also given some light tea treats, including a cream puff and a mochi with red bean inside. It was so insightful and the tea was absolutely delicious. We had to finish our posters that night, so the remainder of the day was spent finishing that up, as well as finalizing all the parts of the project, like our prototype and presentation.

09.11.2026

Our last YouBike!

Final presentation day!!

The day of our final presentation! It’s wild to believe that we’re finally here, which also means that we’re nearing the end of the trip! In the morning, we had time to polish out all of the final details, including putting together our mini prototype! I am so proud of the project we created and the group I got to work with, as they all have amazing minds and we created something that is truly a touch of everyone. It was a really big learning experience, as well, because we had to work within various cultural backgrounds, but also that’s what made it so special! We finally got to present to a panel of judges and share all of the hard work that we had put in over the past week and a half and it was so satisfying to see it all come together (as well as seeing all of my classmates work too!). It was also really cool to hear that our team members from NCKU wanted to keep working on the project! I hope that they will keep us updated on their project :) We ended the night going back to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner, just to make the most of our time in Tainan. 

09.12.2026 

Gift from NCKU friends

Our last morning as a team in Tainan! We met up for breakfast to do a brief reflection and some of our NCKU friends came to say hi as well! What a joy it was to see them all for the last time, as well as just getting to reflect on our time together and all of the fun things that we got to do. We then boarded the train back to Taipei and our trip was over!

As I spent the next few days in Taipei on my own, I got to reflect a lot on the experience as a whole. It was wild to me that there were people on the trip I had never known before and now, here in Seattle, I’m still getting to keep in contact with them and even more so, students in Taiwan that I still get to keep in touch with. I so loved my 3 weeks in Taiwan and will forever cherish this time for many years to come. 

Signing off one last time,

Katelyn