Bonnie White
Prime Minister’s Scholarship for Asia, Chinese Language Study Abroad
Introduction
Welcome to my 360 blog!
My name is Bonnie, and I am a fourth-year conjoint student in Global Studies and Fine Arts at the University of Auckland. I am a French-New Zealander who grew up and lived in Paris, France, for 15 years, before deciding to turn my life around and move to Aotearoa New Zealand, in 2019.
My multicultural upbringing, paired with my parents’ never-ending travel stories, nourished my desire to go out on my own and discover the world, its people and diverse cultures. I applied to the PMSA because the Language Study Aboard in Taiwan appealed to my sense of adventure and discovery. I was eager to travel to a place that would allow me to immerse into a Mandarin-speaking environment and experience Chinese norms and customs first-hand.
During my stay in Taiwan, I hope to learn from the locals’ way of life, improve my language skills and strengthen my social connections with both my fellow programme participants and the people I meet along my journey.
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An amazing trip.
Over the last few weeks, I have had the chance to experience some of the best moments of my life. After struggling to (literally) get back on my feet, I finally had time to go out and explore Tainan. My amazing language partner and friend Eva, took me out on more than one occasion to…Continue…
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An unexpected turn
It has now been over 3 weeks since I landed in Taiwan. I feel like I have now upgraded from experiencing the initial thrill of discovering a new culture, new habits and new environments, to developing my own sense of home. Although I’ve only been in Tainan for a short amount of time, the experiences…Continue…
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A new beginning.
It’s official: fifteen of us have landed in Taiwan and settled in the beautiful city of Tainan! It has been a week since we landed, and my mind has finally touched ground to realise that the Sky Tower is 8,773 km away (according to Google). It took me a while to use my sight to…Continue…