MCU int’l students experience homestay

According to school officials, the homestay program was meant to offer foreign students an opportunity to spend time this year with Taiwanese people during the Chinese New Year break, from Feb. 6 to 11.

The streets of Taipei are usually empty during the Lunar New Year period, as most people go back home in the south, and most stores and restaurants are closed.

“There are some 70 to 80 foreign students who live on our Taipei or Taoyuan campus,” said Yang Chien-kuei, educational affairs director of MCU. “It’s easy for foreigners to get homesick during this time of the year, as most local students return to their families. That’s why we asked our faculty members to take some foreign students home and take them to various tourist attractions in their hometowns.

A total of seven MCU faculty members took part in the program, each bringing two foreign students, Yang said, adding he himself took two students from Bolivia to his in-laws’ home in Lukang, a town in central Changhua County, on Feb. 8.

Feb. 8 was the second day of the year on the Lunar Calendar, traditional known as “kuei ning,” when married daughters return to their hometowns along with their husbands.

“We handed out red envelopes to the students and had them eat a family meal with all of us,” Yang said, adding he took the students to some of the famous tourist attractions in Lukang, including the Matsu Temple, Shihyi Tower, Lungshan Temple, and Mouru Alley.

A student from Gambia, meanwhile, stayed in another faculty member’s house. A Muslim, the student said the start of the year on the Islam calendar happens pretty much at the same time as the Chinese New Year.

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