{"id":159,"date":"2019-04-15T17:08:38","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T17:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/expeditionbe.com\/?p=159"},"modified":"2019-04-15T17:15:39","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T17:15:39","slug":"my-journey-through-taiwan-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/expeditionbe.com\/?p=159","title":{"rendered":"My Journey through Taiwan – Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During\nthe summer of 2016,\nI had the incredible opportunity to travel to Taiwan as part of a\nshort-term study abroad course through the\nUniversity\nof Wyoming.\nThe nearly three-week journey began in Taipei, and continued along\nthe East Coast toward the south of the island nation and back. The\ndays were often full of activity and excitement, as our group visited\nnumerous sites throughout the trip and engaged in a participatory\nlearning process. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tAs\nthe central themes of the course focused on the development and\ndemocratization of Taiwan, I was able to learn about the complex\nhistory of the country, visit community organizations and participate\nin discussions, learn about indigenous peoples and culture, and much\nmore. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel incredibly fortunate for this experience and to have met so many wonderful people along the way. Since daily recollections of the trip would take up far too many pages, I have instead opted to include just a few highlights of this eventful journey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Taiwan’s Presidential Inauguration <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tYes,\nour professor was able to get us invitations to attend the\ninauguration of the newly elected president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen,\nand the event was incredible! It was such an exciting (and very hot)\nmorning as we witnessed important history being made; Tsai is\nTaiwan\u2019s first female president, and also a member of the\nDemocratic Progressive Party. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tThe\nmomentous occasion was packed with people from all over the world.\nMedia personnel were stationed at multiple points throughout the\nvenue. Parts of the event space were adorned in celebratory d\u00e9cor,\nand giant character floats loomed high above over the crowds. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was evident that great effort and planning went into making this an amazing event. The program included an overview of Taiwan\u2019s history, development, and cultural heritage through elaborate stage performances. Some performances occurred off-stage as well in the audience area, including dragon dances and other processions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nwas a truly remarkable celebration that went beyond a typical\nstudy-abroad experience; this was literally a once-in-a-lifetime\nevent that I will remember forever, and one which holds important\npolitical significance for Taiwan. \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the summer of 2016, I had the incredible opportunity to travel to Taiwan as part of a short-term study abroad course through the University …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8uTbu-2z","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/expeditionbe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/expeditionbe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/expeditionbe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expeditionbe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expeditionbe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/expeditionbe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165,"href":"https:\/\/expeditionbe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions\/165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/expeditionbe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expeditionbe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expeditionbe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}