For Lucia Vera ‘24, the convenience of Taiwan’s Mass Rapid Transit system beats Minnesota’s highway traffic any day. Vera lived in Taipei, Taiwan since 5th grade before returning to Minnesota this year. Vera explained that in Taipei, “I can go visit my friends that live hours away.” She continues, “I also really like traveling, so being able to travel to such cool places around me like it’s a three hour plane ride to Japan or five to Singapore, it’s really nice.” Vera also appreciates the walkability of Taipei, explaining that when she visits, “I can walk everywhere, it’s a really walkable city.” Pictured above, Vera and her friend take advantage of Taiwan’s walkability. “This is my friend who moved to Abu Dhabi. I met her in Taipei and she was visiting. It’s really safe in Taiwan so I was able to stay out late with my friends and whatnot, come home, and it’d be fine,” she commented.
“Dance has always been a really big part of my life,” said Vera. She has been competitively dancing since she was five years old. In Taipei, she competed with the International Association of Southeast Asian Schools Dance Team (IASIS), competing against other international schools in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Vera explained that while living in Taipei, she would return to the United States every summer to compete with her studio in Minnesota. “I would just whip up a quick solo and do it at nationals. I maintained friends in Minnesota through that which was really helpful because it’s really just kind of continuity like familiar faces in Minnesota,” said Vera. She explains that dance has been one of the ways she kept contact with friends back in Minnesota while living in Taiwan. Here, Lucia attends DelMonico Dance.
Vera, having never Wolfpack football game.
attended an American high school un- til this year, expressed the differences in Tai- wan and Minnesota’s school culture. “Even though I am American, I definitely had some expectations of what American high school would be like,” said Vera. She explained that events like sports games and dances are not the norm in Taipei. “Even having spirit week or homecoming week is really different to me. The whole idea of team spirit like football games we don’t have that in Taiwan.”
Vera commented, “I do really like Blake. I feel like they have a good work-life balance.” Petra Ekstrom ‘24, one of Vera’s friends, stated, “She is energetic. She is outgoing. She is social. She was really nice from the get go. I feel like it’s definitely really hard to come into senior year not knowing anybody and most people have known each other and been at the school forever… She found people really fast and everyone gets along with her. She’s not just one person limited to a friend group, she’s really taken the opportunity to branch out.”
