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Before even arriving in Taiwan, I knew I wanted to find ways to get involved with local sports groups as I knew it would be a fun way to connect with local people as well as other foreigners. One of my mutual friends was Taiwanese and was a part of the Taipei spikeball scene, so she helped connect me with some people.

After landing in Taipei at 6 am on Sunday, I was determined to stay awake until night time and do my best to avoid jet lag. After settling into my Airbnb, I messaged around to figure out if there was any pickup spikeball that day. So after lunch, I hopped on the bus, and 20 minutes later, I was playing spikeball in a random Taipei park. That day, most of the people there were also foreigners. Many Taiwanese Americans were in Taiwan to teach English, some for a few years and others close to twenty. I played from two until close to six, after which some of us ate dinner at a local Taiwanese restaurant. We ended up hanging out till around nine, and by the time I got to bed, it was around ten, and after a full night's sleep, jet lag was avoided.

I decided to go to a session with a more advanced group of players during the middle of the week. This time, my commute involved walking half a mile to the subway station, riding the subway for 25 minutes, and then walking a mile through a night market followed by a somewhat sketchy-looking neighborhood. Upon showing up, I could tell this was more advanced as players wore jerseys and cleats to play a recreational backyard sport. All jokes aside, these players were really good, and some were at the "premiere level," which in the niche world of competitive spikeball means the pro level. At 10 pm, after three hours of playing, it was time to start my trek home after taking several hits to my spikeball ego and learning I wasn't all that good. As I was about to head out, the group graciously offered to give me a ride to the subway station and invited me to get food with them first. So, after weaving around on the back of a moped at questionable speeds (I had a helmet), we sat down to eat at a late-night Taiwanese breakfast shop that sold classics like soy milk and egg pancakes. During our late-night breakfast/snack, I was able to practice my Mandarin, which, as most of the group were Taiwanese people who knew little English.

I also found an ultimate frisbee group throughout my stay in Taiwan, which I tried to attend twice a week. Through that, I also made friends with two other American college students in Taipei, which was a good way to connect. Some highlights of ultimate frisbee were attending a club frisbee practice and scrimmaging against the Taiwan National women's team.