Remembering my hard life at college in Taiwan 1967-1971/Carlos Pueblo

 

Remembering my hard life at college in Taiwan 1967-1971/Carlos Pueblo

It will be a 50 years anniversary of our graduation in 2021 and our class mates are preparing to hold a class reunion in Taiwan for two weeks. We are preparing to publish a photo book along with a lot of memory during that period of time at the National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan. I was very fortunate to pass the college entrance examination that year and accepted to Taiwan Normal for the future secondary school teacher.

It was a government sponsored program; therefore, we had had tuition and fee free at school with a minimum subsidy of about US$5.00 at the time. If I took the meal in the cafeteria at the dormitory, the cost was $4.50 deducted from that $5.00. 50 cent was for a haircut. It was very hard and I had to budget very well. For some reasons that I was not permitted to live in the dormitory; therefore, I had to rent a bed outside of the campus for about $5.00 a month. I didn’t believe that my dad could help me simply because he was not able to help me with his salary about US$20.00 a month as an engineer at a sugar company. I copied myself from my elder sister Amy who worked study through the same college. I took a part time job as a tutor for kids in rich families who needed helps for their study at schools. I got a pay of US$15.00 a month at least to maintain my expanse in balance for four years.

I made an excuse for my failing grades at that time. I had to repeat some of my required classes on the second and third years and repeated during summers by paying fees which I borrowed from my sister who was a high school teacher at that time. At the junior year I failed almost one half of my credit hours and was facing to be expelled from the school. I was saved by a two hours passing grade of a physical chemistry laboratory. Otherwise, I would be drafted immediately to the navy for three year service.

I didn’t quit and couldn’t afford to quit because of that military draft pressure. I finally got the requirement for the graduation done yet it passed the deadline for the teacher’s appointment; therefore, I requested to be drafted to the army for a two year service duty. My infantry division was stationed at the frontier off the Chinese coastline about 4 km away.