EASLEY – During the Easley Rotary Club meeting recently, rising ninth grader Sarah Boyce Gladden of Abbeville spoke of her upcoming trip to Taipei, Taiwan as part of the Rotary Exchange Program.

Gladden will stay in Taiwan for one full year, living with three different families during that time. At age 15, she is the youngest outbound student in the state.

Gladden attends Dixie High School but has done internships for Erskine College and the Governor’s School. She hopes to attend the Governor’s School when she returns from Taiwan.

The Rotary Exchange Program allows teens from all over the world to travel internationally and experience schooling in a foreign country.

During the Rotary Club meeting, Gladden showed a slideshow of several friends she has made at the Rotary conference who are from different parts of the world. She showed a picture of a boy named Carlos from Brazil who was assigned to the United States and gained 50 pounds during his stay here.

Gladden will be learning the Mandarin language. She will have two classes a week in school but said she’ll learn most of the language while in the culture.

“Right now, all I know is ‘Where is the bathroom?’ and that’s about it,” said Gladden. “However, that question is very important to know.”

Taipei, Taiwan is a very tropical climate, and Gladden said her host family does not have air conditioning. The first family she will stay with also has a daughter in the Rotary Exchange Program who left that Monday for Denver, Colorado. Her name is Joyce.

Gladden will attend Taipei Municipal LiShan High School which is one of the top schools in its area. It is a math and science school with around 500 students. Gladden said that there are two teachers for every 12 students at the school.

Gladden said she’s looking forward to the new foods she will get to try, as well as being taller than most of the population.

Gladden will take along the Easley Rotary Club banner with her and hopes she represents her country well in Taiwan. She also said she will do her best to follow the five D’s. While in Taiwan, Gladden should not drive, do drugs, drink, download or date.

Gladden promised the Easley Rotary Club that she would bring pictures back to show them after her trip was finalized next year.

Gladden leaves for Taipei, Taiwan on Aug. 20 for a stay of one year.

Interviewed the week she was leaving, Boyce said she had been getting ready by packing. Her allowance for luggage is 50 lbs., and she said her suitcase all packed is about 49 lbs.

“I’ve been trying to learn Mandarin Chinese,” she added, speaking a few phrases of it.

“I’ve been getting to know the other Rotary students, We have six outbound students; I’m going to Taiwan, one girl’s already in Brazil, one girl is already in Germany, one is in Colombia, South America, and two others are going to France,” she said.

Alert news-watchers will be aware that the typhoon season in the southern part of Taiwan is just ending, and Boyce expects the weather to be 50-80 degrees, and very humid.

“It’s really hot, and they say when you get off the plane, the heat just hits you,” she said.

“I’ll be living in Taipei, which is the capitol of Taiwan, and is about five times the size of New York City.”

She will be attending LiShan Municipal Senior High School.

“I haven’t really heard anything about my school; I haven’t heard what classes I’m taking. It’s all in Chinese, I know,” she said.

The language will be a particular challenge for Boyce.

Mandarin Chinese is the main dialect of China, which is spoken in Taiwan. In her host family, everyone will speak it, and only one person speaks English.

Boyce is looking forward to visiting the night markets in Taipei with her host family, where all manner of food is sold. She saw the market on a recent program on the Travel Channel, where chef Anthony Bourdain visits all these exotic places and tries the food. In Taipei, Bourdain had a 1,000 year old egg.

Boyce said bravely she would also try one of those.

“I’m just not going to ask what I’m eating while I’m there,” she grins.

Editor’s note: Boyce Gladden is a former Winnsboro resident. Brian Garner contributed to this story.