They talked about everything from the upcoming Olympic games to American Idol. 

Eleven Taiwanese nurses from HungKuang University got a taste of American culture Tuesday when they visited the Essex County Hospital Center in Cedar Grove.

They toured the $45 million facility with Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr.

“They are going to school to become nurses so it is important for them not only to see how things operate, but to explore and seek out different opportunities,” said DiVincenzo. 

“It is a great honor to be able to build a relationship and to be able to have our professionals meet their professionals,” he said.

Speaking with the aid of a translator, the nurses said they enjoyed seeing the different culture, buildings and architecture, which is very different from their country, they said.

“I was very impressed by the facility,” said one student through the translator. “The furniture and the operating rooms are very different from the facilities in Taiwan.”

The visit was part of a weeklong tour of New Jersey hospitals throughout the state as part of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey’s International Nursing Visitor program that included UMDNJ, Hackettstown Regional Medical Center and Princeton University.

The 20- and 21-year-old nursing students haven’t just had tours and lectures. They have also been able to visit New York City to see the Statue of Liberty and traveled to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to visit an Amish farmhouse.

“I liked seeing the Amish lifestyle,” one student said through the translator. It is a very different lifestyle from Taiwan, she added.

Over the next week the students will visit the Department of Health, Welfare and Human Services in Livingston, Ironbound Community Nurse Clinics in Newark as well as trips to Boston and Niagara Falls before boarding their long flight back to Taiwan.