February 20, 2019 Taking on Taiwan: The Ups and the Downs During the first six months of my time in Taiwan, the world was shiny and new. I remember–quite vividly–walking into any store (even a 7/11) and being over the top excited about everything that I saw. The snack packs of seaweed, sushi, soy milk, Coca-Cola, tissue, toiletries, disposable underwear, literally everything I saw, because everything was new. And for a long time, that’s what life was like in Taiwan: a mix of terrifyingly brand new and exciting. There is, however, that time when your everyday life becomes the norm.
February 13, 2019 Taking on Taiwan: Hiatus in Hsinchu Most days, I feel like I am on a speeding train, with no stops in sight. I have, fortunately and unfortunately, made it so my life is bustling with activities and tasks to complete, which I am grateful for 98% of the time. It’s true: I love feeling like there’s always something to do or work towards. Without a goal or a destination, I feel aimless and I get restless, and then get irritable. But I made sure that upon 2018’s end, there would be no such hectic planning or too many commitments to attend to. New Years’ was more or less a hiatus from the norm.
February 10, 2019 Taking on Taiwan: A Change of Heart Vividly, I can recall, the various mornings I’d rise early, go to my notebook, and sit by the window. After about five or so minutes of staring out to the lake daydreaming, I would put my pen to the paper and write. I couldn’t tell you how long I would write for, because I’d get lost in my fantasies. Every time I write–even now–I forget all sense of time. An hour or so later, I’d be ten pages deep into my scribbling and ranting. Someone from my family would inform me it was time for breakfast and I’d leave my imaginary world, knowing I’d return to it shortly. That, then and even now, is one of my favorite times in the day: writing time.
February 6, 2019 Taking on Taiwan: The (Not so) Skinny on Street Food If you’ve ever been to America, grew up, or lived in America at some point during your life, chances are you have been to a farmer’s market or two. You’ve walked along the street, glancing at all the fresh produce and baked goods, and tested a couple of items before you decided to purchase something, or maybe walk over to the corner store to pick up something different. Open air markets, from my experience, were not a plenty in Taiwan. Which is why upon coming to Taiwan, night markets were one of the most amazing spectacles I’d ever laid my eyes on.
February 3, 2019 Taking on Taiwan: Learning the Lingo Ah, Mandarin Chinese. I’m sure many of you know that it is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn, for speakers of alphabet based languages, that is. Here in Taiwan, Traditional Mandarin Chinese is spoken. It is nearly the same as Simplified Chinese when you hear it spoken, but taking a look at the characters, you notice the difference. Traditional Mandarin Chinese has more strokes and more complexity to it. Taiwan has kept the traditional writing alive despite China’s transition to a simple version of the original language.
January 30, 2019 Taking on Taiwan: Not-So-Little Hehuanshan One of the many places I have always wanted to go in Taiwan was Hehuanshan. My curiosity for the destination started when I first got here, listening to fellow teachers of mine talk about how beautiful it was, and more specifically, the sunrise. Part of the central mountain range, Hehuanshan rests right on the edge of Hualien County and Nantou County, making it possible to see both the sunrise and the sunset. As a lover of nature (perhaps an obsessed one at that), I have had this peak on my Taiwan bucket list nearly since the beginning. And I finally made it.
January 27, 2019 Taking on Taiwan: How to Pack To Move Abroad When I accepted my job to Taiwan, I was over the moon ecstatic. Living abroad was something I’d always wanted to do, ever since I could remember, and it was finally happening. There were so many things to straighten out and prepare for, but by God, the most annoying of them all was packing. Yes, that’s right. Packing.
January 23, 2019 Taking on Taiwan: Health is Wealth When I came to Taiwan, I was fresh out of working job that involved manual labor, sometimes longer than eight hours a day and six days a week. In a word, I was exhausted. I spent the two weeks I gave myself off from the job laying around, catching up on all the things I didn’t have time to do when I was under the blazing sun. And like in years past, I seemed to gain back all that I had lost during the ten weeks I worked, and then some. And then couldn’t shake it off me.
January 20, 2019 Taking on Taiwan: The Unexpected Bonuses For those of you who keep up regularly with my blog, you’re probably familiar with my fun experience in the ER a little while back. I’ve never been a fan of the doctor–as I am sure not many people are–but honestly, visiting the doctor in Taiwan is one of the many bonuses to living here. As an expat, I definitely have a different experience than the locals when it comes to daily life, but there are bonuses to living in Taiwan, and perhaps living in Asia in general. So let’s break down just a few of the pros to moving to this island:
January 16, 2019 Taking on Taiwan: My Lizzie Moment Growing up as a late 90s to early 2000s kid, Lizzie McGuire and Disney were all the craze. Honestly, I think everyone wanted to be Lizzie McGuire at some point in their childhood. She had Gordo and Miranda, and then she even got a movie where she met a handsome Italian pop singer (who turned out to be terrible in the end, unfortunately) and she sang in front of thousands of people, and still got Gordo in the end. But mostly, I wanted to be Lizzie McGuire for one solid reason: that Vespa ride in The Lizzie McGuire Movie.
