To check out the first part of this blog series, click here.
I’ve always loved travel, and my vacation in Taiwan in the spring of 2016 was a game changer. I can still remember the goosebumps I felt across my skin as we descended into Taoyuan Airport in Taipei. The first country I ever visited in Asia, and definitely not the last. Stepping off the plane, it was one of the only times in my life I felt completely anonymous. Everywhere I turned, Mandarin Chinese covered the signs and people spoke words I didn’t understand. Even today, I don’t understand everything entirely.
The entirety of the two weeks I spent in Taiwan the first time, I was enamored by it all: the food, the language, the people, the history, the weather, everything. Something about Taiwan stuck to me like glue, and I couldn’t tell you what it was, even today. The small island just has this charm that appealed to me more than any other place I’d been in recent years. But I wasn’t completely convinced my plan to come back until one evening in Taichung.
The first couple of days, we explored Taipei. We went to Taipei 101, ventured around Shilin, sat in the hot springs in Beitou, and packed our days jam full of sight seeing. By the time we got to Taichung, it was time for our university exchange with Tunghai University. We met some students, some of whom I am still connected with today, and explored Feng Chia, one of the more famous night markets around. And then, on the eve before my birthday, a few of my classmates and I went to 7/11, bought some cheap drinks, and climbed up to the rooftop. The view was remarkable.
Even through the smog that was lifting off the city, the lights of the skyline were clear and bright. They were like a beacon to me, comforting me from my head to my toes. It wasn’t the pineapple beer either that put that warm feeling in my stomach, but the realization that two weeks wasn’t long enough. I’d spent most of senior year excited about finally graduating and having a clean slate. What if Taiwan was my clean slate? What if it was my big chance to start over, rediscover some things I thought I knew, and figure out what I really wanted to do? The question burned in my mind, and would continue to for the remaining days we had in the country.
Both of my professors saw my interest in Taiwan, and knew I was graduating. One day near People’s Park–where I live near now, ironically enough–my professor introduced teaching abroad to me. I never envisioned myself a teacher, but the idea was intriguing: teach abroad part time, travel and do as I wish with the free time that I end up with. It was the most attractive job offer I’d come across yet! And I wasn’t ready for a 9-5 job. I wanted an adventure. So, after two weeks in Taiwan as we headed up to Taipei by bus to depart for America again, I knew in the back of my mind, I’d be back.
Flash forward three months and I was at the airport checking in for my flight back to Taiwan. The whole summer after my graduation, I worked from the wee hours of the morning sometimes till late at night under the sun at a greenhouse. I barely spent any money, because most of the time I was too exhausted to do anything other than work, eat, and sleep. By the time the summer had come to an end, I had plenty of savings and a job offer on the table. I was to attend training in Taipei before being placed somewhere on the island. It was, without a doubt, probably one of the most spontaneous things I did. And the first of many.
A plethora of emotions ran through my mind in the weeks coming up to moving abroad. Contracts lasted an entire year, which meant from August 2016 at least until August 2017, I was to be in a completely different country, one I had only been to once. That meant some comforts of home would be absent, and my family was way more than the eight hour drive they used to be away from me. I only knew a handful of people, barely knew Chinese aside from what my daily podcasts had taught me, and I’d only been there as a tourist. Living there, as I would come to find, was a totally different beast, but not an impossible one to conquer.
But, as I stepped towards security in O’Hare that day in August, I was filled with anxiety and excitement. Anxiety, because I knew that I would be truly on my own for the first time, ever, and part of me wasn’t convinced I could handle it. However, excitement filled me, because Taiwan would turn out to be the blank slate I was looking for after all.
Thanks for tuning into another Take on Taiwan post! Until then, stay rad!
