Half-year Reflections

I'm finally able to blog again after a rather busy Chinese New Year holiday immediately followed by our trip to Bangkok! We went to Yilan in northern Taiwan with family and experienced a (much) colder side to the island, but very beautiful and rural. We then trekked on over to Thailand and stayed in Bangkok for 5 days. It was honestly amazing, even though I spent most of the trip recovering from eating Taco Bell on night one. I know in my last entry I was psyched to eat it again, but unfortunately my body said 'Look, you're not in your 20s. You're not even in your early 30s anymore. It's time to give up the ground beef covered in orange oil.' It was a very sad revelation. I do remember back in the states my stomach was already heading down that route, but I think after more than 6 months of not eating it my mind forgot the consequences. Anyways, I digress...the main takeaway from Thailand was that it does have beautiful local food you should consume instead of American fast food, and it's a country worth checking out. A couple things to note though are that it is HOT. We went in February thinking it would be somewhat cool. It was on average, high 80s-90 degrees everyday. On top of that, the air quality is not good. We were in the city center of Bangkok so I am sure it's worse there than other parts of Thailand, but the smog was pretty heavy. Also, the roads are a bit chaotic. But, we brought our 3 year old child around safely and she loved it, we had a great time overall, and I have learned some very invaluable lessons about what my stomach can now tolerate. Here's some pictures to recap our stay:

Well, we're officially HALF A YEAR in Taiwan, and I thought it would be fitting to make a list of what we've loved, and also have had to adjust to, so far:

What we love:

-No extremely divisive talk of politics. We felt this almost immediately upon landing in Taiwan, and we landed at a pretty controversial time in Taiwan with Pelosi coming that same week and China launching missiles literally as we were in the air. We landed thinking everyone would be up in arms, and were very very surprised to see everyone going about their business in a calm, Pleasantville-esque manner. We have since learned that in general people in Taiwan do not enjoy bringing up controversial topics in conversation, and it's probably something Americans need to take a break from, in all honesty. I mean, I love a good emotionally-charged debate now and then but maybe not everyday while trying to eat my lunch. 

-No gun violence. Enough said. AND...

-Taiwan is VERY safe. In all aspects. People don't randomly yell things at you as you're walking, people aren't aggressively honking on the road, and crime rate is very low. We're used to LA living, where Dan's catalytic converter to his Prius was stolen while parked in a private garage in our condo. If you leave something outside you might as well just throw it in the trash because you'll never see it again. Here in Taiwan, we see school age kids walking around at night by themselves, people leave their things everywhere and nothing gets stolen. We've seen some scooters with the keys literally on the scooter seat left unattended. No big deal.

-Dan has pretty much experienced the opposite of racism. They LOVE Dan here. He says one thing in Chinese and they're giving him a standing ovation. For me, I'm Taiwanese and I speak Chinese but then I have to apologize and clarify I'm an American when they start speaking in more complex vocabulary to me and I don't understand, and then they get frustrated or feel betrayed or something, like I've tricked them into thinking I'm a native speaker. Overall, you'll do well if you LOOK like a foreigner and come to visit Taiwan, people are super polite and nice to you. They're generally very very nice to me too, but now I do preface my conversations with locals by saying 'My Chinese is not very good because I'm from America,' to kind of mentally prepare them for my limited understanding/speaking. 

-Very convenient public transportation and walkable to anything. We walk Gemma to her school, we can walk to our grocery store, we can take the MRT (subway) train anywhere in the city. We can call a taxi very easily and inexpensively. We haven't tried the bus systems here, but we haven't needed to. They also have U-Bikes you can rent similar to Bike Shares in America, and most people here use scooters as a form of transportation too. Dan and I are very tempted to buy a Gogoro scooter, which is a big electric scooter brand here. 

-Everything is more affordable--ordering takeout or eating out doesn't make you feel like you're being voluntarily robbed, childcare cost for Gemma's kindergarten is a fraction of the average costs of our Los Angeles daycares. 

-Healthcare is AMAZING! We've gone to the hospital and doctors several times for check-ups, I visited the dentist once, I had to do an outpatient surgery, and we were able to do all this without insurance and it was still affordable. But, if you're a Taiwan citizen, you have universal healthcare!! Amazing. 

-Very polite and nice people. Taiwanese people are very nice, and helpful! They love to help. If someone seems lost or confused, strangers will actively come up and try to help out. It's a very different vibe than what we're used to.

Adjustments:

-SMOG. The air quality is not great especially in the winter time. It's not the worst situation because if you drive up to the mountains or go to the beachside you can escape the smog, but we are living in a city center. I guess LA was not the best at air quality either, but Kaohsiung can get pretty bad because of the surrounding factories and shipping port. Thankfully there's places on the island we can go to pretty easily when the smog really bothers us. 

-The supermarkets are on a smaller scale than American ones, and the produce is seasonal. I know this is a very Californian thing for me to say, but not having year-round avocados is a travesty. The store we go to for groceries, called Carrefour, is by our house and the grocery section is a bit pricier, but it's like a Target one-stop-shop with other household items so it's more convenient for us. There's also lots of local vendor markets that sell their own fruits/vegetables outside. 

-Lack of diversity. I do miss the diversity of America--it is a bit interesting to know most people here operate on the same values system and same culture, and there's more of a 'everyone needs to fall into line' kind of mentality instead of 'celebrate your individuality.' I think it's still more of a progressive country than other Asian countries, but I think it's also the result of having a homogenous ethnic culture.

Along with the lack of diversity...

-Ethnic foods still taste...pretty Taiwanese, unless the restaurant is owned by someone of the same ethnicity of the food they're selling, and even then they'll say they've had to adjust their food to make it more 'Taiwanese.' When you live in a more homogenous culture and society, you have to basically cater to the masses. There is an Israeli restaurant that Dan and I found, and we love it so much that we go there  on a weekly basis because it is unashamedly Israeli. We are pretty happy with our Taiwanese selection of food though, and if you're wondering, Dan buys 2 large milk teas everyday. Every. Day. Each milk tea is like $1-2 by the way. Ah, the days of paying $6-7 for boba in Los Angeles.

All in all, we are still loving our time here! Here are some more recent pictures: