So my time in Taiwan is at a close. It's been quite a ride. I think last year in China was "The Year of Survival". I was lucky in that I had a lot of good friends, but I've never been thrown into such an unpredictable situation before. A country I knew virtually nothing about, all speaking a language I didn't understand, and starting a new job that I didn't know how to do.
Taiwan is "The Year of Self". I accomplished a lot of personal milestones this year. First of all, I made this island my bitch. It's not huge by any means, but I hit virtually every spot of interest on it. Especially Taipei, I know this city backwards and forwards - maybe even better than Cincinnati. In addition, I had a longish relationship that I didn't get bored of, which is kind of a first for me. (Hi Tiffany, you're awesome!) Lastly, I got into pretty good shape. Hiking a bunch of mountains every week will do that, but I also tried to work out... most days.
Assuming I stay in Thailand, my goal is to make it "The Year of Friends". I've been very lucky in that all of my friendships I've fallen into. That didn't happen in Taiwan - my social circle was extremely small. Part of it is just age, I suppose. In school it's easy to make friends and keep them. I need to learn how to make friends outside of a common environment, because I'm not so good at it.
But in regards to Taiwan, I'm going to try and summarize my thoughts on this country and it's people. I'd like to end on a positive note, so let's start on the negative:
- Taiwanese are less friendly, but more polite than mainland Chinese. In China, if you're doing a stupid foreigner thing, they have an attitude of "Haha, look, I have to show this crazy laowai how money works.", but they do it with a loud and playful attitude. Taiwanese will be quiet, respectful, patient, and show you exactly how to do something. But it's also not very fun.
- Taiwanese are traditional beyond reason. And when tradition and logic go up against each other, tradition will win. Basically think of a country where every urban legend or silly thing your grandma said was believed to be 100% true, and you have a Taiwanese mentality. Ghosts exist, chilly weather will actually give you a cold, rain is the most toxic substance on Earth, and eating cold things is bad for you - only because it disrupts the balance of heat in your body.
- Taiwanese tend to be very picky and inflexible. Actually, let me revise that - they are extremely picky and inflexible. Nothing can just "be". It has to have a reason, and the first option is never good enough. Want this table at a restaurant? No, only because it was presented first. Want to substitute some minor thing for another? You might as well have asked them to sacrifice their first born. Want to do this "thing not explicitly outlined in black and white in the holy handbook of whatever"? Then it is clearly impossible to do.
- Taiwanese are gullible. They really go for "popular thing" just because it's popular. Advertising seems really, really effective here. They will go to the longest line because obviously, that's the best. It's endearing at first, but really gets kind of annoying after a while. It's kind of a circle, in that the more popular something is the more popular it gets.
- Bus drivers in Taiwan are, almost without exception, complete and utter assholes. I've met very few that did not have a chip on their shoulder, and question how ye mere mortals dare speak to the king of the 235 to Xinzhuang.
- I've spoken before about their assbackwards trash system, but for god sakes, there has to be a better way than to schedule your life around throwing a bag into a truck. Maybe have a designated place you can take it? I don't even care if it's far away, I'd go.
- Everyone is really, REALLY sour, pessimistic, and has a downright dislike for their government and president. I'm not saying any other country is perfect, and I'm sure Taiwan's isn't the best in the world, but they're not murdering kittens as far as I know.
Right, now after that spout of negativity, lets move onto the positive things:
- Taiwanese are tough. Like, they don't take shit from anyone. Maybe because of its unique political situation, they're much more self sufficient than most other places I've been to. If you look on the back of a lot of stuff, it will say made in Taiwan. They could maybe import it, but instead they chose to make it themselves. It's strange, but regular everyday things have their own unique "Taiwanness". In the west, everything is just made by the millions at some factory in China. They're home grown here, which I think should be a point of pride.
- Their healthcare is absolutely, positively, amazing. Granted I was always kind of a supporter of socialized medicine, but now I'm a fanatic. It works so much better, I can't even imagine going back to how it is in America. If you get sick, you just go. There's no worries. There's no hassle. Everyone has a card that has all their medical records on it, standardized, everywhere. It's balls to the wall awesome, and the tax taken out of my check is a paltry amount.
- Taiwanese are much more "in tune" with nature and their past than any other country I've been to. There are lots of parks around Taipei, and people actually use them. Big construction projects will be delayed, or even abandoned, because something of historical significance was found. They even make the trains run slow in one particular area because residents complained about the noise. This level of care just doesn't happen in the mainland.
- Everyone who is working tends to be very polite and seems to enjoy their job (well, minus bus drivers). There's not really anyone that I interacted with that "phoned it in", or tried to give the least amount of service possible. They work hard, really hard, maybe more than any other country I've visited. They're not happy until you're happy, which can happen in the west, but here it's the rule and not the exception.
- Night markets. Oh my god. They're wonderful, and the only way you can get 10000 shops in the size of a bedroom. I heard Thailand has this culture as well, and I love it oh so much. Such a variety of food, with all different ingredients and styles - I will miss the cuisine most of all from Taiwan.
- You don't have to worry about getting scammed. I do sometimes miss the banter of haggling, but here, the price is fair - always.
- Taiwan's, and especially Taipei's, transportation system is dope. The subway, bus, rental bikes (which are totally free for the first 30 minutes), they're all connected with one rechargeable card, and the city has a mobile app that lets you see where the trains/buses/bikes are in real time. Although I wish the damn thing wouldn't shut down at midnight, even in my 1 year here, they've expanded everything quite a bit.
- Mobile internet is 3G coverage, island wide for pennies. There is public wifi everywhere. Get your shit together, rest of the world.
- The whole 24 hour convenience store culture is great. I never imagined a 7-11 would have everything I'd ever need in the world, but it does.
- Every time you buy something, you get a receipt. The government does a lottery every 2 months with receipt numbers, and it's not uncommon to win $200 NT for matching some of the numbers. This is a lot of fun, and I won 4 times during my year here. ($25, for free!)
Whew. I said a long time ago how Taiwanese and mainlanders are 95% the same. I don't really think that's true anymore. They are very similar, more than they'd like to admit. Whatever percentage they are the same, is the percentage I like. And whatever fraction is leftover, they do a lot with it. While it would be great if Taiwan and China were reunited one day, they don't need to. Taiwan is doing just fine on their own, and they've got their house in order. If anything, the rest of the world could learn from them.
I'll miss you guys.
