Despite being born in Taiwan thirty plus years ago, I can’t say I know much about it. Sure, we grew up here, and there are loads of childhood memories and just enough early life immersion for things to feel familiar when we visited periodically, but I can’t say it drummed up much emotion either way. That is until 2002, when I came back after a long hiatus and spent a little over a week feeling worse and worse about Taiwan. By the end of that trip, I was hunkered down in mosquito netting at my grandfather’s watching movies all day, emerging only to visit a smoky Internet cafe for a few minutes. By the time we left, I vowed to never return. (I even turned down a trip to Taiwan a few years ago, with some of my favorite people, on the grounds that Taiwan was not for me.)
Fast forward twelve years, to this past September, when I finally re-visited, accompanying my childhood friend as he came back to take care of some family business. During those ten days, I/we fell absolutely in love with Taiwan. Things had changed dramatically, at least to my eyes. The general dirtiness I remembered, the wild traffic and the insistent honking, the inablity to navigate anywhere, the oppressive heat, the mosquitos, all of it was gone. Instead, Taipei was now over-the-top welcoming, everyone was uber-polite, and the nights pulsed with energy. Part of the change was with the city itself, which had grown to include a wide ranging and ultra-efficient subway system — plus a bike share program I was dying to try — but most of the change was probably me. I didn’t know how to have fun in Taiwan then. Now, I do.
As soon as I landed back at LAX, I was basically already plotting to come back to Taiwan, asap. It took a month to get from there to here again, but with nothing to tie me down, it was relatively painless. After a quick jaunt to SF and NY, I was on a fifteen hour flight from New York to Taiwan. I landed October 15th, and so, we start there.
Note: I’m gonna try real hard to avoid all the incredulous “things are so different here” stuff, because yes, of course shit is different. I’ve read too many blogs about people in foreign lands and their exclamations about “how weird is that…” No, that is not for me. Even though 90% of my conversations revolve around learning what is different about things. Anyway, some of the “let me tell you how weird/different things are” will be unavoidable, but I’m gonna do my best to make it so things don't sound like...well, like that.
[I'm writing these entries a month behind, so it's around Nov 15th now. Just so you know. All names have been changed to protect the innocent. Except "George," my sister.]
Fast forward twelve years, to this past September, when I finally re-visited, accompanying my childhood friend as he came back to take care of some family business. During those ten days, I/we fell absolutely in love with Taiwan. Things had changed dramatically, at least to my eyes. The general dirtiness I remembered, the wild traffic and the insistent honking, the inablity to navigate anywhere, the oppressive heat, the mosquitos, all of it was gone. Instead, Taipei was now over-the-top welcoming, everyone was uber-polite, and the nights pulsed with energy. Part of the change was with the city itself, which had grown to include a wide ranging and ultra-efficient subway system — plus a bike share program I was dying to try — but most of the change was probably me. I didn’t know how to have fun in Taiwan then. Now, I do.
As soon as I landed back at LAX, I was basically already plotting to come back to Taiwan, asap. It took a month to get from there to here again, but with nothing to tie me down, it was relatively painless. After a quick jaunt to SF and NY, I was on a fifteen hour flight from New York to Taiwan. I landed October 15th, and so, we start there.
Note: I’m gonna try real hard to avoid all the incredulous “things are so different here” stuff, because yes, of course shit is different. I’ve read too many blogs about people in foreign lands and their exclamations about “how weird is that…” No, that is not for me. Even though 90% of my conversations revolve around learning what is different about things. Anyway, some of the “let me tell you how weird/different things are” will be unavoidable, but I’m gonna do my best to make it so things don't sound like...well, like that.
[I'm writing these entries a month behind, so it's around Nov 15th now. Just so you know. All names have been changed to protect the innocent. Except "George," my sister.]