EPTOf course, most importantly I was eager to break away from my family and become my own entity! Since then, I can confidently say I've seen and experienced the spectrum. I graduated college, had a girlfriend, became financially independent, travelled and lived and experienced both a peniless and baller lifestyle. Like Rekrul in Korea, I've seen both the light and dark sides of the country (although he's only familiar with the path of night).
I am now at a turning point in my life and will be leaving Taiwan to start a more "standard" career. So, it is only fitting I commit my wealth of experiences to writing in the hopes that it entertains you!
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Noticeable Differences about Taiwan (compared to East Coast, USA)
The first things that come to mind are:
- You do not have to tip (restaurants, delivery, haircut), and even better, a lot of those places have student discounts. I still take advantage of this to this day.
- There is national health insurance, and its coverage is good. Clinics always have a lot of people because getting a check-up is ~$5-10. I had a wisdom tooth pulled for $20. Unfortunately, I am no longer covered as I am not a student or working here. Even then, medical costs are very affordable compared to the obscene amounts charged in the US. For that reason a lot of people come to Asia for health-tourism (dental work, plastic surgery, etc.).
- Unlike say, Korea and Japan, Taiwan is very foreigner friendly (perhaps especially towards Americans). Baseball and basketball are both very popular here - Linsanity was the worst; my entire Facebook feed was spammed by both Asian-Americans and my Taiwanese homies. While I have not yet met a white girl serious about learning Chinese, it is pretty common to get female numbers because they want to be your "language exchange partner".
- The average person doesn't make a lot of money. The college graduates I know make ~$1300-1600 a month, and a lot of them work ~50 hour weeks. For that reason, they are forced to live a pretty nitty lifestyle. For my first two years of college, my Dad gave me $300 a month for expenses. Back then (2006) I was obssesed with Starcraft 1 and my birthday wants were "Logitech MX300", "Func 1030 Surface" [which I still have to this day] and "mouse glider stickers". Ah, those were simpler times.
There's a wide variety of things I can talk about, so please comment and give me suggestions for future entries. Gogo!
