How Nice Does New Zealand Sound?
0 voters
…long story, usual reasons.
I could possibly learn to live alongside all the backwards bullshit if I:
So now what? I heard New Zealand was nice.
As I’ve said to several people feeling the same as me, CKS is just a taxi ride away…
I think the honest truth is…this place ain’t for everyone.
I agree - but it seems like these sort of posts have been breaking out like a bad rash over the last two weeks. Think it has anything to do with the crappy weather (at least in the north) bringing everyone down?
[quote=“llary”]…long story, usual reasons.
I could possibly learn to live alongside all the backwards bullshit if I:
So now what? I heard New Zealand was nice.[/quote]Llary, when you came here, you were planning to stay long-term, right? You’re normally pretty positive about stuff, at least in your posts, so I’m guessing that this may just be one of the typical downturns regarding living in Taiwan that we all feel from time to time.
Sure, it’s good to find out about other options. NZ could well be a good idea. But I’d advise you to wait a few months before reaching a final decision. During that time, living in Taiwan might well start to seem a bit more enjoyable again, and then you could make your decision based on the positive aspects of both places rather than out of wanting to escape.
Sorry if this sounds at all patronising or you don’t feel it’s relevant to you. Obviously my opinions are based on my own experience, not yours, as I don’t know you.
I’ve spent years here, and NO ONE has ever shouted “waiguoren” at me. What is it about me? (Or about you?)
between that and “meigworen”, an average of once a day for the last nine years personally. it does get easier to ignore, unlike the shitty driving …
llary, can’t add too much to what’s been said. my only recommendation is to get off the island twice a year (more?). the lousy weather hasn’t done me any good these last few weeks either.
Gotta be you, hon. I don’t know many people who haven’t had that.
[quote=“joesax”]Llary, when you came here, you were planning to stay long-term, right? You’re normally pretty positive about stuff, at least in your posts, so I’m guessing that this may just be one of the typical downturns regarding living in Taiwan that we all feel from time to time.
Sure, it’s good to find out about other options. NZ could well be a good idea. But I’d advise you to wait a few months before reaching a final decision. During that time, living in Taiwan might well start to seem a bit more enjoyable again, and then you could make your decision based on the positive aspects of both places rather than out of wanting to escape.
Sorry if this sounds at all patronising or you don’t feel it’s relevant to you. Obviously my opinions are based on my own experience, not yours, as I don’t know you.[/quote]
Part tongue-in-cheek, part deadly serious (except the NZ bit).
I have to admit that when I finally got my business registration, ARC etc. I stubbornly ignored all the people who told me what an uphill struggle it would be to fit in, and now it’s biting me in the ass.
I thought I would be happy in my current house because it’s about a billion miles up a mountain with a total of five neighbours. Somehow they have still conspired to make my life a misery by locking dogs up in cages that bark all night, singing KTV at 2am/6am/whenever the fuck they feel like, testing out their car stereo at full volume and the latest fun bit of ‘culture’ - starting an extremely loud funeral procession at 5am that doesn’t start moving - very slowly - until 9am and which I obviously can’t do anything about because I’m British and too polite to tell dead people to fuck off.
For the past few weeks I’ve thought very hard about why I came to Taiwan and what is good about life here. My girlfriend, my waiguo pengyou, a few sterling Taiwanese friends, my nice house in the mountains (caveat emptor above), decent hospitals, decent weather, general convenience, cheap tasty food. Then I think about the selfishness and arse-clenching stupidity I encounter on a daily basis. The ‘family or fuck you’ attitude. The lack of logic or common sense. The way that grown adults believe in ghosts. The way I get the shits every time I think about going to a government office. The complete, 100% lack of policing south of Taipei. I mean, seriously… all this stuff is getting harder and harder to block out and as it gets harder I think about all the other places on this ol’ earth with mountain houses, potential friends, convenience, nice weather, good food etc. etc.
I have a business trip to Japan in a few weeks and while I lied to myself that it will help clear my head, I know that when I come back I’ll just get depressed about how undeveloped Taiwanese society is by comparison. Still, at any rate I have a two year commitment on a new office and about 1 1/2 years left on my current ARC and I’m not the kind of guy just to up sticks because I get a bit depressed. To be honest, the commitment hasn’t helped relieve pressure but I needed a new office. I was going to try and end on a smiley but I’m afraid I can only just about manage a :s
:boo-hoo:
Hey I’ve been feeling the same way lately. Every idiot with a few bucks tries to outdo every other idiot with superloud car stereos that they think everyone else wants to enjoy at 2:00AM, or 7 am, or noon, or 4 pm, or…Brainless neighbors who invite 3000 friends over any night of the week to sit outside and drink and yell at each other while parking their vehicle in every imaginable empty space…Unenforcable/unenforced laws.When I do ask the police, it’s just a shrug of the shoulders and “we can’t do anything about that.” The everyday looks that say, "You’re white so you’re ____ (stupid, evil, think you’re better than me, etc).
Now in a moment of circumspect, I wonder how other immigrant/minority groups in the USA feel when they first move in, can’t speak the language, don’t know the culture. Oh wait, that stuff above is here in my SW suburban Houston neighborhood. Go figure. I’ve been getting the itch to get out of here and head back to Taiwan.
The final big chapping thing lately, saggin’. That’s when young males, mostly African-American, wear their shorts belted half way down their thighs so the bottom comes to their ankles. This of course exposes their “draws” (underwear), which in their minds is attractive or a sign of manhood. TOTALLY CHAPS MY A**!!! :fume:
So life aint just bad in your area. Hang in there a bit and see what happens.
[quote=“llary”][quote=“joesax”]Llary, when you came here, you were planning to stay long-term, right? You’re normally pretty positive about stuff, at least in your posts, so I’m guessing that this may just be one of the typical downturns regarding living in Taiwan that we all feel from time to time.
Sure, it’s good to find out about other options. NZ could well be a good idea. But I’d advise you to wait a few months before reaching a final decision. During that time, living in Taiwan might well start to seem a bit more enjoyable again, and then you could make your decision based on the positive aspects of both places rather than out of wanting to escape.
Sorry if this sounds at all patronising or you don’t feel it’s relevant to you. Obviously my opinions are based on my own experience, not yours, as I don’t know you.[/quote]
Part tongue-in-cheek, part deadly serious (except the NZ bit).
I have to admit that when I finally got my business registration, ARC etc. I stubbornly ignored all the people who told me what an uphill struggle it would be to fit in, and now it’s biting me in the ass.
I thought I would be happy in my current house because it’s about a billion miles up a mountain with a total of five neighbours. Somehow they have still conspired to make my life a misery by locking dogs up in cages that bark all night, singing KTV at 2am/6am/whenever the fuck they feel like, testing out their car stereo at full volume and the latest fun bit of ‘culture’ - starting an extremely loud funeral procession at 5am that doesn’t start moving - very slowly - until 9am and which I obviously can’t do anything about because I’m British and too polite to tell dead people to fuck off.
For the past few weeks I’ve thought very hard about why I came to Taiwan and what is good about life here. My girlfriend, my waiguo pengyou, a few sterling Taiwanese friends, my nice house in the mountains (caveat emptor above), decent hospitals, decent weather, general convenience, cheap tasty food. Then I think about the selfishness and arse-clenching stupidity I encounter on a daily basis. The ‘family or fuck you’ attitude. The lack of logic or common sense. The way that grown adults believe in ghosts. The way I get the shits every time I think about going to a government office. The complete, 100% lack of policing south of Taipei. I mean, seriously… all this stuff is getting harder and harder to block out and as it gets harder I think about all the other places on this ol’ earth with mountain houses, potential friends, convenience, nice weather, good food etc. etc.
I have a business trip to Japan in a few weeks and while I lied to myself that it will help clear my head, I know that when I come back I’ll just get depressed about how undeveloped Taiwanese society is by comparison. Still, at any rate I have a two year commitment on a new office and about 1 1/2 years left on my current ARC and I’m not the kind of guy just to up sticks because I get a bit depressed. To be honest, the commitment hasn’t helped relieve pressure but I needed a new office. I was going to try and end on a smiley but I’m afraid I can only just about manage a :s
:boo-hoo:[/quote]Keep your pecker up! I don’t have much to say that hasn’t been said many times already. Just one thing really. It certainly does seem sometimes that many people are selfish and less considerate than in some other places. And whenever I think about this too much I feel a bit down. But then often something happens to remind me that it’s not all like that. I do see “random acts of kindess” fairly often, and I always feel better for it.
It’s all experience, anyway. Whether you leave after two years or stay a bit longer, it can still be a useful time.
Sorry I didn’t get the chance to meet you in Taichung. Hope to see you in Taipei sometime.
Stop trying to fit in. You can’t. Accept that. Find the few (and I do mean FEW) people who don’t see you as a different breed of animal and ignore all the ignorant assholes who act like you are a space monkey. That and learn to 1) always read a book when eating alone or on the MRT 2) earphones (even if not plugged in) so you can ignore people and 3) “WoBuHuiShuoIngWen” and my best skill “Where are you from” answered by another completely unlrelated answer. Like yesterday when I was eating beef noodles. The guy was like “where are you from” and I answered (in Chinese) “yes. This is a great book and I am very much enjoying reading it, thank you”
Did he follow up with “nide guoyu zhen hao!” ?
Sorry to hear about the doldrums but it gets us all from time to time. Everyday i struggle with the abuse and ignorance as I weigh it against the few great friends I have. I constantly wonder how a culture could have produced so many mind-fuckingly ignorant assholes. Yes I get screamed at randomly, pushed, shoved, berated and abused, after a long while I realized it was not going to change so I had to.
take a vacation and get off this bastion of selfish ignorance and into the real world. When you come back the next 7 months will be easier and then go again…
It seems to work.
Perhaps a change of scenery might be in order there llary. I know you like your house and the hills around where you live, but your neighbors sound like scum. I’ve had that problem in a few places I’ve lived in Taiwan. My solution was to move house. I can deal with the driving insanity (most days) and a lot of the other not so unpleasant but annoying things, but I come home to a wonerful house in a great neighborhood and that has made all the difference.
Take it easy.
[quote=“Wookiee”]Perhaps a change of scenery might be in order there llary. I know you like your house and the hills around where you live, but your neighbors sound like scum. I’ve had that problem in a few places I’ve lived in Taiwan. My solution was to move house. I can deal with the driving insanity (most days) and a lot of the other not so unpleasant but annoying things, but I come home to a wonerful house in a great neighborhood and that has made all the difference.
Take it easy.[/quote]
A good suggestion and one I’m going to try and follow up on.
For me it’s worse, far worse. They shout “meiguoren”.
not sure. I always immediately look back down at the book and very obviously put my ear phones back in. About 1/2 the time this works. The other half they try to talk again and I ignore then. This works about 1/2 the time. The other half I have to ask “BuHaoYiSe!WoKeYiKanWoDeShuMa?” which works about 1/2 the time. The other half they keep talking and I keep unsuccessfully trying to ignore them.
I wouldn’t waste your time, patience and money on moving to another house in Taiwan. They are all the same. If you are lucky, you will get into a place that is good for a few weeks, but then some new neighbors will move in and crumble your attempts to escape. If you have my luck, you would move into a worse situation then you are in now.
Taiwan breaks you down, no matter where you are from. You fight it and eventually you get stronger from it just to get broke down again. Over and over again until you wake up one day old, no future, alone and behind in almost everyway from your own country (provided you are not from a third world country). It is how Taiwan’s feng shui is.
Am I just being negative? Maybe. Or maybe Taiwan is more negative then I.
/goes look for a bottle of Jack
My brain is like a ‘mush’ at the moment, haven’t left Taiwan for almost 4 years now … probably some kind of record in it’s own way … but I’m still hangin’ on … Am I becoming Taiwanese?
I know what you mean … we had a pretty decent place here where I live … until some binlang brains moved in and started smoking and dumping their cigaret buts in the elevator all the time … they still keep doing it eventhough I kicked one of them out a few days ago and earlier I had complained to our chief security guard about it and he would check the elevator’s surveillance video … don’t know if he really did tho