Australia will do that to you. Strange place, as beautiful as any on earth and flush with all the right ingredients, yet . . .
HG
Yes, I have to say I’m embarrassed. I’m embarrassed at how welcoming the Taiwanese people have been since I arrived here 7 months ago. Embarrassed at how easy it has been to earn a very good standard of living. Embarrassed at how much cheaper the cost of living is here as compared to back home. Embarrassed at how kind and understanding my wife and her family are and continue to be. Embarrassed at how many people from other nations such as my own, who have come here of their own free will, seem to dislike or hate the place! You don’t have to be here you know? You could be living in such delightful places as Birmingham, Glasgow, Sunderland or whatever your equivalents are in the US, Canada, Oz etc. So yes, the OP is right, I too am somewhat embarrassed!! 
[quote=“AWOL”]My perception of beauty, hope, joy etc isnt in blatant displays of architectural beauty, reams of dusty history books etc… I see it in the way my wifes family operates, the way my friends are from multiple countries, backgrounds and races and we always have wonderful times, the way I can slip away to the mountains or a lovely beach, how I can choose NOT to live in the city and find a lovely house in the mountains 10 minutes to Taipei 101 and wake up listening only to birds in the garden. Its all about the way YOU choose to see things.
I was a negative person til I came to Taiwan. The fact we see things differently is what makes the world a wonderful place.[/quote]
Wow AWOL, that really is something. Cheers to you for having a great attitude here. 
I wish I could think that way…I don’t know, sometimes I think things may have been different if I lived in a different part of Taiwan. I live in a dumpy little city in the south. And, while I get a kick out of a lot of things here, overall I get soooo pissed off with the driving :fume: and hickish same-sameyness and ignorance of the locals here. When I go to Taichung or Taipei, for example, I feel a lot more comfortable. But, I have never made a move to either place, because of various reasons. Maybe that is part of my problem.
Where do you live, AWOL?
I didn’t really think that much about many of the negative aspects of this place until I started hanging out with foreigners who talked about them all the time.
Well now you must feel enlightened. Locals have no frame of reference so they dont talk about it.
Hoi! What’s the matter with Glasgow?
Oh, right. OK then. 
Sorry Sandman! I know how you feel though. I’m from Leeds and as they say ‘the truth hurts!’ 
You know guys, all this bitching about Taiwan not being just like home is really getting to me. Enough already. If you don’t like it, leave. If you don’t like it and can’t leave, shut up, suck it up, and make the best out of your situation. Come on, be a man (woman)!
You are all beginning to sound like a bunch of pansies.
I always pictured expats, trekers, foreign exchange people, travelers, and the such to be people of high adventure. People daring to go to places that people only read about in travel magazines and see on the discovery channel. People willing to roll up their sleeves, get down and dirty with the locals, and take a big ass bite out of life. Instead all I am seeing is the equivelant of a cruise ship full of old farts who complain that their filet mingon is too cold, their room is a bit stuffy, and their depends are too tight. 
I say to you…Jump Ship! Get a grip on your life and make something better of it, get a new hobby, find a new love, open your eyes a bit wider and look at how fortunate you are…most poor suckers never see what you have seen let alone live it. Better yet, look deep inside yourself and find out what is missing that you can fill to make your life a bit more meaningful and enjoyable.
Call me optomistic, call me a fool, call me what you will…but from now on I am steering clear of these negative forums that suck you in and destroy your positive state of mind.
Good luck to you all, i truly hope you can find what can make you happy.
Heh heh heh!
OK, Derek.
You’re absolutely right, of course. In a way.
And, you’re absolutely wrong, of course. In another way.
I look forward to meeting you some day in the future.
Peace.
[quote=“derek1978”]You know guys, all this bitching about Taiwan not being just like home is really getting to me. Enough already. If you don’t like it, leave. If you don’t like it and can’t leave, shut up, suck it up, and make the best out of your situation. Come on, be a man (woman)!
You are all beginning to sound like a bunch of pansies.[/quote]
You’re the guy who hasn’t even been here yet, right?
Can’t wait to see how long you last out here sport. 
Grumble grumble grumble… Goddamn newbies! Grumble grumble grumble…
Nice one, duckfarm guy.
[quote=“redwagon”][quote=“derek1978”]You know guys, all this bitching about Taiwan not being just like home is really getting to me. Enough already. If you don’t like it, leave. If you don’t like it and can’t leave, shut up, suck it up, and make the best out of your situation. Come on, be a man (woman)!
You are all beginning to sound like a bunch of pansies.[/quote]
You’re the guy who hasn’t even been here yet, right?
Can’t wait to see how long you last out here sport. [/quote]
I’ve been 2 months in Taiwan…not much I know, but I consider myself well traveled and not the pampered type of traveling either. I plan to last a long long time.
[quote=“sandman”]Grumble grumble grumble… Goddamn newbies! Grumble grumble grumble…
Nice one, duckfarm guy. [/quote]
Thanks Sandman
[quote=“derek1978”]I plan to last a long long time.[/quote]I hope it works out the way you planned it.
Not to rain on your parade Bud, but you’re in for a rude awakening. This place can crush people if they aren’t careful.
As my ‘location’ states, I am living in Babylon.
Babylon (Bab- y - lon) n.
- A city or place of great luxury, sensuality, and often vice and corruption.
- A place of captivity or exile.
If it isn’t the foreigners that crush your will then it will be the locals that make your head spin. This is a place for you to truly find yourself because you aren’t going to find much else.
Monster wrote [quote]This place can crush people if they aren’t careful. [/quote]
And that’s why I always advise newbies to get 6-weeks basic training at Comrade Stalin’s Boot Camp.
[quote=“redwagon”][quote=“derek1978”]You know guys, all this bitching about Taiwan not being just like home is really getting to me. Enough already. If you don’t like it, leave. If you don’t like it and can’t leave, shut up, suck it up, and make the best out of your situation. Come on, be a man (woman)!
You are all beginning to sound like a bunch of pansies.[/quote]
You’re the guy who hasn’t even been here yet, right?
Can’t wait to see how long you last out here sport. [/quote]
Don’t be so hard on him! Give him a little time and he’ll become just as depressed, jaded, deluded and socially bankrupt as we are.
BTW, I consider myself well-traveled but the pampered type. 
[quote=“M0NSTER”]Not to rain on your parade Bud, but you’re in for a rude awakening. This place can crush people if they aren’t careful.
As my ‘location’ states, I am living in Babylon.
Babylon (Bab- y - lon) n.
- A city or place of great luxury, sensuality, and often vice and corruption.
- A place of captivity or exile.
If it isn’t the foreigners that crush your will then it will be the locals that make your head spin. This is a place for you to truly find yourself because you aren’t going to find much else.[/quote]
Wow. That was really very good. I don’t agree with it necessarily but nice style irregardless.
Pretty much the only thing which gets to me here is the insanely incompetent bureacracy. Everything else I can handle. I don’t see that I have anything worth complaining about. I’ve been here almost two years.
Taiwan is an OK place, but in Asia there’s much more fascinating worthwhile places to visit or stay. However, this is my opinion, one of the things I learned from living in Taiwan is every one has their own unique perspective on travel.
I remember for Chinese new year, I visited Thailand for the first time and I was almost crying that I had to leave and come back to Taiwan. Ever since then, I’ve been thinking about how I can’t wait to get off this Island. Firstly, it is the second most densely populated country on earth and the pollution density is quite high all over the island. Secondly, it has a chaotic, incompently ran first world government. Thirdly, the nature scenes, mountains are quite spectacular but there were nothing compared to the places I’ve seen in mainland China and Thailand-this is kind an off record statement since nobody can help this. These factors together pretty much automatically say this place isn’t going to be that nice.
It has it’s positives though, a near perfect health care system along with it’s readiness to natural disasters-something the US could definitely learn from as well as pretty good food, and teaching english will ussually entitle you to a pretty comfortable state of living