So long Taiwan

After 4 years of being here I’m going home. I had a lot of fun, met some cool people and made some money.

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

[quote=“Grasshopper”]After 4 years of being here I’m going home. I had a lot of fun, met some cool people and made some money.

Happy St Patrick’s Day![/quote]
All the best, I hope you get that ‘Use Your Illusion I & II’ DVD on the way out. :wink:

Won’t work :frowning:
We are in Zone 3 and Canada is Zone 1

But I’ve got it in Canada

Best of luck in your next adventure, GH.

All the best to you. May the next chapter be a good one.

Take care, grasshopper! :sunglasses:

i always vowed that on my last day in Taiwan, I’d buy the cheapest trashed out old car a small a small amount of money could buy and drive all the way to the airport smashing into assholes that edge their car’s nose out into traffic, people doing stupid U-turns, people triple parked etc. etc. then just park it in the airport parking lot, get on the plane and forget about it… :smiley: you may want to consider this option…

all the best!

Sounds like an excellent plan. But as my plane leaves at 8:25 all the yahoos in this country will still be asleep.

Good luck, Grasshopper.

[quote]John Keats (1795

Tell us about your plans upon returning

Going back to school. I’m going to be studying something I have always had a passion for, history. I’ll see where this will take me. Maybe I’ll go work for DFAIT in Ottawa with a goal of working in the Canadian Trade and Cultural Office in Taipei.

DFAIT? I’d rather sniff shit in Bangalore than work for those clowns :smiling_imp:

Ugarte: Well, Rick, after tonight, I’ll be through with the whole business and I am leaving finally this Casablanca.
Rick: Who did you bribe for your visa? Renault or yourself?
Ugarte: Myself. I found myself much more reasonable.

DFAIT? I’d rather sniff shit in Bangalore than work for those clowns :smiling_imp:[/quote]

I second that commotion. Ex pat diplomatic postees are arrogant self serving local hating azzholes. (stereotype that applies to maybe 90% of the 100+ diplomats i have met in Taiwan)

Four years is a “tweener” for an ESL teacher. You’re a rare one. Usually it’s one or two years, and then back home or off to the next country with no strings attached. Or, by the third year you’ve gotten married to a local, someone gets pregnant (the female in the equation, most likely), and then the following four, five, seven or ten years fly by in a blur of diapers and various jobs and/or businesses and/or intercontinental flights, and then one day you wake up and realize it’s been seven or nine or thirteen years since you first set foot in Taiwan as a young’un with a world of adventure before you in a strange new land.

But a four-year stint? Not very common. Something must have gone wrong. What’d you do?

DFAIT? I’d rather sniff shit in Bangalore than work for those clowns :smiling_imp:[/quote]

I second that commotion. Ex pat diplomatic postees are arrogant self serving local hating azzholes. (stereotype that applies to maybe 90% of the 100+ diplomats I have met in Taiwan)[/quote]

And starting diplomats in Third-world Canada make CDN36,000 and pay Canadian income tax on that…hardly the salary to attract the best and the brightest heheheheheh. Most talanted career diplomats leave after 5-10 years to join international organizations and the private sector, where truly talented people can get rewarded more handsomely.

Goodbye Grasshopper. I guess I’ll have to find someone else to steal jokes from.

DFAIT? I’d rather sniff shit in Bangalore than work for those clowns :smiling_imp:[/quote]

I second that commotion. Ex pat diplomatic postees are arrogant self serving local hating azzholes. (stereotype that applies to maybe 90% of the 100+ diplomats I have met in Taiwan)[/quote]

And starting diplomats in Third-world Canada make CDN36,000 and pay Canadian income tax on that…hardly the salary to attract the best and the brightest heheheheheh. Most talanted career diplomats leave after 5-10 years to join international organizations and the private sector, where truly talented people can get rewarded more handsomely.[/quote]

Yeah thats the salary but the allowances are insane. I knew an admin officer at on ethe posts making LESS than CDN36k a month and living in a NT$120,000 a month apartment. Then there is the clothing allowances, the ‘hardship’ allowance (yes Taiwan is considered a hardship posting), the return flights if pollution levels go above a certain limit etc etc.

And the whole 5-10 years as a diplomat = get a great job in the private sector is hogs wash. The private sector doesnt value ex diplomats (unless at Ambassador level or politically connected). Ex-foregn service staff are seen as language experts primarily and out of touch with business.

How do I know all this - I was one.

Rant over.

Best of luck, Grasshopper.

Yi lu ping an.

Take Care and All the best to you. :wink: