When I arrived, Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world, and would be for two more years.
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Liked for historical context, not because I like whales to be exploding. 
Guy
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Dongmen didn’t have MRT yet.
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All the stuff the old-timers complain about was before my time. 
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I remember Toe Save on this forum and his avatar was hello kitty being assaulted by a pit bull…
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I arrived when Taiwan was the worst place in the world for SARS. I even got pulled out of the line of inbound passengers for an elevated temp and had to sit on the side (stressing) for a while, but turns out I was just warm from carrying my backpack.
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And somehow, despite living at the time in the town where that happened, I didn’t become aware of it until a few days later via international news.
Let’s see … I’ve been here just long enough that, every other quake, so far (touch wood!) has left me thinking “Phew, not as bad as 9/21.”
Long enough to be remember being mildly surprised that the KMT actually let the DPP win a presidential election.
Long enough that I didn’t actually have the internet at home and instead had to go to an internet cafe or my office at work. Or was that just a sign of my cheapness?
Long enough that, when visiting Taipei from Tainan, I then had to go halfway across the city to one of the few branches of Starbucks to stock up on coffee beans for a bunch of friends.
Long enough that all the movie theaters (in Tainan anyway) had really cool painted signs for the different movies, rather than official posters. Mind you, we also knew NOT to wear sandals to those cinemas because something, who knows what, was going to crawl over your feet, and best not have skin exposed.
Long enough that I probably still have the muscle memory for typing out messages on cellphone number pads - didn’t most North Americans never really develop those skills, since messages at the time were too expensive there?
Long enough that a university student this year looks quite a bit like a girl I used to fancy, and then I realized “Holy shit, she actually could be her daughter.”
Long enough that I was quite sure I’d seen this topic pop up before on forumosa, but the closest I could find was this thread:
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Next year I can apply for my APRC.
And I am not here on the GC.
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I am becoming a citizen a year after getting my APRC. I am not on a GC
Wasted 10,000NTD… I feel cheated lol
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After the DPP were necessary and before they were necessary again, around when they were a bit bat shit. Or, after the KMT was against china and before they sold out Taiwan to china haha.
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Congrats!
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Whilst still staying in the youth hostel I read somewhere that a popular bar was going to close down soon, so I went to check it out. Unfortunately I didn’t go back to the actual closing night, so I still owe someone a drink.
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In my first year, I set up something groundbreaking called an email address. A few months later something else groundbreaking happened. A big earthquake. I was living in Taichung and spent the night on the baseball field at fengchia university.
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Old enough to remember when Taiwan only had black and white TV and only two TV stations
TTV and CTV. And you had those big tv antenna on the roof
And old enough to be in Taiwan when TTV showed its very first movie on television and news got out about that and people gathered around to watch the very first movie ever broadcast on tv !!!
It was a big deal
I believe the name of the movie was King Kong
The very first one
And I remember the very first color tv coming out in the early 70s cost near a year of the average workers salary
I would watch it outside the local tv store
It was a TELEFUNKEN and it was gorgeous
I even dreamt I was watching 12 O’clock High on our black and white Toshiba and it suddenly turned to color !!!
Finally conned my mother into buying me a 14inch Columbia color tv but I had to get straight A s to get it
I also got the very first BB Call the one that just rang without showing any numbers so you called everyone you gave the number to to see who called you
You kept the list short
I got the very first celll phone a Motorola big enough to use as a weapon given to me by my company
I couldn’t afford the 120.000 nt it cost or the 120nt per minute it costs to use it
Sucker rang once in my briefcase on a train ride to ktown and I opened the case and pulled the phone out and answered it
Felt like James Fookin Bond !!
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I know wish they had those emails then because I’m sure I would’ve been able to stay in touch with a few more people
Because phone numbers change but email tends to stay the same
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Dang in Taiwanese too . Awesome
But I preferred the mando ones even though my first language is Taiwanese I think mandarin sounds better spoken and especially sung
Taiwanese sounds only marginally better than Cantonese
And I prefer Teresa Tengs Japanese songs over mandarin
I believe this style developed in Japan and was called Enka
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What was it doing on the street?
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50 NTD was roughly equal to 1 GBP, making Taiwan very cheap, and very easy to work out how much things cost, in relation to the UK.
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