Things You Wish You'd Known Before Moving

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

Been looking for a thread about this, but couldn’t find one, so here we go.

Looking back on life before, during and after your move to Taiwan, what are some things you know now but wish you’d known then? I’m looking for a kind of… “primer” for moving to Taiwan. I don’t mean what moving companies (if any) to contact or how to find an apartment. I mean how you dealt with it psychologically, things you encountered that you hadn’t expected (and most certainly hadn’t prepared for).

We’ve all slapped our foreheads and mumbled, “Well that would’ve been useful to know.” So, what is it?

2

[quote=“CuriosityAndTheCat”]Been looking for a thread about this, but couldn’t find one, so here we go.

Looking back on life before, during and after your move to Taiwan, what are some things you know now but wish you’d known then? I’m looking for a kind of… “primer” for moving to Taiwan. I don’t mean what moving companies (if any) to contact or how to find an apartment. I mean how you dealt with it psychologically, things you encountered that you hadn’t expected (and most certainly hadn’t prepared for).

We’ve all slapped our foreheads and mumbled, “Well that would’ve been useful to know.” So, what is it?[/quote]

I’m sure this will not apply to you, but otc yeast infection meds are not available in Taiwan.

Also, glasses and contacts are much cheaper, better, and quicker to buy/replace in Taiwan.

I’d had only minimal experiance with a public bus system before and was very confused for months because Kaohsiung busses (where I lived at first) are never on time. I left before the MRT was build in Kaohsiung, but in Taipei it is very easy and quick and convienient.

Really, of all the places I’ve been Taiwan seemed the least difficult to adjust to.

Some of the god parades and funeral activities are noisy and most inconvient and anoying. Weddings set up under tents that block off entire roads seem crazy and dangerous, but when a temple blocks the road in the same way to put on a play or puppet show it seems like an incredable chance to experiance a bit of traditional culture. You actually may be lucky to catch one of those; they’re getting less and less common.

There are things that make you wonder–like strippers for funerals and weddings, but you deal with those things by wondering, all round-eyed, at the local culture. When it all gets too much, you shut yourself in your appartment for a week or, if you can, you shut yourself in Hong Kong for a week, until you can get a handle on yourself a bit. Hang out with other furreners for a bit of something you can relate to. Then jump back in with two feet and enjoy the wonder. After all, when you leave, you kind get to jonesing for something you can wonder about! (I don’t just mean strippers!)

3

You’d never taken the bus before you moved here!!! damn…
No wonder you had a hard time getting used to this place :stuck_out_tongue:

I’d already been here a couple of times before I decided to move out here, but only for short business visits during Computex. I took a liking to the place for some reason and decided to move here…
I don’t regret it, I just wish I’d been a little bit more clued in. I don’t think I’ve had any major problems, as I’ve been lucky enough to be surrounded by helpful people most of my time here which has really made life easier.

Going here without knowing anyone must be a real pain, although I can’t say I knew a lot of people when I moved here, but at least a few which really helped out in the long run.

4

If you drive in Taiwan, GPS is awesome. I got one about 6 months ago, and was amazed at how well it worked (Garmin) with the english version of the maps of this place. I just wish I bought it 4 years ago, I’ve be lost so many times driving around, or taken longer routes than I needed to.

Digital Cable TV is well worth it.

Taxi’s are incredibly cheap here compared to some places in the world, so don’t be afraid to use them over the MRT sometimes. For the sake of 100nt you can save a lot of time and hassle and get a lot more done.

Get a WiFly account. It’s something silly like 1800nt a year(?), and the web is accessible just about anywhere in Taipei. Try doing that somewhere else.

It IS ok to eat western food.

Decide if you are going to learn chinese or not, and stick with whatever you decide. You’ll be happy either way.

Meet some Forumosans. Even the assholes on here are quite nice in real life, and it’s cool to have a bunch of people to keep in touch with.

5

Good call.

:roflmao:

I left home without completing my MA. I was feeling a little cynical at the time and felt It would never come in handy anyway. Had I only known. Now I have to watch friends on three (or two) month paid vacations in summer and another paid month in CNY earning the same or more than me for way less teaching hours. Had I known what I know now I would have finished that off before coming here.

I wish I had known about forumosa before I came. There certainly is a great deal of info here regarding a wide range of topics.

6

Dunno really. Planning is for saps.

Don’t go out with English teachers because they are generally t***s.

Frappucinos make you fat.

7

You don’t have to worry about finding a job before you come out.

You can find more-or-less everything you need here and much more.

Don’t live outside of the big cities for a while. It can be lonely and really really dull.

Starbucks are a wart on butt of humanity and you can’t escape their loevely, oh so lovely dark-mocha frappacinos especially when the cunning bastards give away free samples. Oh how i hate them drooooooooooooooooolllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

8

DO NOT LIVE IN TAIZHONG!!

Well, It’s not that bad but… you know just in case your thinking about living there… hehe… yeah…

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[quote=“TheLostSwede”]You’d never taken the bus before you moved here!!! damn…
No wonder you had a hard time getting used to this place :stuck_out_tongue:

I’d already been here a couple of times before I decided to move out here, but only for short business visits during Computex. I took a liking to the place for some reason and decided to move here…
I don’t regret it, I just wish I’d been a little bit more clued in. I don’t think I’ve had any major problems, as I’ve been lucky enough to be surrounded by helpful people most of my time here which has really made life easier.

Going here without knowing anyone must be a real pain, although I can’t say I knew a lot of people when I moved here, but at least a few which really helped out in the long run.[/quote]

Where I come from, my home town is big. Any place else in the world, it’s just an itty bitty speck of a place. Our first Starbucks has been open less than a year, still. Actually, the first time I ever took a public bus was in S. Korea. My boss there thought I was an idiot because he’d never seen anyone who’d never taken a bus before. I took the MRT system for the first time in Japan. The one in Taipei is much the same as far as opperation and navigation, and better because you’re not packed in as tightly as possible, so there were no problems there.

The busses were a problem in Kaohsiung because there was not an English schedule, I don’t read much Mandarine, and the busses I was told were supposed to arive at say, seven am, arrived at 7:20 or 7:30 or 7:15, and sometimes 6:50. It was really bad. I wasn’t sure for a while if I was somehow getting confused, or if it was really just THAT BAD. IT was hard to believe it could be THAT BAD because you’d think the driver would be fired–people depend on the busses to get to work and school on time! It really was THAT BAD.

Other than that, I had no trouble adjusting to life in Taiwan, that I can remember. I remember feeling like I was more at “home” than I’d ever felt after about the 4th or fithe day–when jet lag started to subside. I’ve never quit feeling like that in all these years, even now I’ve been gone three, almost 4 years. No matter what crap I’ve dealt with in Taiwan, Taiwan has always been home in my heart much more than the place I grew up. Hard to explain something like that.

10

Hohoho… you should try taking the bus in London if you think what you experienced was bad. My parents came over to visit one christmas, it ended up getting cold and a sprinkle of snow fell. We’d been into the more central parts of the city and had taken the train back and was waiting for a bus to get to where I lived at the time. Well, it was supposed to arrive in about 10 minutes, but it took an hour… Some days on my way to or from work, I ended up waiting at least 30 minutes for a bus, even though they were supposed to run every 10-12 minutes during rush hour and in general it then ended up being two or three busses in a row…
Public transport sucks in most countries, but what I’ve experienced here is far better than in the UK, although I have to say that the busses here aren’t very nice or comfortable.

One thing I got to think of that’s relevant was that I should’ve brought better underwear, as it gets really sweaty here in the summer and bad underwear is a real downer, as it’s easy to get rashes if they don’t fit well. And bring a good winter jacket, as it can get freezing cold, this past winter was just insane, I really didn’t expect it to get that cold here, in all honesty, 7 degrees C here felt colder than -30 degrees C back in Sweden, but then again, so did -2 degree C in London…

11

Humidity + No Indoor Heating = COLD!

Depending on how “foreign” you look, you may be treated like a C list celebrity. Adjust attitude accordingly.

There isn’t a shoe larger than 44 on the island. Sneakers however are plentiful.

The following traffic rules are the product of much contemplation and field testing. They helped me tremendously in making sense of Taiwanese traffic, but as they’re only my observations, ymmv. Rule #3 would be a lot easier to understand if I weren’t too lazy to draw a picture.

  1. It’s their traffic, they understand it better than you do. To avoid collisions, trust their instincts over yours.
  2. Despite how it appears, no one wants to hit you. They are busy trying to get where they are going without stopping.
  3. In traffic, the Taiwanese do not anticipate, they only react.
  4. Taiwanese scooters ride in a “tunnel” bounded by the closest objects they think they can fit through (usually accurate within millimeters). All other objects behind the “walls” of this tunnel are invisible unless they become one of the closest objects, effectively narrowing the tunnel.
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I have a friend who learned to drive her scoot in trafic in Kaohsiung by singing to her self to distract from the terrible fright of the experience. I waited almost a year to learn to drive a scooter and was hit durring my first 30 minutes on the road. Lost hearing in one ear for a couple weeks, but my helmet saved my live. WEAR A HELMET.

Once you follow neijeru’s rule #0, things get a little easier. I was asked to drive a bunch of school kids some place for a field trip once because I drove (a car) every day and all the local Taiwanese refused to do it because they seldom drove and were too frightened of the traffic to do it. They explained that Taiwanese drive too crazy. I said, “Me too! I have to or they will run over me.” It’s just the truth. You can’t fight it and live. And I know it sounds crazy, but most Taiwanese who do drive every day have some mad skills! I learned a lot and became a better driver because I drove there, although it also sent my blood pressure through the roof!! The stress!!!

13

Housecat is right, no matter how insane the driving looks it is probably safer to be on a scooter here than in the west. Drivers here expect everybody to do stupid things and because of that they are more alert. In the West if you drive a motorbike or scooter it’s relatively unusual and you’re simply not seen.

So one more bit of advice, if you do intend to ride a scooter here then shop around for a decent helmet because the asian head is rounder than our western ovals and a bad fitting helmet will give you a splitting headache.

14

Get the full motorbike helmet, you don’t want to use your face as a brake if you come off your scooter.
Don’t live outside the big cities…they don’t have villages like western countries.

15

It seems like the best advice would be to not ride a scooter, but instead ride the MRT/buses.

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Re: Scooter Riding.

The advice I received in Khaosuing:
Go for daylight and don’t get hit.
…served me well.

Rode a 450cc back home for years, so scooters were like riding a chair that moved fast…shrugs
However, nothing will prepare you for the sheer overwhelming stupidity of the drivers and riders here.

  • almost worse than Arabs behind the wheel…but not quite*
    …since you will never beat them…might as well join them .

Over time, you will probably develop equally abhorrent driving habits…:smiley:

Freedom of the Roads…LOL :smiling_imp:

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Ya I spent two years riding a fricking 50cc honda moped in TAipei and I swore off motos afterwards. Too dang dangerous, anyone that rides one is looney in my book :slight_smile:

More bravery then brains :stuck_out_tongue:

Yes yes you gota be looney to ride a moped , i accept that. haha. But I meant motorized two wheelers of any sort

18

I guess, over all, I wish I’d know how hard it is to ever leave that island and go on with your life like a normal person. So, whatch it cause it’s gonna get you, too!!