A New Foreign Experience

It’s been a while since I last posted, but it’s for a good reason! No one wants to hear about how I spent my quarantine reading books and watching movies. As soon as I got out of quarantine, I had to hit the ground running to get my life sorted out before school began.

I’ve been here for about 3 weeks now, but those first two weeks of being held prisoner in a cute, comfortable little hotel obviously didn’t count. I ran around like crazy for the following few days, looking for an apartment and finalizing my immigration stuff. As soon as that was all complete, I jumped right into training for my new job!

Things here are very different from my experience in Thailand. There, I was more on vacation than anything. I was traveling to islands and hiking mountains, with a little private tutoring here and there. My full time job hadn’t started yet, so I was really free to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.

Here, I was expected to start working quickly. My school had sponsored me to come to Taiwan, which is more or less required during these COVID times. They’ve guided me through the visa process, helped me find and pay for an apartment, and set me up with Taiwan’s national health insurance program. Without them, things would have not gone this smoothly at all!

I went through a few days of training and job shadowing, and now I’m teaching my own classes. Most of my students are very quiet middle and high schoolers, which is my favorite age to teach. It’s fun to watch these silent and awkward students slowly come out of their shells and become more comfortable in class. Since I’ve only taught a few classes, there’s not much to report yet.

My apartment is a cute little studio on the 5th floor of a typical apartment building in Taipei. There’s no elevator, so I’ll have some toned legs by the end of this year. I was lucky enough to find an apartment with its own new washing machine, a kitchenette, and an American style bathroom.

The apartment is about a 10 minute walk to the closest subway station. I’ve never once felt unsafe during my walks to or from the subway, even at night. Taipei is an incredibly safe town, with plenty of people milling about at 9 or 10 pm. Everyone just kind of minds their own business, but is polite and happy to help out a lost foreigner like me.

So yea, there’s no crazy jungle adventure or island hopping to report back about yet. The COVID world has just put everyone’s adventures on hold for now. I’m just happy that I’m back in Asia, and that I can soon begin more small-scale adventures on this neat little island. I can’t wait to share more with you all when I get more settled and comfortable in my new home!