In the last 2 weeks, I’d been scrambling about to get organised, move apartment, visit stationery shops, play host to my best friends visiting, registered for classes, check out my new neighbourhood which is quite near from my old place and discovered even more reasons to love the people here. Places where I patronise, the cooks/owners would come out and chit chat with me when I ask what I should order, then they hand me a menu in Chinese and I tell them I don’t know how to read (yet) and their curiosity would peak, asking me where I am from and what I would like to do. Then they suggest the whole list of their ingredients to help me work out what I would like to taste. They almost go out of their way to get me acclimatised to their practices by pointing where the utensils are, where the condiments are served, etc. It is such a joy to eat out when the people who serve me, know I am gesticulating and trying to communicate. Here, parents teach their kids to be nice and helpful. One parent told me (in English, of course) that upon observing other kids interacting with his own and how their parents assist and teach them, further reaffirms their goodness in their upbringing! No wonder everyone is so helpful! There isn’t a thread of doubt sown into the kids to be defensive and suspicious of others! Safety here is also one of the factors I am enjoying.
There is no threat of snatch theft, molestation, indecent exposure (flashers), rape threats from cybertroopers, robbery, unjust Acts, intimidation by rulers, assault, verbal assault by virtue of being a female where I had experienced it in my own country. I am staying on here to make a life in an environment that would help me thrive and rather than be in an environment threatening my existence due to my ethnicity and gender. What threats you say, just look at the whole system of administration and what is done to our (homeland) state of economy and what has been ‘borrowed’ from our employees provident fund. Do you think you can retire when it’s time to retire???
Until such a time when I have amassed enough skills to contribute to the rebuilding of a nation, I will remain optimistic from afar.
Tomorrow I will be collecting my classes schedule from NTNU and on 2 June, I’ll be starting a new chapter of my life as a student. PM me if you want details on how to study in Taiwan as an adult. Apart from the occasional earthquakes here, passing typhoons, there really isn’t much to be worried about. 🙂
