Six-Month Anniversary

As of today, I've been living in Taiwan for 6 months. (The picture is from my first week before I headed out to Xin Zhuang.) There was a time when I did not see myself making it to 6 months. A friend was exactly right, when they said if you get past 5 months, things just start to go okay. Have I changed at all? Maybe. Have I learned a lot? Definitely.

The contrasts were much more stark at the beginning. Now, the night market and food stalls are normal. A family of four on a scooter isn't surprising. Seeing a dog riding a scooter isn't shocking. Okay, it's still a little shocking. Yesterday, one was riding on the scooter without a leash. How does the tiny dog have such good balance? I don't even have that good of balance. (Although I should stay away from scooters altogether. A few weeks ago, and I managed to barely brush by one of the street, which is where the park, knocked it down. It then knocked over the one next to it. So yes I knocked over two scooters while walking home.)

I speak more Chinese than I did before, which isn't saying much since I arrived with zero. I didn't even have a guidebook. I was a little ill-prepared actually. My chinese is so limited, I still can't tell the difference between Taiwanese and Chinese, but I'm okay with that. When I got back from Japan, it was actually comforting to be around Chinese. I don't speak Chinese or Japanese, but at least Chinese sounds familiar.

My tiny apartment does feel like home as I discovered returning after the Chinese New Year holiday. I'm used to my neighborhood, but that didn't stop the surreal moment I had last week when I thought, "Wait I live where?" While I have my moments, it surprises me how quickly a place can start to feel familiar.

That's all for now, I'll keep future posts a little less me-centric.