(The photos in today’s post are entirely links to our other social media accounts. Sorry if they won’t open okay 😦 )
Although we’ve been here in Taipei for over three weeks now, since the first week not so much has been going on. We’ve seen a ton of cats and dogs (most well groomed, wearing a collar, looking happy or, if a cat, very annoyed/indifferent), discovered a whole bunch of vegetarian restaurants, started casually helloing our neighbors and walked a lot. As I write this, the enginerd is engineerding with a ton of others at the Taipei Game Show (I’ve got tickets there for the weekend, too ♥♥), and I have just finished an important paper work. We’ve been to Ikea and shopping for our new place (we’ll move on Monday yay!!), bought an oven and calculated our budget. Other than that, I have mainly been bored (miss my job in Finland and the hectic life that came with it), since my school won’t start for another one and half months, and it’s a bit tiring to play tourist every day.
These shoes were made for walking, and that’s what they will do, I just wish that I could start an iv line or two…
This is not to say that we’re not enjoying ourselves here. Although our current place is freezing (the outside and inside temperature are a 100% match…), we’ve been running and going to the gym a lot, exploring the city and wondering what life will bring us. I am still on a mission to speak as much Chinese as possible, which has lead to several awkward situations where the other person is speaking English to me, and I am (trying, desperately) to speak Chinese to them. Everyone’s mutually uncomfortable, and no-one is learning anything. This may be the first time ever I’m feeling frustrated people somewhere speak English too well 😀
I think the occasional feeling of boredom is more frustration, I’m used to running around, multitasking and having schedules. Now that all that is gone, I feel a bit useless. Although I did first enjoy doing nothing, now that it’s been going on for over a month, I just wish I could go slay a double shift at the ER and be useful somehow. Not giving anything to people around makes me feel so lazy, although I know I’ll be at school soon, and have made some serious long term plans. My objective to come here was to learn Chinese a lot better, and yes, I am improving, but veeeryyy sloooowly, and I’d rather do so by actually doing something at the same time.
It does sound bit of a paradox, I know, living your dream but being bored and frustrated. We learned this the hard way during our trip around the world, when most of the time we were, as a matter of a fact, quite tired and bored. You only read about our exciting moments and adventures on our blogs, but in the end, everyday life is just… everyday life, even on the road. Many travelers experience the same, it’s just not often spoken aloud. In the end, the fun times are so much fun, that they totally make up for enduring the boredom!
Okay, as I promised, this week’s post should be short, so I’ll finish here. Just a little praise to the recycling system here: It works, it’s convenient and it’s fun! Check out the video below to see for yourself 🙂
ROAD TO SELF: Bring your passport 
“… the occasional feeling of boredom is more frustration, I’m used to running around, multitasking and having schedules. Now that all that is gone, I feel a bit useless …”
Think of the Taiwanese, they are super efficient, multitasking, organised and hardworking people. I do appreciate their ‘attitude’ built inside them. As a newcomer foreigner it is easy to feel frustration as a useless piece of the community in Taiwan and especially Taipei.
Just cherish the time being as you can take it easy now, as you can, because, suddenly you might be catching a job in there, and then your time is up, meaning the freetime.
I know it’s hard and probably the problem is the same with the Taiwanese in Finland in the same situation, there are so many things uniting Finns and the Taiwanese, not least in the mental way. The both nations and nationals, have the ‘sisu’.. They are just too stubborn to give up.
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Oh, the boredom is gone, we just moved to our new place and it’s not cold anymore, and my school will start soon, so it’s very much fine now 🙂 I was never made to stay still…
I’ve met some locals, and noticed they’re all very nice and open, and always willing to help but a bit terrified of the idea of us actually not officially doing anything at the moment. I’ve been told how brave I and my husband have been for quitting our jobs and just moving to a new country, I think it is a really strange concept here that you’d do that. It always seems to make people a bit uncomfortable to hear. But it also seems to make them feel better when I tell them that we, as a matter of a fact, do have a plan, and have had it ever since our trip started, instead of just floating around. I tell people about all the hard work we did when preparing, years of saving money and organizing things before we came here, so people won’t be too terrified about us not “not doing anything” 😀
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