My Thoughts After Living Abroad For A Year
Around this time last year, two days before my 24th birthday, I boarded an airplane at Newark Liberty International Airport to fly all to the formosan island called Taiwan. While I had my reasons for taking the opportunity to move, I didn’t know what to expect out of this journey or if I would even like it. A learning experience is an understatement. Throughout this year, I’ve gotten a better understanding of how society works here, met people from all walks of life and different parts of the world, participated in new activities, and traveled a bit. My time abroad has given me some realizations and comfirmations of what life would be like here, and living in another country altogether.
Thoughts On Cultural Adaptation
Smaller sense of space, scooter mania, saving face, wet bathrooms, siesta hours, not drinking tap water, bread surprise, and more. There are many things about Taiwan that I found interesting, different (I’ll refrain from the using the word “weird”), and sometimes frustrating. Even with all of these new things thrown at me, the adaptation process was pretty smooth for me. They all say there are about four stages culture shock as a foreigner living in another country and I can’t say experienced any distinct stages. It pretty much resulted in me making due with how things are and tried to avoid comparing Taiwan to…
