10 Things I will Miss about America while in Taiwan - 6 Months In

So before leaving for Taiwan, I wrote a post about things I expected to miss about American while living in Taiwan. (Things, not people, so they're not on the list. I assume friends and family are a given) Now that I'm coming up on half a year over here, I want to take a look at those expectations and see what I got right, what I got wrong, and what I didn't find out until I got over here again.

So without further ado, let's check out my 10 previous things:

1. Driving (Confirmed)

Yes, I do miss driving. Living in this part of Taiwan a car would be more trouble than use (I don't need to haul things and people around much, and finding a parking space takes longer than getting to your destination), and I don't really need a scooter, though I'll probably want to learn how to ride one just to have that option.

But driving does other things too. It gives you time to yourself (valuable for introverts), and you can listen to your music turned up without earbuds and it doesn't bother your neighbors (and their neighbors, and their neighbors...). I also used to do a lot of praying and thinking while driving, and miss those quiet times.

2. Spring and Autumn (Partially confirmed)

We'll see. Being in the East Asian monsoon cycle, things don't exactly follow the traditional Western four seasons; Chinese culture observes more or less the same solar cycle but we're way farther south than where the traditional ideas about the seasons were developed, and also an island in the Pacific, so things get a little... tropical. Autumn remains to be seen, but since this winter was unusually cold it seemed quite Spring-like when it warmed up and the cherry trees blossomed. We've gotten unbelievable amounts of rain since I got here (which is semi-normal but it's definitely more than last time I lived here), both when it was colder early in the year and for nearly the entire month of May, with the arrival of the Plum Rains (梅雨).

Seattle gets 37" (950mm) of rain per year; Taipei gets 95" (2,400mm)
Could be worse.. nearby Keelung gets an incredible 144" of rain per year. (3755mm)

So far the jury's out on this one, given that Spring was pretty normal. I know from experience that there's not really a proper Autumn, however, so we're calling this partially confirmed until proven otherwise.

3. Being able to wear Dark Colored Shirts in the Summer (Mostly Busted)

(This one was kind of random. I wonder why I included this in the original post)... Having just passed Dragon Boat Festival it's only now considered early summer, but according to my weather app with the humidity it felt like 100F here (38C) a couple Saturdays ago. I haven't replaced my clothing to the extent I'd expected before getting over here. I should get on that, actually...some of these are pre-seminary shirts, they're getting to that really comfortable stage that wives/girlfriends seem to dislike. The good news is that as long as I don't need to carry a backpack, a dark-colored shirt does just fine hiding the sweat and I rarely get the serious salt mine action I mentioned in the original article.

4. Being able to Make Jokes (Partially confirmed)

Mostly right. My Taiwanese coworker is rather fond of what they call "cold" jokes in Mandarin (what we'd call a bad pun, the ones that make people groan and leave), and as I've knocked the rust off my Chinese and improved it here and there, I'm able to make some forays into Chinese punning. The tricky thing is to make sure you're not saying something inappropriate by accident (there are lots and lots of homophones in Mandarin), as your listeners usually remember to give you the benefit of the doubt, but not always..

5. Real Southern Food and Tex/Mex Food. (Confirmed, but it's ok)

Yes. I do miss both of these, but am encouraged that there are a couple new Mexican places to check out, and also very excited to have belatedly discovered the Taiwanese pork BBQ sandwich:

Guabao! In Chinese the name means "glory in a rice flour bun"
(Ok not really, but it could)

It doesn't look like what you're used to, and it's not hickory-smoked pulled-pork (nor sliced beef brisket) but believe me, it's amazing on its own merits, and somehow fills that dietary niche quite well.

Still miss the Southern food, but as I said in the original post, that doesn't even exist much in the rest of the States, so there's not exactly a sense of deprivation.

6. References (Allusions to things in wider pop culture) (Confirmed)

For sure on this one. Even more common references get missed, sometimes due to not knowing the Chinese name of something (which is not necessary just the translation of the English name), and sometimes just due to different growing up experiences.

It's always fun to discover when you have something in common with a Taiwanese friend, however, and can both appreciate the reference. And there are always the more recent references, things that happened after I moved here, of which I now have a growing stock and have used successfully a few times.

7. Arguing about Politics (Busted)

Well.. I had good intentions about staying 100% out of political discussions, I really did... then there was a historical first in Taiwan when protesting students took over the Taiwanese legislative chamber for three weeks, accompanied by the biggest protest rally in Taiwanese history. With near-heroic levels of self-control (I argued about politics with my second grade teacher when Bill Clinton was elected and she made us watch his inauguration, no joke), I managed to make (mostly) indirect references to it online and mostly post news stories so my American friends would be aware of the situation without interjecting too many of my own thoughts. I also took the opportunity to learn a lot about Taiwan politics in general.

What I said in the first post was true; I need to avoid this as much as possible. It's not worth losing a chance to witness over. But it's also very difficult to sit on the fence in these situations, especially when many of my friends feel passionately about these issues. (Once or twice I felt that it would have been less offensive just to go ahead and say what I thought, rather than claiming I didn't think I should say what I thought) I will keep praying for discernment in knowing who to share my thoughts with, and knowing if/when the appropriate time to do that would be.

8. No Garbage Cans (Confirmed)

Yes, it's a constant thing you have to work around here that you don't in America, and it's annoying to have to be home at 9:05PM when the trucks come rolling in (Blasting Fur Elise to let you know they're on their way) for just a couple of minutes, and keep food trash in your freezer in the mean time. But I don't generate all that much non-recyclable trash, and I can haul that down to the street and give it to an old lady who gets money for turning it in, so it's all good.

9. Not Wondering about Water Quality (Busted)

 

This one hasn't really been an issue, as I suspected at the time it might not be. It's better not to drink out of random faucets, but bottled water is slightly cheaper than in the US when needed, and I have a Brita filter to use in my apartment. (Hey, come to think of it, my filter needs changing...)

10. Blending In (Confirmed)

Yeah. I get stared at (or very conspicuously not stared at, which is kind of the same thing) every day. Goes with the territory, won't change during my whole life over here, so I wouldn't expect it to be any different. And no it doesn't make people racist, it would be the same if I were super tall or super short or super-whatever. I'm just easier to notice, and so people do.

 Some parts of Taipei actually have a lot of foreigners, though interestingly, (white) foreigners tend to not be American or Canadian this time around. I hear a lot of French and German, as much or more than English.

11. UPDATED: New entry

Ok, so in summary I think I did reasonably well in guessing which things I'd miss. But I forgot one of the biggest small things that I miss about the US:

Being able to flush toilet paper.

 

There's always a can beside the toilet... optimally it gets emptied often

I've heard various reasons: the water pressure isn't good enough to get it through the pipes; there are chemicals in the paper that aren't supposed to go into the plumbing system; perhaps there's no way to get rid of the paper once it collects wherever it collects. All I know is, the general rule is that you can't flush toilet paper here.

This may seem like a small thing (or maybe not), but put that together with no central A/C, a tropical climate, interesting changes in your diet, and the fact that the only legal way to get garbage out of your house is to coordinate disposal with the nightly garbage trucks, and it's one of the bigger small annoyances one deals with.

(Note: One of the biggest 'things' I miss about living in America is the churches and church families I've grown close to, both my sending and supporting churches, in Alabama and Texas. But I mentioned at the beginning that this list was for things, not people, and a church is not a thing, it's people)

Conclusion:

I love Taiwan, and any of these things I miss are very much balanced out by great things about being able to live here. (The most difficult things are mostly the same things as I'd deal with at this stage of my life doing full time ministry in the US) I'm very blessed to see God at work, and our ministries have progressed slowly but steadily over the past half year. It will be interesting to take another look at this once it's been a full year and see if my perspective has changed at all.