Tag: move abroad

Ramblings

Volunteering in Taiwan

hongsabroadLeave a comment

I’ve always enjoyed volunteering. It’s a great way to spend time with the family while doing something good, often doesn’t require a huge time commitment, and you get to meet interesting people.

I already knew I wanted to volunteer in Taiwan somehow before moving here. The trouble was finding organizations that speak some English and could accommodate children. I scoped out some non-profits on social media and found two organizations: SALT Collectiv and Mary’s Doggies.

SALT was founded by a group of foreigners living in Taiwan who strive to feed the homeless (among other initiatives). When I first told the boys about SALT, they couldn’t believe there were homeless people in Taiwan. While definitely not as common as in SF, there are indeed homeless people in Taiwan! We want the boys to realize that regardless of where you are, there will always be marginalized people who need help.

At SALT events, we write encouraging notes and prepare 100 bento boxes, which we distribute to the homeless at Taipei Main Station. We’ve participated in 5 or 6 events now and surprisingly, the boys really enjoy it – even O, who normally hates being near the kitchen. 😂 The boys also donated some of their own money to SALT’s fundraiser this year. SALT events can be pretty tiring for Baba and me (they usually take 4-5 hours) but seeing the boys wanting to help others makes it worthwhile.

Mary’s Doggies is an organization that rehabilitates abandoned and abused dogs and prepares them for adoption. I’ve participated in several of their volunteer events like dog walking and socializing dogs, but most events were on school days so the boys couldn’t join. (Or when an event was on a weekend, it was too hot. Weather in Taipei is unfortunately not conducive to outdoor activities.)

But now that the weather has somewhat cooled down, I was able to sign us up for a weekend dog walking event. Many of the dogs are extremely timid, so it took some time for them to get used to us. We played with and walked 3 dogs for about an hour. Like me, C and O love dogs so this was a wonderful way for us to get our dog fix while helping to socialize them.

Other than volunteering with these organizations, Baba and I continue to volunteer at the boys’ school. Baba still volunteers as a crossing guard and this year, I’m volunteering as a “school lunch taste tester.” 😂 There is really such a thing!

Unlike the US, public schools in Taiwan take nutrition in lunches very seriously. They invite parents to taste the lunch and then fill out a form where you detail whether the food is too salty or not salty enough, too fibrous, too soft, etc. You also have to take photos of the food and upload them along with the completed form to a central system.

I find this fascinating as it’s so different than in the US. The lunches are pretty good too! The food is not unlike the simple mom-and-pop restaurants in Taipei. There’s always some kind of protein, carb, lots of vegetables, soup and fruit. Lunches aren’t free though – families have to pay $2 per meal but I’d still say it’s a good deal!

Ramblings

Field Trip to Penghu: Taiwan’s Offshore Islands

hongsabroad1 Comment

Written by C

In September, I went on a 3 day, 2 night field trip with my school to a beautiful archipelago in the south of Taiwan called Penghu. We flew from Taipei’s Songshan Airport to Penghu, which took less than an hour.

Penghu was extremely hot! Luckily, whenever you are sweaty a gust of wind will cool you down. An interesting fact is that Penghu is made up of 90 islands and only 19 islands have people living on them. Also, Penghu doesn’t get that many tourists so it’s mostly locals who live here. Three popular islands are Qimei, Huxi, and Xiyu.

At Penghu, my classmates and I visited a local school, the old street, and we even went kayaking! This was my first time kayaking.

Penghu is famous for its salty seafood and its old temples. Most of their vegetables are imported from the main island. In Penghu, they grow a type cactus where it can be made into drinks, ice cream, and jelly. Penghu is the only place in Taiwan where they grow it. I liked it so much bought some for my family back home. I also brought home a peanut candy.

In conclusion, I think that this trip was a great experience for me to learn about Penghu traditions and its cultures. Maybe one day you can go there and check it out yourself. Remember to put on sunscreen though!

Ramblings

A Special Visit

hongsabroadLeave a comment

In early April, we welcomed my sister and BIL to Taiwan! My niece was on her 8th grade Chinese immersion trip to Taipei and Hong Kong, so it was the perfect excuse for a visit. (Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see my niece at all because of her school’s strict schedule, what a bummer!)

While my niece stayed with her classmates at a hotel the entire time, we hosted my sister and BIL at our place. The boys were so excited to see family other than Baba and me for once! They nagged Uncle 6 to play Chinese chess whenever they could, and the adults squeezed in a badminton game while the kids were at school.

Since both my sister and BIL have been to Taipei a couple times already, we skipped all the touristy stuff and just ate to our hearts’ content. This made for a much more relaxing visit because we weren’t rushing from place to place. And boy, did we eat! Here are some of the more memorable places we visited:

  • Paradise Dynasty: A contemporary Taiwanese/Chinese restaurant that serves xiao long bao, fried rice, wonton noodle soup, etc. It’s a good alternative to Din Tai Fung.
  • Lan Jia Gua Bao: My sister and BIL said they were craving gua baos ever since they had one in Seattle, so we took them to the best place that we know of in Taipei. There is something so satisfying about braised pork belly with crushed peanuts, cilantro, and pickled mustard wrapped in a soft bao.
  • Yong Kang Beef Noodle: My favorite place to get the classic Taiwanese beef noodle soup. It’s on the richer/spicier side, which in hindsight, probably wasn’t my sister’s cup of tea. 😅
  • Smoothie House: Even though it’s not mango season, shaved ice at Smoothie House is still a treat. We had shaved ice with frozen mangoes and fresh strawberries.
  • Tian Jin Scallion Pancake: Tian Jin is a simple food stall in the middle of Yong Kang Street that sells fresh, cripsy scallion pancakes. Along with Yong Kang Beef Noodle and Smoothie House, Tian Jin is always one of the stops we make whenever we’re in Yong Kang.
  • Din Tai Fung: Do I need to say more? When in Taiwan, this place is a must.
  • Sichao Rice Shop: A Taiwanese fusion restaurant with yummy dishes and beautiful presentation. The atmosphere was contemporary and elegant without being pretentious!
  • 上海宴: Another restaurant serving xiao long baos, fried rice and meats, but this place does everything very well. I’d say their XLBs are second to Din Tai Fung’s.

After 5 short days in Taipei, my sister and BIL took off to Hong Kong. It was so nice seeing familiar faces, and their visit made me miss having family around even more. There is a level of comfort with family that’s irreplaceable because they know you better than anyone else in this world. While we’re having so much fun in Taiwan, I only wish it were possible to combine everything we love in one place. ❤️

Ramblings

The New Normal

hongsabroadLeave a comment

Almost a year ago, I wrote down my prediction for how I’d adjust to moving abroad. Knowing how I normally react to big changes, I predicted that I would hate it the first couple of months, then learn to love it, then finally reach a plateau. Now that we’ve been in Taiwan for half a year, I thought about this post and how far or close it was to reality.

When we first arrived in Taipei after a 2-month trip in Europe, I didn’t really like our new home. Compared to places that we had just visited like Florence and Barcelona, I’ll be completely honest – Taipei isn’t the most visually appealing city. 🙊 Some buildings look run-down and grubby, electric wires hang haphazardly, and the skies were grey and gloomy (at least during August when we first arrived). I even began to wonder if we should have moved to Spain instead.

Luckily, that feeling lasted for only a couple of weeks and not months. I started to appreciate how safe, cheap and convenient it is to live here, and how quickly we felt at home in this foreign place. I had worried about how the boys would adjust, but the move was like any other day to them. 😂 From when we first landed in Taiwan to their first day of school, they remain completely unfazed. I’m beyond grateful and proud of their resilience.

I already shared what we love about Taiwan so I won’t repeat that here, but it’s safe to say that my old blog post is pretty inaccurate. Six months in, the honeymoon phase still hasn’t ended for us. We are always discovering something new and fascinating. We miss the energy and comfort of Taipei whenever we’re traveling. The language barrier is still a challenge but living here only motivates us to continue improving.

Maybe one day, Taipei will lose its shine and we’ll grow to be nonchalant about it. But for now, Taipei is our home, our new normal. And I already know that when we leave this place, I will miss it immensely.

Ramblings

5 Things We Don’t Love About Taiwan

hongsabroad1 Comment

We’ve only been living in Taiwan for 3.5 months so by no means are we experts about the Taiwanese way of life, but I thought it’d be fun to share what we love and don’t love about Taiwan so far. Let’s start with the not-so-good stuff.

Weather. Before moving to Taiwan, we already knew the weather was going to be a drawback and unfortunately, this perception hasn’t changed. 😆 It gets very hot and humid during the summer – I’m talking at least 90°F plus humidity – and this year, it remained hot up until early November (!!!). It got so uncomfortable some days that we dreaded going out. And when it wasn’t brutally hot, there was pouring rain. It’s no wonder that Taiwanese people bring an umbrella with them everywhere – if it’s not to block the lethal sun, then it’s for the rain!

Now that we’re in mid-November, the weather has finally cooled down (most days are in the high 60s to mid 70s). We’re excited to do more outdoor activities, but we’ve also heard that it rains almost everyday during the winter season. 😑

Bugs. Because of the hot, humid weather, Taiwan has a lot of bugs. We probably lost a pint of blood to the vicious little mosquitoes here. They are relentless yet so tiny that you can’t see them (and squash them). What’s worse is that I have an allergic reaction to mosquito bites so my bites would turn into huge welts. But over time, the bites have dwindled and we found a great tool that relieves the itching and swelling. No cream or insect repellant has worked better than this little gadget!

We also get a fair share of annoying fruit flies and ants, but nothing we haven’t dealt with in SF.

Cockroaches are massive here, but we’ve only found them on the streets (thank god!) and even then they are usually dead due to Taipei’s periodic pest control efforts. C is totally grossed out by the roaches, but I don’t mind them as long as they are out of the house!

Garbage Collection. Look, we’re glad that Taiwan tries to be eco-friendly but the garbage/recycling system is a quite annoying and complicated. First, there are very few public garbage cans, which isn’t that big of a deal because we know people often abuse them. So you bring your trash home, but it has to be separated into multiple categories: general trash, soft plastics, hard plastics and metals, paper, and compost. You just bought a drink in a paper cup with a plastic lid? You have to separate the paper and plastic into two bins. But if the paper cup is dirty, you also have to rinse it before putting it with the rest of the recycling. 😫 Additionally, there are special “government-approved” trash bags you have to purchase (pictured below) or else your garage will be rejected.

In the US, apartment buildings and single family homes have large garbage and recycling bins that are usually stored in a garage and get collected once a week. In Taiwan, all garbage is kept within your home. The garbage trucks come through each neighborhood everyday except Wednesdays and Sundays at a predetermined time to collect everyone’s trash. But because there are 5 different categories, you’re running downstairs with 5 bags/bins to catch the trucks. (Side note: Some apartments include garbage collection or you can pay for this service out of pocket, so this doesn’t apply to everyone in Taiwan.)

The peculiar thing about all this though, is that many stores and restaurants still use a ton of plastic. Plastic bags, plastic utensils, utensils wrapped in plastic, plastic straws, and so on. So if the government is trying to reduce waste, why are they still allowing so much plastic? 🤔

Traffic Lights. Taipei isn’t exactly a pedestrian friendly place. The sidewalks are uneven, and some of the smaller streets don’t even have a proper sidewalk.

But our biggest issue is with the traffic lights. If you miss a light for example, it’s possible you’d have to wait up to 90 seconds. And on scorching hot days, it’s not fun at all. Sometimes, we’ve found that it was faster to go downstairs to an MRT station and back upstairs on the other side of the street. The traffic lights make walking feel like an eternity sometimes.

Food Diversity. One thing we miss about living in SF is the diversity of food (and people!) living there. You can easily find good Mexican, Thai, Indian or pizza in one neighborhood. It’s not easy to find that variety in Taipei. So far, we’ve found 2 good pizza joints and 1 decent Indian place, but still out of luck on the others. I miss a good burrito!

Finding ingredients from other cuisines is challenging too. I still haven’t found fresh dill or Cajun seasoning in stores. Either that, or the ingredients are very expensive. For example, a small bag of lentils is close to $10 and a can of diced tomatoes is $2.50. Meats and seafood are also quite pricey. We’ve found that buying groceries is often more expensive than eating out, but I still cook on weekdays because of the boys’ school schedule.

Enough complaining though – I’ll share what we love about living in Taiwan next!

Ramblings

Halloween in Taiwan

hongsabroadLeave a comment

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love all things spooky and creepy, and I’m always amazed at people’s creativity with their costumes and decorations.

I knew we weren’t going to experience the same kind of festivities in Taiwan as we had in the US (because Americans can get really serious about this holiday 😆). I wasn’t sure how kids would even trick-or-treat because most people live in secured apartment buildings. But Halloween has always been a fun holiday for kids, and I didn’t want to take that away from the boys while we’re abroad.

I searched for activities and was pleasantly surprised to find many events in Taipei leading up to Halloween. There are pockets of shopping areas like Yong Kang Street, Tienmu, Maji Square, Zhongshan Station, etc. where shop owners participate to pass out candy to trick-or-treaters. We went to the event at Yong Kang Street, which was mostly for locals and had a lot of fun. We even got freeze dried strawberries and longan as treats!

Later on, I found out about an expat parent group organizing a Halloween event at the Garden Maze at Xinsheng Park. It’s not the typical Halloween hay mazes you’d find in the US but close enough! Parents donate bags of candy and hide in the maze to pass out to trick-or-treaters. There was a large turnout!

The boys’ school also had a Halloween activity the week prior. The PTA decorated an area of the school and classes took turns to visit. Students can wear costumes to school too but because C and O’s costume is pretty tricky to get in and out of, they decided not to wear it. Plus, they absolutely hate wearing the mustache. 😆

Because this year’s Halloween landed on a weekday (Tuesday), there wasn’t any trick-or-treating on the day of. People in Taiwan take school and work very seriously, so it makes sense they wouldn’t want to take time away from homework or work. Plus, C had midterms this week! 😬

I had wondered if Taiwan celebrated Halloween at all, and while of course it’s not the same as the US, we had an awesome time exploring the different Halloween activities around Taipei! We’ll definitely check out other Halloween events next year.

Ramblings

Tips for Apartment Hunting in Taipei

hongsabroadLeave a comment

Now that we have a bit of experience apartment hunting in Taipei, we wanted to share some tips for those who might be in our shoes.

Tip 1: Rent.591.com.tw is the most popular website in Taiwan to search for apartments. You can filter by city, district, number of bedrooms, price, parking, and so much more. There is no English version of the site, but you can use Google to translate the text into English.

I’ve seen people use dd-room.com as well, but 591 is by far the most popular website for apartment listings.


Tip 2: If Chinese is not your native language, it’s best to bring a Taiwanese friend with you to view apartments and negotiate with the landlord. But if you’re like us and don’t have any close friends or family in Taiwan 😅, then work with a real estate agency that caters to expats. We worked with Elegant Realty and UR House (and ultimately found a place with UR House). There is a one-time fee of a half-month’s rent when working with agents.

Note that agencies will typically only show you apartment listings from their inventory. So, you’d have to do your own research on rent.591.com.tw if you want to explore other options.

Tip 3. On top of rent, pay attention to the monthly management fee on the listing. Management fees include general maintenance of the building and security. They can be exorbitant, but can also be negotiable with the landlord.

Tip 4. Reduce the number of pings listed by approximately 30% to get the actual living space. This is because listings often add in common areas like hallways, lobbies, etc. into the total number of pings.

Tip 5: Look for an apartment that uses natural gas or piped propane. Some of the older buildings still use natural gas cans, which means you’ll be taking cold showers if they run out and until you get them replaced.

Tip 6. Get an apartment with an individual electricity meter. If it’s a shared meter, there’s no control over how much you pay per month as the meter is shared by everyone in the building.

Tip 7. If you don’t have a car or scooter, make sure the apartment is close to public transportation (either MRT or bus). Taipei is a huge city, so you’ll need access to public transportation to get around.

Tip 8. This may not be applicable to everyone, but having an apartment with natural light was important to us. Look at whether there is ample light in the living areas. Are there bars over the windows? Are the windows frosted?

Tip 9. As mentioned in my previous post, everything is negotiable in Taiwan. You can negotiate rent, management fees, furniture, etc. I’ve also heard people negotiating for the landlord to pay for the internet and cable fees. Of course, this is dependent on whether the apartment is highly sought after.

Tip 10. This is a great, and much more exhaustive guide for foreigners looking for an apartment in Taiwan: https://www.foreignersintaiwan.com/blog-370963385326684/taiwan-apartment-rental-guide We referenced this guide many times during our apartment hunt.

If I think of any more tips, I’ll add it to this post!

Ramblings

Apartment Hunting in Taipei: Success

hongsabroad1 Comment

Time was ticking. We realized we had to compromise on some things. First, we increased our budget to find an apartment that was more suitable to our tastes. We started looking for apartments that were ~50 pings after learning that the advertised number of pings is often inflated. We expanded our search to not only Da’an but Songshan and Xinyi districts. Our main goal was to find an apartment with good natural light and within a school’s service district. We didn’t even care whether the apartment was furnished, or near the MRT, or what floor it was on.

Then one day, we saw an apartment in Xinyi district. Xinyi is the financial district of Taipei, with many skyscrapers including Taipei 101, upscale malls and eateries, and newer apartment buildings. This particular apartment is within 4 minutes walking distance to a school that had availability, and the landlord was fine with us using the address for school. The apartment came with only a couple pieces of furniture, but we were willing to overlook it. We immediately reached out to the agent to express our interest.

The interesting thing about Taiwan is that almost everything can be negotiated, including rent. Our agent told us to outline all our demands and he can help us negotiate with the landlord. We asked for a ~12% reduction in rent, including all management and garbage fees. (Most apartments have an monthly management fee on top of your rent. This fee is to pay for things like security and general maintenance of the building.)

Our agent suggested that we ask for furniture as well, but that we’d need to sign a 2-year lease. The commitment-phobe in me was a little hesitant, but I also didn’t want to go through this whole process again in a year. So we agreed and waited for the landlord’s response.

We waited about a day (which felt like an eternity!) but finally, we heard back from the landlord. She agreed to all terms (hurray!!) except we’d have to pay for the garbage fees, which was pretty nominal anyway (about $30/month).

There were a few hiccups before we signed the contract – e.g., making sure we had enough cash for the deposit and first month’s rent; the landlord kept changing the time and place for the contract signing, which made Baba suspicious; realizing at the last minute that one room at no door 😆, so we had to negotiate with the landlord; getting the landlord to purchase the furniture in time for our move-in.

But ultimately, we signed the contract and finally got the keys to our apartment in Taipei! 🎊 This was a HUGE relief because the check-out date for our Airbnb was coming up, and we can now register for the boys’ school. Woo hoo!

As of writing, we’ve been living in this apartment for about 3 weeks. It’s not perfect – our refrigerator is on the balcony and we’re on the second floor so it’s more prone to getting bugs. 😣 But, we are close to the boys’ school, one short block from the Xinyi Sports Center which has a pool!, close to the MRT and buses, and walking distance to markets and convenience stores. I also like that on one side, there is Taipei 101 with all its fancy shopping and restaurants, but on the other side of our apartment, you can find numerous cheap eats, or 小吃.

The apartment hunt in Taiwan was a roller coaster ride and such an interesting learning experience. In the end, I’m incredibly grateful that we found a great place to live in such a short period of time. Everything worked out in our favor (so far). But I’m even more grateful to have a partner in crime, Baba, to go on these crazy adventures with me! 😘