Tag: moving abroad

Ramblings

A Tale of Two Cities

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From Singapore to Vienna, to Bangkok and to Paris, we searched far and wide for a potential place to live. During the exploratory phase, we often used Numbeo.com to give us data-driven insight into a city’s quality of life. We also considered more subjective factors (like our general feelings about a place) by either drawing from our own experience, or from blogs and YouTube videos.

Eventually, we narrowed it down to two cities. They both pretty much tick all the boxes we are looking for. Yet, they are vastly different, each having its pros and cons, which makes it all the harder to decide!

TAIPEI, TAIWAN

We visited Taipei as a family in 2019. Back then we were already considering Taipei as a possible place to move to, so we tried looking at the city through the lens of a local. We visited neighborhoods we were interested in, shopped at local markets, and toured elementary schools.

Our time in Taipei was wonderful. The people are friendly, we always felt safe, and of course the food was amazing!

But we’re aware that visiting a place for a week is different that actually living there. We acknowledge there are downsides of living in Taipei too.

  1. Weather: Taiwan gets ridiculously hot and humid from spring through summer. It’s going to be a tough adjustment since anything over 70°F is hot for us.

  2. Geopolitical tensions: If you’ve been following the news, tensions between China and Taiwan have been brewing. There is a constant threat of China invading Taiwan – some say it’ll happen in the next few years, others say it will never happen. Either way, we recognize there’s a risk.

MADRID, SPAIN

Spain has been attracting lots of expats lately because of its relatively lax visa requirements, laidback lifestyle and Mediterranean climate. We debated between living in Barcelona or Madrid, but ultimately chose Madrid because of its lower cost of living, more things to do, and is less touristy than Barcelona.

The funny thing is, I am the only one out of the family who has visited Spain…and the last time I went was in 2009! It’s a little crazy to base our decision on only my experience over 10 years ago but if so many people are flocking to Spain, it can’t be that bad right?

There are many things to appreciate about Madrid – great weather, proximity to the rest of Europe, delicious food – but there are some downsides too (at least from our perspective).

  1. Food: I know what you’re thinking. What’s the problem with tapas, paella, and jamón? Absolutely nothing! Spanish food is incredible…except at the end of day, the food we crave and love most is Asian food. No matter where we are, a bowl of pho or in Baba’s case – a durian – is like a comforting hug.

    Also, I’m not sure I can deal with the meal times in Spain. Lunch doesn’t start until 1 or 2pm, and dinner until 8 or 9pm. I’m an old lady – I eat lunch by 11:30am and dinner by 6pm! I’m going to be so hangry all the time in Spain!

  2. Language/Culture: Spain has a rich, vibrant culture and Spanish is a widely spoken language. We just have little to no prior experience with anything Spanish. We’re Chinese (albeit ABCs), and grew up with Asian customs and traditions. I took Chinese in high school and college (though my ability has regressed to a first grader’s), and the boys have been taking Chinese classes online and after school. Of course, we can learn Spanish and try to assimilate to Spanish culture…but it’ll just be a much steeper learning curve.

We realize that no place will be perfect. Despite all its problems, San Francisco will always be home and it’ll be next to impossible to find anything comparable. We are not trying to find a better experience but simply, a different one. One that will surprise us, enthrall us and push us out of our comfort zones.

I’ll share which place we ended up deciding on next!

Ramblings

Oh, the Places We’ll Go!

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After deciding to move abroad, the next daunting task was deciding where to move to. We considered several factors:

  1. Easy visa requirements
    Baba and I wouldn’t be working while living abroad (at least not full time) so we don’t have the option of a work visa sponsorship. We also don’t have citizenship in any country outside the US so that route wasn’t feasible either. There are people who do “visa runs”, in which they fly out of the country for a day and their tourist visa would then be renewed for ~90 days upon their return. We considered this option but concluded it would be too stressful with the kids, and we wouldn’t be able to get the same benefits as someone on a resident visa. We had to find a place that offered other alternatives for long term residency.

  2. Lower cost of living
    Since we wouldn’t be working, we wanted to find a place that has a low cost of living. Or, at least lower cost of living than SF which honestly, wasn’t hard to find.

  3. Culture & language
    One of our goals for living abroad is to experience a different culture. So while we love our friendly neighbors up north, living in Canada would probably be too similar to our life here. We want to experience a bit of a culture shock that will challenge us. A big part of experiencing a different culture is learning a new language too. With that said, we want to learn a language that will be useful to us.

  4. Weather
    As San Franciscans, we’ve been spoiled with year-round mild weather. We complain when the temperature is above 70°F or below 60°F. It’s naïve to think that we can find a place with a similar climate, but as long as there are no blizzards and intense heat waves, I think we can learn to adjust.

  5. Good food
    With the exception of O, the three of us are big foodies. We will travel for miles in search of good food. So the country we move to definitely has to have a vibrant culinary scene. We often crave Asian food, so bonus points if a place has great Asian cuisine. Food is probably the second most important factor to us, after safety. I’m serious. We live to eat.

  6. Safety
    As a young family, it goes without saying that we’re looking for safety. And with the rampant gun violence in the US, homelessness and crime in San Francisco, it wasn’t hard to find a place that is safe. We also wanted to live in a place free of trash, the stench of urine, and dog poop. Is that too much to ask? (We love you SF, but you’ve got some problems right now.)

Afterward, we created a spreadsheet of possible places to move to (it was allll over the map), and ranked them in each of the above categories. We eventually narrowed the list down to two options, which I’ll share more in the next post.

Moving abroad was something we planned and toiled over since 2017(!). Then Covid hit, and we encountered challenges that made it seem impossible for us to get a visa anywhere. So for awhile, we had to come to terms that this idea may never happen. We started talking about the next best thing, which was to spend the summers abroad.

But in 2021, there was a break in the clouds. Covid restrictions slowly lifted, and Baba found a workaround in the visa that we could qualify for. Moving abroad suddenly seemed viable again. It’s been a roller coaster ride…and we haven’t even moved!