Taiwan life 4 months later

My thoughts and observations 4 months later

Life in Taiwan is tough.

Time flies in Taiwan. I'm four months here, living the fast-paced life of Taipei City and it's killing me. The first month was cold, rainy and I needed a lot of time to figure out whether it was good to leave everything behind and move to the other side of the world. I came for love and for new valuable experiences, for an investment in the future, that would benefit me, my wife and our future family. And when I came, I got a job very fast - I was finally able to do exactly what I always dreamed to do: International business. I knew it will be tough, it's always tough when millions are in play and faces need to be saved, but this is beyond my wildest expectations. I learned so much about how it is to work in a big Taiwanese company, I could write a book about it already: After only 3 months! But I won't even blog about it, because "the internets" are a very small place and I don't wanna feed the rats.

Life is tough and stressful in Taipei. The noise and air pollution are amazingly high for someone, who was used to be surrounded by fresh air and chirping birds. The population density is one of the highest in the world and the problems related to that are seen on every corner. It's almost impossible to go a popular place in Taipei and not encounter huge crowds. That's awesome, when you are a visitor in Taiwan (and traveling in Taiwan is one of my favorite hobbies), but when you live and work here, you just want to get away from the hustle and bustle as far as possible. With all that said, I would not want to return back home, I am not a quitter. I'm starting to get to know people I would never had the chance to meet in my previous life. I am meeting new real friends and I am gaining a lot of experience in this very new field of work. I'm not sure, whether I will burn out in a couple of weeks (it's possible!) and change the job to something less demanding (like teaching) or whether I will toughen up, learn more and aim for something higher. This year is the most challenging year in my life and it can go either way with me. And it has nothing to do with Taiwan, it has everything to do with me.

I wish that one day I can write a post like Jenna here.

[My LIFE IN TAIWAN page][Photo by MKL, 2011]