First Impressions

Hard to believe we’ve been here over a week already.  Severe jetlag resulted in a few sleepless nights and sleepful days, so it is hard to string together a coherent chronology of the last week.  However, I’m happy to report that we have all three successfully turned our circadian rhythms upside-down and are sleeping through the night now. 

Another very exciting development is that Jess and I found and moved into an apartment yesterday!  After schlepping around 90+ heat with Abel to look at apartments all over central Taipei for a week, we are THRIILLED to have a home.  Once we get more moved in I’ll post pictures and give some details. 

Taipei First Impressions

Dsiclaimer: I feel as though I’ve spent enough time in Taipei to label my initial observations as at least somewhat valid. Of course, as I spend more time here and visit a greater variety of places, my views and opinions will evolve. But, here is what I’ve noticed so far . . .

Nice People – Taiwanese are friendly and warm.  They are extra kind to foreigners, and they are super-sweet to anyone holding a baby.  Therefore, everyone from electronics vendors to our landlord has gone out of their way to be helpful and tell us how cute (Ke Ai) and well-mannered (Guai) Abel is.  Without question, Abel is responsible for us getting a good deal on our apartment and for countless courtesies we receive on a daily basis.  I expected traveling with an infant to make things more difficult, but in an interesting way he makes things easier. 

Clean – Taipei is a very modern city with more amenities than I expected.  I have traveled through China, and I expected Taiwan to be very similar.  In fact, Taipei does bear resemblance to Hong Kong, but Hong Kong is very different than other Chinese cities.  I would put Taipei halfway between Hong Kong and Beijing, meaning that it is very modern and clean, but still has some of the ancient far-east character that makes Beijing so much fun.  A good example is that there is no smoking in any building in Taipei and no spitting allowed on the streets.  This is very different than China, where spitting and smoking are just part of city life. Having a baby in tow, it is really nice not to have to worry about the germs and carcinogens caused by these habits.

Easy to Navigate – I’m amazed at the sensibility of Taipei’s layout.  Streets are on a grid with sequential numbers of lanes and alleys.  Given a street address, I can actually find the building without too much backtracking!  It helps that signs are in Chinese and English and are very consistently labeled.  Another help is that many more people than I expected speak passable English.  Of course I usually rely on my personal guide and translator (Jess) to do this legwork, but it is nice to know that I’m not out of luck if I’m alone.

Safe –I’ve heard a total of one emergency vehicle siren since landing in Taipei.  One.  During an hour walk in downtown Chicago or New York I bet you would hear a dozen or more.  Why is this?  Certainly there is a difference in emergency response systems, but a major factor is the incredibly low rates of street crime in Taipei.  Criminal activity does exist on some levels, but muggings, shootings, and carjackings are unheard of here.  I was thinking about this as Jess and I walked back to our hotel with Abel last night at around 10pm without a care in the world – I felt so much safer than in any major US city – and with good reason. 

Now that we have an apartment, we can spend less time with realty agents and more time exploring the city. Jess has started her job, but I'm still unemployed and loving it, so Abel and I will make lots of day-time excursions. I'm going to post again soon about a Typhoon headed our way, so stay tuned . . .