Reflections on 2004

well, it seems that i've come full circle...it's now been one year since leesh and i decided to make taiwan our home by living and working abroad. It's amazing to me how easy life here is compared to this time last year. I can still clearly remember the overwhelming feeling as we stepped off the airplane and into our new life...the sights, smells, and sounds of an asian country were nothing like either of us had ever experienced before and no matter how much we read up on Taiwan, nothing could've prepared us for it fully...we've come a long way and now it just seems like ordinary, day-to-day life...except everything has a taiwanese twist to it.

It's hard to fully explain some of the things that you just have to get used to, but one of the more notable things that took some getting used to was the lack of personal space. The sheer amount of people in Taipei is staggering, and all of these people somehow carve out their own piece of the city, whether at work, home, or in transit. Coming from London which has a population of 350,000, to the bustling metropolis of Taipei which has 6 million in the city proper and surrounding county, takes a lot of getting used to. Doing anything with that amount of people is tiring, and when you don't speak the language, one tends to get frustrated very quickly. I remember the first three months or so, going about my day weaving in and out of people, trying to get to where i needed to be a little more quickly, and finding it a useless endeavour. By the end of the day, I would be completely exhausted just from the totality of overcrowdedness. Then, as if some miracle had happened, it suddenly didn't bother me anymore. I think what I realized is that in order to survive in this place, you have to take what you need and give no quarter, so that's what I did. Now, I find the crowds almost fun at times...sounds strange, but it's the truth.

If I had to sum up the lessons I've learned about myself while living here, number one on the list would have to be patience. I never realized what an impatient person I was, and how easily upset I used to become if I had to wait in line for an ATM, or if some a-hole was taking his time ordering a cheeseburger @ the Mcdonald's drivethru when i've only got 20 minutes left of my lunch break. Now, if I'm late meeting a friend, or behind schedule for going to work, I just take a breath and chill 'cos it's not the end of the world. It's pretty cool how much stress you can be rid of when you have choice in the matter and you come to that realization.

Thinking back on this year now that I've signed on for another also makes me appreciate the bigger picture...living in southwestern Ontario seemed @ times like the centre of the universe, but really is just part of the whole scheme of things...there is a whole, big world out there and travelling to Taiwan has just whetted my apetite to drink in all that I can. In the last year I've seen some pretty incredible things, met some cool people, and even started to learn a new language which I am far from mastering but am getting a toehold on. Life in Canada is far from small or uninteresting, but I feel as if I have more opportunities to grow as a person living away from those things and people that I hold most dear @ the moment. One of my favourite lines from a Joni Mitchell song comes to mind "don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone" and I have to say that during our recent trip back to the Great White North that this held very true. Not including family and friends, here is a short list of some of the things that I've missed from home; Mott's garden cocktail, cheese, pie, gravy, mayonnaise, corned beef, polskie o'gorki dill pickles, caesars, reeses peanut butter cups, kellogg's raisin bran, pita pit, kool-aid, canada dry ginger ale, moosehead beer, and a bunch of other things. Some things I didn't miss about Canada are cold weather, expensive gas, inflation, GST, insane cellular phone rates, Hanover and two-lane highways.

Well, that about sums up this little stroll down memory lane. I apologize if this seemed rambling and incoherent, but it's pretty tough to put down an entire year of memories into writing...a few more things I want to say is that is was great to see everyone during our visit, and I can't believe how fast this year went! Just think, next year @ this time we'll be home once again, only this time it will be for good...or so we think....special shoutout to Heather&Dan for putting us up for the week in the forest city...thanks so much we couldn't have asked for a better week or better company!

Alrighty folks, that's all for the moment...thanks for taking the time to read this and hopefully I can hear some of your responses when and if you decide to post one...take care and talk to you all soon :)