Postade det här från början på tumblr, men kom på att det kanske är bättre att lägga in det i bloggen. Kom på att jag inte ville hänvisa folk till min tumblr egentligen hehe....Det är skrivet på engelska för att andra än svenskar ska förstå.
Since I got a few messages from a hater because I was hating on
Taiwanese food, I figured I might as well write this now. I thought
about doing it when I got home next week, but what the hell. Might as
well do it now.
You can hate on me for this, but keep in mind
that everyone has different opinions, and this is just mine. This is my
opinion as a 20 year old Swedish girl, after 2 months in Taiwan (and 5
months in Asia). Under different circumstances, I probably would have
felt different. Say, if I’d been to Taiwan to just travel, but I was
here working. Which is completely different, mind you. You don’t have
much time to travel around with a Monday - Friday 8.30 am - 6.00 pm work
schedule. I also probably would have felt different if I hadn’t been in
Vietnam and Japan first, together with great friends.
I really
don’t think that I should have to defend myself for having a different
opinion about a country, than a person who’ve grown up there. And if you
think that I should, then you’re stupid. Literally.
This is Taiwan
for me. Honest and uncensored. Haters gonna hate, but this is MY
opinion. And this is based on the people that I work with, since they
are pretty much the only one’s I have the opportunity to socialize with.
What I like about Taiwan
- Taipei. - I think Taipei is a really nice city, it reminds me a
bit about Stockholm for some reason. There are a lot of nice places to
visit as a tourist, and great shopping. The metro system works like a
charm, Taipei 101 is amazing. The city just has a nice feel to it.
- The small traditional villages - I haven’t been to that
many, but the one’s I’ve been to have been very nice. Beautiful and
interesting.
- The nature - I love the mountains here. As soon as you get
out of the city, there’s these huge green mountains everywhere! I
haven’t travelled around as much as I had planned to, but the North
coast was really great too.
- The people - after 3 months in Vietnam and half a month in
Japan, I feel that the Taiwanese people are quite different. I loved the
politeness and the calm of the people in Japan, but the people in
Taiwan are a lot more relaxed and easy-going. People are always laughing
and smiling, and many times when I’ve met new people and expected it to
get weird and awkward (Sweden-style of course), it has just been so
easy and relaxed. People are always very friendly, welcoming and
helpful, and it has made my stay here sooo much easier than it probably
had been if I’ve been completely on my own. People are very happy to
show me around, and that has made me see so much more of Taiwan that I
wouldn’t have seen otherwise.
- 7 eleven - Okey, 7 eleven IS great here. ‘nuff said.
- Asian fashion - I do love Asian fashion…
- Asian hairstyles - I love that people here aren’t afraid of
cutting their hair short. In Sweden I feel like girls should ALWAYS
have long hair. You just should. Never short, and god forbid if you cut
it some middle lenght. No. It has to be long. Long and straight and
boring. People here have different styles, and I like it.
- The weather - Okey I don’t really love the weather. But I
tolerate it. I’m used to it. I don’t mind the heat or the humidity that
much. I like that it’s warm.
- Recycling - I think it’s really good that they’re pushing
people to recycle more here. It’s far away from the recycle calibre in
Sweden, but it’s something, and every small thing you do makes a
difference.
- The English level - you can get by with only English a lot better here than in Japan.
- It’s cheap. - It is. Most things. People rave about the
technology being so cheap, but honestly, I can find a cheaper camera in
Sweden than in Taiwan. So give me a break there. But clothes, food,
things, you can find most things really cheap.
- Tv - I do love Asian tv… not all though, I didn’t like tv
in Vietnam. But Japan was great, and tv in Taiwan is pretty good too! Of
course I don’t understand anything, but as long as it’s fun to watch.
- People’s apartments here - WOW. Or, I’ve only been to my
co-workers apartments, and they’ve all been beautiful. What would be
considered extreme luxury in Sweden is like the basic style here. So
that’s….pretty weird….
Random things: I’ve been going to a REALLY good yoga class
here, the girl who has it is great. And I also went to a REALLY good
massage place. After a meaningless massage in Vietnam, I was pleasantly
surprised here.
What I don’t like about Taiwan
- The food. - This is a chapter of it’s own.
I’m a vegan, which limits me wherever I go, but as long as I can
cook myself there’s really not a problem. I never had any trouble in
Vietnam, you can find vegetarian food at any restaurant there. Japan was
good too since I had a kitchen there. But Taiwan. No. I live in a dorm
without a kitchen, and no restaurants nearby. My breakfast is usually
instant oatmeal and soymilk. I get a (horrible) lunchbox at work,
usually containing rice, cabbage, and some strange fake-meat. Things are
just boiled, without salt or any spices, and put in a box. It’s
extremely repetitive, and frankly disgusting (see anon, I got the
spelling right there). For dinner I usually buy a salad at 7 eleven. Or
cold noodles in sesame sauce, but usually the salad. Both because it’s
pretty much the only thing vegan, and because I’m trying to lose some of
the weight I gained in food heaven Vietnam and Japan. Besides that I
eat plenty of nuts, and some fruit.
Most of the traditional dishes
that Taiwan is famous for is meat based, so that’s out. But yeah, I
think a lot of the problem for me is the taste. Or rather the lack of
it. I just find everything I eat to be so simply cooked. I’ve had street
food and I’ve dined at fine restaurants, and I still prefer the 8 SEK
noodles I had in Vietnam to anything I’ve eaten here. There are plenty
of vegetarian buffes, but everything is pretty much just boiled or fried
and put on a plate. That’s it. And that’s boring. No flavour
whatsoever, no nutrition left.
You wanna hear some of my favourite…flavours… when cooking?
Salt,
black pepper, cumin, basil, thyme, ginger, rosemary, chili, bell
pepper, olives, sun dried tomatoes, coriander, cardamom. Taiwanese food
is not where I’ll get my fix.
And also. Jelly. I can tolerate
jelly in SMALL portions, at some fancy restaurants it can even be pretty
good. But people here love jelly. And it’s everywhere. I think it’s
especially bad in the cold tea, which I don’t like either. It doesn’t
even taste like tea.
I love bread. And there’s no decent bread here.
Just the super white bread that I barely want to call bread because it’s
pretty much just air.
Oh, and the juice! I come from a country where
the juice options are endless. The flavours are infinite. Here they
only have orange juice and grape juice. That’s it.
The lack of
decent food (I mean can someone give me some broccoli, PLEASE?) has
given me a nutrition deficiency, which is making me feel constantly
tired, I’m losing hair, I’m mildly depressed and I’m having the
attentionspan of a 5 year old.
But I must like some food? Right?
Maybe.
My favourite place and dish is a vegetarian korean restaurant here,
that has a killer bibimbap. There’s also an organic store that has some
really great bread. Fruit is generally amazing. 7 eleven has good salads
and sesame noodles, and I generally like the snacks (like garlic
peanuts, green beans in some coconut thing, etc.). I like dumplings. And
I’ve enjoyed some hot pots.
- The weather - Okey so the weather has some downsides. Like the
fact that I’m here during the two rainiest months of the year. Because
of the rain I’ve had rock climbings and hikings cancelled, which have
made me quite disappointed. Considering that I don’t have a lot of spare
time here, it sucks to have your plans cancelled because of the
weather.
- The people and social relations - also a chapter of it’s own.
1. It’s old news, but I’m tired of being stared at. In Vietnam
people stared a little, but not that much. They’re probably more used to
tourists than Taiwan. In Japan literally no one cared. But here people
stare. A LOT. I’m white. I’m a girl. And I’m not a giant like many other
Westeners. Get over it, please. Sweden is like the whitest place on
earth, but we never stare at people just because they have a different
colour of their skin. It’s considered a bit rude, and frankly most
people don’t see a reason to stare. That person looks different, so
what.
2. People are very happy to make me try new things, but
they are not very open to trying new things themselves. I have tried
EVERYTHING that people has put in front of my nose, as long as it has
been vegan. Seriously. If it’s vegan, I eat it.
But when I went to
Ikea and bought some Swedish food stuffs, and got all excited about
finally showing them some of my own food culture, people were VERY
hesitant to try. No one really wanted to. I am nice and polite, because
that is how I would want people to be to me. So when I try all these
strange foods that I know that I won’t like, I’d like other people to
try something when I’m offering it. It’s just common courtesy.
3. Much older men hitting on me. Not interested. Not now, not ever.
4.
The relationship between teenagers and their parents. I am myself very
young, so I’m not surprised that people here treat me the same way as
they would treat Taiwanese people my age, but it still bothers me quite a
bit since it’s the complete opposite of what I’m used to. I’m
generalizing now, but bear with me.
Parents
here are ridiculously overprotective. Teenagers are expected to show
respect to their parents, and I can accept that, but they don’t get that
much respect in return. They are expected to always be there for there
parents, which I also can accept, but they have very little freedom to
be independent. Even as adults, people are expected to keep the same
type of submissive relationship with their parents. I know it’s a part
of the culture, but I could never take it. Always going home to your
parents, always call to tell them what you’re doing, not being allowed
to do what you want, asking for permission.
I can understand that
the parents might want company, but I think it’s ridiculous and a bit
selfish to force your kids to always be home just because they want
company. One could argue that it’s selfish of the teenagers to NOT want
to be home, but as a youngster myself of course I have to say that young
people need to learn how to be independent.
Teenagers are expected
to take care of their parents, and their parents are so protective of
them that they are not allowed to become independent. I couldn’t help
but snap when someone asked me if I needed help to stir my bibimbap. I
am not a child, I am a 20 year old girl, I can stir my own food thank
you very much.
Then again, I have not spent much time with people
my own age here since most of my co-workers are 30+ years old, but this
is what I’ve got out of the way people have treated me and how the
people of my own age has told me about their parents.
5. Women
talk about how they need to lose weight and they can’t eat this and that
because it’s too many calories, but they stuff themselves with noodles
and rice every day. There’s carbs all over the place! And people talk
about calories and losing weight, but VERY FEW of the people I’ve met
actually do any exercise. Most of the older people here are quite
reluctant to exercise.
- The working culture - people here work waaay too much. There’s a
completely different working culture in Asia in general, so it goes for
many of the other countries too, but I still don’t think it’s healthy. I
know that they don’t really have any other choice, but I think that
they should, and I hope that they will in the future. People rarely have
vacations or take day offs. They have 10 days vacation when they get
married, and that’s the longest vacation they get pretty much. There
might be a typhoon or two tomorrow, and people at my job are literally
rooting for them to come so they might be forced to stay home and take a
day off tomorrow.
- How things has to be convenient. People here always want
things to be convenient. There are convenient stores everywhere, because
it’s convenient. People don’t like to cook food, because it’s more
convenient to eat out. People don’t like carpooling, because it’s not
convenient. Having a car or a motorbike is convenient. Life is not
convenient, so why fight it so much?
- The streets and the traffic - There are very few sidewalks
here. And for a walking girl like me, that’s basically hell! If you
don’t have a car or motorbike here, you’re basically stuck. Which I
don’t. I’ve been on a motorbike in HCMC, and I still think the traffic
in Taiwan is worse. There are more cars here, and people drive A LOT
faster. Vietnam is stuffed with motorbikes, but people drive slower, and
more carefully. I rarely felt unsafe riding my bike, or being on a
motorbike there. Here the traffic feels unsafe even in a car sometimes.
Public transportation is in need of expansion. It’s great in Taipei, but
the infrastructure in the rest of the country is so-so.
- I like to flush my toilet paper, thank you.
- The mosquitos - They’re like crazy ninjas! They’re invisible and aggressive, and the bites itch like CRAZY.
- The language - I had planned on learning some Chinese when I
got here, but I gave up pretty quick. It’s SO difficult. And Taiwan
uses the traditional symbols, which makes it EVEN HARDER. So yeah. I’m
sticking to learning Vietnamese. :p and my German has actually improved
more while in Taiwan, because I’ve been forced to read to many German
customer’s webpages.
Homesickness - this may be both a cause and an effect of my
feelings for Taiwan. I’ve been extremely homesick since I left my
friends in Japan, and I feel like I passed my travel limit then and
there. I’ve been away from home for a LONG time now. And seriously.
Nothing can compare to Japan. That’s just how it is. :p If I wasn’t so
homesick I probably would have been more patient and enjoyed my stay
here more, and if things had been different I might have been less
homesick. Who knows. This is what I’ve thought of so far. You can’t love
every place you go to, and I didn’t love every place I went to in
Vietnam and Japan. But I generally liked those two countries more.
