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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Interesting read, thank you! :)
ReplyDeleteHi! Found your blog from taiwan-tagged posts on tumblr. Just curious, what do you do for a job that allows you to travel to Taiwan, Japan, and Vietnam?
ReplyDeleteJessie