I had been living in Taiwan for about 4 months with my boyfriend at the time in his family’s house. We broke up around Chinese new year time. Unfortunately for me everyone takes off , so I had about 3 days to find a place to live. Great! Lets find a place to live that is nice, affordable, and close to school that I could move in now. In the mean time I was staying in a hostel, thankfully this only lasted 2 nights. It was super depressing and I could not wait to find a place to live. I was kinda homeless. I was forced to use my beginner Chinese skills to talk to landlords and ask how much the rent was. I had to enlist the help of a friend to help me with the contract. She made sure I wasn’t going to get ripped off. She was so sweet, came with me to the signing and was asking all sorts of questions. Thanks to her help I was able to lock down a place before Chinese new year.
After finding a place to live and going through the break up. I was trying to keep busy. I got more involved in school, thanks to this my Chinese improved like crazy. I was meeting new people, making new friends. I started teaching English and Spanish making a little money on the side. I tried out bar tending for the first time ever. Didn’t like it though, I prefer to be the one that is drinking and not serving. I was going out dancing, most night clubs in Taiwan are all you can drink with a cover. I went to the couch-surfing meetups. All of this helped me grow as a person.
You can’t always plan everything out because you don’t know whats going to happen down the line. I was constantly told to go home and be close to my loved ones during this time. It wasn’t easy, it was really hard. I think it was the hardest thing that I had to do. The point is that if I would have gone home, I wouldn’t have been able to grow and become who I am today. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet such wonderful friends. I wouldn’t have been able to go and see Japan, Philippines, or experience what this wonderful country had to offer. Things are not always going to be easy but its worth pushing through the hard times, you never know whats in store for you.
Some pics from this awesome experience…..
