the difference

On a day when the increase in humidity is making your sinuses go haywire and you're recovering from a good night's sleep after a busy day when you got almost no sleep, there are few better places to be than at home, on your bed, on your computer.


I had a random thought I wanted to share. I was on the Vlogbrothers' merchandise website looking at the posters, and I wondered if I should put something on my blank walls. Or, for that matter, what I might want to put on these walls at all, if anything. I kinda like their blankness. Makes the apartment feel big.


But what struck me was that I didn't know what kinds of things people decorated their walls with here in Taiwan. If I went to a home decor store, what would I find? What patterns, what items?


And this thought lead to me wondering if that's why I like Asia so much. If you go to a Western country, you will certainly find some new things, no question. But it will also be a bit familiar, in tastes or language or fashion. Here, in Asia, so many things are different that it's like being on a new planet. There are just so many new ideas here about how life should be lived. Like taking off your shoes before walking inside, or keeping your purse on your lap in the train because the "ghosts might steal your money." (I'm not making that up. I don't think people genuinely believe that here, but there is a strong tradition of keeping your bag or purse in your lap or on your person when you're on the train or bus, and that's where it comes from.)


Even ideas about what parts of your body are acceptable to show, or how the trash system should work, or how showers should be--it's all so very, very different here. Sometimes it's a bit too different, and my Western sensibilities start yearning for home where the shower and bathroom sink are not the same entity, and the garbage truck comes to you, and oil is not an ingredient in almost every single meal. I miss mac and cheese, and grilled chicken, and the option to buy nuts that haven't been smothered in salt or sugar. I miss being able to read signs and menus everywhere I go. I miss the autonomy an English-speaking Western culture afforded me.

Still, I also know that there's a lot about this place I do like, such as the allowance for extravagance in fashion, and not having to drive a car to a new place (I just take the bus!), and the shaved ice dessert with mangoes and ice cream (OMG my life changed on that day). And just mangoes, at all, and their availability on almost every street corner.


It's just going to take time to get used to all this. There may be some things I never get used to, and I'm fairly sure that a part of me will always prefer Western society, because it's what I know as well as the breath in my lungs and what will always mean "home" to me. But I wouldn't change this adventure for the world, and I know full well that when this part of my life's journey is done, I will forever be changed in ways I have always wanted and always hoped for.


For the time being, though, I just gotta get used to chicken feet and livers being a viable option for lunch. (If I try them, you will hear about it, make no mistake.)