I'm going to level with everyone reading this, as well as myself: I fucking miss Taipei. I don't miss my boss, but I miss Taipei like whoa. I miss the MRT. I miss the buses. I miss the food, the fashion, the insanity of cars and scooters in the streets. I miss street performers in Ximen and fruit for sale in the markets of Xinzhuang. I miss the adorable cafes of Da'an and the walls of accessories in the shops of Shida Night Market. I miss Coda cafe with its expensive food and walls of used books for sale. I miss the incredible graffiti on the walls of Ximen side streets, the bike trails of Danshui, the shaved ice on hot nights and bowls of noodles in an unknown orange broth in a cramped Thai restaurant in Gongguan. I miss getting hideously lost in Wu-Fen-Pu but being amazed by the fashion there none-the-less.
I miss the tea. I miss the endless wifi. I miss the cafe culture, where you could hang around practically anywhere using the cafe's wifi as long as you kept buying food or drinks. I miss street vendors selling cheap food from carts and running from the police when the flashing scooters come through on a sweep. I miss big crowds of people around random noodle shops because everyone has to eat noodles at this one noodle shop because it's famous for... something.
I miss Taipei.
And the thing is, I never intended to go there. I had to Google Taiwan when I was offered a job there. I had no idea what I was walking into. But I fell in love with it. I fell in love with Mandarin, too, insane voice-defying language full of a million slightly-different-sibilant-sounds that it is. I miss hearing plain-old Mandarin being spoken in regular conversation.
I have to go back. Whether it's for a week or another year, I need to return. Japan is my first love, but Taipei has definitely stolen my heart, and I feel that now that I've finally achieved my dream of Japan, I'm more capable of loving Taiwan for what it is. Sometime--maybe this year, maybe next--I'm going to visit Taiwan and immerse myself in it one more time.
Yeah, I miss Taipei too. I was really on the fence about it for most of the time I was there though. For every thing I liked there was something I didn't like and I found that even in Taipei there was a significant language barrier for someone like me who can only handle the most basic of interactions in Mandarin. It was a city that really grew on me though and now it's one of my favourite cities I've ever been to for a lot of the reasons you've mentioned here... and of course the Taiwanese people who are so friendly and welcoming.
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