Types of Adventures

I realize that when I went to Romania, there was a sense of excitement of seeing a new foreign place - a place in Europe. I had always wanted to go to Europe, albeit Germany or England, not the rural backside of Romania. I loved Romania, aside from the dust, the stray dogs, the culture in the South part that included yelling to be expressive whether you were angry or not, the blunt honesty if something was considered offensive or irritating by one of the locals, the overly traditional views of gender roles that were more frustrating than helpful. I loved the food, I loved the warmth of the people, I loved their enthusiasm for life, their passion, and I loved the sound of the language. Romanian rolls off the tongue and caresses the ear, unlike the strange tones of Chinese with uninteresting sounds not nearly so beautiful as those in Romanian.

I liked that Romanian sounds in some ways more expressive than English - especially if you're irritated you can sound like you're sincerely angry without actually being so. It was always fun reverting to Romanian when driving the car with phrases such as, "Move over!" "Goodness, you should be careful" or things like that. I especially love to tell people to "silence the mouth" (taci din gura!) when I don't want to hear what they have to say. The expression is not nearly so impolite as shut up.

Coming to Taiwan hasn't seemed as much of an adventure. I have had to handle much more of the paperwork on my own, I am joining family not simply exploring a new place, knowing new people, etc. I have had to look for work and become the provider of my tiny family of two while Rex is in the military. I am also living in an enormous city which is quite urbanized and shows less uniquely Taiwanese culture than if I were living in a rural area as I was while in Romania.

Taipei is also a relatively new city in a lot of ways. Only 50 or 60 years ago it was not much more than a fishing village recently developed by the Japanese. Prior to that Taipei City was just a fortress not much bigger than several city blocks - perhaps you could consider it a large neighborhood. But now, suddenly, it is full of new skyscrapers and high rises with a population about half the size of Wisconsin squeezed into this bowl surrounded by mountains.

Because so much of Taipei is new, there isn't all the old architecture you could see as if you visited some cities in Europe. For these reasons and because the city is just so convenient with restaurants on every block that it doesn't feel like an adventure or the same kind of challenge that I saw in Romania. I'm also a little older and more experienced than I was when I went to Romania. Regardless, Taiwan has seemed much more a puzzle than Romania because learning the language has been challenging in a different way. I'm also here with my husband in his native country. Perhaps that's the biggest reason it doesn't feel most of the time like I'm in a foreign country or a strange place. It is also very easy for me to feel like the United States is not that far away.

What strange things feelings are, aren't they?