Top 12 Things I will miss about living in Taiwan

Well, I have entered the homestretch for my time here in Taiwan. With around 12 weeks left in the country  I am starting to realize just how much I will miss this place. Everyday there seems to be at least one moment where I just can't imagine leaving. Naturally that got me thinking about what I will miss most about my life over this past year. So I decided to do a countdown/ranking list.(Everyone likes countdowns and rankings, right?) This will serve many purposes, it will; help everyone countdown the weeks until I come home, summarize the highlights of my year, and help me cope with the realization that I have to leave.

So here it is. With 12 weeks left, I present you with my Top 12 things I will miss about Taiwan.

#12 The Language

I know many of you wont understand this. How could I miss living in a country where I can't read or write hardly anything. Language barrier is probably one of the biggest reasons Americans ignore Asia as a travel destination. At first, I definitely agreed. I constantly avoided certain situations just because I could not communicate with people. I ate the same things over and over just because I couldn't read menus or ask any questions. There were times when traveling was very overwhelming because of the language. I am not sure when things changed for me, but they did.

Now I can handle at least 75% (or more) of daily situations by speaking and understanding Chinese. I can't have a conversation in Chinese, but I know all of the essentials. I can not remember the last time not knowing Chinese prevented me from doing something. It takes time to learn to live this way, but it is actually a lot of fun once you get it. Besides the rush of speaking another(and very difficult) language, there are other benefits.
-being able to talk about people without fear of them knowing what you are saying.
-having everyone come up to you and try to speak whatever English they know.
-getting out of tickets just because the police officer can't speak English.
-Lets be real, in America I suck at talking to girls. Here, no one notices because they only understand half of what I say. For some this would be a negative, but not for this guy.

Will it be a relief when I return to The States and am able to say whatever I want to whoever I want? Sure. But not knowing everything that is said around me makes life much more interesting.

I will post #11 sometime next weekend. I will try to get pictures to go along with my posts from now on.

Go Royals!