Tuesday 19 March 2013

Toodle Pip Taiwan!

Well it's taken me a while but here ends the Taiwan chapter. My final week in Taiwan was a BUSY one. It's amazing how many friends I had to have final drinks, final lunch, final coffees with...considering 6 months ago I had no idea who these people were, they are now some of my dearest friends. 

I had to leave Taiwan with a bang, so in my final week...Monday was German beer night drinkles and late night chat with friendlings. Wednesday was curry with the girls at the nearest Indian restaurant (half hour away in the city.) And ohhh the curry was good. Whether it was just that I hadn't had Indian curry in a long while that it tasted super good, or that it just was super good I don't know. But the company made it even more enjoyable. Then my leaving party/2 other girlies welcoming party. One great thing about Taiwan is the coming and going, always new people arriving. My Mexican friend whipped up a right royal Mexican feast for us...I ate far too much and was then expected to dance. Ooooph! Thursday we were overtaken by robots. We went to the science museum where they had a robot exhibition going on. 9 of us riding in convoy on scooters into the city was a quite a sight. With the biggest challenge being would we all make it through the lights...and if it turned red do you just go anyway and hope for the best as all the other Taiwanese riders seem to do anyway. Then Friday was THE day...the day I had to get on that big spangly plane and make my way back to England. 

So in my attempts of beating jet lag I decided to not really sleep on Thursday, so I would be tired for England time. So Friday was an early start. And as I pottered around the kitchen making my final coffee in that ghastly kitchen...I hear a clink between some bottles, eek what creature is visiting this morning I think to myself...so I turn around and a rat runs out and makes a dash for it behind the fridge! Nice! I had had my suspicions that rats had been sharing the house with us, but seeing it just makes you feel almost violated by nature! So I was glad to be leaving that pest behind!

My wonderful friendlinks came and picked me up to take me to the bus station. They waited with me at the station and waved me off. Our friend was also on her way back to Taipei, so she came with me on the bus to the airport, so that was great as I was still having fun so I couldn't feel tooooo sad. My wonderful friend (who I had only met 2 weeks previously) stayed with me at the airport until I had to go through to security and she treated me to my final brekkie in Taiwan, so sweet. (Fruit, a pastry and a coffee, in case you were wondering what my last brekkie was.) Having some company at the airport, was such a blessing, I would have been fine on my own of course, but time goes so much faster when you have some fun company.

So onto the plane I got and the adventure of returning to the West began. On my flight from Hong Kong to London, as soon as I got on the plane I had a rather sinking feeling in my gut...all I could hear was English people complaining about various trivial matters. Why am I returning to this? I did have the fortune of sitting next to a very cute little Chinese family, so speaking to them in Chinese did help pass the time a little. And the next thing I know, we are flying over London, with all the sparkly night lights.

Being able to understand everyones conversations was a weird sensation! 

I've been living out of my suitcase for two weeks still whilst visiting family. So the adventure was still partially alive. 

One thing that really gets me is, English life is supposed to feel normal, I had lived in for almost 22 years, but now just because of spending 6 months out of it, it really doesn't feel normal any more. There are some things that are great and wonderful to be reunited with...but other things I wonder why on earth I deemed them necessary in the first place. It's gonna take a while to get used to this ol' English life. Being back in my home, having the joy of unpacking is all a bit strange at the moment.

Hmmm, itchy feet may have set in already. Mexico in November maybe? Better start saving up.

So maybe I'll write again here from my next adventure...it's inevitably going to happen sooner or later!


No comments:

Post a Comment