On being home.

I called my best friend yesterday and asked her if she'd like to join me for dinner and some early evening shopping. "How do you plan on shopping," she said, "stores here close at 5!" This notion confused me, as do many other things about being home, such as the fact that I can drink the tap water and flush the TP. 

I've been home for roughly a week. It's cold here, both literally and figuratively. I am overwhelmed by the variety of white people, black people, Indian people, and generally non-Taiwanese people. I am experiencing serious aural overload - I've become so used to being surrounded by the Chinese chatter that I learned to block out that having to process the noise pollution that comes from the plethora of conversations being held on the subway in a multitude of languages that I can understand is simply mind-boggling. Worse even is the fact that not only can I understand what other people are saying all the time, they can understand me. This can be problematic when calling people fat ugly cows with bad fake orange tans when they're sitting at the table next to you. I'm so getting beat up this summer. 

Despite the fact that deep down I know that leaving Taiwan when I did was the right decision, I miss it dearly already. Things that I miss include, but are not limited to:

-danbing

-my danbing lady who let me hold her baby while she prepared my breakfast

-beer, cigarettes and food which are so cheap that they're pretty much giving them away

-my proximity to the beach and my permatan

-KTV

-typhoons, earthquakes, and holding Rachel's hand during earthquakes

-the wide array of men that made for extremely bizarre dating experiences

-my kids (not all of them, but the cute ones, for sure)

-having a forum in which to use my limited Chinese vocabulary which includes words and phrases such as "turn right", "cold beer", "I am an english teacher", "I think papaya tastes disgusting", and "I don't understand." 

-my wonderful and amazing if slightly insane friends

Having said this, it should be noted that it's been excellent to see my wonderful and amazing if slightly less insane friends from home, as well as my family. I've been welcomed back into the fold with open arms and it's reassuring to know that I have people in my life who I can be separated from for weeks, months and years at a time and nothing changes other than maybe our hair colors (and even then, not really) and every so often, our boyfriends, and really, that's just me. It might take some time for me to get used to certain Canadian idiosyncrasies, like the existence of traffic regulations, but as far as people go - it's like I never left.