The Adventurous Explorer

Travel & Discovery

Touchdown Taiwan

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I did it! I can’t believe I’m actually here! After deplaning, I picked up my luggage, exchanged my money, and headed out to catch the bus to the city. During the hourlong bus ride, I made several first impressions about my new home:

  • It’s hot and humid! I knew that I’d be in the tropics, but didn’t realize it was going to be THIS humid.
  • This place reminds me of the East Side of the Big Island. Everything is green. Probably due to the rain, a lot of the buildings look run down.

After getting to Taipei Main Station, I made my way through the maze of this massive building for my metro. Although carrying my luggage with me was an inconvenience, I managed to find the train, bought my EasyCard, and hopped on. Three stops later I arrived at Guting station, found my hostel, and checked-in.

I’m staying at Eight Elephants Hostel for a week. I’m in a single, but besides the room itself, everything else is shared. This place has a real homey vibe to it! I’ve already met a bunch of people: some on holiday, some students like myself. My only plan for this week is to find housing, and perhaps a job teaching English. Besides that, I’m really just going to play it by ear and go with the flow – I love this feeling.

 

Taking the Plunge

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I finally took the plunge. The decision was without a doubt one of the riskiest decisions I’ve ever made in my life. The feeling still hasn’t completely settled in; it’s still surreal. I’ve learned that the hardest part of following your heart and your true interests is really the commitment to follow through. Sure, I saved up for nearly two years to make pursuing my interests possible, but having a financial safety net means nothing if you don’t actually execute on what you’ve been hoping to do.

It’s so easy to just give up, and postpone following your heart for another day.

I knew that given my current circumstances, now was the right time to do something that I might never be able to do when I’m older. Ironically enough, earlier this week I was given an open offer to work in our Singapore office following the end of my program. I’d like to believe that this goes to show that life is really about taking risks and following your heart. It might be scary when facing the unknown, but somehow the universe has a tendency of providing us with what we need at the right time. I cannot express how grateful, lucky, and appreciative I am for how everything has worked out.

But anyway, I still can’t believe that within several weeks, I’ll be going to a foreign country knowing nobody, looking for housing, enrolling in a language program, finding a part-time job, and most importantly, meeting new people from around the world! The thought of all of this kind of scares me. Actually, it scares me a lot; however, I’m sure that without a doubt, my time there will be an experience filled with memories that’ll last a lifetime!

One Foot On Sand – The Journey Begins!

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Me, blogging? Again!? I know, I know, some of you may be thinking why blog, and why now?

Well, to express myself – obviously. In addition though, I’m blogging as a way to improve my writing, to discuss my thoughts and opinions, and also to get your feedback! Sounds like a typical blogger. Perhaps? But here’s why you should follow my blog…

For as long as I can remember, I often found myself sounding either too formal, too convoluted, or simply at a loss of words. I’m hoping that by reading this blog, you’ll be able to get a different perspective of who I really am, my interests and passions, and what I’m really thinking about.

So what do I plan on writing about? A number of things. But first, I should probably talk about what I won’t be writing about – namely, my day job. Although it’s great, this blog will be used as a sounding board of my thoughts and ideas outside of work.

So now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I hope to use this blog as a journal of sorts as I continue my journey in developing my mind, body, and soul as a twenty-something. Hope you stick around and find out! Thanks for reading!