I am born and raised American from the rural state of Ohio, and I was taught to love mom apple pie and the red white and blue. However after going to Taiwan I realized that there are a lot of things that are lacking from the US, and a lot of things that are great about the US.
One of the things that I really enjoy about living Taiwan is the fact that no matter where you live you are not too far from any interesting attraction or destination. Another being that after growing up in the US and experiencing how much it cost to live alone, the relatively low cost of living compared to the US in relation the pay rate. In the US I had a 2 bedroom apartment with a kitchen living room and a full bathroom about a mile and half from my University it cost me $650/mo, here in Taiwan I have had several apartments the most expensive is my current "apartment" at NT$25000/mo ($775). I put apartment in to quotes because it is not just an apartment it is a 5 story house with 6 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, 2 washrooms, large living room kitchen and dinning room small front and back yards with a garage, and all of this for just 125 dollars more per month than what I was paying for my tiny apartment in the US. I know your wonder what the hell do I need such a huge place for, well simply because I have to share it with 4 other roommates. The cheapest apartment which was practically the same layout as my apartment in college except my college apartment was a shotgun style place while my Taiwanese apartment had the bedrooms along the back wall of the apartment, and it the rent for it was only $300/mo.
As for salaries, even though we are paid monthly here, even though the normal Taiwanese person makes enough money that they can live well off, the expats such as myself make a significant amount more on average which makes it even more attractive to people from the US, UK, and Canada who are finding it harder and harder to get by on a salary of $750~$1000/mo., because here they can make close to the same thing as in the home country and still be able to save enough (after the first 6moths to a year) that they are able to travel around to other Asian countries.
One of the best parts about living and working in Taiwan is the medical system. There is universal health care in Taiwan, it is paid for by taxes from everyones income tax, and is open to anyone who has a residency visa and works and their children. The average hospital charges (in my experience) aren't much more than $3-400 with comparable health care to the US. I had a use of this system after my first year here because I had gotten bit by some strange bug, and had to spend a few days in a hospital bed while I was treated for the effects of the toxins in its venom. It actually wasn't too bad but it sure did make me more aware of the crazy bugs that are in Taiwan. I also used it last year when I got the flu and was taken to the hospital by my roommates because I had started to become dehydrated (which was my fault I didn't take very good care of myself and wasn't drinking enough water to replace what was being lost). This time I spent a week in the hospital and even though I have secondary health coverage which is used to pay for the things that are not covered under the NHI I still only had to pay out of pocket $310 which mostly the cost of my medicine and the price for my semi-private room. Got to LOVE universal health care. Now I am not saying that these are the average prices for things like this but that is what it amounted to with my level of health insurance coverage. I have a friend who was in a more serious little blue truck on scooter accident recently and his medical bills were something in the order of NT$350,000~400,000 (about 10-12,000US). He had several broken bones, numerous cuts and bruises all over his body, he under went 3 different surgeries and spent nearly a month in the hospital, he was very lucky that he wasn't more seriously injured than he was or that the medical bills were not has high as they would have been had he had a similar accident in the US.
For these reasons I am happy that I live in Taiwan.
(Haha I sort of got off track of where I was headed with this post.
(ㄱ_ㄱ);; Well it is a random thought blog. So I guess this will do)
One of the things that I really enjoy about living Taiwan is the fact that no matter where you live you are not too far from any interesting attraction or destination. Another being that after growing up in the US and experiencing how much it cost to live alone, the relatively low cost of living compared to the US in relation the pay rate. In the US I had a 2 bedroom apartment with a kitchen living room and a full bathroom about a mile and half from my University it cost me $650/mo, here in Taiwan I have had several apartments the most expensive is my current "apartment" at NT$25000/mo ($775). I put apartment in to quotes because it is not just an apartment it is a 5 story house with 6 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, 2 washrooms, large living room kitchen and dinning room small front and back yards with a garage, and all of this for just 125 dollars more per month than what I was paying for my tiny apartment in the US. I know your wonder what the hell do I need such a huge place for, well simply because I have to share it with 4 other roommates. The cheapest apartment which was practically the same layout as my apartment in college except my college apartment was a shotgun style place while my Taiwanese apartment had the bedrooms along the back wall of the apartment, and it the rent for it was only $300/mo.
As for salaries, even though we are paid monthly here, even though the normal Taiwanese person makes enough money that they can live well off, the expats such as myself make a significant amount more on average which makes it even more attractive to people from the US, UK, and Canada who are finding it harder and harder to get by on a salary of $750~$1000/mo., because here they can make close to the same thing as in the home country and still be able to save enough (after the first 6moths to a year) that they are able to travel around to other Asian countries.
One of the best parts about living and working in Taiwan is the medical system. There is universal health care in Taiwan, it is paid for by taxes from everyones income tax, and is open to anyone who has a residency visa and works and their children. The average hospital charges (in my experience) aren't much more than $3-400 with comparable health care to the US. I had a use of this system after my first year here because I had gotten bit by some strange bug, and had to spend a few days in a hospital bed while I was treated for the effects of the toxins in its venom. It actually wasn't too bad but it sure did make me more aware of the crazy bugs that are in Taiwan. I also used it last year when I got the flu and was taken to the hospital by my roommates because I had started to become dehydrated (which was my fault I didn't take very good care of myself and wasn't drinking enough water to replace what was being lost). This time I spent a week in the hospital and even though I have secondary health coverage which is used to pay for the things that are not covered under the NHI I still only had to pay out of pocket $310 which mostly the cost of my medicine and the price for my semi-private room. Got to LOVE universal health care. Now I am not saying that these are the average prices for things like this but that is what it amounted to with my level of health insurance coverage. I have a friend who was in a more serious little blue truck on scooter accident recently and his medical bills were something in the order of NT$350,000~400,000 (about 10-12,000US). He had several broken bones, numerous cuts and bruises all over his body, he under went 3 different surgeries and spent nearly a month in the hospital, he was very lucky that he wasn't more seriously injured than he was or that the medical bills were not has high as they would have been had he had a similar accident in the US.
For these reasons I am happy that I live in Taiwan.
(Haha I sort of got off track of where I was headed with this post.
(ㄱ_ㄱ);; Well it is a random thought blog. So I guess this will do)
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