When I immediately arrived to Taipei, I felt it somewhat
resembled Buenos Aires, with the tall sky scrapers and little shops below, each
with their own delightful specialty or honed craft; a furniture shop here, a cute
little bread and pastry shop there. Except
everything was also COMPLETELY different.
Symbols written everywhere replacing my familiar alphabet and sweet and
not-so-sweet smells in the air that I had never smelled before, that would
probably have made me sick to my stomach had I smelled them at home. The streets were also somewhat quiet for a capitol.
So far, here are a few obvious differences I have seen:
1)
The subway system in Taiwan is incredibly clean
and efficient. They even have lines
painted neatly on the subway tiles for people to file into, so that it is
orderly when entering the train cars. In
Argentina, people run through the doors, pushing and shoving the person next to
them and in front of them out of the way just to get in, hopefully in time for
the doors not to close on them, and when inside, if you have made it you are
tightly packed like a can of sweaty sardines.
2)
The streets are SO clean; I have yet to see any
dog poop, but maybe I just haven’t found the Belgrano of Taiwan yet. A neighborhood riddled with poops that cause
you to play hopscotch down the street (although, this may have changed after a few years).
So far, these are the main differences I have seen. I really loved the way Argentina worked, or
didn’t work most of the time. That was
the beauty of it for me. So free.... Taiwan is wonderful as well. I have met a
lot of foreigners who have been here for 8 to 10 years, and most of them have
told me that they just wake up one day and 10 years later they are still here, like no time has passed at all.
I miss Belgrano poop!!!!!!!!!!!
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