Culture Shock– The five month blues

Culture shock is a painful thing to experience.  I have stabs of it; but for the most part I’m doing ok because I’ve had a spate of good luck that has buoyed my mood.  I was researching culture shock a month ago because I was suffering from it much more intensely in the small town where I lived.

Basically, the stages of living in a foreign land are the “Honeymoon phase”, when everything seems wonderful and new and you’re thrilled and it’s all exciting.  For me that lasted two months.  Then 3-12 months are the “Negotation phase” where the culture shock part kicks in.  The difficulties due to language and culture barriers become magnified and sometimes overwhelming.  Depression is a big part of this.  Even now, living in Taichung, I find myself often unwilling to negotiate finding places in other parts of the city.  My comfort zone grows slowly.

One part of culture shock that I feel creeping in and saw on display yesterday is disdain for the people of the country one is living in.  When you’ve traveled a lot, it’s easy to look down on those who haven’t.  They just don’t know that their ways are not THE WAYS of the universe.  They tend to be less accepting of difference.  I met a French graduate student who wafted disappointment (legitimately so), over her grad program.  She was pretty down on the Taiwanese people; seeing them as inefficient and childish.  That is an easy snap judgement to make about them, but there’s a lot of evidence that there’s more to the Taiwanese than that.

It’s important for the traveler to remember that travel is still the privilege of the wealthy and/or educated.  Especially in traditional societies; travel for young people isn’t encouraged.  The tightly knit communities that discourage a lot of outside exploration are conducive to flourishing in their own societies.  How do you keep them down on the farm after they’ve seen gay Paris?  And what if you really really need them on the farm?  I’ve experienced first hand the degree to which Taiwanese people rely on their networks of family and friends.  It’s really not in their interests to encourage their kids to backpack across Europe.

This leads a lot of expats to gather together.  I used to scoff at this; people who flee their country only to set up a facsimile somewhere else.  But now that I’ve become one, I see that that is only one tiny part of the story.  There are a handful of people like that, but most expats are extensively well-traveled.  They’ve visited and lived in many places and gather together because they want to be around other travelers.  Travelers are less risk-averse, have different schedules, priorities, experiences, and world views than others.  I don’t think they’re better, but they are definitely a sub-culture.  Expats gather because they want to be around people like them, which is natural.

So what do you do for the 5 month blues?  Give in and find expats, but at the same time, try not to disdain the locals.  Try to understand how their lifestyle really does work for them.  Try to notice all the ways they are kind and not focus on the crazy old men who give you shit for wearing a tank top even though it’s warm out.  I delight in pointing out the ways Taiwanese culture differs from American culture, but I do want to understand why Taiwanese ways make sense to Taiwanese people.

 

Out for a walk in Taichung

I live in Xi district and I was walking to the Carrefour behind the train station and I decided to walk up Linsen road between Lequn and Fuxing.

I saw this banyan tree filled with lanterns.

It was in a courtyard surrounded by these buildings:

This was a municipal building at one point.

This served as a jail at some point, a dojo dormitory before that.  Now it’s a space for art installations.

There’s a Japanese tea shop there from the time of the Japanese occupation.

This is the front of it.

I’m glad I decided to take a different route than normal.

No pictures

This was my early commentary on a book as a tiny child, according to family lore.  I notice my blog is low on pictures.  I’m going to go back and throw random pictures that have little or nothing to do with the posts except that they are of Taiwan.

Here’s an example:

I didn’t even take this. It’s just a nice picture.

Taiwanese people and weather

I don’t think they notice it.  I’m impressed and envious; I feel like a hot house flower compared to them.  Taiwan is mostly hot, with a non-freezing but chilly and uncomfortable winter.  Today in balmy Taichung, it’s 24 C, which is about 80 F (I think), and it’s a bit close.  High humidity, not much of a breeze; frankly I’m uncomfortable in a long sleeve cotton shirt.  This is ideal short sleeves weather.  Yet as I walked to church where I failed to find a seat because half the Philippino population of Xi district had beaten me there, I saw Taiwanese people in jackets, sweaters, and other cool weather staples.

My outfit of choice today

Taiwanese women are very concerned about not getting brown; whiter is righter.  So they run around in 33 degree heat with 80% humidity in long sleeves and and long pants.  How do they not die on the spot? Tank tops are a bit scandalous here, and I had a hard time forcing myself to wear enough clothing to not get looks.  Fortunately I live in a big city now, so I expect to be able to get away with showing some shoulder.

You’d think this would translate to Taiwanese people curling up and dying when it gets down into a wet and 12 degree day.  Nope.  Taiwanese buildings aren’t heated, but that did not stop my coworkers from throwing all the doors and windows open and sitting at their desks in their coats.  “Why not close the windows and doors and not wear your coat?” I asked in wonder.  “We want fresh air” they say.

Ready for fresh air

They were perplexed that I would feel the cold so keenly– I’m from Chicago originally.  “Well, we heat the insides of our buildings, so you’re usually not sitting in in a room that’s 16 C” I responded. Imagine sitting not in a freezer, but in your refrigerator or unheated basement; you’re not going to die, but there’s no place to warm up.  It gets uncomfortable.  My tip for that scenario is to get a hot water bottle and take it with you to work.

Like my other questions about Taiwan, I need to ask where this weather hardiness (obliviousness?) comes from.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Taiwanese sales clerks and coconut oil

Taiwanese sales clerks are frequently aggressively helpful, which is distressing.  What they don’t realize is they drive me right out of the store; I wonder how many other people are this way?  I wonder how much revenue Taiwanese shops lose driving the introverted out of their stores due to intense sales clerk scrutiny. Shopping for me can be a fun, almost meditative experience where I gaze upon products and ruminate about a future reality in which they are a part of my life.  But because I rarely have much more money than I need, I don’t part with it that easily, and sales clerks make me feel embarrassingly cheap.  I went into a store called Sasa to look at girly foo-foo water and I did get a chance to buy a sample size of a conditioner I was curious about that I saw at Carrefour for half the price.  But Jimmy, my dedicated assistant, ruined my perfume browsing by insisting on spraying the little cards with any scent I expressed interest in.  I wanted to be left alone for 40 minutes to smell each one, but instead I declared the tuberose lovely but did not buy any because it’s $60 a bottle and I don’t make $60 impulse buys very often.

Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Tainan

What I want to tell the overly zealous shop clerks is to clear out.  I did tell Jimmy I just wanted to look, but that didn’t scrape him off my ass for more than about 45 seconds.  I don’t know how to communicate “please go away; you’re giving me a panic attack” politely.  I went to Uniqlo, a Japanese clothing store I’d never encountered and was blissfully ignored.  I went on to spend the princely sum of $30 US on an accordian pleat grey chiffon skirt and sea foam green top that will undoubtedly make my life more meaningful and love-filled.

Me in my new grey pleated skirt.

Coconut oil update.  If your hair is dry and damaged, get some right now.  Leave it in as long as you can.  But know this– it will leave grease stains on fabric (including what you slept in and your pillow case if you leave it in overnight) so cover your head or just have a designated coconut oil t-shirt.  I’ve been reading about hair because I’m shallow and I like to do research, and if you use silicone products or argan oil, they will coat your hair and prevent the acids and fats of the coconut oil from penetrating.  I do use silicone products, so I washed my hair with one of the shampoos with lauryl sufate that everyone tells you not to use.  But it does get out the silicone.  Then I drenched my hair in coconut oil for about 36 hours (I just put it up in a bun when I went out) and washed it out this morning.  This stuff is amazing.  I will definitely be using it as a deep conditioner a couple of times a month.

Don’t, however, put it on your face in any large quantity.  After an oily, pimply teenhood, I am now blessed with clear, not too dry skin.  But after putting coconut oil on my face, I got like 3 zits.  It will clog your pores.  I’d dab it on to places that get dry to the point of flakiness, but it’s just too heavy for your face.  Even for your body, I would go more lightly next time than I did this.  I took 10 hours to sink into my skin fully and I felt like I was leaving a (admittedly lovely smelling) snail trail behind me.  Now that it has soaked in, my skin is soft and smooth.  I think what I’ll do in the future is have a designated set of coconut oil pjs and just do my coconut oil routine as an over night thing.

I got 2 Chic by Giovanni conditioner with keratin and argan oil and Giovanni’s leave-in conditioner, which promises to be weightless and Giovanni Root 66 volume shampoo.  I will let you know how those work out for me.

I’m ready for Chinese New Year

Adventures in Taiwanese psychiatry

Psychiatry update!

China Medical University Hospital (branches in Taichung and Beigang) has done an admirable job in taking care of my anxiety and depression.  I cannot get Vistaril, but they are giving me Xanax like the end of the world is nigh, which is good or bad depending on your viewpoint.

One experience worth recounting is that I ran out of Celexa and went abruptly onto Lexapro, which given the chemical similarity of the two medications, you’d think wouldn’t be a big deal.  It was a big deal.  A very big deal.  I felt like shit-death for two weeks.  Don’t do what I did.  Ease off one to the other, even if you doctor doesn’t instruct you to do so.

Train to misery town. Mind the gap.

They are free and easy with the ambien.  I take ambien more to ease evening anxiety than to sleep.  My doctor kindly prescribed me Neurontin, which my old doctor cross-prescribed because it takes a bite out of the anxiety.  I also got an Abilify kick, which is very helpful.

All in all, my experiences managing my anxiety and depression from the pharmaceutical stand point have been reassuring.  My visits to the doctor plus medicine cost about $33 U.S.  We really need socialized health care in the States.

Poya House

This is my favorite store in Taiwan. It’s like if Walgreens and Target had a baby.

The dark side of the hair wash

Don’t do this more than a couple of times a month unless you have oily, resilient hair.  While I still adore a good xie tou fa, I was crashing in a place with a grotty bathroom, so I didn’t want to shower or wash my hair.  Now I can mop off with a towel and some soap in a basin to keep myself from getting stinky, but the hair needs seeing to.  Three washes in a week later, my hair is trashed.

They don’t put conditioner in it, and they don’t take the greatest care in not breaking it when it’s wet.  So now I’m going to experiment with cold-press coconut oil, which I hear is amazing, and leave the blow dryer on the shelf until it’s all healthy again.  The coconut oil is awesome on skin, and I even dab some on my face, which is controversial.  It really gets rid of dry spots.  Unlike the miraculous Argan oil, the coconut oil molecules are actually small enough to penetrate the hair’s shaft.

I ordered some Keratase Elixir Ultime and waited for it to come from Momo with the eagerness of a child waiting for Christmas morning.  I’m not sure if it lived up to my expectations, but it does smell good and I can’t get Frizz Ease here.