“where do I go? follow the river, where do I go, follow the gulls…”

Without talking too much about work stuff, there is some possibilitiy I’ll move back to the Netherlands before Ted does (he travels there so much it won’t make much difference to how much I see of him). Hopefully we’ll get it figured out one way or another soon after we get back from Australia, though I just found out some disturbing stuff about what was done to my salary when I moved here.

But anyway, here’s the big comparison post.

People occasionally ask me which place is better to live in – I think the following will make it clear why I don’t give a short answer.

• In the Netherlands I would be able to row on the water, regularly. However, I might not be able to bring a rowing machine and it’s usually hard to row during the week. (Even if they don’t let me bring much freight, I may be able to send an erg and a bike along with a returning Dutch employee, who would have a 20′ container to ship in.) If I don’t have my own erg, I’d need to go use the ones at the boathouse and probably wouldn’t do so before work. I wouldn’t have any access to weights, probably.
• Taiwan has the nicest people I’ve met anyway. on the other hand in the Netherlands there are a few people I consider friends, not just acquaintances I like. There’s also more opportunities for sort of drop-in socializing – breakfast at the boathouse on Saturday mornings, the Stitch ‘n’ Bitch group biweekly.
• In the Netherlands more people speak English, the ones who do speak it better, and even when they don’t I speak and understand considerably more Dutch than Chinese.
• Taiwan has convenience. Stores are open on Sundays and until 9 or 10 most nights. In the Netherlands most stores close at 5 or 6. They’re open until 9 one evening a week and on on Sunday a month (in Eindhoven it’s Friday evening and the first Sunday or each month). Repair people come out even at night or on weekends – in contrast it took two weeks to get our internet connection set up when we first moved to the Netherlands.
• In Taiwan there are supermarkets that cater to expats and there are two hypermarkets (Carrefour and A.Mart) in walking distance from my house. In the Netherlands the groceries are tiny by American standards, but what they carry is closer to what I cook with. It may help if we cross the Belgian border and go to the Carrefour there once in a while – we did try another Belgian supermarket once, but though bigger, it didn’t have much more we wanted, except a better selection of beef. Taiwan has Costco, where we can buy US brands.
• Wine is much cheaper in the Netherlands, and so is cheese.
• I can get take-out food or have a quick restaurant dinner in Taiwan; in the Netherlands eating out is a 2-hour affair, which is nice for special occasions but annoying if you do it on a regular basis (hopefully I’d have a more functional kitchen this time). Fast food there is limited, especially healthy fast food.
• Flying out of Taiwan is expensive; from Eindhoven you can drive or take trains all over Europe. The German and Belgian borders are very close.
• You can get almost anything in Taipei – if you can’t find what you want, you’re probably not looking in the right place. There are things I just can’t get in the Netherlands – but what I can get is in walking distance.
• Finding clothes that fit is (slightly) easier in the Netherlands. Ordering from the US is both cheaper and easier in Taiwan – the higher shipping costs are greatly overset by much lower customs. (Though apparently books are cheaper to import into the Netherlands than other things.) Also, in our Taipei apparently there’s a doorman who will receive packages, whereas in Eindhoven I usually had to go to the post office to pick them up – and during the week it’s only open in working hours. However, sending packages was easier in Eindhoven because the local PO is open on Saturdays.
• The Netherlands have bike paths and bike racks everywhere. Taipei has an MRT (metro train) system and as of July there’s been a stop near our apartment.
• Taiwan’s own food may be more different but there’s also more American food there. (Taiwan’s also famous for its own food, especially snack food, but I’m not crazy about a lot of it.) Both places have McDonalds, KFC and Subway; here they also have Outback, TGIFriday’s, Ruth’s Chris, Chili’s, Gordon Biersch, Macaroni Grill and a couple of decent Mexican places. The Netherlands have good Argentinian steaks but I have never had a decent hamburger there (Ted says there’s a new place that’s not too bad, though). On the other hand you can get great bread and a good tomato-mozzarella salad almost anywhere in Eindhoven, and there’s a wider variety of restaurants in walking distance.
• The commute in the Netherlands is about half as long – I can bike it in the time it takes to drive to work here.
• I probably won’t be able to bring many of my books until Ted comes, though of course I’d have the Kindle.
• I won’t have the nice big American fridge, washer and dryer I have here. Might not have a freezer at all.
• I much prefer the weather in the Netherlands. They have seasons other than just too hot and too cold. (Paradoxically, Taipei is actually too cold indoors only. Outside isn’t too bad in winter.) Might not have air-conditioning in the apartment they’d put me in though. We would have it when Ted gets there and we could choose our own flat.
• We get more friends and family visiting in the Netherlands than here – but when I’m there on my own I might or might not have a guest room.
• The bookstores downtown in Taipei have more English-language books – the local bookstore in Eindhoven have some but not a ton (they’re well-stocked with Pratchett but I have most of those – in fact that’s why I do) and you have to go to Amsterdam for a better selection. Though the local store does have a lot more than the one near my flat here. Also, books cost much more in the Netherlands. The Kindle makes this less of a problem than it was before, though.
• There’s more sense of history there than here. You think of Asia as having old cultures, and Taiwan’s culture is old, but most of the history didn’t happen here. The oldest building I’ve seen here is probably the fort in Danshui, built in 1641, only 60 years older than the oldest building in my hometown – and Phladelphia has loads of other buildings more than a couple hundred years old, while Taipei doesn’t.