taiwan travelogue

Everyone I know loves Taiwan. I’d been holding out on visiting for some years until I was on a group walk and encountered a friend of a friend who had interned at Bytedance and grown up in Taiwan and politely informed me that I should visit soon, before China invaded. Well okay. I took her suggestion seriously and a plan was made in the group chat. I went with my friends C and L and my mom. My therapist was like Are you sure you want to go with your mom? I was like yes my mom is a great hang. She’s met all of my friends, plus she speaks Mandarin, which I assumed would be a bonus even though I was told everyone in speaks English in Taiwan.The vacation was meaningful for me. People have written about this more comprehensively than I have, but my unconventional work life means that while I have very flexible hours I also don’t really have any distinct starts or stops in my work life. I have coaching calls every week, I try to post on Substack every week (though I’ve been more relaxed…