Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas in Taiwan

It’s now December 26th (known as “Boxing Day” in Canada), and another Christmas has passed. For some of us expatriates living in Taiwan, Christmas can be a bit of a lonely time – a time when we miss our friends and family back in our home country. On the upside, however, we still have each other, and I (teacher Jonathan) spent my Christmas Eve/Christmas Morning at Wai Ao Beach with a bunch of Canadian, American and Taiwanese friends.

To get to Wai Ao, I had to take the TRA (Taiwan Railways Administration) train from Taipei Main Station. It took a while to get there (about 1 ½ hours from Taipei Main Station), but the train was very comfortable and very reasonably priced (about 10 US dollars return trip).

They had a campfire going on the beach, so we hung out there for a while, and then went inside my friend’s neighbor’s apartment. The party lasted until past 5am, at which point I took the train back to Taipei, and spent most of Christmas Day sleeping.

Taipei is 12 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, so I called my family this morning (during their Christmas dinner) to wish them all a Merry Christmas.

I’m at work today, as I was on Friday, because Christmas is not an official holiday in Taiwan. But in late January I’ll get time off for Chinese New Year, so I’m looking forward to it!

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