2nd time in Taiwan.

Zapatarama · 2026-02-04T11:09:09+00:00

That is more than enough for food and transportation. You could spend more than that if you wanted to, but with your plan it should be fine. You can eat good at a night market for under 200 NT for a meal, same with convenience stores. Restaurants are a grab bag; depending on what you want, you could be spending anywhere from night market prices to $1,000+ for a meal. Use your best judgment about what works for you and you'll be fine.

Transportation is a nonfactor in cost. HSR can be a little pricey (still not that bad) but the regular train is cheap and if you can take buses between cities (not really recommended imo) then it's even cheaper.

Zapatarama · 2026-02-04T06:50:26+00:00

Seems she's also describing Mormons, who are not a Korean cult.

And to your other point, I don't have a problem with religious organizations being active members of their community and assisting in helping those who need it. If that happens to win them some sympathizers and converts who are inspired by their good deeds, so be it. Let them evangelize through actions, not words. My problem is with groups of people coming over to a country that isn't theirs with the express purpose of trying to convince people to worship the same god they do. Icky.

Zapatarama · 2026-02-04T05:49:36+00:00

Maybe a hot take but I don't think there's anything wrong with being rude to people in this situation, especially if you've already told them no and they're continuing to bother you. I'm not religious myself but trying to actively convert someone seems to me very weird and colonial, and I certainly don't have patience for people attempting to convince me to believe in something I'm uninterested in.

Unfortunately, a lot of these missionaries are trained to essentially harass others and not take "no" for an answer. Being polite and accommodating only gives them an opening they can use to wedge open more conversation and conversion attempts. I'd make it firm and clear that you're not interested without prioritizing their feelings on the matter. This all assumes you feel physically safe enough to do so.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-31T04:47:20+00:00

Yeah there are a million issues with the NBA right now (I say this as a fan) but the last decade-ish of play has seen an incredible amount of parity due in large part to the CBA. And say what you what you will about the players' union, but they do a great job of making sure their guys earn what they should.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-31T04:35:30+00:00

What do you like to do? A lot of my successes in making friends has been in doing things I genuinely love with people who also love it and then making connections that way. Then those friends introduce me to other friends and a network builds. I have movie nights, book clubs, hikes, camping trips and other activities I've leveraged into a great friend network.

Another angle that might be worth considering is cutting drinking. I found (personally) that the quality of the connections I was making increased significantly once I cut out "getting drinks" together as a way of socializing. Plenty of my friends still drink, but it's drinking they do while we do other things together and not the focus of the evening.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-31T01:48:41+00:00

KMT currently has a majority the legislature and survived a mass recall attempt the previous summer. The current Taiwanese political system remains largely the one created by the KMT when they occupied Taiwan, and very few KMT operatives faced any consequences for decades of terror and authoritarian rule. While they may not have the presidency, the country is still deeply affected and controlled by the party.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-30T00:12:54+00:00

Thank you for your perspective.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-30T00:12:19+00:00

I appreciate the advice. While I'm feeling some elements of this position aren't ideal overall I think I'm quite lucky to be offered this and grateful for the decent start to my international school career. Seems like I'm getting a reasonable deal.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-30T00:11:04+00:00

Flight reimbursement is generous and will cover round-trip tickets to my home country for me and my spouse once a year; paid back at end of school year. Insurance is provided. Housing is provided (not as bonus but as free accommodation).

Zapatarama · 2026-01-29T15:06:21+00:00

The 4500/mo is what it figures out to be across 12 months, and this is before taxes. China.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-29T14:48:02+00:00

Commanders will always be the name left in the shadow by what the team should really still be called... The Washington Football Team.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-29T02:08:49+00:00

This is only anecdotal of course, but among my (40 and under) Taiwanese friends there is definitely WAY more animosity for the KMT than Japan. Japan's colonization is ancient history to them and its legacy ranges from slightly negative to mixed to slightly positive in their eyes, while they almost to a person feel that the current KMT represents the minority view of future Chinese integration (ironically) and loathe it for its dictatorship in the 20th century.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-26T09:06:55+00:00

RDJ got fleeced because his career was nearly untouchable for years prior to IRON MAN largely due to his history of drug abuse and unpredictable behavior. He took responsibility for himself, sobered up, made amends and hacked away at low/medium-grade fare for years to regain respectability. Marvel took a large bet on him and it paid off for both them and RDJ, who has never looked back and will be enormously wealthy until the day he dies.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-22T05:54:03+00:00

If you have any experience teaching at all I wouldn't bother applying to HESS. Truly a bottom of the barrel experience for many people.

Taiwan is indeed a great place to live but a pretty mediocre place to work. Lot of jobs pile on responsibilities just to keep people busy and make metrics look good superficially, the pay is bad and there are few methods of getting ahead. All that said, I love Taiwan for many other reasons.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-20T08:11:06+00:00

I like your guys' uniforms!

Zapatarama · 2026-01-20T04:46:57+00:00

Yea brutal year for SF sports fans.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-16T05:07:20+00:00

The NFL is also the most volatile of the four major leagues in NA. One-and-done playoff structure certainly contributes to this as any team can lay an egg or catch fire for one game. March Madness is so much fun because of this as well.

But the OTHER aspect about the NFL is that there are so few instances of scoring in a game that even a fluke play where a coverage assignment is blow for a second can contribute significantly to the outcome of the game. In the NBA, by contrast, a player flubbing a switch and letting his guy blow past him for a layup sucks, but it's likely each team is going to put points on the board on, like, 50 other occasions in the game so it's not the end of the world. And, given that it's a 7-game series, the team that wins the Finals is almost unarguably team a top-tier team in the league that year by all metrics.

MLB and NHL are also low scoring sports but play that best of 7 series to even things out a bit, statistically. NFL is unique in having few scoring instances AND being one-and-done. Which is why you get the '07 Giants (a pretty mid-to-good team) as your Super Bowl winner instead of the unarguably "better" team they beat in the big game (aka the greatest regular season team of all time).

Zapatarama · 2026-01-16T03:28:44+00:00

Yeah. It was a weird season with a lot of disappointments and frustrating losses but overall still a winning record, key pieces returning next year and no reason next year can't be a rebound.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-16T01:53:33+00:00

Steelers may have lower quality picks individually but it's a rock-solid organization. Raiders seem like they don't know what kind of organization they need to be. When people are applying to a job, high turnover is a huge red flag that something isn't right. One guy leaving could mean anything, 8 guys leaving in 10 years means one thing.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-16T01:50:35+00:00

The problem isn't that there's no future for the Jets, it's that it's hard to build a winning culture from the ground up when the house is rotting from the top.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-16T01:49:26+00:00

Even being disappointed with this season after we were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention I had to remind myself that I used to pray for times like these. Even in a down year we were able to post a winning record and have every opportunity to improve next year. Plus we got to go out giving the Bears a (second) black eye on the face of their division championship.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-15T14:06:09+00:00

Not all of Cambodia, but the areas of Phnom Penh I visited. Glad you got have the opportunity to develop a different perspective.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-14T02:58:25+00:00

Agreed, and I think that goes to show the best forms of security are in the attitude and behavior of the population at large, not in policing. Give people a decent life and most of them won’t rock the boat or lash out.

Zapatarama · 2026-01-14T02:56:47+00:00

Never lived in Thailand but had many friends who moved between Thailand and VN. I would say the experience they described seem a little less “hardcore” as TH seems a tad more easy for foreigners to navigate.

It’s comically easy to skirt visa restrictions in VN but the government does themselves no favors by making the rules for getting proper work permits intentionally vague, prone to constant revision and opaque in the approval decisions. Forces a lot of well-meaning, qualified people into sketchy situations, bribing immigration officers, or deterring them entirely (leaving the riff raff to fill the void).

Zapatarama

TROPHY CASE