If you have read my posts from the past few months about my life in Taiwan (and all the preparations), you're probably just like me completely overwhelmed by the changes I've been through. In the past 6 months I have saved money, acquired documentation, bought air ticket, left my family and home in Slovenia behind and came to Taiwan to be with my then girl friend, whom I married 2 months later. And now I'm working like a mad person every day, usually 10 to 11 hours a day, but today I broke my own record: I worked nearly 13 hours. And the funniest thing is: I really worked. I didn't slack or sleep, I worked.
If someone would've told me to work overtime for no money back in Europe, I would've thought they're crazy. If someone would've told me to work all day 5 days a week back in Europe, I would've thought they are inhumane and a threat to society.
And then I came to Taiwan, got a new job and slowly fell into a Taiwanese work routine. At first I went home "early", which meant I only worked 2 hours overtime, instead of 5 (like most of my colleagues did). Even those 2 hours of unpaid overtime seemed crazy to me, especially because I didn't have much to do in the beginning. Every hour seemed endless and I felt: How the heck will I ever be able to work until 9 pm? (- the time that makes my boss happy). And today I finished at 9.30 pm and still felt I could stay longer.
On the way home I was thinking: WTF is happening to me? Am I slowly turning Taiwanese? I observed people on the bus and subway today, most were so tired. I'm sure most of them worked overtime until very late, until they nearly collapsed. It was a moment where I (for the first time) felt very connected to the Taiwanese people, I felt like I was one of them. But heck, why did it need to happen for the wrong reasons? We all seemed so screwed up. I came home at nearly 11 pm, took a shower, grabbed a bite to eat and decided to write this piece. Now it's midnight and if I don't want to look like a zombie tomorrow, I need to go to bed now, the night will be short anyway. And tomorrow won't be any different: Just like me, millions of Taiwanese will rot in the office with bad air cons trying to get something done. I'm now part of Taiwan's army of workers, who are fighting to keep the GDP high at all costs. Taiwan would not be one of the top economies in the world without our tireless effort to sell our products overseas.
But we're a tired army. Those of you, who enjoy life here, like teachers and journalists, if you see us, tap us on the back and shake our hands, we're also fighting for you. We have no life but work, lunch is our highlight of the day, we drink that coffee from 7/11 so we don't doze off...
My fellow Taiwanese, how long can we do this? How long will we keep saying it's only temporary?
Related: [Taipei Blues from 2010][Photo by MKL, 2011]
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