Letters to Lisa Part 10

Letters to Lisa Part 10
Me and Foreigners (part 2 – Co-Workers)
Dateline: Everyday

Dear Lisa,
This will be super short. (OK, you can stop mocking now.) ;-)
I write this largely because my Taiwan friends really don’t understand me sometimes. They understandably feel that as a foreigner I would seek the company of those like me, also a foreigner, so I don’t feel so lonely. I do not have foreigner friends, not even the 7 foreign teachers that are my co-workers. Let me define friend. A friend is someone I do stuff with. I spend time with them. I can call them at a moments notice and say, “Let’s do something.” And more importantly, I tell them what I really think and how I’m feeling. I tell them my secrets. They are IN my life.

My co-workers are people I work with. They are nice. Some are funny and I will have the occasional meal or beer with. But I don’t talk about personal stuff. They don’t know my secrets. With exception of Alex, they are not my Facebook friends. (Alex is a letter for another day.) I am quite fond of a few of the guys. Maybe someday they’ll be Friends. Or maybe we will stay comfortably in the co-worker zone.

Here is the one thing that truly separates me from the overwhelming majority of the foreigners I know. I want to immerse myself in Taiwan life and culture. I want to live like Taiwan people. If wanted to be around westerners, I should have stayed in the US. Besides, the foreigners I know here are not people that would be my friends in the US. So why would I hang out with them here?

My philosophy in this experience is, I’m an empty cup. I want my cup to be filled with Taiwan.