How COVID19 changed my plans and how I deal with it

Not sure how many people do it, but every year I would have goals for work, travel, and life. I figured it's a good way to keep myself happy--having a purpose and making sure that I am on my way to achieve it.

However, at the beginning of the year, I knew that many of my plans would fail:
-A ski trip to Japan + visiting friends in Tokyo
-Business trips to Hong Kong + visiting friends and just being there
-A wedding trip to Seattle + visiting friends and just being there
-Meeting up with my Spanish boyfriend, whereever and just being together

ALL THESE PLANS FAILED

As soon as I knew that this year will not be the same, I shifted my focus. I went through a thought process to figure out what is it that I want for the longer run, and what I can do in the short term to achieve it. So I listed out a few goals:

-Keep the relationship with a Spanish partner

• Learn Spanish
• Start a business model that would work virtually, so Emilio and I can be more flexible and not bound to our jobs in Asia or Spain respectively

-Strengthen my career competency in international environmental work
-Climb 5.11s (6b+, 6c)

After I listed out my goals, I realized there's still a lot I can do during COVID19.

To climb and stay healthy

First off, I can still climb, luckily in Taiwan, we are never forbidden to go outdoors. The only problem is my swollen fingers. I probably still need to lose more weight. So I would stay controlled with my diet--not having carbs in breakfast and only eat when I am hungry. Snack on nuts & fruits, and no sugar in coffee or tea. Although as a Taiwanese person I still cannot resist tapioca and other chewy stuff we put in drinks or shaved ice. In order to enjoy the food we love, I would cut on added sugar, carbs on other foods, or fried food in general.

To strengthen my career competency in international environmental work

There are very, very few Taiwanese people who do environmental work, and even fewer that do it internationally. In the past years, I saw many of my previous colleagues who went on this path, though most of them would focus on ocean and fisheries.

I study geography and forest resources. I struggle to find work that suits perfectly with my career aspiration. I took on digital work because I knew the skills are much needed in the virtual-everything era, and it's fun and challenging to convert people online. You have to be convincing, strategic, and on top of the social/news trend. Believe me this work wears you out. There's not a moment you could rest and stop learning. At the same time it's immensely fun.

This year the challenge is tremendous. We have a goal to shift our fundraising more digital, and yet we are asking for donations when people are struggling to live comfortably. There are a lot of changes internally to transition. It's hard.

Sometimes I do feel like I am growing further away from my goal but I am still taking on relevant work to prepare myself to do global work in the future.

I went on counseling 2 times this year. It helped. The counselor encouraged me to ask myself what I want and if I am achieving it. It sets me on track.

Patience is everything.

To keep a relationship with a Spanish partner

I wonder how COVID19 is impacting long distance relationships.

For us, I am in a super strict country that still quarantines everyone from abroad for 14 days even though we have no confirmed cases for more than a month. Emilio is in one of the most severely impacted countries, and he actually is in Madrid where things were bad.

We talk everyday, though. When Spain was in lockdown, we set goals for our relationship that we can keep ourselves motivated. He is learning English and trying on Chinese (oh well), and I am learning Spanish.

I always love languages and am actually good at learning it so for me it's a goal I can easily follow through. I signed up for an excellent online Spanish course, where there are virtual teachers who would call your name in class to read things aloud and even chat with you. I can stay at home and be in my pajamas, and talk to the classmates and teachers I will never meet. I can choose any convenient timing for myself, and give feedback to teachers on questionnaires. It's great!

Emilio is using online apps and listening to podcasts. Thankfully the pandemic didn't stop any of these and even added more content to all materials we consume online.

We also set up a website where we write about health and wellness. Eventually I am hoping to sell some Taiwanese goodies especially tea to Spain, so whereever we choose to be later on we have a viable economic model for the one that cannot work in another country. At least that's how I hoped so far. It's still experimental.

Certainly the pandemic make us all more resilient, and patient. Setting goals is a good way to keep ourselves motivated and aware that we don't have to just sit and wait. There are things we can do on self-growth, relationships, and staying healthy. I certainly went through some ups and downs. But here I am sharing my experiences. What's yours? :)

The "health-first" mentality that controls the coronavirus outbreak in Taiwan

Everyday when I walk to work, I come across with these elderlies who do their morning exercise routines in this public space under the metro. It's perfectly shaded and convenient. At night, the space would turn into a kids' mini-soccer field, or dance practice arena for youths, and of course, like many cities with Chinese populations, there would always be aunties who do group dances.

The routines don't change as coronavirus hits the world. Yes for once the group gatherings were minimalized, but as soon as we knew that the situation is well controlled in Taiwan, people start gathering with reasonable distance and masks.

People always care about being healthy as a community

Yes, in many other places in the world people also exercise in public spaces. What is special here is that staying healthy is not just one's own business but a community practice. It is a group of people around you that keep the health habits with you. It is your friend who would always share health tips on chat apps (Line, for example in Taiwan), or it's our TV news, magazines, and newspapers that would always have a column about health tips that keep you informed (though inevitably there would be scams & misinformation).

In essence, staying healthy is everyone's business here. We keep each other healthy, and give warm reminders to our loved ones on what to eat, what to keep as "good habits", etc.

We are a culture that is already well prepared for what nobody would expect to happen-a global pandemic.

We chose a government that parents us

As you can imagine as the pandemic first breaks out in China, our government immediately act like everyone's mother, telling us to wear masks, measure our body temperatures, and banning all passengers from China and then other countries from entering Taiwan, and put the people coming from abroad in a 14-day quarantine if they do end up here, whether it's a citizen or else.

Our government is so strict, so much that it's gotten quite annoying. For example, now the situation is controlled with zero confirmed cases for more than 30 days straight, we still have quarantines if we travel overseas, and we still have to wear masks in metros in 36-degree hot days. Many pubic place still take your temperatures and register your name just in case if anything happens they can trace the source.

Yes it's annoying, but everyone accepts it. Just like you would take your moms advice reluctantly because you know it's "good for you".

There are no limits for personal advice

I remember having a reverse cultural shock where when I first came back from the US back in 2011, one of the relatives told me that I had gained weight and I should look out for it. In the US, almost no one would give such a comment to anyone because it is too personal and it would be considered as minding other people's business too much.

In Taiwan there's no such a thing. Because you have to know where those advice are coming from. Senior people love giving all kinds of advices to youngsters, from what you should study to who you should marry. This is how they express care and love.

As much as young people like me hate advice like these, we knew from the bottom of our hearts that these advice are well intended and that we should take it. We might not take it eventually, of course, but we would politely accept it because it's a well intended advise from a senior.

When our governments imposes rules on pandemic restrictions, everyone follows. We give our government our personal data on health so they can track it with our travel history. We would line up for masks, because we knew tens of millions of them, made by our super efficient supply chain, are donated to countries like USA, Holland, Poland, Australia, France, Japan, etc.

We are a small nation that is desperate for international recognition and support for our shrinking space to participate in anything globally. We are not part of the World Health Organization, nor are we part of the UN. Because of the pressure from China, Taiwan needs to work hard to find our place in the world.

Caring for each other, especially on health is an important value for Taiwanese. This is how far we are filling to go for it, and how we would like to be recognized in the world.

Indulgence VS abstinence on health

When we look at the ways the world behaves or acts around the pandemic, we get confused. We don't understand why people would not take precaution very early on. For instance, when coronavirus spread to Italy, the Spanish weren't even concerned, and the officials in Italy mocked at the the ones that got nervous and wore masks everywhere. Our TV news mentioned these stories like fictions because it's simply not comprehensible for us.

To stay healthy, people are willing to take on habits that are not always "enjoyable". There's a Chinese idiom that goes "take bitterness as betterness." If you have eaten Chinese medicine you will understand. It is so bitter, but people would still eat it for that it is good for us!

If you have met Taiwanese women you would know that we drink very little alcohol. Unlike Japanese or Koreans, few Taiwanese women rarely have the habit of drinking or smoking. We also have lots of other good habits to take care of ourselves during menstruation such as not having cold drinks or take cold showers. It's all because we grew up getting much health advice from our moms (and we take it).

I'd like to point out that in some other things such as driving habits, we are not as well mannered as in for instance European countries. But on staying healthy, we keep our good habits.

Will I become a Taiwanese mom?

We have a joke to call those who love giving people advice to have the "auntie personality". From my intimate interactions with foreign friends it does seem like I give more advice to people than they normally would with each other. For example, I have already asked my boyfriend to quit smoking cigarette, though it's a common practice among his friends in the filmmaking industry. I also would put on sunscreen always when I go out during the day, because it can block UV and pollutants so my skin doesn't age so fast.

Besides health habits I also have all these habits to be environmentally friendly from BYOB to not buying coffee or beverages if I don't bring my own mug.

It can be annoying, so overtime I try to learn how to be caring in a nicer and more acceptable manner. Many of my Taiwanese lady friends are quite self aware of the "auntie personality" we may grow up to have, so we take precautions not to annoy people around us while we want to give good advice.

So I started this blog. Hope I can share good tips in a fun and interesting way :)

Stay healthy and happy during COVID-19 pandemic

Greetings everyone,

This blog is written in a very difficult time for the world--the pandemic of COVID19. Hope you are healthy and mostly well.

I'm one of the lucky few right now that are not in quarantine. I live in Taiwan, where the government takes care of the people. We have a national health system. Before the crazy outbreak of COVID19, our government already was preparing for it. We had experiences from SARS, so people also are extra cautious of virus transmission.

In Taiwan, our government tracks our travel history, which is connected to our National ID, and health records in the national database. This way, we can make sure those who have traveled to places with infected cases can be quarantined for 14 days after returning to Taiwan. Also, they hold press conferences every day, send out alerts through news and tv commercials, as well as through a LINE (the most popular chat app in Taiwan) chatbot, which sends you the latest world outbreak number updates a few times a day.

The information has been very transparent. Our government takes pride of taking care of us. Our president, for example, visits health care workers and mask factories to make sure things are working for this fight against the epidemic.

Chilling out rockclimbing in the Northeast coast of Taiwan

I am lucky! So now I have a few times a week that I work from home; I can mostly still go to the office. Everyone wears masks in public places and trains. They also take your temperatures in public places. I can still travel to scenic outdoors for a break, visit family and friends. In essence, life is normal, except that you need to go line up for receiving masks every once in a while, and that we are avoiding traveling abroad.

I have friends abroad so I'm writing this blog for you :) In the coming few days I will share some tips on how to stay healthy, how to stay/feel connected during social distancing. I will also talk about different ways to express yourself, and find your expression outlet, going inside out to find and express yourself. Lastly, how we stay realistically optimistic. Being practical and realistic is part of our culture, it's what keeps things together now. Perhaps there's something to share about it to the world at this moment.

Being happy and healthy is important for me. I'd like to share how we do that in Taiwan to those of you who are interested :)

Take care,