***


![bjangles.tpg_lets_see_if_you_can_come_up_with_an_anime_style_im_4e9f6342-8d7b-45ab-b273-0fbc82dfa3d0.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/bjangles/23ywuKURsRQsZjNmZ9KpW9LpXL4FDirJVyXBKgEABVYjMs3mAr97Q79SoRvPDsYu4dP1E.jpg)


***

## Brooklyn, the Couch & the Crash

I didn’t mean to end up in Taiwan.

At 24, I was fresh out of college, crashing on a friend’s couch in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, sending resumes into the void. 

It was early 2009—maybe the worst time in modern history to be job hunting in New York. The city was reeling from the global recession & my inbox stayed empty. 

I picked up an unpaid marketing internship at Sounds of Brazil and worked nights at a bar—chef, barback, party animal. 

Most mornings, I’d catch the sunrise on my way home, riding the J train from Marcy Ave in Williamsburg to Kosciuszko St in the heart of Bed-Stuy.

***



![bjangles.tpg_lets_see_if_you_can_come_up_with_an_anime_style_im_3f48a964-46b7-426f-a3a0-56531f7e4e75.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/bjangles/243WPLoeXcR5yuVqu9W8hpCCxBPx5ampcAyKhYgKTHUYvpbmBwFeu1UfMxi1ejUUnzWzF.jpg)


***


## Tucson, Limbo & a Growing Itch

I realized pretty quickly: I needed out. A reset. A new story.

So I moved back into my parents’ house in Tucson, Arizona. For six months, I worked, saved & stared at the ceiling. I knew I wanted to see the world—but I wasn’t sure where, or why.

Asia kept tugging at me.

***



![bjangles.tpg_lets_see_if_you_can_come_up_with_an_anime_style_im_3ddae5e3-f7c8-42dc-8036-f878aa93dda7.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/bjangles/241QLjhpX3BpK8piHSvCVLnozDXbbpzAquer8q5xf45sNWA5biEcgBe3dZR2rgJ9HhHvb.jpg)


***


## The Gift That Sparked It All

The seed had been planted the summer before. My graduation gift—a generous, loving send-off from my proud parents, as the first in my family to earn a college degree—was a trip anywhere in the world. 

All my friends went to Europe. I chose Japan.

Why? Because I wanted a story that didn’t sound like everyone else’s. It helped that one of my closest friends had a brother who’d been living in Japan for over a decade and had offered up a month-long apartment rental to anyone who wanted to visit.

Six weeks in Tokyo & Kanazawa with some of my best friends cracked something open. And let’s be honest—what 25-year-old wouldn’t be enraptured by countless izakayas, the Fuji Rock Festival, incredible nightlife & beautiful Japanese women—all set in one of the most modern countries in the world, with a deep cultural history as its backdrop? 

Asia’s allure fully stole me. 

I didn’t know what it all meant yet. But I knew I wanted more.

***


![bjangles.tpg_lets_see_if_you_can_come_up_with_an_anime_style_im_752c143a-17ad-4cfc-9bd1-1e63bf7f58f6.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/bjangles/244e6NSYZeTqboknr7AEL5vfPWrLRUntWoRX17j6f9SE2wrRNr3ykGAVh8TUs2NvuwazT.jpg)


***


## China: Testing the Waters

Fast-forward to April 2009: I bought a one-way ticket to Hong Kong. My friend Davy & his family welcomed me into their home while I figured things out. Soon after, I enrolled in a teaching certification course in Harbin—a "small town" by Chinese standards (just over ten million people) in northeastern China. 

I didn’t know what I was doing. But I was doing something. And it was a start.

Harbin was gritty, industrial & a crash course in culture shock. When the course ended, I returned to Hong Kong & began to plan. I had a shiny new TEFL certificate & no idea where to go next.

China wasn’t calling me back. Mandarin, though—that still felt like a smart investment. I had studied marketing in university & I figured learning the language could be a valuable asset down the road.

***



![bjangles.tpg_lets_see_if_you_can_come_up_with_an_anime_style_im_ea9ca50b-fc54-4ae6-be31-8a2c112180d1.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/bjangles/23yJCZ4FJT6hF6eyUHjrTHG1sdJTMT48KZxqJjQsQRQ8RyZhg1j8hUxzw9VRghsypGv5L.jpg)



***

## Taiwan: A Name, a Map, a Feeling

Davy said, “Why not Taiwan?”

I knew next to nothing about it.

A few Google searches later, it looked like paradise. Mountains. Ocean. Friendly faces. And Mandarin to make it feel like I was still heading in the right direction.

So I packed a bag & booked a flight. I met with a placement agent and, over the next few days, we worked our way down the island: 
Hsinchu. 

Taichung.  

Changhua.

Yunlin.

Douliu, Yunlin, to be precise.

I didn’t know it then, but that’s where everything would begin.


***

![bjangles.tpg_lets_see_if_you_can_come_up_with_an_anime_style_im_1a8c822c-05f3-484b-934b-bace9f0d6508.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/bjangles/23yTfLSjdV5b8LRmxewkkNEXDkUitUD276t4X1jdttq5UMDd56wzVajNUh7k7pHxSdecu.jpg)


***

## Confused Tongue, Clear Heart

I knew precisely zero Mandarin. On my first day, someone greeted me—and I instinctively responded in Spanish. My brain panicked and reached for the closest foreign language it had.

Somehow, though, Taiwan felt like home.

I couldn’t explain it. Still can’t, really. It was nothing like El Paso, Texas, where I grew up. And yet, there was something about it—something warm and familiar.

***



![bjangles.tpg_lets_see_if_you_can_come_up_with_an_anime_style_im_fffe96d3-b32a-47df-813e-91bf9b6069bc.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/bjangles/23wC37CLMGse1HKmSAbReXrLTLMkA2H9E1oYc614jivq9TzcK53W7iQNxeegDwoao1z2f.jpg)


***

## Staying Put

I thought I was just passing through.

But I’ve now spent the better part of a decade here over the last fifteen years—mostly in Tainan.

It’s the only place I’ve ever lived that comes close to the feeling of home.

And it all started with a one-way ticket, a generous gift, a recession & a gut feeling I couldn’t ignore.

And, boy, am I glad I followed that gut feeling.
***

### *Until next time*

***