I flew to Taiwan at the very end of December last year, finally managing to make good on an old resolution to escape the chaos and out-of-control fireworks that are Berlin around New Years. It was the beginning of a month of family time (my parents, sisters, nephews, and I were all in Taipei for varying periods of time). For me, it was a mix of time off, working remotely, escaping some of the Berlin winter, and spending time with my parents without having to fly to Michigan.
It was the 2nd year in a row that I got to be in Taiwan for Lunar New Year! It’s kind of cool to experience the big holiday in another cultural context, kind of similar to the feeling in Germany “between the years” (from Christmas to New Years). At the same time, it’s a little bit annoying for a visitor or tourist, since many places close down for a week or modify their opening hours.
I spent some time looking for potential coworking spaces so that I could have a bit of separation. It was a bit tricky for duration of just over 3 weeks, including a week during Lunar New Year, but eventually, I found a nice spot about a 15-minute walk from where my parents were staying. Thanks to Cordelia at Project 0.1 for making a one-month flex-desk membership possible! And the other friendly folks who work from there. One of the other places I looked at told me their ventilation in their building would be off for the whole week (!) during the holiday.
Scheduling-wise I worked from about 12-8pm local time to have more overlap (4 hours) with my coworkers in Germany, which really highlighted to me how many meetings I was in. It was great for getting work done before everyone was online, but hard to finish up discussions and calls, sign-off for the day, and turn off my brain. I do cherish the freedom and opportunity to spend a longer period working remotely (not from home/Berlin), since the opportunities to spend longer periods of time with my parents are few and far between these days.
It's good that this croissant-egg-tart spot was not on the way to work, otherwise I would have eaten these every day.
If I do a longer period of remote work in Taipei again, I would probably try to stop work a bit earlier, since I noticed that many restaurants in the area closed at 8 or 8:30pm, which limited my dinner options a bit. That’s not something I would have thought would be a problem, since I always understood Taipei as having lots of evening options… but that’s more night markets than a quiet spot to sit down and eat.
Taipei isn’t exactly warm or tropical in January, but it’s definitely better than Berlin! It definitely doesn't snow, and flowers like roses, cherry trees, and other gorgeous plants seem to bloom all the time.
You have the same issue in lots of places where it doesn’t get really cold that houses aren’t well insulated, so when the temperature drops below 15 Celsius / 60 F, it can feel quite chilly. It didn’t rain all the time, but there were probably more overcast days than sunny ones. I took a few selfies walking across the bridge to the coworking space, and at the end of my trip I even bought a fancy (for me) umbrella.
