Being Human

Category

Image of me at 8 months pregnant to introduce the post "Giving Birth in Taiwan".

Giving Birth in Taiwan: My Personal Experience

Giving birth (especially for the first time) is daunting, no matter where you are. When you find yourself about to go through such a life altering event in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language, it’s even crazier. When we decided to have our little one (born April 3rd) in Taiwan, I began searching for information about having a baby here. Like with most things, however, English resources were scarce, and the most compelling information I had came...

Taiwan COVID level 3 alert

Life in the Time of COVID: Taiwan Edition

For the past year and a half, I’ve been extremely grateful to live here. It has been a place largely free of the dangers of COVID-19, a safe bubble, thanks to Taiwan’s rapid response to the initial outbreak, careful contact tracing and strict border control and quarantine enforcement. Taiwan’s response was “among the best“. But over the past month we’ve watched our case numbers steadily climb as outbreaks in and around Taipei have spiralled. All because of a simple decision...

Window of our old house
Quit Smoking

How I Quit Smoking, A Year Later

It is damn hard to quit smoking! That’s what we all tell ourselves. I wanted to share my experience, that it might be useful to others struggling to make the decision. I hope it can inspire you! Here is the story of how I quit smoking. I was 18 when I first bought cigarettes. Like, freshly 18. It’s possible that it was even on my birthday, although the details are a bit hazy. I remember the determination. The decision. The...

Cigarette bath & quitting smoking

Relapse

I’ve been continuously falling off the bandwagon. Some days it feels like this. Quitting, or cutting back, is no easy feat. There is ever-mounting tension, and if you aren’t able to take your mind off of it, it leads to the inevitable cave-in. Of course, now that you have smoked one and broken the seal, it is so easy to give yourself permission to over-indulge....