We are moving once again... I've lost count of how many times we have moved already. First Yunlin for one year, then Hsinchu for another year, followed by Tainan for three years, and now Miaoli. Specifically, we moved to Toufen, which is a town in the north of Miaoli and close to Hsinchu. The decision to move happened quite suddenly when my husband received a job offer from another company. Within a week, he completed three job interviews and once he was hired, we found a rental place and started moving our belongings right away. Currently, he is still working in Zhubei, so he drove to Toufen on his own to view apartments, sign contracts, and find a kindergarten. I understand that he feels like he has to handle everything on his own, but it's quite common when someone lives in another country and faces language barriers. We have already moved many of our things to our parents-in-law's place, and some items were moved here shortly after renting the new place. Moving over 200 kilometers away is quite exhausting.
Compared to the south, I find that rental fees here are insanely high, with most places costing over 30,000 NTD per month, and often without furniture! This time, we rented a three-bedroom apartment. Hopefully, my husband will excel in his new job as it can be done remotely once he learns everything (or at least that's what they said during the interview—only time will tell). Then, we might have a chance to move back to Tainan! (laughs) That's what I hope will happen because I prefer living in the south over the north. Even Kaohsiung or Pingdong would be fine. People in the north seem colder, busier, and more concerned about money.
Our new place is not bad. It's in a new area, and the apartment buildings are quite tall compared to our previous place. However, when compared to bigger cities, they are not that tall, with only 14 floors in total. The community consists of six buildings with a yard in between, making it safe for children to play. There is a fountain, although it is not currently in use. To access the building, we need to use a token, which is similar to before. However, the token is also required to operate the elevator, which was not the case before. Entering our apartment is a completely different story. We have to use a passcode or fingerprint, whereas previously, we only had a key. Inside the apartment, there are many electronic devices, such as a screen door-phone and touch panels to control the ventilation system in the bathrooms and lighting. Even the refrigerator is advanced (although we didn't read the instructions properly) and we mistakenly placed food in the vegetable compartment instead of the freezer, resulting in having to throw away all the food...
I haven't seen many places like this in the south where people don't have much yard space or community areas. However, the price difference is huge. We paid nearly half the amount in Shanhua compared to what we have to pay in Toufen. Of course, it's not an exact comparison, as we lived in a two-bedroom apartment before, and now we have three bedrooms. Additionally, our previous place had less furniture than our current one.
There is one major thing that bothers me regardless of where we see houses or apartments, or even rental properties—people don't seem to care about cleanliness. Some houses are unoccupied, while others have families living in them and want to sell. We have been asked to take off our shoes and step into dusty, dirty floors covered in hair. It feels disgusting to enter such places.
Recently, I stayed in Toufen for three days with my son while my husband continued working and stayed at a hotel in Zhubei. We attended the Immigration Gala for the Dream Building Program (see my previous post for more information), so it was easier to stay in Toufen rather than travel back to Tainan. However, we still had to drive back to Tainan to move the rest of our belongings. The most challenging part was moving our wardrobes and island. Since nobody wanted to buy them, we had to take them to my parents-in-law's place as we don't have space for them here. The sad thing is that the AI moved all my flowers to my parents-in-law's place, but they don't know how to take care of them. Even the cactuses, which I had cared for over three years, were big, beautiful, and very green. After just a week at their place, my cactuses are almost dead. They have turned brown and partially rotted due to heavy rain and being left outside.
Finally, on August 22nd, we finished the moving process, although my husband wanted to travel to the east of Taiwan for a while afterward. So, after arriving here at night and unpacking, we will be waking up early tomorrow to drive again.
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