virtualberta

Gosh, I cannot believe it has already been two days since I've posted. One of my goals when starting this blog was to update it daily during the workweek. One would imagine that the technology leader in providing foundry services would have better computers for its employees. Actually, I shouldn't complain. I will get a more recent one soon, and the one I have now is already better than the one I used on my first day. I am impressed that Paul was able to put up with that computer for over a year and a half.

Today, I spent NT$2,200 (about US$63) for the priviledge of being able to work in Taiwan. As I left the Bureau of Consular Affairs, relieved that I would soon be receiving a work visa--which would enable me to stay in Taiwan indefinitely--I was amused thinking of my parents, who emigrated from Taiwan to the U.S., for their own individual and their children's educational and work opportunities. And here I am in Taiwan, fretting over whether or not I would obtain a work visa and residence permit.

I also spent NT$1,507 today getting the medical exam UMC requires of all its new employees. I went to the National Taiwan University Hospital, which is a lovely building built back in the days of Spanish/European-influenced colonial architecture. I felt like the human equivalent of a McDonald's hamburger patty, being weighed and measured in one room, poked and prodded in another, my bodily fluids drawn further down the hall, and finally, my chest being X-rayed. It's not like my health care experiences in the U.S., but I did feel that the care was competent and the staff helpful as they guided me through the process with our minimally overlapping communication forms.

However, when I have a child, I would like to be in the U.S. The thought of giving birth in a foreign environment freaks me out...it's hard enough, I imagine, going through the pregnancy and childbirth process, without having to navigate an unfamiliar medical system and language.