Expat living and working in Taiwan: A journey of 12 years

__ ______ I was living in Montreal in 2005 when I decided to go to Asia to work as a teacher and to pay off student loans and see a bit of the world. Not having a definite country in mind, I began to research different countries and happened to meet someone who had worked in southern Taiwan as an ESL teacher and recommended it as a good country to earn money and experience Asian culture. Shortly after, I packed all my things into storage, jumped on my 1974 CB 750 and headed West. Finally making my way to Vancouver, I found the Taiwanese Economic Trade Office (Consulate) to apply for my visa. My rather steep learning curve was about to commence as I first learned that Taiwan was, in fact, also called The Republic of China. While I was familiar with aspects of Taiwan's general history and political independence, I was not aware that The People's Republic of China shared an abbreviated version of its name with Taiwan.