Did you pass your first year as an Expat in Taipei?
Test yourself to find out!
Directions: Give yourself 1 point for each of the following you did or that was true of you at any time during your first year in Taipei, Taiwan. (If you expatted elsewhere in Taiwan, just give yourself an extra 5 points to make up for a few Taipei specific things on the list 🙂 )
1. Ate dumplings or pot stickers
2. Tried pineapple cakes and moon cakes
3. Tried red bean paste
4. Got an Easy Card and used the MRT
5. Graduated to using the City Bus
6. Played on those exercise equipment things in the parks
7. Successfully ordered a drink at a tea or coffee stand in Chinese
9. Watched the Taipei 101 New Years Fireworks OR went to the Chinese New Years lantern festival in Pingxi
10. Ate Beef Noodles (or for us vegetarians, sesame noodles! 🙂 ) 
11. Tried bubble tea
12. Got the LINE app
13. Tried Stinky tofu
14. Brought your garbage out to the musical garbage trucks
15. Watched a concert in a park or at an MRT station
17. Bought produce for yourself at a wet market
18. Used a squatting toilet
19. Found yourself a favorite breakfast shop
20. Successfully ordered a meal at a restaurant using that check list ordering form
21. Knew to look to the wall for napkins and toilet paper
22. Gave or received fruit as a gift
23. Used those water pressure massage machines at the swimming pools here
24. Bought a swimming cap (take the point if you brought one)
25. Bought train, baseball, concert or any other tickets at a 7-Eleven kiosk
26. Know what bopomofo is (extra point if you learned how to use it)
27. Got a Taiwan Bank Account
28. Tried hot pot
29. Went to a gender segregated hot springs
30. Went with a group to KTV
31. Played the receipt lottery and won
32. Rode on or drove a scooter (extra point if you bought one!)
33. Tried acupuncture, cupping, or scraping
34. Went to at least 2 museums
35. Took some Chinese language classes
36. Sent mail at the post office
37. Spent less than $30 on a massage
38. Used an umbrella for shade from the sun
39. Took advantage of super cheap plane tickets from here to foreign ports nearby (Japan, Hong Kong, Borneo… etc)
40. Ate Mango Ice (extra point if you had icecream with beans on it)
41. Ordered your seat at the movie theater
42. Felt an earthquake, experienced a typhoon or were inconvenienced by a typhoon warning
43. Walked around an underground Metro Mall
44. Microwaved yourself a sit-down meal at 7-eleven
45. Climbed up super steep stone stairs to some overlook or temple
Your Results!
0-20… umm, are you sure you were in Taiwan? You better stay another year!
20-30… you pass! gōng xǐ gōng xǐ! You’ve definitely spent some real time in Taiwan.
31-42… Well, of course you passed! You’ve clearly lived the first year #expatintaipei experience!
43 +… You beat us! Even we didn’t do this good, and we made the test!