Overseas Survival Guide // Learn to appreciate the scenery of one's departure

Since the first time I went abroad was a self-help travel, and it happened that it was still in the era when smartphones were not yet in hand, I deeply experienced the advantages of traveling alone, and I never went back to the high school students who insisted on being friends. The person who accompanies Cai to go to the toilet is dependent on others. It’s contradictory and wonderful. After a long time abroad, I gradually get used to different climate changes, language and culture, and distance from people. My mentality is different from traveling alone. I enjoy independence and long for a sense of stability.

No matter how advanced the Internet technology is, when you are in a foreign country, you will inevitably realize the loneliness of being alone when you wake up from a dream or walk on the sidewalk where foreigners are bustling with people. Lonely and very two-sided, without the ties of hometown, it can bring unimpeded strength, just like living in a paradise where it goes its own way. Instantly fell into the abyss of lost hope.

The number of years spent abroad can be long or short, but in the end, I am lucky to meet many people living in different ways, inspire some inspiration, and explore the world in my favorite way to live my life. When loneliness appears, my heart will Warm up in the direction of positive energy.

I took my camera out to take pictures and walked around the alleys and alleys near my house. This is almost a ceremony for me to get to know a place. I will take my camera a few times on the road I pass by on weekdays. After all, different moments and moods will make me see different scenery. Europe in the temperate zone has four distinct seasons, and the light and shadow colors of spring, summer, autumn and winter are worth capturing through the shutter.

Occasionally cut off the Internet, pick up the pen and start writing on the running account, briefly recording important events in life. Just when I thought I had passed a season in a daze, and looking back at the words I wrote, I felt at ease in the mediocre days.

Real hand painting with paintbrush. I really like the leisure and elegance of the English people who focus on what they see in front of their eyes. During the sunny spring and summer, when they go to the stone bridge over the small river, they directly start to outline the appearance of walking people on the drawing paper. I also have a mini watercolor box that I bought in the UK. When I'm in a very bad mood or sentimental, I take it out to adjust the colors and draw a few strokes at will to release the mood.

sports. The schedule in Europe is not as compact as in Taiwan. Although the process of work and study is always stressful, I can still find time to try different sports and balance my body and mind. Among these sports, the jogging that can be done in the city is the most helpful to me. I can see people jogging in the wind, rain and snow. It is a low-hurdle and popular sport. From the beginning of the habit of running for 20 minutes, to half an hour, forty minutes, and then to one and a half hours, with a fixed cardiovascular endurance and temperature training, you will feel the feeling of returning to zero psychologically, re-adapt to the pace of life, and physiologically The advantages are more obvious, and it is not easy to get sick when the seasons change.

Visit museums. Large European cities always have at least one national art gallery, history museum, natural history museum, and contemporary art museum. Every city in Europe can find churches, castles, and museums that fit the local historical development. For example, Bratislava has collections. War relics, a museum built in a renovated bunker, there is also the Jewish Museum and the Old Cemetery Memorial. Every time I walk around, the stories behind the exhibitions and cultural relics I see always pull me out of my inner emotions and understand the outside world. In the process of visiting museums, I love to discover the connection with the knowledge acquired since childhood, which produces a sense of surprise that the words in the book are verified by the real world.

Go to the market. After all, museums are repackaged worlds. In many museums, there are cultural elites' imaginations of the world, but they can't see how ordinary people are running for their lives, so I also love to go to the market. When I went into the market to explore, I saw what the vendors were wearing and what tools to make money, what fruits, vegetables, fish, meat and household processed products they were selling, how they talked to me, what kind of people went to the market, what This kind of street vendor is the most popular.

I chose to start alone. I didn’t hold the firmness of wanting to go to the end alone from beginning to end. Instead, I indulged my own willfulness and ideas. I went east when I liked it. I talked to anyone I wanted, and stopped when I wanted to rest. Anyone who is bound by peers and family pressure will be able to enjoy the romantic encounter alone. If you are romantic and have a little more fate, you will meet a person who will never get tired of chatting like the heroine of "Love at the Break of Dawn". The same scene, if it were replaced with one more confidant and friend, it would be a bit unpleasant.

So when you want to be with you, what should you do when you are alone?

The initial attempt was language exchange. Through the activities linked to language exchange websites and Facebook groups, we talked with people from different cultural backgrounds, and found novel stories and interesting people. I prefer the channel where I can find communication objects on language exchange websites in the past. I can filter out people with similar interests or fields of work by reading self-references. It starts with one-on-one information exchange, rather than with a group of people each time. Meeting awkward chats, such as greetings, etc., can be enjoyed more, and it is better to judge whether they are destined to continue to communicate.

Find real-world fellow clubs and events. No matter how you love someone and live your life, it is not too much to have a group of people who resonate in certain aspects in real life. Nowadays, the information on the Internet is very developed, and you can find interesting clubs and activities within a radius of ten miles without having to travel around to find someone to introduce you. When we have nothing to do, we do handicrafts together. For example, I do handmade lace with a group of Slovak grandma. Although handicrafts are in the final analysis a person's business, but someone praise each other can make the mood fly, why not do it. In addition, sports are generally very popular in Slovakia, especially outdoor sports such as skiing, rock climbing, hiking, paddle boarding, etc., are the first choice for group hunting. Even if you are not good at it, you can make friends with just one try and add a new experience.

Slip dating app. As a modern person, I can't help but swipe through dating apps in the dead of night on certain days, but I don't always encounter engineers who are difficult to talk to, as my Taiwanese friends complained. Instead, I swiped on it. At the local information station, I couldn’t find a lover, but because I always insisted on chatting with some people with the same interests, I dug up some secret spots, such as a photography studio hidden deep in an old house in Vienna that could produce unpopular negatives, and For example, I learned that many cities and towns in the Czech Republic regularly hold film festivals over the years, and there are many strange anecdotes in Slovakia that are not well known to foreigners.

Bravely approach people on the road. In fact, I am afraid of disturbing others, so I rarely talk to people casually, but when I encounter things that I am very curious about, such as various wild mushrooms, I can't stand it anymore, and I have to ask the nearby mushroom-picking seniors for advice. At this time, I did not waste myself living in a foreign country after all, still maintaining my curiosity about a different culture, and bravely opening my mouth to seek answers or help from others. Especially when engaged in outdoor sports, often because of these interactions with people, I see many small eyebrows of foreign cultures, which makes the journey more profound and worthy of aftertaste.

Happy to be approached by others. We once took pictures with a Russian boy at the observation deck in Haiqiang, and then we walked together for several hours in the unfamiliar city. Later, we paid attention to each other's state for a while until our life began. After entering different stages, they cut off contact. This is my first foreign friend who can be called a friend of the opposite sex. Traveling or living abroad, as long as it is a foreigner's face, it is difficult not to attract people with bad intentions, so it is very important to learn to look at people, and you can also judge some clues from behavior. On the premise of ensuring that you can run away at a critical juncture, chatting with people from different countries is also one of the sources of fun in a foreign country.

When I wrote this, I suddenly found that this can also be applied to all forms of life in a foreign land. It was almost like this when I had worked in a foreign land before going abroad.

For me, who went abroad three years after finishing university and doing my first job in Taiwan, the foreign language and culture have been difficult to completely shake the thinking logic and values accumulated since childhood. Naturally, the impact was not small. Frightened by the British apology, and then by the Slovak's turnaround communication skills. It took a lot of time to explore back and forth, to find a balance between myself and the outside world, and to accept the world in which I live.

These are the ways I learned to laugh at the scenery by myself while abroad.