Hi everyone! Welcome back on my channel
I’m Charlotte and I’m super happy to see you again
I know it has been a while since my last video. I feel like so many things happened since that time
It has just been a crazy past few weeks, starting with me being clumsy and spilling a whole cup of tea on my computer.
I don’t even own a hairdryer. That would have been nice. It’s just sitting here for 2 days and I’m just too scared to turn it back on at this point, you know?
I gave it some time, I tried to repair it but nothing was possible and then I had to start looking for a new one
But that was not that easy, in a foreign country to find the computer you want.
Other than that, of course, there’s the whole crazy corona situation going on too.
Starting in Asia, in the beginning, my parents were more worried for me living in Taiwan.
But Taiwan had a great response and it stayed completely under control there.
As you might know, now it’s Europe’s turn to be centre of this epidemic and it might sound weird that right at this time, I decided to come back to Europe
I will explain in this video why I had to make that decision.
When this whole virus first broke out in China, of course my family and friends here in Europe got really worried
And they were texting me like: “Hey, how are you there? Is it still safe to be in Asia? How is Taiwan doing?” and everybody was keeping up with the news.
We could quickly see that Taiwan had it under control, you know? There were cases but it was monitored very well.
They even had a website where I could follow every single person that had been infected in Taiwan.
We could see every single store they went to, every bus they took, their whole schedule was visible to everyone, to be careful.
Also, Taiwan’s medical healthcare is really advanced. So as the time went by, I felt more and more comfortable to stay in Taiwan and I felt safe there.
Safe enough to stay. I also managed to reassure my family and friends that Taiwan was a safe place to be.
My first real worry came when there were cases in Europe actually. Because as I saw it was spreading fast in Italy,
it was kind of scary for me, because that was a sign it would be in Belgium fast enough as well
In Europe we have this “free movement” so if one country in Europe has it, probably all the others will follow very quickly.
At that point, I started to be worried about my family, because I am so lucky, I still have all of my 4 grandparents
It’s just so scary to know that this disease that affects elderly especially would come to Belgium too
The scariest part was that countries were starting to cancel flights from Asia to Europe
I could see less and less flights going back to Belgium so even though I felt completely safe in Taiwan, I felt scared for my family in Europe
What if someone in my family gets sick and it gets really bad and I’m just stuck in another country and I can’t even be there for them…
That was actually a very scary thought for me. My parents too, they had the feeling, even though they knew Taiwan was very safe,
they had this feeling we had to reunite the family. Everybody should come home
My sister was also studying in France and they also asked her to come home. We decided together that maybe it was wise to spend this quarantine period together
We also don’t know how many weeks or months it can last and it’s just scary to realise that I might be cut off from my family for that long
Shortly after I came back to Europe, I heard that Taiwan will be limiting foreigners coming into their country
Only people with a really good reason to be there or who have a real resident visa can stay there.
I did have a good visa, it was the “Working Holiday” so I think I would be allowed to stay longer
But the thing is, my visa is for 6 months and after 6 months I have to go to the immigration office, and I have to extend it again for 6 months
I just heard that right now Taiwan is not allowing anyone to extend their visa so that means that even if I would have stayed in Taiwan,
I would have been forced to leave the country soon because it’s impossible to extend any visa right now
You know what’s really cool? I came back here in Belgium, and since I’ve been back I heard Taiwan a lot in the Belgian news
I think everywhere in Europe, we kind of consider Taiwan as being a great example of how people should have reacted
and how a country can be organized and ready for whenever this happens again
Basically, we talk about how Taiwan had to deal with SARS before and they really took this event to learn from it and act appropriately once another threat came to their country
It’s really cool, I’m not even Taiwanese but I feel so proud every time I see Taiwan coming back in the Belgian news
The situation right now looks very unclear. I don’t know how long this quarantine will be,
I don’t know what will happen to my visa because if I don’t extend my visa, it won’t be valid anymore
But it’s not really my fault that I can’t extend my visa, right? Because Taiwan doesn’t allow us to extend the visa
I’m not sure what will happen. I’m not sure if I can go back to Taiwan and live there like I used to
Even if that’s not the case, I just want to say: I’m so so grateful for the experience I already lived there
I had such a great time. I was welcomed so warmly by Taiwanese people and I know people say it a lot:
One of Taiwan’s great qualities is the people there, but I really want to say that it’s so true
I’m so thankful also for my housemates, I feel like I was warmly welcomed into their house
Not just their house, also their whole family. I felt so happy spending holidays with them for Chinese New Year
I just want to say: Thank you, to everyone that I crossed on my path in Taiwan
I feel like there are so many things I haven’t done yet, I haven’t eaten yet, I haven’t seen yet
So even if I’m not allowed to go back to Taiwan with my visa, I know for sure that I’ll be back in Taiwan one day,
just as a tourist, if I get the chance
I had no time to realize that I was leaving, because when we made the decision that it would be best for me to go back to Europe,
I had to leave already 2 days later. I feel like there was almost no time to realize what was happening
It was also very shocking for me and my housemates, because we didn’t really have time to fulfil some of the plans we had together
It felt kind of really bad to leave in such a hurry, but I’m still so grateful. My housemates still managed to surprise me
By telling me we would go to see the nightview somewhere, so we drove all the way up a mountain
and suddenly they popped out a cake with candles and everything, and my housemate even made a video with all of our funny memories together
I’m just so grateful that I still had to have these last moments with them, and if you girls are watching this
I miss you a lot here and can’t believe I’m not coming home there. Thank you so much for everything
Thank you so much for watching! I hope I didn’t bore you too much with all of my personal talk
It’s something I felt I really needed to say, because it’s weird that I’m suddenly back in Europe
I don’t even realize it myself. And once more
I want to say a HUGE thank you from the bottom of my heart to Taiwan for giving me this amazing, unforgettable experience
I would like to say:
No goodbyes, but see you soon