Being Hospitable

I'm not sure where people get this so-called "Filipinos are hospitable" idea. I've practically grew up in the Philippines and to be honest, I've never experienced this "hospitality". I'm not gonna lie but I do think that Taiwanese are more hospitable than anyone else. They treat other people better, go out of their way to help them when in need, even utter strangers are no exception to their special treatment.

I've only been in Taiwan for 6 months and the kind treatment, help, and hospitality I've been getting is tremendous.

There was this time when I've had visa problems when I was changing my visitor visa to a resident visa, basically I've had a couple of documents missing, and to the extent that I need to leave the country because the deadline of my visitor visa was on the same day I was supposed to get it changed and I wasn't even aware of it. I was preparing to buy a plane ticket out but a lady from the immigration went out of her way to call me in school about my problem and assisted my all the way to having it done in an hour's time. She could just deny me of my application and boot me out of the country but she'd given me tremendous help, which I'm very thankful of.

Another one was this new landlord of mine, she was like my previous old granny-type landlord when I was living in the US, who most of the time sends me food and drinks and even offers to do my laundry, talk about being hospitable. Of course I did accept the food and drinks she'd given, since I acknowledge her generosity but doing my laundry? Thanks, but I can handle that.

Now, today I went to the night market close to where I live to grab a few things and some grub, as I was going home heavy rained poured really really hard, since I wasn't expecting any of this, I didn't bring my umbrella and was basically drenched half-way. So to pass time, I went to this stall where they sell oyster omelette (蚵仔煎) and ate there, still the rain didn't stop for like half an hour. I was standing there waiting for the rain to stop or at least quiet down and the store owner, out of kindness, offered her umbrella without anything in return, and even said that I didn't need to bring the umbrella back. I didn't spent that much on her store, I just bought 1 order of the omelette yet I get this kindness from a complete stranger.

I couldn't fathom how they just go out of their way to help even when not being asked of. How I do wish I've experienced this treatment in my homeland, where I've had experienced the complete opposite of this. People offering to "help" change your spare tire when you get a flat tire on the road charge you a "service fee" and people "help" you with directions turn out mugging you in return. I'm not generalizing but that's how I've experienced things in the country where they are self-proclaimed hospitable.