Sounds funny? There are common questions which were popped up by people toward my husband and me. From a simply smiling until rolling eyes to answer similar questions. I understand, being an extraordinary couple with an exceptional experience of a relationship might bring a different reaction as well. Believe me, the spotlight, in reality, is not that fun. You see people looking at you at glance until seriously staring by following your walk!
Am I exaggerating? No, I’m not. Nonetheless, there is always someone looking at us for seconds every time we walk by in Indonesia which is not that fun. It seems that we do something bad until they have to stare at us in inappropriately and uncomfortably. Here is the sum up of frequently asked questions (FAQ) that people interestingly used to ask:
- Where do we come from?
Jeff is from MAURITIUS (click it to know where it is), while I am from INDONESIA.
- Where do we live?
Currently, we are living in Hsinchu, Taiwan. People name it as ‘The Windy City’ cause it’s coldness during winter and ‘The Industrial City’ due to the engineers work (especially in software) are in high demand here.
- How did we meet?
Build a network. You never know when and where you will find your true love😉. Sounds cheesy, but it is totally true. First time I came to Taiwan in 2014, I had to ask my friend to introduce me one of her friend who was willing to bring me to stroll Hsinchu, the city where Jeff worked. I had a student exchange program at that time. As I arrived one week earlier, I had extra time to travel around. Hence, I ended up knowing my one-short-trip became my highlight story in Taiwan😚. Well, we almost never met up again though. Why? Ssshh, let it be a forever sealed secret, hahaha. So, that’s how we met!
- Why do we choose Taiwan?
First thing first, Jeff has stayed in Taiwan for almost like four years, while I came here for joining my student exchange program only for a month before I studied Master of Psychology in the next two years. I had shared my reasons why do I choose Taiwan in my previous blog post (MOMENTIZING-Why Do I Choose Taiwan-Part 1). I won’t rewrite it again😇. In fact, I came here for pursuing my master while Jeff had stayed here for a work long time before we started our master program together. After his one year master in Taiwan, he got a job offered. Thus, we live here in Taiwan after we were happily got married💚.
- How long had you been in a relationship?
We had been in a relationship for four years. Three years in LDR (Long Distance Relationship) between Indonesia-Taiwan and one year between one city to the other in Taiwan. Sounds tough huh? Indeed! It took courage, patience, perseverance and strongly tied commitment to stay in it. It’s never an easy journey to get a worth living thing, right?
- When did we get married?
After two years in a relationship and two years engaged, we were finally got married last year, 7 July 2018.
- What do we do?
As everyone knows about Taiwan technology, we live in Hsinchu, the city where people call it the industrial technology city. Jeff works as a software engineer in a private company while I work at home, as a proud housewife, blogger and writer😍. Before I got married, I deeply thought housewife would be on my last option. Nevertheless, I am now proudly present myself working as a housewife. One of the reasons is because I feel constantly happy to be able to work remotely from home by creating and developing projects relates to parenting and relationship with some friends back in Indonesia. That’s why, whenever people had asked me this question, I’d like to answer “I work at home”📝.
- How do we communicate one each other?
Hehe, it’s a rhetorical question for me since I am completely sure people know about it. Definitely, we both speak in English💬! My mother tongue is Bahasa Indonesia and Jeff’s mother tongue is Creole or broken French. Jeff can speak daily conversation in Chinese, and what about me? Hehe, I am still on the process of learning. This could be the reason that when we have a kid one day, English and Mandarin would be the daily languages that we’d like to apply in our daily basis.
- What is the biggest struggle or challenge that we have?
Surely we had ever faced the hardships to understand our partner’s level of jokes, habits until foods preference. But what is the foremost barrier? It is surely the communication misunderstanding. It is even weighed down the mood to have a long casual talk with him before😖. It may be harder for me at the beginning to explain all those slang languages to him by switching the using of Bahasa Indonesia and English all the time.
- How do we overcome it?
Communicate, communicate and communicate MORE! Does it sound miserable as a basic ‘couple thing’? Obviously, whether you are dating or marrying someone from the same country and culture, it won’t guarantee you to get away from any communication issue👫💔. Be wise and be willing to start a conversation. Building a strong foundation in a relationship is tremendously important before you continue to grow together. Remember what C.S. Lewis said, to love is to be vulnerable right? Be patient and keep working on it!