I never thought I would be so worried about shoes. I stayed at my host father's parents' home in Miaoli (苗栗) for four days to celebrate Chinese New Year. Although I learned a lot about New Year traditions, the most surprising experience I had was trying to figure out what to wear on my feet each day.
The home where I stayed has four floors. On the ground floor, you wear sandals. On the upper floors, you wear blue slippers. In the bathroom, you wear red slippers. This is not unusual in Taiwan, but, for an American, all those shoes can cause confusion.
You see, at home, we don't even wear shoes in the house. When you enter my home, you take off your shoes and wear your socks or—in the summertime—your bare feet.
Once, while visiting Miaoli, I forgot to put on my sandals when I went downstairs to the kitchen. “Where are your shoes?” my host mom asked. “This floor is so dirty.”
This was the third time I had worn the wrong thing on my feet, so I finally explained to her that this custom of changing shoes was hard for me to get used to, since we wear socks inside.
“But don't you have to clean the floors a lot in America?” she asked.
“Not more than usual,” I replied. Our socks aren't dirty because we wear shoes outside, and many people have carpet in their homes, so the dirt doesn't stick to your feet.
“Don’t your feet get cold?” she asked.
“Where I live, it's so cold that our homes are heated,” I said. Sometimes I wear slippers if my feet get cold, but wearing slippers is not a rule like it is here.
At first, I had a hard time understanding why it mattered so much if I was wearing my upstairs shoes downstairs or my socks in the kitchen. But I realized that it wasn’t the shoes that the family really cared about. It was my comfort as a guest.
More than anything in Taiwan, I have noticed how well Taiwanese people treat their guests. It makes me feel right at home, and I guess I will wear whatever shoes I need to wear to show my appreciation.