A Taiwanese-American Living In Paris
Where It All Started…
I’m a first-generation Taiwanese-American born in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley. Despite going on many trips back-and-forth between California and Taiwan during my childhood, I truly fell in love with traveling when I was 15 years old during a 9-day high school biology trip to Costa Rica. Since then, I’ve traveled to 15 countries, lived on both coasts of the USA, New Zealand, Taiwan, and Brazil, and developed a burning passion for the Portuguese language.
In 2013, right after moving back to California from Brazil, I met a French man named William through a whimsical online exchange. After 3 years of exploring countless corners of my home state, we moved to his hometown of Paris in 2016 and started a new adventure together. I moved to France without any prior experience of the lifestyle, culture, and not even enough franglais* to buy a baguette from the boulangerie (*a mix of French and English, same concept as Spanglish haha). So there was plenty of cultural shock and barriers, especially in the beginning.
Over the past years, I’ve worked so hard to adjust and feel at home here–from making friends, finding work, to learning French mannerisms. After 4 years here, it’s finally begun to feel like somewhere I belong. So come along, I’ve love to take you on a journey through my adventures as I continue to discover life in Europe and abroad! Also, I guarantee there’ll be lots of shots of mouthwatering food, for my fellow foodies out there. 😉
Our Paris Stories featured my story of moving to Paris, read it here!
Becoming An Entrepreneur Abroad
After moving to Paris, I opened my own French company with an entrepreneur visa, which was no easy feat! I now work as a digital marketing consultant for both American and international clients. For French clients, I often work on expanding their reach into the English-speaking market, or developing effective strategies/content to drive conversions from specific audiences.
Before moving Paris, I was working my dream job in San Francisco as Head of Marketing at Feastly (acquired by ChefsFeed in 2018). I worked with chefs to create unique and intimate social dining experiences around the city. A typical day consisted of writing about delicious food, tasting a new chef’s handcrafted recipes, then developing a strategy to tell that chef’s story and share their incredible cuisine. It’s a rewarding moment when a curious food lover connects with a passionate chef over an ephemeral culinary experience.
Prior to Feastly, I was Director of Communications at News for Chinese media in the San Francisco Bay Area. I continue to write freelance pieces for NFC from around the world, you can read my work here.
In 2013, I graduated from Boston University’s College of Communication with a B.S. in communications and a double concentration in Chinese and Portuguese. Since then, I’ve called San Francisco, Boston, Auckland, Taipei, Rio de Janeiro, and now Paris, my home.
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Fun Tidbits:
- I’m a fan of retail therapy and I can never have enough plants.
- My 3 fiery life passions are travel, culture, and language.
- I’m a journal writer, started when I was 10.
- I adopted an orange cat in France. He is unbelievably cute.
- I love dancing, especially Spanish flamenco and Brazilian samba! (Both my parents were ballet dancers, they met in dance class in university…aw so sweet right??)
So kiddo, “retail therapy” is also one of my favorites! But it’s supposed to be short term or you wind-up like me with a house stuffed full of stuff! So beware!
How amazing! Happy to find your blog. I’m Taiwanese-Kiwi. That’s awesome that you’ve lived in NZ before 🙂
Thanks Katie!! So glad you enjoyed reading! I love New Zealand so much, part of my heart will forever be left there. What part of NZ are you from? I studied in Auckland but traveled a bit all over! I cannot wait for the day I can go back and bring my boyfriend to experience it as well 🙂
I’m happy to hear that 🙂 I’m from Auckland! Yes that’ll be very exciting, I’m sure he’ll love it just as much xx
Jocelyn,
It’s Daisy of THATMuse. I’m so sorryI won’t get to meet you on Saturday, but next you’re in London, please do look me up or coffee in Paris next I’m there?
Love seeing your international bio!
Good luck on the treasure hunt!
Kind regards,
Daisy
PS/ not for you to post publicly — I can’t find your twitter address, but am posting 3 of Annie’s blog posts giving away 3 Harry Potter bonus answers on Twitter, so have a look there if you’d like a leg up!
Have fun!
Daisy
PPS/ my maiden name is Ho & I’m half Chinese, though sadly I don’t speak Chinese