Friday

I went out to dinner with Luke today. I've neve met a Luke that I didn't like and this Luke is not exception. We spoke English, which was probably bad on general principle but to be fair it would have taken a very long time to get to know him as well as I do know. I had gone out to lunch with him (and others), four or five times, and all I really knew about him was that he liked spicy foods. And I only knew that because he slathered hot sauce on his food, and if there was no hot sauce on the table, he always asked for some. Now I've come to find out that he's already graduated, and is pretty sure he's going to go to grad school in international environmental policy, which is something I'm interested in too. He had wanted to go try this place that is famous for its stinky tofu, and apparently cooks it differently than anywhere else, but we were unable to find the stinky tofu place, so we had Thai food instead, which was delicious. After dinner we walked over and looked at Sun yat-sen Memorial, and then went over to Taipei 101.

You definitely could climb it. I think you could even protect it. The first part is relatively low angle, and I think it would be kind of like a ladder. After that the tower is built in 8 or 10 sections that angle outward. It would be overhanging, but the corner of the building is knotched in, so I think you could stem your legs out, and get pretty good rests. There are big symbols pasted onto the building at intervals. They aren't very close together, but I think you could sling them, and use that for protection. You might be able to get in other stuff too, its hard to say.

After seeing Taipei 101 we decided to go out somewhere. So we both went home, and got ready, then I went over to Luke's house. I've thought before that you could live here without learning any Chinese at all, and Luke's roommates are a perfect example. They've all been living here for over two years, and none of them have any language skills beyond "Can I have a beer?". I don't think they've put a lot of effort into learning the language, but also, so many people want to speak English. They learn English for 6 years in public school, unless the family is rich, then the kids start learning even earlier. When I introduce myself, most people give me an English name. The local dialect of Chinese has numerous English words in it. T-shirt and cool, are both in regular usage while okay and bye-bye are more common than their Chinese synonym. It is beginning to become somewhat frustrating.

Anyways, Luke got spruced up, and we headed out to the bar. Luke has already been in Taiwan for one year, and so he spearheaded the choice of bar. We were going to WAX, which I had just heard the night before was one of the trashier bars in town. I figured it couldn't hurt to try it once, which turned out not to be entirely true. This was the first time I'd been carded since coming to Taiwan. These guys made a big deal out of it too, like the only reason I'd come to Taiwan was because I couldn't drink legally in the states, and they were damn sure going to make sure I could drink legally here. The did accept a North Carolina drivers lisence, which was fortunate, because I wasn't about to bring my passport to the bar with me.

I had heard correctly and WAX was a shady sort of place. It was in the basement for starters. Secondly, I think it was the loudest place I've ever been to. I put toilet paper in my ears, but about half way through the night it fell out. The next day I noticed a ringing in the ear the TP had fallen out of. I feel bad for people that go there regularly. I don't think it would take that long to get permanent hearing damage. Most of the clientele was pretty shady too. Dressed like americans, with sports jerseys, big nylon bandannas, ear rings, and a sullen expression on their faces. As far as I can remember, they also played exclusively American music. The most dubious thing was the reserved tables. The were there for people who have money, and want to use that money to make themselves feel better. The kind of people who want to lord over the crowd at a dirty, 500$NTD all you can drink bar, where the most popular form of dress is gangster. The kind of people who's friends are friends because of fear, not because of love.

All those things didn't stop me from wanting to dance, and Luke had already started, so I waded out in it. As soon as I started dancing I started laughing. I think sometimes I dance, and laugh because of joy, but this music wasn't that inspiring of joy. I think I laughed because people are funny looking when they dance. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I'm sure I'm funny looking when I dance too, but I can't watch myself, so I watch other people, and they make me laugh. There were a lot of foreigners at this place, but there were a couple of Indian guys really going getting after it. They were leaning pretty far back, keeping their arms straight, while quickly moving them up and down, and their torso side to side and up and down. They were really going to town to. They got an A for effort, and I don't know about style or effect.

It was an all you can drink bar, so like a good American, I abused the "all you can ..." privelege and drank too much. At 3:00, I left and ran all the way home, just as the Typhoon was getting started. Before I got left, I did notice one thing. While I was dancing they played one song by the "Black Eyed Peas". I don't remember which one, but I know it was one we used to play at small parties we had in the house I lived in at school. A year and a half ago, 15,000 miles away, in the small living room of a small college town, I was dancing to this same song. And now here I was, in a seedy, basement level club, surronded by dancing Asians, but dancing by myself. I was stoked off it though. It brought back memories of home.