Lately

I can't remember what I did in the day on Tuesday, seriously. Well, I know I played pool with Scott (scratched cue ball off the break each time, but beat him 5 games to 1), but other than that I don't know. Oh wait... I helped the English teacher with her stuff until about 5:30, then went to play pool. Following that I returned home.

Wednesday featured the beginning of the process of "seeing Anna off at the airport." This was basically her last social event, though she had been making goodbyes to various people, such as down-islanders, for a while now. I don't know what her parents policy is on tattoos & piercings, but as of current Rotary rules it's all right in Taiwan. So we got to see her newly-acquired tatoo (springscream logo on her back) and a piercing she got some time. Fun stuff.

I started by meeting up with Katy & Greg at Main Station as they arrived from Taoyuan by train. We headed over to the pool hall by Wanfang as we were to be meeting Anna at Daan station at 3:00. Played for a while, Katy's not so good, Greg is usually better than I am, or at least I slipped up one time & he caught up from 2 balls behind to clear the table in one turn. Owned. We then headed to meet them at the MRT. American Alex, Claire & Anna were there when we arrived. We made some phone calls & it turned out David (the California breakdancer) was coming as well. So we decided to go to American Alex's house, and thus met David @ MRT Jingmei.

Claire/Anna's school friends Chocolate & nameless-girl showed up as well, so we were graced with Taiwanese people. We decided to have a BBQ at Alex's for dinner (though he suggested buying take-out). Thus the crew headed to a... grocery store I guess to buy a bunch of meat. We saw gross stuff for sale like a frog but didn't buy it. Some of the more immature members of our posse put random stuff like condoms and conditioner in the cart, which we took out as they were discovered. AA & I were mildly irked by the Taiwanese people's insistence on speaking English to us the whole time. The barbecue was not bad, good food, though it took a long time to get going.

Eventually some people had to leave, and a reduced posse sang some karaoke (I'll remember "I don't wanna miss a thing" by Aerosmith from that) then headed to Anna's by MRT/taxi. Here, we pass midnight, and it becomes Thursday. Claire had almost run out of money at this point, so for the remainder of the night I was picking up most of the tab for stuff. When we got to their host family we found out the terrible news (but to be expected of the likes of Taiwan Rotary) that the flight was changed to 2:00 PM the next day. Of course, nobody had told her, but somehow her host mother was angry at her, so we guys just chatted outside for about an hour while Claire translated the screaming/crying fest between the two combatants.

At this point we faced a problem -- low on resources, devoid of transportation, with 9 hours until Anna had to be back at her house, & none of us with a place to sleep. Now, it would have been smart to just get a hotel room and all sleep on the floor, but as teenagers, we decided hanging out until buses started running would be a good idea. After a false start on venues (though I did get a card written for a teacher) we found a reasonable-rate pool hall and shot some pool. At this point David was wearing a skirt for some reason, but we still played some close games. Tiredness only impairs ability a little.

Eventually, dawn came, I had a 7-11 burger, and went home from Main Station. There I showered, slept and got up at about 11:22 when Greg called me. Now, if it takes 20+ minutes to get to the bus station at Main Station, and if it takes at least an hour by bus to the airport, and you check in 2 hours before a 2:35 flight, is there enough time to get there? Not quite. So by the
time I got to the airport I'd missed my chance to achieve my original goal. I talked to her on MSN while she had a layover in Singapore, however, and it seems my presence during that long stretch of random was appreciated. whee

The rest of that day I just kind of chilled at home, and then slept at 10:30 or 11:00.

Friday I went to Scott's and we watched Golden Boy & the end of Evangelion. That encompassed a large portion of my day. It was fun, but the ending to Evangelion is weird indeed--almost as if they ran out of money and/or stopped trying.

Saturday started slow. I talked to Foo, Katelynne, Lawrie & perhaps others on MSN. Sometime around the late afternoon/early evening Scott showed up. I'd wanted to call him but I couldn't get Didi to tell me where the house book of phone numbers is (Taiwan doesn't seem to have phone books). It came as a random surprise.

Even more awesome was his story: at Su Jia he had began a normal day, RPing online and playing Warcraft III. Sometime in the afternoon, the parents had said they were going to the mountain for the night, so he replied "ok have fun, but say goodbye to me before you go." Up the stairs he went to hang his clothes to dry, as I had done many times before. In a situation that had never happened to me, he returned to find the metal door shut. It's just not openable from the outside without a key.

Of course, he didn't have a key, nor his MRT card, nor any other resource in his pockets, hanging clothes being a kind of "in the house/at home" activity. So he borrowed money from his neighbour and busted a long move on over to Zhang Jia. So we chilled for a while. The 'rents
eventually got home. We placed some calls but neither Su parent had a cell phone turned on, so Scott got to sleep over (on the floor).

As 'Amanda' the Zhang's daughter, and thus my host sister, was to be returning from Germany the 26th (Sunday morning) we asked to go with. Zhang mama said some random shit about it being too early (leave the house at 6:00 AM) and something else which made no sense. Scott gets up 5 AM most days and when I go to school I always got up at like 6 so I could shower, eat, and hop the bus / MRT. We also were like "how about we rent a movie" and she seemed kind of buhaoyisi about that too. Thus, we decided not to. Then Scott explained to me how in the reverse-logic of Taiwan culture she was trying to save face for us (really her) by giving us BS reasons not to go to the airport instead of saying she didn't want us to go.

I, being not good at people nor very perceptive, but nevertheless always in search of the truth and frowning when I hear obviously illogical statements, had to bow to his superior wisdom. I went straight into problem-solving mode, but of course I missed the fact that I was talking
to a woman & Taiwanese person thrown into one makes not only some logic, but most of my cultural expectations, fly out the window. So we basically chilled, chatted in my room, after cleaning a space on the floor for his sheet of sleeping material. I fashioned a pillow out of a scarf,
sweatervest, and ... some pants? Something like that.

In the morning Scott got up before I did to roleplay (on my computer) as usual. I got up shortly after, and ate some dry mantou. The fam & newly acquired daughter got back around 9. Scott & I basically hung out as they have had little time for us waiguoren. At 10 we decided to go play pool. So we headed to Jingmei where the rate was apparently 0.8nt/hour.

Surprise surprise it was closed on Sunday morning. Tried again at Gongguan--no luck. We read magazines at a bookstore, then Scott got water & I got bubble tea. That's right, I kind of like it now, but this is really stupid, because when I get back to Canada I bet I will love it but never have it because it's only in Victoria. We watched "Mr & Mrs. Smith" at the theater & then went to Su Jia.

We ate lunch & dinner while watching the first part of "Scrapped Princess" ... I was eating so slowly I had the last bite of my lunch while walking to the dinner table.

I got home recently. I heard the best thing ever from Amanda~ she is asking me to revise my plane ticket earlier so I won't be here so long. She wants for the family to visit their Grandmother in the south of Taiwan, but of course I am just evicted from the family (& the house?) if they go. This has slightly damaged my opinion of her, though I've only known her one day. Way to represent your country; you go girl. :p K out