Actually, I found myself there the next night too, for a bboy battle after-party, which was the same party I’d attended last year on this weekend. It may seem silly to point to one night to sort of the start of it all, but this was kind of it. My friend from Chess texted me at like 11PM and said that there was a party that I would probably like and even though I had been kind of tired, I popped over and then stayed there till 4AM, dancing the night away.
It was then that I met two guys I would become pretty good friends with, and also met my eventual hip hop instructor. Basically the party was so good that I kept going back to Chess over and over, hoping for that high again. While it never quite got that good again, it’s hard to deny that it was the catalyst for a lot of my Taipei social life. I literally used to go there like every Wednesday and a lot on Friday and Saturday. For the people who frequent Chess, it’s basically like Cheers and you see the same people over and over. Most of it is due to the fact that it’s the only place that consistently plays hip hop, and the crowd is also mostly ABCs and foreigners (but not “those” kind of expats) so there’s always dancing going on.
Actually I was out of Taiwan mid-November, and it seemed like a rush the last two weeks. I got out to the golf course for C’s early birthday event, and while I hadn’t golfed in about fifteen years, I felt I represented myself well with about a +100 handicap. Seriously, it was whiff after whiff and dirt chunk after dirt chunk. The caddies there are overly helpful and they kind of shoo you off the hole as fast as possible to get the next group on. A little anxiety inducing actually.There were a couple more late nights / early mornings and then it was time to prep to leave again. This time I was going to pack as light as possible, because I was only gone for three weeks, but my mom had also insisted that I box up all my stuff in Taiwan. Oh! Right before my last day in TPE, we went to get tattoos in Ximen. Getting three tattoos took all day but we waited around while we each took turns getting carved up. D1 got a compass on her upper leg, D2 got a Jimi Hendrix lyric, and I got an outline of Taiwan filled with Taiwan-y designs. And then J and I headed off to Korea!
A&J used to live in Taipei but left us maybe June-ish. They were the center of one group of my Taiwan friends and with them gone, we are all still friends but without the central connection, like a friend donut. A is the retail manager for a large fashion brand and so he had to move to a bigger market, and of course J went with him. They were my perfect married couple, with A around for basketball and guy stuff, and J for (some) Shida and writing. Plus they hosted our Game of Thrones nights!
Their place in Seoul was super nice and I did my best to wake up for day time activities. Korea was a little chilly and thank goodness I got a thicker jacket aside from my denim one. One night J and I went to Dongdaemun, which is this shopping area that houses huge malls that are open until 5AM. The shopping in Korea seemed fantastic, even just the little amount I touched. Everyone is so much better dressed than in Taiwan and I can immediately see why Korean fashion influences so much of the rest of Asia (not to mention the U.S.). I got a few very necessary items and next time back I’m totally gonna take the subway and eat some street food!
While in Korea, I found out D was called back to her native Brazil, totally unexpectedly. She was originally going to go back in February but her parents said for her to come home now. After some initial panic and much sadness — my whole plan had been to leave Taiwan when D left — I changed my airplane ticket to fly back to Taiwan and spend the last few days hanging out with her. Originally I was supposed to go direct from Korea to San Diego, but in my mind we would like never see each other again so we had to hang out now!
So I headed back to TPE for three days, kind of helped her pack, and basically just soaked in our last few times together. It also sort of marked the end of my time here, at least in my mind. Sure, I’d be right back and sure there was still lots of people and things in Taiwan, but having spent a year hanging out and all that, it was like the vacation was over. I don’t know what I’m gonna do moving forward but with the arbitrary mid-February date off the table, I need to turn my attentions to what happens in 2016?!
"Ever since I left the city you…"
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