These are the boys we hang out with on a regular basis. They all are upstanding good men and all speak English!

Because I had to work Saturday morning, Michael and I decided to leave around 11:30pm and stop by Primo, just for a sec, for his friend’s birthday. I was already dressed for the occasion, and since I’ve never been to Primo (which apparently is one of those clubs where you have to know someone to get in), it was like killing two birds with one stone. The plan was to say hi, meet some people, bounce in 20 minutes, and be home by 12:30.

Yaaah.. I got home around 3am. Woke up five hours later and zombied my way through the day at work. I’m definitely not doing that again anytime soon.

Saturday night was dinner with my aunt and uncle to introduce them to Michael. Michael is a Taiwanese-American boy whom I met through mutual friends here in Taipei. And since my own parents are so far away, this was the way for them to get to know better what’s going on through family here (but my parents have met him through Skype). The dinner went well, and we ended up going back to my uncle’s place to play mah-jong with my cousins until one in the morning.

I definitely overslept Sunday morning, enjoyed the nice weather, cleaned house, and then had dinner at one of the most amazing Japanese BBQ places. The meat was amazing, and it went so well with a very smooth but very expensive Cabernet Sauvignon. But surprisingly, all of the food also went very well with ginger ale (I can’t even remember the last time I had ginger ale). The restaurant was called Da Wan 大腕燒, and it’s at S. DunHua Section 1, Alley 177, No. 22 台北市敦化南路一段177巷22號1樓 (phone 02-27110179). I personally did not take pictures, but I found some that did it justice. If you’re interested, look here or here.

I saw this thing on the Travel and Living channel where they were somewhere in South America, and they had a drink where they mixed coca cola and red wine. So of course, I just had to try it last night, and it was soooo good. It tastes a bit like spiked cherry coke, so for those who are not avid wine fans, this is the drink for you. It’s called Calimocho, and it’s common around the Spanish and Latino countries. Although if you do it around wine connoisseurs, you might be shunned from the group for the rest of your life.

Jen & I had a lovely thanksgiving dinner ordered from Far Estern hotel. Mashed potatoes and gravy, honey baked ham, and pumpkin pie never tasted so good. My aunt came over and had dinner with us, and then Jen&I were off to Brian’s place for an after-meal get-together.

Let me introduce the boys. Brian, a fellow teacher at my school introduced Jen & I to his friend Dan. Dan & Brian then slowly introduced us to their league basketball team, and now they’re all officially dubbed “The Boys”. We have dinner together, we go to their basketball game, we go out to night markets, clubbing, etc. I can safely say that they’re the closest friends that Jen&I got right now, and it’s not a bad bunch. Usually, when meeting new people, the problem lies in that if we meet people that are only Taiwanese, then they only speak Chinese and Jen feels left out. Or they’re a bunch of Americans, and we just don’t quite get along. But now, “The Boys” consist of Americans, Taiwanese-Americans, and Taiwanese who can all speak English, and everyone pretty much shares similar interests. We always have a good time hanging out with them.

So sitting at Brian’s place tonight, surrounded by them singing Happy Birthday to me made me feel like that i finally belonged somewhere now. I don’t think there was anywhere else I’d rather be here in Taiwan.

I’m thankful for many things, but the most important thing I’m thankful for this year is my relationships. If it weren’t for family, we wouldn’t have settled here in Taiwan so easily. If it weren’t for jud, i wouldn’t have somone to talk to about my troubles. If it weren’t for constant contact with friends, the transition would have been much harder and much lonlier. If it weren’t for meeting new friends, our life here now would not be as fulfilling.

When a guy and girl gets married here, there are two parties for them. The first is an engagement party occurring during lunchtime and thrown by the bride’s parents, and they invite all the family and friends on the bride’s side. The second party occurs a month later and is the actual wedding, this time paid for by the groom’s parents. There were about 360 guests there today, and everyone ate really well with the 10+ giant dishes of delicious seafood and other stuff. After the meal, everyone leaves with a giant box of “wedding cookies”.

the Bride and the Groom with their parents

Because it was a holiday weekend, we didn’t have reserved seats for the ride back since they were all sold out for the entire day. We had to buy non-reserved seats which literally put us on standby until there were seats open in any available cars. We got to the station around 4pm, and the line was soooo long and weaved around the entire station. It was a bit ridiculous the mass amounts of people, but fortunately the line went quickly, and we were on board half an hour later.

On the way out of the train station, we were about to cross the street to catch a bus home when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around, and there were two guys smiling at me and Jen. One of them introduced them both and said that he thought I was cute, and his friend thought Jen was cute. He then proceeded to explain that he lived in California for about a year, and his friend there said that it’s ok to initiate conversations with girls if you think they’re cute. So he said that he was trying the American way by talking to us, and his English was actually pretty decent.

Here’s the thing in Taiwan, we’ve been out to a few clubs and bars, and we quickly learned that Taiwanese guys do not talk to girls here. It seems like the boys have been snubbed a few too many times over the past couple generations that they’ve just given up asking. Taiwanese girls will not give you the time of day if they are not even the least bit interested so the guys don’t really bother anymore. It’s even to the point where they’re afraid to stand in proximity with Jen at the club because she’s so “foreign”. If a boy is interested in a girl, he’ll send over a friend to let the girl know that he is interested and would like to get the girl better, but never do they ever approach the girl themselves.

Back to the story, so you can imagine our surprise when these two guys decided to come and talk to us and wanted to get our numbers so they can hang out with us more. Except Dude #1 made two fatal errors.

While asking where we’re from and how we knew each other, to which I replied that we’ve been friends for a long time since middle school, he then blurted out, half-joking yet half-serious, “Wait, are you guys a couple?” while looking a bit freaked out waiting for the answer. Very smooth, dude, imply that we’re lesbians because that’ll definitely get you hot dates. Then five minutes later, after stating that we look pretty young, to which I replied, yeah we’re 22, he then proceeded to ask us our names again because, “Sorry, I’m old. I forget things.” Old enough to forget things? Are we talking about 30s or 40s here cause neither can be a good thing while talking to 22-year-olds. (That’s another thing, you can never tell anyone’s age here cause they all look so much younger than they really are!) In the end, he wanted to get our numbers, to which I replied, Why don’t you give me yours?, also popularly known as, Don’t expect to hear from us anytime soon.

I feel a tiny bit bad for mercilessly squashing a Taiwanese boy’s first attempt to talk to us, but when they can’t do it properly, I suppose then they would be better off not doing it at all. (Not that it mattered if they did do a proper job, but I just find it all a very interesting cultural thing.)

In other news, I am a black-haired vixen again. Jen & I went to the salon to get our hair washed for a mere $150NT ($5USD), and I made the impulsive decision to dye it black. I’ve been thinking about it for awhile, but I didn’t want to do box-dye it myself and have my hair look like a fake wig. The lady did a really good job, and it matches my roots perfectly.