Saturday 10/5/02 A Crumbling Bar and A Depressing Club
Mom called at 8AM to say goodbye, going on and on about how I should
call my relatives, listing them all one by one, and visit Ama and Agong, even
gave me directions on how to get to a bakery to get bread that Agong likes, and
to the market for chicken that Ama likes, like I’m going to remember any of
this when I’m fully awake. At 10
Arthur called and hearing how groggy I was, said he’d call another time. At 12 Dave called and I forced myself
up. I mostly vented to him how bad
my Chinese still is and why didn’t my parents teach me better.
Watched TV while eating lunch (mom’s food stash is neverending. I have not gone grocery shopping
once). While in the bathroom, my
cellphone rang, I dashed out and it was DeHua. At the moment, I didn’t remember his name so I said,
“Who?” He said, “[You just met me
yesterday and already forgot?!]”
He said they still didn’t know where they were going tonight and neither
did I. Then, little Melody and her
father called to invite me out tonight but I told them I had plans with my
friends returning to the US tomorrow.
Later, Gary SMS’ed that we would meet up for drinks and go somewhere
afterwards.
I decided I’d better get a LOT of sleep in order to survive Kate’s
“start at 2AM night” (again), so I took an almost 3 hour nap and called Stella
to see what she was doing. She was
still adamant about going to Room 18 tonight because some famous DJ she loves
from Britain would be there, even though everyone else was going
elsewhere. She’d already spoken to
Eric (who’d gone to Room 18 last night and saw Ginger there. Ginger had told us she was going to a
lounge called Organo so we were surprised), Joe (who also DID end up going to
Room 18 last night, because John finally gave in and let him), Elroy (who had
invited her to a mongolian BBQ with people but she didn’t feel like it), and
No, Essi and DeHua couldn’t have gone to Room 18 last night because they were
banned from there and Plush (same club owner), for getting in a fight last
time. Apparently that’s why DeHua
was limping. It wasn’t even
dinnertime and she already had spoken to people from four different circles and
knew who went where last night and who was going where tonight. She’s more connected than ChungHwa
Telecom.
At
around 9 Gary called to ask me to join him, Kate and Jake for a drink at a bar
around JianGuo/DunHua, a block west and south of me. I called Ginger who said she’d come (she’s so laid back and
up for anything, very cool). My
plan was that if Gary and Kate didn’t end up going anywhere afterward, which
sounded likely, Ginger and I could join DeHua and co.
The
pub was called ChangGuei and looked like a converted barn house or large cabin,
quite spacious and decorated in Oriental style with bar and wooden tables. We joined Gary, Kate, Jake, Kate’s bro
Gary, and Kate’s friend from KTV night Iris. They had dishes of garlic roasted peanuts, I love those
things. The menu was a novel, with
sections for food, juices, teas, hot teas, coffee, milk teas, cocktails, beers,
wines, shakes, everything and anything drinkable under the sun (the shake
section was called “For Love Milk Human”). I looked at the frontpage and it listed things like
Cocktails, Beer and a number next to each, saying 15, 19, 20. I stared and asked, “WHAT are these
prices??” Gary said “That’s PAGE
15, 19, 20” and they all laughed.
I said, “I wasn’t sure if it was NT and that would mean I’d DEFINITELY
come here all the time, or if it was US dollars and expensive as hell!”
The conversation was fun. I
kept encouraging Jake to drink up since he had the most reason to (gf just
ended their several-years-long relationship), Gary and I shared some fun
college stories, Ginger and I some fun class stories. Ginger got a peach margarita and I a passionfruit one, they
were in thin champagne glasses with crushed chunky ice instead of blended and
very sour, and still quite weak.
Sigh. Iris had to go home
since she lives kinda far and Kate and brother Gary went to walk her to the
station. Gary said Iris is “having
problems” and said all Kate’s friends are a little crazy. I asked, “Remember the other friend who
came to Room 18 wearing the thong?”
Gary said, “Yeah! This
girl, she wore a tongue ring, and a thong.” Jake said, “What, and nothing else?” We cracked up and we explained No, but
she slung her skirt really low to show the T of her thong. I said, “Remember? So did that tall
white girl who danced on the stage with her ass to the crowd the whole
time.” Gary said, “I got a picture
of it! I took a picture of us and
her ass was in the background.”
Suddenly as I was eating a peanut, part of the ceiling fell and showered
bits of plaster down on me. A
flake bounced into my eye, I said, “Ow,” and when the hostess rushed over I yelled
“Ow!” louder, figuring they better give us something for this. They handed me saline and told me to
douse my eye, I ran to the bathroom, still yelping, “Ow, my eye, my eye,” but
it was really fine and didn’t want to make my makeup run so I delicately dropped
a few drops in. Ginger said she
was confused, she thought as I was eating the peanut it exploded in my face or
something. Apparently I was the
only one who got showered with crap.
They exchanged our cocktails for new ones, gave us a side table instead
and brought us a pitcher of juice and 2 plates of popcorn, apologizing
profusely, explaining the building was over 60 years old and the ceiling was
deteriorating (and they were doing nothing about this). I said, “Why is it better that they
moved us here?” We looked up and
there was plastic tarp over us.
“Because this part already fell in,” said Gary.
As we dug into the popcorn Jake said, “Well they SHOULD give us this
stuff, for damaging Grace’s eye,” and I said in a low voice, “Well, I did exaggerate
a little,” and they looked at me in surprise. There was a silence and Gary said, “Are you serious? You should’ve gone down on the FLOOR!”
He looked at the pitcher and said “What? They gave us just juice, no alcohol?” Then tasted it, and
discovered it was SwanMei juice:
”And they gave us the most nasty kind of juice too! I’m gonna throw this in her face!”
DeHua
called and said they were going to 2nd Floor, the club on top of the
hotel Gary and Art had stayed at last time. Ginger was up for it but the rest decided to go home. I said goodbyes to Gary and Kate who
were leaving for the US tomorrow.
By the time we left it was after 1 and we took a cab, stopping at her
place to change her shoes that were killing her, and at my place to get my bank
card that I’d forgot.
Apparently 2F is a pretty popular club. Was 550 cover and no dress code, people were slobs. This is why Stella doesn’t like it. She says, “You really have to go in
your trainers. It’s like if you
dress up, you can’t get in.” They
searched us and took Ginger’s digicam away to hold for her. We watched them put it carelessly on
the counter and no one came to pick it up, they asked us what we were waiting
for and she asked if they’d put the camera away, they assured us they would and
shooed us along.
DeHua
was waiting for us in the stairwell.
The music was loud. There
was the bar, then the main room with huge dance floor, stage in front where a
band was playing house, and a couple cages around but no one in them at the moment. DeHua told us to wait while he found
everyone else, but after awhile we wandered and claimed our free drinks with
the voucher at the bar. I’ve
learned by now to try and get as strong a drink as possible so I asked for a LI
iced tea but he said we can only use it to get a drink under 150NT, so we both
got vodka crans and they were actually decent, I could taste the alcohol at
least. We went up to the 2nd
level—there was a balcony all around overlooking the main floor, lounge couches
on the perimeter of both floors on which people were smoking, looking sullen,
and stared as we passed. Once we
paused to look over the balcony and a guy asked us to sit down. I said we were fine standing but he
kept bugging so I told Ginger to move on.
Finally I saw DeHua below and yelled but it was like yelling against the
sound of a freight train, so we quickly went down and he led us to a door
upstairs that we hadn’t even noticed, inside which was a whole other lounge,
with dance floor and its own DJ and nice couches. His cousin and cousin’s gf were there but other than them I
didn’t recognize anyone. DeHua
told us that before we came, Ichi was dancing in one of the cages, and everyone
surrounded him staring, and when he came down people were asking him to teach them. I said I believed it.
A
host came over and basically told us that people with money were coming to sit
here, so get out. We went out and
everyone sat right down on the floor, leaning against the wall or squatting. A lot of people in the club were doing
that, it’s pretty ghetto. I told
Ginger I wished NY clubs were more like this, no attitude, no dress code, no
long lines, just $15 cover and go in have fun. But the drawback is skanky people. She agreed.
We decided
to go down and dance. Everyone
seemed to dance facing the stage even though the band was no longer there. Now a couple girls were in the cages
and dancing in a very, um advertising sort of way. As I danced I felt a little surreal. Quite possibly, at any one of the clubs
I’ve been to I could’ve been dancing in the same exact spot 7 years ago in a
club by a different name. Here I
was 26 years old back in this country doing the same exact thing. Wasn’t I supposed to grow up and not
like doing these things anymore?
When was that going to happen?
Ginger and
I had fun making fun of people, like a whole group of local guys dancing
together (and how at home, it’s OK for a whole group of guys to dance as long
as ONE girl is there). The house
music beat was all the same and got a bit repetitive. After awhile we found Francois who introduced us to his
coworker Grace, and Joe who was dancing with some white girl. We danced, I was facing the stage so Joe
and the girl were behind me, then after awhile Ginger said, “You can turn
around if you want,” and when I turned and looked, they were going at it. Bleagh!! I yelled at her, “Thanks a LOT!” and she laughed.
The next second everyone disappeared, so we went looking and found
everyone back on the couches.
DeHua was cozied up with some girl so Francois, Grace and we two sat and
people-watched. It was really
smoky and the couches often faced each other with people you didn’t know so it
looked quite socially awkward, and most people looked bored or tired. Some people squatting had their heads
buried in their arms. I wondered,
why’ve they come to a club if they’re so depressed? If they weren’t in clubbing
outfits with music blasting all around, it would look like Penn Station.
Francois
said we should go upstairs because he knew the DJ and would only DJ for another
hour. We danced on the small floor
but it was too open with no one else dancing, except one couple, a girl in hip
hop gear who could really dance like a fly girl and watched herself in the
mirror. Did I see her at TU last
night? Around 4AM we two decided to go. We went down to say bye to the others
but Joe was in a corner making out with the girl, and DeHua still looked “busy”
as well, so we just left. I SMS’ed
him, “We are leaving now, can’t find you.
Have a good trip home!” figuring that was better than saying, “We tried to say
goodbye but you were busy macking with some chick.”
We
cabbed back to a midway spot and agreed whoever woke up first would call the
other for brunch at Juke’s.
When
I walked into my door and got ready to shower, again hanging up my smoky
clothes, again with the dawn’s light starting to filter in, I told myself I’d
better stop this clubbing thing.
It was just watching other people flirt and hook up like the whole goal
is to find someone there. Besides,
think of the money I could save, and shouldn’t I do more cultural, healthy,
intelligent things, like concerts and shows and movies and reading and going to
sleep at a normal hour? This is
fast turning into a 10-month Love Boat, and that’s not good.