Sunday 10/6/02 American
Breakfast and Sad German Boy
Ginger
got up first even though I was in the process of waking (sunlight plus
stomachaches plus needing to pee, the usual wake up call), around 12:15. She called Stella and I called Gary to
see if they wanted to do brunch.
He didn’t have time since he was packing, so I wished him a good
trip. She reported that Stella
wasn’t coming out either, and that her dad had just asked to take her to
brunch, so I hung up dejected. I’d
been looking forward to American breakfast food. I called Jonathan who wasn’t home, then JiaLan who’d just
eaten. Double dejected, I figured
I’d go to Wellcome and treat myself to something, and maybe even a pint of
Haagen Dazs. Just then Ginger
called, said her
dad and his coworker were going to Jukes and did I want to come right now? I rushed into shorts and Tshirt, and
they picked me up in their car.
Her dad
speaks English really well is originally from Mainland, and a woman who worked
with her dad was with them. On a completely side note, I noticed
the monster mosquito bite that looked like a tumor on my left shin has turned
almost purple and bruisy.
Juke’s is
on DunHua and Heping. It is
GREAT. We started reading the menu
outside just as a white guy came out and declared, “The food here is REALLY
GOOD.” We went in and they gave us
newer, thicker menus with even more stuff, pizzas (“Thin Italian style crust”),
sandwiches, omelettes, pancakes (including chocolate chip!! cry!!), and breakfast combos with
bacon, ham, sausage, hash browns, eggs any style, toast, OJ, unlimited
coffee. Oh Lord, how I thank
thee! Heavenly choruses played
through my head! I finally decided
on the Grand Slam with pancake, bacon, 2 eggs medium over, hash browns, OJ and
coffee for 240. I told Ginger
flatly, “We have to come back here.”
I couldn’t order everything I wanted unless I returned a dozen times.
There
was a bar and huge blackboard on the wall on which were written all kinds of
drinks, cheaper than those at last night’s bar, and we wondered if they were
stronger here, “American style.”
The
food was GREAT. I told her “I am so happy right now,” and she said she’d called
me because I’d said I’ve been craving American breakfast. I consumed every last bit of edible
substance off my plates and had a coffee refill. Her dad insisted on paying of course, even though I insisted
I was the one who’d bugged Ginger to come out for American breakfast. She said Grandma Nitti’s has a nicer
atmosphere but is more expensive and this is just as good.
Her
dad dropped us at her place and had to go to his university to do work. She brought me to their apartment. People were filming part of a TV show
right outside, though the actors looked like common street people. She asked what they were filming but we
didn’t quite understand.
We went
upstairs. The place was really
cool. Her grandfather was the
creator of the Chinese cult comic Old Master Q, and her dad and uncle are
keeping the business up and looking into marketing opportunities and such. So Old Master Q comic drawings,
sketches and plaster models were everywhere. There was an office area with several PCs, and drawing
tables with paints and tools, and comic books and pictures everywhere. Her dad also paints and several large
works adorned the halls. They also
have an outdoor balcony with a nice view and 2 tables where they sometimes eat,
and flowers/plants on either side.
We
wandered down ChungHsiao and stopped at the mango dessert/drink chain for
drinks when DeHua called. He’d
lost his cellphone at the club last night and was calling me from a payphone
and all he had was my name card, and asked why we hadn’t said goodbye. I explained we thought he was with a
girl and didn’t want to bother him.
He asked what we were doing, I told him where we were, he said he’d moved
out of his place so was wandering around shopping until his evening flight and
sounded bored and lonely, so he said he’d come meet us at SOGO. In a few minutes he called to ask if we
could come over there, to his hostel room, sounding like he wouldn’t have time
to come out and go back in time for his cousin to pick him up for the airport,
and moaning that he was all alone during his last couple hours in Taiwan. I hesitated and asked Ginger, I
wondered What would we do
there? She did too, but shrugged
and said OK, and said there was a lot of shopping in that area, and I hadn’t
really explored that part yet. So
we said we’d meet him at Taipei Main Station. Stopped by my place to change to jeans and get an umbrella
because it had turned windy, colder, dark and rainy.
He
led us to the hostel, which was quite clean and pleasant. He had double beds, own bathroom and
small TV set. We sat a little
awkwardly and watched TV, he came out of the bathroom had taken off his sweater
and wore a black tank top like what guys wear to play b-ball in. I felt a little bit weird wondering
where this was going. He asked us
when we left last night and why didn’t we say Bye, and did we see the two girls
kissing each other last night at the club, where we were all sitting? Thankfully this seemed to have happened
when Ginger and I left. He said
they weren’t lesbians, they all had boyfriends, and everyone including their
boyfriends just sat and stared. He
said repeatedly that it was “hen hau kan”. This was definitely weirding me out and I started trying to
think of a way to make an exit, but we eased off the subject, just saying we
didn’t understand why guys liked to look at girls kiss like that, and that
girls don’t think it’s anything great to watch…obvious things.
We
half watched TV, making fun of the girly guys in MTV Asia music videos, and
half talked, then we looked at the presents he was taking home for people, then
asked if he had any photos. He
just showed us his digicam, and took our picture, then flipped through to show
us various pics and videos, mostly of the last few days since he hadn’t taken
many the whole trip until he realized he was leaving soon. There were a few of Essi doing Kung Fu
stuff. Then Ginger brought
out hers and we looked through those.
What Women Want was on Cinemax AGAIN so for the 3rd time I
was watching it. He kept moaning
that he had to go home soon, I asked him, “[Don’t you miss it at all?]” He said No, and that he had to go back
and study, and this was his last hour in Taipei, groaning like he was in real
pain and going to die, and I said he sounded like he was on death row. Apparently ever since he came to Taiwan when he was 19 on the
Love Boat, he had so much fun that he’s come back every year since then for
vacation time, so every time he’s here he doesn’t miss home because it’s his
fun time here and he knows he’s going back to Germany after it’s over. Ah, amazing how Love Boat can touch
people’s lives.
There was
a knock at the door and it was some other girl friend of his, quite pretty and
nice. We all introduced ourselves,
and I thought at least he was leaving on a happy note—3 girls in his room. We sat all in a row watching the movie,
Ginger looked a little bored or uncomfortable so I asked her when she wanted to
leave, and we stood to go after another ten minutes.
He walked
us back to the station, leaving the girl to wait in the room, moaning the whole
time, I told him he’s like a little kid.
He stood at the station sadly, stalling, and I was thinking I’ve never
had this long of a drawn-out goodbye with someone I’d known for so little time,
but finally we all hugged and said Bye.
As
we got on the MRT she said “We’ve had a really productive day!” I said, “Yeah, whatever happened to
studying, homework, and me doing laundry? I can’t believe I watched What Women Want for the
THIRD time!”
I
decided to hit Wellcome to get the required Taipei City garbage bags (the door
woman had caught me, probably via the videocam yesterday, dumping my regular
plastic bag in the dumpster and when I came downstairs she scolded me and wrote
down the names of the correct bags I was to get) and treat myself to some
cheese, ice cream, maybe spaghetti and whatever else I might find. I spent a long time browsing and
realized how expensive all the American things really were. 500mg of spaghetti that I might get
for 99 CENTS at home, was that
much in NT here! Stouffers mac ‘n
cheese was “on sale” for 139NT, I could get that for 99cents at home too, but
took one because the stuff is so good.
Tiny slabs of cheese, gouda and brie mostly, were all over $2.40. A pint of Haagen Dazs was about
230NT! Spaghetti sauce came in
tiiinnny jars for about 240NT also.
I kept looking at prices disbelievingly, like they’d forgotten to put in
the decimal and say it was in US dollars.
I rejected the spaghetti, got Kraft slices, stick of butter, jar of
strawberry jam, bottle of milk that came wrapped with a small bottle of
chocolate milk (milk took a long time to pick out since there are so many
kinds. They also have “fruit milk” in all different
flavors, like papaya milk and orange milk, and even grosser-sounding, big
bottles of liquid “drinking yogurt”), box of Muesli cereal (on sale also about
130NT) half dozen eggs with no price on it (but they HAVE to be cheap
right? Because on the news
people throw them all the time when they protest) and the garbage bags which
were also not cheap (20 of the smallest size for about 85NT).
At the
cashier, she said the eggs were blah blah pointing at a red tag on them and
that they weren’t for sale. I
wondered what this meant..rotten?
But why put them on display then?
Mystified, I ran and got another kind. Total was 527.
I went home a bit PO’ed. I
hadn’t even gotten any ice cream.