Halloween in Taipei
Wednesday 10/30/02
Ange surprised Stella with a bday cake in class, tho it wasn't her bday.
L to R Stella, me, Debbie, Ginger I
started collecting items for my costume.
When we went to lunch, Stella and Christina helped me swipe chopsticks,
straws, napkins, wrappers, and plastic spoons. Christina had the idea that I should tie the chopstick
wrappers in my hair like ribbons.
At the NTU Hospital cafeteria I grabbed a bunch of empty lunch
boxes. The hardest were the
fast-food places. When I asked for
cups, they were stingy, giving me one or two of the smallest sizes. Ginger
was back and we planned to go to the next Oriented Happy hour Thursday in
costume, then Halloween bar-hopping.
I suggested she be Taiwan trash with me, so she decided she’d be
recycling. That night we went to
see Monsoon Wedding with another of my free tickets. As it was starting she suddenly turned to me and asked, “Is
this in English or…?” I hadn’t
even thought of that. “Um, it
should be in English,” I said confidently. As soon as it started there was a guy rattling in some
Indian dialect. We turned to each
other, “Doh.” But then they
started speaking English, so we could follow along for most of it. When they didn’t, I tried to read the
Chinese subtitles like mad, but could only make out some words. It took a lot of effort. And, after a while the shaky-cam effect
started making me sick, so I closed my eyes for the entire last 45
minutes. I came out
feeling almost nauseous. Stella
SMS’ed about a club but I wasn’t up for it. We went to buy the trash bags at Wellcome for our costumes
but weren’t sure of the sizes, and Ginger thought her dad had some at home so
we went to her place. As I was
checking my email, she waddled out wearing a huge bag through which she’d cut
leg holes. It was hilarious. I stuffed some trash inside to test it,
but as she walked the leg holes started ripping and it clearly wouldn’t
work. We finally decided just to
wear one in front and one in back, tying them together at the shoulders. Thursday 10/31/02 My
costume was too big to carry in a shopping bag, and I had to resort to using
the plastic suitcase that my comforter came in. One of my largest trash pieces was a Kotex box, and the
suitcase was clear, so I had to carry it with the Kotex facing me. I was also bringing the huge stuffed
dog that LeHsin had given me for correcting her English paper, to carry around
as if it was a dog sniffing my trash, in true Taiwan style. I walked into class with the suitcase. The teacher asked, “[Are you going on a
trip?]” I said it was my Halloween
costume. She asked what I was and
I said Garbage. I passed out some
Halloween chocolates to everyone and later also gave them out at the office. Jonathan,
Niclas, Shawna and I agreed to meet in front of FSE 15 minutes before the
reception in our costumes, planning to carry them there and change in the first
floor bathroom. When I went in the
bathroom, the cleaning lady smiled at me.
I emerged from the stall wearing the trash bags and she looked at me in
horror until I explained, and she laughed. I started tying the wrappers in my hair and daubing my face
with brown eyeshadow for a dirty effect, every so often checking outside the
door for the others. After awhile
it was getting late and I started panicking wondering if they all chickened out. Peeking through the door I could see
people arriving, dressed in suits, ties and dresses. Yikes! Finally
I darted out onto the sidewalk, trying to look nonchalant as more people
arrived, and found them about 15 feet down the street where they were waiting
for me. Jonathan stared at me and
said, “I don’t get it.” I shrugged
and said, “I’m just Taiwan trash, there’s no deeper meaning.” Niclas was the devil and Shawna a
bat. “Ready, here we go!” We walked
in grinning. There were already
about 30 people there but it was pretty quiet. Immediately everyone turned, looked and smiled/laughed
quietly. We were immediately
greeted by people complimenting our bravery and asking about our costumes (I
kept having to explain, “I’m just garbage, there’s no deeper meaning. I know everyone’s trying to find one,
but there isn’t.”) and introducing themselves. It was a good ice-breaker anyway. The first couple to come up and shake our hands was the AIT
director himself, and his wife. A huge
spread was in the center, drinks on the sides. First the AIT director said a few words, then we all dug
in. It was incredibly hot and
within the first 10 minutes Jonathan had ditched his beard and I’d ditched my
dog. The plastic bags were very
insulating. I nabbed
whatever food I could but kept getting interrupted by various people talking to
me. It was a pretty good
networking event. I met two people
in public health and exchanged business cards, and met a few college kids from
NTU who’d gone to a brief summer program by Telcordia in NJ. They said they’d “loved NJ” and had
“lots of fun.” Brian and I heard
this with amazement. Around
7:45 we were ready to go to the Oriented happy hour, and Niclas had also heard
about a costume contest at Dan Ryan’s with beer specials. We spent a long time trying to decide
whether to cab it (convenient) or MRT it (embarrassing). I insisted, “Think of how FUNNY it
would be if we took the MRT,” but finally cab won out. Jonathan and I first picked up
Ginger. When I ran to get her Jonathan
chatted with the driver, who asked about our get-ups. Apparently he said, “[Ah yes, I remember seeing something
like this, it happens once a year!”]
The happy
hour was at Lian Zhi, the funky restaurant where Ginger’s dad once took us for
lunch, and there we met back up with Shawna, Niclas and Arlene. Immediately we realized NO ONE was in
costume. The deadbeats! And this was a hugely American bunch
too. We saw one other group in
costumes and waved Hi. The drink
“specials” were about regular price and they were just taking the food away
(fried crab, we grabbed some bits that were left). We saw t he Oriented photographers sneakily shoot pictures
of us several times from the corners.
I said, “They’d better not take pictures of the six people here in
costume, put them on the website, and claim this was a big costume party.” Once again, it was rather unexciting,
so we left shortly. Arlene and
Shawna went home while we four headed to Dan Ryans. As soon as
we stepped into Dan Ryan’s, we said, “THIS is more like it!” Almost everyone was in costume, kids
were running around, Halloween decorations were everywhere. We were seated and saw the “Halloween
special” sign which said anyone in costume could get two free Coronas. The waiter brought us our beers but
said it was buy one, get one free Corona.
We pointed at the sign saying that wasn’t right, and maybe they’d
translated it wrong? Once again,
the waitstaff looked confused/concerned that we were complaining about
something, and went off to “ask.” I wonder, who is this nebulous being that they go “ask”? They came back and gave us the 2nd
free Corona. We nabbed
a couple of free witches’ hats that said “CORONA” on them, ordered nachos
(which were “eh”—the cheese was weird and there was some green sauce that was
NOT guacamole) and took pictures of some cute kids in costume. Then there was the costume
“contest.” The hostess stood on a
stool and told everyone to gather ‘round for the judging. She asked each person in costume to say
a few words into the mike, and wait to see the applause. There were several crass older American
men who’d yell lewd obnoxious things at her and anyone being judged. Ginger confidently took the mike and
said, “Vote for us, because we are Taiwan trash” and the men catcalled. “I won’t vote for ya honey, but I’ll
pay for ya!” Ah, so proud to be an
American. This is what our country
turns out and sends overseas to represent our fine land. The
hostess and other locals didn’t know who Jonathan was supposed to be (a little girl
had asked, “Are you the president of America?”) and I’m not sure these
Americans did either, so the hostess pointed at Jonathan and said, “How about
um…Mr. America here?” and everyone
booed. Finally the hostess,
getting tired of standing on the stool, started arbitrarily throwing out gift
certificates at people: “OK,
cowboy man, you get a prize…OK princess girl we should give her a prize,
etc.” She held an envelope over
our heads and said, “How about Taiwan trash?” hesitating a moment as if waiting
for applause, so I yelled, “Yeah!” and quickly grabbed it before she could
change her mind. She also seemed
to feel bad for Jonathan because she threw a packet directly at him. We came
back to the table with 500NT in gift certificates and several free drink
coupons, not bad. I started
getting sleepy from the beer and we figured we better move on. We decided to try Plush since it had to
be cheap on a Thursday. Ironic
that Ginger and I were finally going to the posh Plush we’d heard so much
about, but were dressed like this.
I had added the Corona witch hat and exchanged Niclas’ cane for my dog,
so our costumes were getting more and more random. Plush is
at the top level of the Living Mall, the one that looks like a planet. It was completely dead! There was no one there so we asked the
staff where we could find a Halloween party. They said to try Coyote, next door. We’d heard about this too—a club
imitating Coyote Ugly the movie, with girls dancing on the bar in skimpy
outfits. There weren’t many people
there, but more than Plush, so we sat and the waitress brought us four tall
cocktails. I tried it and almost
ralfed. It was the most hideous
Bloody Mary I’ve ever tasted (but then I don’t like them to begin with). We danced for a long time, now pretty
buzzed all around. They played a
lot of fun American oldies. Our
trash costumes were long shed, I was now wearing Niclas’ hat. Ginger took pictures left and right and
I took some myself. We each took
turns dancing on the bar. The four
bar girls did a routine which looked incredibly dumb. One of them was wearing basically just band-aids, wrapped
all around her legs and body, showing skin here and there. She looked like a mummy that had gone
through a shredder. There was
another white couple on the floor and I don’t remember ever meeting them or
talking to them, but when I later got my pictures developed, we were all posing
together like we were best buddies. We sat to
rest here and there, all I remember is Ginger suddenly yanking Jonathan’s Uncle
Sam hat down over his eyes down to his chin. It was so funny we each took turns doing it every other
minute, as he patiently pulled it back up over and over and continued talking
until the next person did it. It
got old to him quite fast, but we couldn’t get enough of it. Finally we
went home, our goal accomplished.
Don’t ever let anyone tell you they don’t celebrate Halloween in Taiwan. 