Thurs12/5 –
Fri 12/6/02 Naked Dancers, A Mission at Cashbox
In the meantime we were starting to
feel less welcome and comfortable at the in-laws’ place, so I took mafia JieFu
up on the offer for the hotel for three nights, stressing that the cost would
out of my rent money—Juling had even offered.
Thursday evening we had a reservation at Shintori with Ginger, where I
showed Avani the “cool door” and asked her to guess at how to open it. She almost pried it apart with her fingers
with brute force until I stopped her and showed her the trick. The food was alright, not sure if it was so
great considering the price, and Avani made sure to get a picture of the
bathroom full of mirrors.
Then we went to CKS National Theater for a show by the
modern Taiwanese dance troupe Cloud Gate.
They were very impressive, their bodies were lithe and rippled and
perfectly toned, 100% fat free. I felt
pretty dumpy and flabby watching them.
I was impressed most with the “non-typical” dance movements (typical
meaning jumping and twirling), like when their bodies were in complete darkness
and they had a spotlight only on their hands and faces, moving them in minute,
precise rhythms. The only
not-so-enjoyable element was the background music, which was mostly whiny and
anxious clashy notes on the piano or violin.
I had to get a coffee and I sensed Ginger dozing off at one point. I’m sure she wasn’t the only one. At some point Avani whispered, “Did she just
take her shirt off?” and sure enough, suddenly the dancers were stripping off
everything. They only had on tiny
flesh-colored underpants. You could
sense everyone in the audience straightening, suddenly very awake. At another point, a naked girl was suddenly
in a puddle of water, splashing around.
Gin was still dozing and I considered nudging her, not wanting her to
miss this. But at a particularly loud
splash she jerked awake and noticed.
At the end the cast bowed and ran
off, then came back and bowed again, about 11,493,597 times. Then we took pictures around the theater and
plaza.
Friday - HuoGuo and KTV. We and Jonathan went to MaLa HuoGuo for
dinner and mafia JieFu was helping us move our stuff to the hotel. He’d booked at the Formosa Regent, a Four Seasons
hotel on the chic-chic ZhongShan N. Rd, Taipei equivalent of Madison Ave. He dropped they two off at Cashbox KTV to
meet the others and took me to the hotel.
As I suspected, it was droolingly gorgeous. Yes I just made up that word.
A huge lit fountain in front.
Lobby lined with Dior, Fendi, a sunglass store whose glass was
autographed by Shaq. First few floors
encircled and overlooked the downstairs restaurant café, in the middle was a
huge lit Christmas tree reaching the ceiling, a piano, Santa posing with kids,
carts of fine chocolates and gifts.
He brought me up to the room, repeating how it was “not bad”
and “an all right hotel,” as I looked around dazed. King size bed, internet hub, full couch and coffee table,
wall-to-wall closets, humungous bathroom with full tub AND separate shower
stall, cushioned seat at the sink, phone next to toilet, scale, bathrobes, bath
salts, magnifying mirrors, and of course a fully stocked fridge/bar and
coffee/tea with makers.
Mafia JieFu was on the phone for a
long while doing business; just by the way he yelled and gave orders I could
tell he was, for all his jolliness, a no-nonsense businessman and very
busy. I felt bad, still angry, how he
was helping me the most even though he had no need to be involved, how
everything was so unfair. I couldn’t
even enjoy this hotel because of the guilt over his generosity. And of course when I brought up the payment
again, he refused to hear it, said he got this place for us because he felt bad
for my friend who traveled all the way to Taiwan and had this bad experience
with my apartment, and doesn’t want her to have a bad impression of Taiwanese
people.
I returned to Cashbox where everyone
was in the room—almost thought I was in the wrong place because Tricia had
brought a whole bunch of her friends I didn’t recognize, but the “7-person”
room was huge and could fit everyone fine.
Mafia JieFu’s last words when he dropped me were, “[Don’t
think about this whole thing anymore and just have fun.]” So fine.
I was on a mission to get blasted tonight.
The first thing I noticed was that people were ordering
dumplings and milk tea. Milk tea? I asked what the hell they were doing and
said, “Who’s with me for some vodka?”
No one replied but I ordered a bottle anyway. They had no OJ but somehow I got a bunch of limes and started
mashing them up into my vodkas with ice; it was quite tasty. Tricia’s bunch was singing a lot of Chinese
songs that Ginger and I tried to join in on, by yelling out every 3rd
word that we recognized. Sometimes we
could read a whole sentence which was very exciting. After awhile, Tricia’s friends left, Brad joined us and we picked
all English songs, favorites being “Welcome to the Jungle,” “What’s My Age
Again,” any Backstreet Boys song, “The Gambler,” any Britney Spears song, and
of course “my” KTV song “Semi-Charmed Life.”
Although Brad was helping me with the Absolut, no one noticed and
thought I finished the whole bottle myself.
Jon maybe drank a few cc’s of it.
And Avani had a whole bottle of wine.
By the end she and I were shoeless standing on the couch, possibly
singing stuff that wasn’t even on the screen.
By later accounts, she and I were the most drunk of everyone; and she
was still a distant second.
However, I was a lot more responsible and aware than the
Room 18 night because I immediately sensed when I was on the brink of feeling
ill, downed several pitchers of water, in our private bathroom rid my stomach
of excess ethanol, emerged and downed more water and various sports drinks that
were handed to me. My energy back, we
stood outside where I suggested “Juliana’s?
Juliana’s? Juliana’s?” But no one was up for it, so we went back to
the hotel where I was ready to sleep in for the first time all week, hangover
or no.