pingtung pt 2

so the original plan was to head down on sunday.  problem is, I have class on sunday until 1 pm.  then I have to go home, pack up, head to the bus station, hop on the next bus, and arrive 5 hours later.  so at best, I’d be getting there at like 7 or 8. pretty late. I also don’t know where I’m going, staying, or getting off the bus.  also, I didn’t know how to get in touch with tessa and youming.  I tried sending them a facebook message, but didn’t have a response by the time I got back from teaching, so I settled in to wait until I heard more. after I few hours, I realized that youming’s phone number might be on his facebook, and sure enough it was.  I gave it a call and talked with tessa and decided to catch the 3 am bus to pingtung so I wouldn’t have to pay for another night’s hotel.  money was getting a little tight at that point. I went to bed at 9 so I’d have a few hours sleep.
the bus ride was uneventful, I slept through most of it, and woke up in some city. I couldn’t understand the bus driver, but I though pingtung was the last stop, so I got off with the last person.  turns out I went one or two to far, and after walking for a while I caught a cab back to where youming and tessa were staying. I got a hotel room in the same place as them, and took a nap until about 1130 when we were supposed to meet people for lunch and start the day’s activities.  after a quick shower, I met up with tessa and youming and we got some lunch by ourselves, the plans having been slightly modified while I slept. 
eventually, sam came by on his scooter to join us.  the day’s plans involved liangshan falls, a moderately well known tourist attraction that was about a half hour away by scooter. I rode with sam, tessa rode with youming. this was my first time riding a scooter farther than across half a parking lot, and I was a little nervous. where do I put my hands? not around sam, that’s for sure. that’d be awkward even if taiwanese people weren’t weird about touching.  turns out there’s a little handle thing behind where you sit, so I just hung onto that for dear life until I got more comfortable. 
liangshan falls is a series of waterfalls that turn into a little river.  the first one is used like a spring, with lots of people sitting/swimming in it. the second one is a little bit of a hike up the mountain, and has a big pool underneath it that you can swim in. the third is by far the most impressive, but people don’t see it too often because the path up collapsed during a mudslide and hasn’t been repaired.
we weren’t gonna let that stop us though, and we decided to go to the third one first and work out way back.
to be continued…

pingtung, belatedly

a few weeks ago I was feeling really bored and lonely.  there weren’t enough hours at work, I don’t have an overwhelming number of friends, I’m still bad at chinese… it was just a quick case of the blues on a gloomy rainy day.  so I decided to treat myself. I went to a relatively cheap but delicious italian restaurant and ordered a tortellini as big as my head. 

I was just getting into it, but my phone rang. which is kind of an event in and of itself, given how infrequently someone needs to get in contact with me. I picked it up, and it said “unknown number.” which ordinarily I wouldn’t pick up, because I get enough wrong numbers, just people speaking chinese on the other end and confusion for everyone, but since I was lonely and bored, any human contact sounded good.

“hello?”

“kevin, hi, it’s tessa. [nicole’s friend from her program in pingtung, we met a couple times, she’s great] I’m at the airport right now trying to get to kaohsiung [city in taiwan near pingtung], but they changed my flight and now I’m routed through taipei? can I crash at your place in like 6 hours?”

so I’m thrilled. clearly, god has looked down from on high and decided to take mercy on this poor lonely boy by sending him company from out of the country. 

“yeah, that should probably be okay, I guess. what time are you landing?”

...

later

...

tessa lands at like midnight, has to take a cab the entire 40 minute drive from the airport because the buses closed right before she got there, and shows up around maybe one am.  somehow, she has a smile on her face, despite what sounds like one of the top 5 worst travel experiences I’ve ever heard, involving cancelled planes, broken tickets, and astonishingly unhelpful “customer service.” at least they didn’t lose her luggage. 

she’s going to pingtung to visit youming, the taiwanese boy she started dating right before she had to leave taiwan. unfortunate timing.  she’ll be staying there for a little over a week, and would I want to come down and visit at some point?   hell yes I want to come visit, I need to see more of this country while I still can.  I figure I can dip out of taipei sunday afternoon and stay until maybe 2 pm tuesday. one full day.  we set up very tentative plans, went to bed, and when I went downstairs in the morning, tessa was already gone.

to be continued.

haha, oh man, asia

so i was awake a few nights ago and flippin between the english movie channels and i saw what looked like a game of starcraft. (if you don't know starcraft, you've gotta be either female, over 30, or have played some organized sport at or above the high school level. it's a computer game that some people take really seriously, and sterotypically asians are really good at it [like everything else].)

turns out it was starcraft. aparently they air tournaments here. i was bored enough to watch it, even though i understand none of the professional commentary and don't know the heartfelt stories of the competitors.  i thought maybe you'd want to see it too.

commentary/pregame

drama building...

oh my goodness!

the thrilling conclusion

anyway, i'm mostly just uploading this because i thought it was hilarious that starcraft tournaments are on tv in asia.