At the beginning of October China has their national holiday, and everyone gets a whole week off.
After lots of visa troubles and indecisiveness, I finally came to the conclusion that the best way to spend my week would be to head back to Taiwan.
Flights were a nightmare. I had booked online, and when I got to the check-in desk at the Beijing airport they told me, “Hm. I see that you booked this flight… But I don’t have a ticket for you.” I asked what that meant, because clearly I had purchased a ticket, and the worker agreed, but said, “I don’t know what to do. But I need to help the next person in line. You could go buy another ticket.”
So with that helpful tidbit I stomped off and found an information desk. I explained the situation and was told, “Wow. That hasn’t happened before. I don’t know how to fix that.” When I realized that was all the ‘information’ I was going to receive, I asked the woman if I could get online anywhere or make an international phone call. Then she perked up; she knew the answer to those questions. So I headed off in the direction she pointed.
Then I saw a much larger information desk, so I tried again. Same results. “I don’t know what to do. That never happens! You could try the ticket counter.” I was about to start yelling, but instead I lugged my bags over to the ticket counter and tried yet again. The ticket person kept insisting that I just needed to buy another ticket; I finally snapped and growled at her, “I have already bought my ticket. It was expensive, and I WILL NOT be buying another one. I can easily prove that I booked a ticket, and you know that because you have a record of my booking. So you need to give me a ticket— RIGHT NOW.” I never get angry with workers. But SERIOUSLY. This time it was deserved. And magically the woman was able to click a button and handed me my tickets. Imagine that.
So back to the check-in counter I went— aaaaaand my flight was delayed 2 hours. Which meant I was going to miss my connecting flight in Hong Kong, and the next flight to Kaohsiung wasn’t until the next day. So they changed my connecting flight to one that was headed to Taipei. Instead of landing in Kaohsiung at 10pm to be greeted by Youming, my new itinerary had me landing at 1am in Taipei.
Luckily I got a hold of Kevin and oh-so-sweetly asked to crash on his couch. He awesomely said, “Of course!” so I showed up around 2:30 in the morning. We watched some terrible 90’s movies and caught up, then I was on the High Speed Rail by 6am. Finally at around 9:00 I arrived at the Pingtung train station and found a waiting Youming, with the whole week ahead of us.
I spent a lot of my time getting meals with friends and just enjoying the familiarity. I went to my favorite restaurants, re-visited my usual haunts, and saw many of the Taiwanese people that I had gotten closest to over the summer. 
I saw a different side of Taiwan on this trip. This summer was all about the TUSA program and cramming as much sight-seeing into 2 months as humanly possible, so it was very rarely ever just… real. During this week I saw Real Taiwan… the routines and the little daily things that make it a home and a lifestyle, not just a big vacation.
I spent my days with Youming; he had classes to attend and work to go to, but
managed to maneuver things and fix his schedule so he was always there for me. He took me on dates, I went to his basketball game, and I kept him company while he had meetings for his department. He re-taught me how to drive a scooter, this time in town, which is a totally different experience than driving on the empty roads of Green Island. I met his best friend Rong Han, and Rong Han’s sweet girlfriend, Mimi. I liked seeing Taiwan from a different perspective, and I started mulling over some of my own plans concerning Taiwan.
Youming, Rong Han, Mimi and I all went to a nightmarket one night. We stocked up on tasty vendor food— pancake things and funny omelets and fried dumplings and fruit drinks. I got my nails painted at a stall; Mimi shopped for clothes.
After the nightmarket we hopped on our scooters and set out for Sanlitun. It’s a bit of a drive, but always turns out to be worth it. Taiwan may be a tropical island, but it has still gotten chillier since August. The crisp air cut our lungs as we drove past the mango fields and little towns with flashing lights. We headed past the aboriginal village and up into the mountains. Rong Han and Mimi went ahead while Youming and I stopped to get fried noodles and beer, then we went to meet up with the other two at an outlook point.
When we showed up, my name was spelled out in little candles, something Youming had planned ahead of time. We sat on the pavement with our drinks and food, overlooking the mountains and forests dotted with patches of city lights. The only noise came from the chirping crickets in the trees behind us; at first I thought it was someone ringing little bells in the distance before I realized that it was just the sound of the island.
The next day we headed to Kaohsiung, where there was an art gallery exhibit. Each piece was designed by a different artist, and they were all about fantastical and imaginative places. The whole exhibit was a maze of whimsical and charming rooms, each vastly different and unique from all the others around it.
On my last full day in Taiwan Kevin came for a visit, and he went with me, Youming, and Sam to the Liangshan Waterfalls for the day. The trail was much more crowded on this trip, but most of the Taiwanese who were making the trek were poorly prepared for it. Nice clothes, heels, and lots of accessories like choosing the best earrings seemed to define most of the outfits on the people trying to make the way along the steep muddy trail. At the point where the trail meets the river bed the path was completely clogged up with confused Taiwanese people, trying to figure out where to go when the trail just suddenly disappeared. They all moved slowly and carefully. When Kevin and I finally got to the trail end we were all about speed. I grabbed the rope and skidded down the incline, then leaped out to land on a rock in the water. I think I horrified the mild-mannered locals.
Once in the water the crowds thinned out. No one else seemed to want to brave trudging through the water and scrambling over the rocks to get back to the waterfalls. That was certainly fine by us, though.
They were just as fantastic as the first time. The afternoon was spent jumping from the second waterfall and swimming in the thundering waters beneath the third waterfall.
That evening we went to “the usual bar” and had good drinks and good food while we talked through the night. The whole day was a fitting goodbye, as I prepared to leave the little island for a second time. It was even harder to leave than it was this summer.
The trip back to Taiwan made me start to re-assess my plans for next semester, and was part of a chain of events that recently resulted in my decision to take a break from school. I won’t be going back to MSU, at least not right away. After Christmas I’m going to make Taiwan my home, for a little while.
