Thinking of 日本

Hard to keep track of all the terrible storms and natural disasters the world has been hit with in recent times. The latest one hit quite close to home, especially with the sizable Japanese  here at MTC. Although Taipei wasn’t affected, just by talking to some students and keeping track of the news, I could start to feel the pain and enormity of the event.

An uplifting spirit has been injected recently, as the school has been active in doing fundraisers and simply getting people to pray for Japan. One of the projects they were doing involved folding a zillion paper cranes (very Japan). I tried my hand at this origami-thingamajig but only till I got proper coaching from fellow Japanese friends did my cranes start coming out right.

Version 1.0

Still kinda wack...

Three successive generations of these crane-bot transformers

Now I'm getting somewhere... ready for mass production

School's collective results

Dedicate this one to Japan

Here’s to keeping Japan in our hearts.

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Crossroads

And so, as if perceiving all of this, those three suddenly appeared, stole a marine vessel, and then sailed a ring around Marineford with it! The ritual for a “Burial at Sea”!!

Afterwards, Monkey D. Luffy stomped into the plaza all alone, and rang the “Ox Bell” at the Western Edge 16 times. And then he threw a bouquet of flowers over the many war wounds that remained all over the ground, and unreservedly performed a “Silent Prayer”..!!!

 

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Visitors, Expected and Unexpected

It’s always a pleasure to have friends come visit. One came by in February and another just left a week ago. Back in NY we always used to talk about kicking it in Taiwan, and we finally made good on that promise. Seeing them here was just unbelievable at times. After spending a few months out here by myself, having to find my way around and make new friends, it was a calming feeling to have my homies around for a while. Not only were we out to have a blast in the motherland,  but they reminded me of the good things I had to sacrifice by coming here.

On the other hand, I also got to experience one of the joys of essentially being a traveler. I met a friend maybe 3 years ago, at a mini-reunion dinner of some middle school that I wasn’t even a part of. Some of them were my high school friends, ones I rarely chilled with. Therefore, I figured most likely I would not be seeing a lot of these people ever again. Well, it turns out one of the few friends I added on FB years ago was coming to Taiwan. She finished her contract teaching English in Korea and was spending her last couple of days travelling around Asia. She didn’t know anyone here, so I have to say it was quite fortunate of her to get in touch with me.

Being the gracious host that I am, I brought here to various hotspots of Taipei and she got to meet a bunch of my friends. I take my tour guide duties seriously; I feel like it is a civil responsibility to show people what a great fucking place this is. I have to commend her for being brave to travel alone though. It most definitely spurs my wanderlust…

Coming here, one thing I discovered was that I am generally a friendly person. Gregarious, even. Perhaps being out here allowed me to hone my social skills, or maybe I just feel a lot more easygoing now after leaving the city that never sleeps. Regardless, I’m cautiously optimistic that one of my goals of self-development is being realized.

Lastly, despite my burgeoning social skills, I gotta say there’s nothing like having your homeslices around. Those type of friends are irreplaceable. I’m truly fortunate to have friends from childhood that I keep to this day, something that can’t be said for many people. I guess only the test of time will iron out which ones are the keepers.

 

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Last Day of Class

We decided to go out in style with some long-awaited KTV on the last day of class. Every Friday the teacher taught us a Chinese song, so we already had a good selection to start with. Combine that with my considerable Jay Chou/Mayday library and my classmates’ wackass songs, we were in for some crazy shenanigans… at 11 in the morning!

To top it off, my boy Sunny visiting from NY blessed the class with a guest appearance.

The Teach singing.

你們從哪來, 就回到哪去... haha goodbye classmates

That day I was starting to feel slightly sick, so I had to muster whatever strength I had to get out my songs. Sure enough, by day’s end my voice was shot.

So long, semester. I highly enjoyed this class, and I can only hope the next semester will have such a great mix of people. There’s no doubt my Mandarin improved, if not just from cracking jokes all day. Some classmates are leaving for their home countries or continuing their studies outside of Taiwan. I can only wish them good luck with their future endeavors, and if it’s in the cards, we’ll meet again soon.

The rest of us will be staying for another semester, including me.

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