June 3rd, 2008
CHANNEL 99
I woke up at the crack of dawn, as I had yesterday, feeling completely refreshed. I never wake up feeling rested and awake, no matter how much sleep I get. I don't know if it is the excitement from my new home, or that I'm sleeping the sleep of the Gods every night due to extreme exhaustion, but for the first time in a very long time, I'm able to wake up early and easily feeling completely refreshed andrejuvinated. Taiwan is a magical place for many different reasons. This is just one of them.
I had obtained permission from Cedric, my French boss, to attend the Computex Trade Show today, so I once again joined the four girls on their bus trip to the Trade Center. I killed time for about an hour, and met a few more interns, before the trade show floor was opened. I was allowed access to the trade floor with a little business card altering.
The Computex Trade Show, which had still been under construction the night before, stood as an altar to all geekdom. The various booths ranged from the awesome (liquid-cooled CPU towers that glowed a rainbow of colors and were being hawked to patrons by gorgeous show girls dressed in tiny skirts), to the lame (keyboards!!! in different colors!!!), to the ridiculous (sushi shaped flash drives?). Overall the show was pretty interesting, mostly because of the show girls. They would stand upon pedestals as throngs of shy, nerdy business men would hover around them and drool. The girls would stand on pedestals and shout things like "AMD is number one computer platform! What is number one computer platform?!" to which the crowd of men would shout "AMD!", after which the girls would shower them with free t-shirts and umbrellas. This continued for the rest of the day. I stayed around long enough to re-afirm my heterosexuality, but not to long to become one of the creepers. I left the trade show with only the inflatable pacifier and a bunch of magazines in my shwag bag. A poor effort on my part. I should have converted to AMD.
Lunch was had at the Taipei 101 food court, a massive basement area with just about every type of food one could ever want. I picked up a sizzling, heaping pile of beef and rice, towering precariously on a small wooden tray/contraption/thing, and proceeded to dodge small Taiwanese business men on my way to a table, trying desperately not to burn my face off. It was one of the best meals I've had in a long while (something I find myself saying quite often here).
I arrived at my work and spent the rest of the day much like the one before, getting acquainted with the office, talking with Cedric, and trying to figure out how I was in Taiwan working for a Frenchman.
The rest of the day was pretty low-key, as myself and the Fellows wandered around the market near our hotel. While not as insane as Shilin, this market stands right outside our door, and is the perfect place to grab something to eat when I don't want to travel after work. Despite it's relatively small size, the market still teemed with life, full of Taiwanese of every age, hungry after a long day at work. One of the things that most surprised me about Taiwan is how little people eat at their homes. Most people in Taipei eat out everyday, for every meal. The reason is that the food here is so cheap. Spending over NT 500 ($5 US) on a meal is incredibly rare. Not only that, but many people don't even have kitchens in their apartments (Taipei is dense, metropolitan city, so you'd have to travel pretty far to find a house). It's a completely different culture from America in this regard, where eating out at anywhere besides a fast food joint is a rarity due to the high cost. That's why almost half of the buildings in Taipei are eateries, plus the crowded back alleys where food vendors set up shop. Additionally, groceries are about the same price as eating out for every meal, so many people just keep a few snacks at their house and go out for every meal. Eating here is a very social experience. People take their mealtimes very seriously, taking their time to eat their food and catch up with their friends. Needless to say, it has been great to be able to eat out for every meal for less money than it would cost to buy groceries in the States. This is one of the many aspects of Taiwanese culture that I've grown to love in my short time here.
On this particular not, I got some soup from a vendor in the market. At this vendor, they give you a basket, which you fill with whatever food you want off their cart. They then take this food and cook it into a soup. When asked if I wanted spicy (and still having not learned my lesson from my scorched taste buds). I replied yes. While this soup was delicious, the word HOT doesn't even begin to describe it in temperature and flavor. It was difficult to tell when my tongue was receiving burns from the scalding hot liquid, or from the tear-inducing peppers. It was a good meal. We all browsed a bit more, and then retired to the hotel early, the physical drain of our journeys so far taking their toll.
With my mouth and stomach aflame, there was only one thing that could put my body at peace: Beer in the Park. This tradition had become something more: a religion. Sharing a cold beer with friends after a long day at work and a long night in the city was the perfect way to unwind and relax.
If only the night had ended there. Unfortunately, it did not. While Ben and I were chatting in my room, I receieved a call on the hotel phone (which can be used to call any other room in the hotel) from Cyndy. "Turn on Channel 99!" she said. "There's a really funny cartoon on!" Now, both Ben and I should have been smart enough to see what was going to happen, but the exhaustion the last several days had brought had brought our common sense to a slow plod. Therefore, we expected nothing when we turned on the TV, and changed the Channel to 99. I only remember a brief flash before my brain shut off in order to protect my sanity, but it only took that brief second to get the full picture. To say it was porn would be putting it lightly. The only way I can describe it is to say that hard-core has nothing on this. Many guys. One girl. Doing things. Terrible things. Ben and I screamed out loud, trying to not vomit all over my hotel room, as we quickly changed the channel. On the other end of the line, Cyndy laughed maniacally, like a devil who had just claimed another soul. I felt like I would never be happy again after what I saw. I lay in bed that night shaking and whimpering, fighting back sleep in fear of what horrible dreams of Channel 99 awaited me.
Up next: THE GBF
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