Taipei Day 2

People I met today:

• Teacher Zoe  We had our first and last lesson today; last because, happily, she got a real job.  Too bad for me, because she seemed like a cool cat, but awesome for her.  恭喜找到工作！
• Aussie Luke  We sat at his cafe and shot the breeze for a while.  He is a goofball.  We talked Supersonics and made plans to meet for dinner and go to the Shilin night market (士林夜市).  In the end though, we didn’t meet up; due to torrential rain and sleepiness.  I actually got down there… and it was a bunch of clothes shopping.
• Skritter Jake I met him between 事情s down near Zhongshang Station.  We sat at a French looking cafe, that seemed so French I felt like talking French.  He’ll be gone in a week, but I hope to see him again, get to know him better.  I’m pretty sure he’s one of the good guys, the “Jedi” as I keep saying, annoyingly.  When he left for his 事情 we were talking about the joy of language learning, which, we were saying, a lot of Chinese learners were so willing to forgo.  I’m going to think about that, and it’s going to be a blog post.  Or a philosophy.  Either way, it should be good news, not “no pain, no gain.”
• Yakitori Stella and the Gang.  I had dinner alone at a yakitori, the kind where they yell “welcome” whenever someone walks through the door, even if it’s a waiter coming in from a smoke break.  As I was chomping on my skewers, they were telling jokes and keeping me entertained.  When people ask where I’m from, I always say, “Guess,” and this time the dude said  immediately “America.”  Accent.

It’s not a gringo-fabulous accent, be he said it was there.  Yakitori Stella guessed philippine heritage.   I left that place with red eyes, a stomach ache and a new phrase:  Ho dala!  Drink it!

Tomorrow:  No idea.