Forgotten Race, Forgotten Day

My alarm went off this morning at 5:40, but Kaitlin and I had been up, off and on, for most of the night, thanks to the joy that is a hostel full of late-night incomers who are not so great at keeping quiet. We were not exactly awake.

We packed up our stuff in the dark, discovered we couldn't actually check out early like we'd thought we could, so we left our stuff at the back of the main room and left one set of keys and a note on the front desk, then headed towards the MRT. The plan was to try to make it in time for the last shuttle bus to Brittany's race at 6:30am or, failing that, to just go ahead and take MRT all the way there.

After all, I reasoned, the race was at Tamsui Gate 6, so all I would have to do was go to the Tamsui MRT station and then just follow the crowd. At Jiantian, we saw a white guy in running shoes get off and I wondered if he was going to the race. But that couldn't be, I reasoned--the shuttle was at Shilin! We got to Shilin a few minutes later, just as the last shuttle bus would certainly be pulling away. No problem, we thought, we'll just shoot for the backup plan!

About 20 minutes later, we pulled up to Tamsui and got off. There, we discovered precisely one thing: there was no race there. It was utterly deserted, and even the Starbucks was closed. Not only that, but no one there had ever heard of a race--a race which was being held on a closed-off portion of the number 1 expressway.

How was this possible? I do not know. But when I asked information, at the MRT station, where the race was, she directed me to the footpath by the river. "If you want to, you can race there..." she said. When I assured her that Kaitlin and I had not, in fact, come to Tamsui with the intention of finding a good racetrack to see who was faster, she tried to direct me to a gym. I gave up.

After a call to Rachel that revealed that, not only were we at the wrong stop, but that even if we'd gotten off at Shilin we would have been at the wrong stop--Jiantian had the shuttle, after all, meaning both that the guy with the running shoes had likely been going to the race and that we could have made the last shuttle easily.

Instead, we got to explore Tamsui a little bit, then we were the first people in the door at Starbucks before we headed back to Jiantian. Once there, we flagged down a taxi--who had no idea about the race. Seriously?? The expressway was closed! This guy was a taxi driver, working less than 10 minutes from the race, and he somehow had no idea what was going on.

The next cabbie, fortunately, did.

(Did I mention yet that this trip stretched my Chinese abilities further than they've ever been stretched before? Because it totally did.)

We got to Brittany's race around the time she'd estimated she'd get in, and waited with Analicia, Rachel, and Rakitia (a friend of Brittany's who lives in Taipei) until Brittany crossed the finish line. She made it!

A convoluted getting-back-and-making-plans process followed, but soon enough Kaitlin and I were heading on MRT to meet Brittany and Rachel for brunch at a Western breakfast place. It was easy enough, just one stop away.

Except it wasn't. We hopped on the train, got off at the next stop, and then realized something: we were in the wrong place. My first thought was we hadn't gone far enough, so I pushed my way back through the crowd and the closing doors to see---Kaitlin on the other side.

After some frantic gesturing and an anxious wait at the next stop, Kaitlin and I were reunited, and we found a train going back to where we went wrong. Right around then, we got a call from Rachel--saying she and Brittany had also taken the wrong train. Lack of sleep is never great for things like navigation...

It was a day of forgetting and having things forgotten, things that had no cause to be forgotten. But, as a result of them, today won't be!

...a sleep-deprived postscript

It's a funny thing about blogging the morning after you've stayed up all night about the day before: you're pretty well assured that, a) you will have forgotten some of the key points of the day before, and b) you won't be alert enough to make anything new and interesting happen later in the day.

Also, c) your memory will be shot, with less than pleasant circumstances.

So, a!

• We were on the news last night! While wandering around Taipei 101, Karina and I spotted a news anchor getting ready to do a live broadcast so, after briefly contemplating photo-bombing, we decided instead to wait off to the side and watch her do her report. She got the go-ahead but, a few sentences in, the camera swung around to show the crowd! AKA, us--the only ones cheering for the camera, as Karina mentioned later. I hadn't noticed, I was just too excited to be on TV.
• And, speaking of photo-bombing, that was a massive theme with us. Karina, Brittany, and Rachel will be all over strangers' Facebook profiles soon, likely tagged as "random foreigner who stood behind us, smiling, for the entirety of the timed photo session." Because yes, they did that.
• In our stroll to find a way home, we passed Sun Yat Set Memorial Hall, marking another Taipei landmark that I've "visited"! Also, both it and the road for almost the entirety of our walk was absolutely TRASHED. I feel for the poor city workers who must've stayed up all night making it presentable again...and seriously, at the memorial?? Disrespectful in the extreme.
• Also, the rest of our day yesterday, since it actually didn't start at 7:30: Karina and I went to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall to check out a carnival which had some sweet break dancing, then went to Tamsui, walked around a bit, had Starbucks at a 4-story store the line for which stretched out the door and down the street, and, of course, hit up an epic photobooth.

b!

• Yeah...today, we checked out of our hostel and got on a train. For seven hours (gross!). End of story. Except that...

c!

• My complete lack of a brain due to lack of sleep led me to forget my camera at the hostel. I discovered this, of course, not when we were eating right downstairs, and not before we got on the MRT, but after we'd traveled a good 6 or 7 stops to Taipei Main, left the MRT area, walked across the massive terminal to find food, ordered our food to take on the train with us, and only had 40 minutes before the train would leave. Fortunately, a couple phone calls to the hostel owner (thanks, Karina!), a load of panic, and a mass text later, Emily volunteered to stop by and pick it up for me (you're my hero!). And right around then, I realized that...
• Due to my camera panic, I hadn't gotten the bagel sandwich I'd ordered and paid for to take on the train. Stupid one-track mind and unfortunately-timed remembering...

But that was my day! And now I'm going to sleep.

The Little Things

Two meanings hidden in the title, there. The first one is quite prosaic: this blog will be a "little thing." The other is more contemplative, though cliche: it's the little things in life that make the difference.

Again, a double meaning: little details are often those that make any given day memorable and special, and little details are often those that cause, for me, a pang of homesickness.

To elaborate briefly on the latter. This weekend in Taipei has been full of little reminders of home, little things which remind me of different features of the Northwest, or of people there whom I love. The rain and clouds, and the cooler temperature: Oregon and Washington. Hiking in the rain: family camping trips with Mom. Hot springs: Belknap, and Dad's inability to overheat.

A pot of hot milk tea: an afternoon in Anna's cottage in Seattle with homemade Chai. A crazy bohemian shop full of tie-die: downtown Eugene with Erin and Sarah. Modern Toilet: Melanie made me promise to eat there while I was here. "Jar of Hearts" on Tom's phone: Elizabeth and Annika. Taken together, it's amazing how a vibrant, bustling Asian metropolis can consist of so many small reminders of life in the Pacific Northwest. I've noticed this phenomena in Kaohsiung, too, but this weekend has had more moments like this than normal. I haven't hit any real culture shock since I've been here, and I haven't hit any homesickness ruts, but I have had a constant smattering of these little moments that remind me of the people and places I've left behind for a while.

But the little things work for the positive, and for the here and now, as well. The smell of waffles haunting our stroll down by the river at 淡水 (Tamsui); Karina's notebook of quotes from the weekend; our awkward foreigners-in-two-piece moments at 新北投 (Xinbeitou Hot Springs); debating when (and where) the sun would set while riding the gondola up 貓空 (Maokong); eavesdropping on the ladies switching between Mandarin and Taiwanese at the table next to us at dinner as we admired the gorgeous night view of Taipei; finally getting our waffles at the tea house on top and almost missing the last gondola down; Tom almost getting caught in the closing MRT doors (his face made it funny, not horrific, I promise); Karina running into a descending metal gate as Rachel and I yelled that it was closing; realizing that, in a mere two days, we'd used up our $400NT EasyPasses by riding the MRT lines from end to end.

And that was my day, in a nutshell. Tomorrow is the National Day, and we have stuff early in the morning, so now it's off to bed for me--since yet another little thing that I treasure is sleep.