REN SHAN REN HAI (people mountain people sea)

Taiwan is the second most densely populated country in the world, and it shows. It feels even more so when every single one of the capital city's 2.7 million inhabitants is carrying an umbrella (yu san) as a feeble defense from the cruel June rains. It has been pouring rain every day since I arrived and is forecast to continue...
I thank my lucky stars that no one here knows enough of Seattle's reputation to make that eternally unfunny joke that I must be used to the rain. Good thing, because I am not, in fact, used to a perpetual tropical downpour. The extremely moist climate supports lush greenery in the city and surrounding mountains, but wreaks havoc on human-built structures. It seems that any building more than a few years old starts to sweat from all the heat and humidity. It makes for kind of a run-down looking city, despite all the bustle and affluence.

This is the main drag of my campus, National Taiwan University.


Here is Xindian avenue, which borders one side of the campus. It's kind of like "the Ave" in Seattle's University District, but also, um, different.


And it's Asia, so of course we're talking serious scooters.


I haven't got a picture of it yet, but the coolest thing I've seen is people driving scooters while their dogs ride perched under their legs. How they do it, I'm not yet sure, but when they are stopped at a light, the dogs sometimes jump off and run around a little. It would be awesome if one day they did a dog version of Chinese fire drill.

Aside from gawking at dogs in scooters, I've accomplished a few things. I've found a place to stay temporarily -- my own little room in an area with hardly any other foreigners. I've gotten the hang of the ultra-modern transportation system and started to explore the city during its dry spells. I've met the good friend of my friend Alia, Hsu-Chi, a law professor who has in turn introduced me to some of her students. I spent my second day here with one of them and got to practice practical applications of my Chinese. It turns out it is less useful to be able to discuss the pros and cons of euthanasia than to be able to say "Even Taiwanese people enjoy the film Shrek". I have also been invited to a "dj party" on the weekend of the dragon boat races, for which I am very excited.

Aside from the inedible airplane food, my flight over was very pleasant. We had a layover in Japan and flew by the magnificent Mt. Fuji (click the image to make it bigger).


I was adopted by my seatmate, a woman from Taipei who spoke little English and had been visiting her sister in Los Angeles. She insisted in seeing me off the plane and accompanying me on the bus towards the train station and gave me her phone number and an affectionate squeeze when her stop came. Having traveled a fair amount, I am afraid that it is easy to almost take things like this for granted, but it really is incredible how many very welcoming and generous people there are around the world. Hooray for them!

The only unpleasantness of the last few days has been the school situation. I'm having trouble trying to balance being in the right level of Chinese with the requirements of my fellowship and a number of factors have combined to put quite a lot of pressure on me. But I really WANT to speak Chinese and to speak it well and I haven't got anything better to do, so I'm feeling relatively hopeful.

Now if only it would stop raining and I could fit my giant foreign feet into the desperately cute shoes the ladies here are sporting I would be hen gaoxing.

LEAVING TOWN (AGAIN)

Taipei had better be FREAKIN AWESOME because it is none too easy to leave this beautiful city. I almost always cry a little on the plane coming home but not so much when I am leaving it. It is just such a shock to the system when you've been away to see how gorgeous it is here; craggly snow-capped mountains; the Puget Sound and its perfect scattered jigsaw of islands; the forests (even the scarred ones -- the clearcuts make me cry even more) -- even just the angle of the light and the way it refracts against the gray. Sweet jesus I love this place.

This is what I got to look at over the last week and a half on the ferry that took me to and from Alia's new teahouse on Bainbridge Island



And here is a little iconic Queen Anne action from the roof of Paul and Misty's (sorry guys, I can't resist a good roof -- I promise no one saw me sneak up there, and besides, it was Mark's idea)



last night's sunset



Taiwan, you best start getting pretty now. I know you're an island and all, and that puts you at an advantage, but I've got high expectations and if I don't see some seriously mist-covered hills and ocean-swept cliffs I am going to be pissed.

And my dear hoosier friends, if you are listening, won't you come and visit some day? I would love to show you my city.

THE RABBITS

Everything I know about rabbits I learned from Misty & Paul's wedding website, which states helpfully: "Rabbits are the primary source of labor in Australia. They have large hind feet, keep their babies in pouches, and can box."

Misty and Paul live with two bunnies whose care I have been entrusted with while they honeymoon in Turkey. This is Bess, a black lionhead



and here is Ben, a white lopeared rabbit



they love each other



they also like eating, cuddling, and being destructicons (not pictured)





I'm not so sure whether or not they actually like me, but they do occasionally seem to enjoy my company and my selection and service of pellets and fine vegetables.

Here, Ben is not so much nuzzling, as checking to see if I contain any edible, or at the very least chew-able parts



I thought I might trick them into accepting me as one of them, but Ben seemed rather dubious of my disguise



which is fine, really. I don't even like kale.

I, too, would totally swim for meat

This is kind of what it would look like if you were about to be attacked by a white Bengal tiger in a swimming pool.

NEW YORK CITY

A few days after returning to Seattle, I went to New York to visit some friends and see the sights.

I arrived on Saturday evening and went straight to Marybeth's apartment in Queens. We hadn't seen each other since my first trip to New York almost three years ago, but it only took several nearly uninterrupted hours of high-speed conversation to catch up and a few more to reminisce about London, the LSE and times since. On Sunday we went to Tea & Sympathy for breakfast, and sipped a bit of the mythic melon-flavoured gin from the Borough Market for dessert. I met her boyfriend and their dog and enjoyed the novelty of the downstairs neighbors' Reggaeton wake-up call. It was lovely to while away the time with mb again and even better that we are both better, stronger, happier people than we were the last time we did so. [Although it could have just been me that sucked.]

Here we are in the office which mb will soon vacate for greener, uptown-er pastures



I saw Reggie and Tommy when we were all in Seattle just last December...




But I was greedy for more. Lucky for me Reggie had a show and Tommy a reading of his new play while I was in town. [Note to parents: this is where you exclaim "what talented friends you have" and I smile and nod and try to avoid talking about the projects of said friends, which included, respectively, the song "fuck shit stack" and a most ingenious way to kill your wife and her lover if you happen to be a 16th century Italian composer who is above the law].

Although I was unable to visually document the lovely Lia Aprile, seeing her shining face again was a delight that my mortal self could only just bear. We didn't have quite enough time together; dinner, the theater and a couple of beers, but spending even just a little time with her again was a time warp in a good way. It felt as if we'd been in better touch during the many years since I had last seen her, and really she has been present in my life always and everywhere, as have all those friends from whom I have taken inspiration and comfort and shared excellent times with over the years. I'm sorry if that makes you throw up a little in your mouth, but it's true.

Now I am in Seattle for a week and a half to visit friends, bunny-sit, prepare for my departure to Taiwan, and help my old friend and former boss Alia get her new teahouse on Bainbridge Island open. It has been nice to commute by ferry the last few days and to work with my hands for a change. Yesterday I built 12 tables and drank almost as many cups of a delicious Taiwanese Oolong with an aroma redolent of peaches and butter cookies.

Pictures of the rabbits are forthcoming.

THE LOVE THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME

Or perhaps I just don't know its name. Railophilia? Trainfatuation? All I know is that I can't get enough of riding on trains. I really should have been a hobo.


For those of you who haven't been on Amtrak for awhile (or, ever, for all you pussies) it's a smooth ride. In coach from St. Louis to Seattle I never had a seatmate and the deluxe fold out leg and foot rests meant that I slept (as the Chinese say) like a dead pig. Smuggled booze also helped me to drift off after sunsets like this one, in Wisconsin


And to then sleep through most of North Dakota. Aboard the westbound Empire Builder, several groups of charming old men board the observation car to provide commentary and history over the loud speaker (only quietly). This is how I learned that Rugby, North Dakota is the geographical center of North America, and what apparently prompted the retirees in front of me to remark "Hunh, this is the geographical center of North America, how 'bout that?" (when called to the dining car for their lunch reservation, I discovered ominously that they were called "the Darko party").

Here are some pictures:





Most of the trip was self-catered (I don't want to brag, but let me just say it involved a lot of Nutella), but I went to the dining car a few times to meet some of my fellow passengers at the shared tables. At lunchtime on the first day I met a Mennonite grass seed farmer from the Willamette Valley with six rosy-cheeked children (honest, I saw their picture) and striped suspenders, as well as a saucy senior citizen who talked to me about urban planning and her "philosophical problem with Wal-mart". Nice folks all around.



But the primary reasons I chose to take the long way home were the solitude and the endless hours of wistful staring out the window time. I also studied lots of Chinese, wrote letters, lounged in the observation car, and took multiple naps.


Montana's mighty Glacier National Park





The sun set on the second day as we were leaving Whitefish



And by the early morning time we were cutting through the Cascades in my beloved Washington State and I was almost home.

GOODBYE BLOOMY, GOODBYE BLAMMO

I have four best friends in Bloomington and they are the most important of the few reasons I was sad to leave that horrid little place (other reasons include my shiny red bicycle and seeing shirtless undergrads waking from a stupor in someone's lawn while I am riding said bicycle home on a Saturday morning). We refer to ourselves by the acronym 'BLAMMO' but no one can really remember what it stands for any more since I conceived it only to meet our pre-existing desire to be called BLAMMO.

60% of BLAMMO lives in the storied Lincoln Street residence with official mascot b.b. savage. Here is a picture of savage, back in the fall before she knew the joys of The Outside.



She also enjoys bags and boxes of all kinds. Donations are welcome.



b.b. joined the house after the final approval of Sarah, pictured here in the epilectic floral Lincoln Street living room sharing with us a nice picture book about the paparazzi.



Sarah is the Alpha Female of BLAMMO. Many of the good times we've had over the last two years have been the result of her initiative, and I will always cherish the memory of the patented samarion party face. After the final week of school, Sarah thought we should take a field trip to Lake Monroe:



We sat in the sun reading works of our own choosing (hipster literary texts, People magazine, etc.) and the written responses of undergraduatues to their end-of-term tests were read aloud and marveled over.

In the following days our numbers began to dwindle. I said goodbye to Jessica on Monday before she left for a brief visit home and then for summer research in Brazil. I adore Jessica for actually dragging out her old travel journals to show me what a difficult time she had once had with Portuguese and to empathize with my study of Chinese. Soon, we will both have bilingual superpowers.



New to Lincoln Street as of the fall, Georgia was rescued from a home full of men and from a dangerous and fast-growing addiction to dance dance revolution. Georgia is my favorite Case International Tractor enthusiast and she can also run fast and dance in slow-motion.



That healthy glow comes from good clean Iowa farm living.

The night before my last, my housemate Peiwei held a traditional Chinese hotpot dinner as a farewell for me. Everyone from BLAMMO save Jessica were in attendance. After we got good and full we took one last trip to the park to play on the toys. Bryan Park has 4 awesome slides, a teeter-totter and a big sturdy swingset. When we go there at night we sometimes see teenagers, but usually they are more interested in setting off firecrackers and making out than playing on the toys. Silly teenagers!





We were all delighted to have Allison among us at the park that night. Allison is BLAMMO's outreach coordinator and she keeps us aware of the fact that social activities exist outside of sitting on the couch with beers, blankets, cat, and youtube. Although we are greedy for Allison, we know that we must share her. Charm like hers cannot be contained.



Before Allison departed for six weeks of digging for bones in the Belizean jungle, we had one last great night of drinking, dancing, Zep, and eating angel food cake with our fingers. The next morning I rolled on out of town. It was a lovely week. I miss you all my girls.

I also miss this beautiful creature, Sebastian,



as well as the boys of Mitchell Street, the farmer's market, Hendrick's on ice, sharing meals with Archie, being called "gigglepants" by Del, and the rabbits, everywhere the rabbits.