Well, Re and I met in the summer of 2011, right? I was singing Suzuki with Edmonton's Mercury Opera. In that year, Re decided not to join the chorus but to host the cast if needed. I gotta stay with her meeting her family of a dog, a cat, a man, and two horses. We got along very well and made a promise to one day see the new year's Spectacular rockettes at radio city. Unfortunately, I returned to Taiwan at 2012 and had to postpone our date. In 2013, the disappearance of two males in the family made Re's winter holiday season unbearable. When she told me that she would really like to spend time at the place that doesn't make a huge deal of Christmas, I told her it's pretty safe in Taiwan!
Re charmed everyone with her beautiful blue eyes and pointy nose. (We even got non-listed service, door-to-door beer delivery, at Hong-Ye Hotspring.) Travelling with Re was very easy. There wasn't much pre-planned. I called the dean of the Hualien Youth Home the day of her arrival and we headed Hualien the next day. After renting the bike, we went to Taroko Gorge next morning and chickened back soon after. I thought about going to the brewery after but I failed. We went to A-Zhi-Bao at some point and had crazy amount of food. Our Christmas started from buying snacks and drinks from Carrefour. I introduced Golden Girls and Re showed me who Jonathan Creek was.
We also visited Carp Lake and Ching-Hsiu Monastery. My vague memory told me that we visited the children's home to say hi and the children were mesmerized by Re's eyes. We sang some songs and the kids sang something in return. At some point, I suggested us to get our tire checked and we found a nail and got the tire fixed. It cost us 150 NTD for the job. We went to Qi-Xing beach on a sunny day and I finally found the brewery. After that, I think that was when we ate at A-Zhi-Bao!!!
I take every friend and even strangers sometimes to Long-Yuan. Re not only had a great time eating sweets but also found the slices of stones fascinating. Yipei's dad, the owner of Long-Yuan, was very enthusiastic to tell us all the stories and images he has seen through the art. At some point, I suggested the hotspring trip two days before going and made the reservation at place A. After chatting with Yipei, I cancelled on place A and made another reservation at Hong-Ye the night before going.
Going to Rui-Feng was interesting. We went into the tourist center and the dude couldn't stop asking me questions and providing me lifetime repeated lectures such as "YOU SHOULD BE MARRIED AND HAVING KIDS..." and etc. We escaped and made it to Hong-Ye which was just awesome! It wasn't crowded at all at the time. There was this lady asking me where I got my swimsuit(because she didn't want to wear bikinis but she liked to show more flesh or wear less cloth!?). There was also this lady who couldn't stop chatting with us(sometimes in English). I was a little bit annoyed by the end because she couldn't stop starting phrases with, "They foreigners always can...". At some point I told her, "I don't think there's anything to do with being a foreigner to be able to switch between cold and warm spring because AREN'T YOU DOING THIS WITH US JUST NOW?"
When we were staying in Hong-Ye, we joked(!?) about starting an international criminal activity. After going through the list of things we could steal, I finally suggested that stealing a screw might be not as noticeable and devilish enough because some of the custom-made one time only screws may be hard to come by without buying a lot all at once.
We watched Oz before leaving Hong-Ye. After saying bye to the owner, we took a cab to Ji-Zhen, an organic farm famous for its milk. (I was amazed when Re recognized the exact business card of our driver from the pile of business cards I'd collected from all the drivers at Rui-Feng. I failed in my own language!) The milky hotpot was delicious but the animals outside without enough care upset Re. I can't emphasize this enough, if anyone decides to own any living beings, please treat them like family! These farms probably thought that more cute looking animals could attract more tourists but the truth was that the out of shape looking animals would drive animal lovers away forever. When we were having our tasty meal, there was this pony getting angry with a stupid dog and a few not so smart kids and adults who had no idea of how to approach horses. I worried a little(but at the same time kind of looked forward to see the pony kick to teach a lesson!).
There was a more than 5 hour long train ride back to Feng-shan. My parents were very excited and my mom gave Re a big hug. I teased my parents a lot and sometimes Re couldn't stand it but teased me back. My parents couldn't stop talking about how much Japanese people had contributed and I kept telling them that their contribution in Taiwan was based on the necessity they sensed to get the best result for Japanese people. I took Re to my high school and we laughed so hard when we saw the advertisement of the slogan of jeans, "Even the biggest bird can fit".
We also taught Re to play a card game called Seven. Dad might have taken a day off taking us to see the wild monkeys in National Sun-Yat-Sen University. We took the fairy to Qi-Jin and had lots of seafood over there. Yup, I ate a ton of snails because I liked the dipping sauce. (I have a reputation eating more sauce than actual food.)
Ah! I forgot about getting a cold after the hotspring. Re and I laid low for a day or two because we both had some fever. Now that I could elaborate our routine! Every morning, we started with breakfast around 10am, usually with some fried daikon(radish root) cake, hashbrowns, plus some drinks with sugar. Oh! Re would share a pill of Vitamin D(?) with me. We went to "La morning"(interesting!?) one day and discovered a delish "pocket" sandwich. Before we came to Kaohsiung, we used to have the last meal of the day before 5pm and returned to the place we stayed by 6 or 7ish in the evening. After watching a few episodes of Jonathan Creek or Golden Girls, we would say good night and just chill at our own rooms until the next morning.
Coming home means adjusting to my parents' schedule. My mom would ask me the same questions every day and I told her pretty much "No, thank you" every time she asked. Speaking of my mom, I usually acted like a horrible daughter. I believe that it is best for her to do all her routines on her own. It would be an alert if she stops doing her routines. My mom is not even 60 years old but she walks like a 70-year-old. Re couldn't stand watching my mom moving things around and offered to help but my mom believed that Re really wanted to learn how to cook Taiwanese food!? Re didn't try to explain and didn't escape. She ended up stir-frying a few dishes for us that night.
Dad and I took Re for a walk on the hill behind our house, and Dad even dressed up for that. (He wore a nice clean shirt before heading out. Cute, huh?) At some point, I asked Re to play something on my guitar. One of them was very sad, she said. Did I forget to mention that this Re is not only a linguist, a law expert, an animal lover, a guitarist, a ukulele player, a singer, and a composer!? The second night in Kaohsiung, Re showed my parents some photos of her life and some videos of "La Vocabella". My mom couldn't stop saying, "one more" and I believed that we might have watched all the videos of bellas online on that night.
One day, mom recommended me to check out Fong-I School, a group study place in the past. We actually went visit it and took a look at the temple next to the school. I bought a plate of flowers as offerings and the dude was so excited to tell Re where to look for the most precious parts of the old building. Re and I played a game to understand how it was like to advance in politics in the past at the school and it was LONG. I was the only one moving a step forward after 10 min taking turns rolling dices.
BTW, when Re came, our new mayor of Taipei City just announced that anyone could apply for the position as the Chief of the Department of Cultural Affairs in Taipei. Recommendations could be written by others or the candidates themselves. I proudly recommended myself for the job, and I swore that I saw some of what I wrote used on their updated website for a few days. I knew that I wouldn't be able to compete with others but I still felt so full of myself because I could freaking do that in my country!
Two weeks fled before I knew it. I kept postponing the time coming up to Taipei. When we finally got to Taipei, I tried to check Re in to a motel and the motel told us that they usually charge by hour and could only let people check in after 10pm. Re decided that we were gonna walk to another hotel on the corner. Just like that, Re luckily got the last available room in the hotel, and it was an excellent find. It only cost 3600 NTD per night(full breakfast bar included) and the room is great. However, that was the very first time I experienced "security deposit" in a hotel. After I walked into the room seeing a list of how much everything costs, I understood that this hotel's previous customers had the tendency sneaking hotel stuff home. (waterpot, cups, towels, tp holder, garbage bin, and etc.)
After settling in the room, we immediately went to the convenient store to buy lots of snacks and drinks to party in the room. I never saw anyone more prepared than Re. When she pulled out the HDMI core to connect my laptop to the TV in our room, I was in awe! Re welcomed me to stay but I had a lecture in Hualien the afternoon after. I secretly told myself that I would definitely come back to that hotel some time and enjoy all these luxurious things again!!!(And I made it in a week with Al, haha!)
There was a down side to the hotel. They didn't have "airport shuttles" as the sign said on their concierge desk.We asked about the shuttle while checking in at night and asked again in the morning. For some reason, people had a hard time saying, "We don't have that service". Instead, they kept telling us that they could call a cab for the airport. (We don't need a cab. I can call a cab on my own. We want the shuttle that we can share the ride with others to save more money!!!)
We had breakfast together at the hotel next morning and I gave Re a list of places she could visit along the blue line of MRT when I went to Hualien. We thought about spending our last night together but my train from Hualien wasn't available before 8pm. That was the only evening I didn't get to see Re for the entire trip she was in Taiwan! I suggested Re to wake up an hour earlier than her preference and it turned out to be a very good idea. We got stuck in the traffic for quite a while and the airport was just overloaded with people. It was always hard for me to say bye. A kiss, a hug, and a few words from Re made my eyes wet. I wimped back to Taipei and already started to miss her.
So here it is, a video I made with the files I saved
