12:18 pm greencastle, july 19; 01:18 am taipei, july 20

i need not say that i have mixed feelings about leaving, because that goes without saying; so i'll just pull some hypocrisy and say that.

got up at like noon today, of course. but i actually got up because i decided to do something today, rather than just sleep, or being woken up by a call. but then i spent a good while ripping some of my cd's while packing, both of which went pretty well. by the time i'd eaten, done morning stuff, and all of that, it was almost threeish, and so i headed upstairs. sat around talking for a bit...then succeeded in finding plans for the rest of the day. i was planning on calling derek or something if i couldn't find anything worthwhile otherwise (not that he isn't, just that it'd be kinda weird to call saying "uhh...so...i dunno if stuff is open or not, because of the typhoon, but i'm bored, so could i hang out at your place or with one of your friends or something, if everything is, in fact, still closed?" but...apparently everything's back open, and carl and his friends decided to go out this evening, and i tagged along.

...and, amazingly, they're all extremely similar to us. that is, between all of them, i could either reconstruct or find parallel versions of johnny b, mark, karen, petey, cam, and many other characteristics common among a bunch of my friends. all of them go to school in california, by the way; a few from usc, most from berkeley; but i think pretty much everybody was from one of the uc's. i'm not sure if any are anywhere else, but they are all californians by schooling. one of them, gina, was also a friend of another one of them, who speaks little chinese. she's a relatively fun person, but seems a little...well, maybe a bit...egad, i can't think of the word! like the "popular" kids back in middle school and everything, the ones who thought they had the most and best friends, somewhat elitist, too. ah, well; at least she wasn't that way too much, so i enjoyed conversation with her. she games, too, interestingly enough; and *all* of them (with the possible exception of gina; she left very shortly after dinner, for she only got to taiwan monday morning or something and is still fairly jetlag'd) love anime and manga. lesse...i'll do this chronologically, because it's easier that way.

dinner fell through the first two tries, because the first restaurant was closed and the second was fully booked until well after nine. that is, we were trying to get room for twelve. so...we ended up just having hot pot again. it was pretty good, and we all had *tons* of meat. literally. not. but...heaping plates of it, at least. that was after meeting pretty much at this little mall thing, which had a "mini" arcade ('bout the size of fun and games, if anybody from wellesley is reading...so actually a reasonably big place for the states), in which we messed around for maybe twenty minutes. played some foosball, among other things. fun fun. headed upstairs in the mall...bought a knicknack or two. those coin vending machines, you know? with necklaces, watches, candy, or random toys? yeah, they have them here, too, only more expensive, and with stuff about 400 times better. woo! oh, uhh...well, shooting the chronology thing again, before we (carl and i) even made it to the bus station, from whence we left, we swung by this bookstore for to buy a few more book for the cram school; i'll probably be teaching that storytelling class again tomorrow, too, for a bit more money and, most importantly, the experience.

anyways...after dinner, we walked around a bit, "guang jie"-ing--an action which i've tried to explain in the past, but which we actually tried translating today, which turned up with window shopping and "strolling the streets; lounging about the streets." but...so there are normal arcades here, right? and they have that basketball thing, right? where there's a hoop and a bunch of balls, and you have to hit like fifty shots in the first minute to keep going, when the hoop starts moving back and forth, right? well, they have places which are made specifically for that, having nothing else. uhh...yeah, okay, whatever. basketball is literally unbelievably big here. like, a cheap analogy would be if every football, basketball, or baseball fan in the states had pete's passion for ultimate. something like that, anyways. it's unreal--especially how good most of the people are. but...i suppose if one enjoys something so much and plays it so often, one must be good, eh? hopefully, anyways. so...i definitely fail at that, but i tried it a few times. oh, and, of course, in these specifically designed places, the machines are pretty nice--spotless black and silver/white; very aesthetically pleasing. chain-link hoops, too, and black basketballs (or, at least, grey, sometimes). NT$10 per play--*cheap*.

then...looking around a bunch. until, of course, we made it to one of those shaved ice places...which was amazing! that is, where in the states one would see an ice cream store or some store with slushes or whatever, in taiwan, there is shaved ice, upon which syrups and/or fresh fruits are served. well...this one was amazing. first, their ice had milk in it. so it was unbelievably tasty already. i wouldn't even have to ask for more, but, since it was offered, why take something so plain? but i didn't go out on a limb or anything, really; just mango. it was superlatively good, though. not to mention the fact that the store/restaurant itself was superlatively cool--one was allowed to draw on their walls! like, there were all kinds of names, short epithets about random people, a few url's, a variety of random scrawlings. not only that, but it was neat, too! some emoticons and whatnot, plus real drawings. but everything was nice and neat...the walls weren't all dirty or anything, and there wasn't any crazy scribbling or senseless nonsense. man...if marv's did that...

...walked around for a while more, and came upon a manga store. as in...the barnes and noble of manga. unbelievable. of course, that means hentai, too...and gay pr0n...but that's okay. they had sheet music, too! and a whole bunch of random manga posters, keychains, accessories, etc....and anime, too, including a certain "appleseed," which looked astoundingly cool. like...some kind of cgi in addition to normal anime style. what's more...i think it's drawn or directed (or something, anyways) by the same people as bubblegum crisis! woo! one of the first animes in which i was interested. and, of course, any media that is at all related to paul oakenfold absolutely *has* to be cool, by default, which scored the appleseed soundtrack enough points for me to decide to do something about finding it some time, if not the anime itself. but...that'd be expensive, so i'll likely look into no more than the music.

shortly thereafter, we headed off to that illegal video game store. that is, it has a freaking huge collection of games, all of which are offered at a tiny fraction of the normal price burned. like...less than $20 for games that would normally cost $50. that, and the place was covered in posters from quality games--not just mainstream, but quality--two which are becoming practically mutually exclusive. i was impressed. there was also a tv set up with a game going, which was looking pretty fun. what's more, on top of all of that, the store seems to have some rough hours of 9:30 pm to 3:00 am or something...yeah, um...okay? i dunno, maybe cops are a lot less likely to come by around then. makes sense...but whatever. the whole place exuded an aura of elitist nerddom, though...it was a little disorientating. but the main reason we went there was so that carl could return a game that he got there a few days ago--ddr fever. it's extremely cool--even for non-ddr-fans, perhaps; well...at least a little--in that it has such songs as "gotta get through this," by daniel beddingfield, and "i believe in a thing called love," which you'll know. problem was that the music was approximately six seconds off from the arrows...so even if the beat was easy and the steps simple, it was confusing, what with the beat way off, but because the song was just being played, just similar enough to throw one off. tried it earlier in the day, and that's how i knew. tried it with the sound off, but ddr definitely isn't nearly as much fun that way. ah, well...

lesse...and that's about when we split, down to just five of us heading home on the same bus. it was cool; we were the only ones on the bus after just a couple of stops, so we could mess around and look weird with no worries. it was nice. oh, and before i forget, of course, because all of these others were in their various respective uc's or whatever, i was their junior by about two or three years. at least. uhh...it was pretty much fine until they actually asked me where i was, and i responded with indiana. what school? ah, yes, that...well, you know...and they were all really surprised; i'd actually been hoping they'd not ask, in the event of them treating me differently not only because i'm new and american, but because i'm like three years younger than them, but i think it worked out well enough. uhh...at least, conversation worked out the way i'd normally expect one to go among my friends and everything, nothing conspicuously avoided or whatever. hah...they really reminded me a whole bunch of my group of friends, and it was really cool, i say. very cool.

...and so when i got back, i was informed that daisy had come in search of me for reasons of payment, whereas i was asking after her concerning working a little bit more. well...she was asleep when i got back (just about midnight), so...i just hung out upstairs a bit, watched some more of that weird bread anime with barney, talked to his dad for a bit, and pretty much wrapped up my day. turns out that barney's dad does something that i totally wanted to do but from which was dissuaded: go climb around a mountain alone and hang out there for a few hours. well, actually, i'd like to stay the night in solitude, just relax for a while or whatever, but...i guess it's true that it may not be too safe, especially if i got lost or something. ah, well. maybe...something'll turn up. well, if i do go hike the appalachian mountains with mark next summer, there'll be all that to which to look forward. it'd be cool, no question.

ah, yes: the one thing that i wrote down on my hand today: some time earlier today, perhaps in the bookstore, perhaps shortly after dinner, but very likely another time altogether, i was just thinking about random stuff (well...a certain time, this is), and my thoughts strayed to the fact that i'll be leaving for home...it's tonight, now. huh. and the first thing that popped into my head..was wellesley. like, my old house (from outside), the drive/street (it was actually a terrace), the three paths into town that i took most often, the way to chris's house, the nearby neighborhood, all the way up to another good friend of mine, paul, through town, downtown, a few stores, wellesley college, and all the way to natick and framingham, the nearest actual shopping places with malls, strip malls, movie theatres, and that arcade, fun and games. all of this in no more than a second, and not at all strictly in that order. but...i thought it was really weird how, when i thought of "home," i thought about all of the places that i knew so well, frequented so often, and appreciated so little back where i did the vast majority of my growing up. thought about it a bit more and realized how...*much* that place is. just...everything, indescribably. i just wish my elementary school (preferably middle school, really) could somehow have a reunion some time; several days long, at least, and not necessarily soon, not even in a few years, but in maybe a decade or so. maybe more. like a high school reunion, which actually happens, because by then people have forethought and distribute future contact information, but...things don't work like that in middle school. well, i'll have my yearbook, and maybe in a dozen years or so, i'll stumble upon this again, or take a look at that old book of memories, and think about those great people. if i'm ambitious, i may even look a few of them up somehow, via internet, no doubt, or maybe local phonebook, email, whatever. it would certainly be an astronomically beautiful event, anyways, and it's a nice thought.

well...this'll be my last post for...maybe two or three days, whereupon the last post (not too likely plural) will grace this blog. until then, this very second-longest post, of some 29, draws itself to a close. 'night, i say, with about 5:30 remaining until i must first attempt to rise.