So one of the first things I noticed about the people in Taiwan was how a majority of them, young and old, had these acne scars on their face and scars all over their body. I thought, "hey, their air sucks, it's constantly humid here, of course they have acne.." but then after a while I realized the scars all over their legs are from mosquito bites. They have to be. period. The mosquitoes are ridiculous. They were bad in Boracay and now they're getting bad here because it's the start of the "rainy" season. I've acquired about 15 new scars..
Ok so April has been this pretty awesome month so far and it's gotten to the point where it's making it harder and harder to say goodbye in 3 months. Shija and I have met a lot more foreigners and it's giving us a bit of a social life and it's a good time. So it's interesting because recently, I decided to look back at a few of my blog posts and I happen to look back at one where I had met my good Taiwanese friend, Caroline, and the post mentioned her opinion of the foreigners out here and said how cliquey they can be. At that point in time, I thought she was full of it because I hadn't seen one foreigner. I quote on quote said, "Is there some secret hangout where all of these foreigners gather?" And the answer to this is..yes sort of.. The social events are mainly kept invite only and you need to know someone who knows someone who knows someone, but now that I can count my friends in Taiwan on 2 hands, that opens up many doors to invites! NOW, I see loads and loads of new ones every weekend. And yes, they do have their cliques and their drama and their ingroup only relationships. I'll prepare you for the next paragraph..normally I don't like to make fun of people..but when I do, there is usually a reason behind it. In this case, the reason is that 90% of the foreigner male population out here is a bunch of d-bags..(and they don't have the link to my blog so what they don't know can't hurt them..and even if they did, they're too egotistical to realize it's about them anyway.)
Shija and I went to this "hip hop" night at this Little Mexico restaurant--now a club-- and we were the first people there. But it was 400 NT all you can drink and the owner gave us a "VIP" spot (haha..mind you, this restaurant is about the size of a Starbucks and we got to sit in a big ol' booth.) It wasn't anything special but in a matter of an hour, about 100 foreigners took over the place. Guys would approach me and Shija with the crappiest pick up lines, I think that's what they were at least..the first thing they would say is like, "why haven't we seen you girls around..OR, hey I've seen you before.." then they'd say something stupid after. I'm sure these lines work on any local Taiwanese girl, but let me tell you..these guys are like the guys who tried to fit into any fraternity in college because they were nobodies and then they wanted to continue their college days and traveled across the world to be a real live "ladies" man here in Taichung City. Shija and I started to develop nicknames for the regulars we've been seeing around. First guy we immediately had to rip on was one that we saw at this charity book exchange (aka another day time charity event where people drank all day) and at the book exchange, this boy wore a total hipster outfit. He had this newsboy cap on his head, a sports coat with jeans, and a scarf "just so." The reason I say it was just so, is because the scarf wasn't even wrapped around his neck..nor was it a warm scarf..it was a decorative scarf that just hung around his neck unevenly and at one point, he adjusted the scarf "just so" so it could fall 2 inches un-evenly around his neck. You may say..well why were you staring at him in the first place? and it's because some guy I met there was gossiping about him and said, "see that guy there..he's claimed to have slept with 83 Taiwanese girls in the past year.." Ok..FIRST of all..who's keeping track like that??? Second of all..that's disgusting and in my mind it's got to be borderline rape if the girl doesn't understand one word you say but then gives you consent to sleep with her..something is shady about that. So after we learned that about our hipster friend, I immediately saw arrogance in the way he would walk, talk, look at girls, all of it. Then when he adjusted his scarf "just so" he immediately gained the nick name, "scarf just so." It just kind of happened..we don't know his real name but we see him everywhere. Now, here's the kicker, he comes to the "hip hop" party..and is now wearing a gangster hip hop outfit and has his over sized baseball cap pushed slightly to the side, just so. He also wore a sweat band on his wrist..maybe he thinks rappers do that..and maybe they do..but basically he dresses according to the occasion. He reminded me of that Offspring music video, Pretty Fly for a White Guy. Just trying too hard to be cool, but in Taiwan, he IS cool. He attempted to talk to us and was annoying and tried to hard and it was just embarrassing. His best friend, who Shija named, "Baby Gap," was also quite the character. Now, I don't judge guys by their height, but when you find the need to stand on ledges and stools in order to talk to us to appear taller..that's just bad! The guy had tattoos all over his arms and was attempting to flex and was just being annoying. His clothes were small, and he was small, so his name is baby gap.
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| Omg perfect example. Thank you google images..(literally googled "hipster with scarf and newsboy hat) |
Towards the end of the night, more characters were coming out of the woodwork. The Taiwanese girls there were hanging all over the foreigner guys and getting WASTED. One girl threw up near our purses not even an hour into the night. Some guy tried hitting on Shija but failed immediately when he decided to ask, "Are you wearing a wig?" We did finally meet a normal guy, Casey. He's from Iowa..it's probably why he's normal. He seemed to have a lot to say about the culture and the foreigners out here as well but he's been here for like, 3 years..so after he was ripping on a few things, I asked..well then..why are you still here? Everyone kind of has the same responses: Life is easy out here. I can't get a job at home. It's good money. I'll only stay one more year but I say that every year and next thing you know I'm onto my 6th year. I always ask the person if they're close to their family and friends at home and surprisingly, most of them say yes and that they miss them..but they still stay out here. I dunno..I can see the appeal of staying in Taiwan, but I'm anxious to get back home. He actually came out here with a girlfriend, they dated for like 3 years and they just broke up 3 months ago. She was at the same club and he pointed her out to us and it was this boyish looking punk girl with plugs in her ears and a real bad pixi haircut..we were confused because he's normal looking? Maybe she has a great personality. We ran into this girl Gessyka who is pretty much the social event coordinator in Taichung(she organized Bikers and Pinups) and she was talking about how excited she was for Spring Scream. I was getting superrrrrr excited for Spring Scream. She gave us some suggestions on where to go that weekend (I thought we would just go to the concerts but apparently there's much more going on in Kenting that weekend.) She said she'll start sending me invites to all of the events on the weekends! Sounds good to me.
