Lim kua sha shiao! Li bo kua gui a do ga?

A few of my October Taipei pictures were taken at Treasure Hill, which began as a squatter village in the 1950s and over the years has become a strange hybrid of poor elderly community and artists' commune. (It is threatened with demolition about once a month, but is still kicking at the moment.) We were there for the bluegrass-heavy Daniel Pearl Day of Music organized by my friend Sean (who also runs the Urban Nomad Film Festival, more on that later), and we ran into Patrick's friend Mina, an artist who was in the midst of renovating an old, decrepid structure into a cafe. (That's P squatting on the then-dangerously-rickety second-floor in the above photo.)







What a long day. New license photo. Maple Leaf costumed taxes. Grocery shopping is tough. Sad again. My fridge is all empty even when it is full now.
But, what is good is that what I learned and felt with you is not leaving me. I still clean but it is without urgency and anxiousness. I am not 100% but I am continuing to move away from my old ways.
Thank you so much for helping me figure this stuff out. For still standing by as I press on.



One thing, my home/family. I think I have the opportunity now to not move. I respect the things you said to me a great deal so I am going to still look seriously.

We have such divergent experiences and needs from home. For me, I have all my life longed to feel safe somewhere. Have somewhere that was shame-free and peaceful. You were trapped in your home. Suffocated by lack of faith in you and entombed for years within small ideas, geographies and imaginations. Despite? Because? of these differences you helped me understand how I am/was re-creating the painful and unsafe home I was dying to escape. And, even as I miss you terribly and feel like I would do anything to have you back here, look at you there so far away from the familiar, so ambitious and vastly bigger than the smallness you've escaped from.

So much to look forward to yet.

Correct English in Taipei -- and Get a Free Hat!

Dr. Strangeland or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Taiwan

Omni-Organic Paradise - actual vegetarian grocery


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Many more people overseas have, however, heard of the Taipei 101 skyscraper. But relying on this daytime eyesore to pump up tourist numbers is ill-advised. It has a dildo-like ribbed concrete spire