Arrivals/Departures

ok. so i made it all the way to taiwan. i don't even know where to start. firstly i guess by thanking everyone in new york for such a lovely last week in town. it was rough. last minute visa problems, a death in the family. terrible, terrible. but then i had such a lovely send off. a sushi dinner party friday night and dance parties one after another all weekend. i couldn't ask for a better summer time in new york slice of life to hold onto as i move along on my way.

the flight went well. better than expected in fact. i don't like flying on the best of days and 18 hours of it is really pushing my (and anybodys, really) limits. no seat made by man is comfortable for that long. it's just not possible. the food was edible. they really feed you on those international flights. i guess they figure if you have something to do it's easier. i couldn't help stuffing my face with thier sub-par reheated platters. i can't ever turn down free food. i didn't really sleep at all on my 16 hour flight to hong kong. maybe only 2 hours. my feet and legs swelled up like sausages. gravity works, ok? and it ached terribly making sure i didn't sleep hardly a wink. i played more games of video solitaire than i'd like to admit. in hong kong my layover was just long enough to shuffle from one terminal to the next and be herded onto my conecting flight to taipei. i'm quite proud of myself. i handled it quite well. there wasn't a single moment of creeping panic. i'm somehow able to attain a sort of airplane zen. it's kinda like this detached meditative state. the flight is a blur now. but it was kinda a blur as it was happening. more the better.

gordon, my employer, picked me up at the airport. he's such a wonderful, child like man. so enthusiastic. he took me imediatlely to some street stalls for snacks. mango ice. it's basicaly cubed mango covered in a mound of shaved ice and toped with sweetened condenced milk and brown sugar syrup. you wouldn't believe how good this is. especially when it's 80 degrees and 80 percent humidity at 11pm. the mangos here are of a completely different caliber that what we have in the states. they are like butter. sweet, orange, fruity butter. we also ordered a little bag of fried squid and diakon cakes from the guy next door with the choose your own adventure fried food stall next door. i wasn't even aware i was missing out on anything as far as fried food goes. but seriously, you are. i'm sorry. i don't know what they dust it in but it's wonderful. please, barce yourself. this is only the first in what i assume will be a long line of travel essays expounding on the virtues of taiwanese cuisine. then we drove to the dream community and gordon showed me my room. andrea, it's painted the same color as that one green building you love. it's nothing fancy. a bed. a table. a fan. a small desk. it's directly above the bakery. they mill all their own grain and have fresh baked bread daily. all of their offices are are on this one one or two block strip. there's the bakery, the dorms, the cafe, the dream community offices and apartment complex. it's awesome. and as we drove up i noticed that every door was left wide open in th middle of the night. the bakery and the woodshop were just sitting open for all the world to see. gordons laptop sitting on a desk 5 feet from the door in a completely empty building. i like that. i like that a lot.

i tried to sleep a bit last night. 4 or 5 hours was all i could muster. i had hoped for more but i think it's nerves. i was up at 6:30 rolling around in bed waiting til 9am when someone would be down in the bakery to bug. i came into the offices around 10. i met clebson who is the brazilian costume designer i will be working with all season. his english is really poor but i think we can work it out. he's adorable. he came out last season and stayed. he's been here a year! i met all of the office girls who's names i can't remember. they all jumped up and ran from behind their desks and hugged me, giggling. they are all really sweet girls. i'm glad that they are as excited for me to be here as i am. everybody i meet knows my name and where i'm from and everything. they have been waiting. everything seems really well organized. i think it's going to be really easy to be here. gordon wants me to just chill out for the next 2 or 3 days until we go to ludong. i don't know if i can. i want to explore and if i can't do that i want to be working. i think i'll go bug clebson now and see if he needs any help. so here in is.... the first sleep deprived installment to this trip.