I have concluded that I am an urban kind of person. I like the sights and sounds, I love people, and I love going from place to place, just looking at the different stores on every block. I think I would fit in a place, definitely Taipei, maybe Tokyo if I knew Japanese. I would browse all the bookstores and read the books I can, especially the English ones, because everyone knows those are the only books that are not cyran wrapped. I would see the bustling of traffic. I love the smells. I would walk by all the bakeries and smell the good smell of butter and bread. I would walk by the half-demolished buildings, smelling the reduced dust of once proud skyscrapers. I would walk by the alleyways behind department stores and apartments smelling the sewer smell unique to cities like this, those dark back streets where stray cats lurk. I would walk by the farmer’s market, where the bustle of market crowds the air, selling fresh fruits and vegetables, freshly caught whole fish, butchered pigs and meat hanging from a stand, live chickens that peck real hard if you get close, and fried snacks of every kind. I remember the first time I experienced anything it would probably be in Taiwan. Ice cream cones, Starbucks Coffee, fireworks, computer games…all in one place. If you don’t know what布袋戏 is, you are not from Taiwan. Sometimes I dream I lived in Taiwan, attended a Taiwanese public school where you wear a uniform, teachers hit you when you fault in class, and hang out everywhere afterwards. The strictness of the discipline has its merits. I believe in that, with proof everywhere I look and with my younger cousin. I remember all the parks I played in when I was little. They are small sanctuaries among rising skyscrapers and old districts. The many kinds of slides, swings, patios, assorted trees and brush, and the pools of Chinese catfish all make these parks small Edens, a place where children can come and enjoy their innocence and not be bothered by the pace of adults’ only meters away. Just the architecture of the different slides is enough for respect. Alas, now that I am older, I find that these places are disappearing. Why am I so full of nostalgia for a place I can never live at (at least till I'm 40)?
(Darn, why so deep? I blame Jay Chou’s Secret for this ‘bout of nostalgia!...and people who are in Taiwan at the moment commenting on how good the food is, I wish them the happiest time there!)
P.S. if anyone ever wondered why I sometimes have that dog (大麥) as my profile pic for a few days, guess no farther...I'm having a 'bout of nostalgia. Nothing wrong with that right?
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