Excursions and Semicolons: Joining a Gym Changes Everything

View from my room. I may or may not be in prison.

Looking back, it becomes apparent that 60% of this blog is about the climate of Taipei. Or, more accurately, 60% of this blog is about sweating. This is not something that I wanted to happen. I knew going in that the temperature and humidity would be a struggle for me, and I also knew that I would complain non stop about it. I told myself “no, stop complaining, no one wants to hear about how sweaty you are.” But alas, I have failed.

However, things are looking up because I joined a gym, meaning that 1) I am an adult; 2) I actually “live” in Taipei and am not just visiting; and 3) I will only have to spend approximately 40 minutes outside of air conditioning each day. And of those 40 minutes, 30 of them will be in quest for food, and 20 of them will be at night.

As I read this, I shudder. I have never been one for the indoors, usually preferring to spend as much time outside as I can – hiking, biking, walking, laying, running, studying-ish – all activities better done outside. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

Those desperate times manifested themselves but 24 short hours after my last blog post about people being concerned about my well being while running and probably thinking to themselves that I should go to the hospital. They might not have been too far off. On Tuesday night I set out on my regular run – well hydrated, wearing loose clothing, not in the sun (these are all things the mayo clinic article my mother sent to me recommended). In retrospect, maybe Rochester, Minnesota is not the place to test out best practices for exercises in hot temperatures. I ran comfortable 2.5 miles in one direction, stopped to stretch and turn around, and immediately felt like I was going to throw up.

My gym. Actually the gym is just a small windowless room, the rest is an arena.

So I started walking. It was getting dark but I figured walking in the safe well-lit park was better than throwing up and dealing with the fall out from that. So I walked, but I still felt really sick. Like I was going to throw up and also like I was going to fall over because I was dizzy. Then there was the exhaustion, like my legs could not hold me up. Mind you, I was not running a 100-mile high altitude race, I was walking along a river. I ended up making it home with a combination of crawling, sitting on the ground, resting, and using the fence along the sidewalk to support myself.

Rebecca Rebecca. So close.

I’m not sure if I ate something bad, had heat stroke, was sick, or was over-exerting myself. But whatever it was, I think I was getting a strong message that I should stop doing whatever I was doing. So, 24 hours later, I joined a gym. And, most excitingly, I completed the entire membership registration process in Chinese. Yes there was a fair amount of miming and pointing (I did a particularly ambitious impression of using an elliptical), but I managed to figure out payment, membership card, application forms and picture taking in Chinese, making this the proudest moment of my adult life. It’s also the first moment of my adult life. Because everyone knows you only become an adult once you join a gym.

Remember that painted cow thing? Taipei definitely wins with this creation.

Work is already getting more intense in preparation for an event that isn’t happening until the end of August. That makes me nervous for what it will be like as the event gets closer. But if I’ve learned anything from my time spent doing field work, work is intense all the time so that you will be ready when things do get really crazy. I definitely hope that’s the case, but since I am not “building my organization,” come August things might get pretty rowdy. (Sidenote: I think that any work that does not involve “building an organization” is inherently less valuable work, so there). So while I’m not “organizing myself out of a job,” I am organizing a lot of files and emails so that things don’t get too out of hand.

Unclear fruit stand. Also green shirt kept yelling.

And on the topic of organizing and field organizing, I would just like to say that this job has tapped into SO MANY skills that I learned from working on political campaigns. I basically plan events and make volunteer recruitment calls all day. Except the event is a biennial conference and the recruitment calls are emails to foreign dignitaries, scholars and activists (I know, I know face to face conversation are 627 times more powerful than an email, but international flights are expensive, as are calling rates). And I am not convincing people to volunteer so much take a free trip to Taiwan where they will be picked up at the airport, taken to their free accommodations, given free meals (well, that part is a selling point in any type of organizing), and then network, present, and learn about advancing democracy.

National Taiwan University (Taida). Note the bikes.

But the point remains that, in the end, persuading people to do something is the same no matter what your job is. If you are good at persuading, then you can be good at a lot of jobs. And the best way to get good at persuasion is to practice. And the best way to practice is by making a lot of political phone calls for two summers in a row. But one reason why I <3 OFA 4 LYFE. (Other reasons include life-long friendships, rides to the airport, changing the world and free ice cream.)

Regardless, the best part of my day continues to be lunch. That probably makes it seem like I really hate work, but no, it actually means that I really love lunch. Usually I just tag along with by boss and he orders whatever is best. And it is good. People are still getting over the fact that I will in fact eat everything (including what was recently described as “pig head.” I’m not going to ask for clarification details on that), but I have yet to be led astray so I will continue this plan of eating whatever is placed in front of me.

On Saturday, I started the day with a trip to the gym and a walk around National Taiwan University. They call it the Harvard of Taipei, but really, it should be called the Stanford of Taipei. Check the pictures, it’s uncanny. In fact, as far as I can tell the only differences between Taida and Stanny are that here the palm trees are smaller and the bikes are rustier.

WHAT UP PALM DRIVE?

After that, I decided to do the temple crawl. I started at Longshan Temple, which, like many places in Taipei, was packed. However, unlike all the other temples I have been to (all four or five of them), this one was packed with people actually being religious, and not just taking pictures. In fact I was the only person taking pictures. The best part of the temple, besides the building itself, was what people were giving as offerings. Some of my favorites include: snickers bars, minute maid, Cheetos and a single serving packet of crystal light.

Spices! I think.

After that temple, I walked through what I guess was a spice alley or something like that. The smells were overwhelming, and if not pleasant at least interesting. I did not recognized 85% of the spices that were for sale, but I did not see one oversized container of MSG, so that’s promising

I also sat down for my first shaved ice. I knew that these were a big thing, but I honestly had no idea what to expect. The woman serving asked me what I wanted, and I stood at her little cart looking at container after container of things that I had never even conceived of before. Even if I were fluent in Chinese, I’m pretty sure that I would have failed at ordering. After a long time I just told her to give me whatever was best, which ended up being squishy yellow blocks, white jello noodles, black beans (?), brown balls, and greenish liquid, all over ice. Yum?

I actually was pretty good, but turned into more of a gelatinous brownish soup after awhile. Your classically conditioned mouths are watering, aren’t they?

After my brown jello soup, I continued to temple number two. This one was smaller, but deserted so much more appropriate for pictures. Temple number three was even smaller and even more deserted (I actually think it was closed because there weren’t even any administrative temple watchers on duty.)

At this point I couldn’t quite figure out where I was – the streets suddenly didn’t have signs – so I kind of just walked in the direction I thought the closest metro station was. Eventually I came across a grocery store where I purchased bananas a massive bag of crackers, Kleenex and detergent. This, I figured would be an appropriate time to receive a bag for my goods. Background: there are so many wasted bags here. Everything comes in a bag, including drinks, things already in a bag (like if you purchase dumplings they come in individual bags and then those bags are put into a bigger bag) and individual candy bars. This is frustrating because of the lack of public trashcans and, on a larger level, the nonrenewable non-biodegradable nature of plastic. Anyways, at the grocery store with all of my stuff, I actually did want a bag, and yet none were to be found. I wasn’t too upset because the store was playing Django Reinhardt very loudly and I couldn’t be too upset while that was playing. Plus, luckily I had the best backpack ever (seriously, the Osprey Stratos 24 – it holds anything!), but I still ended up carrying a huge bag of crackers and bananas though the streets for a couple hours while I tried to figure out where I was.

Modeling the hot styles.

Where I was, it turns out, was Ximendeng, aka the place where all the high-schoolers hang out. Also, according to Wikipedia, an “area well known for student prostitution.[citation needed]” It actually was a neat place. The Taiwan Arts Fair was going on, so there were tons of crafts on display, including un unsettling amount of clothing and accessories made for dogs.

The most hilarious things I saw were two teenage boys sitting with a giant speaker hooked up to their ipod in the middle of the square. They were playing classics such as “Apple Bottom Jeans” and “Remix to Ignition” and they were GETTING TIPS FOR THIS. As in, these two kids sat there all night and got paid to blast the hot tracks of 2002-2007. Best job ever or insult to society? You decide

People were actually giving them money.

There was also a guy creating spray paint art on the spot. The art itself was pretty lame, but his techniques and speed were pretty. Plus, for $3 a pop, it was definitely worth the show.

I did eventually get back with all of my groceries in time to go out to dinner with a friend. Yes FRIEND, I have a friend. It was great.

Half the time, I feel like a normal adult who lives in Taipei, has a steady 9-5 job and a gym membership. The other half of the time, I feel like a wide-eyed tourist, taking pictures at inappropriate times and trying to haul crackers and bananas all over the city like a crazy person. I’d say I’m pretty comfortable with that balance.