Josh's story

I love new places. I love strange new places.

Two years ago I was lucky enough to spend two weeks in Taiwain. For the first week of the trip I was in the capitol, Taipei, home to many, many millions of people. Armed with a decent array of broken Mandarin skills, I spent most of the week wandering the city on my own. I had the time of my life.

An important item to note was that I was there in July. This meant that the temperature was between 95 and 100 every day starting at around 10am. Paired with close to 100 percent humidity, and a crush of people everywhere, I quickly became saturated with the Taipei atmosphere. I got lost in the tech quarter. I took the elevator to the top of one of highest buildings in the world. I ate food I have never dreamed of. Soon, I was proud of my ability to navigate the city and I feel into a routine.

One of my favorite parts of the day was when each morning I took to the underground complex below the city to eat my daily sushi lunch. Not only was the cool, crisp air conditioning an amazingly welcome respite from the outdoor sauna of the city, the sushi was delicious and spectacularly cheap. On my fifth or sixth time through the ordering line, I managed to get through with out using any English. Go me.

On that lunch trip, the tables were particularly packed. I found a spot in a scrum of locals, and sat down to eat my lunch. I tore through some delectable salmon, a refreshing rice dish, and a small bag of cookie-like chips. Soon after I started eating, the man sitting across the table from me started giving me a strange look. I quietly took stock of myself and the area around me and figured, like usual, I had no idea what was going on. I was used to this feeling by then. So, I shrugged off the feeling and continued with my meal. Sushi gone, the rice soon followed. I read some news, and sipped my drink while finishing the cookie-chips. The man was still definitely giving me a weird look. Again, I took in the feeling of cluelessness and valued it as a certain badge of pride. I could take it.

I finished my lunch, packed up my containers, got up and left. Outside the seating area I disposed of the lunch containers and proudly took off through the underground maze towards the subway stop I used almost every day. I was cruising and having a great time. I knew this place. I was excited to move through my day through the electric hum of Taipei.

Then it hit me why that guy was giving me the weird looks. I hadn’t bought any cookie-chips at lunch. I had spent the entire lunch eating some other guy’s food.

I look forward to my future life as the most effective cultural ambassador in the world.