A top reunion on ground floor Taipei 101

Before we took off; I made a quick phone call to my mother. I wanted her to pass on the message to John that I was on the plane but my back pack wasn’t. There was nothing he could do about it, but sharing the situation, made me feel better. I guess that makes me selfish. I involved my mother in the process since I could not connect with him directly. See, I have this network on my phone, called 48, that shuts you off the entire world outside of Europe.

If everything would have gone smoothly, the first thing I would be stressing about while setting foot on the plane is the person who I will be sitting next to for the next 11 hours. I imaged myself in that scenario finding my seat thinking to myself pleaseeee not a smelly or too-big-for-one-seat person, please no babies in a diameter of 3 meters around me. This time, I only started observing him after take-off. My neighbour was a Dutch speaking, not-too-big-for-one-seat kinda guy, around my age. I wanted to connect with him but he fell asleep from the moment we took off. I also didn’t get the feeling he wanted to have a chat with me!? Besides me being the one delaying the flight, crushing his dream of having two seats for himself and the fact that my video screen was working while his wasn’t, I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t like me! At least he was quiet and odourless the entire flight. Perfect!

From the moment dinner was being served, I couldn’t stop thinking about drinking wine for free. Last time, I didn’t bother drinking alcohol on the flight but this time, I needed it!

“Wat wil je graag drinken?” asked the Dutch blond male flight attendant with a big smile. 
“Een glaasje wijn?” 
“Jazeker; welke had je graag gehad?” 
“Welke heb je?” 
“We hebben wit en rood!”

I did not ask him what kind of wine he had to show off. My wine knowledge is rather poor. I asked him the question because I already knew the answer and I knew it was going to cheer me up. So when he replied, we both started laughing out loud and so he poured me a cup of red wine. Since we both enjoyed this moment of laughter, I did not consider myself selfish at that moment.

I envied my neighbour because I so badly wanted to fall asleep. I even brought that weird U-shaped thing you need to put around your neck. I still don’t get it, it just makes it worse! Instead, I watched the Dutch and definitely worse version of ‘Zot van A’, some episodes of a show I don’t recall and read some pages out of my book ‘Travels in Taiwan’.

Finally, after approximately 12 hours, I arrived in Taipei. Hello heat! After exchanging some Euro in NTD and reporting my back pack ‘missing’, I walked all the way to the exit where Jerry welcomed me literally with open arms. Even though he did not have a car, he was willing to take the bus to the airport so that I would not be alone taking it into the city. I remember John having to do something with that little arrangement.

While seated on the air-conditioned bus we brought up some memories from two years ago. They funny thing was that we didn’t even share that many, to be precise only two. To be totally honest, we didn’t even remember how we met each other! After a bit of investigating by us both, putting the bits and pieces of our memories together, we understood that Mary, the German girl that decided to do a similar AIESEC internship around the same time as me, was the link. Jerry met her in Germany during his language course. And so one evening, two years ago, Mary decided to invite him along to an AIESEC night out in Taipei city.

When the bus arrived at Taipei main station, we decided to go straight to Taipei 101 by MRT and hang around in the shopping mall before meeting John for dinner. Jerry was surprised when I pulled out my Easy card to enter the MRT. “Where did you get the Easy card from??” “I kept it for two years, I thought it might come in handy some day!” Arrived at Taipei 101, Jerry mentioned that we drank a coffee on the 35^th floor last time.

While window shopping in the luxurious Taipei 101 shopping mall, we were wondering if there would ever come a time when we could take the window out of the sentence. And if so, when that would be!?

Jerry’s phone rang. It was John asking him if he already took a ticket for the restaurant. A ticket?! Why? Apparently we were going to have dinner in Din Tai Fung. Not just an ordinary restaurant, on the contrary, one of which the Hong Kong branch was awarded a Michelin star. Jerry came of the phone telling me that we need to get a ticket for a table of 7 which meant a waiting time of 1 hour and a half. It wasn’t the waiting time that shocked me but the fact that we were going to be 7?? I was wondering who he invited? 

Seven ok… so he invited his family along, so his wife Mary, his son Jay, so that’s 5. Who else?? Once everyone arrived at the entrance of the restaurant. I knew.. I forgot about John’s mother who moved into his house two years ago and the real surprise was Lilly, my Aiesec recruiter!! I could not be happier having them all present at my first evening. I inappropriately hugged everyone on arrival. In public places, especially in south Taiwan, physical contact of any sorts should be avoided. 

The plan was to go to the top of Taipei 101 after our lovely dinner but we were 10 minutes too late to get our second ticket of the night. It closed at 9pm. Instead, we decided to have a drink in Xinmending and eventually finishing the night in a MacDonalds with fries, Coke and spilled Coke Zero. On my pants. The one that I was going to need to wear for at least two more days. #clumpsycaro #delayedbackpack. Taking into account the few hours I did not sleep on the plane, I can say that after being awake for 36 hours I looked forward to going back home, John’s home. 

Again, I didn’t manage to reach the top of Taipei 101, but hey I just arrived..Third time is the charm? ;)

Carolyn.