Couch Surfing

It has come to my attention that I live in the 'burbs. Sansia is to Taipei what Issaquah is to Seattle which means there's some notable downsides, but I cannot complain about the three minute walk to work.

What this does mean is that every weekend, when I want to hang out with friends in the city, I have to arrange a place to sleep ahead of time. The bus stops running at 10pm and the MRT (Mass Rapid transit - Subway) stops running at midnight. This leaves me with few options during Friday and Saturday night.

Fortunately, I have some amazing friends in this place. It's hard to believe how well we've all come together and connected in two months time. I can say with utter certainty that I would be accepted at any time to sleep in four or five apartments in the city. I'm very lucky to have this level of accomodation at my fingertips and I do not thank my friends enough for letting me take over their couches every weekend!

I wanted to take some time to explain a typical weekend in the city. I can usually count on being with either one of two groups of people for Friday night, it's either Caleb, his roommates Maddie and Jess, and Mark or with the group known, colloquially, as "The Brits." This second group is one of the most entertaining gathering of people I've ever had the pleasure of spending time with. You cannot expect to be with them longer than five minutes before there's a drink in your hand and a smile on your face. Stories abound, drinks are lifted in unison, and you can count on not getting back to the house before 4-5am. They were the first ones to take me under their wing and I have nothing but respect for them.

Caleb and Mark are my go-to buds though, and I couldn't imagine a weekend without their laughter at this point. You can usually find us walking three abreast down the sidewalk, a beer in hand, voices louder than they probably should be and arguments concerning as diverse a spectrum as landlady's one minute and the chords to a bad-ass jazz solo the next.

I don't want to paint the wrong picture here. We are not always boozing it up and making a general ruckus in the streets. I have had the pleasure of traveling with both of these groups of people and can say that it is a pleasure to share an adventure with either.

Besides these main cohorts, there's a litany of others in the city who I am proud to call my friend and, if it wasn't so shallow of me, I'd go on for days talking about each and every one. But you get the general idea, I got plenty of places to lay my head, and I am thankful.

We'll start with one particular apartment that stands out as being the most appealing place to have a poker game that I've encountered. This is my coworker Dave's apartment and it is a thing of beauty. His amazing palace atop a 6 story building finds him covering the entire rooftop with a place that is so cavernous that he has difficulty filling it with furniture. Indeed there is an entire bedroom that is larger than my whole apartment that is completely empty. His two cats have their own room in the house to keep their toys and food dish, it's about as large as my bedroom back home. What really sets his apartment apart, however, is the beautiful garden-veranda. This courtyard has views of the neighboring mountain which boasts a five story golden Buddha statue and a 180 degree view of the city.

The next abode belongs to Caleb, a native Alabaman, Jess a California native who calls Yosemite her home, and Maddie who is originally from the US but has been studying in Europe for the past couple of years. You're not going to find a more inviting group of roommates. Their bohemian pad has walls scribbled on by previous inhabitants, art work coming out of every corner and a cantankerous water heater that leaves them without warm water for days at a time. The jewel of this place is the rooftop hangout area. A summer time paradise crawling with vegetation, statues, comfortable couches, and a bar-be-que. The walls out here are splashed with so much spray paint that the original color is impossible to decipher. We all look forward to more afternoons spent lounging in the sunshine in this impossibly relaxing conversation catalyst.

I find myself jealous of the open space and unabashed grandeur shared by these two particular living spaces but, I have to admit, I always find myself happy to be back come Sunday afternoon. There's just something about home.

Oh, and Mark's place is pretty cool too.