My room-mate Fantian has been in Malaysia for over a month, but as of tonight I'm alone. My other room-mate I've only briefly mentioned before as something I saw in the dark on the wall. A gecko. Geckos are magical creatures in my opinion, I'm sure if there was such a thing as luck that they would bring it to a house. They eat bugs, how much more wonderful a creature can you imagine?
A few weeks ago I finally confirmed my nighttime suspicion that I was indeed sharing this apartment with a small gecko, I saw him wiggle across my shoe room floor. He's about two inches long and a light gray color. A few times since then I've spotted him in my bathroom hiding in a little corner, holding really still so I wouldn't see him. He's such a pleasure, especially when compared to my other non-human guests. He has only four legs, a cute face, and a cute little 'S' shaped body. And he can walk on the wall like Spiderman, which is worthy of anyone's respect.
But just a few minutes go, after I got home from meeting, I saw his lifeless little body lying belly up in a puddle of water next to the bathroom door. I figure he was poisoned by something, either that or he met a cockroach, which could be over twice his size. Can you imagine such a duel? With a lump in my throat I swept up his wondrous tiny little body, looked into his eyes, then put him into the garbage.
So, as I said before, I'm alone again in this dreary stuffy apartment in Taipei city, a little less magical, and probably a few too many bugs.

A few hours ago, I caved into my desires, put on my sandals and went out to buy some stinky tofu. I've said many times how close I am, I stood at the cross-walk waiting for the stupid light to change into the little green walking man with the 30 seconds counting down above him. I was wearing my undershirt. I guess I have to admit it to myself, I'm an undershirt wearing guy, undershirt in place of a shirt. But it's so close! I reason with myself, it's like not even going out, it's like going to get the mail. Only I have to wait with 5 people to cross the street... to get the mail.
I had my 4 ten kuai coins in my hand already, ready to pay for my stinky tofu. But in moments after crossing the street I saw that no one was there! The stinky tofu cooking station was unmanned. When I got closer I could see the new guy sitting in the back with somebody, but I'm shy and I don't like telling people to get back to work and make me some tofu. I had already half planned to go another 20 feet to the "Family Mart" 7-11-like store on the other side of the narrow street, so I kept walking, wondering if I'd chicken out afterwards and forgo my stinky tofu.
I ended up buying a bag of Dorritos, very American, you may be disappointed to hear about me buying Dorritos over here in Asia, but you aren't here like I am, craving the cheeses and the tasty things of the west. Yes, yes I'll settle for Dorritos, the squid snacks just don't satisfy me anymore. I immediately opened my bag of Dorritos, eating as I walked. This time I just walked up the steps into the stinky tofu shop, ignoring the new guy's little break and I said "one set of stinky tofu." I didn't even say please, I'm not sure if it's normal to say please anyway, not that I'm afraid of being abnormal, I just didn't want him to say "What? Your Chinese sounds weird, what are you trying to say?" I'll have to ask my teacher about saying "please" when ordering food.
This new guy is probably around my age, I was thinking he was older than me, maybe he is, but he just seems older to me. Before they had a little old guy there, I miss him, haven't seen him for a month. The new guy sometimes doesn't cook it long enough so it's not as crispy as it should be. Also this time he was taking a break, I don't think the old guy took breaks, and if he did he wasn't deep in conversation, he'd be sitting there looking out at the street in case somebody like me looked in with a hungry look in their eyes. The younger generation just doesn't have the same work ethic as the older generation I guess. But then maybe they will when they're older.
Last time I was there I had a six pack of Taiwan beer that I had just picked up across the street with me, he talked to me about how many beers he thought I should drink. Which is kind of awkward when you don't plan to drink as much as you can. You could say we just didn't make a connection that night.
This time he asked me how I liked Taiwan. "Good" I said, "I like the food" I said. This was a good thing to say of course. But then he and his buddy wanted to know how I felt about the women. "Uhh, pretty" I said, hoping that was the standard international polite thing to say, I could see a potential for more questions that I didn't want answer. I think they were both chewing betel nut, I really don't like to think about somebody preparing my food with betel nut stained lips, so I won't. But Max and I have speculated that betel nut seems to have a dumbing effect on people, like a drug, actually I guess it is in fact a drug of some sort.
In case you were wondering where this story of sleezy betel nut chewing stinky tofu sellers was going, I'll tell you. They really weren't so sleezy in the end. The stinky tofu maker's buddy said that he heard that Taiwan women were comparatively good to you, or nice. I think my response to this was a polite "mmmmm" As if it was something interesting that I'd have to think about. After asking me how to say "spicy" and "stinky tofu" in English, he gave me my bag of fermented tofu, and I shot out of there relieved that I didn't have to discuss women anymore.
The downside of my quick escape is that my tofu wasn't cooked long enough and was a little too soggy. Buying stinky tofu just isn't as fun as it used to be.