Poagao's Journal

Absolutely Not Your Monkey

Jun 03 2008

Prince Roy has left the island

It’s amazing how fast Prince Roy‘s tour went, but we had a lot of good times over the past couple of years. Last night I met up with my former classmate as well as Mark and Wayne at the Red House bar on Shida Road for a final night of drinks and conversation. The rain pattered on the canvas awning above our heads, and the smell of the mosquito coil reminded me of our Tunghai days. We all agreed that after PR left, we’d lead healthier, if less interesting lives.

beershotAfter the bar closed, we walked around the area in search of other hangouts, all of us (except possibly Wayne) reluctant to let the night end so soon, though it was well past midnight by the time we left. “Hey, friends, where are you going?” one guy yelled to us, in Spanish for some reason, as we walked past. We ended up sitting outside a place on Xinsheng South Road across from the park, where we had kebabs, sanbei chicken and veggies, chatting for a few more hours. The restaurant was also closing, so we walked down Xinsheng to Heping East Road, where Wayne turned west and home. Mark, PR and I walked the other way, all the way to PR’s empty house, where we bade him farewell and found cabs home in the rain.

As I watched the lights across the river flow by from the big wet expressway, I tried to imagine what it must feel like to pick up everything and leave Taiwan for a life in another country. It was difficult. In a way, it’s an exciting idea, but I’m so content with my life here as it is that it would freak me out more than a little bit. Eventually I settled on imagining leaving on an extended trip, with the idea of roaming the world for a while before eventually returning here. A bit more comfortable thought. By the time I got to bed the sky was already light.

The departure from our fair island of Prince Roy and Spicy Girl marks the end of an era, especially accompanied as it is by our new administration, the possibility of a new US administration on the way, the Olympics, three links, and a host of other developments. Things are afoot. Someone asked me the other day how many cycles of friends I’d gone through here. It’s a fair question, I suppose. Many foreign friends have come and gone. Some came back. Taiwanese friends have gone and come, as it were. In any case, none of us are the same person we were or will be; I heard once that all of our cells are replaced over a period of seven years, so that you’re literally not the person you once were. So things change, people change….alright, I’ll stop trying to be all Deep here and let you figure out what all of this means, if anything.

posted by Poagao at 10:13 am  

7 Comments »

  1. 🙁 PR is a good friend. At least he will be back to Asia next year. For me, a trip to Seattle, Oklahoma, and Washington DC would be fun tho.

    Comment by Daniel — June 3, 2008 @ 10:45 am

  2. Wow, one of the Taiwan bloggers wrote about my departure! Got home seven hours ago. It was an uneventful trip, but it did reconfirm how much I dislike United Airlines.

    That was a fun last evening! I really enjoy the Red House-hope it’s still there on my next tour. I’ll try to get up a post about it myself. Now where have I heard that before?

    Comment by prince roy — June 3, 2008 @ 11:55 pm

  3. Fear not! I’ll write about it too, buddy.

    Comment by Mark — June 4, 2008 @ 5:12 pm

  4. I heard once that all of our cells are replaced over a period of seven years, so that you’re literally not the person you once were. So things change, people change

    The Buddhists were right. The flame isn’t copied; it’s the pattern that continues. BTW, the stat read (in Kurzweil’s book, I think) is that we replace half our molecules every 15 days.

    Comment by Mark — June 4, 2008 @ 5:16 pm

  5. Somehow, I knew you’d know something about that.

    Comment by Poagao — June 4, 2008 @ 11:08 pm

  6. Ha, thanks for making me look like an ass.

    Let me assure that by the time you come back for a visit, everything will still be here, but gone to shit. That Sichuanese restaurant in Yonghe will be serving ketchup and peanut chicken instead of gongbao jiding; Wisteria will be serving pearl milk tea; and Cafe Odeon will make a nice side-business out of hosting birthday parties and 180Nt bottles of Heineken.

    Comment by wayne — June 5, 2008 @ 11:38 am

  7. […] Prince Roy has a much more detailed entry about his departure. So does Poagao. Tags: friends, poagao, Prince-Roy, […]

    Pingback by A Princely Departure | Doubting to shuo: Chinese, Investing, EFL and Being a Geek in Taiwan — June 23, 2008 @ 3:46 pm

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