Sleepless in Taipei

The view from my hotel room: Taipei 101 on my first night here

I'm on the ground, alive, and kicking in Asia. I'm jet-lagged (it's 2:45AM as I write this) so I thought I'd post a few of my semi-drunken mid-flight ramblings. They can be best-summarized with one word: Doubt.

The in-flight entertainment is pretty damn good. I just watched The Adjustment Bureau and couldn't help think of the DJ [the new guy from Okcupid]. On the layover, I cyberstalked him on the site. He's a super high match but the way he's answered certain q's is different from how I would have expected him to answer. He smokes pot. I'm not sure I'm OK with this. 

(a few hours later) 

I have to tell him that I may be moving. When? What? How? Do I tell him I've known about this for months? It's still not 100% confirmed though. If I don't and we stay together - heh - we're not together at all - if we get together and he meets all my other friends he'll find out pretty quickly. No good can come out of lying via omission.

After we landed, I found my driver, and headed out to the hotel. My earlier fears were allayed a bit once I saw Taipei 101 for the first time. I felt better, more positive about the experience.


This hotel's pretty swanky. There's marble everywhere, and multiple floors of entertainment, food, and bars. In the room, they charge about US$4 for a can of coke. The water here isn't potable either, so I gave myself a mission: Find a 7/11, and get some drinks. I set out, and immediately felt "alive" and revitalized as I wandered through the streets. All of my earlier doubt, trepidation, and worry melted away.

Optimistic, I popped into a Starbucks, successfully ordering an iced cafe mocha (I got to practice my "hello" and "thank you" in Mandarin), and wandered around a few blocks. The smells wafting out of restaurants, pubs and cafes were delectable. On a Sunday evening, a few people were out, on their way home, or on their way to dinner. There were a LOT of scooters out there. I eventually found a convenience store, and returned to my base camp at the hotel, victorious. It turns out a 0.5L bottle of coke can be had for about US$0.80, a far cry from $4 for something half its size!


Dinner was a tequila sunrise and some mixed nuts at one of the many bars in the hotel. By the end of my drink, the excitment of my victorious shopping trip wore off, and jet lag reared its sleepy head. I was in bed by 8:30PM.

It's now 5AM as I write this.The hotel gym opens at 6AM. I plan to be down there for a workout, then find breakfast, then a cab to my temporary office. I tried to go back to sleep after I woke up, but a sense of fear, of sadness came over me. I've never felt this before. Is this a "panic attack?" Tears are welling up in my eyes, even now, as I think about the feeling.

I feel disconnected from my friends, and from my family. I feel even worse when I think about DJ, the new guy. I spent an hour or so IM'ing with him just after I arrived. I feel like I've known him for years. We even talked about the pot issue. He says that he "likes it, but doesn't need it." After rambling, getting to know him, and just catching up, we went our separate ways. When I popped online later in the afternoon, none of my friends were available to IM. Twitter was nearly-dead, since all of my tweeps were asleep. Facebook had only a handful of new posts. I felt a sense of loneliness, and loss, in that moment. The Internet had (temporarily) abandoned me. Of course, here, now, at 5AM, random people have IM'd or reached out to me. Life has resumed, a hemisphere away. I'm talking with my friends, and things seem normal -- aside from the time difference.

Time for me to write up some charts, and set an agenda for the trip. Probably should've done that before I left, huh? ;-)

[Update, 5:45AM: This is a two-week business trip. I'll be back in the US 8/1/11. ~G. ]