Welp, it’s official. I have five days left in Taipei.

This week has been devoted to getting all of my final errands done + savoring the last moments of my current Taiwan chapter.

I’ve been shopping to buy the things that I’ve been pondering since I first saw them on December adventures. I got cupped (gruesome deets to come). I did my taxes–like, the most painless tax process I can imagine. I scheduled my Taiwan tattoo at an awesome parlour for Friday. + I’ve slowly but surely been working my way through last meals at all of my fave restaurants.

I thought I’d go to the beach today, but since I couldn’t stomach the thought of roasting in the sun in 90+ degree weather, I went to the Yongle Fabric Market to pick up my newly relined leather jacket + decided to spend a lazy day writing at my favorite, Yaboo Cafe.

Check out the before + afters of my jacket!! The tailor actually laughed at me when she saw what bad condition the jacket was in, but I laughed with her + I think she did a great job with the fix!

All of this might sound very anti-climactic, especially since there is so much of Taiwan that I have yet to see! But Yaboo has almost felt like my second home in Taipei. I will be back to Taiwan in a couple of years, but in the interim there is no doubt that I will miss Yaboo and the cats (there’s a new kitten now!) terribly. Just trying to soak up as much time here as possible before I push off…. {{le sigh}}

Anyway, something else I’ve been busy with is seeing my friends perform! I got to see a rehearsal of [title of show], that my good friend Mandy Roveda is in, along with my friend, Brook Hall, who also directed the production (+ Hedwig!). I also got to see a new friend, Katie, perform her one woman show, “Why 國人,” as part of the Taipei Fringe Festival.

[title of show] is a musical by Jeff Bowen + Hunter Bell that follows the journey of a play + its creative team from the beginning of the writing process to Broadway. It takes the audience through the ups + downs of being performers + creative friends working together in New York City in an incredibly smart, honest + thought provoking way.

The cast is doing an incredible job! Somehow I had forgotten how powerful a few un-mic’ed voices in a room can be, but these four actually gave me chills. They were rehearsing for a performance in PingTung (Southern Taiwan) tomorrow, details here. They will also have a run at National Taiwan University soon. If you are in Taiwan, please keep this on your radar!

“Why 國人” is written and performed by Katie Partlow, a woman originally from America’s Pacific NW, who has made Taiwan her home for the last 13 years. The play explores Katie’s triumphs + struggles as a foreigner in Taiwan. She skillfully illustrates with comical anecdotes the ways that “foreigners” are put into a box by those Taiwanese who are limited in their worldview by ignorance about diversity. The point of the play seemed to be that such people have been so busy trying to make her into a stereotypical foreigner that it has been a huge challenge for her to find a way to just be Katie.

I am thrilled that I was able to catch both of these shows before I 回國 next week.

There are many, many things that I will miss about Taiwan. But now it is certain that the group of performers + creative thinkers that I have met here will be at the top of my list.

This song from [title of show] really stayed with me after seeing my buddies’ rehearsal. Here is the original cast performing one of the final songs of the show.

It’s true: I’d rather be nine people’s favorite thing than a hundred people’s ninth favorite thing. 🙂