Next week is Thanksgiving, and by the virtue working in higher education I am able to take the entire week off. I'll be off to Taipei, Taiwan for some much needed vacation time in my beloved Asia. The Google Travel app sent me a notification today alerting me to the weather conditions, and it is forecasted for rain the whole time. My travel good-luck charm appears to have finally deserted me.
I thought November in Taiwan would be chill and sunny. I guess not.
Amor fati, as stoics say.
While I'm not thrilled for the rain, at least it isn't monsoon season (that's during the summer), so it'll just be periodic bursts throughout the day - entirely survivable, just have to purchase an umbrella upon touching down. Rain will force us indoors most of the time, which is just as well because for me the biggest reason to travel to Taipei is the fabulous food so we'll be doing lots of that. Instead of drinking plain water I plan to replace it completely with bubble tea. Even the most hole-in-the-wall tea spot in Taipei is on par with the best we can get in the States.
Better bring the North Face jacket, though. Shoutout to whoever invented Gore-Tex.
These past years I've been listening to kpop almost exclusively, but in order to get in the mood for the Taiwan trip, I've momentarily dusted off the Chinese music playlists and got immediately taken back to the early 2000's. That's the magic of music: it can transport you back to any time period and let you relive the moments. In my case, that would be my late teenage years of much angst and lazy days.
Hearing Chinese songs again made me realize I probably should brush up on my seldom-used mandarin. I would not be surprised if my first words towards a person at Taoyuan International Airport is in Korean.
Excited.