What's in a Name?

     A few weeks after to moving to Jhongli we went out to a "foreigners bar" called The River, which is conveniently located just a short walk from our apartment.  Let me tell you, it was culture shock alll over again walking into a place with that many white people speaking English. There really weren't even so many people there, but all together in one place, it was weird. What's more is that once we walked in, I felt like I was back in my hometown at a local bar, had that same kinda dumpy feel to it. (Maya's, for those of you who know it)
     The inside was actually pretty neat.  There was lots of interesting artwork painted across the walls, some pretty strange, and we were loudly greeted by Ginger, who was working behind the bar, along with a "You must be new here!"( said in pretty decent English!) We sat at the bar and ordered the specialty, Taiwan Beer, as Ginger and the other bar tender asked us our names, where we were from, and what the hell we were doing in Jhongli.  That night we didn't stay long, just one drink to check it out.



     A few days later we decided to go back, as after checking out the website I discovered they had an American food menu!  This night was Wednesday, and in true Wednesday night bar fashion, it was "all you can drink." My friends from home will recognize this as "Drown Night" at the Char in Verm. In Taiwan, it is pretty common to come across bars that are actually "all you can drink" EVERY night, sounds scary.  Well maybe because The River is a foreigners bar, they only have it once a week.  So by chance we went there again on Wednesday night, this time there were a few more people, even a D.J spinning beats, like Avril...
      So we order some food, have some beer, and start interacting with the others in the bar.  Not so surprisingly, most of the other people there are also teaching English here.  One guy I talked to has been living in Jhongli for 11 years teaching.  He gave us a bit of the low down on our new city.
     Apparently Jhongli is referred to as the armpit of Taiwan.  What exactly does that mean?  Well, it's smelly? Yes, ok. It's hella smelly here, and the air is thick and white with a presence that is more than what I need to keep me breathing.  There are tons of "small" surrounding towns here with a lot of industrial factories pumping such goodness out and about.  Also, Taiwan is verrrrryyy populated, almost 23 MILLION (all crammed into an island about 1/5 the size of South Dakota!) people live here, most of these people, have scooters, drive scooters, some that leave foggy trails behind them. Adds up pretty quickly.
    The view from our apartment, it's pretty nice, we can see quite a bit of the city, a park, speckled air stained on our windows.  Turns out, there are mountains, big ones, hiding behind the tissued air, more often than not.  We can see them most vividly right before or after a big rain storm.  It's kind of sickening to look out and now know that there are mountains, just covered by the air, that we can't see.  I like seeing the mountains!
    Another, better, reason for our city having such a nickname, is that it's "easy" to go pretty much anywhere in Taiwan from Jhongli.  There's the airport very close, the only international one, a train station which hosts multiple types of trains (local, high speed rail, express), and bus stations/stops galore.  I say easy hesitantly, because trying to actually get tickets to get to said places, proved to bit challenging as someone who doesn't speak Chinese.  We finally got it figured out though, I think?
     Anyways, although Jhongli may have a slightly bad rep, if that dude has lived here for 11 years, I think I can handle it for a while.  Oh, also, it's considered a smaller city, the population is about 370,000 people. Small? Yeah.... not so much to me!

Here's me, Anthony, Nate, Ginger, aaannd I think that guy was the DJ? Ginger insisted we all share a shot of tequila   She said Jose is the only man she trusts in her life. Ohh boy. Also, notice the vibrant wall behind us!