Samuel (four) Male Power

During the whole of February, Samuel basically worked, slept, got drunk, and ate. Not necessarily in that order, but he follows the routine even though he doesn't feel much inside. He eats at the same noodle, pasta, and Cantonese places. He drinks at sports bars during happy hours. And since his job doesn't require much of a skill or brain, he has been spending most of his conscious mind browsing through Sharon and Tammy's Facebook photos and updates. Then he slowly finding these girls annoyingly intriguing.

Of course, he has dated Taiwanese women, or girls. At first, he was blown away by how slender and feminine they are comparing to western chicks. Then he was also blown away by how similar they are with the western chicks by how often they lose their tempers and how they like to comment on their imperfections while fishing for a praise from him. Like a good boy, he gives it to them. Yet, they leave him nonetheless in the end.

One day, he had a conversation with his co-worker Matt and his annoying clicking sound.

(tse) "Hey big boy, how's the weekend?"

"Uh... it's alright, went to Carnegie's with some friends and had a few beers. What about you?"

(tse) "Had the time to see my kids, I wanted to take them to the park but my ex wanted to go shopping. It was fun to see those kids, but my ex is really driving me up the wall..."

"So she's still asking for NT$50,000 a month for alimony?"

"Yeah"

"That's steep! How do you keep up with all that?"

(tse) "Well, I also work as an escort"

"No kidding?! There's a foreign escort service here?"

(tse) "There is a thing called the internet"

"So you mean you go out with girls and ask them to pay for your way?"

(tse) "Yeah, this actually a website that I have, but mostly, I go to the gym. Hey, I need to run now, I'll catch you later, k big boy?"

Samuel walked over to his desk, wondering if there's any truth in whatever Matt just said. Then the computer screen appeared a chat box that said: Hey Samuel, how's it going? :)

Samuel (three) Post New Year High

After the new year high, now the city is tainted by the constant drizzle and piercing wind. All the festiveness in the air disappeared as the last bit of new year-ness sobers up. Samuel is at work, editing the English articles that means nothing more than a way to filling up his fridge and booze cabinet, and of course, his

bank account.

Walking towards his cubicle is his co-worker Matt, who would always makes this clicking sound every time before he speaks, like he's sucking on a piece of candy. (tse) "Hey Sam, was just wondering if you got a chance to take a look at my blog that I told you about."

"Not yet, been busy this weekend. How's yours?"

(tse) "Nothing much, a few friends of mine went to Brass Monkey. Hey, who were those chicks that you were hanging out that night? They look pretty young, they're like what? 20?"

"Yeah it was fun."

(tse) "Oh well, time to get back to work."

Other than the fact that Matt is your regular Canadian who comes to Taiwan for the money, he's also got a lot of debt to pay, especially now all bogged down by his pregger girlfriend. Poor chump.

Finally, it's noon. As Samuel walks into the kitchenette to get some more coffee and microwave his last night dinner, he sees Katherine, who loves nothing more but to talk about herself no matter what the topic of the conversation is.

"Hi Katherine"

"Oh hey Samuel. Did you cook that? I also cook more in red sauce rather than cream sauce, you know, because tomatoes have lots of antioxidants that's really good for your body. My husband also cooks but he's more of a steak guy. I can't believe how expensive steak is here in this country. Jeez... I remember when I was in Novaskosia..."

Samuel begins to drift off into that night with the girls, how their hair smell when he leaned close to talk to them and their lips move when they spoke, how their breath passed his ear like the breeze on a summer's day.

(ding!)

"So anyway, that's how we finally got to the hotel. Hey, your lunch is ready."

"Oh thanks. Talk to you later, Katherine"

As he takes a bite out of his pasta, he texted Sharon: Hey, you wanna grab a drink tonight?

Reply: I can't, need to study for finals. But can meet up for a dinner. Let's meet at KGB at 7?

KGB it is.

Then after a long day, it was great to see a girl dressed in such an unconventional way with her dark purple rara skirt with grassy green tights underneath, accompanied with her black turtleneck sweater with a yellow felt duck pinned on the left shoulder. And of course, her white headphones that makes her head comically small, like those Japanese graphic designs.

"嗨！好久不見！哈哈哈哈！" (Hi, long time no see! hahahahah)

"Hi, 你好嗎？" (Hi, how are you doing?)

"好阿好阿，你要坐外面還是裡面？" (Good, good! Do you wanna sit inside or out?)

"你覺得呢？" (What do you want?)

"外面好了，裡面太多人了，感覺會很吵，而且我不要吃完漢堡變成漢堡" (Out, it seems too noisy inside with all those people. Besides, I don't wanna turn into a burger after I've eaten one either)

"Huh?　喔，哈哈哈哈" (Huh? Oh...hahahah)

After knowing when Sharon's finals is going to be, and that she is going back to Kaohsiung during her winter break, Samuel feels a bit lost with how he feels, and the feeling during Christmas is creeping up on him again. Then he gets home, snaps open another Corona and takes a swig while his face glares with the bluish light from the monitor.