It Was Only Ten Days

...and I spent the last three mostly writing my thesis. But it was something on the first night of my spring break in Taiwan that led me back to NTU today. Our hosts had taken us out for snacks at the various food stalls. We wandered in a large group, down to a street that forked at about a 45 degree angle. There was a minimart near the corner, and stinky tofu nearby. I'm not sure why I remembered that particular spot. But this morning, as I rode in a taxi to meet with the Bethany School about joining Scholar's Cup, I looked up from my laptop and saw it.

I felt that quick tingle of recognition as past and present geographies matched in my head. I timidly glanced to the right at the next intersection, glimpsed some palm trees. That was a second clue. NTU is the Stanford of Southeast Asia.

The counselor I met at the the Bethany school confirmed it: we were just a couple blocks away from the university's main entrance. After our meeting she let me me out the school's gate. As we crossed the blacktop one student asked her if she had a date. "August 25," she answered. Then a giant steel grating rolled up and out I went to Roosevelt Street.

Within a block I had passed a dark-haired man making Middle Eastern sandwiches. I remembered him; he spoke English with a French accent. A little further and there was Dante Coffee: Dante, where I'd tried to write my thesis but mostly written in this blog. And within a few hundred meters of Dante was the front gate to NTU.

Palm trees lined it. Students were biking in and out. Girls walked with umbrellas. I stood next the giant campuis map where I once asked someone if I could borrow her cell phone. I felt the flutter of an inappropriate nostalgia. I was here not ten years ago, but one and a few meager months. For some reason it felt like I was visiting a place much older in my life.

I crossed campus, poking my head in the room where once, I screamed like Howard Dean. Microphones lined all the tables this time. I snapped a photograph and in my head I photoshopped in everyone I'd gotten to know here. Our welcome breakfast too.

I walked on. The building next door to our dorm now featured a Japanese tea shop and various other restaurants. The Seven-Eleven that had sprung up there overnight had apparently been only the beginning of a larger renovation.

The dorm was mostly unchanged--even the computers were the same, in the lobby. I borrowed one to check my e-mail. The puzzled security guard objected at first, then relented when I pointed toward the stairs and said, "I stayed there." If only it were always that easy.

Not too far away, Jon and David had once stood on a table to make their closing remarks. Presumably, another HCAP group had visited since, and other closing remarks been spoken.

I'm not sure why this last year has felt so--long. I suppose it's a blessing that years feel long: it promises at least the illusion of a longer life.

To end on a less melancholy note, tonight I'll be having dinner with several of the HCAP alumni--Buddy and Tina for sure, and maybe others too. Looking forward to it. Yesterday, I saw Chuan-Mei (and devastated her bathroom)--so this trip has been a nice combination of Scholar's Cup meetings, farce (see "Down the Drain") and reunions with old friends.