Hey, Let’s Have Tea with the Old Man

“Hey, let’s have tea with the old man.” That was the best thing my roommate has convinced me to (well, trying the steamed buns is a close second, but still). My travel senses have generally steered me to away from eating with strangers. Some of you may remember the airport debacle of 2009… where ordering a quesadillas turned into a vent session for a 300 black man about is online dating woes. But, Shyra understood this tea man’s intentions and convinced me to sit down with a pair of men that would eventually become good friends, or machi as they say on this side of the world.
Shyra and I had been hiking up the extremely steep trail on the mountain close to our house for close to close to ab hour. At the top we were both pretty excited to survive the climb as well as be able to fully enhale the clean mountain air. Most locals were strickly committed to their hike, glancing at us long enough to respond to our smiles and soft hellos”, but two elderly men sitting under a gazebo eagerly called out to us. My first reaction- “In your dreams, buddo.” Shyra’s first reaction- “Heck yes.” Upon sitting down at their table, we soon found ourselves with a cup full of green tea while making fast friends with this 60 year old man and his 70something friend. The retirement age in Taiwan is 55, so people who have retired gather everyday at the hot springs or mountain to try and stay fit and young. Mr. Tea Man had enough English for us to share a broken conversation. Some key points of the conversation were that a) I was fit b) our salary c) teaching at Hess. We decided to meet together the following week at the same time. Promises of saki were thrown around, but my doubts were high that this man would provide any sort of alcohol at this elevation. Oh, how I was wrong. Shyra and I were painfully late, as well as completely unprepaired for the 8 dish spread layed out for us. The little old tea man was delight to see us, and I soon found myself playing “paper, sissors, stone”(rock, paper, sissors to us) as a drinking game. At 10am I was gigglily meeting almost every person on the mountain. The only thing that was possibly missing from this situation was a soundtrack complete with “We are family” and _____. The feeling was a cross between meeting your boyfriend’s family for the first time and a family reunion. Quite a juxtaposision, but it was truly a warm welcome. The next day I started to sub kindergarden, so we have unfortunately not been back. After Chinese New Year we hope to re-start this friendship, as it has been one of my favorite memories of my experience in Taiwan.