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nerdygaymormon · 4 years

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I’m sorry if this has been asked before, but- can I, as a gay person, go to heaven? I was reading in 1 Corinthians 6:9, which says “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,” and the footnote on ‘abusers of themselves’ states that this means homosexual behavior. It just makes me really sad and scared. Do I have to change to receive the blessing of god? Am I not a whole person worth of his kingdom? I just feel so lost and hurt.

Let’s first look at the scripture in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

All of the terms in Paul’s list, except for the first and last, appear to have been intentionally paired together:

idolatry was often associated with adultery in the Old Testament

makakoi and arsenokoitai

thieves and coveters both passionately want what belongs to others

drunkenness often leads to reviling (slander)

There’s some question over the proper translation of some terms in verse 9.

The Greek word makakoi means “soft, delicate.”

Arsenokoitai is a compound noun, joining arsen (“male”) and koite (“bed,” inferring sex). Paul seems to have invented this word.

Since they are paired by Paul, the translators let arsenokoitai determine their word choice for makakoi. Other English translations of the Bible generally use words to indicate male prostitutes or young call boys for makakoi.

Modern scholars have interpreted makakoi and arsenokoitai generally as young (effeminate) male prostitutes and the men who bought their services. The scholars also interpret these words as the passive and active partners in same-sex activity (”bottom” and “top”). It wasn’t respectable for a male Roman citizen to take the women’s role in sex, so they were expected to be the “active” partner. Rather than homosexuality, the footnote could just as easily mention pederasty, pedophilia or prostitution as possible meaning of these words.

Following this list of vices, Paul discusses prostitution at some length (1 Cor 6:12-20), talking about “fornication” and “harlots." Paul has sex outside of marriage on his mind.

Paul is talking about a way of life in which we allow ourselves to be governed by worldly appetites rather than by the Spirit. He’s speaking against prostitutes or random hook-ups, where sex is being pursued for sex’s sake. Yet no one believes he is condemning sex between heterosexual married individuals. We likewise shouldn’t assume he’s forbidding relationships of commitment and love and trust between people of the same gender. That would be an inconsistent way of applying scriptures.

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There’s some new Mormon folk doctrine being created about LGBTQ+ people because we don’t fit into the Plan of Salvation, or at least not the version of The Plan the church has.

Because the church sees no gay people in The Plan, the church used to say that no one is gay, and leaders give all sorts of reasons that might make someone have these attractions (overbearing mother, absent father, lack of faith, masturbation, and so on). The church also taught that anyone who experiences these attractions can change and become straight.

Several church leaders even taught that if gay people couldn’t change, that would frustrate God’s plan. Therefore God wouldn’t make it so people couldn’t change while also forbidding them from getting married.

The church was wrong.

The church now says it doesn’t know why anyone experiences these attractions, but acknowledges people have same-sex attractions. In General Conference several times it’s been said we don’t expect these attractions to change. A few years ago the church ceased conversion therapies which tried to turn queer people straight.

Yet the church hasn’t addressed the idea that God wouldn’t make people this way and forbid them from getting married.

To get around this problem, some in the church are now saying that gay people will be changed to become straight after they die, and then they can get married and have all the blessings.

That’s certainly inventive, but I don’t know any scriptures that would support this idea that someone undergoes a complete metamorphosis of who they are to someone else.

I have serious concerns about the Church saying to stay in church and remain alone and you’ll be blessed. If this is God’s will for us, why don’t we have resources to help us do this? We aren’t given ways to do this in a healthy way. In fact, this sort of path is usually accompanied by many negative impacts to our mental health and quality of life.

Think about single cishet members of the church. They have leaders assigned to them to be aware of their concerns at the ward and stake level. There’s activities and groups arranged for them so they can meet and socialize and study the gospel together. Their ministering brothers & sisters are asked to be especially sensitive to them, to be available to give them blessings, to make sure they feel welcome to church activities. No such care is given to LGBTQIA members.

————————————————————

The best advice I can give you is to trust yourself, listen to your feelings, pray and ask about your path in life, the next steps.

If the Spirit says it’s okay to date, to pursue a relationship, then you know that this is approved by God, no matter what the church thinks about it.

When I date a woman, try to hold her hand, it’s just, idk. It’s a chore. Yes, I can like her as a friend, but that’s it. I don’t feel any spark or deep connection. But if I’m on a date with a man, I feel a little giddy. Holding his hand is exciting, a kiss is electric. I feel things I don’t with women, I feel complete, whole, it feels so natural and right. All the love songs suddenly made sense.

When I envision what an ideal life for me would be, I see me with a husband in a loving home, going to church, and doting on grandkids. Why do I feel such warm feelings when I picture this when the church says God wouldn’t want this for me? This may not become my reality, but there is a part of me that yearns for it.

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Will a gay person go to heaven? I don’t know, I can’t answer that. I don’t know what a post-mortal life looks like. And frankly, no one else does either. If anyone claims they know, ask them what a typical day in heaven is like, what do people do? They can’t answer that.

What I will say is that God loves LGBTQIA+ people. God doesn’t respond to fervent prayers to “fix” us because being gay or trans isn’t “broken.” God intends for us to live our lives as queer people. God also wants us to have joy in our existence, and one way to do that is having a very close, intimate relationship with another person whom we love and who has our back.

I also don’t think any of us are powerful enough to thwart God’s plan for us. The longer I live, the more I think we don’t have a blueprint to follow, but instead we co-create our path forward in life with God.

Some LGBTQIA+ people feel called to stay in the church, perhaps just for now or perhaps for all their life. Others come back to church after their spouse dies. Great. I’m not saying there’s one path for all gay or queer people.

In a sense, we have the opportunity to use our agency, our ability to make choices, in a broader sense than other members of the church because they have so many rules and policies and advice given to them. They choose whether to follow the path the church gives to them, we have to imagine what possibilities are open to us.

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gayregis · 4 years

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tbh as a polish person genuinely vibing with any kind of mostly english speaking witcher fandom is kinda hard bc theres just. so many small mistakes and just a feeling of Wrongness in the translation that couldve been fully avoided? like using womanizer instead of whoremonger for dandelion or saying comrade instead of friend etc and like im mad bc with some more effort it couldve been done way better and actually carried over more of the og atmosphere for international readers And It Didnt

i agree with you from the ‘can only read the english translations’ side. i feel like definitely the official UK translations shifted a lot of the meanings, of course i do not know how it is in every single scene, but from the lengthy posts i’ve read on reddit, some posts i’ve read on tumblr, and conversations i’ve had with mutuals over discord, plus just generally reading the books and saying to myself “wait, this doesn’t sound... cohesive?” i agree that are are a lot of changes that shift the perspective.

one part of this is the deliberate mistranslation of general vocabulary used with the intention (i think) to give a more “medieval-ish fantasy” vibe to the work. i feel like david and danusia really went for some british slang that gives it a more “english medieval” feel (or at least, how medieval england is conceived of in the modern english-speaking imagination), when more widely-known words without such specific connotations (for the speaker and for the subject) would be more appropriate.

for example, i have heard that a lot of the translations of “maiden” or “wench” are more akin to “girl/woman” in the original text. another example is “comely lad” VS “pretty boy,” two translations (the former official, the latter fan-translated) that mean the same thing essentially but the former one is “brit-ified” (to me, at least). and i know that sometimes the translators chose specific words to keep a “peasant-speak” vibe with the usage of specific language, for example, with milva, but instead of being confined to peasantry, it extends across a lot of characters.

another part is figures of speech that don’t translate over due to being polish-specific idioms, or being reliant on the polish grammar structure. imo the translators are too eager to replace these with english figures of speech/idioms. a lot of the time when polish fans have pointed this out and said, this is different in the original text, the original idiom is so-and-so, which basically means this-and-this, i am able to understand the translated idiom, when it is in context.

for example, i believe that in the english version of baptism of fire dandelion says to regis, “was it just you and your shadow?” and regis replies, “worse, i don’t even cast one.” but in the original text, the exchange goes something more like “were you drinking to the mirror?” “worse, i don’t even show up in mirrors.” the idiom “drinking to the mirror” meaning drinking alone does not exist in english, but it would have been at least a little obvious to me as a reader what the meaning of the idiom is. i suppose it is up to preference, but i would prefer to have the original figures of speech kept intact, with a little footnote at the bottom included for explaining context / what its meaning is.

another part is cultural references and history that end up getting lost. references to other works, etc.

an example is in the edge of the world when torque says “good night” at the end to geralt and dandelion. without knowing the phrase, “where the devil says goodnight,” this is completely meaningless. and context about polish/broader european history is mostly also lost on a non-polish audience, because it is not something that is basic knowledge.

it doesn’t just extend to polish references, for example, regis quotes cicero quoting one of the seven sages, “omnia mea mecum porto,” basically “all that’s mine i carry with me,” which ig is a nod to how regis is a philosopher and lives simply, is a humanist, etc.

and this isn’t even beginning to touch all of the arthurian stuff he put in there.

mostly, i end up being clueless because i do not know what the original text was, and i know that if i could see the original text, i would not understand it and would need it explained to me.

i guess a positive side of this is that i like uncovering what was originally said and hearing it explained, scouring the internet for someone who has addressed a specific passage or something... it helps foster some conversation, kind of like two kids comparing christmas presents - what’s in your translation? what’s in your translation? what’s in the original text? - it is fun to see everyone start posting pictures and screenshots of their books, like trying to unravel a mystery as a group, and i enjoy that, especially when there are more international translations than just polish original and english translation, i like seeing the czech, russian, spanish, french translations and then learning things from these languages/cultures/countries because they showed up in the text.

on the other hand, it hinders discussion because if people are operating on different translations, they will have widely different perspectives of the characters based upon what the characters said or how they were described. you are not the only person i’ve heard express this sentiment, and agreed that it’s difficult to “genuinely vibe” across language barriers regarding the series. polish geralt is a totally different character from english geralt, from what i’ve heard, to summarize it.

and even if you do research as an english-speaking person to find out the mistranslations, the meanings behind certain phrases or references, etc., you still will probably never understand it fully, nor will you uncover everything there is to uncover.

i dislike leaving it like this, but it kind of “is what it is” with the language barriers and translations. a lot of the original atmosphere wasn’t and possibly will never be fully translated over (in some cases, it may be impossible). i would say don’t feel like you “have” to engage with every fan of the witcher books, if you feel you don’t vibe with english speaking witcher fandom that is okay and i hope that no one would judge you for it, everyone should hang out and talk with who they want to hang out and talk with. but i also get the disappointment because you want to connect, but there is just a lack of understanding. it shouldn’t be the burden to fall on you to be like, hey guys actually in the original text this scene is different / you’re misinterpreting this-- but if you ever want to say or make posts like this, i think this would be great and a contribution to the community. i would also say idk if it is possible if the interpretations are extremely different, but some broader themes like family, love, humanity, etc. imo do join the fans of the books in some way or another, big or small, despite how wonky the translations get. and finally, i want to say i am not here to give advice or consolation, because i certanly don’t know what can be done about this, i just want to respond to this and say that you’re not alone.

#it must be extremely frustrating and i think a lot of eng-speaking fans come into the fandom thinking the official translations are translat #(if they are not already familiar with how translations work and that they are usually not perfect or 1:1 translation)#i think a degree of humility is needed but that is difficult to find among many eng-speakers in the us/uk/canada/aus lmao #the witcher #anon #ask

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grumfield · 4 years

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how would you recommend getting into cnovels?

Hey! Im glad you’re interested :)! I’ll just give you a bit of my experience in how I got in, and maybe some tips? I idk if it warrants a *tutorial* but I could give some advice.

So I got into cnovels in the way most people have recently—I watched the Untamed by recommendation of a friend, was confused as fuck, and so read the first chapters of its novel to get a better grasp of what was going on, binged the show in like a weekend. Then I read the book, and then another book called SVSSS. I was extremely reticent to read any more because I was like “I’m too cultured and high brow to read any more of these SILLY STORIES” and then of course quarantine broke me, I read 2ha, and then signed me soul away lolol.

The thing bout cnovels is that for an English-only speaker like me, there’s a fairly decent learning curve with the way these are written, for a few reasons. 1) the translator and 2) the difference in word organization + writing formatting in Chinese novels. The difference in Chinese writing style isn’t too crazy, but it does carry over and sort of changes the way you think about reading. It’s not like Western English writing—it’s quite different from the way we read most stories. I’m not sure how else to explain it other than it feels almost as if someone is recounting thr story to you orally—it’s very “tell” more than “show”. The second is translation. Some translators use more “vernacular” ways of TLing, some just do an edited machine translation (like putting the text in Google translate) and pass it off as having been translated (the most notable example of this is a book called Little Mushroom), so it’s quite hit-or-Miss sometimes with what you’re reading in terms of understandability.

My recommendation honestly is one of these two things. If you want to just get into cnovels, start with a novel that is translated either by rynnanonrolls or yummysuika—a good idea is probably Heaven Official’s Blessing because it’s completed. They write in a very comprehensive writing style that’s easy to read if you’re not familiar with the writing style, as well as worldbuilding that doesn’t rely on an understanding of preexisting tropes. The footnotes are comprehensive, and the story also preps you for the length of cnovels.

The other thing I recommend is to watch the MDZS donghua. If you aren’t familiar with xianxia tropes trying to read the novel right off the bat can be difficult, so watching the animation can provide the necessary visual context, as it most closely follows the novel

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flockofdoves · 5 years

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dirtmound replied to your post :oh just resurfaced my old niche interest inside my...

if i were to read les mis which should i read

do NOT read denny (1976)!!! its the worst because he claims its unabridged but is such a half-assed translator who clearly doesn’t care for the work he’s translating that its an average of like... 100 pages shorter than most other translations

wilbour (1862) is the first english translation and is pretty good, its language is said to be pretty close in its feeling to the original (be careful though theres a lot of modern publishings of it that abridge it)

hapgood (1887) is another slightly later 19th century translation and it has a few weird mistranslations but overall its pretty good and also easily accessible bc its on project gutenberg (i enjoy it bc i’ve read the most of it and like how she phrases certain things in some of my favorite quotes, i should read more wilbour though bc its been a while)

wraxall (1862) i haven’t read much personally and its not one of the more famous translations but i actually had this topic brought up today bc a friend got an 1888 copy that was and unabridged version of wraxall?? which is interesting bc wraxall translated it abridged so its mostly wraxall plus another translator named blamire for the omitted parts? and also online sometimes unabridged wraxall takes from wilbour or hapgood. i can’t say much for it but from small parts i’ve read its ok but not my favorite although today in this conversation i met some people whove only read it and love it???

rose (2007) idk much about bc i haven’t read much beyond excerpts, hers is a more modern translation known for using less literal and more flowery language, people criticize it for being modern but in a way that seems more awkward than understandable, okay but not my fave from what i’ve seen

fahnestock and mcafee (1987) is probably a good compromise if you’re not sure where you fall on the literal vs poetic or the older language vs modernized debate because its largely based on wilbour but modernizes language to make things more clear for modern readers

donougher (2013) is super interesting, i want to read more of it and i like it from what i’ve read, she very much went in with the intent to modernize the language which of course isn’t in everyones taste but she’s the first translator to ever try to translate the title in english, translating it as “the wretched”

bonus for translations i highly doubt you’ll encounter

theres a translation that someone did as a serial during the civil war and it made les mis really popular among confederate soldiers because to quote wikipedia “The Editor's Preface announces its intention of correcting errors in Wilbour's translation. It said that some passages "exclusively intended for the French readers of the book" were being omitted, as well as "[a] few scattered sentences reflecting on slavery" because "the absence of a few antislavery paragraphs will hardly be complained of by Southern readers." Because of paper shortages in wartime, the passages omitted became longer with each successive volume.“

m jules gray - i dont even really ever hear anyone talk about this translation but for some reason i don’t remember how i own a pdf of it??? haven’t read it though, think its from like 1895??

william walton and then henry l williams both from 1890s i know like nothing about and never have seen anywhere but apparently theyre bad

other notes to keep in mind

theres other small differences like in the original publishing hugo censored place names (this was common in 19th century literature in part to make it seem like things actually happened and you were giving anonymity and in part to make it ambiguous/relatable) and wilbour retains that while FMA uses the full place names hugo added in a later versio. i forget about other versions

another difference is if they translate quotations from french songs or not, i like how FMA does this because they keep the french but translate it into english in footnotes so you dont lose anything

especially with older translations theres more recent publishings of a lot of them that can be hard to recognize have been abridged

i don’t like any of the ways theyve abridged things its long regardless just read the whole thing

heres a comparison someone made of the introduction chapter for les amis de l’abc (the revolutionary group) with some of the main translations if you wanna check it out!! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aZ5P22fZPM6LnaXQ5S5TN4-ZDfAyX1PFKbYXvzYcTns/edit?usp=sharing

#cpost #replies #lm blogging #dirtmound #les miserables #ok to rb

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eyedelater · 7 years

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chapter 100.11 translation notes and other notes

i’ll mark translation notes with a * at the start of the note so you can read just those if you want. also these notes are pretty rambling jsyk

*i was torn as to whether to continue the "translate 'nii-san' as 'brother'" tradition set forth by the prior scanlator or to continue my own habit of littering the text with "nii-san"s left and right to reflect the fact that ritsu doesn't really ever use actual second-person pronouns when addressing his brother, but rather sticks to referring to him as "nii-san" even to his face. because of course the "brother" option would make for a more immersive english language reading experience, you know. but i guess as just an editorial choice, i've decided to stick with the somewhat incongruous combination of having ritsu call mob "nii-san" and keeping honorifics attached to names but translating "shishou" as "master." except for that one omake where i needed it for the joke. well, if i were going for an archival-quality translation, i would probably change some things, but this is fine for now

so it's only the wrapping of the bouquet that's been damaged over the course of this whole ordeal... he's been keeping a perfect barrier on the flowers themselves... ;_;

ritsu is killing me here, and yet in retrospect his actions are the option that makes the most narrative sense. like, if he had instead straight-up tried to challenge ???% and aggressively attempt to stop it, that might move the plot along quickly, but it would neglect all the character building we see here. if he had addressed ???% as Not his brother, with a colder and less self-endangering attitude, mob wouldn't be so emotionally affected by ritsu's speech (and it's clear that mob being emotionally affected is going to make a big difference in whatever happens next, since we're shown his percentage meter seven (7) times in this chapter). but this sweet, understanding, brotherly speech that strongly echoes mob's anipeko speech... accepting ???% as one more nii-san in his life, erroneously or not... and showing that ritsu has been paying this much attention to his brother's well-being, and that he noticed how much mob's been holding himself back... this pure-hearted desire to just Help mob with his inner torment, completely lacking the fear of his brother that plagued him for years.... ritsu's so good TToTT

*when ritsu says "the truth is... i wanted you to talk it out with me," i wasn't entirely sure whether that meant something like "i was the one who wanted to come to you for advice," or if it was like "i really did just want you to open up to me so i could help." i've settled on the latter, given the context of the lines that follow it, but yeah, the grammar of the sentence still confuses me just a little. (the raw sentence is like "hontou ha... nii-san ni soudan ni notte hoshikatta" [can't be bothered to go type that in kanji and kana] and the "soudan ni noru" part translates more literally to, like, "to counsel" or "to take part in a consultation" and i spent a long time puzzling over whether that meant ritsu wanted his brother to consult with him [i.e. mob is still the one whose problems will be discussed and solved during their consultation] or whether ritsu was the one who wanted to consult with his brother [i.e. talk to his brother about his own problems]. like, i was having a hard time grasping whether the verb was transitive or intransitive or what.) either way i left the translation intentionally somewhat vague (in that "talking it out" doesn't indicate whether "it" refers to mob's worries or ritsu's worries) to account for this slight uncertainty... i hope that doesn't make it more confusing to read...

also i don’t quite understand the difference in connotation between “hontou ha” and “jitsu ha” so i translated the former in the same way i’ve translated the latter in the past... which bristles me a little.

also i can’t decide whether to transliterate the syllable pronounced as “wa” but written as “ha” as “wa” or “ha”

two things i think i can say concretely:

mob's emotional percentage meter operates separately from ???% (despite the nomenclature i've decided to use for that latter entity)

[hunter x hunter warning] ritsu's interpretation of the relationship between mob and ???% is like, an alluka/nanika thing. like, killua had to recognize that nanika is his sister too, a bonus sister within his usual sister, and that's pretty much what ritsu has recognized here, seeing ???% as a bonus brother within his usual brother... erroneous as that conclusion may or may not be.

*the lid analogy is translated pretty much literally even though i think it sounds kinda lame. there’s just nothing badass about lids. however, when ritsu says that This nii-san is "lifting the lid and rearing his head," what he literally says is "opening the lid and coming out," which as a literal translation struck me as sounding criminally lame... so i gave it the old razzle dazzle... just giving y’all full transparency here.

*i was conflicted about possibly putting a sound effect footnote below the last panel of the chapter, because before i learned any japanese i remember being very upset about a certain sound effect in a certain chapter of a certain manga that i couldn't read to interpret what exactly was happening in that scene, which was a cliffhanger and thus especially wanting my desperate interpretation. so now i try especially to annotate any sound effects that might be instrumental in helping the reader understand cliffhanger-type scenes. but in this case, idk, it wasn't too much of a cliffhanger, plus it's a syllable that's hard for me to transliterate hyper-accurately like i like to... but anyway i Am making a translation note of it, if not a marginal footnote in the chapter itself, to note that the sound effect in the last panel of chapter 100.11 is "pi;!" like, the "pi" in "pizza" but shortened and staccato as though interrupted by a glottal stop. yeah. hard to transliterate. so that "pi" sound effect is probably shortened from "pika" which is the sound effect for a flash, which makes sense because there's a flash in that panel. that brings us to the other reason i didn't annotate that sound effect in the chapter, which is that this sound effect isn't especially easy to interpret. it doesn't really give us any good hints as to what is happening to make that sound. really it seems to just be the sound ("sound") of an abrupt flash, in a panel that shows an abrupt flash. so it doesn't give us much new information, but i wanted to clarify what information it does give us, i guess. (the sound effects in the penultimate panel are just “gi gi” which are jaw-clenched struggle noises as mob... struggles. such non-instrumental sound effects are the ones i don’t feel bad not annotating.)

i say [sound (”sound”) of an abrupt flash] because "pika” is not the kind of sound effect that’s meant to illustrate a literal sound. like, you and i know that a flash of light doesn’t sound like “pika.” it doesn’t sound like anything. it’s just light. but there’s just some japanese sound effects that are like that, describing a phenomenon or mood that doesn’t actually make a sound. i find such onomatopoeia/ideophones to be useful and intriguing. here. also, note that i could be mistaken in my interpretation and the “pi” in that panel could be representing an actual sound (like a beep or something) that just happens to coincide with a flash.

NOW, as for the accuracy of ritsu’s interpretation of mob’s situation with ???%... i’ll address that in more detail in a separate post. but i do think that it makes sense to put more stock in mob’s declaration that “this isn’t me” than in ritsu’s interpretation from the outside looking in. i’ll also note that ritsu’s interpretation doesn’t align perfectly with my main ???% hypothesis (since my main hypothesis doesn’t really describe an alluka/nanika situation). but that doesn’t mean i’m discounting ritsu’s interpretation right off the bat, nor do i plan to stick with my hypothesis irrespective of canon developments.

BUT WHETHER OR NOT I AGREE WITH HIS INTERPRETATION OF THE MOB + ???% SITUATION, I CAN FIRMLY DISAGREE WITH HIS DECISION TO TRY TO CONFISCATE THE BOUQUET

#mob psycho 100 spoilers #mp100 spoilers #MOB BLOG MOB LOG

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neytinintransit · 7 years

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the o.g. six-two-six (tbc.)

“gonna be a short one because not n’uff time and nothing too profound happened”

- Me

---

I have a confession. During my travels, I really did not have n’uff time to write out these long-winded rambles about the shit I was doing everyday. Instead of cooping myself up in some cafe or room for 2 hours a trip to cook up some moody soul-talk (taipeing in taipei amirite), I chose to stack up on experiences. Most these words you’re reading were spun from the tips of my fingers in sunny California, but I did write little footnotes to capture the important parts. I knew I wouldn’t be able to rely on my memory bank to accurately share my experiences- Eric and I killed of too many of our braincells for that type of work.

That quote up top is word-for-word all I had down for Taipei, and originally, that’s what this post was going to be about. Just some hyped-up, elongated Instagram post with not-so-clever captions. Four weeks out and looking back, I think I want to steer the post in a slightly different direction. Instead, I wanted to focus on this concept of brotherhood. I do have a brother that I care for and love very much, but this is for another type of brotha. That’s right, Eric, this one’s for you- think of it as some amped-up, bromantic version of the Adventures of Erthan Slohng. You know that thing where you start syncing up with someone if you spend too much time with them? Well that happened to us a lot, but I’ll save that for later.

After landing in Taiwan, I managed to use the remnants of my broken Chinese to get us to our Airbnb. Surprisingly, the place we booked in Taiwan ended up being the nicest place we stayed at throughout our entire trip. Skipping over the fact that I’m wearing a tank-top hoodie and wiping my sweat with my shirt, you’ll notice the wide, spacious bedroom we had. Not pictured but also a positive addition to the dopeness of the location was the living room, kitchen, and in-house washer-dryer.

Luckily, we landed with plans set to meet up with some friends that were working in Taipei for the summer. Before that, though, Eric and I decided to put a little rocking to the large bed we were blessed with. You guessed it: intense, hardcore ab workouts. After sharing my summer goals with Eric, he pulled out this little ab-workout app and set it to max-difficulty. That was probably the first and last time we worked out that entire trip, but I promise you I felt it in my core long enough to justify all the food we ate in the following weeks.

To negate the whole workout, we had our friends take us out to grab some bomb munchies at the night markets nearby. Luckily, the spot we booked out was in the Zhongshan district, which was pretty central and close to Taipei 101. In a few minutes, I was able to down a solid dinner and some more. Unfortunately, my phone was dying so I couldn’t take too many pictures, but my man Eric here was able to capture this little gem.

It’s a sausage wrapped in another sausage. Like a turducken, but sausage style. Of all things, leave it up to Eric to pick out something like this. No lie, that shit was dank. Looking at that monstrosity of a hotdog makes me crave one right now. Among other things, we had some good egg tart (蛋挞), stinky tofu (臭豆腐), and 驴肉饭 (sorry idk the english translation but it’s some braised pork over rice thing that I love). We then skipped on home and food coma’d shortly after.

Besides being a place where the number one attraction revolves around eating everything (in)edible, Taiwan is apparently also known for its sulfuric hot springs scattered throughout the mountains. As per recommendation of the (now) homie James Chen, Eric and I made a trip up to Xinbeitou (新北投), where a majority of the major communal hot springs are located. Even though we weren’t far into our trip, travel took a lot out of us, and some communal bathing in a 100°F tub of relaxation did not sound like something to pass up on (though I was reluctant to make a public display of the disaster of a belly I grew over the trip). Looking back, we probably could’ve used a hot spring treatment or two at all of our destinations.

As you can see from the not-so-inconspicuous bead of sweat on Eric’s forehead, these springs were hot. You can see the steam, and the place was littered with large, red “DO NOT FALL” signs. On top of that, the whole place smelled of sulfur, since sulfur is the source of the spring’s healing factors. Just in case you didn’t know, sulfur is also what makes your farts smell bad.

Since Xinbeitou is a spot where both tourists and locals go to bathe and relax, the whole area is modeled as a sort of exhibit about the history of hot springs and how they this and that and that and this and ye. Eric and I probably fall into the bucket of basic tourists that travel for the gram and don’t really dig deep into the culture of each place because we’re only there for a few days; but hey, at least we’re in that bucket together. And we do try, sometimes. After exploring whatever there was to explore, we set a goal to find a hot spring to hop into. Unfortunately, we managed to time our trip during some Taiwanese holiday, so most of the hot springs were closed. We walked past a few of the ones we read about that had good reviews, but those were the ones you had to go in with a birthday suit. Luckily, we stumbled across Millennium Hot Springs on the way back. Even though we prepared (for once!) and wore swim trunks, they still made us purchase speedos for the hot springs. It’s probably how they make all their money, since the entrance fee was pretty cheap. I was pretty reluctant at first, but we reasoned out the purchase as a little souvenir, which means that I now own a much-too-tight, way-too-small speedo that I hopefully won’t ever have a reason to wear again. Before we went in, Eric snapped this photo of me in the little dojo/museum/gallery section of the hot spring:

To be honest, I thought it was a pretty shitty photo, but Eric wouldn’t stop raving about how “badass I looked in my dojo,” so I’m putting it here in his honor. I got you broseff.

As expected, the majority of the population was made up of older, retired locals who probably came here to relax and pass time. And to our surprise, the community was very kind and trustworthy. When we went in, one of the old men told us that it was fine to leave all of our belongings in one of the open cubbies, and then encouraged us to hurry into the hot springs before we ran out of time. You’d expect a few naive tourists to be easy targets in a highly touristed spot with plenty of locals, and to be honest, I was extremely skeptical. But like the idiots we are, we left ALLLLLL our shit there. I mean, we still kept an eye on it while we were in the springs, but it was still all our shit. And when we got out, it was still there. The old man said he had been watching over it, and he was glad we were able to enjoy our time there.

Rewinding it back to the important part, sitting in that spring was really something else. You’d think that you’d feel just as nice if you cranked up the hot water in a bathtub and slipped in, but trust me- there’s something intangible about the sense of comfort and warmth you get from the hot springs. Man, if only I had my camera out to snap a few photos of Eric’s face when he was relaxing in the water. It’s a different level in relaxation. In fact, there were exactly three levels, increasing in temperature the further up you went. I think the top pool hit around 104°F, which apparently isn’t even that hot to the locals. You’re supposed to spend a little bit of time in the previous spring before moving up to get your body acclimated to the temperature, but I legit saw some people hop right in. They also had a cold pool for people who wanted to bring their body temperature back to a more stable state. Eric and I loved hopping between the hot and cold springs. It’s sort of like going between the jacuzzi and pool back in the day when we had those pool parties.

Part-way through our bath, it started raining. The contrast between the hot spring water and the cool rain also felt unreal. It was like taking that first bite into that perfect pizookie you ordered at BJs, fresh out of the oven. Anyway, both the rain and the fact that Millennium was closing was a clear sign for us to pack our bags (which were still there!!!) and leave.

If you know me well-enough, meaning somewhere in between the stranger and the best friend, you’ll know that I love large bodies of water. Even though it was raining, Eric and I decided to move from one pool to another, slightly bigger pool. We headed up to Tamsui, a coastal region of Taipei with a pretty massive boardwalk and a number of small shops and street vendors nearby. The whole place was mad cute, and the views were nice.

You can’t really see it, but the ocean was even more beautiful in the rain. There’s something about large bodies of water that place me in a sort of meditative state. And while I was off, deep in thought about whether or not I should trust the cuttlefish vendor selling fried snacks on the sidewalk, Eric was doing this:

Also, doesn’t he look kind of weird here:

Cuttlefish was a little sketch, but nonetheless, I purchased and devoured a generous amount only to regret it a few hours later. Since we had our fair share of snacking and exploration, we figured that the next logical move was obviously to hit up another night market and eat some more. And that’s exactly what we did.

We went to the Shihlin district, which supposedly housed one of the bigger night markets in Taipei. A few eventful things happened that night: Eric got another one of those sausage things, I had so many egg tarts that I lost count, and Eric tried his first durian that was way over-priced and totally not worth it. But it was still low-key worth it, since I got him to understand a bit more of what I grew up with. Here’s my pug-ass face biting into the $10 dolla piece of gold:

After eating our fill, our better judgment took us to this hotpot joint. The line was pretty long, but the food was mad cheap. It was like Boiling Point, but legit in all the ways Boiling Point wasn’t. If you can ignore Eric’s massive swol and focus on the pot, you’ll know what I mean:

And with that, we finally decided we were at our limit and headed home for the night. Here’s Eric regretting his decisions:

I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but when we were in Japan, I met Eric’s friends Lucy and Yi who also happened to be on a post-grad Asia trip. After leaving Japan, they were both signed up for this teaching program in Taiwan, and their stay in Taipei happened to overlap with ours. Surprisingly, one of my friends from home was also at the same program. One thing I’ve learned from traveling through the past few years is that circles do run incredibly small. There was even a time in Barcelona where I ran into a few high school friends in the middle of the beach. If you’ve ever been to a crowded beach in Barcelona during the summer, you’ll understand how crazy that is.

Anyway, Eric and I couldn’t really pass up on so many familiar faces, so we made sure to slot them into our plans. I forgot the name of the school, but the campus was pretty spacious and scenic. Lucy and Yi seemed happy, but my friend mentioned that she felt like a bit of a prisoner there. I was really worried for her, but I was glad to find out later that the rest of the program went pretty well. Partway through my conversation with her, one of her roommates urged us to climb up to the rooftop with her. And you know how I am with rooftops.

Needless to say, the view was breath-taking. After talking a bit more, we said our goodbyes and headed off on our way.

Taiwan summer-time heat is hot. Being the smart travelers we are, Eric and I completely disregarded this fact and decided to walk to the nearest subway stop even though it was over half an hour away. I remember moments I genuinely believed that we wouldn’t make it. It reminded me a bit of the time where Eric and I went on the “Bridge to Nowhere” hike in California. Shit was rough.

In case you were wondering, we did make it. And of course, what came next was a necessity for anybody who steps foot in Taipei: some BOMBASS 鼎泰丰 (Ding Tai Feng) from its hometown. For those of you who don’t know, Ding Tai Feng is a relatively famous restaurant that originated in Taiwan, and they’re known for soup dumplings:

We ordered about six or seven orders of the soup dumps and some beef noods soup before topping it all off with some milk tea from 春水堂, the O.G. creator of boba itself. Here’s a poorly shot photo of the well made drank:

In Taiwan, you’re not allowed to bring opened drinks or food onto public transportation. Since Eric and I clearly prioritized our boba above all else, we decided to do some quick shopping in the area before moving onto our next destination. Staying true to the theme of this post, I decided to purchase a Mickey shirt from Uniqlo to match Eric’s current outfit. All cringe and bromance aside, it was a good thing I purchased a second shirt. What came next was an hour-long, humid, summer-heated hike up Elephant mountain, and anyone who knows me knows how much I sweat.

Out of everything we did in Asia, hiking always felt incredibly rewarding. It was more than the panoramic view you got once you hit the top (which by no means was anything short of amazing). Even though it was definitely unsanitary, we played with a number of stray dogs that, like all dogs, seemed to long for human interaction (and food). We joked about how we’d probably end up as cicada food every time these invisible bugs filled the otherwise rigid silence of the forest with the sharp, deafening sounds of their hiss. And, when we had a moment to breathe, we spoke about how this would be the last time in a while that we’d be able to take a trip like this. We were living without obligation, free to go wherever and do whatever we wanted. Free-spirited. I think that’s what they call it.

For me, that feeling was so wonderfully liberating, and it is one that will always remain embedded in the person I am. Nowadays, whenever Eric and I catch up, the nine-to-five (or in my case, eleven-to-seven) life rarely ever carries any excitement, but we always light up when we talk about our next adventure. If I ever do pack up my bags and wander somewhere, you best bet Eric’s the first person I’m taking along with me.

After wrapping up our photoshoot at the peak, we made our way over to Taipei 101. There, we met up with Michelle Yeh for dinner before going out for the night. One thing I learned from traveling in college is that it’s crazy how international my classmates were. From Europe to Asia, I was pretty much always able to find a friend in the city I was in. I wonder if that statement still holds true, or if the bulk of them are, like me, off in SF/NYC working their shiny new office jobs.

After dinner, we met up with James and Co. for a night out. The rest of the night wasn’t too eventful- just kind of weird. Somehow, Eric knew a promoter that was able to get us into Omni, one of the most popular clubs in Taipei which apparently doubled as a church on Sundays. Yep- after a Saturday night of drinking and dancing, the club kicks everyone out, cleans up, and opens the doors for Jesus. It was probably a combination of crab girl (lol), the crowd we were with, and that particular night we were out, but Omni was mad OK. It was our last night in Taiwan, though, so we tried to make the best of it and stayed out until the club was practically empty.

There were many things Eric and I overlooked when planning this trip. One of these many things included the discrepancy between checkout and flight times. For Taiwan, we were intelligent enough to book an Airbnb with an early checkout time and a flight that departed at night. That left a full day of crawling and walking around the city with our fifty-pound bags.

Welcome to suitcase hell*. If you look closely at our faces, you can tell that we’re absolutely ravaged. I don’t know if I made it clear before, but summer in Taiwan (and most of Asia) is hot. Add about half your body weight, a list of errands that took us all over Taipei, and a predisposition to sweating profusely, and you’ve got yourself a pretty rough day.

The first leg of our trial had us trek back up to the international school. Long story short, I had to drop off a sim card for Brenda before leaving because she felt a bit trapped and had no consistent way of contacting the outside world. Next, we had to trip down to the southern of Taipei to return this metrocard that I borrowed from James. Now that I’m writing all this out, I guess a good number of these errands were because of me. Whoops.

Though painful, we did have some pretty interesting experiences while running around city. On the way up to Brenda, we somehow ended up in this abandoned underground mall. In these wide-open basements, there were several dance teams rehearsing and training- it looked like a scene out of some movie. I feel like if I ever lived in Taiwan, I would definitely find some way to get involved in this scene. After making all that distance with weight on our backs, we were starving. Luckily, we stumbled upon the most famous 卤肉饭 joint in the city and ended up eating three large bowls each. Finally, we accidentally stumbled upon this gem right here:

You know that thing about how you start syncing up with someone if you’re around them too often? Well if you hadn’t already noticed, Eric and I are once again matching, but this time it was unintentional. We definitely experienced turbulence, but the trip would not have been nearly as fun and fulfilling without him (and all the stupid shit we laughed at). The memories I have from this trip will probably be some of the happiest of my life, and I’m glad I was able to share it with him.

(tbt to high school).

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past few months of “adulthood,” it’s that making and maintaining close relationships becomes much more difficult as you age. Even though we’re living pretty different lives in different cities across the country, I’m still able consider Eric as one of my closest friends, and I’m grateful for that.

* We later discovered that the host would have been fine with us leaving our bags at the place, but we were already in too deep to turn back.

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