Brass Monkey, that funky monkey

There is a web forum focused on ex-pat living in Taiwan called Forumosa, I have been reading it extensively for the past 8 months or so, ever since I started thinking about coming to Taiwan, so perhaps even longer. Within the postings you can find answers to everything and people are really quick to help answer your questions, as long as they haven't already been asked a bunch of times and you are too lazy to use the search function. Pretty much like any other forum.

Through the forum the moderator announced that there would be a happy hour meetup of the "Forumosans" (as they call themselves) at the Brass Monkey, which happens to be on the MRT line which runs past my building, well, withing walking distance of my building, as long as you can walk far. So I decided to be the new, friendly Mike instead of the old, Connecticut Mike and show up, even though I wouldn't know a soul. There is something a little freaky about the whole thing, OK, a lot freaky about meeting "virtual" people in person but I think that is the wave of the social future, weaving online interactions with personal interactions, much like my meetup last week with the blog readers.

I get the sense that there is a network of local bars and ex-pat bars, the latter of which the Brass Monkey falls into, can't you tell by the name? I showed up and it was a near ghost town. I met the manager of the bar, Matt, who was from Boston and had a good chat about the place and how he ended up in Taiwan. Thats the ubiquitous first topic that always comes up, but it is very interesting to hear of the different paths that people took to get here.  There were a handful of "Forumosans" there. In walking up and introducing myself I felt kinda like Dorfman in Animal House when he says, "Excuse me, sir, is this the Delta House?" While there were no Blutos there, at least not on this night, I did feel like it was a "Sure, come on in..." welcome.

It was interesting to meet people with differing backgrounds sharing a strong common thread. I was surprised that it wasn't just teachers, but also people in publishing, restaurants, and software industries. Time blew by quickly and I had to rush out so as to not miss the last train home at midnight. If you live in Taipei and read Forumosa, you should come out to  gathering. One other surprising thing, most people I met had been in Taipei for years, some 15-20 years. I thought it would be more of a transient community. So there must be a lot of lurkers at Forumosa that haven't been out to an event. Come on out!