St. Valentine on Speed

For those celebrating Singles Awareness Day on February 14th, there was another option in Taiwan. Hosted by our lantern festival friends at Language Cafe and by yours truly at Reach to Teach, there was an evening of speed dating. Initially against the idea, I ended up finding myself in that long line of eligible bachelors chatting away the hours with an equally long line of young maidens. I found myself in this predicament when language cafe called me in a panic a few days before the event telling me they didn't have enough foreign guys coming. I dialed all the single men on my cell phone and between a friend of mine and I, we rounded up all the necessary numbers, but still short one. Without any real viable options, I told them I would be happy to join the games. Although I was lying, I was also fooling myself- turns out it was a lot of fun!

The speed dating event was at a local 60s bar. Naturally, the men gravitated towards the other guys as the women were mostly too frightened to chat it up with the gents. The whole event was just like a Junior High School dance- awkward and promising, yet ultimately leading no where.


The event started with all the guests taking their seats. Then, to mix things up, all the men were instructed to move two chairs to their left and turn on their charisma! As I looked across at my first date, I noticed something odd. There was something about her that wasn't present about all the other women. Or should I say, something was lacking about her. Lacking so much that she wasn't there at all- my first date was late and so I was stuck staring at a Bob Marley poster. I think I might be the only guy in history to have me "speed date" stand me up!

But five minutes passed and I moved onto my next (first) conversation. The conversation took place 50/50 in Chinese and English. I found it great practice as I got to ask the same questions in Chinese over and over again- "What do you do?" "What do you like to do for fun?" "Do you like the right side of the left side of the bed?" Really standard first date items! As my confidence built up, I became more adventurous in my Chinese conversation. In fact, I even conducted three or four five minutes dates ENTIRELY in Chinese. That was a solid victory.


At the end, we had to choose our top three picks of the evening and if there were matches, they would hook the folks up. Of the 20 couples or so, there were 9 matches and I was one of them. I gave my date a present (a box of Aunt Stella Valentine cookies) and she gave me a Lilo and Stitch tape measure (apparently for the sexual innuendo...). The night finished off with an all you can drink open bar and some dancing at a night club.

From your Taipei hustler with 20 dates in one night kind of guy, Michael.