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In the beginning it was just a smell 
a smell i could not quite make sense of
a smell that the city was, a smell that the people in it were

in the beginning it was just a smell
a smell that dragged swarms of people of their homes
onto the streets, into the trains, into the strangers’ eyes and their uncharted territories 

slowly i realised 
all cities are, first, smells to the outsiders 
and Tainan was smell sound taste touch to me

there were moments when i felt
this city is just people, so many of them; how beautiful 
that i do not know any of them, yet i know them all

sometimes i would think if i emptied the city of all these countless faces 
and bodies jostling with each other, what would remain of the city? would it still beat if i put my ears into the hearts of the depeopled Shennong Street
at the dead of night?

i came to Taiwan for the same reason
that a Vietnamese, an Indonesian, or an American comes for,
to chase my dreams, to become more of me,

instead I became it

it wasn’t as easy and quick as they make it out to be; 
it took time, for love has its own mysterious ways 

i started to embrace Taiwan and its culture
huge numbers of scooters and cars
Everyone follows the traffic rules 
wait patiently for the green signals
one in Tainan city never feels pity
city buses and t-bikes are the best friends of a wanderer in the city
people are always helpful,
they adore you as they adore ‘hello kitty’;

small parks almost at every half a kilometer
elderly people like Mr. and Mrs. Wang use them for exercise
sometimes the parks provide sweet beds to the homeless;
i often use the underground passage of the Tainan train station
i look at the people sleeping there
they have made their small worlds in the underpass
they eat, they sleep, they chat with their neighbours
people look quite strange and funny without boundaries around them

their small worlds haven’t yet known the ways of the boundaries, the frontiers; these people are happy in heavy rains and in extreme cold, are they happy?
     Tainan has a home for everyone, i guess

when I feel bored, i go to the sea
and bathe in the sounds of its waves lapping against the shores
sunset-platform lets you enjoy the majestic sunset and calming breeze born of the boundless deep

_____to be continue in part-II
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