The rain is not a Seattle rain
Nov 7th, 2007 by Michael Max
The rain of Taipei falls with a gravity that blooms umbrellas. Unlike Seattle, where any humidity is dispersed by precipitation, Taipei rains into an ever present dampness.
After a month on the mainland, Taipei is orderly and clean, polite as a whisper, and comfortable as well worn shoes. I feel my well cultivated mainland vigilance disperse like morning mist in the sun, and relax into as if into a tub of perfectly hot water.
Life becomes easy. The buses to the subways, to the streets thick with my own countless footfalls of the past. I know this place in a way that I know few others.
I’ve returned in part for my own satisfaction of meals that only exist in restaurants on Yong Kang Jie, for tea with friends in familiar quiet corners, for some time with the people who remind me so deeply of the gifts of generosity and kindness.
And, to introduce another foreign doctor of Chinese medicine, Paola Campanelli, to the city that is now her new home, as she begins the journey to medicine via the scenic route of language. There are some debts that can only be repaid by passing along the care and support that were given to me.
There was more to pass on as well. Somehow through the miracles of internet communication I met Gabe Fuentes, an American practitioner that just decided he needed Chinese to really understand medicine. He whisked himself off to Taichung two years ago, and has fully immersed himself not just in language study, but with the local medical schools there as well.
He is an inspiration when I think of westerners that have chosen to open into the medicine through the language. Thanks to him there was a opportunity to lecture for a day at the medical school. It was an opportunity to begin to share with others the work of Dr Huang, and the clinical methods which open up other ways of treating difficult problems.
Dihua street’s herb shops spill their wares onto the sidewalk, in a cascade of color, texture and smell. There are some herbs that are difficult to find in the USA. Herbs that treat asthma, and arthritis. Herbs that clinically can not be done without. They are not available in Seattle, but they can be had on Dihua jie, where they start their journey to the clinic in Seattle with the name of a Taipei street
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And of course, there is tea. The Taiwanese high mountain oolong, the roasted Tie Guan Yin, Dong Feng Mei Ren, Jin Xuan.The flavors that ease the wrap of winter cold wet days.
As ever, leaving Asia is a mixture of sadness and regret. But, the harvest of this last journey, the clinical skills and methods that Dr Huang has so openly shared, I look forward to bringing these into the practice at Yong Kang.
Flying east to until it becomes west has me arriving before I leave Taipei. No wonder jetlag is worse coming back to Seattle.