It was Saturday, June 11th. The night was still young and me and my friends had decided to partake in what Taichung’s nightlife had to offer. This weekend: clubbing. The destination: 18TC. Arriving in separate Ubers we all unpacked out of the cars getting in line for what seems to be a bustling night club. Intimidated by the two checkpoints to get in we made sure we had our papers in order: passport, IDs, vaccinations cards, all of the sort, and left no room to be denied, spoiling our fun and wasting the money spent on Ubers. One by one we get stamped in and are given a drink card redeemable at the first of two bars, a concept foreign to me in regard to my American clubbing knowledge, not that I can legally do so yet, however at this club apparently drinks were free at the first floor and could be purchased on the second floor, the main difference being the strength of the drink. Being a college student, any free opportunity was one to take advantage of, so we all got in line for free fruity flavored drinks and wandered around the club before taking on the dance floor. It was great seeing other American students and international students having fun, singing songs, dancing, and being carefree. The atmosphere was overwhelmingly dominated by us as we were by far the rowdiest group there. The other, I presume to be primarily Taiwanese men, were much more reserved and sitting in group drinking, talking, and observing the club. Dancing with friends and mingling with new faces was fun, but I started to wonder if, since this club was fairly populated, there were other African people here, so I departed from the group looking to mingle with other people, encouraged by the few drinks I’ve had thus far. Walking up to the second floor I noticed a change in music, the DJ up here was playing playlists with more HipHop and R&B music. It was there I met a group traveling together from the Caribbean. I picked on of three guys to talk to, the one who was taller and most attractive, and he also had more to say. He told me a little about himself, how long he was here for what types of places he likes to go, and all of the sort. We bonded over the fact that we were the only group of Black people here, something that we both care much about. Being in other ethnic groups is fine but the Black community no matter where in the diaspora has a special connection that is hard to replace or miss. As the night goes on, I meet two other African American men, both of whom seemed happy to see other people of Afro-descent. Dancing and drinking with this group and my original group made for a really fun night. One of the men, a taller African American from Chicago and here on business, suggested to his other two Taiwanese friends if they wanted to go to another club down the street, “Super House ”, as the club we were just at was closing. Taking this as an opportunity to meet more people in the area I asked if I could tag along. We walk there and are met by an even bigger crowd, primarily made up of Taiwanese people but noticeably a lot more foreigners, and once again, a group of Caribbean people sticking closely together. It’s as if we attract each other, and no matter how many people are in between us we find our way to each other and turn up as if we’ve known each other for a while. We danced as if we were at a more Caribbean event ignoring the fact that the music was more pop culture than we would have liked, and I was able to make a variety of connections and new friends and made sure to get everyone’s social media and Instagram’s before eventually parting ways and going home.
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