Tristan had a belly full of sundry Taiwanese specialty snacks, and there was a strut in her step, as she wandered through a shopping district she hadn’t intended to find. The sheer variety of sports shoes vendors made her forget all about her original plan to hit the beach.

She returned back to Chris’s place with three pairs. If her first day yielded this much, she wondered if she’d buy up so many new clothes and souvenirs that she’d need to lug an extra suitcase back to Canada. She had been looking forward to the sun and tasty food, but hadn’t realized Taiwan was also a shopper’s paradise.

After reading Chris’s instructions about her kooky bedroom, Tristan turned down the bed. She finally unpacked her luggage, making herself at home amidst the new surroundings. After showering, she flopped down on the bed with her iPod to decide what sort of itinerary she could plan for the next few days. Midway through her planning, sleep engulfed her. She slept lightly with the comfort of the ever-present tangeriney scent. Though she never reached a level of deeper sleep, she dozed with a gentle smile on her face. That homey smell made her content, like a mother’s lullaby or a lover’s arms.

Tristan’s friend Tamara took Chris to a local cafe, to begin their afternoon of sightseeing. Chris found Tamara insightful about the city. It was no wonder Tristan had set them up to spend some time together. Though Tamara was straight, she spent a lot of time with Tristan, so knew where to refer Chris when she wanted to visit potentially fun lesbian hotspots. Chris didn’t feel the need to be her usual closeted self while in Canada. For one, she didn’t know anyone here. She also felt comfortable around Tamara, knowing she was very accepting of gay people. This travel experience was also an experiment in trying to be her true self without anticipating judgment.

Tamara made sure Chris had ample touristy things to snap photos of. Chris admitted to being an avid hobby photographer.

“Oh! That’s funny, because so is Tristan!” Tamara divulged. “Well, truthfully, I think she likes posing for pictures more than she likes taking them!”

Chris remembered the photo collection on Tristan’s fridge, and smiled.

Once Chris’s digital camera storage card was full, Tamara brought Chris to a few local stores that would come in handy when Chris would need groceries or other amenities. Their evening ended at a hipster hangout, where most of the staff were openly gay young men, and the patrons were a collection of artists, hippies, writers, and scenesters. One look around caused Chris’s eyes to widen. In broken English, she whispered, “Such a lot cute girls!”

Tamara laughed. Chris had obviously not been to this sort of establishment often.

Chris really wished she had more space on her memory card. She didn’t want to be a creep, but she longed to photograph some of the lovely Canadian girls. Instead, she sipped Canadian beer, and listened to Tamara’s casual banter. She wasn’t too hard on the eyes herself, and Chris eventually asked permission to snap a few portraits. Tamara accepted mostly because Chris was so amusing as a wide-eyed tourist.

Chris flipped through the day’s tourist shots in order to delete a few of the less successful images. Tamara was pleased the photos had turned out so well. Chris really did have a good eye for photography. She even managed to make Tamara more palatable than she usually was in random candid photos.

Having enjoyed their day together, the girls decided they should hang out again some time soon.

As the days went by, the sub-zero Canadian weather seemed more bearable when Chris did enjoyable indoor things. On the rare occasion where she was a bit more daring, she went exploring the town. She even laughed her head off trying to go snowshoeing and tobogganing with Tamara.

Chris really enjoyed the Western custom of coming in from the cold to a steamy cup of hot cocoa with marshmallows. She’d never experienced that in Taiwan. Things were so different here, but she didn’t feel alienated or homesick. She was having too much fun letting loose, having no specific schedule and getting to know herself better by simply...living.

Tristan’s cold hardwood floors were even bearable each morning, as long as Chris kept her slippers on.

Tristan wasn’t feeling homesick either. She had managed to locate a few tasty restaurants, and had so far not needed to use Chris’s kitchen much to cook. She also found a great pedestrian path where she could jog off any extra pounds she may have been packing on. She loved that a short run brought her right to a quiet embankment where she could enjoy the sea air, instead of being in a more cluttered area of the beach.

Something about Taiwan was very comforting. Tristan wondered why her parents had not gone on many family trips to visit such a great country. She felt very at home, despite being a bit of a lost tourist with only basic Chinese reading skills to help get her around. Her spoken Mandarin had a chance to flourish, however, as Tristan got more and more used to dealing with customer service at various stores, banks and restaurants.

With less of a language barrier as time moved forward, Tristan felt at ease for the most part. Taiwan’s humid sea salt air, its sticky afternoons and its mysterious tangerine scent felt like as warm a welcome as she could have ever anticipated.