I’m sure I have the capacity to fall in love…

…with a voice…

…with a place…

…with a smell…

When I first stumpled upon 藝境空間 X  虎咖啡, I thought it was an art studio of some sort…

And since I am a huge clutz in Taiwan (almost got hit by a scooter, always stumple riding my bike, and tripped on a rock the other day), I was a tad afraid to approach such a beautiful building…

Like what if I broke this?

…or this…

…or this…

Stumbling in Taiwan seems to be my calling: I stumble over my words and my own feet as a traverse this town.

But then…as I cautiously and cusiously approached this cafe — I saw this sign. I had been craving an American Style Waffle with big o’ globs of syrup and butter. And because I saw the words 鬆餅 — song bing — the Chinese for waffle…

… I followed this path like the words of a song…..

…and stepped inside one of the most beautiful coffee shops I have ever seen.

As I made my way in — ni hao-ing, oo-ing and aw-ing — I was handed a scroll:

…which doubled as the menu.

…there were even bigger scrolls hanging from the wall…

I set in spendour after ordering.. (a 焦糖拿鐵 [carmel latte] and 冰淇淋鬆餅 [ice cream waffle]）

And was handed my bill: rolled up in this…

I love how certain places can just wisk you away…

I didn’t break anything physical that day; however, when the owner of the shop approached me, with questions about where I was from and what I was doing in Taiwan, I felt my voice breaking, the structure of the sentences I built collaspsing as I realized I had no more material — no more words — to finishing erecting an idea…

Oh how I despise the phrases Broken Chinese and Broken English…

Yet, it didn’t seem to matter to the owner how I stumbled or how my language “brokedown.” (take that OPI!) She invited me to stay for the concert performance, offered me free wifi via her phone, and when in my nervousness I spaced out and forgot if I had taken my change or not, she asked the barista who had given me my change to check if the till was balanced.

If this place wasn’t already grand enough!

A local artist, who I had assumed was just another patron enjoying a cup of coffee, began setting up show and singing from her heart…

I unfortunately maxed out my phone’s memory capacity, so couldn’t record the singer myself. But you can check out some of the songs I heard her perform live below.

To think: she can create in both English and Chinese.

 Her voice is stunning, isn’t it?

I, unfortuantely, have no talent for singing.

But I love writing.

And I hope one day I can write as beautifully in Chinese as I try to in English…

…but for now I will love a broken thing…