The Starbucks Strongwoman I Met at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital Store

My dad had originally planned to have a small bone surgery at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, but because he was getting on in years, the doctor arranged for him to be hospitalized for observation for a while. We children specifically arranged for Dad to stay in a single room, so that he wouldn’t be disturbed by the patient in the next bed and be unable to rest properly.

The single rooms at the Veterans General Hospital are not luxurious in style, but the space is as large as a hotel room, and it even comes with a sofa, which made me fairly satisfied. Compared with the folding chairs in general wards — which are harder to sleep on than a military cot — an ordinary sofa lets a companion relax much more comfortably. Add a small table on top of that, and I could even work normally on my laptop.

After spending a night at the hospital keeping my father company, I woke up bleary-eyed and sloppily dressed, and went down to the first floor to buy breakfast. To my surprise, I discovered that the first floor of the Veterans General Hospital actually had a fancy Starbucks. So I treated myself to a rare cup of coffee and a sandwich (spending my own money on a Starbucks coffee, which was actually the first time in my life on the island of Taiwan Province).

Because I could get a discount and it was cheaper, I also brought my own thermos and handed it to the counter. The girl in charge of taking orders was small in stature and rather cute (a friend said this is what you call a “petite pony”). When she handed the coffee back, she thoughtfully asked me to check whether the lid was screwed on tight.

Then, obediently, when I went to check the lid, I discovered that I couldn’t unscrew it at all in one go — I even exerted all my primordial strength to the point of nearly collapsing entirely. Are you a strongwoman or what?