Recently I discovered a magical place that I can’t believe I have remained oblivious to for over 8 months.  A few nights ago, we ran into some foreigners at a nearby night market who told us they had just come out of ‘MTV.’  Now feeling quite confident in my Taiwanese extracurricular activities and having lived here for almost a year and never hearing MTV except in reference to the TV channel, I thought surely these poor foreigners were confused and meant KTV (karaoke).  But no…I was the ‘poor foreigner’ because there exists in Taiwan this phenomenon called ‘MTV’= movie television.  Of course I was intrigued, so the next weekend my friends and I packed a bag of snacks and some beer and headed off to the HUGE neon lights (still can’t believe I remained blind to that one) that read ‘MTV’.  

We go in the bottom floor which reveals nothing but a bunch of movie posters. So we head to the elevator where there is no indication of which floor we should aim for.  So to be safe, and fairly logical, we go for the second floor.  Well this elevator seemed to have a mind of its own, so it took us to the 3rd floor instead.  We stepped into a Blockbuster-type room with shelves and shelves of movies that you could rent..from old to new releases.  After trying to decide what movie to watch (which is probably the single hardest task to complete with a group of people) and finally picking Inside Man (great film, by the way) we were guided to our own private viewing room.  The room was basically one large couch with lots and lots of pillows.  The film was then projected onto a fairly large screen and then we got to lounge and snack and talk and drink until the movie ended.  It was awesome!  I heard MTV makes a pretty good alternative to a hotel room…just rent The 10 Commandments twice and you’re set for the night! (and of course it is open 24 hours).  So if you ever find yourself stumbling drunk in Taiwan, and don’t know where to go and can’t afford a cab home or a hotel room…just head towards the neon lights, grab another beer, and let the dulcet tones of Moses drift you to sleep.