back!
boy do i have a lot to do, Taiwan was really fun, but i have to get my head back in the game again
not much of a post today, just a reminder to myself to pick up the pace
here is my entire tawain trip if you want to read it, im gonna start posting up some of the better pictures on FB of the expo and taiwan
Day 7 6/19
Taiwan!! Said our last goodbyes to shanghai (thank god…) and went to Taiwan. Immediately we could notice differences. The air smelled sweeter, the roads were less packed,the people were more polite. Gosh I love Taiwan. First stop was my grandma’s house where I will be staying for a couple of days. She hasn’t changed a bit! Last time I saw her was in 2006, and she looks exactly the same; man, that means when I grow old I have some pretty good genes in me to keep me lookin’ good
Took my brother to a barber across the alley where we live. He was pretty old-fashioned; scissors weren’t too sharp, used a straight razor etc, did an okay job, but there were so many mosquitoes L I got bitten 5 times without knowing it, and caught a mosquito in the act twice. GG, that’s one thing I don’t like about Taiwan I guess haha.
After a quick breather, and some more food-stuffing from grandma (all grandmas are the same I think), we went to my dad’s college friends house to eat dinner. The cab we took was super cute. The driver was this 70 year old guy who was really nice and talked to us about his life as a taxi driver. He doesn’t drive crazily like the other drivers because in his 50 years as a taxi driver, he’s seen way too many accidents. He can’t afford to play with his life anymore, but once, there was a girl who had to get to the airport in an hour cuz she was studying abroad in Canada, and he rushed her there in 30; what could he do? Education was that important to him. Then he talked about something like in the olden days, people would rush to get places, and every car they passed would be another hundred bucks. Haha the story was really funny, cuz he was talking about shipping pigs and chicken, and since it took so long to deliver, if it was too slow they would lose weight and be less valuable once they got there.
Dinner was nice, my dad’s friend lives probably in the equivalent of a super nice Los Altos Hills house. And in Taiwan, that is pretty damn good. It was nice being treated as an adult/student, and being able to communicate more fluently in Chinese helps a whole lot. I felt really comfortable with my dad’s friends because they are Taiwanese, just like my parents. The culture is so similar that it feels just like home to me, and even the accents sound much more familiar.
Oh yeah, and the girls here are so much cuter than they are in Shanghai. I wanna marry a Taiwanese girl when I grow up, no doubt.
Day 8 6/20/2010
First thing in the morning, my uncle brought over rice rolls (not sure if that is the right translation…). But dude Taiwan food is great, so much better and cheaper than it is in America. After that, he took us out to Yang Ming Mountain, apparently a pretty famous mountain in Taipei. Up there we had a little hot tub rinse with natural spring water. It was pretty nice, in china it was all city life hustle and bustle, what a treat to get to go to the mountains with no sounds of cars, only the sounds of birds and tons of cicadas (hella nasty and big) chirping. The hot tub was nice too, but would’ve been a lot nicer if we went in the winter haha
After that we ate some homegrown restaurant food at a place on the mountain. Man this was good too, all the vegetables had a great taste to them and you could actually taste what the vegetable naturally tastes like. Sigh, so much food
In the afternoon we went to Gu Gong museum, which is like an antique museum probably relatable to the Smithsonian. In there, there were tons of artifacts from hella years ago taken by the Taiwanese people when they were fighting the china communists. My mom said they filled up 4 warships with the best artifacts, like the famous jade cabbage and a rock that looks like a piece of meat. This place was so much better than the expo. I expected the expo to be something like this, with lots of cool things with plenty of descriptions, no waiting in terrible lines and air conditioning. Had I known ahead of time, I would have just petitioned against my dad to just to go Taiwan instead of the expo. The museum had so many cool things and really made me proud to be Chinese; the writing was so amazing, and it inspired me to take up Chinese calligraphy again, not just American words. But im gonna have to beef up my Chinese level a little bit first
Took a quick nap at grandmas house and then off to dinner with my dad’s side of the family. Man, I thought I already knew how many cousins and aunts and uncles I had, but it turns out there are more. And turns out im gonna be uncle to another member of the family soon, as my cousin’s wife is pregnant and due next month! I never met her cuz I didn’t have time to come to Taiwan for the wedding two years ago, but she is really nice and funny. All my relatives are really nice, and im pretty happy that im old enough now to appreciate meeting all of them and talking with them.
Dinner was fucking amazing. All you can hot pot. But this was no regular hot pot. SO many selections, literally everything you want to eat with hot pot, and an all you can eat hagen-daaz ice cream bar. John said that he would eat 9 scoops to nullify the dinner cost. I raised his 9 twice or something and the total came out that I would have to eat 27…he ended up eating 3 and I at 8 scoops and 3 cones…lol, time to diet when I get home. Taiwan girls are so cute…sigh
Day 9 6/21/10
After another delicious meal of fan tuan, we went to chilung/keelung (ill write keelung cuz that’s what I saw on a map). The bus ride was pretty nice, just us four and this other girl. It was a super comfortable bus, similar to a greyhound from one city to another. We went to visit my dad’s older brother’s shrine. Unfortunately my uncle passed away when my dad was in college, so I never got to meet him. He was the second oldest in his family, and passed away cuz back then in Taiwan they never had enough to eat/enough nutrients, so he was pretty sick. He was the first to establish a sort of digital clock radio company in Taiwan, and from what my dad told me; if he were here today we’d prbly have enough for 20+ houses in Taiwan.
It’s been a pretty emotional year, and going back to the shrine with my dad family this time gave me time to reflect a lot. I’ve been there before, but I don’t think I was ever old enough to understand some of the feelings that happen there. It’s been about 34 years since my older uncle passed away, and every couple of years my dad will visit, cry a little, and burn some incense. I’m not usually a person to ask “what if” questions, because I believe what happened already happened and there is nothing we can do about it, we can only move on. But I couldn’t help to think about what life would have been like if I’d known my uncle and the other members of my family that have passed away (like my mom’s dad, who I was too young to remember before he went). I think the thoughts that happened today will stay with me because they are a little personal, but yeah, visiting my uncle gave me time to be pensive.
After that, we went around where my dad grew up and ate some street foods. It was pretty nice. I like Taiwan a lot.
Went to my aunts house (my dad’s older sister) who also lives in keelung, and hung out a little bit; used some precious internet. Then ate dinner at a nice simple restaurant and went back to Taipei on another bus, while all outside it was pouring rain and flashing super lightning and thunderstorms.
Day 10-something
Last couple days have been kinda smushed together, feels more like I am just living in Taiwan instead of visiting which is why it was hard to write independent articles. Went to Tai Chung via the HSR (hella cool btw; but I don’t know if it was the magnetic levitation one). At TaiChung we went to this huge department store that was 3 buildings wide, I think it was called chung yo or something like that. It was really cool, I think America should get department stores like the ones in Asia; good thing it was a school day so that we didn’t have to run into TOo many little kids. We explored a little, saw an arcade and I couldn’t help but go play. (haha I guess there is still some kid in me) I’m hella pro btw, I randomly picked on of the games where you drop a coin and try to get it into a slot and I won the jackpot/bonus within 4-5 tries lol. These asian kids don’t know how to play games…walked around some more, spent a couple hours in there and that was pretty much our day. After the department store we went to a local street market which was fun, saw a lot of cute girls, and I bought a blue chopper hat from one piece. I would later realize that chopper’s hat is actually red L but I got over it and I think the blue will actually be more unique haha. Didn’t do much more than that lol.
Second to last day, more shopping! This time it was just me and my brother hanging out in an underground mall under the subway (Taipei di xia shi). Hella cool! Except our dad told us to go at like 10am, but it actually opened at 11…so we spent an hour getting bitten by mosquitoes and playing super Mario on his DS. When the stores actually opened it was hella cool, there are so many stores, and hella model shops, selling gundams. I guess that is the big thing in asian countries, cuz I didn’t see a single tank/plane kit, only gundams. And hella one piece stuff. My brother did something hella cool, love John for this. We saw a one piece “going merry pirate flag”, so we decided to get it, and then there was only one! And I was like damn, okay you can have it, but he relinquished it to me. So nice! <3 my bro. went home, hung out with grandma, and went to dinner with my dad’s friend. -_- boy can he talk a lot, but he introduced my dad to a big boss of a company for a really good job opportunity, but my dad still has to think about it.
Last day, hanging out with uncle and grandma. I never really hung out with my little uncle, I think from what my mom said there was some stuff that happened, and my grandpa (his dad) passed away 10 or so years ago so he might have been under a lot of stress. But I really like him! I think he just never really found the motivation to work, but he really likes building model airplanes and fly them, which is really cool. It was nice hanging out with him and meet him. I really like the lin side of my family, and this was a nice couple of days meeting my uncle, instead of just knowing that he was my uncle. This whole week he has been working on one, and we flew it with him today. O…m…g…fuck all my stationary models. Im building r/c planes. It was so cool, when he launched his airplane and started to fly it around. Just watching him I felt such a thrill, imagine actually flying something that you built with your own two hands. It was such an amazing experience, im gonna start building r/c planes when I get back to America, screw my stationary planes. But I also have to buckle down with my schoolwork as well. It will be a joint adventure.
1 year ago • Notes