Monday, January 07, 2008
This Christmas was very busy with parents (both sets of them). I’ve put together a couple slideshows to show the highlights of the last 3 weeks. Just click on the arrow to see the next photo.
Dave’s parents came into town on December 17 and took us to Las Vegas for three nights. We stayed at The Hotel at Mandalay Bay, ate at the Wynn and Bellagio buffets, played slots, visited Red Rock Canyon, and outlet shopped. (8 photos)
A slide show will appear here shortly.
Then on the night before New Year’s Eve, my parents arrived from Baltimore and my brother from San Francisco. We had our traditional gift-opening sitting around the 3-foot tree I had bought from Target, then left for a four-night cruise to Mexico aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. (23 photos)
A slide show will appear here shortly.
The best Christmas present I got was a portable GPS from my dad. I haven’t tried using it yet, but it should get me out of tight spots in downtown or help when I get lost. I think I’m still a little resistant to the whole idea, since I believe in the Thomas Guide.
| Tags: family, memories
Monday, July 09, 2007
In Taiwan, Kaohsiung is the second largest city to Taipei. I might have been there in the summer of 1994 when I went on a Love Boat wannabe camp for 6 weeks which included an island tour at the end, but I don’t remember. It’s on the south end of Taiwan, and since all my relatives live in Taipei, I don’t get down there much. The day we went was really hot and sunny, but also pretty. We took the recently completed Taiwan High Speed Rail, which has stations as big as airport terminals and runs at 208 mph. It cut our travel time from 3 hours to 40 minutes.
Clockwise: (1) one of several factories with painted ducts we saw flying by on the high speed rail; (2) a clock at Zuo Ying, the southernmost high speed rail station; (3) a Taiwanese cement factory; (4) a lifesaver at Chengching Lake in Kaohsiung.
We rented a car and drove to Chengching Lake, a scenic spot with a nine-cornered bridge connecting the two shores. It was nice and breezy on the bridge, and the other side had a landscaped garden and walking paths.
Clockwise: (1) Dave and his mom on the nine-cornered bridge; (2) Dad’s dad climbing the tree house steps; (3) me and Dave on the Taichung high speed rail platform; (4) Dave’s uncle, parents, and me on the other side of Chengching Lake.
Craving air conditioning, we then drove into the city, past an Ikea and Costco, to the largest mall in Asia (for now), Dream Mall:
We ate lunch there and ended up spending almost the rest of the day wandering about its 10 floors. We left for about two hours to see the Ai (“love”) River and the historic British Consulate at Ta Goh, but it was so hot that we returned to Dream Mall for dinner.
The mall was glorious, as you can see – Clockwise: (1) I found myself running toward this giant Pikachu when we passed by the children’s floor; (2) the impossibly cute logo for Mister Donut which had the chewiest yummiest donuts I’ve ever tasted; (3) just one of countless examples of Asian English we’ve seen so far; (4) red bean frappuccino at the ubiquitous Starbucks where one drink costs more than most meals.
I can’t wait to go back!
| Tags: family, travel, taiwaneseness
Sunday, July 08, 2007
As of this morning, we’ve been in Taiwan exactly one week. My Mandarin has improved noticeably, though my tolerance to heat and humidity has not. Yesterday, Dave and I came up to Taipei. That felt more like a homecoming to me than going to Taichung (about 2 hours south by car) and staying at Dave’s old house where I’d never been before. Taipei is where I’d always stay when I came as a kid, and it has an even fonder place in my heart after the summer of ’99 when I interned at the Taipei World Trade Center for 10 weeks and really lived here – as in, took the bus to work, found my own way around with a well-creased street map with no English, attended a church with other ABC’s, and ventured out to nightmarkets on my own. It was thrilling to see the same streets and buildings, especially my parents’ alma mater, National Taiwan University (the “Harvard” of Taiwan).
Yesterday was a whirlwind of seeing my side of the family and family friends, and today will be more of the same. It’s a cramped scheduled with only two days in Taipei, but for me it will be the highlight of this trip. I felt more relaxed around the familiar faces and not being the one under scrutiny (as much, anyway), since this is the first time my aunts, uncles, cousins, and godparents have met Dave. They asked him a lot of questions, naturally, about his family, how he grew up, his education, and current plans. He handled it just fine. The funniest part was during lunch with my parents’ college friends at a Japanese restaurant. One of the women asked Dave and me to tell the story of how we met. I’d never told the story in Mandarin before and I was nervous, but my godmother told me to see it as speaking practice. So, I told them how I liked Dave first after we met in Pathfinder (our college Christian fellowship) because he was goodlooking and Taiwanese and spoke perfect Mandarin and English. I would find excuses to see him and talk to him, like pretending to need help with Chinese or O-Chem homework (well, I wasn’t pretending with O-Chem), or pretending to need to see his roommate for something. (My parents’ college friends thought this was hilarious and bold of me to admit to my dual motives.) After a few months of this, and Dave not realizing at all, one of his obnoxious friends tipped him off and after that he was so embarrassed he wouldn’t talk to me. That was hurtful of course, but I still liked him. Then a couple months after that, an older sister in Christ talked some sense into him and he started acting more normal around me. Then we went ice skating (eliciting some “awwww”‘s) where I linked my arm in his and skated with him, after which he, the worse skater by far, promptly fell and pulled me down on the ice with him. As I was recovering from the shock to my tailbone, Dave would tell me later, he realized he liked me. At this point in the story, Dave corrected me and said he realized he liked me when I took his hand before we fell. (Actually, there wasn’t much of a time difference…)
Then, since I’d been doing all the talking, they put the onus on Dave and asked him what he likes most about me. He said something in Mandarin that best translates as “naivete” or “childlike innocence.” They laughed and said, what about “simple and pure” (another Chinese phrase that has no exact translation)? Dave agreed.
Telling our story made me think, my other Taiwanese relatives have never asked how we started dating or what we like about each other. In fact, a lot of the relationships are somewhat superficial. It’s comfortable and safe not to venture into each others’ emotional wellbeing, but sometimes I sense an unrest and pain beneath the pleasant countenance.
Anyway, on that note, I’m going out for another day in the city!
| Tags: family, travel, taiwaneseness, married life