A little dusty in the homeland

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well, wherever you are. It's certainly been a while.

It's been 20 years in the making. Yes, for the first time in 20 years, the whole fam is in the homeland! The last time we were all here was when my brother graduated from high school.

Some things still haven't changed. Heh.

Anyway, so we left on Friday afternoon (Eastern time) and we got here late on Saturday (Taiwan time). Travel time was 20 hours-ish? But this time I can't complain. My brother had to pre-fly an additional 2 hours from Massachusetts. So he passed the 24 hour travel marker.

This time, instead of taking the 3 or 4 hour bus ride to my parent's house in Taichung, we stayed the night at my cousin's house in Taipei. Which was definitely a nice break. It was good to see my cousin and his wife again - last time I was here was about 2 years ago - Which doesn't seem that long now, but it seems like it as I type.

So where was I? Oh yeah, so we visited with them for a bit, and then it was off to wash the travel filth off and get ready for bed.

Surprisingly enough I was able to fall asleep - I was pretty tired from the travel I guess. I was able to sleep some on the plane, but it wasn't quality sleep.

My brother and I were pretty fortunate - we got a whole row to ourselves for the majority of the trip (DTW to KIX). So we just spread out all of our stuff and were able to relax. On the second leg (his third) from KIX to TPE, the flight was pretty much full so we felt pretty sandwiched in.

Just in case you cared, the moves shown were (with random commentary):

• Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause - Didn't bother. I think I was forced to watch it once before, but didn't really want to see it. I think I slept instead.
• Simpsons Movie - Now this was laugh out loud funny. I watched the Simpsons when I was younger, but haven't recently. Spider pig, spider pig...
• The Ultimate Gift - A surprisingly good, but very very predictable Hollywood movie. It definitely made me think. I never saw the trailer, but I figure you'd be able to derive the whole movie from it.
• Bonus movie: Evan Almighty - I enjoyed this one - it was pretty funny. Steve C is great in it. This one was a surprise because there were only supposed to be 3 movies.

Anyway, so back to the story - Sunday morning, my nephew came and picked us up to go to a computer exhibition. It was more like a cattle herding, chaotic push-fest, where sales people are almost yelling at you and pushing flyers in your face.

Oh yeah, there were electronics there too.

I've never seen so many people at a show before. The majority of the time, you were pushing through hordes of people, ignoring sales people that were trying to sell you stuff.

We were a party of 5, and we had to make sure we all stayed together - Getting lost would not have been very fun.

So for lunch we went to the Taipei 101 building for some noodles. Unfortuantely it was in the middle of the lunchtime rush, so it was a zoo there too.

Except there was less pushing and there was food.

I guess I'm just used to my personal space, and saying "excuse me" or apologizing when you bump into people. Apparently you don't do that here.

So I stopped.

I just need to remember to switch back when I get back home.

So after the madness of the crowds, we went to the cemetery to see where my grandparents and one of my uncles are buried. Now that was kind of an experience in itself - because I'd never been to a Taiwanese cemetery before - so I have no idea if this was common or not.

So picture if you will a side of a hill - and in the hill are I guess what you'd call plots or tombs. It's kind of like stadium style seating, if you will. I dunno, without a picture, it's the best way I can describe it. Although it's not super orderly though - There weren't distinct rows and aisles. Just kind of randomly staggered, I guess. So yes, we had to climb through / over some other plots to get to my grandparent's.

And yes, I did say "excuse me".

We said a prayer for them, did a little housecleaning, and then we were on our way. We all had to do some climbing - so it was kind of dangerous at times. But we made it - And I was glad we did.

So later on that evening, my cousin took us to the National Taiwan University - that is where he teaches. We poked around the campus and took some pictures.

In the evening, we set out on the journey to my parent's house in Taichung. It was supposed to be a 3 hour travel, but ended up being 4 because of rush hour and bus schedule timing.

Man, I miss my own car.

The trip was pretty much a blur to me - I pretty much slept the entire time. So not much to report there.

My parent's place is pretty nice - it's got a nice view of the smoggy skyline. :)

Monday we got up and took it easy in the morning. My parents thought we'd be tired so they let us sleep in.

My brother and I were up well before 7. Jet lag rules.

So for lunch we went to this hot pot place - I don't know if you've seen Lost in Translation or not, but it's the thing where you get raw food and you cook it at your table where there's a pan with boiling water. But instead of bringing stuff to the table, you go up and get your greenery (mushrooms, vegetables, etc.) and seasonsings, then you get your meats and whatnot at your table through a conveyer belt system. Think of baggage claim at the airport. Little dishes filled with meat, seafood, and tempura are transported around the areas where people sit. You just grab what you want and cook it. At first we thought you just pulled the food off the plate. But we were kindly told that we were supposed to take the entire dish.

Whoops.

To be continued...