Day 14: Mother's Day

I stood up late last night--a.k.a. this morning-- to talk to my aunt, who wakes up at 2:00AM (to go the temple to pray--amazing!)-- to get something for my mom since it's my mom's birthday. I really didn't know what to do, since this is the first time ever that we're ever going to celebrate it. Every year, we always forget... except me; I happen to remember at around 10-11PM at night every year and saying something like "Oh my God! I can't believe we forgot your birthday this year again!" and getting the response "Today's my birthday?"

Anyways, I suggested my aunt to bring something cake-like, but not cake, since my mom does not like cake--to her, it's heart-attack with air pockets. Well, she says that for any baked good.... so I guess cake is more like heart-attack with air pockets and fat smothered on top. Either that, or she knew it was a lie. My aunt didn't believe that my mom wouldn't like cake (after all, who doesn't?) and suggested to get cake anyway.

My uncle took me to the bakery in town on his motorcycle/vespa. It's been so long since I last rode one of those things--I had forgotten how unsafe it felt @@. It's just as my aunt said: 不是鐵包肉, 是肉包鐵. In other words, if you drive a car, it's metal covering flesh; if you drive a motorcycle, it's flesh covering metal. Anyway, the bakery wasn't far and the road wasn't too bumpy. At least I had something to hold on to. But on the way back was a different story TT. The plan was to get a 10-inch cake, but the bakery they had in mind was closed, so we went to the bakery next door (that must be bad for business), which sold only 8-inch cakes and 14-inch cakes. So, because it was better to overcompensate than undercompensate, we got the 14-inch cake... but it made so I had to hold the cake box with two hands. That meant no holding on to the motorcycle. Can't believe I got the cake back in one piece.

The cake was great. It was a fruit-taro cake. Whoo~~ Asian fruit cake XD.

Day 13: Relatives Visiting

Today, my mom's brother came again, this time with much more time on his hands. He took us to the port city Lanfangau to eat fresh seafood. @@ 2 hour drive. Oh BTW, I forgot to mention that he drives a taxi. And apparently, it is an unspoken rule that all taxi drivers are allowed to drive recklessly--we must have passed like... 20 people on the way and 6 other taxis must have passed us.

Anyways, when we got there, he ordered a big red snapper to be prepared in three ways:

First way? What other than sashimi! YAY. Anyway, that used up one side of the fish.

Second way? Freshly seared snapper. How do I know it's fresh? It was being cooked in front of my eyes. That took up the other side of the fish.

Third way? Nothing of course! How would you have something left after taking the flesh from both sides of the fish? It's soup using the left over of the bones from the fish (and fish head). (For those who don't get the bad humor above, here's a hint: in my eyes, soups don't count as a course.)

Afterwards, we went to Yilan to a public hot spring, since my mom says hot springs have to power to reduce the itching caused by bug bites. Why public hot springs? Because people have to strip in public to get in--and that we mostly gotten bitten on the legs, which can be soaked easily without much nudity (and that we're asian. it's free.).

Anyway, the first part of the springs we went to was the back end, where the water was relatively cold for people who wanted to just dip their feet in the water. The second part we went to was too hot because it was right where the hot water was being pumped out. Finally, we followed the hot water down to the end, where the water temperature was perfect because the hot water had time to cool off. Walking in as random people and going in trying things out until you find something just right.... remind you of anything?

When we were done there, we started our way back to Linkou... @@ another 2 hour drive. When we got back (at like 9 or 10pm), we went to the film studio to visit my mom's aunt. Seeing how I'm not an old person, I couldn't participate in conversation, so I wandered back to the pool table to suck some more. XD.

Day 12.2: Visiting Relatives 3 (of them)

After playing in the dirt the whole morning, I washed up to get ready to meet up with my uncle (from my dad's side) to see my grandmother (also from my dad's side). We met up in Banqiao, where my grandmother is at. She lives in a nursing home because she has Alzheimer's Disease and is unable to live unassisted. When we got there, it was a pretty sad sight...

From what I heard from my uncle, Rizan, and his wife, my grandma has been in another nursing home before, and has been neglected during her stay there, resulting in temporary paralysis of her head--rendering her unable to talk or even move her lips. Fortunately, now she's talking, but it's rather "incoherent"--I swear I heard legitimate Taiwanese phrases coming out of her mouth, but everyone keeps saying that they don't understand.

And I just don't approve of how my mom and uncle treat grandma. They talk to her and pet her like she's a child, an idiot, a dog. It's just seems so demeaning... but they're probably treating her correctly--the more blunt, direct affection, the more grandma can connect to it, I suppose.

Afterwards, Uncle Rizan (OMG, A NAME I FINALLY KNOW) took us out to dinner with even more more generic Taiwanese food. I really like this uncle a lot, actually. He's not very talkative, but when he talks, he's very blunt and direct and usually full of good humor.

Day 12: What a barren wasteland!

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it before, but I'm living in this city called Linkou which is near Taipei (in distance-- a darned 40 minute drive though!). It's an place with lots of open, underdeveloped land, but the land is poor quality. Nethertheless, Taiwan is a small island, and land is in low supply. Thus, the only ones who could afford land are rich people. The main problem? Location, location, LOCATION.

With the bestest-est view ever.

Oh well, you know what they say: When life gives you dirt, make mud balls:

Well, the saying is close enough. Making one of these takes a long while outside... in the hot sun... with no AC or fans or shade... I think I'll just take bags of this dirt and do it at home. Weather's better in the US to make better balls anyway.

Day 11.2: Visiting People Who Are Related to You, But Don't Count as Relatives

Later, we went to eat out in a hot pot restaurant with my mom's childhood neighbor. Ironically enough, the restaurant was only a block away from where my mom's old house used to stand. Anyway, the restaurant was all-you-can-eat hotpot for about 12 USD, and they had a huge selection, though mostly I settled on clams, oysters and abalone--Seafood FTW! They also had live shrimp... or was it prawns?... that they had to serve with lid on, since once you removed the lid, the shrimp-prawns would just wriggle their way off the dish. It was kinda sad to see the shrimp-prawns struggle--like when you try to pick them up with chopsticks, they wriggle vigorously. And when you boil them alive, they start splashing their way to the top. You actually had to keep them underwater to keep them from splashing you.

Afterwards, we visited another of my mom's old neighbors, nicknamed Mami. She has been a motherly figure to my mom when she was growing up. Other than that, I don't know who she is.

Once again, special thanks to Andrew for chaffeuring!

Day 11: Visiting Relatives 2

We went to my aunt's (who is really my mother's cousin... so she's a second cousin I guess?) production studio, which used to be a branch off of my uncle's film studio. All they really do there is provide the equipment and stuff to make promotional movie trailers and posters, so it's really small.

Anyway, there was really nothing to do there, so my mom got her cousin's son to take me and my older brother (yes people, OLDER. Now stop thinking I have a younger brother) to Xi Men Di, which is a place for the younger generation to hang out. And when I say "got", I mean forced through constant pestering and lies saying that I always wanted to go there, even though I've never heard of the place before. And when I mean a place for the younger generation to hang out, I mean outside mall--having all the benefits of a mall: really big, impossible to navigate, merchandise with outrageous prices, really crowded, etc. and sharing none of the drawbacks--no air conditioner, no map, no easily accessible bathroom, etc.

Anyway, having nothing in mind to buy here (since neither my brother, my cousin or I is fashion-conscious), we went to play pool at an internet cafe... go figure. We played an odd vairant of pool called 21, which uses point-scoring system rather than a target ball system. Guess what the goal of the game is. I'll give you a hint: it has to do with 21. Figure it out? It's to reach a certain number of points (usually around 60) by pocketing balls. Where does the 21 come in? Nowhere.