Not enough time, Part 2

So, in my 3 weeks left, I managed to squeeze in a fair bit, just making the most of my time left.

- outdoor climbing at Longdong 龍洞, despite a climber falling to her death a month earlier;
- National Palace Museum 故宮 with my dad;
- wakeboarding 滑水 with my coworker in Taipei county - sooooo much fun!
- more indoor climbing at iClimb (that was a constant!), including helping with a kids' activity, ha;
- SCUBA diving lessons - managed to fit this in, yay! 2 days of diving (6 tanks) off the NE coast 東北角 of Taiwan;
- send-off for the iClimb foreign friends (including myself) that were leaving Taiwan;
- new climbing shoes! and,
- picnic and stinky tofu outings.

It doesn't seem like too much, but SCUBA lessons took up 4 days (2 days of class + pool, 2 days of open water), and I went to the climbing gym almost every day, whenever I could, to climb and to hang out at my second home, with my second family. I also accomplished my goal of finishing the overhang climb (although I did "take"). :)

And that wraps up my time in Taiwan....

I have *tons* of pictures. I'll update this post with picture links when I'm done organising them.

Not enough time

The time's gone by awfully quickly.... Since coming to Taiwan, I've been partly busy with handling some personal business (finances, other loose ends) but also with spending time with friends before I leave the country "for good". So here's the Reader's Digest version of what I've done so far in the last 4 weeks:

- watched dragonboat races for 端午節 (hadn't ever done that in Vancouver even!);
- walked a LOT, in Taipei's basin of mugginess;
- caught up with my cousin whom I hadn't seen in some 10 years (he'd been in Japan while I was working here and just moved back to Taiwan);
- went to 九份 and 基隆 and ate ate ate with 3 girlfriends;
- went to 宜蘭 with 3 friends, to eat, stroll through a forest with "divinity trees" (some as old as 2000 years), watch the sunrise over the 望洋 mountain range, lots of mini-trails - half of the 3-day trip was in rainy weather!
- saw my friend and her hubby and newborn baby (hadn't seen her in 6 months);
- listened to a music performance (of an artist I hadn't heard of), bought his first CD on the spot and got it autographed;
- took my dad to Hong Kong and Macau (that's another post altogether);
- met with my "gifted" cousin;
- helped my brother move (earning my keep!);
- hung out at the climbing gym, and climbed climbed climbed: my friends at the climbing gym were kind enough to extend my pass for the month that I unexpectedly had to give up. I'm going to finish climbing that ceiling before I leave!
- ripped open the skin of my palm, because I just HAD to get one more climb in before gym closing....
- scootered out to Nanliao 南寮 for a stroll by the ocean;
- gone out to Longdong 龍洞 for some outdoor climbing (that's tomorrow!).

Of course there are lots of other little meetings with coworkers and friends and my brothers and sis-in-law and cousins etc.

I've given up on a few plans, like going to Beijing (I would've had free room and board if I could find a plane ticket to fit my schedule) and scuba diving lessons (for PADI/NAUI open water diving certification) seem unlikely now. Not sure if I'll be able to scooter up to Taipei either.

I have 3 weeks left in Taiwan. It still doesn't seem like enough time.... :(

Hot and sweaty

That's how my trip to Taiwan is starting out.

First of all, when I went through Customs, I got selected for a random patdown. The Customs officer was nice enough, though. Asked me if I was wearing a belt ("Um, no, it's just... fat." "Hahah, if you're fat, then what am I... obese? :p") She actually did pat down the entire body, including around all sides of the bra...! and checked the bottoms of my shoes, too.

My 02:55 flight got delayed to 03:40, because the incoming flight from NYC was late. Just trying to stay awake during that extra hour was quite difficult. I always request an aisle seat, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the seat next to me was unoccupied, leaving me lots of lots of leg room and space to put my stuff, and no interruptions from a neighbour to use the toilet.

The Cathay Pacific plane was a new design. The seats are now placed on an arc: to recline, the seat slides forward and the headrest downward, but the actual frame is fixed, meaning the person behind enjoys the same amount of personal space. The inflight entertainment system - wonderful improvement: over 100 movies to choose from, ranging from new releases, to classics, to Disney movies, to Asian films. And then there are tv shows: drama, comedy, documentaries etc. Lots and lots of options. And then of course there are games and other forms of entertainment. There are also power outlets for laptops and stuff! The only complaint I have about Cathay Pacific is that their food is still terrible. (Breakfast is acceptable, but lunch and dinner are horrible.... Eva Air actually has good airplaine food.)

So during that flight to HK, I watched The Other Boleyn Girl (Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson) and Horton Hears a Who. Then I watched an episode of CSI and one of CSI: Miami. Then as I was struggling to stay awake (in an effort to minimise jetlag), it finally came time to sleep. I couldn't sleep that well, but I felt okay when we landed in HK. The flight was an hour late, landing at 08:00, and when we stepped off the plane, Cathay Pacific ground staff handed me a ticket bumping me from my 08:35 connecting flight to TPE to 09:10. It was 08:15 when I made it through the transfer area, and I bolted to see if I could still get my original flight. Alas, though the display flashed "Last call", the staff member told me it was too late to board. :( So I sulked to the gate of my new flight, grateful that it was only a 35-min delay. Pulled out my laptop to fire off an e-mail to my family to let them know... except that the laptop battery didn't last 3 minutes after bootup, allowing me just enough time to find the HK airport free wireless internet and enter the e-mail recipients, but not enough time to actually finish the e-mail! Ah well. I'm going to have to get a new battery.

The rest of my arrival went fairly smoothly: took a bus into TPE where I waited 25 minutes to get picked up. Compared to when I took this bus almost 4 years ago when I came to Taiwan, there was a sense of familiarity, and of "home" this time. Had a bit of pizza with my cousins before I hurried off to the District Administration Office to take care of a few things and renew my medical insurance. Hung out with my brother before he left for a weekend in Macau with his wife, and then after finishing a movie, I came back to my cousin's where I'm staying... and sulked. Honestly, walking through some familiar places where I'd been with my mom, finding myself alone - with no internet access.... Couldn't stay up very long, and by 21:35 I was in bed, out like a light.

Today, I was up at 06:30, went out for breakfast at 07:30. 豆漿, 油條, 燒餅夾蛋. Anyone who can read that would understand why that was the first meal I went for! :D Instead of coming back to an empty apartment, I decided to just eat there and watch all the people coming and going.

I'm just hanging out for a bit now, waiting to meet someone; we're going to go watch 划龍舟 (dragonboating) and then go window-shopping with another friend. It's not that sunny outside, but I'm still dreading the heat and the UV rays...!

Home sweet home, Part 2

It started with, surprise, a mad rush during the days prior to my departure, to finish (unsuccessfully) work tasks, to pick up various items for overseas delivery, and of course, to pack. Just a couple days after my 3-year anniversary of arriving - moving to Taiwan, I was going home for the Mid-Autumn holidays.

I managed to drop all my work without too much guilt (or concern) so I could get back to my dorm and shower before my flight. My coworker picked me up and off we headed to the airport. Surprisingly, I felt... nothing. No emotions. No worries about the work I'd dropped, no irritation about the work I'd brought with me (to complete on a best-effort basis) and not even excitement about going home. There was nothing positive nor negative.

When I got to the airport, the lineup for baggage check-in was moderately long. I listened to some men speaking Spanish queued in front of me while waiting my turn. As expected, the check-in staff paused at my passport... and then asked me to follow her to the Immigration Office. And there I was scolded by a middle-aged Immigration official for not getting a new passport after obtaining Taiwanese citizenship. He went on about how I shouldn't keep using my current passport just to save trouble and to save on the passport application fee and that I was inconveniencing myself as well as Immigration (for having to verify my status). He did have a point. Though quite honestly, it had just never occurred to me to renew my passport after receiving a status upgrade; it wasn't about the application fee nor the eons-away expiry date (10-year validity). Anyway that was quite the earful.

In an effort to minimise the effects of jet lag, I stayed up most of the flight. As I'd only slept an hour the previous night (working and packing), staying awake an additional 12 hours proved a little more difficult that it might normally have been. I watched Fantastic Four 2: Silver Surfer (mediocre), The Ex (entertaining), and made it partway through Surf's Up and Ocean's Thirteen and some interactive games (looking for whatever required the least brain power) (though in the end, nothing helped). It was with a skip of joy that I heard them announce our descent to YVR.

I managed to break skin on the glass barriers lining the stairs, and Customs asked me to present myself to Agriculture after collecting my luggage, for inspection of the mooncake my mother special-ordered. I waited half an hour for my large suitcase, before hearing an announcement and recalling that I hadn't removed an old "Fragile" label... and off I went to looking for my fragile suitcase. Then it was another half-hour as Agriculture looked into a woman's canned mutton from New Zealand before deeming that my vegetarian mooncakes wouldn't cause an epidemic outbreak.

And then FInally... I was home.