2006.10.12-Mom and Dad Have Left the Building

Greetings all,
Some may have known that the senior Chu’s were running amuck in Taiwan. If you didn’t, the senior Chu’s were running amuck in Taiwan. They arrived in the Kaohsiung airport on Friday, October 6th and have just recently left for Hong Kong Tuesday, October 10th.

This weekend was one of those rare weekends where we get more than two days. It so happened that Friday was Mid-Autumn Festival (or Moon Festival) which is like a Taiwan Thanksgiving. Instead of turkey, however, you eat barbeque at roadside or in the park. The Chinese pride themselves on being first to invent gunpowder and fireworks so most families will buy armloads of explosives and light them off during these days of celebration. Tuesday was also a holiday (10/10 day – Taiwan’s national holiday) so our school thought it wise to just give us the Monday off and make it a 5 day extravaganza. That’s foreign thinking at its best! 4 days prior to the holidays, the Taiwan government decided to follow suit by declaring Monday a holiday also since having a three day weekend, going back to work for one day and then having the next day off is absurd. So what we thought would be a nice weekend of only a select few having the weekend off, we were now sharing it with 22 million Taiwanese that had it off. Let’s just say the roads were a bit busy. We actually lucked out since we did not seem to get the worst of the traffic.

However, that’s not to say we didn’t have our share of bad traffic. The mountain roads we were on hosted many death desiring drivers. Overall, the visit was great, other than mom saying, “Mike you so fat now. You should go work out with Kathy because you so fat. Did I tell you you fat? Cause you FAT!” or “We think you should come home. You had your fun. Time to come home and make babies and buy house. Everyone thinks so. Bev (Kathy’s mom) tell me to tell you ‘Come home’ cause you away too long.”

Here are some major highlights of our time:

1. eating stinky tofu from a street side vendor. If you are wondering why this is called "stinky" tofu, just ask Carlene for a description or Wiki for an encyclopaedic description.
   
2. waking up at 3am – YES! 3am- to take a train to the top of a mountain to watch the sunrise with hundreds of other Taiwanese people and a man with megaphone commentating each minute for us.
   
3. Being with 3 Chinese people that don't speak Chinese! (not the 'right' one anyway.)
   
The look on our 4 faces (ughhhhhhh??) when someone would unknowingly yatter away in Chinese thinking at least one of the Chinese people in front of them could understand Chinese.

4. having someone to read Chinese!!! It was like having a book on your kitchen table for the past 3 years but couldn't even read the title, but you could look at the pictures and guess what it was about. Now imagine someone came over one day and picked up the book and read it to you and the story was more interesting than you had ever imagined! Instead of guessing what something was or ordering the only dishes we could say at a restaurant, we could read a menu (a huge accomplishment)! When we drove past an interesting looking building on our trip to the Alishan, we were able to know that it was a tourist information centre with valuable English maps and brochures that we would have driven right by, otherwise.
   
5. taking Eddie (mom Chu) for a ride on the scooter. She’s a natural but Mike could not seem to get the thing to go fast enough for her liking.
   
6. going out for "western food" and that being the best meal of the weekend.
   
7. experiencing an earthquake. Actually, Mike was on the ground floor taking the garbage out and Norman (dad Chu) didn’t feel it. So 2 out of 4 isn’t bad. It was a 6 pointer!
   
8. gaining a new appreciation for each other and sharing a wonderful time with family we love.