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Friday, Taipei (4/21/2000)
This was our last full day in Taiwan. Chu-Wan had been up
late the night before boxing things to ship home, so we got a late start this
morning.
The Air Conditioner was very efficient: it froze me out. It
was a disconcerting feeling getting up in the middle of the night and leaving
the icy, dry room and stepping into the hot, humid hallway. I had to turn the
AC off at about 2:00AM or sufer flashbacks from Taipingshan.
We got up just in time for another family luncheon: this
time Chinese food. We had a meal of Peking Duck and the like, which is
confusingly called Beiping Duck. Unfortunately, stomach problems prevented me
from enjoying my lunch, but it gave me something to think about during the
meal.
I napped off the entire afternoon, which helped my stomach
problems and woke up in time to go to my (much anticipated) last pizza meal in
Taiwan for the trip.
After a satisfying pizza, we returned to the house to finish
packing.
Saturday, Taipei
(4/22/2000)
I was totally frustrated at not getting much done on Friday,
so we got out early to go shoot video near the computer market area and to buy
a Chinese keyboard for our computer at home.
We got some footage of the subway system and then returned
home for lunch.
I had been somewhat mislead. I had been told lunch was just
going to be at home, but it turned out to be a big production, with the Huang
IIs and some other relatives stopping in for lunch. Everyone else had Chinese
food. My mother-in-law cooked a steak for me.
We took two cars and Johnny and Tiffany rode scooters to the
airport to say farewell.
There's really not much that can be said about a goodbye. It
was tearful, and no one was really happy. While we waited for the plan a
terrific rainstorm blew in, which made our takeoff interesting. And so we said
"goodbye" to Taiwan, for now.
I could go on about the bad flight back: rough turbulence
during meals, wind shear off the runway at LA, bouncing hard on the tarmac at
Sky Harbor, but it would only further the anti-climax. |
