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Published: August 31st 2007
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Me and Grandma
Grandma is 91 years old. I specifically went to Taiwan to see her. I'm still in Taipei visiting. Monday I had dinner with my Uncle and Aunt. We actually had dinner at my Uncle's company's restaurant/cafe since he had to go back to work. My uncle is the CEO/Founder of a magazine and publishing company. I knew he was successful, but it's great to see how accomplished he is. He has a new book out and his magazine is sold everywhere. I didn't realize that until I actually went to a Taiwan bookstore/drugstore/etc.
I'm staying with my mom's eldest sister - she's in her 70s! I have to say she's a pretty hip senior. She is outgoing and pretty high energy. My aunt's daughter (Mimi) is also visiting this week from Hong Kong (her daughter is 53 years old!). I met her once 18 years ago, but don't really remember. I got to see my aunt's son (Edward) too, who basically lives next door to her. Her son is a hot-shot Dean at one of Taiwan's top colleges. 😊 I hadn't seen him or his wife and kids in 14 years. Great to see them again. It's a bit weird to be meeting cousins for the first time. I hope when I'm older
Aunt and Uncle
My mom's older sister and brother. They are both over 70 years old! Lookin' good, huh? my kids will see their cousins all the time.
In Taiwan, all trash must be separated - food scraps (cooked), food scraps (raw), metal, plastic, glass, etc. What a pain! How great for the environment though! Usually you have to keep your trash and wait for the garbage truck to come. Everyone has to dump their own (no garbage man picks up). The truck plays music so you know to come out to dump your trash. How inconvenient, huh? Auntie lives in a nice building and there's a communal trash area that is serviced. For food scraps, the trash chute quick freezes the trash to prevent it from smelling. What a great idea, huh? Anyway, I thought the waste sanitation process in Taiwan was noteworthy.
My aunt, Mimi and I went out for Yunnan style noodles for lunch, then went to a cafe to drink coffee and sit. I took a browse through Sogo (big department store) and then we met up with Edward and his family for dinner. My cousin's son wants to go to the States for college so we talked about college stuff. I hope he gets into Berkeley! My cousin's son is schooled in
Cousin and son
My cousin and his son Chinese but is tutored in English. His English skills are really good and he is quite fluent. He will have no problem fitting in with Americans! At night we went back to their house and sat and ate fruit. At their house, I also met my aunt's ex-husband for the first time. He seems much more "senior" than my hip 70-something year old aunt.
Today I met up with Grandma, cousins and other auntie and we went to Din Tai Feng. I still think they have the best dumplings. I tried to pay for lunch, but my auntie beat me to it. Everyone is so nice to Grandma. They seem to be so patient with her and always put her first. She is such a cute old lady and has such nice things to say about everyone. She must be easy to live with. I hope I'm like that when I'm 91.
I also ran into another cousin when I was over at Grandma's. My dad's younger sister's eldest son, Jeff. He lived with us in Los Angeles for a short amount of time. I remember him, but I remembered him to be big and tall. And when
Cousin Mimi
I wish I looked up Mimi last time I was in HK. She's a cool 53 year old! he said hi to me, I just blankly stared at him. He was on his way to work, and it wasn't until he left I realized who he was. How lame of me. Somewhat because he said his Chinese name and I didn't get it, and then I didn't quite register the fact that I was 5 years old and 3+ feet tall the last time I saw him.
Of course he seemed tall at the time. I'm 22 years older now and about 3 inches taller than him now. 😊
My Grandmother was asking when my parents are visiting and if I'm going to come back to Taipei before I go back home to SF. I didn't have the nerve to say that I don't have time so I said, "maybe in November". If I squeeze in a trip to Thailand before I go back to SF, maybe I'll stop by for two days. I highly doubt once I go back to work I'll be making trips to Taiwan...
After lunch with Grandma I went to meet my aunt at my Uncle's company again. His company had a book release for a new book about one of
25 Years of Covers
My uncle's magazine celebrated its 25 year anniversary. This is every magazine cover. Neat! Taiwan's mayors. The mayor (Jason Hu) and his wife were in a car accident last year and it was thought that the wife would not come out of a coma. I remember hearing this news in the States last year. Anyway, the wife miraculously recovered, aside from her arm needing amputation. The book details their family story and her recovery, their love etc. The Mayor and his wife were at the book release and there were a zillion camera people there. The book is supposedly going to widely read. I took some photos of the event. After the book release my Aunt took us to dinner at a yummy Taiwanese restaurant. Delicious!
My trip to Taiwan was better than I expected. I liked meeting and spending time with my *new* relatives and I hope that we all get to spend more time together, especially my cousins. I thanked them for their hospitality and invited them all to SF to visit. I have about 20 cousins... I've seen 12 of them in the past 3 years. Not bad.
Here are some photos of me and relatives. Taiwan looks like another Chinese city, so I didn't really take photos.
Mayor's book release
Taiwan Mayor and his recovering wife. Some info:
Restaurants I liked in Taipei:
Dumplings: Din Tai Feng tel (02) 2321-8928 www.dintaifung.com.tw
Famous Pineapple Cake/Bakery: Green Field tel 22328057 www.gf164.com.tw
Yummy Taiwanese Cuisine: Shin Yeh tel (02) 810-10185
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Mark
non-member comment
Thanks for posting. I'm going to Taipei in a few days and was looking for Pineapple Cake. That link looks good so I'll have to hit it up!