Geez... the weeks are going by fast. Anyway, yesterday I was determined to wake up early today, so I went to bed early... and woke up at 3:30am... hm... couldn't go back to sleep, so I decided to chat with R and browse the web in search of a job in... Manhattan, KS. Why??? Well... it's the flavor of the week, so I'm thinking of going back to the good ol' US. Man! I'm so homesick :D just homesick for food mostly... I guess... and freedom. Taiwanese food is starting to become rather tasteless... after a while, it's all the same: greasy... wah! the food here doesn't even have the decency to be greasy AND salty... ;) it's just greasy :D I add salt to everything and my relatives gawk at me :D lol

and as for freedom... let's see: I miss freedom of speech (younger generation do NOT talk back ;) ), freedom to dress the way I want (showing your belly here is offensive at least for older and more conservative generation... but strangely, it's ok if you're on TV. Hm...), freedom to choose what I want to eat (when my relatives/cousins go out, they bring back random food... it's kind of fun sometimes... like foraging)... pretty much all my freedoms are taken away here. It gets pretty stressful for me; I'm really independent and I like to do things my way when it concerns my life (isn't that fair???)

But it seems waking up early and nice weather has cured me somewhat of my melancholy and I feel really good right now... (especially after my McDonald's coffee... I was going to get a cappuccino from KFC... but they don't open til 10am-- WHAT?!?)

Anyway, seems like there's unfinished (personal) business in the US, so I probably will be heading back. Not sure when tho... we'll see. But right now... I'm going to enjoy the morning sun shining over the buildings and just feel GOOD.

...oh ya... I wanted to mention a few minor everyday things about Taiwan to kind of explain some of the culture shock... let's see... there are no ovens in Taiwan. So everything is fried (hence the greasiness) and sometimes steamed. What else... in my household, we do not have glasses. If you want a drink of water, you have to get a bowl and drink from it. Oh, and the bowls hold about 1 cup of water. As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time standing around the water dispenser. Hm... what else... oh yes... we don't have salt or pepper shakes. Instead, there are contains with tiny spoons, so if you want to add salt or pepper to your food, you have to scoop some up and then tap tap to sprinkle it on your food. None of the eating spoons are "regular size". They are either really big (for serving) or really small (for I don't know). I guess why bother w/ spoons when you just slurp your soup or water from a rice bowl anyway, right?

ok, that's it for now.

Well, my trip to Taiwan has come to an abrupt end. I am now in the States to take care of some business...

It was odd... but when I was getting in the van to leave for the airport (a nice little 3 hour trip through twisting mountain roads), my Grandmother hugged me... Taiwanese don't really show this kind of emotion physically, so I was really touched. Even though it was tough for me, I'm glad I took the time to go to Taiwan. I now am able to speak Taiwanese almost fluently and can converse with my mother. I think she is quite happy about this and I feel closer to her as well. It was hard, but I am so glad... and darn it, I miss Taiwan again :D

Anyway, that's the end of my trip to Taiwan...!

THE END