Hometown

I am ashamed to say that I don't know much about my hometown.  Every time when I visit Taiwan, the primary objective was always spending time with family and friends so getting to know Taipei was never on my radar screen.  Since this has been the second time that I flew home over the weekend after I started working in Manila, I figured that I will take the initiative to learn a little more about my hometown, my culture, and where I came from.

The flight to Taipei from Manila arrived a little early to my surprise.  I had previously asked mom not to have anyone pick me up at the airport so I found my way to the bus station and bought an one-way ticket to test out the bus-taking experience.  A taxi ride from Tao-Yuan to my destination will cost me about $40 and the bus ride which dropped me off about 5 blocks away from home was $4.  Other than the unbelievable low cost, the driver was a warm and enthusiastic tour guide, and I was also the only passenger on this route and on his giant bus!

After lunch and spending time with family, I decided to take dad to a bookstore where we spent a couple of hours reading and browsing through books. I ended up with guides for Taipei and Taiwan, and dad ended up with tour books for Bangkok. Like father, like daughter?

Instead of just reading and understanding the books, I decided to experience the interesting places with my parents.  The next day, we visited Da-Dao Cheng (大稻埕) in Taipei.  Other than being absorbed in the historical buildings of Dee-hua street (迪化街) , we shopped for traditional Taiwanese lanterns and hand-weaved bamboo products, we also ate at a hole-in-the-wall Taiwanese noodle house for all kinds of small dishes!  Prior to lunch, Mom swore that she will never wait in line for 30 minutes for anything served from a noodle house like the one that I picked out from the book.  However, bites after bites of delicious small snacks, I think mom will line up again for the home smoked shark meat, barbecued and lightly fried pork, and the lightly salted chicken, noodles, and vegetables.


4pm came around quickly after another walk down Dee-hua street.  I left for Tao-Yuan airport on an air-conditioned bus for $3.  I can't wait for the next time that I explore my hometown with my parents!

Running amok

I often joke around with my colleagues that I am reading so much and spending so much time at work these days because I didn't study hard enough when I was in school, and this is payback time.  College for me was all fun and very little studying except before exams.  I think Jason will disagree and say, "you don't even study before the exams!"

Even though I don't remember much from college, several classes in Physiology did make an impression on me.  One of the topics were on thermoregulation and how 'automatic' our bodies respond to the changes in external temperature without our commands and without our control.  For example, when you walk into an air-conditioned room on a hot summer day, you do not provide your endocrine system with instructions on how the system should perform and react to the temperature change.  You do not walk out of a heated room into the snow with directions to constrict blood vessels to prevent heat loss.  The body adjust to the environment without your involvement, and it just does what needs to be done.  If the body needs commands to adjust to external temperature, a lot of us will be in a lot of trouble, especially the forgetful ones!  

Many of our bodily functions rarely need us or allow us to participate in their operations.  Our heart beats, our intestines absorb nutrients, our pupils dilate and constrict, and there are a lot of examples!  

Then, what about our emotions, thoughts, and feelings?  We think we have control over all of them because the emotions, thoughts, and feelings are "ours".  But our hearts, intestines, and pupils are also "ours", why don't we get a say on how they operate?  

In the past year, I have been "catching myself" a lot more than I used to.  I will be walking very fast with my shoulders back and chest forward.  Then, I will hear my footsteps, then I will choose to slow down.  However, before I have heard my own footsteps, I didn't have a choice to walk fast or to slow down because the walking-fast has been programmed into me as a reaction to some external stimuli such as stress.  How often can we catch ourselves when our mind, body, and spirit have been trained to react a certain way to various circumstances?  Are you sure that our emotional, thinking, and feeling systems are really "ours" and that our bodies are not just directing traffic without our commands? 

California~

Exhaustion finally hits me.  Maybe it's the work hours, maybe it's the flights, maybe it's the never ending hunt for a place to live.  I am finally exhausted, zapped, ready to just take a cab back to California.  Or take a cab to the airport then a flight to California....

Since my flights are on the weekend, I have to schedule the housing appointments on weekdays.  The appointments cut into my lunch hours and I have had absolutely no break from the work for two weeks now.  It has been work, house hunting, and travel.  So tonight, when I finished my housing "tour", instead of standing in the traffic-jammed cross street waiting for a taxi, I decided to be a human sized range hood and suck in all the Manila pollution.  I hiked back to my hotel and treated myself to a nice Japanese meal on my way home.

I am frustrated with the house hunting process because all the property owners think that expats have money therefore they should charge more.  I am also frustrated with the expats because they artificially inflate the housing prices when they live in a property that they will never personally pay for but will do so when the company subsidizes 65% of the rental.  Yes, it's naive of me to think that by "standing my ground", I will change something when I am living in an expensive hotel that I will also never pay for myself but will live here in the name of for convenience and safety when the company pays for 65% of it....

Today is my day of exhaustion, I declare.  And today is my day that I miss my non-polluted California air and the quiet and peaceful California night...  Just today and only tonight....

Fly Asia

I bought a 'Fly Asia' pass from Philippine airlines when I first arrived in Manila for about $1,000 for 6 short trips to various destinations in Asia to visit home, friends, to eat great food, and to practice my photo-taking skills.  Last week, my weekend trip kick-started, but Philippine airlines was on strike!  As I waited in the long queue to fly to Taipei, I doubted my ever-so-brilliant idea, when the plane delayed, I was sure that I had made a big mistake.  But the Hong Kong trip this week changed all of that!

This week, my expectation was more realistic than that of that last week.  I brought a book expecting 'unexpected' delays.  I lined up in the shortest line instead of the line that was designated for Hong Kong having learned from last week's experience and I got to the immigration desk faster.  This time, I had my immigration form filled out ahead of time with 750 pesos so I can skip the form-filling line and pay the airport taxes than those that were not as prepared.  Everything went smoother and faster even though the plane was still delayed.  With the preparation and expectation, I had time to read and shop at duty-free for famous Filipino deserts!

Manila to Hong Kong takes two hours by flight.  As soon as we landed, I could tell that I was in a different city.  In contrast with Manila, everything moved faster in Hong Kong including people.  People in Hong Kong are less patient but very goal and task oriented and super efficient.  The no nonsense Hong Kong culture permeated the air as we waited through immigration.  I, for once, appreciated the Hong Kong efficiency after having lived in Manila for almost two and half months.

I visited Kim, Derek, and Samantha while I was in Hong Kong.  I had my first Hong Kong "high tea" at the newly opened Ritz on the 100+ floor.  Ships, barges, and helicopters moved gracefully below us as we sipped our tea and enjoyed our finger-licking yummy deserts.  Afterwards, Kim and I window-shopped, chatted, caught-up on a year's worth of life-changing experiences while we weaved through the city for photos.  The next day, we lined up and ate at the Tim Ho Wan Michelin star dim sum shop, rested, and I left the Yan's on Sunday afternoon.

It was a short, compacted, but fun trip! Now, I am looking forward to my next flight this coming weekend!