Wow, I haven't written anything since the summer ( Read more... )

This week was much less exciting. My gums behind my lower left second molar were inflamed and somewhat tender to the touch, so on Monday I went back to my cousin for a brief checkup, who applied some topical medication and told me it should be better within the week. Afterwards I paid a visit to my Aunt #5, who talked to W and I for an hour, ( Read more... )

After much talk about what W and I could do with our remaining time, we decided that on Sunday we were going to see Juming Museum. Located north of Taipei in the Jinshan area, the outdoor museum occupies a large chunk of mountain and was originally conceived as a lot where the artist Ju Ming (Zhu Ming) could store all his sculptures. Naturally ( Read more... )

Thursday we drove up to Lingde Temple to visit my grandfather's ashes and to pray to our ancestors. The drizzle prevented us from going further up the mountain to visit my grandmother's grave, so we turned back and spent the rest of the evening rather uneventfullyFriday W and I met up with the esteemed Professor Jao and his fiancee G at Taipei 101 ( Read more... )

I knew I had it coming: my nose is now running non-stop. Dust allergies aren't terribly fun, especially in a city in surrounded by mountains that fence in the smog. I'm nuking a bowl of peanut soup (花生仁湯) to see if the steam would help some. Luckily one of my gifts to my parents this Christmas is an air purifier, so they're running it as well ( Read more... )

So far my trip to Taiwan has been mostly relaxing. The flight over was delayed by a merciless head wind, so my brother W and I watched some six or seven movies and arrived in Taiwan about an hour or so late. I haven't had any problems with jet lag, but I've been only getting 6 or so hours of sleep a night because I can't fall back asleep after I' ( Read more... )