Taiwan

Well, I went to Taiwan this summer to visit my grandparents over there, (for those of you who didn't know, my mom is from Taiwan). It's always an interesting experience, I've been there four times, once every four years, and well, each time has been different in some aspects. The first time, well, I don't really remember that one :), the second time about all I remember is going to the park with my grandparents, and an awesome bakery! You know me, I remember food, food is a bit of a passion of mine :). The last time was similar, and this time, well considering I remember a lot more, having just been there, it makes it a lot easier to remember.
The trip started with a flight to Los Angeles and a 4 hour layover. At that point we were all already tired, and ready to be in Taiwan, sadly enough we still had a 13 hour nonstop flight until we got to our destination. The plain flight was largely uneventful, with the classic horrible airplane, really hard to eat with turbulence, and a slightly nauseating smell :), still over all it wasn't too bad.

In Taiwan we did a variety of things, however, the first thing we did was eat, we were almost always eating! We ate a variety of things there, anything from normal fish, to a whole chicken, chicken's feet, and an entire pork leg! I know, it's quite the variety! :)

For the first half of our vacation we went on a tour of the island, starting at the northern tip, and moving to the south, it took us three days, and was one of the more, well, interesting parts of our trips. You see, we went on a tour with what we deemed the "Old people's club", it was a government sponsored tour for the older generation that would teach them about proper hygiene in respect to diseases such as diabetes and other things. So we were to spend three days on a bus full of old people, and sadly enough we can't understand anything they're saying, because sadly enough only my mom speaks their language, and none of them speak much english... and to add to the awkwardness and slight annoyance, it was a karaoke bus, meaning we listened to karaoke in a different language, sung by slightly tone deaf older people, and that lasted for something like 6 hours a day! It was, interesting... :) The tour was really cool though, we got to see the southern tip of the island, as well as a bunch of cool Buddhist temples!
For the remainder of the trip we spent time with my grandparents, as well as did A LOT of shopping, not a good thing, my feet hurt just about every day after that! :) We also went to a humongous zoo, it was way cool, there were a ton of butterflies there, more then I've ever seen! Oh, and I got to dress up in traditional royal garb! It was a really fun trip, and I'm glad I was able to go. Before I went I'd never really thought of my grandparents over there as being my grandparents, they were just my mom's parents, if that makes any sense at all, but after that trip, even though I was never really able to talk to them I think of them as my grandparents, my grandma and grandpa, my ugon and uma.