11/16/03

With just 2 weeks of notice, I had to scramble to get school work finished and taken care of before leaving for Taiwan today. It’s been 10 years since I’ve visited. I’m not exactly thrilled to go back because I remember how hot and humid it could get. Dad said it’s going to be cold so we packed tons of sweaters and jackets. Hopefully it won’t be as cold as it was hot during the summer seasons.

Although I can speak and understand Mandarin and Taiwanese, it’s not a place where I’m comfortable getting around in by myself.  I know that it is technically my ‘homeland’ but I’ve been in the US since I was 4 and I see myself as an American, and can’t imagine moving back to Taiwan for an extended period of time.  So when my mom decided to go, I thought I’d go too and give my birthplace a visit after 10 long years. My mom wanted to go back to visit my Grandmother because she is 83 and recently fell twice, breaking both her legs. She can no longer stand nor walk, and having to constantly sit in a wheelchair has deteriorated her health quite a bit. We all hope for the day she could walk again. The possibility of her coming back to the States to visit us is probably slim to none.

Jae came over at around 10:30 and we went to the temple first to say a prayer for grandmother and to wish our trip well, then off to the airport we go. We got to the airport and checked in. We had to stand in one of the longest line ever at the security checkpoint. It’s a good thing the line moves pretty fast or we would’ve been late for our flight. We said our last goodbye’s right before we entered the checkpoint entrance.

As it turns out we didn’t have to worry about being late, our flight was delayed for half an hour.  We had to wait for about an hour before boarding for our 14.5 hour flight. The flight was so long and so boring, I tried distracting myself with books, cards and games on my laptop, but one can only take so much in a tiny chair. During check-in my dad had requested seats near the emergency doors so we didn’t have seats in front of us and had plenty of room to stretch our legs, thank goodness! I would’ve died if we were bored and cramped for 13 hours. Even with leg room it was very difficult to sleep, my butt kept hurting no matter how I sat. I also kept thinking about that condition where the blood clots up in your legs if you sit too long and render you handicapped…

The food on the plane was actually quite good. For dinner we had ginger chicken with salmon sashimi, salad, fruits and Pepperidge Farm cookies. It seemed like a meal more suited for first class, well not that I would know since I’ve never been in first class. For all I know they could be eating sushi. I finished off everything and saved my cookies for later. After dinner, I tried to sleep, even with the extra leg room it was difficult. I kept waking up every 20 minutes. My butt was sore no matter which way I tried to sleep. I even tried curling up like an egg on my chair, but that only lasted a few minutes before my legs fell asleep.  Next time, I’m going to bring extra pillows to sit on and sleep on…