Taiwan

I never imagined that I would have a Chinese family.  But I do, and they all live in Taiwan. So we went there this month.  Son Gerald, his Frances and their two children, Seth and Angelica have been settled there for some 13 years now.  It has been our goal to visit there each year. But we have missed some.  We were overdue for a visit, so we chose the time they suggested for us and left for our journey there on Tuesday, January 19th (the day after my birthday!).  Our flight to San Francisco was cancelled, making our connection to Taiwan impossible to make.  So our trip there was postponed until the following Wednesday.  We flew to Taiwan on standby, making the possibility of traveling first class open to us, if there were any open seats.  There was one!  Layne gave it to me and he took a seat in Business; that's almost as good.  So the 14 hour flight was filled with comforts, movies and delicious food.  But even with the comforts, not much sleep took place.

We had a wonderful time in Taiwan.  Gerald and Frances live in Feng Yuan, about a 1 1/2 hour drive from Taipai.  Feng Yuan was once a country town but is now a city, filled with buildings and people, and noise.  There is no zoning so homes and businesses are all gathered together in the crowded streets.  Sidewalks come and go and when they are present they are often full of parked scooters, the preferred method of transportation for most of the citizens.   The people tend to stare at us lighter-haired visitors, but they are very friendly and helpful.  Gerald and Frances live on what was once the family rice paddy.  It is now filled with homes and businesses, once all belonging to the Chang family.  Their home is one of several built by Frances' father to house his family.  He and his wife live right next to them.  Their homes are lovely even though they stand in very crowded spaces.

Frances' uncle Tony painted this picture of the family rice paddy when they first arrived, 100 years ago.  That rice paddy is now filled with buildings, many belonging to the Chang family.

The open space to the right of the painting above, now holds the home you can see below, where the senior Changs live.  It is lovely inside and even includes an elevator, installed after the Changs visited us in Sunol and saw the elevator we had in that home.

Right next door to the Chang home stands this lovely place, where Frances and Gerald live.  It is four stories high with marble throughout.  The coolness of it is great in the summer but quite chilling in winter!

Just inside Gerald and Frances' home is this living room.  The metal screen you see above the window is lowered at night for security.  Seth is walking toward the camers.

Ger and Fran's kitchen.  In most Taiwanese kitchens there is no oven; everything is cooked on the stove top.  Baking is provided by bakeries.  The Changs, however, have an oven so Gerald and the kids can bake American goodies in their oven.

Gerald and Frances run an English school.  One of their campuses is located directly across from their home; pretty convenient!  They have developed their own program for teaching language which appears to be very successful as they do no advertising; all students find them from word of mouth.  They both love the school and the whole system they have developed for teaching language.  Gerald says. however, that they plan to move to the US sometime soon.  He has been saying that for awhile but it appears that it will actually happen within the next year or two.  Frances says she is willing to make the move.  I have worried that she would not want to leave her parents, but, in Taiwanese culture, it is her two brothers who are responsible for caring for the parents and she is invested in that idea.  Frances was raised by her rather stern and unkind grandmother so she isn't particularly close to her parents.

The senior Changs are a delightful couple however.  We ate dinner with them almost every night and enjoyed the delicious selection of Taiwanese vegetables, fish and meats served over rice and followed by soup.  Dessert is fruit.  They eat nothing raw but cook their vegetables until they are barely done.  It is all very good.  In fact, I've come home with a desire to eat more like them.  Of course Layne is longing for a steak after all that low-flesh food at the Changs.  Affection is mostly hidden in Taiwan, but the senior Changs always embrace us.  Even without a language to share, we manage to communicate some ideas back and forth.  Simple ones.  These lovely people gave us matching gold rings for our 50th anniversary.  We were quite overwhelmed that they would do such a lovely thing for us!  They also treated us to their shoe factory and invited us to choose as many shoes as we wanted.  None were big enough for Layne, but I found four pair!

Here is our Taiwanese family.  From left to right, Gerald, Papa Chang, Mama Chang, Angelica, me, Layne, Seth and Frances.  The picture is taken in the small front yard of Ger and Fran's home, with the Chang home in the background.  Note how tall Papa Chang is; just an inch shorter than Layne.  That's very unusual for a Taiwanese man.

It was cold in Taiwan.  In fact, it was cold enough to break their records for cold.  It even snowed one day.  It fell but didn't stay.  Still, Taiwanese don't know what to do with cold.  They are in their winter jackets when the temperature falls to the 60s.  So you may imagine how hard it was for them to adjust to freezing weather.  It didn't last long however.  It was soon back to the 50s or so.

We managed to get a good visit in with everyone.  Seth and Angelica are lovely kids; very bright and open.  We talked and played games.  We loved hearing about all of Gerald's ideas about education and all sorts of other things.  That man is a thinker!  In all, our trip was quite wonderful.

We returned home on Friday.  No first class this time but the trip was pleasant just the same.  Except that Layne started feeling the symptoms of a cold and was generally a little grumpy.  Of course I may have added to that by a couple of little problems I created.  Taiwanese security wouldn't let me carry the small scissors I always have in my purse so I had to check them.  Picking them up at baggage claim took a very long time as they were the very last thing to appear on the luggage ramp.  Layne and his sniffles waited rather impatiently for that.  Then I got in trouble for including a piece of very unique fruit in my bag.  I was fascinated with it and, since it was not yet ripe for eating, decided to put it in my suitcase.  Mistake!  We had to wait in yet another line for it to be checked, and confiscated!  By this time Layne was totally disgusted.  But we were in plenty of time for our connecting flight to Boise.  Early enough in fact to take an earlier one.  We arrived home on Friday, early in the afternoon.  Layne collapsed in bed. He was in a much better mood when he awoke several hours later.

Here I am with that devil fruit.  You must admit, it is interesting!  I never knew such a thing existed so was fascinated to see how it tasted.  I guess I'll never know.

After a soggy weekend, we spent this sabbath giving two pornography talks and relaxing.  It is so good to be home!