Laurie's visit to Taiwan (the first few days)

I know it feels like forever since I published my last blog. Sorry about that!

Now: don't think I'm being lazy! In truth, I have been having issues logging onto the internet... of course these problems only arise when I have time to sit and use the computer properly. I have also been under the weather a bit (mild pneumonia, would you believe it? ...I'm fine now, thanks for asking!).

Well, the last few weeks have been a little hectic! Since the last time I wrote anything, a lot of time has been spent getting ready for Laurie's visit. My sister Laurie has come to Taiwan to visit during the Chinese New Year (This year that is Feb 19 to 25). Laurie will be staying until March 4^th, and luckily I have the whole two weeks off. Susan will have to work for two days during Laurie’s trip, but she has the rest of the time off, too, so the three of us are really lucky to be able to tour around and enjoy ourselves! The weather has been unseasonably warm, so we are having a great time so far!

Now… since I need to start somewhere, I figure I'll start with Saturday Night (February 17th) which is Chinese New Year’s Eve, and it is two days before Laurie arrived.

Susan and I were invited to our co-worker Lynn's house for Chinese New Year's Eve. We arrived around 7 o'clock and were treated to some really delicious dishes! We chatted and laughed for a couple of hours, then Susan pulled the poker chips and cards and proceeded to teach some of Lynn's family how to play poker! (I'm telling you: she's obsessed, LOL!)

We played poker until about 11PM. It was really fun once they all got the hang of it. I had to do all the translating, which was interesting considering I didn't know half the words I needed! I ended up saying "that thing" "and do that thing again" a LOT.

In the end we had a fantastic night and Sue and I were really glad we went.

The next day we chilled a little and we prepared to take out bus to Taipei to collect Laurie and her bags... then our friend Terry called and insisted that he and his wife, Jane, wanted to drive us to the airport and back. He had mentioned it earlier in the week, but we felt it was simply too much of an imposition, however, he insisted, so we returned out bus tickets and got out money back. Terry and Jane came to pick Sue and I up at 3:30am on Monday morning and we set off to the airport near Taipei to pick up Laurie.

The drive to Taipei was terrifying because Terry and Jane had not been able to grab their planned-for nap before departure, so they were exhausted and Jane (who was driving) kept looking like she was going to nod off! We didn't have anything to worry about though, as we arrived at the airport without incident.

Laurie's plane arrived at 6:30am. We arrived at the airport just in time (traffic was crazy because of the Chinese New Year holiday). We expected to have to wait for Laurie as she collected her bags and cleared customs, but instead we found her right away and she told us that her luggage hadn't made it to Taipei with her! Apparently she had to run between flights in L.A. and the luggage didn't make it... so we were good to go. Singapore Airlines assured us they would deliver her luggage directly to the apartment in Chiayi upon it's arrival the following day (which they did, by the way! It arrived at 8:30am).

It was so good to see her! She looks fantastic. Never mind that she just stepped off the airplane, she looked awesome! She is so funny; I know we’re going to have a blast while she’s here!

Before we found her in the airport, Terry and Jane had dropped us off at the entrance and told us to call them as soon as Laurie arrived. They would park and come get us when we phoned. I phoned them and was surprised to discover they had a different cell phone with them, not the one who's number I had! So there we were at the airport, laughing, wondering what we should do, when Sue remembered that they had called her before coming to the apartment to pick us all up. She scrolled through her cell phone's list of recently received calls and dialed the only one that was unrecognized. Terry answered and they came to get us, LOL!

We all piled into the van and headed back to Chiayi, this time with a tired Terry driving.

We drove for about an hour and a half, traffic wasn't too bad. Then we pulled off the highway to get something to eat. We stopped at a rest stop just outside the city of Taizhong. Laurie was hoping for something Chinese to eat, but Sue and I were excited because they had a Subway restaurant, so we had subs!

At this point, we switched drivers and Susan drove us most of the rest of the way home. Terry and Jane slept in the back seat. Sue wasn't used to driving standard, and she wasn't used to the amount of traffic on the highway after nearly eight months of not driving a car, but she did really really well!

We pulled into Chiayi around noon. We settled Laurie into Sue's apartment and then we all took a bit of a nap! We got up in the early evening and took Laurie to the night market for Mongolian Barbeque. We had a ball wandering around the night market and I treated Laurie to a passion-fruit juice while Susan ordered the food and waited for it to be ready. This is harder than it looks when you think about the fact that you need to push through the crowds, find a table to sit at, and listen for them to call your number (in Chinese) when it's ready. I am pretty impressed with how well Susan is doing with her Chinese, actually. She doesn't speak it much (and she isn't even pretending to try and learn it) but she makes herself understood. She is really observant, and she is very good and understanding the gist of things when she needs to.

After the night market, we all agreed that we were exhausted so back to the apartments we went and we all crashed out.

The following day I was woken up early to go and collect Laurie's luggage. The driver didn't know his way around Chiayi very well, but he told me what street he was on and I asked him to wait there. Let me tell you: it is not easy to pull Chinese out of your butt when you are woken up from a dead sleep by the phone ringing! Be that as it may, I went to collect him so he could deliver the luggage. He happened to be near a McDonald's, so I picked up breakfast for the girls and I while I was at it!

The driver followed me back to the apartments and helped us get the bags up into the elevator. The girls and I brought the stuff into Sue's place, ate out breakfast, and then Laurie proceeded with the "gift giving"... distributing all the loot Sue and I had requested from Canada: the stuff we can't get here.

Now don't laugh, but Susan and I each requested about 10 cans of pâté. It's not that we eat the stuff that regularly, but it makes a nice sandwich (or a snack when you have guests) and they don't sell it here for less than about $10 Canadian for a small package. I also asked for a couple of cans of Chef Boyardee Ravioli. I love having stuff that I can just heat and eat, but they don’t sell anything that I recognize here. I got a few tubes of my favourite kind of toothpaste (which they don’t sell here) and I got a pile of comic books that my dad had picked up for me.

As you know, I am subscribed to about a dozen comic books. Right now, though, Marvel Comics is doing a huge cross-over story called CIVIL WAR that involves most of the characters from the Marvel Universe and you need to buy issues from different comics in order to follow the goings on (very clever marketing). Some of the stories get continued or concluded in different books (Part 1 is in X-Men #432, part 2 is in Wolverine #42, Part 3 is in Blade #6: get it?). I am not subscribed to EVERYTHING! I only subscribe to a few select titles, so I was missing a couple of issues to complete the story I was reading. I managed to get them as back-issues from the company that supplies my subscriptions, but there are some issues that I wasn’t able to get from them because they were sold out. Using the internet, I found those issues at a local comic shop in Montreal. They put them aside for me and dad went to get them! YAY! So I was looking forward to getting those from Laurie!

After we divided up the spoils of Laurie’s luggage, we took a nap. We had been up late the night before and early this morning, so we were due!!

When we got up, we went for a nice drive around the lake (I really love the drive around Lan Tan Lake! It's so much fun to drive!). After our drive we went to the bagel shop for lunch. I was glad we were able to do that because I wanted to wish my friends Sean and Jane a Happy Chinese New Year. Unfortunately Jane was not there. She was still with her family (part of the tradition is that married women return home for one or two days during the New Year holidays). Jane's family lives in Tao-Yuan (which is where the Taipei airport is located) so we probably passed each other on the highway, LOL! Sean's family was at the bagel shop, though, so it was nice to see his mom and dad again.

We spent the next day scooting around the city and enjoying ourselves. Then, on Wednesday, we took the train down to the nearby city of Tainan. We went to the old Dutch fort (An Ping Gu Bao) but that was really, just our excuse for going to Tainan. We wandered around the grounds and walked through the crazy market. Laurie and Susan ate some fried wontons and we bought a few presents for folks back home. That evening, we went to eat at a Greek restaurant in Tainan, which the girls enjoyed, but I didn’t like my food at all, so I treated myself to Burger King before we hopped back on the train to come back!

Thursday was a shopping day. The girls were supposed to go to the swimming pool, but got distracted by shoes (again). Friday night, the three of us went to eat at a Taiwanese Aboriginal restaurant called The Hunter. Susan and I invited our co-worker Lynn, who helped Susan and I plan most of our trip to Taiwan’s East coast (scheduled for next week). It was our way of thanking her. The food was awesome and Laurie was really happy that we had FINALLY taken her for Chinese food, LOL!

Friday was another chill out day. The girls again tried to go swimming, but… what can I say… shoes… We went and bought out train tickets for our trip to Taidong and then we went browsing around at a couple of book/stationary stores with Laurie. For dinner, we had traditional Chiayi Turkey Rice!! (See Laurie? More Chinese food!).

Friday ended with a big poker game at Susan’s house, which turned into a social gathering that lasted until well into the night! The poker playing was over by midnight and then the drinking and chit-chat started! Laurie passed out around 2am, and Susan kicked out the last of her guests and went to bed around 4:30!

Today is Saturday and the girls have gone out for a drive and then they are going to spend some time together at the local swimming pool/spa. As Susan put it: 3^rd time’s the charm! I am taking the opportunity to write this while the girls are out! Susan will be playing in her high-stakes poker game tonight and Laurie and I will keep ourselves entertained. Tomorrow we are off to the East coast city of Taitung (pronounced Tai-dong, but for some stupid reason it is always spelled Taitung) for three days by the Pacific Ocean! I will check in with you all later to let you know how that went!

Until then: Happy Chinese New Year!