Lombardos Come to Taiwan

As soon as winter break began, my brother came to visit me for a special Christmas in Taiwan--to be followed several days later by my parents.  My brother and I went to Midnight Mass near Da'an Park with a few of my friends.  We kept the tradition alive of going to IHOP afterwards to make New Year's resolutions by going to a 豆漿 (a Taiwanese breakfast restaurant that stays open late).

We flew down south to Taidong Province for a few days to surf in Dulan and bike around Chihshang 池上, whose open fields were made famous by an Eva Airlines tourism commercial.  We also hiked into a riverbed to soak in the 紅葉橋 natural hot springs.

Having my brother here reminded me how far I'd come in my Chinese language journey, and how different immersion is to any other language-learning experience.  I've grown so accustomed to life here that it was funny to accompany my family as they processed everything for the first time.  My brother read the Mass Rapid Transit sign as the Mr. T.  I forgot that it's not normal to be the tallest everywhere I go or have strangers secretly take photos of me on the street.  My family made me realize how little/cheaply I eat normally, how much I walk daily, and how stinky stink tofu is.  They were most shocked by how orderly and reserved everyone is in public.

Passing stinky tofu stall in night market

At a teahouse in Maokong

We took a short, incredible trip to 小琉球 Lambay Island, a new place even for me.  As predicted, my brother loved getting to drive a moped around the circumference of the small island (my parents were reluctant passengers), and I loved snorkeling in the surf with a bale of huge sea turtles.  We hiked through caves and played mahjong as a family.

We stayed at a hot springs resort in Beitou

For New Year's Eve, I took them to the party inside the 101 observatory deck, from which the fireworks are launched.  It is meteorologically impossible for Taipei not to be cloudy in the last hours of a calendar year, but we probably still could see the fireworks better than anyone on the ground or surrounding hillsides.  As the only foreigners at the party, we were the only ones dancing--and probably drank more Taiwan Beers than any one else.  My family was shocked by how everyone was sitting to listen to the live performers.  Afterwards they got to experience Taiwanese excellence in crowd control firsthand as we took the MRT home on the one day a year it runs all night.