The weekend

Friday, February 5th:
I awake to my dad turning the light on into my room at 7am, which really,really, annoys me, but I am rested, so I begrudgingly wake up. The day consists of traveling downtown to get my visa issue taken care of, only to find out that I can't get a visa, since I'm already here. That means I'll have to leave Taiwan in 30 days and come back, so I'll get a trip to somewhere in Asia. Maybe Japan to visit my buddy Jason.

After the visa fiasco, I search around and find a place to take my Macbook Pro to be serviced, with the guy telling me to be back by 6pm, since he can't call me, as I am still without a working phone. In the meantime, I decided I need to take care of that problem, so I go get a prepaid SIM and pop it into my iPhone. I head back to the Apple shop, only for him to tell me that he can't get it working either, so he's sending it in to get the hard drive replaced, and I'll get it back on Wednesday. Here's hoping that it works when I get it back, and I can load all my stuff back onto it. It'll suck to have lost 2 years worth of photos.

For dinner, I call my dad, and we meet up for with his new girlfriend, who seems nice, but I still need to get to know her. After watching my dad interact with her, I am amazed at how he was able to land my mom with the way that he acts with women. Maybe it's just a different generational and cultural thing, partially the reason maybe I have a hard time connecting with my old man. My dad and I take the MRT back home, where he tortured me before going to sleep with his accordion playing.

Saturday, February 6th:
I went out with my dad to a hosted lunch by one of his friends celebrating CNY. He introduced me to one of his friends who has some experience in the semiconductor industry, and to discuss my career path/future. I later find out from my dad that he asked him to talk to me about trying to stay within an industry and not jump around from place to place. He said he had it in mind that if his friend helps me, then when his friend's child grows up, I can help him out too. It doesn't always quite work like that, as much as we would like it to.

After lunch, my dad and I parted ways, him to play mahjong with his friends, me to buy stuff for the condo, since my dad clearly does not know how to live like a decent bachelor. I went to the Carrefour (think super walmart) one stop down on the MRT from home, only to find the store had closed one week earlier. I think the sign said something about renovating it? I have no idea. In any case, I walk the rest of the way home, only to make it back right before it started pouring. I ended up staying the rest of the afternoon/night in catching up on tv shows and being bored out of my mind. I really need to start meeting people my own age to get out more.

Sunday, February 6th:
Today's the day I go see my mom's side of the family, who I hadn't see in 5 years, which was the last time I visited Taiwan. But first, I head over to the Shilin area to check out my dad's shop. He's rented out the 2nd and 3rd floors, but worked out a deal with the building's owner to have a giant advertisement on the outside of the building along the windows for all 5 floors. It's really well done, and looks pretty in the evening. The latest advertisement he has out features pictures of my brother and sister-in-law from their wedding photos, along with some other random women in dresses.

I take a look around, and it's well done inside, but then he sits me down to rehash/lecture the story of how he got to be where he is in his business. Now, I've heard this story before, multiple times even, and I got it the first time he told me. It's all getting a little old and tired, especially the part on him lecturing me about life and my career/future, etc, etc. It gets to the point I actually start developing a headache just from listening to it. I *rarely* get headaches, which will show you how much it actually bothers me listening to the same tired speech. I quickly nod and agree to everything just so I can leave and get to seeing my mom's side of the family.

After another 40min MRT ride, I finally make it to Banqiao, where four of my mom's six siblings are there to greet me, along with three of my nine cousins. It was great to see them again, and my little cousins are all grown up, but they all say that I haven't changed a bit, except that I lost some weight. I stay the day there, catch up with them, eat lunch/snacks/dinner before eventually heading to the MRT station to head back home. This entire time, my youngest cousin of 10 years old seems fascinated by me, and my general lack of knowledge of certain words and the inability to read most words. She's very inquisitive, asking if I know this word or that word, and being a typical 10 year old kid. Now, what I wasn't expecting was the joke that she told me that was for all intents and purposes, pretty racist. I won't repeat it on the blog, but I was in shock that my 10 year old female cousin. Definitely nothing on how my aunt/uncle raise her, but more so I think on playground humor, and how it's perpetuated as commonplace in Taiwan/Asia.

On the way back to the MRT, I have my first pretty white girl sighting in a very unlikely place. She was by herself on a street that's filled with street vendors for food during the day, but at night it's fairly empty and just an alleyway that doesn't even have a street designation on a map. Not a place you would expect to find a foreigner, and definitely not a pretty female one at that. Now, I would have been inclined to stop and to talk to her, but felt that might have been awkward with my two aunts by my side, so I missed an opportunity. Oh well.

I saw a few other expats on the MRT, one of whom gave me the head nod and smile when we both exited the MRT at the same time. I asked if I really stuck out that much, and he gave a hearty laugh and went along his way. I guess it's pretty bad if even the white people can pick me out amongst my own race.