Well, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. It was Thursday evening that I got on a plane headed towards this small island in the Pacific, and when I touched down on Saturday morning (yes, I lost a complete day) I was well rested and ready to embrace this new chapter of my life.
The flight was very comfortable. After upgrading my ticket from economy to elite class, I found out that elite class was half empty for my flight and I got two seats to myself. Eva Air is a fantastic airline. The food was decent, the drinks were strong (mmm...gin and tonic), and the movies were plentiful. Having knocked out about 5 movies back, I came to the conclusion that multi-talented cast RomComs like New Year's Eve is a big waste of people's time and studio's money. I really liked My Life with Marilyn and thought that Michelle Williams did an incredible job with portraying the bombshell.
I landed early in Taipei on May 3rd (5am touchdown) and was out of the airport by 6am. I thought that the Taiwanese custom officials would stop me for carrying in 4 check-in bags along with two carry ons, but waved me through - I'm sure they've seen worse with people returning to the motherland. My Dad and Stepmom were there at the airport - both asked if I've had enough to eat.
Heading into the city, the air I was breathing in was what I remembered it when I was here back in June. A slight haze (likely smog) covered the city like a blanket, making it hard to make out the skyline. Construction was abundant - with a new subway line going to connect the city airport with Taoyuan International (Taipei's Pearson), the highway was busy with workers - working towards a deadline of Dec 2013 for completion. Incredible, this city started it's subway system back in the 90s and already it's surpassed Toronto in the number of lines and the number of people it carries. With two new lines opening downtown this year (including one right outside my grandmother's house), this is one transit friendly city.
I spent most of Saturday and Sunday with my family. My Dad still thinks I'm seven years old and insist on teaching me how to do mundane tasks like hang up my clothes or to eat noodles. It's quite funny actually except for the fact that he's incredibly stubborn and honestly cannot stand being wrong on anything (sorry Dad, Bluetooth and WIFI are two different things). What has been great is that I've gotten a chance to hang out with my grandmother for a couple of hours on both Saturday and Sunday. She's not quite sure of why I'm taking a year off, but identifies with the need to travel. She herself has travelled all over the world with various Taiwanese tour groups. In her younger days, she actually served as a tour guide in Taiwan for visitors and locals, which is why she's always had a passion for travel herself. We chatted for hours about my plans for this year and she laughed about all of the locations that I planned on going to as she's been herself - sometimes twice. Her most incredible stories and adventures were about South Africa - she loved the wildlife and the people - saying that she met some of the nicest locals she's ever met on her travels. She giggled over her photos posing with African children and told me that it was quite the sight, an old Chinese lady with a bunch of African children.
So it's Monday and it's safe to say I've started settling into my life here on the other side of the world. In five days, it'll be my one month anniversary of my last day of work, and to be very honest, I don't miss it one fucking bit. Not having to deal with the anxiety of deadlines, multiple emails requiring your attention and other office place crap has made me a happier and healthier person. I've been on walks around the city, and my first run along the riverside park was incredible today.
Over the next couple of days, as I start brainstorming and refining ideas from my book of writing material, I'll keep you posted on some of the fun things I'll be doing around the city. I plan on getting connected with a local expat group and hopefully organizing a St. Patrick's Day outing to get to meet some cool people in the city (sorry Dad, hanging out with you is not the same as hanging out with people my age.)
If any of you want to visit this awesome city, you let me know - there's a spare bedroom here at my dad's place!
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