inservice and mom's visit

Wow, I haven't written at all during these two weeks of vacation...where do I start.
Well I guess at the beginning would be nice.
Picking Mom up from the airport. More difficult than one would expect. I took the High Speed rail to Taoyuan, where I was told I would take a free bus to the airport. I got on the bus and waited as it filled up with travelers for Chinese new Year. Well, the bus driver came over to me and started saying really fast Chinese so I didn't understand...then he breaks out English and tells me I need to buy a ticket. So, I bought the ticket that wasn't too much....feeling confused as why the signs say "free airport shuttle bus" but you still pay. Hmmm. About 45 minutes later I arrive at the airport and meet some other foreigners that guide me to where I should wait. I was getting so excited to see someone from home. I waited probably 45 minutes before I saw mom. While I waited, I decided to use a piece of my journal paper and write "MOM" on a piece of paper. When I arrived in August, I thought it was awesome how someone was holding a sign with my name...so I thought maybe she would get a kick out of it too. She walked in the opposite direction when she came out of the terminal, so I ended up yelling her name before our movie-scene reunion (the big hug that ends up me getting twirled around). So, I figured out how to get her, now how to we get back to Taipei to find the hotel? We walked around the airport trying to find a shuttle to the MRT, which was more challenging that I had expected. I know she was exausted and the last thing she wanted was to walk around aimlessly, but I hadn't really expected that delay. After another shuttlebus, the MRT, and a taxi, we arrived at the hotel and got to bed around midnight. We had to wake up at 5 am to catch our 3 hour train to the Hualien inservice. I had planned to sleep on the train, but Mom was so excited and wanted to catch me up on everything, so we chatted and observed the countryside. Once we got to the train station, we were shuttled to the resort and taken right into the inservice where I gave my speech within 5 minutes of arriving. What a whirlwind morning. It was nice to see everyone and catch up. I finally got to breathe as we took a lunch break before loading up a tour bus to check out Taroko Gorge. I don't typically tour places in a group, so at times I felt as if we were rushed or "hurded," but we got to see a lot in a short amount of time. We had an awesome little old man as a tour guide and he had some great history of the Aboriginals that live in Haulien. Men used to hunt for human heads by fighting with their bare hands. The more skulls they had, the more worthy of a man they were. Facial tattoos also showed the status of an aboriginal person. When the Japanese were in rule of Taiwan, they banned the Aboriginal human head hunting, which caused major problems between the Japanese and the Aboriginals. I'm going to look more into the history online sometime....I found it to be a very fascinating story. The gorge was absolutely beautiful, and though it's a cliche, pictures truly could never do it justice. After the gorge, we were all ready for a little downtime. Mom had misplaced (or customs took it) her blood pressure medicine, had jetlag, and some culture shock, so as you could imagine...she was being such a trooper at this point. once we arrived back at PromisedLand Resort, she hit the bed and was out for the night. I knew before long, we were going to have to find a way to get her medicine...or else she would not be able to do any of the things we had done. So, while Mom was resting, the group had a "bbq dinner" which I was expecting to be the typical Taiwanese bbq...a lot of meats and squid over an open flame. Boy, was I wrong. This was a five star resort and definitely a five star meal. Crab, Italian food, you name it. Oh delicious. After being stuffed to the max, I decided I wanted to re-join mom and perhaps relax for once in a few days... so I filled a plate of food for her, and went back to the room. I felt bad making commotion, but she got up for a bit...pretty much to tell me to join my friends because she was down for the count. So, I got on my suit and hit the hot springs with the rest of the group. This was the most fun I've ever had in a hot spring. There was a really hot pool, hot tub-ish temp, bath water, then really cold pools....so of course the big water slide went into the really cold pools...and we all had a blast acting like little kids going down the slide, screaming at the cold water, then running to a hot water spring. It was a great time. Since I was running on nearly no sleep, I called it a night early. Everyone else planned to watch Obama's inauguration at 10pm....so I left at about 930 and watched some tv before going to bed. The next morning was free time...which was awesome. Mom and I walked around the resort, which was absolutely paradise! I feel bad that this was mom's initial impression of Taiwan, because once we went back to my town, the culture shock really set in for her. We took a 15 minutes boat ride around the resort, and checked out the rest of the area. We were both so excited that the horse-riding was so cheap...and we love riding together so we jumped on that opportunity. Well, it ended up being an adult pony ride. I had help getting onto the horse, and was led around in a cirlcle with someone leading the horse with the reins. Good thing it was only a few minutes, because I was about to explode. PromisedLand should've been the last part of the trip so she could leave Taiwan after relaxation and pampering. I'm glad we got to spend the day and a half in Hualien though...it was awesome.
After our departure from Hualien, we were set for Taipei and back to the hotel we stayed at mom's first night. Now that it was just us two, we were free to roam on our own time and at our own pace, which was really nice. The first night after settling into the hotel, we hit the night market in Taipei city. It was enormous and packed. I don't think mom was crazy about the night market atmosphere, but I loved it. Great bargains, so much to see! One interesting thing that I've never heard of or seen happen...we were looking at an item and said we'd think about it and come back...and the lady kept saying no we will leave if the police come...and we weren't too sure what that was about...but about an hour later we figured it out. We saw all the vendors that were set up in the middle of the market take off down alley-ways and hide their shacks on wheels. They must need a permit or something to sell, and so many don't, so they have a look-out person and once police are spotted, they call it a night. It was pretty funny how everyone just accepted this and got out of the way of the hustling vendors.
Mom was dying to try new foods before coming to Taiwan, but after the night market where she saw more unidentifyable foods and smelled stinky tofu, she had no appetite. I convinced her to atleast eat McDonalds. Its not a favorite of ours, but something recognizable was necessary at this point. My happy meal definetely always makes me happy. (If you've gotten the bad e mail from Greg Oshust forwarded to you, you know why I was hesitant to write about McDonalds. I was highly criticized for eating western food and "wasting my cultural experience" HA!)
Day #2 was the Taipei Zoo. We were both really hoping to see Twan Twan and Yuen Yuen, the two Pandas that were given to the zoo from China as a peace offering. But, they were not on display until after Chinese New Year, which was still about three days away. The zoo was very empty, but the animals were extremely active. It was a great time. We took our time, took some great shots, and saw active animals throughout the entire zoo. I especially enjoyed the zebras that were running and jumping on one another. Even the hippos gave us a show!
After the zoo we had planned to check out Taipei 101. The stores are a little above our standard, but I still wanted to give mom the chance to be in the tallest building in the world, and perhaps gawk at Tiffany jewelry. We got there around the time everything was closing, so it was a short tour of 101. We had decided to have a nice dinner around 101 that night, so we found Chili's and ate there. Mom was wanting a steak, and I just wanted something delicious, so we both were satisfied. It was an abnormally expensive meal for two people at Chilis, but that's what you get at a restaurant that makes foreign foods. Well worth it in my eyes.
After dinner we were both ready to relax. The next morning, we slept until 11 and neither of us could believe that we slept in that long. We were going to take the train at 12, but didn't want to rush, so we ended up taking the high speed rail back to Chiayi.
Mom was in awe at the business front of my house, just as I had expected. She loves furniture and antiques, and all of it is french inspired, so she was ooh'ing and awe'ing for quite sometime. LOL.