Day 1 - escape to National Palace Museum

Bloop. Today was the first full day in Taiwan. It's strange being back to Taiwan so soon after my last visit in 2009. Now Taiwan seems like a slightly familiar place, which is odd because last time it felt so foreign. I braved my way from my aunt's house where my parents and I are staying to the hotel where my sister Ursula and brother-in-law Andy are staying by myself today, I was so proud! Last time I was in Taiwan I was forbidden to travel by myself, so this was very luxurious for me. As my dad was walking me to the bus stop, the bus sped past us so I ran to catch it. As I hopped on just as it was pulling away, I turned back to my dad and gave him a gleeful, guilty smile and the bus took me to freedom! I took the bus first to the subway, where I was reminded how polite people in Asia are. It was pretty busy with the usual rush hour crowd, yet it was eerily quiet. I guess they are just very considerate of each other. Here's a picture of a bunch of quiet Asians going about their day.

I met up with Ursula and Andy at their hotel and we went off to the National Palace Museum. When the Communists took over China, the other party called the KMT fled to Taiwan and took (stole?) all the important artifacts from ancient China and the Forbidden City, hid them in random places like sugar cane factories, and once the commotion died down they put the artifacts in this museum. Pretty nice war spoils, especially for the losing side. My dad had recommended we go to the restaurant in the museum for lunch, although he warned it was "very very expensive." We were a little wary because of his warning, but when we got there we were pleasantly surprised to see dishes were about $5 each. I guess compared to normal restaurants where $5 can feed about three people, this was extravagant. The restaurant felt disproportionately nice for the price we paid, which was about $10 per person including nice tea and dessert. So we lived like kings and ate some delicious food. The tea was the best part, we got one that had the aroma of coconut and a surprisingly creamy taste. Here is a picture of Ursula and me at the restaurant.

For dinner we met up with my mom's family. I sat between my grandfather who has Alzheimer's and my counsin's 6-year-old daughter. Every couple minutes my grandfather would turn to my mom and ask her to remind him of my name. Then he spent most of the dinner telling me I had to be very serious as a doctor around male patients or they would take it the wrong way. He told me this about 20 times, no exaggeration. Each time I figured I should act like it was the first time since he probably didn't remember he had already said it. While this was going on, the 6-year-old was making Chinese animal noises, although I stumped her with the noise of a rabbit. If you are curious, they make a snorting noise.