Aloha, this is Lizzy!

Tonight is our last night in Hawaii. We went out to enjoy the sunset on the beach and now we're starting to pack. We've amassed many souvenirs (good news for all of you!) so hopefully we'll be able to fit it all into our suitcases!

In addition to spending a sufficient amount of time at the beach, we've visited Iolani Palace, the palace of the former Hawaiian monarchy. Very beautiful and very cool to learn more about Hawaiian history. We also went snorkeling in Hanauma Bay and saw lots of pretty fish! There were so many colorful fish that I felt like I was swimming in a tank at the Rainforest Cafe.

By far the best story I have for you is one that will entertain the recent transfers from my lazy mother's blog. My mom finished snorkeling earlier than me and my dad, so she went to rinse off in the outdoor shower area (or whatever it's called). A little girl of abour 4 or 5 was also in the shower area. Said girl turned to my mother and asked, "Are you a man?" (Btw, what would propel you to ask that kind of question?). My mother--fairly indignantly--answered "No." (as she should). It wasn't even a day when she forgot to shave her legs, so we're just assuming this little girl is stupid. Mom's still a little touchy about this experience so maybe you shouldn't mention it if/when you see her unless it's to reassure her that you're on her side. This fact does not detract from the fact that this is one of my favorite stories ... ever.

Yesterday we drove all around Oahu and toured the Dole pineapple plantation (a family favorite) and saw a bunch of other key tourist attractions. Today I took a surfing lesson (photos to wait until after I get home) and I'm no pro yet, but I'm nearly there (Duh). The two people I shared my lesson with were a couple from Plymouth, MN ... funny how we came all this way to meet up with people from home!

I'm pretty sure that covers the key points of our Hawaii trip. We hop on a plane tomorrow night to fly back to Minnesota. It's been a month-and-a-half since I've been back (is there a lot of snow right now?) and I can't wait! I'll have two weeks at home before I leave for Amsterdam--the first leg of my European trip!

So stay tuned.

The Journey Home(ish)

A car came to pick us up at 3:00AM on Monday morning. This was after my dad made a quick trip to the emergency room due to a rough bout of food poisoning (or something). We got to the Taipei airport, onto our plane, and to Osaka with little difficulty. Once in Osaka, my mom and I decided to go out to see the city a bit (another stamp in my passport!) but my dad stayed in the airport for a long nap. Then my mother and I had successfully navigated immigration & customs. This is more difficult than it sounds for two main reasons 1) they photograph and fingerprint you upon entrance which made me uncomfortable because I had already been traveling for 10 hours and looked like it AND now the Japanese government has my prints, and 2) and elderly Frenchman made conversation with us while in the immigration line and had much to say on Paris, Shanghai, Minnesota and how he was taking the time to visit many places while there is still gasoline because otherwise he won't be able to fly since he is not a bird.

So we made our way outside and took the train/subway to Namba, the southern portion of downtown Osaka. The train was completely above-ground so we got to see a lot of the city, including the beautiful Osaka Bay--also known as the reason the Osaka Airport is continually sinking. Anyway, we also saw many Japanese homes in what seem to be a surburban area and the houses are completely picturesque! They have the Japanese plant hedgings and the beautiful stone-tile roofs. We walked around the city for about 20 minutes before my mother was also hit with food poisoning (I seem to have been spared due to my recent turn to vegetarianism) so we headed back to the airport. We were only out in the city for about 2 hours but I was happy to be able to see another city/country--especially one that is so different from anywhere I've been. Also, it was interesting to test my chops in a country where I don't speak the native language. Amazingly, I've never traveled to a country where that's the case. I fared pretty well!

The flight from Osaka was uneventful. Both my parents were sick and I watched "Dan in Real Life," which was fine but did not meet my expectations. I barely slept for another night in a row, so it was with utter exhaustion that--25 hours after we left my uncle's house--we arrived in HAWAII! I basically slept all day yesterday, woke up for a snack, then slept the entire night. I enjoyed some sun today and I can't wait to hit the beach tomorrow!

MUCH LOVE from HAWAII!

Taipei

We were there for a week-and-a-half, so I'm not going to be able to fill you in on every detail, but I can give you enough stories to effectively procrastinate. The first few days were fairly tough because my dad wasn't really over his jet-lag, which contrasted greatly to the exhaustion my mom and I have been feeling due to the fact that we've been traveling for a month. On his first day my dad woke us up at 8:30 with shouts of "It's almost noon! You're going to sleep the day away! How are we going to see anything on this trip if all you do is sleep!" so we were dragged out fairly early that day. We went to Taipei 101, the (now second) tallest building in the world with 101 floors!

By his third day, my dad was starting to feel the wear and tear and finally understood that we've been doing this for 4 weeks and are pretty darn tired. We've done other exciting things, like visit the neighborhood where my dad grew up and see old friends and family. It's crazy how much can happen in 7 1/2 years ... and in my dad's case the 25 years since he immigrated to the United States! OK, so you have to forgive me because I had loads that I wanted to tell you but the computer was acting up and I couldn't upload photos and now that I can I've forgotten most of the things we did in Taipei. I do remember that we left the day before the Lantern Festival and we got to see people making the holiday's delicacy on the streets!

We came back down to my uncle's in Tainan by the high-speed train (as featured on the Amazing Race!). The trip that takes over 4 hours to drive took less than two hours by the train. It was very convenient and comfortable, and you can see my excitement at traveling like a contestant on the Amazing Race :)

We're leaving in the middle of the night tonight because this time we have a lot of luggage and need to drive up to the Taipei airport. We have an 8-hour layover in Osaka and hopefully we'll be able to take advantage of this time to tour the city a bit. If I have to sit in an airport for 8 hours I will cry. Then we're on our way to Hawaii!!! The land of sun, pineapple, and U.S. cell phone service. This means I WILL BE ABLE TO SEND AND RECEIVE TEXT MESSAGES! The break from constant technology has been liberating, but I'm ready to get back to the "real world" as I know it!

I'm back!

Back from Taipei ... relaxing at my uncle's and gearing up for the Lantern Festival tomorrow! I'm dreadfully sorry I didn't get to post during my stay in Taipei. I was very busy and seldom had the opportunity to access the Internet. But now all I have to do is kick my cousin off warcraft to get Internet time, so I should be able to update you on the past week within the next few days. My dad is finally getting situated in Taiwan after being here for about a week, though he still does cute American things like buckle his seat belt when he gets on a car and get upset when people don't wait in line for the subway.

Expect to hear from me soon!

Goodbye, Tainan

Chinese New Year is a wonderful celebration of friends and family. I miss you all SO much! The holiday actually lasts for four days and people don't go back to work until the 5th (today). Many stores and government facilities are also closed for this time, which is an interesting experience because nothing in the U.S. stays closed for more than a day! I loved receiving lots of hongbao, which are red envelopes that adults fill with money to give to children :)

On the evening New Year's Day we went to the Night Market, which was exceptionally busy. We didn't buy anything there, though we ate quite a few local treats! I discovered a new favorite drink, which is warm sweet ginger milk--it's absolutely delicious and I'm going to make it all the time when I get home! The next day, we had dinner at the home of my mom's childhood neighbors. It was fun to spend time with people who knew my mom as a young girl--some people she hadn't seen in over 20 years!--even though a lot of the conversation takes place in Taiwanese, which is a dialect that I don't understand. We've also been shopping at a local department store, which was fun, fairly inexpensive due to post-New Year's sales, and quite different from shopping back home (at the MOA, duh!).

Yesterday we took a short trip to Alishan (translation: Ali Mountain), which is a place my mother has wanted to visit for 20 years and has never quite been able to go. Alishan is famous for its sunrises, as well as beautiful forestry and other fawn and flora. I was kind of reluctant to go, but I figured: when will I ever find a better time to drive through the night to see a beautiful sunrise? We left home at 2:30am(which is earlier than I've been going to sleep), arrived at the mountain's base at 4:45am or so and took a little train up to the top, which is over 2500 meters above sea level. We got to the sunrise viewpoint at 6am and it was incredibly crowded! The sunrise was anticipated at 7:02am and it was indeed beautiful. It wasn't a red sunrise as I had hoped, but it was one of the prettier sunrises that I've seen in my life. While I was slightly peeved that I hadn't had a good night's sleep, it was heartwarming to be able to share an experience with my mother that she'd been waiting for for many years. We then walked down the mountain and drove home, arriving at about 1pm--when my cousins were waking up.

It has been a fun and relaxing stay in Tainan. We're heading up to Taipei tomorrow since my dad's arriving tomorrow night (yay!) and we'll be staying there for a little over a week. We're planning on coming back down to Tainan to celebrate my uncle's birthday! If I can manage to wake up early enough (fingers crossed) we'll go to the market in the morning to buy some of my favorite fruits and other treats. What I love about Taiwan is the opportunity to buy really good food at all hours of the day.

Happy New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year! We're resting after the festivities of last night and this morning and I'm taking the time to update you on the last week or so. (Cheers, hoots, and hollers abound.)


On our last full day in Shanghai we took a day trip to Hangzhou (literally, "Hang State"), a city that bears my name! We booked a trip with a sightseeing company and I will spare you the gritty details of our unpleasant experience with the company. I will, however, fill you in on the fact that Hangzhou, Shanghai, and other surrounding areas in Southern China--which rarely see any snow--received more snow than they've had in about 50 years. I don't know whether the states have been getting any news on the weather (and subsequent traffic congestion) in China, but it's actually mindblowing. It's the kind of wet, slippery, gross snow that we get in Providence. But Southern China's incredibly ill-equipped for snow, and it was being swept away with brooms made of branches. Most of the trees in the area are not "built" (or whatever, you know what I mean) for that much snow and we could see many trees that had toppled and branches that had broken off due to the heavy weight. We were dreadfully afraid we wouldn't make it back to Shanghai--they seal off roads when they become icy, rather than take care of it with ice and sand--and in one piece, since there's no habit for wearing seatbelts in Asia. It was, however, beautiful snow.

The snow continued into the next day, which is when we were scheduled to leave for Hong Kong. We'd been watching the news on the weather so we knew we should get to the airport early. We tried calling the airline before we left the hotel to ask about delays and cancellations, but none of our calls went through. Our flight was scheduled for 6:50pm; we arrived at 3:20pm to find that our flight had been cancelled. Not just delayed--outright cancelled. The runways had iced over and no planes could land. Due to the fact that the cancellation was weather-induced, the airline (which will remain nameless for propriety's sake)--ahem, DragonAir--was not claiming any responsibility for ensuring us seats on a flight. And then they refused to refund our money! So we stood in line for 3 hours to get standby numbers and simultaneously checked which other airlines might be flying to places that would give us easy access to Hong Kong. It was quite an overwhelming experience. Transportation was exceptionally crowded because everyone was trying to get home for the New Year.

We tried to tell them that my grandma couldn't really handle it--trying to get her on the earliest plane that went out, but they weren't being very understanding. They wouldn't even give her a meal voucher! We stuck her into her own little nook of the airport and told her to get some rest. While there, she made a friend (duh) who was on an earlier DragonAir flight that had been delayed. When he left he gifted her with the towel on which he had been sitting (seen under my cousin's ass as we're camped out in the airport, below). Grandma'ssleeping on the floor. This was that kind of bonding experience, you know? We actually made quite a few friends through this process and I now will always have somewhere to stay in Shanghai. Yay!

While I was passing time in my new home-away-from-home, frustrations were building among the people. There were still people in the standby line! DragonAir was flip-flopping regarding whether or not they would be sending additional planes to make up for the cancelled flights. How do the Chinese take care of problems? Protest.

(Okay, so the photo doesn't fully capture the chaos of the scene.) At this point, the airline starts showering the crowd with meal vouchers in hopes of appeasing them. When that doesn't work, they bring in the cavalry.



After further protesting, negotiating, pushing and shoving, we were on our way to an airplane at 1:00am! We didn't want to make grandma walk; she was kind of tired, so we put her on a luggage cart! To pad the base she used her new friend's old towel.




We finally departed Shanghai at 4:00am and arrived in Hong Kong around 6:30am. After taking a quick nap, we set off to explore a city that I came to love in the two days we had to sight-see. The weather wasn't good enough, otherwise I'd have beautiful photos of water and buildings and sky and other pretty things. But I did get to see Kim (!) and we did fun things like have dim sum and ride the world's longest escalator halfway up a mountain (it was really long!).





My family also went to get foot massages ... the reflexology kind that HURT but are supposed to rebalance your body or whatever. It was delightful. We arrived back in Taiwan late on the 5th and spent yesterday sleeping off travel exhaustion and preparing for New Year's Eve. My description of the holiday will have to wait until a later date because already I'm being called to do New Year's things.


It feels wonderful to be safe and warm (shortsleeves and sandals!) and celebrating with family, but I do miss you all dearly.

Much love!

Hong Kong

I'm IN LOVE with Hong Kong. Something I've decided in the hour or so that I've been out and about in the city. I don't want to recount our adventure to HangZhou and the experience at the Shanghai airport without sufficient visual material to accompany my post. So please wait patiently until I am back in Taiwan on the 5th and you will be thoroughly amazed by the story of my life. Don't forget about me in the meantime.

Much love to everyone!

OMIGOD.

I want nothing more than to tell you all about the last two days of my life because they are UNBELIEVABLE but I'm unfortunately paying an outrageous amount for Internet access, so it shall have to wait. Suffice to say I am currently safely in Hong Kong!