Taiwan - Day 4 (The Villa)

Enjoying a few Taiwanese beers while overlooking the town from the villa balcony

Monday, January 2, 2012 

I realize this is getting to be a boring and repetitive way to start each blog... but despite getting in earlier than usual, I had poor sleep again last night.  This time it was because of the extreme cold temperatures in my new hotel room.  I had trouble figuring out how to shut the window last night, so I left it open a crack, thinking it wouldn't be a problem.  I also had trouble figuring out how to use the thermostat, which I think was also broken.  So that all led to some seriously cold sleeping conditions.

Finally some food I recognize

In the morning Steph and I went to an American style cafe down the block for breakfast.  I had been trying exotic Asian dishes nonstop since I arrived in Taiwan, so I thought it was time to return to my roots for one meal.  Leaving nothing to ambiguity, I ordered a dish called the "American Breakfast" plus a latte.  It was a very comforting knowing that I didn't have to ask what I was eating before each bite.

The plan for the day was to travel to the family's villa about 1.5 hours south in Taiwan.  They own a few pieces of real estate, but this is the only one outside of the city.  Steph and I took the train down to the area while the rest of the family went down in the van.  It was cool seeing the scenes along the train tracks as we left Taipei, and I was actually very surprised and impressed with how developed the areas we passed were.  I was expecting things to be a lot more undeveloped outside of Taipei, but although buildings looked old and not well maintained (partially b/c of the weather conditions I'm sure), everything seemed functioning well and there were lots of areas of tall buildings that few areas in Los Angeles even have.

The villa from higher up the mountain

We arrived and met the family for lunch at a Chinese restaurant in the nearby town.  Afterwards we headed to the villa which is about halfway up a mountain, and her dad gave us a tour of the property.  It was obvious of how proud he was of it, as he has owned it for nearly 30 years and put a lot of work into developing the land into what it is today.  It was cool being in an area outside of the busy Taipei city limits, and there were nice views of the town below from this property.  We hung out there until around 4ish before hitting the road back to busy Taipei.

This seemed too cute not to post

Back at the apartment they had a guest come over, the girls' English tutor as children.  She was very close with everyone, and was repeatedly described to me as "like family" to them.  She seemed to want to sit down with everyone individually to discuss new life developments.  She sat down with me and Steph to meet me, in what I would describe as a cross between a psychology session and an exit interview.  In typical Asian fashion (as explained to me by Nick), she asked me a series of very direct questions about my trip, my relationship with Stephanie, the differences between Asian and western families, and other such fun topics.  A little strange to me, but I'm starting to get used to that at this point.

Rooting on the NY Giants at the Brass Monkey

We all hung out at the apartment for awhile drinking tea and watching several episodes of a British childrens' show with baby William.  Then at 8 pm, the three sisters and the three guys headed out to Brass Monkey, the sports bar in town, in large part because I wanted to watch the New York Giants football game.  The Giants-Cowboys "winner take all" regular season finale had been played earlier that morning (Taiwan time) and was going to be replayed on TV at the bar at 8:30 so we headed there for dinner, drinks, and to watch the game.  It was an Irish-style pub, which made Nick feel right at home, and a sports bar, which made me feel right at home.  Since the other two guys were European and didn't follow "American football", I was finally able to share some expertise with the group, and also very impressed as Stephanie extensively explained the rules and strategy of football in Mandarin to her sisters.  There were actually several other people at the bar who seemed really into the game, which seemed surprisingly, but this might be the only sports bar in town.  The other four of our group played pool for much of the second half, while Steph and I rooted the Giants on to victory.  Woohoo.