We’re five or so hours into our flight, five or so hours to go. We took off at about 11:00PM local time and it was easy to get to sleep on the flight after dinner.
For some reason, no matter how tired I am, no matter how closely the flight’s “sleep time†matches my body clock, I just can’t sleep for more that a few hours at a stretch and so here I am, trying to clear up several posts I’d started as “place markers†for later completion.
As departures go, it was less sorrowful that some, but Michelle took it really hard. Last time I don’t think she understood the concept of absence, this time she clearly does and broke into fits of hysterical crying when it was time to go. We still hadn’t loaded the cars and Batrina tried to cheer Michelle up by offering to play with her. It broke my heart as Michelle, who just couldn’t stop crying, sobbed out, “I can’t, it’s time for me to go!â€
The drive out of Taipei to the airport is a long one and frequently a complicated one.
On my first trip to Taiwan, I was flying out alone as Irene was continuing to visit for a few more weeks. The night before we had “staged†my proposal to Irene in front of her family and friends. I had already asked her and she had accepted before I went to Taiwan, but we were saving the moment till her parents were present – and then we saved it until it was time for me to leave the country to diminish any awkwardness they might feel. It was the moment they had to realize that their daughter wasn’t coming back to live in Taiwan after he schooling ended.
In those days the four of us could easily fit in the family car. (Johnny kept such weird hours that we hardly saw him.)
Nowadays, with two kids, car seats, luggage for four and the need for the whole family (plus Johnny’s girlfriend) to stay together till departure, we have to take two cars and enlist the aide of close family friends. Mr. Huang drove the family car with the kids, while Johnny and Batrina rode with them. (Michelle, in particular, adores them both and doesn’t get to spend as much time with them as anyone else.)
Irene, her mother and I rode with the family friends.
The talk in these situations usually turns to politics on the way out of town and since the conversation is in Chinese, I have time for my thoughts and reflections undisturbed by any need to interact with the others.
What thoughts did I think? Well, that’s the subject of another post, but a couple things immediately came to mind. As someone who pops in and pops out of Taiwan on a semi-regular basis, while I cannot have the perspective of a true denizen, I do have the position of seeing snapshots in time as things change.
There have been lots of changes in Taipei & Taiwan since 1998.
- My in-laws have hot water 24 hours a day
- Taipei traffic has actually improved (but still crazy by western standards)
- The country elected a president from a party not descended from the Chinese invaders of the 1940’s
- The island had a massive earthquake, the impact of which is still being felt today.
- The old, uneven and broken down sidewalks in Taipei were torn out and replaced.
- The new sidewalks are inexorably becoming like the old ones.
- The MRT system was taken from one short line and a LOT of holes and construction to a wonderful system and is now under another phase of major construction. (More holes in the ground.)
- Street signs in Taipei have been mostly standardized.
- You don’t see nearly as much of Chiang Kai-Shek anymore.
- Buildings have been torn down and rebuilt at an amazing rate
There are more, but for now that lays the groundwork of my later post(s)…