Shady Nasty

It is 3:59am, and I am sitting in the bathroom of the most disgusting hotel I've ever been to in the middle of Taoyuan, Taiwan. Mr. Roger and I are staying here so we can catch an early flight to the airport to go home, but I really regretted my choice. I just asked my taxi driver for a cheap hotel, cuz I would be here for less than 5 hours. After driving around at midnight asking 3 different places, this hotel was the only one with an available room, but the receptionist told me I would have to wait until 1:00 am for the guest to check out.

Why would anyone check out of a hotel at 1:00 am??

Turns out this is one of those pay-by-the-hour hotels.

UGHHHHHHH.

When the room was finally cleaned and available, there were 2 sets of doors to walk through to get in the room, for extra privacy. Then, upon walking into the main chamber, a wave of cheap air freshener hit my nose, followed by the faint smell of cigarettes leftover by the guest(s) before us. I gingerly set my luggage down, immediately regretting this choice of lodging. I didn't want to touch anything in the room, fearing I might contract some disease. Roger and I didn't even bother changing into sleep clothes and kept our socks on because we just felt so grossed out. Roger is sleeping peacefully now, but I was tossing and turning the past 2 hours, trying not to think about what transpired in this room just a few hours ago. I tried to think about crafts, about my cute grandparents and the great time I spent with them this last week, I tried to think of babies, but nothing worked to help me sleep. Every time I tossed and turned, I'd get a whiff of cigarettes in the air and would wonder just how clean the blanket was. By 3:00 am, I couldn't take it anymore. I figured the bathroom was probaly the cleanest part of the room, and was probably no worse than a public bathroom. So, I've been sitting in here for the past hour, reading blogs, Facebooking, and checking work email. Only 45 minutes to go before I leave this crummy hotel room.

What a way to end this trip to Taiwan. I'm sure in a year I'll be laughing about this...

Back home

I am home. Not in the back-in-my-cozy-San-Diego-apartment kind of home, no. I am home in the sentimental, nostalgic, back-in-the-place-where-I-grew-up-and-lived-for-5-years home. Taiwan was where I spent a fifth of my life. Twenty years ago, my family packed up everything in our home in Yuanli and went to California for good. I was so young, I didn't wonder if I would ever see this place again. But as time went on, through elementary to high school, and especially in college, I kept on wondering when I'd be able to go back to Taiwan.

Taiwan, from my 5-year-old perspective, was characterized by grey skies, scooter rides with my mom from school, train rides to Grandma's eating boxed lunches, trips to Taipei and being mesmerized by the big city, and eating a whole lotta street food. 

So with all these nostalgic, wonderful memories, do I feel at home? It's hard to say. It certainly didn't feel like home when I landed. Trying to get from the airport to my hotel yesterday was a two hour ordeal as my coworker and I were trying to figure out the subway system in the middle of a busy station with all our luggage. A kind young girl who spoke pretty good English saw our pitiful state and helped us buy tickets. When we got to our station, there were no escalators or elevators so I had to lug my suitcase up 3 flights of stairs. Then we discovered we went out the wrong exit and had no idea where our hotel was. When I finally found it 10 minutes later, I checked into the hotel and got upgraded to the "Eagle Suite"-- complete with a hot tub and 3 TVs in the room. It's pretty snazzy, I guess reward for my hard work, and a wonderful place to spend my anniversary with Mr. Roger. In the midst of getting our bearings, I didn't get to stop and think, "I am in Taiwan."  That is, until last night when I went to Shilin Night Market and it all felt foreign yet so familiar. I don't believe I ever went there as a kid, so in that sense it was new to me, but the night market experience is nothing new. 

Today I went to church, and afterwards went window shopping. When I revealed that I wasn't living in Taiwan, I was asked twice if I was back home from abroad. In Chinese, it's asked, "國外回來?" Both times I was asked, I had to pause because I didn't quite know how to respond. In some ways, yes but...you know. 

Anyway, I still haven't quite sorted out my feelings yet, but I am looking forward to two things:

1) Visiting my hometown of Yuanli tomorrow

2) Having Mr. Roger with me for the remainder of this trip. He's coming in ~6 hours! With him by my side, it'll always feel like home wherever I am ♥.

The Middle Kingdom

Two years, several international travels, and my own wedding later...I'm back blogging. I think.

This time I'm traveling on my own, at least for a week, and Mr. Roger will be joining me in the motherland (Taiwan!) next week. In the meantime, I am traveling to China for a business trip and will be hitting 3 cities in 5 days. It's going to be rather intense, with a day full of work, factory tours, trying to decipher the mainland Chinese accent, and then writing a work report at the end of each day. 

-----

It's funny...I've been trying to get my butt over to China for the past 3 years. My first attempt  was at my previous company where my bosses and I made big plans to go on a business trip to China. We had already obtained our Chinese visas, were working closely with a company we had targeted in the city of Weihai, and even got an invitation letter from the company with travel dates. But I left the company after 3 months, and my bosses canceled the trip at the last minute for reasons that are unknown to me. So that trip never materialized. 

Attempt #2 was earlier this year in January with my current company. I had gotten an invitation letter with travel dates, booked hotels, and we even bought plane tickets. Then, a month before the trip,  the president of the company called it off and froze all unnecessary  travel indefinitely due to budget restrictions. I was so devastated. I had made so many plans and paid for Roger's ticket already. I had to untell a lot of people too, such as the companies I was visiting, my friends I planned to see, and my own grandparents in Taiwan whom I promised to visit. 

So here I am now, at Attempt #3. Things fell together pretty quickly. I was asked to go to China (travel is now permitted again at work) just at the beginning of August. The president of the company allowed it, so I scrambled and successfully got my passport renewed AND got a Chinese visa in less than 2 weeks. The past month at work has been mostly planning for this trip. So, here I am now, in LAX, waiting for my 1:05 flight to Shanghai. Let's see if this trip materializes.