Written on the Train: My Family in Hualien [from my personal journal]

Monday, July 9, 2012

I have a stuffy nose and red eyes because we just said goodbye to Maggie and all the others who could make it to see us off at the train station and I cried. I hadn’t cried before… I’ve come close but always held it in. But today it was the right time. 

Our time in Hualien is over now… but it was amazing. When we first got to Hualien on Friday, we attended a Rotary meeting right away, and were given a very warm welcome. They asked Dad to say a few words, and despite his stage fright, he didn’t hesitate to agree. His thank you for hosting me and taking care of me was heartfelt and beautiful. The emotion was raw and plain to see, and though many of the Rotarians could not understand his words, they clearly understood his message. It was a beautiful moment, but only one of many.

Maggie and I have a tradition: after each Rotary meeting, we go out and get 豆花. This time, we were joined by Celia, who had never had 豆花 before. She enjoyed it, and I enjoyed the quiet time spent with 2 of the people I love most.

Celia and I have many, many things in common. Just one of these is a love for mochi, which we each got to indulge on Friday afternoon thanks to the hospitality of our club member Mochi. He treated my entire family to as much mochi as we could eat, and then all that we could carry! We gorged and chatted, and almost before I knew it, it was time for us to go. We said our goodbyes and thanked Mochi, then went with Maggie to another of my favorite places to go with her: Qisingtang. This stony beach was one of her favorite places as she grew up, and was my favorite place to play in the waves, then walk and chat with her. As my family skipped stones, frolicked in the waves, and picked pretty pebbles to take home (or, in Lance’s case, practiced his martial arts on the beach), I felt a deep sense of peace and contentment.

Soon, it was time to go to dinner. Mochi and Maggie drove us to the restaurant, where we were joined by a variety of people. Maggie, Mr. Lee, and Nicole [Mama, Baba #1, and younger sister]; Lunch [Baba #2]; and Apple and Sand [Mama and Baba #3] were all there. Further, we were joined by: TV [my counselor] and his wife; Stone [a Rotarian with very good English and a pleasant disposition] and his wife; Attorney [the YEP representative in our club] and his wife [one of the most fun women I have ever met]; and Plant [the club VP]. I gave a small gift from New Mexico to each of them, and received quite a few gifts in return, including a Dior perfume. Once the dinner was concluded, the fun was not over. We went to Mitsubishi’s souvenir shop, where we made a couple of purchases, and then to the stone market. I got the jewelry set I’ve had my eye on for quite some time: matching jade earrings and necklace. The earrings are shaped like 8’s, and the necklace is the same but with 3 loops. This is because the number 8 is lucky in Taiwanese culture, and the ‘double 8’ of my necklace is, thus, doubly lucky. The store had a fixed price policy, but thanks to TV being friends with the proprietor and my haggling, I got them at a 600 NT discount. This still cleaned me out moneywise, but I was quite happy.

Saturday dawned bright and early, and saw us all at the Hualien train station at 7:50 AM. We quickly bought our bus tickets, then got onto the bus that would take us to our destination: Taroko National Park. We skipped the Visitor Center and started the day with a short walk along Shakadang trail, which was a first for me (I’ve been to the park 5 times before, but never gotten to do that walk). We spotted spiders and caterpillars, but none of the ‘killer bees’ or ‘poisonous wasps’ the signs in the area warned us of. A short bus ride took us to Buluowan, where we had a short nap in the theater [the film was in Chinese, the air conditioner was heavenly, and the seats were super comfortable; how could we not succumb!?] and then an early lunch. One more bus ride took us to Swallow Grotto, where we walked and admired the formations. At this point, we decided to return to Hualien, where we took a taxi to the B&B. I tried to help Mom get rid of a calf cramp, but couldn’t figure it out and was thus not very helpful. She shooed me away to pack, so I gathered my boxes and excess things and packed as much into said boxes as I could. Then we piled into another taxi, which took us to the only open Post Office to ship my stuff home. This process took far longer than I thought it should have: we had to fill out the forms, then we discovered that they would not take the card, only cash. We tried the ATMs in the building, but none allowed us to withdraw money. We ended up exchanging money, which took a good time longer. We ended up being there nearly an hour, even past closing time, just to send those two boxes. Finally, we finished and headed over to Starbucks, where the rest of the family and Gabriela were waiting for us. We walked around the downtown clothing market. Dad found 3 shirts to give to other people, but none of my family members got shirts for themselves. [I already have a Taiwan shirt, but the goal is for each of us to have one.] After Gabi left, we indulged in a pineapple shaved ice treat, which helped us to deal with the crippling heat before continuing to shop. Celia found a nice sundress; I found one too, but since I had no money I had to pass on it. However, I did still have some coins… so when we went to the bookstore/office supplies store in the area, I was able to buy 4 pens and a little notebook, which I intend to use to continue practicing my Chinese in the US.

With our shopping completed for the day, we took another taxi, this time to Zoe’s family restaurant. They treated us to yet another banquet-style dinner, which was absolutely delicious. When we had eaten our fill, we sat around the table with Zoe, her parents, and occasionally her brothers (2^nd and 5^th grade boys who tend to bicker but are very sweet when they want to be) and drank tea and chatted for over an hour. We also encountered an English teacher from my school with his wife and 3-month-old daughter (named April, for the month in which she was born), as well as Flower, another of my lovely classmates. He is quiet but we get along very well, so it was a very pleasant evening.

Yesterday was a bit slower than much of our trip has been. We got to sleep in a bit, enjoying our breakfast at 8 o’clock. We got to laze about a bit, until around 10, when Maggie and Mr. Lee showed up to take us out traveling. Originally, we had planned to go to Shitiping, a beach far away (yet still in Hualien County) but due to several factors (primarily our dismay at traveling so far) we ended up traveling around Hualien City instead. Our first stop was at the Tzu Chi Foundation. We had our tour of the auditorium, which Maggie and Mr. Lee had not known was possible – so it was a first for everyone but me. I did get to see new things, though, as our tour guide (a man originally from Kaohsiung who studied in the US for a long time) took us to see a few rooms I had not visited before. Our tour ended up taking until nearly noon, so we stayed with the guide for the [vegetarian] lunch. Our next stop was a Japanese temple, preserved from the colonial time. However, the heat pushed us to, once more, indulge in ice. This time, we went to the Ji An Food Company. I had a nice passionfruit ice cream, and Dad had bamboo coffee ice cream [it tasted of coffee, but was gray]. Celia and Lance had lemon popsicles, and Mom’s was passionfruit. Maggie and Mr. Lee also had lemon ‘ice-lollies.’ Finally at a comfortable temperature, we were reluctant to return to the heat, so we took Maggie’s suggestion and went to the department store FE21 for a while. Mom bought some nesting pots for me, then we went downstairs to A. Mart to buy supplies for our evening BBQ. That done, we returned to Sand’s house / our B&B to rest for a while. At 6 we headed out again, but this time to the Aboriginal Dance performance being held about 10 minutes away. We declined all offers of food, since we’d be eating at the barbecue anyway, and just enjoyed the dancing. The first group to dance was Amis students from Si Wei Senior High School in Hualien. Then there was a group of much younger students, from an elementary school. Their costumes featured turquoise and black as the primary colors, and I was rather enthralled with their performance, miming the life of a millet farming family. I do not know which tribe they were. We were not able to see the rest of the performances, because we had to return to the B&B for the BBQ. Everyone was already there, waiting for us, which was slightly embarrassing for me. I was so happy to see them, though, that it didn’t really matter. Zoe’s family was all there, though she couldn’t be because of a church camp; her parents took over the food, tending the barbecue and distributing the rice noodles they had prepared in advance. John, Jack, Allen, and Stitch (so named because she loves Stitch from Disney’s Lilo and Stitch) all attended as well. We had a lovely time; at one point, we played limbo. Celia impressed everyone, as she tends to do. I was also very impressed by Sand’s niece, who speaks English very well (she’s in her senior year at the language college in Kaohsiung) and was ridiculously good at Limbo. Sand and a few other Rotarians also joined us around 9:30, after they returned from their trip to Yilan. I received a gift from each person, which was surprising and touching. Eventually I dragged myself up the stairs, where I began the slow process of packing.

Thus, the morning began far too early: at 6:15. Even without having to shower or pack much, I still needed all the time up until breakfast (at 7) to get organized. We had a nice breakfast, and Willy (he’s 10) even set the alarm so he could say goodbye to me. Then we piled our things into my fathers’ (Mr. Lee and Sand’s) cars and I bid Apple farewell; she was fighting back tears when we left. At the train station, Maggie surprised me with a last-minute gift: a jade bracelet. We each started crying, and then had to do the pictures in front of the train station with tears on our cheeks. I couldn’t stop crying, and am fighting back tears even now, hours later, as I write this. Maggie is one of the most fundamentally good people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. 媽媽, 我愛妳.