2024 spring cruise

(1 ) Flight —— SEA to TPE 4-(12-13)-2024.

Fully booked with 500+ passengers, the Eva 12+ hrs trans-Pacific flight was no lack of eventful happenings. We were squeezed in with 9 people seating abreast in 3 groups of 3. Mom and I were in the middle of the 3×3 seats, with mom in the middle between me on the left and a 300 lbs fat man on the right. Poor mom was like seating next to a mountain of meat packages bulging over in all directions and, as expected, that meat pile smelled like hell. Mom had to use extra blankets as support to ward off the meat invasion, but not the odor. On the other hand, at the window seat across on our left was a female doctor. You may think rich doctors would be in the first class. Instead, she not only stayed like us in the general cheap seat area, she was also the first to jump to action when doctor was needed onboard. During the long flight, she could hardly rest, as sick calls were often and often quite urgent. Since patients could not come to the doctor, she had to make house —- or seat —- calls. When that happened, we loss sleep also because she caused so much commotion。 around us every time she needed to move in and out of her window seat.

(2-1) TPE streets 4-(13-27)-2024

A landmark temple 龍山寺

There are two distinct noticeables in the streets of Taipei or any city in Taiwan. 7-Eleven stores seem to be everywhere. These mini-supermarkets provide daily nessecities in life for the locals. If 7-eleven is material, the following one is spiritual. Temples large and small are dotted all over the city, particularly in populated market places or residential areas. Given that over 90% of the people in Taiwan consider themselves buddhists, it is not surprising, therefore, to see that locals visit 7-elevens maybe a few times a day, but they must pass by these temples big and small very often, stop at every one of them and quietly perform worship rituals.

(2-2) 建國中學

建國中學, I was saluted by the guard at the gate when he realized that I was a super old alum.

lotus lake across the street, our campus pond, remained practically unchanged. Everything around—- the trees, the rocks, and the flowers —- looked so familiar. Even the mosquitoes, relentless as ever, caught mom unprepared.