In Taiwan you collect (and give out) red envelopes containing money. It is a form of good luck. Chinese New Year is like Christmas back home. Here I am displaying the Asian "V" sign proudly.
Grandma looks pretty pissed off with me most of the time.
Spaghetti bolognaise, fried squid with ali oli (garlic mayonnaise), mozzerella salad, tomato salad, and fried peppers. And no one got sick!
After all the talk about being a great cook, Emily finally made some food for a bunch of us.
We were to mourn Grandpa's passing for forty-nine days. This meant reading Buddhist scriptures every few days and being vegetarians. On the forty-ninth day we had another banquet.
We moved into my parents' new condo in Kaohsiung. Lots of people came to visit.
We had dinner in Fengshan with some other relatives.
Red decorations were on sale all over Taiwan, sort of like seeing Christmas holiday items in December.
Returning from Ko Samet, it was tough finding a good place to stay in Bangkok as it was the holiday season back in Europe and the States. Sawadee Khaosan Inn was okay, but the buffet breakfast sucked, especially the chef cooking the eggs. (Just kidding!)
My grand-aunt took us out to eat at this new place in Kaohsiung. It was a 10-course meal of nouveau cuisine. Check out the flickr website to see the courses.
This night market is only a couple blocks from my parents' new condo. The food and clothes are cheap here. You know how there are "99 cent" stores in the states? They have a stall that has everything for "$10" in Taiwan dollars, which comes out to be 33 cents.
This is Hank's family dog, who has more clothes than I do. He wears clothes so often that when he isn't, I feel a bit awkward looking at him naked.
The homecooked meals in Taiwan are actually better than the food in restaurants. This is not to say that the restaurant food sucks, but that the homecooked meals are so much better. My grand-aunt cooked up a bunch of seafood.
This was a wierd restaurant near the train station in Fenghan. The interior was decorated to look like the 1940's.
This is a photo from December. We went out to meet Patric and his friends at a hot pot place in Kaohsiung that their friend "Spider" opened. Even on a weeknight, this place was packed at midnight.
This is the interior of the dome. It's the symbol of the Kuomingtang Party, and apparently, the national symbol of Taiwan.
