On hiatus: heading to Malaysia!

I know, I know...I had all of 2+ weeks in the US and I'm still not caught up on blogging from stuff that happened in December, not to mention more about Taipei! However, I'm going to Malaysia (as in I'm flying out in 4 hours) for the next 10 days, so just think of how much more interesting my entries/photos will be afterward ;-) Scheduled cities: Penang, Langkawi, back to Penang, Kuching, and Kota Kinabalu.

Of course, I'll be taking notes along the way in my travel journal, but I'll only have intermittent internet access, probably not enough for uploading photos and writing long entries, so I'll just have to transcribe from my journal when I get back. Ta-ta!

No root canal!

My last morning in Taipei, I met Aunt Karen and Uncle Peter at their hotel, from which we took a taxi to La Cisterna, the restaurant Aunt Jeanette had chosen for lunch. Although it’s in a basement, It’s quite an elegant place, with a waterfall + koi pond outside and tasteful interior décor. Clearly, it’s one of Aunt Jeanette’s favorite places – she knew the manager and exactly what she wanted to order =P

With slightly less pain in my tooth, I was able to enjoy most of the meal, a smorgasbord of delicious flavors and textures. I think my favorite was the super-tender egg-y tofu and vegetable soup, although the sesame pancake with red bean paste was good too. It was also super cute at the end when they brought out the orange slices/cherry tomatoes – the orange slices were cut into bunny shapes!

Hoppin' around the tomatoes

After lunch, we simply went back to the hotel to pick up my luggage and put me on a bus for the airport – note to anyone going to Taipei, the airport is about an hour’s bus ride away from the actual city, so plan your transition time accordingly! The flight back to Macau was mildly painful even after popping some Motrin/Tylenol, because of the extreme changes in air pressure, but I made it through.

This morning I called Dr. Yang, a dentist that the ELC director had recommended, and he said I could come this afternoon. I had gone to see him in December when I was starting to get annoyed about my teeth’s sensitivity to cold, and at that point he had warned I had a lot of minor cavities that would be better off filled-in sooner rather than later. I had declined to do any that time, wanting to consult my dentist back in the US, but now this was an emergency =P

I showed Dr. Yang the x-ray from Taiwan, he poked around for a bit, and we discussed treatment options for a while. The conclusion was that we should first try filling in the two minor cavities in that tooth. If that didn’t work, he would try taking out the filling from August to see if there was further decay underneath. If that didn’t help, I would probably need a root canal. I opted for the top-notch filling, the porcelain, and he went to work. After the first filling, he used his camera-on-a-stick to show me what he had done, and he actually found a third spot around the back of the tooth, where it’s most difficult for a brush to reach. He filled in that one too, and when he was done, I rinsed with cool water…

…and felt no pain whatsoever.

It was seriously amazing given that I hadn’t been able to drink cold things without a straw or rinse with cold water for the past three months (at least). I commented on this mini-miracle, and Dr. Yang just smiled. He sent me off with some anti-inflammatory medicine to ease any lingering problems, a firm reminder to brush/floss more often, and a little extra happy skip in my step that I wouldn’t be needing a root canal, at least not immediately. That tooth will probably continue to give me problems for the rest of my life, but for now, I’m just happy I don’t have to use hot water to brush my teeth.

Toothache in Taipei

Starting with the flight from Newark to Taipei, my teeth had been kind of twinge-ing all day yesterday, but a Motrin or Tylenol usually took care of the problem. However, when I woke up this morning, one particular tooth was absolutely throbbing -_- It was also super-sensitive to any pressure, so even rinsing with warm water hurt. Plan of action: (1) Call Aunt Karen to ask her to call the relatives in Taipei we were supposed to meet later to ask if they had someone they recommended, and (2) start looking up dentists in Taipei on various expat websites.

Background information: I had a filling done in the aching tooth back in August, and ever since then the whole side had been sensitive to cold foods/liquids. I had already consulted with a dentist in Macau and one at home in the US, both of whom said to brush and floss more carefully to reduce the slight gum inflammation, and the American dentist also gave me some samples of Sensodyne toothpaste.

Step 2 turned out to be unnecessary but it was a semi-reassuring process for a couple reasons. First, I knew that I would have been able to handle the situation even if I didn’t have support from family. Second, the expat guides had several suggestions of good places where the dentists understood/spoke English and had experience with all kind of stuff, including root canals. In any case, by 11 AM, Aunt Karen/Uncle Peter met me at the hostel, where we were picked up by one of the many “cousins” in Taipei. (Interestingly, this cousin is technically in my generation, but he is only a few years younger than Aunt Karen and has children who are only a few years younger than I am!)

The original plan had been to meet the rest of the family and all go out to lunch together, but we detoured to the dentist first, only a few blocks away from the cousin’s home. The dentist took an x-ray and poked around a bit, then promptly proclaimed that I should have the dying nerve removed. This sounded a bit drastic to me, so I instead opted to take some antibiotics to fight any developing infection and continue taking Motrin until I got back to Macau and saw a dentist there. That way, if I did need a root canal, I would also be able to have one dentist do the whole procedure (I would also thus avoid flying with a huge hole in my tooth).

That settled, we continued to lunch, where I met Aunt Karen’s/Dad’s cousin, his wife, and his older son (the younger son had been the one taking us around). It hurt to chew anything (even on the non-aching side because my teeth would bump together on both sides), but I managed to at least sample most of the dishes. If anything, my predicament made my relatives even more solicitous, e.g. making sure my piece of fish didn’t have bones. There were at least 10 courses ranging from “Buddhist Jumping Over the Wall” (supposedly the aroma of this savory soup caused a monk to jump over a high wall to find the source) to a massive hotpot with loads of thinly-sliced meats and large shrimp.

We worked off the huge meal with a long ramble around the neighborhoods where the Lin family used to live – almost all the buildings had changed, but Aunt Karen recognized the temple courtyard where they used to watch puppet shows and a sign for the old movie theater (now just an empty lot). We even hiked up a hill to get a better view of the area – the paths are paved now, but the cousin’s son and Aunt Karen remembered racing up and down the dirt paths and playing in some of the flatter areas.

The temple courtyard

The old movie theater sign (you can see down the alley to where it used to be)

Walking up lots and lots of stairs…

Last stop for the afternoon was National Taiwan University, aka Taida, where both Aunt Karen and Dad attended college. We just walked around the campus for a while – it actually reminded me a lot of Stanford with its brick buildings and palm tree-lined avenues. Perhaps the most amusing part was visiting the physics building, now a small museum that includes the yearbook photos of graduating physics majors from decades past…including my dad.

Entrance of the physics building, which now includes several other things like a nanotech center

“Royal Palm Road”

Everyone split up for dinner – I met up with a few Yalies for pizza at this cute little place called Maryjane’s. I had known Bonner (TD ’10) since he came to YSS 2007 to study Chinese, but I didn’t know Jeff (PC ’11) was also studying in Taipei this year, although we had crossed paths before via Lion Dance and Phoenix. I also met Bonner’s roommate Kellan – the guys split three (personal –size) pizzas to try different toppings but I opted for a salad to avoid the possibility of hard-to-chew crust. My tooth was less painful so I made it through the lettuce, chicken, and apple slices well enough, albeit slowly. We joked about missing New Haven pizza (especially the thin-crust at BAR) but this was a pretty good substitute =D

After dinner I headed back to the Cat’s Pajamas and ended up watching Ben Stiller’s The Heartbreak Kid with some other travelers in the common area. It was exactly the sort of silly movie I needed to relax and laugh before going to sleep. Good night!

Taipei part 1

I have to admit, my first impressions of Taipei were not exactly positive. First, I was cranky after not getting enough sleep on the trans-Pacific flight, thanks to several babies who seemed to cry sequentially and twinging teeth (more about that later). Second, I was kind of nervous about meeting at least two sets of relatives I had never seen before (or at least not in the past decade), although thankfully Aunt Karen and Uncle Peter would be there to help me keep the family tree straight. Third, I was dismayed to be landing in the middle of a driving rain, knowing full well that I did not have an umbrella or even anything with a hood.

Things got a little better in the waiting area, where I met Aunt Karen/Uncle Peter, and this made me laugh out loud:

Persimmon-head?

First stop was the Howard Plaza, where Aunt Karen and Uncle Peter were staying, so I could drop off my luggage temporarily in their room. We went out for breakfast at a place proclaiming itself to be the "Soy Milk King" (豆 將 大 王), which lived up to its name with fresh, warm, lightly sweetened milk that went well with my sesame bun/fried dough stick (燒 餅 油 條). We then visited the primary school that all three Lin siblings had attended, which was now over 100 years old (they had an anniversary celebration last year).

Breakfast =D

The front entrance of the primary school

Class was in session so we couldn't look around inside, but Aunt Karen told me that some of her former teachers were still alive, albeit retired, which is pretty impressive. We walked around the outside of the complex, which was quite large considering how crowded Taipei is, with enough room in the middle for basketball courts, playgrounds, and other common areas for recess/gym class.

Next stop was Dad's old secondary school, conveniently just a few blocks away from the Howard Plaza. We accidentally went to the back entrance first, but the rotating gate was chained shut, so we had to walk back around the block to the front. Back in the day, the school was one of the best in Taipei, especially because of its association with National Taiwan University (Taida), but it was for boys only. I don't know how highly-ranked the school is now, but it's gone co-ed, and it was another massive complex with multiple courtyards, basketball courts, a small track and soccer field, etc.

What seemed to be the main courtyard - the topiary on both sides spell out HSNU, presumably an acronym for High School of National University or something like that

After a brief trip to move my luggage to my hostel (The Cat's Pajamas), we headed for the National Palace Museum, one of the must-see places in Taipei. Simply put, this museum has one of the most extensive collections of Chinese art and artifacts, with less than 10% of the collection usually on display. One of the curators estimated that it would take 12 years for someone to see everything! In particular, we wanted to see a special exhibit on the Yongzheng Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, which discussed his 13-year reign but also his important influence on the fine arts at the time, as he was a great patron of painting, calligraphy, and fine ceramics. Unfortunately, the museum completely forbids photos of anything, so the advertisement below was the best I could do:

Walking up toward the museum

Poster for the special exhibit

We left as the museum was closing down around 5:30...since we hadn't eaten a proper lunch, we stopped by the Shilin (士 林) Night Market to browse the famous Taiwanese snack stalls. Aunt Karen and I sampled what might be considered the Taiwanese version of a burrito: meat, cooked veggies, chopped peanuts, hot sauce, and various other things wrapped in a thin tortilla. Aunt Karen also briefly contemplated getting stinky tofu (you could smell that cart from at least 20 feet away), but opted against it because the smallest serving size was twelve pieces and she only wanted to try one or two.

Makings of Taiwanese "burritos"

*holds nose*

By now, I was really jetlag-tired, so we split up and headed back to our separate accommodations. I hung out in the common area for a while chatting to other travelers staying at the Cat's Pajamas, and now I'm going to sleep!

Winter break in NJ/NY

Let's see, winter break in a nutshell: sleeping in most mornings, getting my fill of snow and snow-shoveling (more like pushing), semi-creative gift-wrapping, visiting family, various cooking/baking experiments, and watching lots of movies =P The last pastime included quite an eclectic selection - I saw Monsters, Inc. (absolutely adorable), Real Genius (filled with Caltech nerd jokes), Into the Woods (starring Bernadette Peters), Red Cliff (both parts = epic), and Star Trek (the newest one). Anyway, a selection of photos from my time back in the USA:

My house's front yard --> winter wonderland =D

Rockefeller Center Christmas tree

Other massive decorations in NYC

A Spanish fish stew with potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and other yummy stuff...the recipe called for tuna, but we used mahi-mahi instead, which worked out pretty well

Benji with baby brother Oscar, the newest addition to the Yin-Ooi family =)

One more night in NJ, then tomorrow I'll be on the plane to Taipei!