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!