Saying Good-bye in Tainan

Angela's uncle, Quen-Lung, took off work on Saturday to spend the day with us. We started out by taking William to an ENT. He has been pulling at one of his ears quite a bit and we wanted to make sure that he is healthy to travel back to the US. It turns out that he has a little bit of fluid in his middle ears as a result of the cold that he had a couple of weeks ago. So, the doctor gave us some medication to give him for three days. Hopefully, this will clear it up before we leave on Wednesday morning.

We did a little shopping on our last day in Tainan and came upon a jade market as it was closing. Unfortunately, this seems to be a trend for us. The same thing happened when we went to the Handicraft Market in Taipei. We got there only 30 minutes before they closed--certainly not enough time to look at 4 floors worth of merchandise and decide what we want. So, we will try to shop at the Handicraft Market one more time before leaving Taipei.

In the midst of our shopping, we stopped at the pagoda where Angela's grandmother and step grandfather's ashes are kept. Land is at such a premium in Taiwan that people can only rent a burial plot for seven years. Then the bodies must be exhumed and other arrangements must be made. Most people choose to be cremated to begin with. Their remains are then housed in a pagoda or similar building.

We took a train this morning from Tainan back to Taipei. We are always worried about getting our luggage on and off the train before it leaves, but people have always been kind enough to offer to help us. A couple even helped us carry our bags to the MRT station before heading back toward the train station.

So, now we are back in Taipei for a few days to repack and recuperate a little before heading back to the states. We are meeting with the coordinator from our agency on Tuesday and leave Wednesday morning. We will stay the night in Houston and then head back home on Thursday.

We probably won't post again until we return home. See you on the other side of the world.