Besides meeting the folks it was a great trip overall. I was able to see a bit of the central Taiwanese city of Taichung. My first day in town my girlfriend and I went to the Science Museum for a few hours. It had been a long time since I had been to a Science Museum so it was cool to go back and see it (I was pumped to see the cell exhibit since I was really into bio when I was in high school). In addition, it helped that I was seeing my girlfriend for the first time in a week. So even the overabundance of kids swarming the place and the rain outside didn't dampen my spirits.
After that we went back to my girlfriend's home for dinner with the whole family. I had dropped my stuff off earlier in the day but this was my first chance to really make an impression and talk to them (the whole weekend was in Chinese save some talking with my girlfriend). The home-made dinner was great and everyone was pretty talkative. My biggest mistake was to dip a small cake in the wrong sauce but after some laughter it was fine. Thankfully I have been to a good number of Chinese dinners so I knew how to behave and how to handle and give toasts.
What did catch me off guard was that my girlfriend's dad gave me a red envelope! It is a traditional Chinese gift at the Lunar New Year and is given to close friends and family (it is filled with money). I was beyond shocked that they gave me one.
So then after dinner everyone went out to the family room. I looked at some calligraphy with my girlfriend's mom and then since it was raining outside and no one wanted to go bowling I ended up sitting down with the family for about 2-3 hours to talk. Frankly, I had a good time and they were impressed that I could express myself fluently in Chinese and hold a conversation about a variety of topics. When that began to wind down my girlfriend, her dad, and me all went to drive around the town for a night-time tour. Let me tell you there are a lot of hostess bars in that town. It caught me off guard.
The next morning we got up and I went out with my girlfriend, her brother, his girlfriend, and her sister by train and then bus from Taichung to Changhua and then to the old town of Lugang. The town was cool and had lots of history but was jam packed with people, which made getting around a bit of a pain. It was also cold (for Taiwan) and that would normally put a damper on the fun.
However, everyone had a pretty good time and luckily the rain held out until we went back to Taichung. But in spite of the rain everyone walked out to a nice dinner that night.
The next day caught the High Speed Rail back to Taipei with my girlfriend. All in all, it was a really great few days. I did a lot, spent a lot of time with my girlfriend, and met her family (all while living to tell the tale).
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