A Day With Grandpa

(Thursday, January 1, 8:18 AM)

Yesterday was a full day. We met my grandpa at lunch time and went to Taipei 101 (via subway which has a stop right outside of our hotel.) There we ate lunch at a place that I remember from last visit which has Shaghainese food. It was really good especially the mellon dumplings. Yum! Then we went to a book store in the mall there. I saw Chinese versions of books that I have read here, and I wanted to take some pictures but I wasn't allowed!

Then we went to the Peking Opera. I have heard a lot about it, and if you just listen to the music, it is pretty hard to understand what is so appealing about it. In fact, it seems like it is the biggest racket you could ever hear. But the genre has to be experienced in all aspects to understand the reason why people love it. It is more than just people screaming (which was my initial impression!) It has a lot of elements of balance and subtle facial expressions, dance and gymnastics. I really loved it. I'll have to see more when I get home!

Then we came home to eat take out (dumplings and soup) at the apartment. More singing to grandma followed and then back to the hotel to wait for the new year. It a lonely feeling to know that we were the only ones celebrating at that time and all of you were still eating lunch on New Year's eve. I think I'll count down again today at 1:00 PM here and think of all of you watching Dick Clark (or Ryan Seacrest or whoever does that now:) and the ball drop!