Old

I was out by 8pm last night.  Out.  8pm.  Out cold.  So asleep that I had no idea my aunt and cousin dropped by at 8:30, even though they were supposedly very loud.  A sign of getting old apparently.

To be fair, I slept maybe 6 hours on the flight over.  It appears that every time I am flying to or from Taiwan, there has to be a really loud snorer on the plane.  For this flight, the guy slept most of the flight (13 hrs), and snored for probably 90% of that.  And it was one of those loud abrasive jars you from your sleep type of snoring.  Eventually I gave up and grabbed my iPod and listened to Krishna Das to help me fall back asleep.

We landed in TPE around 5:45am and got home around 7.  After unpacking and settling in, we went with my grandmother to the temple.  My dad's older sister has been in the ICU for the last 2 weeks and my grandma has been fraught with worry.  She wanted to go to the temple to pray for my aunt, so we accompanied her to buy some flowers and fruit and went to the temple together.  This particular temple has been around for roughly 300 years and is one of the earliest Mazu temples in northern Taiwan.  Mazu is the Heavenly Holy Mother, so the temple is devoted to her and named after her.  She is the one who will answer problems and help with whatever worries and cares you have on earth.  As my grandma and parents prayed to Mazu, I held my incense and prayed to God that he would help my aunt recover and look after my grandmother.  I've come to realize that my difference in religion from the rest of my family doesn't mean I can't respect who they worship.

(Here is an image of ceremonial money being burned as an offering.)

I also ordered my qi pao, and after much deliberation, I decided just to go with the traditional red.  You really can't go wrong with a red qi pao.  At least I hope not!