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My aunt, her husband and their grandkid Kai Kai took me hiking again. SO. HOT. ALMOST. UNBEARABLE. Below, pictures from our adventure through the hills of Zhong He City, a suburb of Taipei. We walked a path that Yi Zhang (this is what I call my aunt's husband) has walked many times, coming upon Buddhist nuns with shaved heads minding their temples, coves with breathtaking views of the city, and---of course---tons of weird-looking bugs. Yi Zhang captured one, put it in a Ziploc and gave it to Kai Kai, who spent the rest of the day giggling as he placed the bag on my head, my shoulder, legs and feet, trying to scare me.
After the hike, the rain poured as we found a restaurant to sit and eat a late lunch. Kai Kai and I shamelessly chowed on "bing qi ling," ice cream, and he practiced writing his name in my notebook.
As all of you know, China (and more specifically, Taiwan) is a big part of my heritage. My mother was born in China but raised in Taipei, Taiwan. (FYI, my father was born in Philadelphia but raised in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. So kind of the same.) All of my mother's immediate family still resides in Taipei: my grandparents, my aunt, my uncle, their children and their children's children. I'm going to Taipei this summer for seven full weeks (from May 28-July 15) to live with them, become familiar with their Taiwan lifestyle and finally learn to speak some Mandarin.
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