My Brother's Visit

My younger brother, Cory, lives in Malaysia; he just moved there this year but had been living in Singapore for the last three years. He had never been to Taiwan so he thought he'd check it out during a visit to see his lovely sister. He arrived the night of the same day that Matthew headed out to the Philippines. I drove to the airport with Matthew in the early morning and spent the whole day at the airport waiting around for my brother. After finally arriving home at about 1am, I needed my sleep.

Cory was kind of left to his own devices as he arrived just prior to my work week beginning. Since Matthew was out of town my brother was free to borrow our car but he hates driving and hasn't driven since leaving Canada, so he was stuck taking buses to get around during the weekdays.

He decided to check out things like the big Buddha in Changhua city. He was surprised at how odd he thought this country was. He found that Taiwan is just a little behind. He based his opinion on language. Even though English is not an official language in Malaysia, you can get by very easily with knowing only English. He was pretty shocked at how different it is in Taiwan. So few people know any English at all, and the ones who have studied English in school aren't that great at it. It's a little sad but true. I have done a lot of travelling and even within Asia I found it surprising that I country like Taiwan, which most people think are quite developped, especially in the technology sectors, aren't really with it in terms of English ability.

While Matthew was away, Cory and I substituted for one of his classes. I think they were quite fascinated with my brother as he's 6'6" (200cm) tall. The class was much smaller than normal but also a little more out of control than usual, but I had only seen them once before. I'm not sure how Matthew enjoys substituting all the time, I felt like it was just a mess. I had gone to the school with Matthew the week before to be introduced and shown around, he notified pretty much everyone with the program that I would be substituting for him. But when I got there the following week with my brother, the first question is, "Where's Matthew? Will he be here later?" It seemed like they didn't understand English at all but whenever they see a white man they're in so much awe they can't help but smile and nod which makes Matthew think they understood him. Ugh! I was so glad it was a one time thing and only two hours long. It's just a frustrating process. I was supposed to get there, go in the classroom and teach the first hour, which was essentially just a q uestion and asnwer period. In the second hour, I was supposed to show them a video and have a discussion. They had assured us the projector and computer would be working and then I get there and it wasn't. They gave me a laptop to show the video on and everyone had to huddle around it. I finally understood why some days Matthew would come home venting about how little point our jobs have here and how we should just get on a plane and go home.

His first evening here, Cory saw the garbage trucks and thought they were neat but didn't quite understand how it worked. They come every night around 6pm and play music, while people hand their bags of garbage to the garbage man at the back of the truck and he tosses them in. The garbage separation is confusing. I still don't get. I also have never seen a recycling truck but everyone separates garbage, from tissue papers, and from recycling. But I have never seen anything other than one garbage truck. Matthew and I have walked past some dumps, they're only a few blocks away from my workplace. It looked like they have people go through the bags of garbage at the dumpsite and then separate garbage from recycling, but I'm not sure.

While I was at work my brother would just walk around town and buy all kinds of food and just eat, and eat, and eat. I had bought him a bus ticket to the city and all of a sudden he was so sick he couldn't go. He thought it was a good idea to stuff his face with greasy pastries. My brother isn't as adventurous as I thought. After feeling better, he never left Erlin during my workdays. I think this place is boring so I have no idea what he did while I was a t work. Saturday night came around and Matthew was back in town, so we took Cory to the night market. My brother is pretty adventurous when it comes to food and he wanted to try some traditional Taiwanese dishes. Everyone here is crazy about what they call "stinky tofu". I've had it and it's not that bad; it tastes a lot better than it smells, but in absolutely no way would I describe it as delicious. Matthew has never had it. He can't stand the smell of it and he pretty much gags everytime we're nearby a place that sells it. My brother bought some and we sat down to eat it. He took one bite and tried to swallow but it just wouldn't stay down. Never in his life has that ever happened. I'm not sure if he'll try it again.

The next morning we headed to Taichung to catch the High Speed Rail train (HSR) to Taipei for the weekend. We left Matthew behind, he had some catching up for work to do. We checked into my usual hostel and went for a walk. My brother really only wanted to see Taipei 101 and buy some souvenirs.

We later ate some good food, drank some beer, and had some sugary desserts. We later hit up the Shillin night Market. It was pretty busy, as per usual. Cory got quite a number of looks because he looks like a gaint monster walking through the crowds of people who are around my height. When I'm out with Matthew, he seems like a giant, and he's only about 6'1", nowhere near my brother's height. It eventually started to rain so the market was dwindling. I took my brother for a foot massage, my second and his very first. For a big guy like he is, he's a big baby. He was almost in tears at certain times and even had to ask the guy to stop for a break because he couldn't handle the massage anymore. It was hilarious!

On our way home we got heckled by a fruit selling lady. I like fruit, so I decided we should get some. But then she tells my brother to try this and try that, "You like? Here." When we left I had spent $30CAD on freaking fruit! As you can imagine, most of that went to waste. Some of it was awful because some of those fruits weren't even in season.

We headed back to the hostel and I packed up my bags. I had to work the next day and Cory would just be heading out early in the morning to catch a plane. So I gave him a map and had him set up, then we headed to the train station for some last minute shopping and eating before my train arrived. My brother toured some nearby places on his own before heading back to the hostel himself. Keeping family visits short and sweet is key to ending it on a good note and he even wants to come back one day.

Siblings for Lyfe!!!