Taiwan ‘24

The plan was always to take me to Taiwan for the first time after I graduated college.

So, when I graduated from my undergrad at the University of Connecticut in 2020, during the height of Covid, traveling to my mother’s homeland for the first time was now off the table.

My mother was a school teacher, my father the owner of a paint contracting company. She had summers off during his busiest time of year. He was slow in the winter during my mother’s school work. A trip for the whole family never seemed easy.

Thankfully, in 2024, my mother retired and I had saved enough PTO to visit for the first time in my life.

What I found were warm family members I had never met and a love of Taipei and it’s neon lights, night-markets, and intricate alleyways. As well as deep-seated regret that a younger me didn’t absorb the language my mother speaks.

Three weeks were spent wandering streets, visiting family, and bumbling through conversations ordering bao zi, niu rou mien, and xiao bing you tiao.

谢谢