I ate breakfast on my own, as my parents had decided to eat the hotel’s “free” food. Once I arrived, my dad went to pick up the car while Cathy and I chatted and eventually waited by the street. Just as I was beginning to worry, the car appeared, its occupants having only “gotten lost a few times” and “tried to turn down a few one-way streets.” Once on the freeway, I passed through several tollbooths and got only semi-lost while trying to find the perfect area to see blossoms. I found $20 in the bushes next to a large dam, picked it up, and decided not to think too hard about why it was there.

Early in the morning, I took the bus to the hotel, knocked on the door, and wandered across the street to a breakfast place. We ordered enough food for my parents to sample a little of everything, and soon we were off. I needed to check in with work to take another day off, so I brought my parents to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. We left the MRT and entered the pavilion, with the National Theatre and National Concert Hall on either side. I could only imagine how it felt for my parents to stand somewhere they had seen in photographs just weeks earlier. We climbed the steps to see CKS’s enormous statue, glanced at the guards, walked through the gardens, and headed to the Taiwanese Handicraft shop.

I waited for the big green bus, but my companion needed to leave to teach. When the bus arrived, I asked a woman behind me in my limited Chinese, “Does this go to the…?” “Airport,” she replied. I jumped aboard and started the journey. That evening, my dad and stepmother, Cathy, were arriving in Taipei. It was rush hour, so I tried to leave plenty of time. I started waiting at around 5:45, but the bus didn’t arrive until almost 6:20. Leaving Taipei was painful; the streets were a parking lot. The bus finally reached the freeway, and by 7:00, about the time my parents were arriving, I was still 20 minutes away. I was somewhat relieved, knowing they would need to collect their …