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Trip to Taiwan, part one of many
Dec. 20th, 2006 05:30 pmSo far my trip to Taiwan has been mostly relaxing. The flight over was delayed by a merciless head wind, so my brother W and I watched some six or seven movies and arrived in Taiwan about an hour or so late. I haven't had any problems with jet lag, but I've been only getting 6 or so hours of sleep a night because I can't fall back asleep after I've woken up in the morning for some reason. Oh well, there's always tomorrow :)
The first order of business upon arrival was the requisite dental checkup. W and I paid a visit to my cousin's clinic to get our teeth cleaned, and unfortunately W had a large cavity that required a second trip. I was pleasantly surprised to find that despite having large deposits of calculus, my teeth were mostly in good shape, and the cleaning only took about 15 minutes. Also, did you know that using mouthwash too frequently can stain your teeth? Guess I'll have to lay off the citrus Listerine for a while.
Yesterday we drove over to Banqiao to get our eyes checked. W had complained that his prescription wasn't strong enough, so we made sure that his new pair of glasses would work for him. I relayed my sob story of how![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lokiect had destroyed my previous pair, and so I'll be getting another spare! As well as a bag of extra pads, since apparently they're not really completely washable, and they somehow accrue dirt and grime from my otherwise perfectly clean nose.
The highlight of today was the exhibit of religious Italian paintings from the 14th through 17th centuries at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial. The paintings ranged from medieval egg tempera to Baroque works in oil, and even included stuff from the private collection of the Vatican that were not available to the general public before. The tour guide led us from the gallery of Christ's life through the images of saints and apostles and explained every picture in great detail. My lesson for the day was that the symbol for the virgin Mary differed in the competing cultural centers of Siena and Florence--the former used the olive branch, while the latter used the lily.
The first order of business upon arrival was the requisite dental checkup. W and I paid a visit to my cousin's clinic to get our teeth cleaned, and unfortunately W had a large cavity that required a second trip. I was pleasantly surprised to find that despite having large deposits of calculus, my teeth were mostly in good shape, and the cleaning only took about 15 minutes. Also, did you know that using mouthwash too frequently can stain your teeth? Guess I'll have to lay off the citrus Listerine for a while.
Yesterday we drove over to Banqiao to get our eyes checked. W had complained that his prescription wasn't strong enough, so we made sure that his new pair of glasses would work for him. I relayed my sob story of how
lokiect had destroyed my previous pair, and so I'll be getting another spare! As well as a bag of extra pads, since apparently they're not really completely washable, and they somehow accrue dirt and grime from my otherwise perfectly clean nose.The highlight of today was the exhibit of religious Italian paintings from the 14th through 17th centuries at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial. The paintings ranged from medieval egg tempera to Baroque works in oil, and even included stuff from the private collection of the Vatican that were not available to the general public before. The tour guide led us from the gallery of Christ's life through the images of saints and apostles and explained every picture in great detail. My lesson for the day was that the symbol for the virgin Mary differed in the competing cultural centers of Siena and Florence--the former used the olive branch, while the latter used the lily.
