Skeptickle

After our couple shots, we gathered together our wedding party for some group love in what I believe to be some sort of orchard area. I didn’t realize until we got these back from our photographer just how patriotic we looked as a whole.

This one’s my favorite shot:

Brief Wedding Party introductions (L to R):

Both Best Man W and Groomsman M: Both went to college with Rob and now all live in the same area.

Maid of Honor C: Was my neighbor during jr high and high school, and we both went to the same high school.

Bridesman D: Was my co-worker, my discussion buddy, and fellow foodie/oenophile.

I’m sure you’d agree that we picked some pretty hawt people here . The following is what came out when we were going for a “serious shot”. This is what I can only describe as our Law and Order Moment…

See and compare:

Photo from blog.newsok.com.

That’s right. Don’t mess with us or I’ll bust a cap with my bouquet! It’s dangerous you know ;P.

Anyways, onward to the rather large and spectacular treehouse:

Unfortunately, I couldn’t go up it without the risk of tearing up or soiling my dress but I’m glad that our wedding party was able to find amusement up there . While all this was going on, our wonderful venders were setting things up in the background. I was completely relaxed during this time thanks to them. Okay, enough gushing..up next (and finally!) the ceremony.

What is it about the DMV that forces you to come face to face with all sorts of unpleasant characters?

Okay, first, some background. All the way up until today I had not brought myself to change to my new name on my drivers license. There are a variety of reasons why. Some are practical reasons. For example, I had changed my middle name to something other than my father’s last name or a variation of my previous name so I had to get a court order for that. That took several months to go through. I also had our Taiwan trip coming up and I didn’t want any legal complications arising out of nowhere. So I decided to play it safe and go to the DMV after the trip.

There I am earlier today all ready with a folder full of documents (marriage license, court order, DMV form (that I got on a previously aborted trip there), checkbook, passport, etc.) and a LARGE book – Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (I didn’t have an appointment). I drove to the DMV expecting it to be packed since it was lunchtime. However, there was plenty of parking and the non-appointment line was only two people deep. The lady behind the desk met me with a blank stare when I got to the front of the line. I can’t really tell you why that made me uncomfortable, other than usually people acknowledge you in some way.

Me: *Holding up my DMV name change form* Hi, I’m here to get my name changed.

Her: Why?

Me: …*confused look on my face*

Her: Why did you get your name changed?

Me: *pause* Oh um, because I got married…

Her: *as if talking to a slow kid* We ask because you have to have the right form.

Me: *waving my form in front of her again* Yeah, I have it. I know it’s the right one because I got it from a previous trip here.

Her: You see, I didn’t know that…

Me: Yup…*looking around*

Her: Well, here’s your number.

Me: *with as much cheerfulness that I can muster up* Thank you very much! *scurries away*

Thankfully the wait wasn’t long at all and I was set and out the door within twenty minutes. Feeling high-spirited, I decided to call my friend to see if she’s up for me paying her a visit since she lives in the area. She was occupied for the afternoon but we chatted a bit as I walked across the parking lot and got into my car. I sat and rummaged around my purse for my hands-free earphones so that I could talk to her while driving. Unfortunately I left them at home, so I decided to sit in my car for a little while and talk to her since I haven’t talked to her in months. A few seconds passed before I started hearing honking noises behind me. I tried to ignore them because I thought they were aimed at someone else.

A minute later, a middle-aged guy knocked at my driver’s side window very loudly and asked me if I was leaving. I shook my head “no”.  He then preceded to yell at me! Going on about how selfish I am! I cannot express just how much I found his behavior shockingly rude and extremely irrational. After all, there were many other people in the process of leaving and all he had to do was circle around a little longer to find a spot. Furthermore, you are not necessarily entitled to a spot just because you are behind someone who happens to be in their car. I always wait a little bit and if they don’t seem to be leaving then I MOVE ON. There may be a plethora of reasons why they would be in their car but not leaving, but the point is, it’s still their spot. But no, apparently my parking spot was special. It was the HOLY GRAIL of parking spots. In fact, my parking spot is The Parking Spot, didn’t you know? And wouldn’t it be utterly glorifying to earn The Parking Spot by acting like an infant throwing a tantrum?

So this is what he did. He climbed back into his car and drove forward a little bit so that he was completely blocking my tail-end. Then he continued to honk at me in ten-second intervals. Mind you, this was a grown man.

Of course by this time I had long gotten off the phone with my friend and was assessing the situation in my head. This guy was not only an irrational and angry person, but he was obviously a sadist. His blocking my car from getting out and honking at me was a form of punishment for not having his way sooner. Ignoring him hadn’t helped. He was just going to continue playing his little game. I’m just really surprised that he decided to commit road rage at the DMV of all places! I’m sure that if the entire parking lot emptied of cars, he’d still be after my spot just to prove to himself that he can get it.

So I did what you’re supposed to do when you’re facing a bully, I drew attention to the situation and tried to show him that I’m not someone you could just push around. I opened my window and started yelling at him at the top of my lungs. I was yelling about what he was doing to anyone who could hear me. I revved up my engine and backed up an inch at a time. I think he was actually afraid that I would back into him because he kept honking each time I backed up. After about a minute of this (and people were starting to stare), he finally backed up all the way to let me through. The jerk still took my spot.

Looking back, I’m pretty sure that he would not have acted the way he did if I were a guy or had I been with someone else. I probably looked like an easy target to him and he was in a bad mood already and took it out on me. In the process, this event ruined my day. I absolutely hate being the target of aggression and having to raise my voice in order to defend myself. But such is life, and sometimes you gotta stand up for yourself when you must. Anyways, I hope y’all are having a better day than I am!

Sorry for the interruption to our regularly scheduled programming, but I wanted to write about something else besides wedding stuff this time. Rob and I will be traveling to Taiwan in a couple days and I couldn’t leave without first writing an introductory post about it. You see, I was born in Taiwan and still have about half of my relatives still living there. Even though I don’t visit there as often as my other Taiwanese peers, I still have a tie to it as most do with the place of their birth. This is the place where my parents grew up, where both sets of my grandparents ran restaurants while raising 6 children on each side, and  where I spent the first year of my life on this earth. This is also where one of the people I look up to the most resides- my 2nd aunt from my mother’s side. I haven’t been back to see her for over 9 years now and I think I’m long due for a visit. She seems eager to meet Rob and to see me now that I’m all grown up.

To tell the truth, I’m a bit apprehensive about going. Even though I have family there, I’m not really close to any of them except for my 2nd aunt. If my mom were alive and accompanied us then it would make the whole trip easier. She would know where to stay, what to do, etc. etc. My dad is not much help because he only remembers the Taiwan that existed 30 years ago (back when the island was still under martial law, before the computer industry helped modernize the place, and everything was very different back then). Therefore, we won’t have the benefit of a real guide so we will have to wing it. Secondly, I’m not 100% fluent in Mandarin Chinese (more like 50% give or take) and I can’t speak Taiwanese at all. So there will be a sort of language barrier, which is the main source of my anxiety. For someone who was born there and grew up in a Chinese-Taiwanese family, this is culturally looked down on.

Lastly, I anticipate both Rob and I sticking out like sore thumbs. Like Japan, almost all the people in Taiwan look homogenous (as in, all of regional descent). Rob is Caucasian so it’ll be interesting seeing how people will react to him being there. It will also be interesting from a social science point of view to see how he will react to being in a place where he is part of a small minority. Race is not the only thing homogenous in Taiwan, size is also something that most people are pretty much the same at. If you are a female and not a US size 2 or smaller (yes, negative sizes exist there) then you are considered overweight. It is not rude for people to point that out to you either. That is the number one thing I hear complaints about from Taiwanese people who now permanently live in the States. They usually get bigger in size because of the nonconformist culture in the U.S. and then they face criticism when they go back to visit Taiwan. So since I’m well above a US size 2 and on the tall side, I’m definitely going to get some unwanted attention.

That said, I’m also looking forward to getting reacquainted with Taiwan. I miss the food and the people, and I’d like to experience more of the culture. Taiwan has an extremely rich history which makes up its hybridized culture. The island was originally inhabited by two indigenous tribes that were theorized to be the original people that traveled west to later populate most of the Pacific islands. The Hakka people from northern China started immigrating there to escape oppression. The Portuguese and the Dutch landed there at various points, one peaceably and the other for commercial interests. The Chinese started trickling in mostly in the last century or so, during which they faced heavy tensions with their neighbors (the Japanese) and internally with civil war. The Japanese occupied Taiwan for about 50 years and a lot of their culture had rubbed off. You can still see architecture, food, technology, etc., that were strongly influenced by Japanese culture and design. The Chinese Revolution brought about a lot of changes to the island. The Nationalists fled to Taiwan when China fell to the Communists. They brought with them some of the Chinese cultural artifacts and ideas that were later banned and destroyed in Mao’s China. That’s around the time when both sets of my grandparents moved from China to Taiwan.

View of Taipei 101, arguably the tallest building in the world. {Image by *dans from Flickr}

All this history and its current predicament in international relations has made Taiwan uniquely different from any other place in the world. I’m sure a lot of things have changed since I last visited and I’m excited to have the freedom to explore some of the places that I haven’t been to before. I will blog about our trip when we get back since we probably won’t have an internet connection over there. Wish us luck!