Yes I am doing the motherland pilgramage. I am in Taiwan. The first few days was filled with food, and visiting relatives which weren't born the last time I was here or haven't seen in 10+ years. Its tough to be completely open to someone if they can't totally understand you/you can't totally talk to them, but I think my relatives are getting the general idea that I've wanted to do this for some time.
The past week has been filled with yet more food and endless mountain scenery. The forests in Taiwan are amazing and the really crazy thing about them is that they have deciduious (spell that right?), palm trees, and bamboo trees all in the same woods. Funny that I'm here 12 time zones away and going hiking when I could just as easily do the same thing 30 min away in Great Falls, MD but then again, when am I going to see the marble deposits in Taroko gorge again?
Incidentally, apparently beaches here are a complete misnomer. Either I'm not going to the right beaches or they're all 100 ft sections of sand along the coast packed with people and old school R&B (I swear I was hearing Warren G).
Anyways, I'm taking a break from food and travel to waste time on the internet. Apparently Mouse is doing the same thing in the mother of all motherlands, China.
I'm not listening to any music besides Chinese/Japanese music at the moment on MTV and Taiwanese songs on tourbuses. So for the meantime, my musical interests are a complete mash of 3 asian languages sung by extremely hot girls and extrememly girly men. There's something that I can't quite put my hand on because its original and not at the same time. Its got the hook to "who let the dogs out" but its got a latin rhythm to Chinese people doing the flamenco. Damn you MTV. | 
