Taiwan 2010

for my annual trip out to the far east, i met up with my family in our taiwan home base in taichung. it was a welcome trip out of dc, and luckily, right before the snow storm hit the east coast. plus, it has been a couple of years since i've seen my brother and several more since i've seen my grandmother...so a nice family reunion was to be had.

i remember when i was younger, making these trips was very much a chore. always having to ditch my friends during our very few chances to meet up, never really haven't any friends out in asia, always being bored spending time with parents. and sure, those problems still exist now, but i have come to truly appreciate what these trips are for me. being so far away from my family, i have to take the very view chances i get to see them (any why not...it's not on my dime :P)

and this trip was no different...my brother flew down from shanghai to spend a several days with the family. we brought my grandmother over so we could take family photos. we went on a short in-island vacation to the local hot springs of yilan. and we ate...ate...and then ate some more.

though this will be the first year that i didn't celebrate a new years eve with excessive drinking and eventual vomiting, i'll take this clam and quiet transition to another year as an omen of a tranquil and stable 2011.

E Pluribus Unum

in a flurry of activity and in record speeds, the congress passed both historic and necessary pieces of legislation during this lame-duck session. from hostage negotiating a tax extension to finally repealing "don't as don't tell" to ratifying a new START treaty to ensuring health care for our 9/11 heroes...the last few weeks have been a whirlwind by senatorial standards.

some will come out of this thinking that we've heeded the calls of the midterm elections, that bipartisanship is the new watchword of the future. and even the president seems to believe it, which his most stirring oratorical statement in a long while: "For we are not a nation that says, 'don't ask, don’t tell.' We are a nation that says, 'Out of many, we are one.'"

the optimist in me hopes that the sentiment is real...that it wasn't just a momentary glimpse into what the founders intended congress to be. but the realist in me knows that we're looking at a couple years of deadlock and partisanship.

but however we spend the next couple of years, the idealist in me continues to hope that each individual member comes to the table with a genuine desire to do good of the country, regardless of whether or not i believe in their positions or not. after all, it is in that love for country that brings all of us into one.