No they're not really fat, in fact I am probably the only chubby one, haha. One of the few reasons that I decided to make a trip to Taiwan ofcourse is to reconnect with my family here. Since me and my sister are the only ones in our family that are actually born in United States, it's become rather hard for us to keep in contact with out family from back home. What's even harder is that my father barely speaks to us and my mom is no longer around. But stories of my plethora of aunts, uncles and many cousins have been sort of a myth in my life so I have always dreamed of visiting Taiwan and reconnect with the family so to speak. So while I was here in Keelung I asked my eldest aunt to write our family tree on our side of the family. I have finally seen on paper who my dad's side of the family is like.

In total, I have 8 aunts, 4 uncles and 27 cousins in my family. I happen to be the youngest cousin in my mom's side of the family but on my dad's side of the family I have cousins that are much older than me, some that are close to their 40's and have kids that are close to my age or younger. In past I've visited my cousins in Taiwan 15 years ago, however this year I was able to visit and see my cousins for the very first time.

Here are some pictures in no order:

8/21/2006, We were at Aunt Louise's/Yang Jing-Sho's apartment today after climbing Yangming mountain. Which was quite a view! I snagged the opportunity to take a picture of the 2 families together. Pictured here from top left-right to bottom-left-right is: younger Cousin unknown, Me, Cousin Rex, youngest Aunt-name unknown, older Cousin unknown, Aunt Louise/Yang, Jing-Sho, Uncle Gary Wang, Cousin Anita(Rex's sister)


8/16/2006, I went to eat some Thai food with Cousin George(Xiao Wei) and Cousin Jeejee.


8/16/2006, I went over to my aunt's(my eldest uncle) house and met up with my eldest cousin Pipi and his daughter. Cousin Jeejee in the background.


8/14/2006, I went to my uncle Li Ming's camera shop, Konica somewhere in Keelung. I snagged a pic of his family. They also let me develope a truckload of pictures for free!



8/15/2006, Cousin Rex setting up his motorcycle. We later went to eat Vietnamese that night of my birthday.


8/11/2006, Cousin Mark and I went to a bunch of "Goo-Jee"s, which means old buildings that have turned into museums.


8/10/2006, We arrive in Tainan and have dinner with my 2nd aunt, her husband and cousin Mark. I haven't seen Mark in 15 years! But I have seen 2nd aunt and her husband when they came by a few times.


More pictures to come...
vbc