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Well, I was born in the National Taiwan Univeristy Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan on May 18th, 1974, the year of the tiger. As I child, i visted my Grandparents quite often in Yu-Li, the south eastern part of Taiwan. One of my earliest recollections of my childhood is going next door to the Pediatrician to get a shot or ask for medicine. That was back in Shin-Dian, near Taipei. I remember there was once when I was really sick, and missed my bus to pre-school (i think it was pre-school) and my mom had to ride a bike with me on the back to take me to school. And being all stupid, i forgotten my handkerchief and got in trouble at school. Should have just stayed home.
After Shin-Dian, we moved to Luo-Dong, the north east of taiwan. I went to Luo-Dong Elementary school. I remember I always try to sneak out of school as soon as the bell rang because the school is right across from my father's dormitory. I was caught once by some 6 grader, it was pretty frightening. You see, after school, all the kids have to assemble as we sing and watch the flag being stored up for the next day's use. Everyone had a designated spot to go, but since we moved in the middle of the year, i had no spot to stand on, that's why i always just went home. It was during one of these years that i picked up my first serious scar. Since my father worked at the hospital (buo-ai yi-yuan), we could go and pick up lunch at the cafeteria in these little tin containers. Well, my sisters and I gathered in front of the dorm arguing on whose turn it was to pick up lunch. The argument continued until i got really frustrated, maybe from hunger, so i grabbed the pail from my sister and turned around and ran towards the hospital. Just as i was about to turn, I ram myself into a guy riding a bicycle. It knocked me down. I still remember the guy was like in his mid 40's really skinny, you can see the bones on his cheeks. (i could be just making things up) Anyhow, i fell down, crying, everything was dark, i couldn't see. After i have no idea how long, i felt someone picking me up and taking his handkerchief from his back pocket, he covered my forehead. I realized at that time that i was bleeding. I bounced in his arms as he carried me to the hospital with blood dripping down my forehead into his shirt. I don't quite remember what happened afterwards, maybe i suppresed it because it was so traumatic. My mom later told me that my "savior" was one of my dad's friends from the hospital. Well, if it wasn't for him, i would be writing this would i? I also remember falling into the gutter in front of the aparment, cuz i was playing around, but that doesn't require much explanation.
As we grew older, my father later got a job at Tai Chung's Chung-Kuo Yi-Yao Shue-Yuan, the China Medical School and Hospital. We moved there when i was going into first grade i think. There were many memories there. I still remember there was a vendor selling dog-stew and my sisters and i always wondered if our pet dog, lucy, was stolen by him and cooked as dinner. I don't even remember how we found Lucy. She was a real mutt, one of those you can't tell what type of parents she had. She was a sad dog, we kept her downstairs because no one moved in downstairs yet. As the months went on, she began to become sick, her fur was falling off. It seems as if she got some disease or something. So every night, someone had the duty of rubbing iodine on her skin to soothe her wounds. I was scared of dogs when i was little, so i never volunteered. I think it ended up that my older sister always ended up doing it. I remember also that one day, as we untied Lucy, she frantically ran into the middle of the street. As we chased after her, she got ran over by a moving vehicle. Luckily, she only lost one of her legs. I still remember those painful howls as she limped back to us. Soon after, she disappeared.
On the subject of pets, i remember one day, coming home from school, i see a little sparrow fly into our house, so i called my mother to help me catch it.
To be continued... |
