Great Aunt's birthday

My great aunt turned 80 today and we all had lunch in Taipei 101. Yes, Taipei 101 the tallest building in Taiwan, on the 85th floor. My great aunt (my grandfather's sister) came from a wealthy family and it's no surprise that she would have her dinner at such a grandiose place. My great aunt was close with my mother so I'm really glad I had a chance to share this day with her. When my mother was young, my great aunt didn't have children yet and she wanted a daughter. She took care of my mother for a little bit since my grandfather had so many children at this time and he let my mother stay with my great aunt. My mother was close with my great aunt's children and when I went to Taiwan the first time when I was 13, my great aunt cooked dinner for all of us and let us spend the night at her house.

The meal was fabulous as it consisted about 8 courses. The first course was extremely rich as it had a tomato bottom, sweet potato yam filling, and lobster meat placed on top. We had tons of seafood, two bowls of soup, steamed buns (red bean inside-picture above), almond tea soup with fried stick (youtiao-picture above), and cake that my aunt brought. It was a lot of food! We were there for 3 hours! I was excited that there were steamed buns since I haven't found a place yet where they sold steamed buns with red bean inside. I'm sure they're everywhere but I haven't come across a food stand/restaurant yet.

I met my cousins on my great aunt side and one of them has the same name as me only spelled differently, Lily. Anita, the younger sister, and Lily, the older sister own a clothing store in Taipei. I also found out that my great aunt's son, my mother's cousin, used to study in America and he went to Purdue. He also came to visit my family in Sioux City when I was born! The view from the room was incredible of course and I'm glad I was able to go. I was so stuffed from the meal that I slept for 2 hours afterwards haha

-Chihchat