8:48am setting out for the airport! breakfast was buffet style and I ate the last of my favorite Filipino desserts–taisan (steamed sponge cake topped with butter and sugar), cassava cake, and sapin-sapin (steamed coconut mochi layer cake). Didn't get to try halo-halo so that's on my to-eat list for next time!

9:30am a bittersweet goodbye to the tour guides :( 

5:14pm landed and en route to Taichung! home sweet second homee

8:30pm got whisked off to get my second pimple extraction of this trip #beautyispain

9:28pm  Momma lee prefers to keep her age a secret, which often leads her friends to question me instead. Today, it's Anita, her hair stylist.

"which zodiac year was your mother born in?"

"cat!"

I'm clearly no better a source because cats are not among the twelve Asian zodiac animals under which one's birth year can be categorized. Up until I was probably six years old, I was instructed to give this answer and I totally thought "cat" was a legitimate answer; "History & Culture" was clearly not my strong suit during Chinese school on Sundays...Now I jokingly provide this answer to keep momma lee's alibi airtight + to see the befuddled looks on her nosy friends' faces.

9:48pm After reading Rupi Kaur's The Sun and Her Flowers, I was inspired to ask momma lee about her life before having my brothers and me. Cue juicy details about her high school love life HAHA

I wonder how many bug-eyed looks I'll get for wearing shorts in 58°F weather hm

10:12pm nothing like $2 piping hot spare rib broth from the streetside food stands

THERE'S A SWEET POTATO BALL STAND WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE. pero i’m not in the mood to queue so we’re gonna go enjoy some stinky tofu fo dessert.