After a full two weeks, I found myself back in the Taipei International Airport flying back the United States. This time, most of my time was spent visiting friends in New York and Washington DC.
I was in New York on January 20th, and although I was staying out in Queens near a friends house trying to save money on hotel costs, I went into Manhattan hoping to watch the Inauguration on TV somewhere. Crowds were starting to gather in Times Square, and the pre-show events were on all of the huge jumbotrons all around the Square. I would have just watched it out there but it was much colder than my Bangkok-trained body could stand.
I finally found a BBQ restaurant with the heat turned on and the inauguration on TV, and so I grabbed a seat at the bar and thoroughly enjoyed the proceedings for the next couple of hours. For me, the highlights of the day were Aretha's hat, and seeing freezing cold people in Times Square, just around the corner from where I sat. Then again, even though I was warm and comfortably seated, perhaps I missed my chance at five seconds of International Fame.
The next day I rented a car and drove down to DC. The whole purpose of this part of the trip was to see as many people as I could, and I did a pretty good job of it, although I didn't see everyone on my list.
But now, I am headed back to Asia one last time, and hopefully I will stay there for a while.
*Sniff*...I wasn't on the list for DC?