Updates with Meylin - 2
As you will recall, Meylin's sister, Kamuy, came to visit us in WV for 2 weeks during 2014. Kamuy was living in Tiawan and studying to become a physical therapist. When Meylin graduated from high school in 2015 she to went to Tiawan to study Mandrin. Late in 2015 Kamuy invited us to attend her graduation in Tiawan. Again, we had to see what we could do. We did let her know that we would be there.
Since my nephew and his family live in Hawaii and having never been there we planned a two week layover in Hawaii. We spent a week with Phil & Pinky and then took a cruise of the islands before departing for Taiwan.
May 20, 2016 - June 9, 2018 - We left Hawaii and traveled on to Taiwan where we met Meylin and her family. This time was such a whirlwind I can't remember the names of the places we visited. We did go to the tallest building in Taiwan which is Taipei 101.
There was a lot of shopping that took place on this trip. We traveled to Haulien, where Kamuy lived. It seemed like EVERYONE rode motor scooters and the streets were like a beehive of motion. Many small streets were crowed with people walking in the streets going from one shop or food stand to the next. In all of this crowd there were people riding their scooters picking their way between people. At night the streets came alive with even more people shopping the night markets. We traveled to some other cities and visited a couple of very interesting parks. Our mode of travel was by train and bus. I especially enjoyed the high speed train as it was not only FAST but very quiet.
The whole purpose of our trip was to attend the graduation ceremony for Kamuy. Her graduation ceremony was held on campus and her graduating class was about 30 people. It was a nice ceremony recognizing each graduate. Afterwards we went out to dinner. We visited with one of Kamuy's instructors - Juanita in her city and stayed with her overnight. We left Taiwan and went with her family to Los Angeles
where we met Meylin's brother Jorito Tan and her aunt and uncle. We stayed in L.A. with them for about 3 days. We ate at a Korean BBQ and we all visited the Reagan Ranch Center. When we left we headed to San Diego for a couple of days to visit our nephew and family and a cousin of Lorrie's father's.
Our next surprise was an invitation to Kamuy's wedding in Lima, Peru in January 2017. It didn't take us long to determine if this was something we could do. It was a given that we were off to Lima again.
January 25, 2018 - January 31, 2018 - We were in the air again and headed to Lima for what was to turn out to be one spectacular wedding. We stayed in a hotel in the Mira Flores area of Lima. All of the wedding party stayed in that area. While we were in Taiwan we met Kamuy's fiance, Philip Karagoulis. We met Phil's parents in our hotel one morning when we went up for breakfast. We sat at the table next to them and Phil's mother Lynne, realized who we must be and introduced themselves to us. Later in the week we went with Mike and Lynne to a folkloric program which was very interesting. We had dinner and were seated at the very edge of the dance floor where the performance took place.
A couple of years prior to this our Lions Youth Exchange program hosted a girl from Lima, Peru. Her name is Sofia Sulopolus and we arranged for her to meet Meylin. Sofia stayed with a family near us when she was here. She came tin 2015. She must have heard how much fun Meylin had in WV. We had dinner one night with Sofia and her parents at a very old club right on the waterfront not far from our hotel.
While we were Lima Lorrie and I visited the Lions club that sent Meylin and Sofia to WV and we had the opportunity to meet my counterpart in the Youth Exchange program and have dinner with her, her family and the members of the Lions club. We were given a royal reception when we arrived at the club meeting. EVERY member greeted us with either a handshake or a kiss. What a delightful evening being with such gracious hosts.
Kamuy and Meylin attended a private catholic school and they both graduated from this school. Kamuy and Phil were married in the chapel at the school. The wedding was beautiful with both sets of parents and Meylin involved. The only words I can say about Kamuy is that she was a stunningly beautiful bride.
The reception that followed was equally spectacular. There was a lot of music and dancing and more food than you can imagine. Kamuy and Phil seated us at the table with the bridal party, otherwords we were the chaparones for all the MUCH younger crowd. While we were at the table I was seated next to Phil's brother's girlfriend April. As always happens at a wedding I started tapping my glass to get the bride and groom to kiss. April had not seen this before and she readily joined in the fun. She got so focused on tapping her glass, which was about half full of water, to the point the glass cracked but fortunately didn't break. The week went way too fast and before we knew it we were on the plane heading home.
