What can I say about what happened today? Well, in conclusion, let's just say that if God really wants to torture my soul, then He would make me really famous. So what happened? My dad was invited to speak at Chiayi National University today, and he decided that he would take me there as well. We actually flew there in the morning, he gave the talk, lunch, tour, then flew back in the afternoon. The thing is, these people treated my dad (and as an aside, me) like a superstar or something. It's undescribable what they did...what with the flowers, song and dance, applauses, unnerving praise, a mass send-off at the airport...yikes. I obviously felt very uncomfortable with all the attention. Eventually a few guys did talk to me a bit privately on the side, and that was comfortable enough.

I think my dad took me with him because I was disappointed that he would not spend any time with me while I'm here. The price he paid is exactly the cost of my plane ticket...which is almost the same as his speaker's fee. So essentially he took me along to gain nothing but my company. And for that, I'm kind of touched. Sure we still didn't talk much, but I guess the intention was good enough. Also, at least now I get a sense of what my dad does for work, and that's not bad, either. Of course I still have no appreciation for what he's doing, but that's beside the point...

No pain, no gain. Really.