How Jeremy Lin’s “Linsanity” Still Resonates a Decade Later, and What It Means to be Asian American Today

I wasn’t totally sure what to expect when I signed up to attend a screening of the most recent Jeremy Lin documentary called “38 in the Garden” at Nike World HQ this past week.

I remembering being a huge J-Lin fan more than 10 years ago when Linsanity was running wild across the basketball world. I love the sport (obviously). And Nike’s ASCEND Network — an awesome group formed to support Swoosh employees and communities with Asia, Middle East and Pacific Island backgrounds — was hosting this event to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

So why not see what this was all about?

Hearing that the documentary’s filmmakers were going to be here at Nike, including Frank Chi, Travon Free and Samir Hernandez, I was excited to see what they had to say about the whole phenomenon that was Linsanity.

But never did I think I’d come away as inspired — not because it was recalling what Linsanity was, but what the period of time represented for Asian Americans. We unfortunately live in a world where Asians in the United States are being targeted and attacked on a daily basis, and for no reason at all. It seems like every time I go on Instagram or Twitter each morning, there’s a new story about one of our elders getting punched or assaulted for doing nothing other than walking on the street living their daily life. It’s disgusting and awful to see.

I’ll admit I watched “38 in the Garden” already when it was first released at the end of last year. But seeing it for the second time, I was ready to view it in a different lens to see what I missed.

It was about what Lin and Linsanity represented as a whole. It was about who we are as Asian Americans, and breaking those barriers of what is expected in our society from those who look like us.

Linsanity showed an Asian American unexpectedly taking over an industry (or a business or a field, whatever you want to call it) that is 99.9% dominated by African Americans and Caucasians. We’d never seen that before in sports, especially basketball.

There was someone who looked just like me. Someone who I could relate to. For me, Jeremy was almost a superhero. An Asian American who was the talk of all the sport shows, on the covers of all the magazines and on the front pages of all the newspapers. He was living my dream! And a dream of millions of other Asian American kids who never felt something like that was possible — and not just in basketball, but rising up the occasion in our everyday lives, too.

In the film, comedian Hasan Minhaj threw out some words that our society uses to describe Asian Americans:

Small.

Passive.

Diminutive.

Unathletic.

Submissive.

What did that mean? It means we aren’t meant to be:

Brave.

Courageous.

Covetable.

Desirable.

Leader.

A quote that really stuck with me in the film was by Pablo Torre of ESPN:

“The reason this matters so much is because if you are an Asian American person, you have spent your entire life identifying with people who look nothing like you.”

And that is 100 percent true.

Unless you grew up wanting to be a doctor, accountant or laundromat owner, there weren’t many Asian American role models for me growing up.

My dream of being an athlete? There weren’t many to look up to in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

What about as a sportswriter? Hell no

It gave me doubts whether the things I wanted to be were even possible — and it was all because I’d never seen anyone who looked like me do it. And that is what Jeremy represented for a generation.

That’s what Jeremy represented when he scored 38 points in Madison Square Garden to beat Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers on national television. He did it on the biggest stage in New York City. He did it when people were doubting him and he did it against one of the greatest players ever.

That is why that performance was so special.

Another moment the film dove deep into was when Jeremy hit a game-winning shot in Toronto that had even the Canadian fans going nuts. It wasn’t about whose jersey the players were wearing or which team you were cheering for. It was about Jeremy doing something never seen before by someone who looked like him, and what that proved.

Just seconds before he hit that game-winning shot, he waved his teammates off because he wanted to do it himself. He wanted to be the man in that moment. He had something to prove. And the film explains how it wasn’t meant to be a selfish moment or a slight to his teammates. As Asian Americans, we are type casted as being submissive, obedient and passive in everyday life. But this represented a moment where we don’t have to be. We can be strong, driven and have a mindset of “fuck it, this is my time” when nobody else expects it.

Minhaj put it best: “I remember after he hit that shot, I thought to myself, how many moments in my own life did I pass up the ball or hold myself small? … how many times did I not wave someone off? That’s what that moment meant to me.”

In the Q&A portion of the event with the filmmakers, they all talked about this concept of “wave-off moments” in our lives. It’s the opportunities we get to prove ourselves and take advantage of moments that supersedes any stereotype anyone may have.

We all get these chances, even on a daily basis, so what are you going to do when faced with them?

Filmmaker Travon Free discussed another topic that resonated with me immensely. He’s tremendously talented, having won an Emmy Award and an Academy Award. He’s been a writer for The Daily Show. He’s done a ton in his career. But he described being the only person of color in the writers room at The Daily Show, and feeling the need to constantly prove himself. It didn’t matter how many accolades he had and how good he was at his job — there was still some insecurity there, simply by who he was and what he looked like.

I couldn’t help but think back to my career. When I was a full-time sportswriter coming out of college and working for small community newspapers, let’s just say the Oregon sports media landscape wasn’t exactly bustling with diversity.

I was the only one who looked like me and felt the need to constantly prove to coaches or players that I knew what I was talking about. When I asked questions and did interviews, I had to always be on my game, or else, I wondered: would they respect me? To me, I knew I was good at what I did. To others? I wasn’t so sure.

Even in my current job as a product writer at Nike, I’m fully aware I’m one of two non-Caucasians among our writing and editing team. I think about that on the daily. Am I good enough? I know I am personally and internally, but without that representation, there are certainly times I question whether I am — even after four-plus years of being on this team.

The filmmakers were asked about how they’ve handled being the lone minority in a group, and each talked about having confidence, being self-assured and certain about yourself. You are there for a reason, which seems so easy to understand as a concept, but so difficult at the same time.

I wish there were more Asian Americans in my field to prove to the next generation (like my kids) that that they can do anything they want. They don’t have to fit a mold or a stereotype. They can be whoever they want to be without having to succumb to the stereotypes about us in the past.

I want that for them. I want that for us, as a society, to stop pigeon holing people based on how they look.

This topic is an important one, and I hope continues to be talked about in the future.

That’s what makes “38 in the Garden” so powerful in my eyes.

Thanks to Nike for supporting this. Thanks to the ASCEND Network at Nike for organizing this event.

And a big thank you to Frank Chi, Travon Free and Samir Hernandez for making this film.

Reflecting On a 10-Day Quarantine: An Experience to Remember, But Far From Easy.

Getting our first fresh breathe of air after our 10-day quarantine in Taiwan.

TAIPEI — I’m not going to say it was easy. FAR. FROM.

And I wasn’t sure what to expect when our family decided to come to Taiwan for the first time in six years — a long time coming because of the birth of two kiddos. Before that, we had gone three times in three years since my wife and I got married in 2014.

It’s a major part of who she is. While she was born in Oregon, her heart will always be in Taiwan because her parents brought her to their native country every year growing up.

It was important for our kids to experience what she had. And I was totally down since I believe experiencing different cultures and traveling to different countries is important.

We can sometimes be so consumed by our own bubbles, even moreso due to COVID. So the opportunity to do this at the right time and doing it safely was something we couldn’t pass up.

But honestly, IT IS HARD! Especially when you have a 2-year-old and an almost 5-year-old who are so used to being outside to play.

We were very fortunate to have my in-laws’ place to stay in, where we had a kitchen, separate bedroom areas, plus a living and dining room. While it was small and reminded us of when my wife and I used to live in San Francisco, we at least had the necessities to make this quarantine period bearable.

If anything, while it was an adventure for our family that we’ll look back on and forever remember, it was also a challenge for us as a family to keep it together and not go totally insane on each other.

Here are a few things we learned:

• Patience and pace yourself: You’re in this for the long haul and gotta remember your family is a team that needs to get through this together. Don’t try to do everything at once, like eating everything or getting over jet lag at once.

• Plan ahead: Can’t stress how important it is to plan an activity or exercise everyday. You can never have enough things to keep you occupied, especially with kids. Even if alone, thinking of things to occupy your time was important to get through the 10 days.

• Make every day special: Whether it’s a new activity you look forward to doing or ordering out at a new restaurant, we tried something new everyday to make it memorable.

All of this may seem kind of obvious, but looking back, it 100% was helpful.

I totally made fun of my wife for wanting to come to Taiwan with FIVE suitcases. It was originally four, but we decided an extra one was needed the day before we left to carry everything we wanted. I wasn’t sure how we’d get five suitcases, plus FOUR carry-ons, ourselves. But we really did need everything we brought, like snacks for the kids and their toys that took up three suitcases themselves.

I’m not making fun of her anymore! It was well worth it.

While we survived and got through these 10 days, I’m not sure if I could ever do this again. Ten days in isolation is A LOT.

Seven days, no thanks. Five days, maybe? Three days? Possibly.

If we come back to Taiwan next year, it’ll be interesting to see what (if any) quarantine period is in place. And we felt real fortunate with our situation to have family help us out by dropping off food by our front door every other day and checking in if we needed anything.

Even though this whole experience was challenging, I’d like to give major props to Taiwan. These rules were put in place for a reason, and they’ve taken this pandemic seriously ­— something I can’t say some in the world has. They’ve still closed this country to tourists.

It’s no surprise Taiwan has some of the fewest numbers on the entire planet. And yet even though they’ve had record-breaking numbers recently, it’s been minimal, like less than 200 a day.

Everyone is still cautious with wearing masks, inside and outside. So much love to you, Taiwan.

And I will end this by saying my wife is everything: All-Star. All-league performer. First-ballot Hall of Famer. She wasn’t going to be denied to get our family here this time around.

She was prepared for ALL the rules in place. She knew everything inside and out with every document needed by the Taiwanese government.

It was not easy getting our whole family here. She researched everything over the last few years, keeping up-to-date on Taiwan’s quarantine rules every day. And it all paid off in the end.

She truly is our family’s Most Valuable Player.

ICYMI, here are all of our daily posts since we arrived ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Day 10 of Quarantine: We Made To The End—At Last!

Day 9 of Quarantine: ONE. MORE. DAY!

Day 8 of Quarantine: How Did This Wall Get Bigger?

Day 7 of Quarantine: We’re Starting to Hit a Wall

Day 6 of Quarantine: Hey, There’s People Outside of Just Us!

Day 5 of Quarantine: We Made It to the Halfway Point

Day 4 of Quarantine: Finding Creative Ways to Pass the Time

Day 3 of Quarantine: Keeping a Positive Outlook While the Days ‘Drag’

Day 2 of Quarantine: Food, food and more food

Day 1 of Quarantine: Kids woke up at what time?

Travel Day: From Portland to Taipei—what an adventure (so far)

Day 10 of Quarantine: We Made To The End—At Last!

TAIPEI — The road to the end of our 10-day quarantine is finally over.

We woke up and had an immediate sense of relief that this day came — AT LAST.

It was weird being up and knowing we were about to go outside (briefly) and into a taxi to take us to our PCR testing site.

Taiwan’s government put the following guidelines in place:

• Get a negative PCR test before getting on the plane.
• Arrive and immediately get tested at the airport.
• Test yourself on Day 3 with an at-home test.
• Test yourself again on Day 5 with an at-home test.
• Test yourself again on Day 7 with an at-home test.
• Arrange an appointment for a taxi to pick you up for a sixth and final test.

After 10 days, the testing actually isn’t over yet. While you can go outside and start doing stuff, you’re still restricted from going into crowded areas, which the government can track by where your phone is.

This period is called 7-day self-health management, which still requires an at-home rapid test done on Day 12 and Day 14.

But at least the hard part was done.

We waited outside our building for two taxis to take us to the testing site. Only two people were allowed in per taxi, so it was Kayden and me in one, plus toria and Micah in the other.

It took us around half an hour to get there.

When we arrived, there were several other taxis with that had formed two lines with everyone waiting to get their COVID test. Not sure if everyone else was finishing up their 10 days too, or were getting tested just to get tested.

All we had to do was show them our passports and they had to look up our names on the appointment list.

Every person got three stickers with a bar code that I assume was to track our test.

We got up to the front of the line, where they confirmed our names and then the testing was underway. The guy stuck the cotton q-tip pretty high up my nostril and swirled it around for five seconds.

Kayden, who has hated taking the test, got it a little bit easier when they tested him through his mouth.

In total, it took about a few minutes. Real efficient. They got through several tests in a short amount of time.

And then we were on our way back to our home.

But it was over. If we tested positive, they would call to let us know. If we tested negative, we wouldn’t hear anything.

We came home and walked a little slower than normal up the stairs and to the elevator just to breathe fresh air again before finishing out our last day of quarantine.

The fun begins tomorrow where we get to explore and show the kids what Taiwan is all about.

We’re planning to hit up the local market, walk the streets and just get the kids familiar with the neighborhood we’re in. Maybe hit up one of many playgrounds that are in this city.

Hopefully the little ones learn a lot about living here and Taiwanese culture since we plan on bringing them here every year.

And that’s the end of our 10-day quarantine “adventure”! If you’ve read any of these blogs the past 10 days, appreciate you! It’s certainly been fun and interesting to document this time, and to look back on it with the kids a few years from now and remember the torture (I mean, fun) that we put them through.

Back to normal life (kind of) on Day 11!

Day 9 of Quarantine: ONE. MORE. DAY!

TAIPEI — Day 9 is over, and WHAT A RELIEF.

As bad as the last two days were because the ending was so close, today has brought a renewed attitude for all of us.

We all felt a little better knowing that the final day was coming soon and we weren’t going to be locked up inside for any longer.

The day began when I woke up, turned to my left and saw the rocket ship that Kayden has been sleeping in tipping over on its side.

Little man is starting to get way too big, and I don’t think he even knows how big he’s getting.

He still tries to do some of the same things his little brother does, like jump on our backs. And it’s a little, teeny-bit of a difference between the 2-year-old and the near 5-year-old jumping on our backs nowadays.

Anyway, we had a game plan today.

We used the entire day to clean the entire house. After 10 days here (including our Day 0 travel day), the place definitely needing a deep clean. Especially when you have two kiddos causing destruction every chance they got.

We had Kayden help out with cleaning the floors by “mopping” them with a towel beside me.

From the two bathrooms, the kitchen, the dining room and the two bedroom areas, we cleaned this place top to bottom.

If anything, it was a good time-waster. Also, it got us off to a clean start with Day 10 looming.

The kids seemed to be in good spirits, too.

The past few days, it seemed like spending all this time inside was starting to get to them. They looked a little less energetic and a little less playful.

But today felt a little different. They both seemed to understand that the end was getting near.

Other than that, it was a pretty chill day.

The kids took their naps. The parents got a break mid-day.

It was relaxing overall.

We made dinner with some of the spare ribs that toria’s aunt had left us, which was actually pretty good.

I swear that food just tastes a little bit fresher here. From the veggies to the meat, we were told that food doesn’t last that long here. You’ve got to eat it quick or it’ll go bad quick. One because of the climate, and two, I just think things aren’t pumped with the pesticides or hormones or whatever it used back in the states.

I could be wrong, but we haven’t experienced much of that bloated “ugh!” type feeling that makes your stomach feel heavy after a meal.

We all then went to sleep with the comfort of what was to come the next day.

We were going to take our last PCR test tomorrow morning at a place 30 minutes away by taxi.

Recently, Taiwan’s COVID numbers have jumped to record-breaking numbers. But to this country, that meant 183 cases two days ago with most of them asymptomatic and coming from travelers.

They’re real cautious here, but at least there’s a feeling of safety that they take COVID seriously.

Day 10, here we come.

Day 8 of Quarantine: How Did This Wall Get Bigger?

TAIPEI — I wrote yesterday how we ran into a big wall.

Well, Day 8 might have been even worse.

The mental wall got even bigger, and it was hard to climb over it.

By the afternoon, my mind completely shut down. Even though I knew the end of this 10-day quarantine was coming, the thought of one more day like this before we hit the final Day 10 got to me.

It truly felt my mind shut down and things became real foggy.

It wasn’t even a physical tired where I needed a nap or wanted to go to sleep.

It felt like I truly needed a break from life indoors. I wanted to bust down the front door and go for a run around the block. 5 minutes. 2 minutes. 1 minute. Hell, even 30 seconds of fresh air would’ve helped.

But we just could not do it.

It felt like this big barrier (that was our front door) to the outside world.

We couldn’t go through it. And the thought of breaking the rules here, getting caught and possibly being asked to quarantine for another 10 days would’ve sapped everything out of us.

I tried closing my eyes to take a nap, but it wasn’t what I needed.

I truly just zoned out, looking outside and at my phone, and nothing was really all that interesting.

The kids seemed fine. Kayden was still incessantly asking whether he could go outside, but he knew the answer to that.

Micah seemed OK, as long as he had his toys, but even so, he was starting to get tired of it.

Toria had hit her mental wall yesterday, and I realize what she now felt.

It was a different wall from yesterday for me.

I felt kind of useless actually.

In the morning, we tried passing the time by watching another movie. “The Adam Project” was a great time killer a few days ago.

This time, we tried watching “Windfall,” a new movie on Netflix starring Jason Segel, Jesse Plemons and Lily Collins. It was a guy who breaks into a rich guy’s empty vacation home, and things supposedly go a little nuts when the rich guy (and his wife) surprisingly drop by.

I’m sure if I was in the mood and had patience to watch it, it would’ve been a good movie. But it was just OK. Not as entertaining as we had hoped, and the only reason it was holding our attention was because of the actors.

We ordered more food to go again today, and tried a different spot for a porkchop bento and another chicken bento.

The porkchop wasn’t as good as the previous few days. But the chicken leg bento was actually pretty good! I probably would’ve enjoyed it more without the mental fog that was going on and wanting the day to just be over.

I even stuck my head out our front door for about 5 seconds just to breathe some different type of air. A window was open in the hallway and you could smell the streets of Taiwan.

The best thing about the Day 8 was knowing that tomorrow was Day 9, and when that was over, we’d have Day 10!

Day 10 meant getting our PCR test in the morning off-site. That meant we could go outside! A taxi would take us to the site, but knowing we could all be outside again for the first time in a week and a half was something we were all looking forward to.

Day 7 of Quarantine: We’re Starting to Hit a Wall

TAIPEI — Before this trip began, we were reading up how there were two days where folks reached a breaking point during the previous 14-day quarantine in Taiwan.

Not sure the reasons why.

But first was at the 5-day mark. We were actually OK there.

The second as at the 7-day mark.

We thought we’d be fine and wouldn’t hit a wall since Day 6 had gone so well. But we must admit we hit a little bit of a wall.

Kayden kept pleading to go outside to the playground. But we had to explain to him we had three more days left.

We set up a countdown chart on the fridge where every morning he can take down a number. It made more sense to him that after the 10^th day, we can finally head to the playground.

The one great thing about Taipei is the number of playgrounds in the city, and we’re really looking forward to that.

For toria, the wall hit when she realized her two suitcases full of activities to do with the kids was starting to run out. From doodle pads, activity books and toys we had bought from the dollar store, all of our “ammo” to entertain them was disappearing by the day.

For me, it was the end of my work week. Trying to keep up with my job while trying to help out with the kids as much as I could was starting to wear on me, too.

But with only three more days left, like I had mentioned before, the light was at the end of the tunnel.

Like I had written yesterday a couple days ago, I was forever on the hunt for real good chicken bentos — like how I remember it years ago coming to Taiwan for our engagement photos.

We were recommended by our sister-in-law of a place with real good porkchop bentos, which had locations throughout the city. Luckily, there was one nearby that could deliver through Uber Eats.

We ordered one of each — the porkchop bento and the chicken leg bento.

And they did not disappoint! The porkchop was excellent. The chicken leg was real good, but I’m going to keep hunting for the very best.

Total for both was $13. Great deal.

Not sure if this is too TMI, but probably the worst thing about being stuck inside for 10 days is actually not being able to take out our trash. Seriously!

It probably sounds too adult plus first world problems, but having a 2-year-old who’s still in diapers and can’t use the toilet yet, there comes some issues with that 😂

The main issue being you’re stuck with his *ahem* real dirty diapers sitting inside the house for days. Fortunately, we try masking the smell of it by putting the diapers in the other bathroom.

And there is someone who comes by every three or four days to ask if we need help taking out the garbage. But man, it is not ideal having to live within the same four walls with that smell sometimes.

Anyway, we’re seriously counting down the days.

It’s been seven days — eight total actually if you count Day 0, which was our travel day when we got into Taipei at 5 a.m. local time. And that day doesn’t count toward our total!

Three more to go!

Day 6 of Quarantine: Hey, There’s People Outside of Just Us!

Got out of my work meeting to see this. What a life this kid’s got.

TAIPEI — With the end of Day 6, I’m surprised we’ve made it this far.

Not with the quarantine — that in itself has been manageable. But I’m talking about this blog 😂

When I wrote about the first travel day and first couple days, I didn’t think I’d have enough content to keep it going after that.

But here we are. And hearing from friends and family during this “trip” (or quarantine period) say they’re actually reading this, that means a lot! And definitely talking to our friends and fam during the day has helped these days go faster.

For memory’s sake too and personally, it’ll be fun to look back and read these a year from now and remember how crazy it was to do this.

Today was kind of an “eventful” one. For us, at least.

The day began with a Nike work meeting at 7 a.m. Taipei time for me (4 p.m. in Portland). With the kids still asleep, I had to call into the Zoom meeting in the bathroom. Gotta do what you gotta do.

When I came out, there was Kayden on an iPad who just woke up and was laying there outside his rocket ship he slept in last night. What a life.

Then came with a phone call from another one of toria’s aunts in Taipei. The one thing about toria’s family, and I don’t know if it’s just Taiwanese culture in general, but they’ve been very, very helpful.

Family means a lot. And anything they can do to help, they are MORE than willing to do it. No ifs, ands or buts. Her aunt reached out to ask us if we needed anything.

Rice. Fruit. Milk. Water. Any essentials she was willing to go out to the local Costco to buy for us and drop it off. So nice of her to do this.

After getting off the phone, toria got another phone call minutes later from the security guard downstairs. He also asked us if we needed anything from the convenient store that’s literally next door to our building.

Last time, he got us jugs of water, some Sprite and a few M&M chocolate bars. You know, our favorite food groups.

Soon after, toria’s aunt (the awesome one who brought us groceries and the delicious homemade dumplings on the first day) got us even more groceries!

This time, she made this homemade minced pork belly. YUM. She also brought some more veggies, meatballs, daikon, bread and a lot of ingredients to make some soup. Incredible.

She just kept bringing groceries out of her bags, as if she was Mary Poppins with her unlimited bag of things.

That wasn’t the end.

Next came toria’s sister-in-law who came by to pick something up, and brought two bubble milk teas for us. The boba drinks were NT$60 each, which equates to about $2 USD. So cheap. Yet so good, too.

Why on earth are these drinks $6-7 each in the U.S.?! What a ripoff.

Later on in the day, toria’s aunt (who first called today) came by with her uncle and dropped off some food like ramen and crackers for us from Costco. Before this trip began, I’ll admit I was real nervous about whether we’d have enough food. Now, I’m worried that we have TOO MUCH food to go through. How on earth are we supposed to eat all this?

Dinner was already settled with the homemade minced pork belly, rice and a daikon and meatball soup we made. Also, just had to make some cabbage. Done!

At night, the one great thing about toria packing up five suitcases (one with food, and TWO with toys) was that there were plenty of activities to pass the time.

I’ll give her a lot of credit for that. Amazing wife.

She packed these projector toy flashlights with picture reels you can flash on the wall and ceiling. The kids LOVED them.

We spent probably an hour flashing pictures on the ceiling and having the kids guess what the animals and dinosaurs were. It became a game.

Can’t lie, it was real memorable to spend that quality fam time together without screens, TV, Blippi, iPads, etc.

Tomorrow is Day 7. We’ve been here a week.

Day 7.

Day 8.

Day 9.

Then Day 10 will be the last day. LETS GOOOO.

Day 5 of Quarantine: We Made It to the Halfway Point

Day 4 of Quarantine: Finding Creative Ways to Pass the Time

Day 3 of Quarantine: Keeping a Positive Outlook While the Days ‘Drag’

Day 2 of Quarantine: Food, food and more food

Day 1 of Quarantine: Kids woke up at what time?

Travel Day: From Portland to Taipei—what an adventure (so far)

Day 5 of Quarantine: We Made It to the Halfway Point

TAIPEI — Day 5 is over.

That could only mean one thing: WE’RE HALFWAY THROUGH THIS.

50 percent.

One-half.

On the back end.

You get the point. 5 days down. 5 more days left before we can get out of this house.

I feel like we’re getting real antsy for this to be over. Both kids wake up in the morning and immediately go over to the window to look outside — like they really, really, really want to see what’s beyond these four walls.

I joked with toria, “What if this is what they think Taiwan is? They may never come back again!”

Kayden keeps talking about going to the playground and back to his preschool. Micah just seems tired of looking at our faces all day 😂

Toria already is planning what to do on the first day we’re out of here. But at least for us now, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Taiwan’s quarantine period used to be 14 days before they reduced it to 10.

Fourteen days might have forced us to go crazy. Ten is somewhat manageable.

Our day was pretty uneventful, as they all seem to be the last few days.

We ended up watching “The Adam Project” on Netflix in the morning. I’m a sucker for time traveling-type movies, which is why the Back to the Future trilogy is one of my favorites of all-time. Probably seen all those films a hundred times each.

“The Adam Project” was all right. Pretty cliché and what you’d expect from a Ryan Reynolds movie. It’s about Ryan Reynolds going back in time where he meets his 12-year-old self in 2022, as they look to save the world.

It kept us entertained for the hour and a half, so that’s all that really matters at this point of quarantine.

Once that was over, the kids took their mid-day naps. When they woke up, Kayden and I did our daily workout to the same YouTube kids workout and kids yoga videos. It’s something he really looks forward to doing everyday now.

We also discovered a new kids show called “Tayo The Little Bus.” It’s a Korean animated series on Netflix that’s pretty much the bus version of Thomas the Train. More importantly, it’s a show toria approves because it isn’t Blippi.

Then we ordered out again with Uber Eats, where we got this fried chicken leg bento. I remember coming to Taiwan about eight years ago for our engagement photos, and our photographers hooked us up with these real bomb chicken bentos.

Ever since then, I’ve been on the hunt for them. This one wasn’t quite as delicious as that one years ago, but it was still good.

We’ve been told you can supposedly find them anywhere in Taiwan on the streets or at the train stations. But I’ve yet to find them! Guess we’ll try again once we’re out of here.

One perk of our location is that it’s right next to a hot springs. You could look right outside our window and see them.

Inside the main bathroom here is a large tub connected to the hot springs water. Pretty convenient that at anytime we can have a hot springs bath in our own home.

I tried it out for the first time, and you can just smell the sulfur immediately coming out of the faucet. Turned out to be real nice, warm and relaxing — even though the kids wanted to play in it too.

I can see why the area we’re in is a tourist destination. But with Taiwan not open for tourism yet, this traditionally bustling area has looked pretty dead for the last week.

With Day 5 over, we’re on the home stretch. Just five. More. Days. Left!

Links to our previous blogs during quarantine ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Day 4 of Quarantine: Finding Creative Ways to Pass the Time

Day 3 of Quarantine: Keeping a Positive Outlook While the Days ‘Drag’

Day 2 of Quarantine: Food, food and more food

Day 1 of Quarantine: Kids woke up at what time?

Travel Day: From Portland to Taipei—what an adventure (so far)

Day 4 of Quarantine: Finding Creative Ways to Pass the Time

TAIPEI — Heading to Day 4 of the 10-day quarantine brought some new challenges.

The luster of being in Taiwan has started to wear off on the kids, and they are 100% getting tired of being indoors all the time.

Playing with the same toys. Seeing the same people (as in, their parents). Doing the same thing. I really wonder what’s going on through their minds right now.

The saving grace of it all: make it through today and tomorrow, and then we’re through Day 5, which means we’ll be halfway done!

Fortunately, my coworker Becky had an excellent idea. Create a board game for the kids (or at least, for one of the kids to play since Micah is still too young).

So I had to think of how to do it.

I ripped two pages out of Kayden’s doodle pad, found some tape and taped the sides together.

Along the path, we created different landmarks that are important to him:

We created a game inspired by “Sorry,” according to Kayden. He wanted something that went from Home to Finish.

• The start would be our home in Portland.

• The finish would be our home in Taipei.

• His school was included.

• His cousins’ houses, too.

• Favorite vacation spots in Cabo and Vancouver, BC.

To name a few.

Needed a dice now. No problem. Google has its own virtual dice you can spin. Clutch!

The best part was Kayden loved this game more than any other board game we’d bought him back at home. Huge win — and more importantly, it took up another hour of quarantine time. YES.

Yesterday, we also took our first at-home COVID test. It’s one of three we have to take during this 10-day quarantine before we take another PCR test on the 10^th day. That final test will come at a hospital nearby, and then we’ll be free!

We were negative. And now we await the daily phone call from the government to let them know the results.

At the airport, the government handed out at-home COVID test kits to every person. The tests were to be done on the third, fifth and seventh day of quarantine.

Next, we ordered again from Uber Eats and tried a different spot.

We thought we ordered quite a bit. A couple bowls of wonton noodles for the kids. An eel and rice dish. Chicken and rice dish. Braised pork over rice. And a spicy noodle dish.

All six dishes totaled $19. What a deal.

Makes prices back in the U.S. seem ridiculously crazy. $19 could get you one bowl of pho in some places.

The restaurant wasn’t as good as yesterday’s, but it was still real good. Can’t go wrong with the price either.

OK, so we’re four days down. Six more to go.

Cannot wait until we’re on the back end and counting down the final days of this.

Day 3 of Quarantine: Keeping a Positive Outlook While the Days ‘Drag’

TAIPEI — Day 3 of our 10-day quarantine has come and gone, and things have finally settled down.

About time.

We’ve gotten back into the groove that we had in Portland. The kids woke up at about 5 a.m. (a little earlier than we wished), are back to their mid-day naps and go to sleep at 8 p.m.

And with that, the days have begun to drag a bit. Not ideal when there’s a week left of being locked inside.

We got another delivery through the mail — a 6-foot plush playmat that we could lay on the marble or wood floors. It’s perfect for our daily workouts, which consists of 15-minute kids workout and children cosmic yoga videos we found on YouTube.

It’s better than nothing, I guess.

When not working out, this playmat is taken over by this huge rocket ship we brought over from home. The best part is it folds up real small — not what you’d expect out of something this big.

Because we’ve had so much food to go through thanks to toria’s relatives, we hadn’t gotten the chance to order any to-go food yet.

And from what we’ve been told (mostly from toria’s best friend, Stella!), ordering food delivery here is very, very convenient through Uber eats or Food Panda.

We went through Uber eats this time, and of course one of the top options is McDonald’s.

Not that we’d eat it but I was curious how much it was compared to the U.S. A combo meal came out to be less than $5, which I feel is a little cheaper than back home.

We decided on a noodle place, and ordered won ton noodles and beef noodle soup. There were so many options — you don’t really have to travel far here to find restaurants.

And best of all, the food came so quick. The app said it’d take 20-25 minutes, and the food arrived right in time.

And it was delicious!

Most importantly, Micah ate it. And if you knew him, you’d know he’s one of the pickiest eaters in human history. So the fact he loved it and was willing to eat the noodles and drink the soup was nothing short of amazing.

That was about our highlights for the day — i.e. it wasn’t very eventful.

That and keeping an eye on our Blazers losing again in epic fashion against one of the worst teams in the league.

Since we don’t get league pass over here, the only ways to follow games for me are through Twitter and the ESPN gamecasts.

But gotta love the Blazers continuing to find ways to lose in their tank toward a high draft pick.

Keep it going!

Links below to our last few days of this quarantine experience ⬇️

Day 2 of Quarantine: Food, food and more food

Day 1 of Quarantine: Kids woke up at what time?

Travel Day: From Portland to Taipei—what an adventure (so far)