"Female assist, no alarm"

At the security check point at SFO, I was told to step aside when the TSA called out "Female assist, no alarm!" You feel such a sense of vulnerability as you stand waiting in the enclosed glass "cage", though you have done nothing wrong. The "female assist" came shortly, patting through my legs. Out of curiosity, I asked her why I was picked out given that no alarm had sounded, and I learned that it was my long linen skirt. Interesting. We wonder if that's a more objective way to get to search the Muslim women, and in the process, all the Catholic nuns and Orthodox Jews and all women with long skirts.

Anyway, off we flew 13 hours, and landed safetly in Taoyuan. The humid air, bus smell, lush green fields, dilapidated looking buildings, all the familiar senses, this time, a new feeling of a "second home" to both of us.