Day 14 - Another Day, Another Café (Mr. Brown's)

Please tell me you're impressed by my rhyme. I won 3rd place for poetry 2 years in a row in J.H. just so you know.

Anyways, today I went to a cafe close to our house called Mr. Brown's Cafe. Mr. Brown's coffee brings me back to the time I worked for China Airlines and they served it in the VIP room. My dad also liked it and I remember trying his when I was younger. So today I felt like it would be a good place to spend the morning while the maid cleans our place.

After my brunch I wandered around our neighborhood looking for places I could take the kids for dinner. If you wondered why I didn't do that when we first got here it's because you don't go wandering around for food when you are hot and hungry with kids!

In the afternoon I did little shopping. Bought a pair of shorts at NET for $6. I noticed that Taiwanese people love cafes and bakeries among numerous other things. I am in the habit of picking up the next day's breakfast for the kids.

In my childhood there were several things I loved to eat here but you couldn't get it in the US. (Lein woo, white guavas, stinky tofu and steamed salt water chewy corn.) Now we can get the first 3 in the states but still not the corn. In fact, it's hard to come by here as well.

I also walk by many of these types of stores, nostalgic for my youth.

I finished my shopping a little early or rather I didn't have the time to do everything I wanted so I went to pick up the kids. And I am so glad I did! I caught them at the end of their chinese yo-yo class and Noah made a friend!!! It was funny when Noah had to count how long he could keep his yo-yo off the ground and he counted in Chinese "7, 8, 9, 20...." Then he stopped counting because he knew he skipped a bunch of numbers and couldn't concentrate because he was still trying to keep his yo-yo off the ground so his friend ended up counting the rest for him. Hahaha

And Zion asked the teacher a question in Chinese!

For those of you who can read Chinese and are curious, here is their camp schedule.

They are given lunch every day and Noah tells me it's super good! And before they go home they also get a snack. I just don't know how they can give the kids these at 5p and expect them to still eat dinner.

Zion took sip of the grape juice and said "Wait mommy, this doesn't taste like juice. It tastes like my medicine". Hahaha

We picked up this for dinner and went home to enjoy it :)

Day 13 - Choose Me Cafe

Today was my first day without the kids. I stayed up until 3a planning what I would do...which was my first mistake of the day. I was exhausted! After I dropped off the kids, I went to Watson's and Tomod's (drugstores have been my favorite shopping places and I've purposely waited until the kids were in school so I could go. I didn't see anything so I went home and took a nap!

The only thing I had to do today was to visit my aunt so I decided to find a restaurant in her area for lunch. The restaurant that I found was very close to a subway station but in order to get there I would have to change 3 lines and make a big loop or my other option was to take just 1 line, get off after 2 stops and walk 15 minutes in this terrible heat. So of course I decided to change 3 trains. What I didn't realize was that to change these 3 trains I would have to walk quite far to get to each going up and down several floors each time. It took me about 45 minutes to get to my final stop and right before I exited I realized that I forgot my wallet!!! So I had to go allllllllllllll the way back home to get it! You'd think I'd just give up and stay home this time right? Well I should have! But the 2nd time around I decided I would walk the 15 minutes just so I could get this picture.

The pasta was actually quite good but the Totoro dessert was not. It was some sort of black sesame cheesecake. After flipping through a magazine and reading a couple of chapters of Noah's book I went to my aunt's house. She showed me some photo albums of all my cousins and their kids then it was time for me to go pick up the kids. 

But before I left the neighborhood I decided to buy some bottled water for the kids camp this week. Why? Why? Why? I had to carry those bottles all the way back to the station and to the kids' school. I was dying! When I got there I finally remembered to take a picture of the kids.

When I picked them up I saw a bunch of kids sitting together in different groups just hanging out and eating their snacks. Then I see Zion and Noah playing with each other trying to step on a small marble that as on the floor. I was disheartened to see that they didn't make any friends. The camp I signed them up for was for ages 6 to 12 and I thought it would be good for Zion to have Noah around so he wouldn't be scared. But I didnt think of the fact that since they had each other so they wouldn't need to get to know other kids. But they both reported that they had a good time. They swam, went rollerblading and learned how to play a chinese yo-yo. Noah said that Zion didnt speak any Chinese at all. He asked Noah to translate for him. And when the teacher asked Noah where he went to school, he said in Chinese "I am in America do school" 😫 Ugh...his grammar! His pronunciation! All these years of effort. I want to cry!

As we headed home in the heat carrying all their sleeping bags, lunch utensils, swim stuff and all the bottled waters...the kids and I were exhausted. We decided to buy some Japanese curry to go for dinner and pick up some bread for breakfast tomorrow and went home. 

Day 12 - Ja-Chi & Elaine

In an effort to get the kids ready for camp schedule on Monday I put the kids to bed at 930p. Would you believe they slept in until 10a? They must be exhausted from the last 2 weeks. We had leftover Krispy Kremes for breakfast (it was stale) then had lunch at a Taiwan Buffet around the corner. The food was not as good as the one by my mom's place and we weren't allowed to get our own food but it only cost us $5 total.

Next we went to visit our friend Ja-Chi at her work. We were so lucky that she works at a sports clothing store! The boys had so much fun shopping there (except nothing fit Zion so he got a Chicago Bulls basketball). Ja-Chi was so nice and got us discounts and freebies!

After shopping we went to meet Elaine for dinner at Ding Tai Fung. What a treat! The boys love talking to her and telling her everything we've done in Taipei so far. And Zion even wanted to sit next to her for dinner instead of me (good riddance!) Haha After dinner we went to the same mango dessert place and headed home early to get the kids ready for bed and the first day of camp tomorrow.

Day 11 - Noah In Training

Bryan left for the MRT with 2 heavy luggage and a large carry on shortly before 1p today.

I had already anticipated the boredom that would ensue the week before so I asked if we could have a play date with "Little Ant" again. They were ecstatic when they heard she was coming, especially Zion.

But in reality, these were the few times they actually paid her any attention.

After "Shao Ma Yee" left for her nap we headed to the Taipei Main Station again to explore section R (Tsongshan Metro Mall) and eat dinner. Taipei Main Station is only 3 stops from our place. First is Shuanglian then Zhongshan then Taipei Main Station. What I didn't realize was that when you walk Section R you actually walk backwards and you go back to Zhongshan station then Shuanglian Station which means we were only 1 stop away from our home but we didn't have dinner yet. So I made the kids walk all the way back to Taipei Main Station (yup, didn't let them take the MRT) to have dinner. We didn't know where to eat but this sign in a small food court caught our eyes so we decided to eat here.

We had Yoshinoya, Formosa Chang and Krispy Kremes!

Three things I miss about Bryan when we go out. 1. Navigation - I usually tell him where I want to go and he gets us there. I just follow him blindly. 2. Carry heavy things - he carries our waters, jackets, wallet, phones, tissues, wet naps, band aids etc. 3. He pays for everything which means I don't have to handle the money or figure out which coins to use or if everything was calculated correctly. Since I already anticipated these inconveniences I started to train Noah.

Two out of three ain't bad. We'll start to work on the money one today.

Kids went to bed at 930p (the earliest since we've been here) and woke up at 10a. Hope they can wake up for camp tomorrow!

Day 10 - Our Airbnb

Bryan is leaving tomorrow so we spent the day shopping for last minute stuff for him to haul home and some stuff the kids need for summer camp. Not much to report today so here is a video of the Airbnb we rented for our stay.

Day 9 - Taipei Main Station - Taipei City Mall

Another night without the kids and we woke up around 10:30am! Since there was no time for breakfast we headed straight to my mom's to go out to lunch. We had lunch at a Taiwanese buffet. Look at these dishes!!!

They had so many vegetables I almost became vegetarian for lunch today. My favorite was the green leafy vegetable at the bottom left of my plate. I don't know what it's called but it's hard to find and expensive in the US. My plate cost about $5.

After lunch it was time to say goodbye to grandma and the nephews.

Then we went home so the kids could shower and nap (both of which they lacked in the last 2 days with the nephews). Then we went to Taipei Main Station and had dinner and some shopping at the Taipei City Underground Mall. Noah was starving and wanted to eat either ground pork rice, shao long bao or curry. We found a place with all 3!! Except it was dumplings not shao long bao. Here's a picture (about $15 for all that food!) and a video requested by my friend Julie. Enjoy 😉

Day 8 - Incredibles 2

What do you do when you are in charge of 5 boys ages 6 to 18 in Taipei? Goal - keep them cool, keep them safe, keep our sanity. The answer - bring them to the movies!

But first, we started our day waking up late because the kids were gone! We had a quick breakfast and headed to my mom's to pick up the boys. We brought the boys to Carrefour to get some snacks for their plane ride home tomorrow. Then had ramen downstairs. Though Carrefour was not far from the MRT or from our place we had 5 boys who would rather not walk. So we hailed a taxi and asked if they would take us all. Luckily we got a very nice lady taxi driver, who asked for a 30% surcharge for doing something illegal for us. With Victor sitting in the front, Bryan, me and 4 boys in the back we went home. Since Zion didn't sleep as much as he needs we took a nap when we got home. And after we woke up, this is the only picture I took today.

We then took a long walk (about 20 minutes) to the movie theater and ate McDonald's for dinner along the way.  Ticket prices in Taiwan are still a little cheaper than back in the US. About $8 for kids and less than $10 for adults. We were sure to find the movie times where they showed the movies in English (very important!) And the 4 younger ones and I watched Incredibles 2 and Bryan and Victor watched Mission Impossible 6. A few surprising things. Popcorn tasted very good. Savory, almost like popcorn chicken. Seats were super big and super comfy. It was FREEZING cold! And finally, no more standing for the national anthem! When did that happen?

Day 7 - Maokong and Shiling

We went to a new breakfast place today. Finally got some fan tuan. It was ok but the owners were very friendly compared to our usual breakfast place where the lady always looks unhappy.

The breakfast place was close to the summer camp the kids will be attending so we dropped by to check it out. The facility seemed a bit old and the pool was indoors in the basement with poor lighting. I hope they end up enjoying it.

We then headed to Maokong. We waited in line for 40 minutes just to ride in the crystal gondola which has glass floors.

At the top of Maokong we had lunch at the first restaurant we saw with decent food. The shrimp and chicken were good as was the kumquat lemon juice.

On our walk we saw several mountain apple trees right above us!

We ended with some green tea and black tea ice cream. Zion took a bite and did not like it.

We went back and had dinner with the family again.

So after dinner the kids wanted to spend the night with their cousins so Bryan and I were getting a night off in Taipei!! What a dream! Do you know what we did? We went to Shiling night market to buy last minute things the nephews didn't get to buy before they leave in 2 days. My feet are killing me! We got home at 11:30pm and I'm exhausted. But at least we checked Shiling off the list and we didn't have to bring the kids.

Day 6 - Wooderful Life

Money sure doesn't last long in Taipei. What we found out is that most places don't accept American credit cards unless they cater to the foreign clientele. Not even McDonald's, so we found ourselves at the Citibank ATM this morning. After a quick withdrawal we went for lunch at another shao long bao place and more A Gel pen shopping. The dish below is thin sliced bacon on top of enoki mushroom.

After lunch we went to a place called Wooderful Life recommended by my friend Julie. The kids were able to customize and build their own music boxes. First you pick out the type of base you want. Then the decorations you want to put on top and you're also able to pick out the song you want it to play. The kids LOVED it. Noah said it was his best day in Taipei so far! Everyone was happy except for Bryan who went to pay for it. Haha

We ended the day at the same seafood restaurant with my mom and the nephews.