Day 18 - Living Mall

Why is it that when there is no school the kids always wakes up early? Entire week they've slept through my alarm and I had to get them out of bed by 8:30a. Today, they wake up at 8:15a. So annoying.

This morning we went out for breakfast. I am now able to order turnip cakes, hash browns, toast with jelly and basil egg tortillas in Chinese 😏. I had a headache so I took a nap when we got home. My friend recommended for me to bring the kids to the Living Mall which is like 10 floors of food and play for kids.

Of all the places we could've ate the kids picked McDonald's. I saw these Happy Meal boxes and had to get one. But to my surprise, the happy meals here didn't even come in a box. And it didn't have fries either! But we were able to order a fish burger and instead of tartar sauce and cheese, it came with ketchup.

I had this chicken patty that was pretty good. It come with a packet of spices that you sprinkle onto it.

After our late lunch they spent 3 hours in this huge inflatable bounce playground while I finished up a book. Admission tickets included free cotton candy. Zion did not like it so I happily ate it for him.

We decided to wander around the mall to see if there was anything fun we could come back for next weekend. Unfortunately, the things got more expensive the higher we went. I paid NT350 for each kid for the inflatable bounce area and on the 8th floor they had an entire floor of different types of play areas for NT750 each child! So I don't think we will be returning here except maybe to play at Tom's place, which is like Chuck e Cheese without pizza.

I also found the elevator to be interesting. They had a set of up and down buttons quite high and a set of low ones for handicap riders. Why didn't they just put it in the middle so both could reach?

It was very late by the time we were done and we still haven't eaten. I couldn't find a good place to eat so we went back to Taipei Train Station per Zion's request. (I'm pretty sure it's because he wanted Krispy Kremes.) We couldn't find the same food court so we just ate at the first on we saw. It was terrible. Fries, fried chicken, popcorn chicken, calamari and ice cream. I know that doesn't sound too bad but I think we were all tired and would've liked a more filling dinner.

Bonus Post - Week 1 Camp Update

There are some mean kids at camp. One of them laughed and made fun of Zion when he fell and his shoes fell off. That made Zion cry. But one of Noah's friend told him that that kid "boo li mao" (impolite) which I hope made him feel a little better. Then there was another kid who called Noah fat, but Noah said the kid was fatter than him. So odd. Then the kid called him a name "ma luh foo". I asked my friend here what it means and she didn't know so I asked Noah if he got the words right and he didn't know. So I guess we'll never know.

Zion seems to have made a friend too. But from what I understand, they didn't talk to each other. The kid just kept tickling his back. Noah has 2 friends and he says one of them will get his mom's number on Monday so we can have a playdate.

As far as their Chinese goes, both are speaking more but I think Noah has been benefiting more from this experience. But there has been one glaring downside. Noah says to me in English today "Mom, today tonight, are we meeting with anyone?" Now go ahead and translate that directly into Chinese. It looks like his Chinese is not improving as fast as his English is declining!

Take away from the first week of camp. The kids will need some sort of Chinese class or practice when we go back. Two weeks in the summer is not sufficient. And Noah has officially declared that this is the best camp he has ever been to. Yay!

Day 17 - Updates (Shin Kong Mitsukoshi)

Life is not all that exciting or different these days but for my one loyal follower (you know who you are) I must continue to document the mundane details of our day to day life.

You already know that Noah loves curry. We were able to find these curry baos at one bakery here.

Here's the kids eating breakfast and what we have to carry everyday to and from camp.

We also pass by this sign everyday. Noah asked me what it means...

These benches by the elementary school are pretty neat. There are barely any public benches (and trash cans) in Taipei.

Mosquito update. So far Zion only had 1 mosquito bite. And it's on his face! Noah's had a few but he really had a reaction to one of them like he did in China.

Today I went back to Carrefour to get my tax refund and walked home with another backpack full of chips and instant noodles. I also need to learn what these signs mean.

I had some leftover bread at home so I decided to spend the rest of the morning at home. Maybe read a book, use a face mask? Nope, I napped instead. In the afternoon I went to Ximending and shopped for some hand creams. The older I get, the dryer my hands get. And it's a good thing I don't use makeup or face products because I would go broke shopping there.

It started thundering while I was there so on the way to pick up the kids I saw these huge snails! I don't know where they usually hide but they come out when it rains.

Since it's Friday, we decided to go out to the food court under Shin Kong Mall and had this for dinner. I loved this type of fish soup. I only know the Taiwanese word for it. (Ba sap ba hee)

Day 16 - Observations (Mazendo Guangfu Restaurant)

Why am I not skinny yet?!? I walk around 5 miles a day if not more. I am sweating buckets and I am still 3x the size of people here! So depressing. Can't wait to go back to the US where I am among my people. 😂

Today after I dropped off the kids I walked to Carrefour. It's surprising how close it is when you don't have kids complaining about the walking and heat the entire time. On my daily outings I've notice Taiwanese people really love plants. They grow them everywhere!

I also like shopping for sanitary pads here. I've heard I'm not the only one who does. I noticed that they have samples to show you what the pads look like. This maybe too much info so if you are uncomfortable, please skip the pictures. Some of their pads are ginormous! And one even has a removable pad on top of another pad!

I have learned to limit my shopping to what I can carry home by myself. No kids, no Bryan that means no taxis home. I spent enough to qualify for the tax refund but I didn't bring my passport so I have to go back again tomorrow.

I had lunch with Tina and Little Ant again today. I didn't get a picture of Little Ant but I did get a picture of lunch!

I usually don't order beef noodle soup in the US because honestly, it's just not that good. And since it's been hot here I didn't want to eat a hot bowl of noodle soup. But this was soooo good! I definitely should've started ordering this earlier on Taiwan!

The area we were in was very cute (should've taken a picture) so we took a stroll and got a kumquat lemon juice. Then I shopped around and tried to buy some dress shirts for Bryan. What I found out was that their sizing is very limited at G2000. So if you had 15.5 neck it only comes with 1 length sleeve. And some styles has 15.5 neck others are 16. None of the styles have both. I was also told that if your pant size is 30 then they have a standard length so you most likely have to alter it. So oh well, I tried. Now back to more shopping for me and the kids.

How quickly the time passes here. It was time to pick up the kids. For dinner we bought to go from a place that had fried chicken pieces, beef bowl and curry. It was our most expensive dinner yet. Around $15. But I think the miso soup was bad. Zion and I ended up with a stomachache and diarrhea which is sad because there are only a few restaurants in our neighborhood to choose from. Now there is 1 less 🙁.

After dinner Zion got to try on some of the clothes I bought him. Since he is so skinny and small he was not able to buy any basketball gear at Ja-Chi's so he was very happy to get these.

Day 15 - Eating and Shopping...again (Jessie Wa Brunch)

I only took a few photos today. I went to another cafe by our place for brunch. I ordered the calamari and clam pesto pasta and it came with bread, soup and a drink. Only $10. I didn't bring any books to Taiwan to read so I've been reading Noah's books.

Then I went to Taipei Main Station again and did a little shopping. Picked up a few things and some more Doraemon DVDs.

The day passed quickly. It was soon time to pick up the kids again. It looks like Noah made 2 friends :)

He said that sometimes he can't understand what his new friends are saying because the vocabulary is too difficult so they try to explain it to him a different way until he understands. They are also really enjoying the Chinese yo-yo and the rollerblading. But they don't exactly know how to play "wei-chi" yet. Noah also reports that the teachers aren't very nice. They yell at the kids and tell them to "be tsuai" (shut your mouth). He also said they were warned during wei chi if they talked they would be deducted 10 points. So when Zion didn't understand the rules and Noah explained it to him in English, they deducted 10 points from him. Don't know if this it is common here for all the teachers to be so mean...

For dinner we had dumplings. I ordered 5 curry dumplings (Noah loves curry) and 15 pork dumplings. Plus a bowl of pearl wonton soup. They seemed regular sized to me though. I wonder if they gave me the wrong ones. Food just gets cheaper and cheaper! Dinner was about $5!

And for those of you who wonder how I can order food here without being able to read Chinese...well, the answer is that I only eat from places that have English on their menus too. And when they ask me to fill out my order, I ask them to do it for me 😅.

Also, navigating here is quite easy now with Google maps.

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.