The Lantern Festival

That Friday February 11th, was the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations which gets sent out with another celebration... the Lantern Festival. Our plans were to head out to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial where the giagantic bunny (from this post) and festivities were going to be held... our apartment was literally 4 blocks away from the hub of the festival... Jeff really found us a great location!

Before heading out, Mrs. Tsai got to feed Ami rice cereal...

Ami LOVES rice cereal now, I had not been consistent with giving her 'solids' until this trip, since there had been so much going on with the move, the holidays and getting ready for the trip... So it was fun to see Mrs. Tsai's interactions with my somewhat demanding little girl.... if you are too slow with that spoon Ami DEFINITELY lets you know what she thinks about that! HA! She is the total opposite of Chase when it comes to food! :) Chase only ever tried to grab the spoon once, and didn't like the feel of food on his hands and so never tried to touch it again... whereas we have to hold Ami's hands down otherwise she would never get the food to her mouth! Here I am holding her arms down while Mrs. Tsai shovels it in as fast as she can :)

Mrs. Tsai liked our carrier packs we had, and loved holding Ami whenever she could... it was great for me :) Here she is with a very bundled Ami ready to go out in the drizzling rain to see the Lantern Festival
Dad or Jeff was usually pushing Chase in the stroller we borrowed from Jeff's cousin Sophia who lives in Taipei (Thanks Sophia!!!)... here he is all bundled up too :)
On our walk almost anything that could be decorated with lights, was! It was really a cool thing to see :) It reminded me of how American cities get so dected out for the Christmas season...
Even the metro had special signs for the year of the Rabbit :)
Jeff, Chase, my mom, Ami (under the blanket, she was asleep) and Mrs. Tsai standing in front of a really cool 'lantern' display. Tons of Lanter sculptures/floats were lining the Sun Yat-sen Memorial, from high school student groups to individual college people and more...
Here are some of the ones I thought were neat...

A close up of the intricate designs... for those who want to know, I looked closely and it is fabric sewn or glued on elaborate wire forms with lights rigged up inside... all those paper mache floats from my high school were put to shame by this one... done by a high school... wow
Jumping bunnies! YAY
The Taipei 101 building had a bunny on its side and '100' to celebrate the 100 years of the Republic of China... those white balls are balloons for medical aid and a question booth... so smart! And here is a line of individual lantern entries...
Not all were Rabbit themed... This one was impressive, the Mona Lisa in lantern form, with a dragon and other various things 'growing' out... very very cool.

The National Palace Museum

Wow, I am totally falling behind! Jet lag really hit us last week with the kids and their sleeping (or NOT sleeping) habits. With that, Jeff starting his first week of work at Deloitte, vacation laundry on top of the normal things, and trying to slim down my photos from the trip and be choosy about what I am going to post up here, and the kids constantly needing me because they just feel 'off'.... it has been a bit of a challenge to find the rhythm of life again. I want to post so many things, but I am just falling so behind that it will now be a short synopsis... here goes:

The day after returning from the southern part of Taiwan (February 9th), Mr. Tsai had to fly back to mainland China to return to work. This was taken shortly before he left for the airport, at the apartment in Taipei.

February 10th we went to the International Flora Expo (covered in THIS post)

February 11th (Friday) we ventured out to the Taipei National Palace Museum. Brief history: when the Nationalists were fleeing communist China, they took a few things with them to Taiwan, gold, priceless art and professors. The art in this museum is that collection of works.

Since Jeff was still recovering from his bout of food poisoning, the first thing we did when we got there was stop into the cafe and get something to eat for Jeff... and then, of course, my dad, mom and I could not resist getting some of the yummy things on the menu....

My 'snack' of hot cocoa and a chocolate raspberry cake... on a side note, you wouldn't believe how much I missed chocolate while I was there! It was as if just the sheer fact that they did not have much chocolate to be offered MADE me want to eat more chocolate... does that make sense? Good thing I brought 3 bars of Lindt dark chocolate with me ;) and I couldn't find chocolate croissants my entire trip, which made me sad. I miss Nagano Bakery in Tokyo, they had the BEST chocolate croissants!

My mom got Oolong tea, which she had never tried before, and Creme Brulee French Toast... YUM! We decided to split our treats so we could try them both :)

And Jeff had sparkling water and a ham and cheese sandwich... which to my dismay he consumed the WHOLE thing while I wasn't looking (I was distracted by the yummy treats, after all)... after more than 24 hours of only having water and a small piece of banana, his stomach hurt again from being TOO full, but he was alright and we finally made it into the museum!

Cameras were not allowed in the museum (I really did enjoy the freedom of taking photos of all the art I liked in China last March)... so here are QUITE a few photos of Jeff outside the National Palace Museum... with the very Asian-touristy 'peace' sign

Taiwan was celebrating '100' everywhere, because they were celebrating the Republic of China's 100 years.

Compared to Jeff I look much less enthusiastic... but trust me, I was the one soaking up all that was inside that building while Jeff took a nap on a bench :)

Mom got a photo of the two of us... one of the few on the trip.

And here is mom and dad outside the Museum... you could find dad a mile away in his blue Dodgers Jacket and NY Yankees hat... it was actually a nice little 'beacon' while going around the city :)

Mom by the male guardian lion to the Museum

and here I am by the female guardian lion (notice the cub under her paw? Thanks Asian Art History, you came in handy on this trip ;) )

Back in Taipei for the last week...

Even though I am now back in Chicago, I want to finish up our trip to Taiwan... It was such a great experience that I don't want to let it slip away by forgetting to write about the things we did and people we visited. Going to the south of Taiwan was so great, but it obviously put me a bit behind on the blogging if you couldn't tell ;) With so much to do and limited internet access (and the fact that I was the only one without a computer, I had to wait until someone was not using theirs and when no children needed me, a very rare occurrence indeed), I got more behind on recording our events than I wanted to.

Back in Taipei since we only had a week left, at nap times I tried to go out more with Jeff, and evenings got full too... which made for less down time to blog, but such great family and adventure time!

The first day back, Jeff and I went out walking around and shopping during nap time, then I stayed back with the kids while Jeff took my parents out the the night market Jeff and I went to before. Jeff must have ate something that was bad, because he didn't feel good and barely got out of bed for the next 24-32 hours.

The second day back in the capitol we decided to venture out (minus an ill Jeff) to the International Flora Expo ... they had some amazing displays of flowers, flower arrangements, and the thing was seriously HUGE. I barely got through a fraction of it with the kids and then headed back to the apartment with the kids and Mrs. Tsai so the kids could go back for naps. My parents decided to stay and spent quite a while walking around the area and said that everything they saw was pretty cool.

In the gift shop there were some signs of the indigenous Taiwanese people groups... the largest group is called the Amis... strange, no? I took a photo for my baby Ami to look at when she gets older, maybe her mixed look will actually look similar to one of the girls on the sign ;)

On a side note, while we were at the Pagoda where Jeff's grandparents' ashes are, Mrs. Tsai was talking to a local monk there who was looking at Ami and asking questions about her and then she turned to us and told us that a typical greeting between Buddhists is something that sounds like "Ami-tofa.' Which is pretty cool, and in the Chinese language is a positive thing that Ami's name sounds like that greeting.... Jeff on the other hand wants to believe it sounds like "Ami-tofu" and has since started calling her that, to my disapproval. It is just kind of neat that Ami's name means so many positive things (or sounds like so many things) in so many languages :)

Flowers everywhere at the Expo, on the sloped walls, around the trees... next to the oblivious baby, HUGE roses, beautiful plantings, vertical gardening and one of the Expo theme characters

Dad was pointing out fish and plants to Chase when....

Chase saw Mama taking pictures and wanted to come over to me :)

1) Dad: Look Chase at those Lilli pads Chase: Look there is Mama

2) Dad: oh now I see what you were pointing at

3) Dad: Careful not to fall in the pond Chase! (as he was getting ready to run over to me)

Trying out the new camera and it's macro functions.... straight out of camera without any color processing... I think it did pretty well.

Little fly on the huge rose... cool

While walking around, another group of teen/college girls surrounded Chase

and of course wanted a picture

I wonder if all these photos of Chase are going to appear of Taiwanese Facebook pages or on billboards or something ;)

Wrapping up the first week in Taiwan

We only visited Tainan for a short while to see Jeff's grandparents' home... which now belongs to my in-laws. It is a one story home, on a really nice street, with two bedrooms, kitchen, and a HUGE living area (that also doubled as an office while Jeff's grandfather was still working). When we arrived Jeff, Ami, Chase and I stood before the house alter and 'announced' (prayed?) to the grandparents that we were visiting. In the photograph below you can see the alter with fruit in front of it. What I loved most about the house was their wall of graduation photos. They had every child and spouce lined up by the ceiling... Mr. Tsai is the 3rd from the left, and Mrs. Tsai next to him 4th from the left (sorry for the bad photo, I didn't realize the glare at the time :( ). It was really cool that all the kids pretty much looked the same in their photos, cap, gown, and even ties for the guys and girls :). Mr. Tsai is the second of 6 children, the oldest and youngest were girls, and four boys in the middle.

After eating lunch at the house, we went sight seeing around the city. Tainan was originally the main city of Taiwan, since it has a huge port... but the balance has since shifted to the Northern most city of Taipei (the literal translation of Taipei means North City, and most of their cities are named just as obviously... so much more simple than our cities in America!). This is one of their main parks - my dad and Chase loved looking at the huge Koi swimming in the pond. Later Mrs. Tsai told me that this dragon statue has significance in the way it is spraying water on the golden ball, I guess the ball is supposed to be from the dragon's throat, and is very special, and the front 'claw' that is holding it is saying that he is offering good will to the people. I am glad I have my mother in law to explain all this cool stuff to me :)

In another area of the park we went into a shrine/temple... Here is Chase sitting on the base of a column.

And here he is asking Mama to take 'Pi-tures!' of him posing... I really don't know where he got this from, but it is hilarious, and I LOVE it :)

A neat 'brick' wall around the temple area.

After the temple, we went to another sight that was the location of the Taiwanese/Dutch treaty signing. Their history is actually kind of similar to America in that they were a colony and then rose up to fight for their independence. This was a really cool history lesson! While we were there, a group of students (?) were SUPER interested in Chase, and once they got the nod from Jeff they swarmed over to see Chase and take pictures, once they realized that I had another sleeping baby strapped to my chest they started taking photos of Ami too! I can't believe how much attention the kids have received while being here... then again, in most of the places we visited we were almost the only white people we saw, so two Hapa children definitely stood out.... and Chase with his light brown curling hair drew lots of stares, especially when they learned he was a boy (!). hehe! Most boys here have buzzed heads.

After the Dutch/Taiwan treaty site. We went to a fort. It was pretty cool seeing the old cannons and moat. They had two black swans swimming around, but I never was able to get a shot of them since both kids started having melt downs by that point in the day. Jeff got a shot on his iPhone though, which I am glad he did.

Mom with one of the really HUGE and cool trees lining the inside of the fort, there were at least 4 this size, but this one had the neatest trunks.

The tree mom stood by from a different angle, it was so neat how it grew out and over the interior of the fort. To get the whole thing in a shot would have had me standing almost to the other side of the fort wall!

After leaving Tainan we headed a short while away to Kaohsiung to visit Mr. Tsai's older sister's and stayed at her house. We only spent about a total of 24 hours there, but she and her husband were so amazing! They treated us to so much... food, fun and sightseeing... and were very flexible about having the kids, since they have 3 grandchildren of their own. My parents and Jeff got to go out and do more than I was able to, but it was so much better for the kids to have a day of getting good naps and being free to run, or roll in Ami's case, around (at least for Chase, as Ami is not mobile yet!).

The 'garage' door, all hand carved... every door in the house was unique and solid wood... you wouldn't find this in the States! So cool!

One of the coolest things about their house was the room that Jeff, Chase, Ami and I all stayed in. It had Japanese styled doors to close off the bed portion from the rest of the room, which was so great for the kids! I could just slide the panel shut and Chase had an entire mattress room to squirrel around in before settling down for nap, and for Ami I could shut the panel and there was no way she could roll off of the mattress, since they covered that entire area! Love Love Love that room... It is too bad that I wouldn't really be able to do something similar here in our new house... the resale value of that is probably not great to an American family :(

Ami rolling and playing around on the mattresses.

Chase loved to jump from the elevated area into the rest of the room and announce "Big Jump!" I also think he loved that this was a space just for us, and that he could jump around, and fall down on a mattress wherever he landed :)

Mom took a photo of us outside their wonderful house with Jeff's Uncle. (Chase was off to the park with Jeff's Aunt, so he wasn't there for the photo.) Behind that low brick wall was a Koi pond that went around the side of the house to the back with some huge fish! The room above the garage was the room we slept in.

I wish we could have spent more time with these relatives, they were so great to be with! But it was good to head back to Taipei and have some time to relax and space for Chase to consistently go to sleep in :)

Fire, Water and Interesting Foods...

Before leaving the mountain, we stopped at a few places on our way down to Tainan. The first spot was a place where fire and water were coming out of the mountain side at the same place... pretty cool. It must have been some type of flammable gas escaping, since it was making the water bubble at the source and seemed to come out of the cracks in the rock.

Jeff decided to try to 'photo bomb' my pictures that day, stepping in the way of my subject and interrupted quite a few cool shots... but this one of Nai-nai and Ami actually turned out pretty cute, so in one out of 20 shots, it actually worked... not that I am endorsing it, though
Chase hitching a ride on his favorite method of transport, his Baba's shoulders :)
At the place where the water and fire came out at the same area, there was a whole row of vendors selling TONS of food and trinkets.... a shot of the spread of one vendor.
Some were even selling birds they caught in the wild... another (which I couldn't get a discrete photo of) was selling a squirrel who had a necklace with a bell on it! .... "you should have bought a squirrel!" (anyone know that movie quote?)
Also at some of the vendors they were selling stinky tofu. Mr. Tsai bought a portion, and shared it with my parents.... my mom didn't mind it so much (but then again, she is a person that can eat things that have been in the fridge for weeks and just cuts the mold off of fruit and cheese and eats it... ICK), my dad on the other hand gagged when he put it in his mouth, tried to chew and swallow....
but couldn't get past the stinkiness of the tofu....
what a taste!
I didn't get a photo of him spitting in out into a garbage, but I got one of mom laughing at the spectacle... Although my mom did say a short while later that it wasn't so much the initial taste that got you, it was the aftertaste of rotten tofu that lingered that was kind of hard to take. Needless to say, I did NOT try stinky tofu. Just the smell from the vendors was itching my gag reflex. :)
At the end of the line of stalls, there was a honey stand! YAY HONEY! I just absolutely LOVE honey... I try to get some in each country I visit. :) So I got a 'small' bottle, which was not small at ALL! It is huge! Here is the bee keeper taking a section out of the 'hive.'

Looking at the Comb that the guy pulled out of the hive... we got to see the Queen, who was about twice as large and had a dot on her head so it was easy to find her... very cool.

Ordering some cooked pumpkin... Delicious! There was also sweet potato and taro here, which we didn't try... after eating some taro at Jeff's Aunt's house, I wish I had... I really like it!
Chase got it in his head that he wanted Mama to take 'Pi-ture Mama, pi-ture!' and started posing all around the large honey bee statue! I have never asked him to pose before, so this was HILARIOUS to say the least. I counted a total of 27 photos in this photo shoot, and that is not including a whole length of time that I was pretending to take photos to appease him :) Silly boy... here he goes!



(I think this one is my favorite... silly little man, doing a one handed push-up pose)
All done! :) After a while he actually drew a crowd of people, then he got shy and wouldn't pose anymore... everyone really got a kick out of him though :).

We have had quite a bit of un-American food here, which has all been great! ...but for Chase and eventually the rest of us, familiar foods are welcome.... Skippy peanut butter! And we actually got Skippy strawberry jelly also, which is not very sugary, and super fun packaging, but I haven't photographed it yet.

One of the new foods we have tried is a fruit called 'Buddah's Head' ...It looks like a weird artichoke from the outside, but is squishy and has super hard seeds in little 'pods' inside. My dad really likes it :)
Close up of Buddah Head fruit
"Only share with you" cookies....
with interesting English translation: Formula Cookies - in Chinese it is actually supposed to be Milk Powder. 'Swelling agent' - YUM! I LOVE swelling agent! :) HA! I think it is probably supposed to be leavening, or yeast or something... 'Avoid heat many tides' - I have no idea what that is supposed to mean :)