The last 24 hours in Taipei

Monday was a whirlwind of shopping, packing and trying to squeeze every last thing we wanted to do.

After making sure we were as packed as possible, and the kids were asleep, Jeff and I ventured out for one last night of exploring the night markets. This time we went to the Taipei Tourist Night Market, which I did not like as much as the other two night markets we had visited... but they did have some more touristy type things and weird things, like a huge albino boa constrictor in a cage (no pics allowed), and fresh ingredients for lots of restaurants... just sitting out there!Choose your meal... Fish, crustaceans.... and not shown are turtles and baby eels... yum!
The Lantern Festival decorations were still in full force... very cool
A temple or shrine (not sure which) had some really impressive fish and other lanterns.
We stepped inside ... WOW
BTW do you like Jeff's new 'Cookie' sweatshirt? It is a Cookie Monster sweatshirt from the more shopping oriented night market we visited a few days before.... I think it is cute my hubby likes fun stuff like that, 'cause I do... and I may or may not have got Cookie Monster and Wonder Woman shirts for myself ;)

In a fancier area of town we got 'French' crepes... I got a strawberry, chocolate and whipped cream one... SOOO GOOD! And Jeff got a weird Asian one that had ham, mayo and veggies... so, not French!

YUM!

Tuesday morning I was up at 4am, finishing packing and getting ready. We had a van pick us up at 6:30am and we got to the airport with time to sit and let Mrs. Tsai get those last hugs with the kids :) ... and for Jeff to get a Whopper... ick.
While waiting for our flight on the other side of security, just about 10 min before neededing to board, Chase ran off and Jeff followed him with Ami in his arms... not a minute later I hear a cry, my baby boy's cry and walk around the corner to see Jeff hunched over at the WRONG end of the walkway! I dropped my stuff with my parents and ran over. Chase's drawstring on his pants was caught in the moving walkway under the lip of the metal end... I saw a dollar coin sized patch of blood on the metal end where the teeth are... I stepped on the walkway and almost tripped myself since it was still going, jumped off and searched frantically for the "Stop" button, found it, and Jeff (who had been kneeling at the end, holding Chase up by the arm this whole time so he wouldn't get pulled down, and holding Ami in the other arm this whole time) was able to pull Chase and his drawstring off the belt. Chase's lip looked like it had been ripped open, which it probably had, and was gushing blood (at least that's what it looked like to me). It was already swelling to twice its size and I wasn't sure if he had nocked out any teeth, thats how bloody his mouth was.

I ran with him into the bathroom and started cleaning him up, there was a cleaning lady in there that was SO helpful bringing me paper towels and thicker toilet paper... I don't know if I ever thanked her, but Cleaning Lady, if you ever read this... THANK YOU, seriously, your help was invaluable. Chase fought me cleaning him up the entire time, screaming and crying... it must have hurt for anything to touch that open wound :( But once I could see that it was only his lip that was cut open, no teeth missing, no cut on his tongue... I reminded myself that face wounds always bleed the worst, and prayed hard that he would be ok.. with no concussion.

This is making me almost sick just writing it down again... Chase was trying to go on the moving walkway like he did earlier, the right way, with Baba... but Jeff just couldn't stop him fast enough, and Chase didn't know that there was a 'wrong' way to get on the walkway :(

By the time I got around to taking a photo of his lip as we were leaving O'Hare, it looked like a pretty minor accident... 20 hours after the incident there was barely any swelling, no bruising on his face, and only three scabs.... geesh, very different from the 1/4 inch bleeding gap in his lip, the 3 times more swollen and jutting out lip, and the two smaller bleeding wounds that looked as if his upper lip had been pierced through by the metal walkway teeth. He refused to let me put ice on the wound during the first hour in the airport and then on the plane flight. I was only able to get to ice it for about 5 min in flight to Tokyo with a constant stream of tick tac bribes. Every time he would smile or pout for the first few hours he would re-open it and cry :( Not fun to deal with during travel, that's for sure. At least he is way better now.

The damage 20 hours later at O'Hare...

Seeing the kid today you would never have known he had anything happen to his mouth. No scars or anything... thank you Jesus!

So that was the eventful wrap up to a very eventful trip... it took us a full two weeks to recover from Jet-lag with the kids. I had heard Jet-lag is worse flying East... they were right.

Now we are starting to fall back into our pattern here in Chicago... thank goodness.

In other news, we will probably be closing on our new house March 25th! YAY!

Visiting Cousins, Cool Foods & Our Last Dinner Out

Finally on Saturday February 12th we met up with Jeff's cousin Sophia, her husband Rex and their two boys! We had met her younger sister Tiffany the previous weekend, stayed at her parents house in Kaohsiung and she had loaned us a stroller (because we forgot to bring one!), if that gives you any context as to why I was really looking forward to meeting her in person!

We decided to meet up and go to a children's library a little outside of Taipei but still considered within the city limits. This area is known especially for its mineral springs... Walking out of the metro station we encountered this cool water fountain/sculpture... the water raised and lowered at what seemed to be a random patter, this pic was taken when the water was spraying fairly high. There was a really cool park on our way to the library, with bridges, cool trees, and work out equipment :)

Sophia's husband Rex crossing a bridge...

Dad and Chase on the bridge, with this cool tree that was spanning the low wall.

Mom and Mrs. Tsai took their shoes of to get a foot massage walking on the pebbled walk way... in the background you can see some of the workout equipment that was scattered in stations throughout the park... in another area there were 'elliptical' type machines - all human powered with English and Chinese instructions as to how to use it and what muscles it will target... very cool!

Jeff... typical

Mom by another cool tree

We got some lunch before going to the library... I got sushi :) I *heart* Sushi YUMMY!

Unfortunately I never got pictures by the library... the grounds were very cool, and the basement was geared just for smaller kids, Chase loved it but was starting to get very squirrelly since it was about an hour past normal nap time... we had to leave after only about a half hour because I was afraid we would have a meltdown. Chase ended up falling asleep on my back in the Ergo on the train ride home, and then continued to sleep after I put him in bed at the apartment. It was a fun and full morning with family! :)

Later that night we met up with Sophia and her family again at Pizza Hut... as well as another of Mr. Tsai's brothers (I can't remember his name at the moment, I will have to check on this with Jeff). and any American who has not visited an Asian Pizza Hut wouldn't understand... these places are NICE and with great service, seriously. They have a fantastic salad bar and pizza buffet, with western things and Asian specific things like Lychee Jello and Kimchi barbeque chicken pizza. I really wanted to take a photo of that, but felt very silly as we were the only westerners in the place and keeping Chase in check was very difficult that meal... he didn't want pizza that night :( He did like the Lychee Jello though. *Sigh*

After the kids were down for the night, Jeff and I ran out to a smaller nightmarket which had more clothing and shoe places than food... which was the opposite of the first night market we visited.
Just thought I would post this photo... I guess Solvil et Titus is a Swiss watch company, who knew? I think it is fun to see my maiden name in Taiwan, of all places!

Sunday Jeff and I went to quite a few department stores just down the street from us, lots of walking, but we found lots of fun things for the kids :) I mean, who else will have a "Dough-doh" food court set that has dumpling and sushi molds? I mean that is COOL, right? Well, at least I am psyched about it, even if the kids don't care.

Sunday night we met up with Mrs. Tsai's brother and his family at a very nice Hot Pot restaurant down the street from the apartment.

Chase did great! We made sure he ate dinner before going out for dinner this time, that way he wasn't hungry and then presented with food that he didn't care to try... it worked great!

My mom and I got the vegetarian ... a whole tier of veggies, different tofus and lots of mushrooms (which, as a person who steers clear of any type of fungus, this was not my thing, but there were some cool looking ones... I just gave them all to my mom :) )

Mom and our separated hot pot, you can see all the dishes, sauces and things that were continually being brought... wow, just wow... so glad I got to try hot pot before we left! I didn't get a photo of the dessert, but it was great! A small (for an American like me) piece of fabulous chocolate cake, and two bruleed banana slices.... I HAVE to try doing this at home, it was incredible... like sugared banana chips with fresh bananas :) YUM! Even Chase ate a bruleed banana, and liked it!
Back at the apartment, I started photographing everything I had been wanting to photograph but been putting off until later... since there was only one day left I had to do it!

Jim Beam Whiskey with Chinese writing :)
Peanut butter and Jelly :)
Gum!
Ami holding her bottle and trying to feed herself... she did OK at it until it got low, and then needed help getting the final ounce or so... what a GOOD baby to drink from a bottle! So glad, since Chase wouldn't take one until he was almost 9 months old (that meant no going out for dates, or basically any type of leaving my baby for 9 months! geesh that was a long time!).
(almost) the end.

One last day to wrap up and then (FINALLY) I will have covered our trip to Taiwan! This is really mostly for me to look back on when I can't remember things, but thanks to all you who have been reading and tolerating my long winded-ness ;)

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 ;)