Kind of sounds like it could be the title for a country Chinese song!  We are all excited about heading home- it has been a fantastic trip!  But it is always nice to be home.

Max and Mae are at their last day of school- we don’t leave until 6:20PM local time today (it is Thurs. June 18th).  Crossing back over the Pacific means we gain a day- so even though we leave at 6:20PM we get into LAX at 3:20PM the same day!  Our Taipei-LAX flight will only be 12 hours- and with not having to do the Thailand portions, this trip home should be 1/2 the time it took us to get here.

We will have had 10 segments of flights- so far we’ve been stopped by security on the previous 8.  Will see if we get stopped on the 2 today.  Max almost always gets stopped for something on his carry on.  It’s a running family joke.  Drives me crazy- and Ahmed aka Zach has been getting us stopped at immigration i’m assuming because of the red beard.  Profiling alive and well around the globe.

While kids were at school yesterday and Zach sleeping………SURPRISE!  He actually had to sign on to get his roommate for college at 2:30AM-11:30PM AZ time.  He had an excuse today……….I went out to a shopping area that was an old converted factory now filled with independent shops.

It was very cool- only about 20% full but there are performance areas also.  SOOOOO much better then the big Western malls.  A little gem in the city center.

The boys went off to go to a movie and dinner by themselves and I wanted to go back to the dumpling place in our SOGO mall.  Mae was SUPER crabby, lets just say she still is alive, I used super human control and did not slap her- my God, 13 year old girls can be AWEFUL!!!

Max and I wanted to get one last foot massage before we left.  Zach was supposed to go with us, but it was 8PM and he was napping.  I know, I didn’t understand it either.  I’d looked up a near by place on Google- we started walking, I asked someone and she said it had closed 2 years ago!  Thanks Google.  She recommend one even closer- we found it mostly right away.

About died of laughter, we were the only people in the shop.  Much nicer than the shops around the night market.  Max’s therapist must have been working on some personal problems and taking them out on Max’s feet and legs.  He was laugh/crying thru most of the massage.  I have a Chinese/English app on my phone and he would look up words like:  help……..agony………fire.  He’d show them to the therapist- or try and say the word and we’d all laugh.  The therapist would ask him “hao bu hao?” Good/not good and he’d say “hao”/good.  Craziest thing.

At night a whole new city emerges in the dark.  During the day where there would be a busy intersection are set up street food vendors at most block corners.  It’s so dang hot here that people tend to wait until the sun goes down to venture out- on foot.  Saw a ping pong center in a basement:

No one was playing- but posters of ping pong “stars” lined the walls.  We didn’t get home until about 9:30PM.

Earlier in the week i’d mentioned that we used to see women with bound feet in Mainland China- but hadn’t for about 10 years.  On Twitter read about a British woman who is based in Hong Kong who has taken upon herself to document the remaining 100 or so women who survive today.  Here is a photo she took:

That is her big toe in the upper right hand corner of the picture and her other toes “wrapped” downward.  The feet need to be soaked and rebound everyday.  The factory that made the slippers these grandma’s wore closed 2 years ago.  Even with the practice being outlawed when the Communists took over in the 40’s these women have lived through so much- and to still be here with this crippling culturally imposed condition.  In the name of so called “beauty”.

On a lighter note- to so happens that it is lychee season.  Just my favorite fruit…….like ever:

I eat them everday- my favorite is actually a lychee martini- although I don’t get those very often.  Usually only in Cali.   Here is our address and Max coming into our apartment aka Fort Knox last night:

Max and Mae were off to school- it is about a 10 min walk for them.  Mae likes me to fix her a breakfast and Max is very low maintenance and usually has cereal and an apple.  Zach has been sleeping in until about noon- but he is up until about 3AM overnight- watching TV and “working out”.

I usually walk down to 7-11 when the kids leave to get a newspaper.  There are 2 English language papers in town- I think they are published by the same company as stories are almost identical.  Our local 7-11 is our go to place- 7-11’s are all over Asia.  They also have different fast food choices-instead of an 87oz big gulp: you can get 10,000 year old eggs (eggs hard boiled in soy sauce) or sweet potatoes!  There is a competing chain called “Our Family”, this is Max’s go to place for lunch everyday between classes.  He has had the same girl help him both these weeks, she gives him these little stickers that he puts on his phone case- he has like 4 of them.

Did some research and found a couple new areas to explore- headed out to the downtown area.  Very large shopping district- I almost died when I found a shop that had all Frenchie things……clothes, embossed leather, bags……The kids held an intervention and said “I have a problem”………”i’m obsessed”……….what ever!!  Ungrateful brats!

Zach got sick- he easily gets an upset stomach.  I call it his delicate constitution.  We’d both eaten this bread/egg thing:

they are super yummy.  Anyways he needed to return to the apt to “use the facilities”.  I felt fine- I swear that kid has a glutton issue- but what do I know?  I’m only the mom.

Mae and walked around a bit more.  Like most countries some things get lost in translation- for instance this restaurant we saw while walking around:

 You CANNOT make this up- it was actually called “Modern Toilet”- needless to say we did not eat here.  And yes those are toilets……..

I’d reserved tickets to a Chinese Opera show called “TaipeiEYE” they were performing “Legend of the White Snake”.  It’s the #1 thing according to TripAdvisor to do in Taipei.  The boys were NOT excited to go- maybe Zach made himself sick.

I have to admit- Chinese Opera is not my favorite.  The few times i’ve been its been usually outside and I would get sat next to the orchestra and it was like 100 degrees.  The music sounds kind of like someone repeatedly pulling the tail of a very pissed off cat…….very difficult to explain, and harder to listen to.

This was different, it was actually not to bad.  We were in this theater, only about 50 people, kind of sad.  On either side of the theatre there where translations (English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean) projected on screens, plus they gave us a little synopsis of the Opera before we entered so we would know what it was about:

 The show actually was really fun to see- the costumes were fantastic and so was the acting.  Mae, who went to the show under duress, she really liked it too.

Boys wanted to sleep in- I wanted Mae and I to go see the panda’s at the zoo so it was perfect!  Got Mae up early- like 9:00AM.  But by her moaning and groaning you’d have thought it was 4:00AM.  Our apartment is located in the North of Taipei and the zoo is WAY in the south of Taipei so decided to take the train.

The 1st thing I looked for when we arrived last week was a coffee maker- there wasn’t one, and this mama needs her morning coffee.  Bought some instant flake things that were awful but then found these filtered coffee things at Starbucks:

There are coffee grounds in the green basket thing, you pour hot water into basket and the water runs thru the coffee and a filter to the cup.  As hot water makers are super popular here it was an answer to my prayer.  Haven’t seen these in the States.  They actually are very good.

Part of the fun of walking around is finding all the yummy places to grab street food, had some sort of dumpling thing-it was yummy.  By the looks of the map we would have to change train lines.  The trains run every 5 minutes, have A/C, are VERY clean as are the stations.    The train runs both underground and above ground.  It was about 20 stops to get to the zoo and an easy train switch- well lots of walking but signage was good.

I’d read that you are given timed tickets once you enter the zoo as to when you can go to the panda house- our ticket was stamped for the time we entered zoo so headed right over to the panda.  They had their own building- the exhibit was inside- 2 different caged areas.  All concrete – an improvement over the last time i’d seen pandas in the Guangzhou zoo 30 years ago- then they were in a concrete cage about 12’X12′ – very sad.  This was an improvement – but barely.

We also stopped at the koala exhibit:

 OMG so cute!  Headed home just as the boys were heading out for lunch- they love the independance and exploring on their own.

They also love to take taxi’s and the train…..not so much.  While there are many cars on the roads here there are also millions of scooters:

 There are parking areas all over for them- helmets are mandatory.  The boys want to rent scooter I said “no” in a manner that means NO!!!

Max wanted to head back to the night market near us so we did- he bought ANOTHER soccer ball.  The kid is obsessed and some phone covers.  The market was packed- we all got some of our favorite things to eat!  So yummy!

Another hot muggy day- we’ve learned to cut across shopping malls when possible to get from point A to point B.  The island is littered with Japanese Department stores, that I LOVE.  For those of you who know me in my past life I was an 84lb, 4’11” Japanese person.  I like things small, tidy and compact.  It drives Rob crazy-

Found one today that had a studio set up where there were stations for jewelry making:

Very cool!

It’s not all shopping centers and malls for us- got Mae to go to the National Museum with me.  It literally was like pulling teeth.  She was there on Friday for a field trip but for some unknown reason they did not go inside.  We took about a 20 min taxi ride, this is how we navigate:

I’ll take a picture of where we are going and or a screen shot of my computer and show the taxi driver.  It works most of the time!  Don’t remember what we did before these smart phones!  We must have lugged our guide books everywhere!

The museum holds the most extensive Chinese collection in the world.  Only 1% of the collection is on display at any given time.  When the Nationalists lost to the Communists they raided the Forbidden City which had been the home of 2 Dynasties so had TONS of treasures.  Thousands of crates of priceless pieces were brought to the island where the Nationalists set up their government.  Supposedly thousands of crates had to be left in the Forbidden City and they remain packed even today.

Dumb luck got us to the museum for 1 of the 2 daily English guided tours!  Always so much easier navigating a museum with a docent.  She did a fantastic job for our little group of about 10 people.   No photo’s are allowed to be taken inside of the museum, it was PACKED with people.

Saw a group of minority Chinese from mainland.  By the looks of them they were from Southern China.  Tiny people with hand woven clothes and beautifully embroidered pieces of clothing.  There were about a dozen in their group with an average age of 75.  I told Mae that she may never see this again- as with most groups as the younger generation grows and leaves the local villages for the “big cities”, the old ways are left to those left behind and used only for special occasions.

When we first came to China in 1984 we would almost daily see women tottering around with a cane and bound feet.  A barbaric ritual that was a hold out from the last Dynasty.  The big toe would be left as is and the other toes would be bent toward the arch of the foot- eventually breaking the arch to leave a foot/stump 3″-5″ in length.  The feet would need to be rewrapped daily and infection was common.  These small feet were prized by men- again barbaric.

With subsequent trips we would see fewer and fewer women as they all passed on.  Have not seen any for about 20 years.  You can purchase in antique stores the hand embroidered shoes that were worn by these women.  Back in the day, they would be for sale in the markets.

We returned to the Ferris wheel mall:

and saw the movie “San Andreas Fault”, for the record  I will NOT be returning to Cali……………like ever………….or until I cannot stand the summer heat of AZ!Max found this little buddy in one of our elevators- yes, he is missing his tail, it was flopping around on the floor.  Max was all like “the suction’s HURT”, i’m all like “his butt hurts from you scaring the tail off him!”.

Same same, kids off to school- earlier in the week Zach and I had found a yoga studio when we were out exploring.  I’d signed up for a class for today at noon.  They were very nice at the studio- a free standing 2 story building with 3 classrooms.  I arrived about 10 min before class- all dressed and ready to roll.  Class was in one of the smaller rooms and by the time i’d gotten in it was almost full- i’d say about 30 people, mat to mat.  Kind of like classes in NYC.

The room was warm and the windows open, I figured they were airing out the space before class.  WRONG- no fans, no A/C………just super hot Hatha Yoga.  I about died, I swear I sweated off about 10lbs.  It went from bad to worse.  Even after over 3 weeks I am NOT used to this humidity.  The class actually was really good, the teacher saw me- the only Western gal in the group and came up in perfect English asked how long i’d been studying.

At one point in the class the firecracker, horn playing brigade came down the street so she SHUT THE WINDOWS.  By then I’d just surrendered to the sweat and figured “this too shall end”.

Back to the apartment to wait for Max and Mae to get home.  We are going to go down to the Taipei 101 building.  It’s either the 2nd or 4th tallest building in the world, have seen both numbers quoted- found out it has the fasted elevator in the world.  An easy 20 min taxi ride brought us to the city center.

We were all starving so headed to the usual mall (I swear there is a mall every 2 blocks here!) basement food court to eat.  It was huge- they had an Indian food concession- I was so happy!

We walked around the mall- one designer store after another- plus you pay insane VAT (value added tax- like 50%) on everything you buy.  Which we didn’t.

Max was excited to see this.

We bought tickets to go to the 98th floor.  Had to wait in a very short line which by the way it snaked around the building could have been a couple hour wait!  There are elevator people in most elevators here- at least in the nicer malls.  Their sole job is to push the button to the floor you are going to.  A throw back!

Views were amazing from the top- all glass wrapping around the building-

 Max was hoping the outside observatory would be open, he wondered what it would be like to throw a coin off the top.  OMG- this kid does not change!  I’ve given up telling him to smile in pictures and just let him make his goofy faces.  Will make him a book of them some day!

Another lazy morning- got Max and Mae off to school.  No pajama incident this morning- will have to wait until later in the day to embarrass the 13 year old.  Insert evil laugh………. all day have been hearing firecrackers going off.  When Zach and I went to lunch saw one of the sources in front of our SUGO Dept. Store- there were like a million spent firecrackers on the ground and some kind of parade with musicians, puppets and some religious looking piece.

Zach and I found a place to eat in the food court at SUGO- he was hungry for noodle soup and i’m always up for dumplings:

 Don’t know if you can see, but I have a HUGE mess around my plates.  Like a visually impaired 4 year old sat there using chop sticks for the 1st time.  Nice!

Stopped to get some fruit at the grocery store- it’s so yummy over here.  Lychee’s are in season so I get to eat them daily:  case full of tofu selections!

Kids were home from school by the time we got back- M & M just want to vedge when they get back from school.  Mae made a fan today and learned Mandarin weather words.  She really seems to like it and is constantly giving me jabs about the fact that she cannot speak Chinese.  It’s so cute!  She is truly an urban kid, when she got home from school and heard the fireworks her question was “is that gun fire?”.

Decided to go “left” toward the big Japanese department stores as I had to stop at TLI.   Took the back alley way because we had to stop at the kid’s school:

so that they could make a copy of Mae’s passport photo page.  She is going on a field trip to the National Museum tomorrow and they need it for insurance.

On the way heard the fireworks about 3 blocks from our house and stumbled upon this:  Music making grandma’s- super obnoxious horn things played at deafening sound level/spent firecrackers that still had some live ones in there so they would periodically explode scaring the crap out of me:

The weird puppet men:

 And what ever they were carrying!

Never a dull moment!  Snapshots of Old China in urban Taipei.

We have gotten into a nice rhythm.  I get Mae up at 8 and make her breakfast, she loves to be waited on- she complains that I did not wake her up early enough (she wants to get up at 7- I set my alarm for 8).  This morning I told her I was going to walk with her to the 7-11 to get some newsapapers……”In that!” she asked….”they look like pajamas”.  Well they most definitely were NOT pajamas but I told her “it’s culturally acceptable to wear pajamas in the morning when out shopping in China”.  Which is technically true if we were in the PRC (Peoples Republic of China) as opposed to the ROC (Republic of China or Taiwan) where we are.  Semantics.  She wouldn’t walk next to me and said good bye to me over her shoulder 2 stores before 7-11.

Came back to apartment and woke Max up- everyone was tired as we were up late!  I love Tripadvisor- it is my go to source when traveling.  Yesterday I was looking at “Things to do in Taipei” and saw that there is a mall with a huge Ferris wheel.  Had actually seen in when driving in from the airport the 1st day.  Took a picture of the address with my phone camera and when the kids all got home and were ready to head out we loaded into a taxi.  Showed him the picture and 15 minutes later were at the mall!  A great way to see other parts of the city too!

It was a huge mall- kids were excited that there was a TGI Friday’s, they have never eaten at one- and don’t think we will this trip!  The mall had a movie theatre so we went up to the tip top of the mall (maybe 12 stories) and they were basically only showing “Jurassic World”.  In Taiwan and most of Asia, you buy your assigned seat, there was only the 1st 3 rows left so we bought those.

You pre-purchase your pop and popcorn and/or food (oddly churros and hot dogs were the only food choices).  The popcorn can either be sweet or salty.  Guess which one we choose!

Theater was big- chairs did not rock but did have cup holders.  Movie started on time with about 3 trailers and some public announcement cartoons about talking on the phone while watching movie and a really cute one about the rating system.  They showed a little girl at a scary shark movie with her parents and then later back home in bed between her parents (family beds alive and well in Asia) and the little girl wakes up screaming and has peed the bed.  Simple but effective tool to show WHY 4 year olds should not be in PG-13 or R rated films.

The movie was great- it was in English but with Chinese subtitles.  It was very suspenseful- Mae kept getting mad at me because I kept screaming or saying “this isn’t going to end well!”.  We were to tired to do much else and full from the popcorn so came home. We will go back there- I want to ride the Ferris wheel.

Earlier in the day Zach and I went to eat lunch, found a yummy dumpling place….. then went to the French grocery store- we had one in Haikou, China when we lived there 3 years ago.  They are huge 2 story grocery stores with an escalator you put your shopping cart on!

The egg truck was parked in front of the market- both brown and white eggs.

We are getting into the swing of things.  Got Mae up first and got her breakfast- thought it best I walk her to school then would have her walk home alone.  Easy walk- well easy but already hot!  Took the “back way” home.  It is a smaller road that runs perpendicular to the busy road we live on.  It is lined with markets and shops, instead of going to a big super market most Taiwanese visit these markets located in every neighborhood, there is a fruit vendor-sometimes also veggies, veggie vendor, egg vendor, meat ………

Every spare bit of land is planed with food.  You will see urban gardens by most houses- even with a foot of soil, people will have planted something- this is very common all over the Mainland- and still alive and well here on Taiwan- the renegade Provence.  When the Nationalists lost to the Communists in the 40’s, the Nationalists lead by Chiang Kai Sheik came over to Taiwan-then called Formosa.  When we were here in the 80’s the island was in a state of “war” with the mainland- mostly over a set of rocks/island in the Straits of Taiwan.  There was ZERO diplomacy…….fast forward 30 years and i’d say a good 80% of the people waiting in the immigration line at the airport were from the Mainland.  This was unheard of nay, unthinkable 30 years ago.

And as American travelers who have been labeled the “worst travelers the world”, we have been surpassed by the Mainlanders.  They travel in very large groups, they  are usually in some sort of undress (not unusual to see men in suit bottoms and a wife beater shirt- on the plane, walking down the street, in the immigration line….” .   With the growth of the middle class in China they are having the disposable income to travel abroad for the 1st time ever.

Went back to apartment, woke Max and decided to walk him the “back way” to school so he could walk home this way.  Then back to the apartment for a shower- the heat and humidity is hard on us desert dwellers.  Did some laundry…….

Zach got up about noon- he is loving sleeping in……..we headed out to explore area just north of us.  Took our 1st taxi about 1 mile N of us.  Still in Tienmu- got out of cab with no plans and saw a yoga studio!  Spent the next 30 min there getting signed up for a class i’ll take on Friday- should be interesting.  It was a very nice studio with 3 classrooms!

We were hungry and walked around a bit- found a  couple places but they did not have anything for me to eat.  Chinese are funny when you tell them you don’t eat meat- i’ll often get “ok, pork?”, “ok, only fish”.  Settled on a diner- Zach was in heaven he got the breakfast platter:

Met a girl who had graduated from college a year ago, she has been teaching English in Taiwan from WI for 10 months.  She was really enjoying her experience.  The kids here go to a regular school day, then if possible attend “cram schools” after school and on weekends where they study for entrance exams.  These usually include a day or two a week of English- these schools last from 3-5 hours AFTER their regular school day.  Cra cra!

We had left a note for Max that we might be home later then 2- he had the 2nd set of keys and to let Mae in if we were not home by 3.  He let himself into the apartment – our security guard is downstairs from about 8AM-5PM.  We made it home by 3PM to buzz Mae up.  I make sure the kids have some NT$ (New Taiwan dollars) and the business card from the dentist on the 1st level of our building.  Max said he 1st went into the building right next to ours- he went up to the 11th floor and it looked different- same same 4 apartments per floor but we only have a gate for 2 of the apartments on one end and this building had additional security gates on BOTH of the sides.  He figured it out and went next door to our building.

Hung out at home for a bit-Max wanted to go back to the night market so we walked down to the subway/train- apparently there was some big deal BMW at the BMW dealership at the corner- boys were all excited:

On our way to train we passed our “monk”.  Well he must be our neighborhood monk, because we see him everyday.  He is saying something, quietly to himself, he has a counter in one hand and a bowl in the other.   His eyes seem to be almost closed and he stands out there in the heat of the day- usually in the sun- next to a shady spot.  We always give him some money- don’t really know what it is about:

The Shirlin Night Market is HUGE, we again saw parts of it we’d not seen the other night.  Tons of street food- we all ate something. It is always super yummy!

It was back to school time for us – morning came to soon.  Got breakfast for Max and Mae and headed out to school to make the 9:00AM class start time.  Mae’s day camp is from 9AM-3PM.  And I thought Max’s class was from 9AM-1PM but was actually 10AM-2PM.  It was fine, Mae went into her class and we walked around a bit and got Max some school supplies for the handy TLI (Taipei Language Institute) bag they had given him with his new text books.

Went back to the apartment- Zach was up so headed out to explore.  Explored past the SUGO dept store.  Fun little shops, little restaurants ……. found a noodle place to try for lunch.  Lots of meat noodle soups for the boys so I got some sea weed.  It was thicker then what we get at home.  It confused me.

We were back at the apartment by 2:00- Rob ended up walking down to school to pick Max up.  Max had a good day- he as 4-50 min classes with 3 different teachers.  It is just him and his teachers, he said they all were nice.  He ran out to a “Our Family” little  store to grab a sandwich for lunch.

Hung out for a bit then Rob and I walked back to school to pick up Mae.  She is with 2 other kids in her class- 9 and 11 year old boys.  She liked it and will be learning language skills.

Our landlady ordered a car to take Rob to the airport- city taxi’s won’t go all the way to the airport- it is nice and convenient!  3:30PM came to fast- it was sad to say goodbye to Rob- he wasn’t super excited either.

Back to vedge in the apartment – speaking of apartment:  here is our living room/kitchen:

Thats Mae watching her Taiwanese “drama’s”.  She is in heaven- our bedrooms are down the hallway to the right.  Small but perfect for us.  In the upper right corner of the picture you can see an orange door, it slides open to the washing machine and to a glassed in porch for drying clothes.   Of course no shoes in the house so they get piled up by the door.

View from our living room window-Tienmu is a very “fashionable” area to live as it is close to the American and Japanese schools. Lots of small shops and trendy restaurants- kind of like where we live in Phoenix- but trading the dry heat for the humid heat!

Took us until about 8 to get motivated to go to dinner.  Decided to try a pizza place we saw earlier today.  It actually was not to hot walking about at this time.  The pizza place was very yummy.  Waitress asked if it was anyones birthday this month-we all looked at her quizzically because we could not remember the month and she said “June” and Mae and I said “Yes!”.  Mae’s birthday is June 26th, so for the whole month of June Mae will get a free pizza every time we go there!  Cool beans.

We were up late- and finally hit the road about 11:00AM.  Breakfast in the apartment.  First we did a dry run walk to the kid’s language school, it is 10 minute straight walk.   Met a lovely couple with a 4 year old who live in our apartment.  The dad flies for China Air and they just moved to this part of the city.  They have lived here for 10 years and are heading back to Italy for the summer (well Dad has to work some).  They live in the lakes district North of Milan- our favorite part of Italy!  Their family summer home is on Lake Maggiore-

SUGO is only about 2 blocks away- it is HUGE.  Passed a Toyota dealership (with a 4 car show room) and a beautiful Mercedes dealership.  I’d read about a famous dumpling restaurant in Taipei that has a branch in the basement of this SUGO store.  It’s supposedly not as busy as the original branch- we still had a 70 min wait.  No problem- there was a huge department store to explore.

Mae and I went off on our own- she wanted to go to the book store- it was near the food court on the the top floor- she found her beloved bubble tea!

She was a happy camper.  Met the boys- they were trying out massage chairs:

Went down to have lunch- eating then making dumplings:

Super yummy!

Back to the apartment for a bit.  Kids wanted to go to a night market and there is a famous one in our area- Shirlin Night Market- it was only about 2 stops on the MRT (above ground train).  So we tried the train for the 1st time- SUPER easy.  The train ticket was .65USD one way.  Very cheap and convenient.

The night market was huge.  Criss crossing streets, ton’s of food vendors.  We ate our way across and around.  Have no idea where we were in there- it was fun.

We even found a Chinese foot massage spot- not as cheap as our usual Thai places but still fun!  Rob about died- his little lady was trying to tie him in a knot.  It was very funny.

Mae got some ice cream made with liquid nitrogen- crazy !

She loved it and said it was very creamy.  Back to the apartment as Max and Mae start school in the morning.  This is Rob’s last day with us- he heads back to reality tomorrow afternoon.  We will miss him!

Entrance to our apartment.  Even being in a very safe area there is a locked door at ground level- with a security guard sitting there every day.  Then 2 locked doors to get into our apartment.