10/3/10 - 10/9/10 (taipei)

Taipei

While in Taiwan we have turned into night owls. Jon wakes up around 8am where he gets to spend a few hours of solitude time before the rest of us wakes up. The first thing my sister asks when she wakes up is what time Jon woke up to determine if he is hungry. Both my sister, Grace, and brother-in-law, Arnold sleep in really late usually till 11am so she is worried that Jon may get hungry in the morning. We’ll go to the breakfast club to have a quick bite or just wait till lunch. Depending on Arnold’s work schedule we might go sightseeing around Taipei or hang around the house. Then in the evening we go out to dinner, often with Grace and Arnold’s friends. We end the evening with beer and tea on the roof deck as it is much cooler up there. The running joke is that Jon and I will want to go to sleep but Arnold will insist that we stay up there for five or ten more minutes, which inevitably turns into half an hour or longer. Arnold has gotten very skilled in saying, “one more?” Before we know it it is 2am already. Where does the time go?

Jon’s Mandarin (and Taiwanese) has gotten increasingly better during our stay here. Even friends have commented on how much he has improved since the last time they saw him. He now knows how to have everyday simple conversations with people. Every day he learns new phrases and adds them to his iphone. He also has learned some slang and curse words which make people crack up since they don’t expect him to know them. He is hoping to be able to communicate with my parents when we return to the states.

Over the last week we visited the major sights in and around Taipei. One afternoon we went to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall where we just happened to have caught the soldiers taking down the flag. The flag ceremony draws a crowd each day. On another day we visited the National Palace Museum home to what many consider to house the most precious and largest collection of Chinese Art. The museum has become a major tourist attraction for tour groups from China since many of them consider the art their country’s property. Even though we went on a weekday the museum was packed with hundreds of tour groups. The main attraction is the jade cabbage. There was a piece of jade that wasn’t very pretty so the artist decided to shape into a cabbage to hide the jade’s flaws. The undesirable jade turned into a masterpiece. Grace speculates that the jade on display is a replica even though the tour guides insisted to their groups that they are looking at the original. She said that the real one is locked away for fear that someone may steal it as it has drawn big crowds over the last few years. After the museum we headed over to the Shilin Night Market, perhaps the best night market in Taipei. The night market is one of my favorite things to do with endless shops and it is also a great place for people watching. We ended our week with a visit to Taipei 101, which was the tallest building in the world a few years back. The first few floors are filled with upscale shops with offices in the middle and the observation deck on the 98^th and 99^th floor. Unfortunately the outside observation deck wasn’t open due to rain so we decided to come back another day to view the city from up above.

When speaking of Taiwan you can't leave out the food, which is world famous. Every time I arrive I give my sister a list of my favorites: oyster noodle soup, stinking tofu, guava, wax apple, radish cake, oyster pancake, fruit slushi and the list goes on and on. There are so many food stalls, mom and pop shops, upscale restaurants, and fruit and tea shops that it’s hard not find something that pleases everyone’s palate. One of Jon’s favorite drinks is boba milk tea. Jon limits himself to two bobas a week but if people offer it to him then it doesn’t count toward his limit. The running joke is that Arnold and Grace will ask him everyday if he wants one. Grace insists that we eat as much as we can while we are here. I have to say it’s hard to turn down the food.