Crashing and Burning in Tamsui

We made it! We MADE it! (Pant, pant!) We drove in to Taipei, and in FACT we didn't literally crash, OR burn, or kill ANYONE! After making the drive, Q joked that he wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. We weren't on the craziest roads I'd ever seen, nor did we make any of the tight passes the drivers here can manage. But we were in a minivan filled with non-Chinese readers, and a bunch of hungry, tired, little non-Chinese readers at that.

A shot from the cut-into-the-cliff roads heading north on Taiwan's east side.
Treacherously beautiful.

We went from winding mountain roads near Hualien which were making everyone feel ill, to a total stand-still, to miles of tunnels bringing us to the Taipei basin, to the horrendous maneuvering we had to do in a completely unfamiliar environment, 6 busy lanes flowing one way, and scooters and pedestrians crowding everywhere. (Added to the mix, my phone, from which we were accessing google maps was about to die, and while I might have charged it with the car charger, the GPS didn't have quite the juice it needed to be without IT'S power source.) Whoa.

Oh, but before we actually got here, we DID stop in Yilan to hit the National Center for Traditional Arts. And it was cool. We caught 2 or 3 productions - 1 on a stage, and another in the street, which then ended on a stage. We didn't understand a word. This place exists to preserve "traditional" (meaning old) performance, craftsmanship, and culinary art, so the performances where in what I assume is an older form of Chinese. I could make out some words, but they were very affected.

The crew with the actors of the play.

Still, it was fun to imagine ourselves in Ming-dynasty-era times, being drawn into a performance by amazing feats and choreographed antics on the street. (My phone was ALREADY dying here, so the pictures are very few. I will have to hit Rachel up to send me the extras she took and post them.)

Weese's squat in all it's authentic Chinese glory!

Maybe these cool wheely dealies on this performer's feet aren't Ming period, but they made for awesome effects!

High flying Dragon Fly

Above is a smoke billowing Dragon ready to descend on the crowd.

The other cool thing we saw here was an exhibit on the fantasy, kung-fu puppets that have recently done a movie. At least I thought they were cool. Veeve thought the boys looked too much like girls (true), Rachel thought it was weird grown people would be so into it (also probably true), and Q just kept wondering who their marketing demographic was. (The movie seemed too violent for kids, which led him to wonder with Rachel if it was something NORMAL adults got into.)

Right: These are NOT the puppets, but are caricatures of them.

Once again, more random photo-opp "stuff" that seem completely unrelated to anything.... Still, it was "working" with MY kids.

This was the sort of place we probably could have spent all day at, but the road was calling, and the thought was to hit get to Taipei by 5pm. It was a good plan, but traffic leading up to the first 12km tunnel was complete stop and go, so what should have been an hour and 15 minute trip turned into almost 2 hours. And we were anxious to make the best time we could, so I don't know that we stopped more than once to pee. We got snacks, but the plan was to get to our destination and then find food while we waited for our Airbnb host to appear at 7 and let us in.

Anyway, we arrived starving at 6, again finding the place on a wing and a prayer. Miraculously, when I called our host to tell him we had arrived, he said he was just 2 minutes away. This was such a blessing because there was NO WHERE to park, but he arranged with his doorman to have us pull up to the nearest front door and we were able to unload our lives from the van immediately. Finally, we were unloading it ALL (whereas before, we had left as many as 3 or 4 pieces of luggage IN the car and just moved from day to day with our backpacks). So it seemed to take a while to get everything out (including the accumulated trash and journey junk). THEN the orientation for the building took a while too.

Meanwhile the kids were MORE starving, and totally hyper. We left them with Rachel watching TV so we could see the building at a quicker pace. When we got back to our apartment, it was almost 7. Our hosts, JJ and Mabel, offered to take us to the local bulk grocery store and to get food. We gladly accepted, but had to re-shoe everyone and have everyone pee again, and we weren't out the door 'til 7:15.

The car was being picked up at the closest MRT (mass rapid transit) station at 8:30. Getting to the Carrefour (bulk store) took 15 minutes. We went strait for dinner (we ate at a Japanese restaurant inside the Carrefour) but the food took another 10 minutes to order and 15 minutes to come. JJ planned to go with Q to return the car. Poor Q. He got a 10 minute shot at eating and then was on the road back to get the van picked up. Thankfully THAT process went smoothly. VIP Car Rental was very kind. Then he and JJ hiked back up to our new place.

Meanwhile, Mabel had stayed with me, Rachel, and all the kids. We probably didn't finish eating 'til 8:30. (And boy did we polish every last mackerel off!) So at 8:30 (and remember, we'd been going to bed around 8pm pretty consistently) I'm hauling all 4 tired kids around a completely unfamiliar, crowded Costco with 3 levels! It was amazing we came home with anything relevant to our needs, my body and brain were so exhausted!

We finally left about 9:30, Mabel hauling all of us and just 3 large bags of groceries, home in her car. We unloaded all of us and the groceries, JJ and Mabel quickly bowed out, and finally it was just US in our new home.

It truly is a lovely place. We have views of the jungle, the river, the city lights at night, the sunsets. There is a grand piano in one of the activity rooms so EV can practice her piano, and may even be able to continue lessons with her teacher on the phone! There are 2 pools and a hot spring hot tub, there is what Stew calls the "bally room" - the room with a mini jungle gym in a ball pit, there's a movie room (we probably won't use because I can't read the Chinese postings of the showings, and probably wouldn't know Hollywood movies by their Chinese titles anyway), there is BBQ spaces on the roof, and a work out room too. So all of that is the upside of where we have landed.

However, this is also the smallest 3 bedroom we have stayed in during the whole trip! Our very first Zhongli digs were a bit smaller, but it was also just a 2 bedroom. Needless to say, I am feeling a bit claustrophobic. At first, I was entertaining a little pity party for myself. Life in Taiwan was just so hard, I was thinking. And with tiny fridges, tiny washing machines, a tinier dryer (but we DO have a dryer! which is a total luxury!) about 2 square feet of counter space in the kitchen, and NO car, no wonder families chose to only have one child or two, IF they have kids at all! I am not looking forward to cooking in the kitchen. I am not looking forward to laundry for 7 people. Basically, my life as a mom and housewife HERE is completely different and HARD!

So those were my thoughts. THEN I thought, "Grow up!" This isn't Taiwan, this is life in a big city, and plenty of people in big cities have done it, so get over it.

I still don't think I AM over it. But I am hoping it won't be as hard as I am fearing.

Above: the family room/the boys bdrm at night/second dining table b/c we don't all fit, nor are there chairs for all of us at the first. See pic below.

Right: This is the entirety of the kitchen. I am feeling SO blessed the fridge is as large as it is, though it is tiny by American standards. The microwave is in the living room. The machine above the sink is a dish dryer, NOT washer. And there is no oven. Perhaps we'll have to go to the church to make our addictive peanut butter cookies.... Out the door you can just see the edge of on the left is the 4 ft x 4ft laundry patio. The washing machine's large load setting holds a medium size load at home, but the dryer probably can only dry about half of that. Again, I am just feeling blessed we HAVE a clothes dryer. They and ovens are VERY uncommon in Taiwan.

Those who fit are gathered around our first "home-cooked" meal of the trip (outside of eating fruit for breakfast): frozen pot stickers!

(Below left: sisters room. Below right: Rachel's room with Big Bro's coveting grin - "this will soon be MINE. bwa-ha-ha.....")

Q's work space gets two thumbs up. One from him,
and one from my foot encroaching on his office space from the comfort of our bed. :)

The entirety of our common area.

So now we have survived the hectic, traveling lives our challenge is getting back to REAL life in a very small space. I thought I was blessed to do so much de-junking before we left Taiwan for the ease of packing up our home. Now I wonder if the blessing was preparing me to live with WAY less here, because more simply will not fit.

The kids are still in vacation mode, which means we are away from any semblance of routine, and they think our lives revolve around entertaining them. Right now there is a lot of obnoxious behavior and whining because we are NOT, in fact, primarily concerned with their entertainment. Once again, we are hoping Rachel will be able to bless us to make a smooth transition into settling here, as she may be able to take Stew to the bally room, or the kids down for a dip in the pool, or be with Veeve as she practices piano, allowing Q and I to unpack/get back to work/master our new environment.

But we are dead tired. I am glad we have Rachel's tighter time frame (she heads back home Oct 9) to keep us motivated to keep moving, otherwise, I might feel like taking a week off of doing ANYTHING but NAPPING. Anyway, on our first full day here I did about 6 batches of laundry, unpacked everything, reorganized cupboards and drawers, took the crew less Q to explore the 'hood and figure out the MRT, Q took the kids swimming and figured out all our tech, and we took the kids to walk around Tamsui in the evening.

Fam in Tamsui for the evening spent by the river.
We are actually in Hongshulin, which is the MRT stop right BEFORE Tamsui.

Though we only got home about 9pm, by the end of it, I felt like I could hardly walk. I was literally hobbling around. (It doesn't help that the final stretch from the MRT station to our place is about a 10 minute, uphill hike. When I get home, I am going to be SO BUFF!) Anyway, Q had a work call so we got to sleep by about 11 and slept 'til this morning at about 8:30, which we never do! We WERE exhausted. So we have crashed, we have burned, and this morning it seemed we had the strength we needed for another day in Taiwan. Hallelujah!