[this is going to be a very long post, but i'd better get it out there before my backlog of pictures gets any longer =p]
the big picture window in the living room faces yang ming shan, the mountains overlooking this part of the city. i remember my grandfather on my mom's side taking the train up there to walk at 4 or 5 am, and i have vague memories of fruit stands and tea leaf eggs and fog and flowers from childhood visits. the windows are open, the air is slightly humid and will soon be filled with the sounds of children playing at the elementary school across the street - if not from my own children first ;-) this is the first morning they've slept past 5:45.
it's hard to believe we've been here almost a week. in some ways, it's like coming back to a childhood home, or maybe a vacation home, after years away. we spent a lot of summers here growing up, and i was here for 3 months in college, but i've never lived here independently. the general air of the place is familiar - the taiwanese breakfast spots, the 7 Elevens, the abundance of scooters and taxis, the faint smell of incense, the ubiquitous bobble heads and stuffed animals on the car dashboards.. but as for what to do with ourselves, when ourselves include two tykelets, it's all new.
priority number one, at least, was clear. there's nothing quite so enchanting as a baby cousin =)
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| i foresee a lot of this in the future |
it rained and rained the first couple days, so we took short outings to the corner playground, the carrefour (grocery store), the bakery, the department store down the street, the bank.
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| in front of uncle p and auntie e's |
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| corner playground. we've seen this little girl and another twice, and have gotten as far (in chinese) as asking for a turn on the bike |
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| street view from the playground |
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| grocery cart - notice the three wheels, designed to be pulled up stairs |
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| coming back from the bakery with fresh bo luo bao - c's didn't make it all the way home ;-) |
dinner at sogo (dept store) on our first full day... don't be fooled by the pictures, there was much grumpiness going on =p i think we've finally gotten over most of it, now that we're on day 6 =p
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| mini tse ma bao (sesame buns) |
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| came all the way to taiwan for some coldstone ;-) |
some more of my favorite little brother and his beautiful family =)
we had dinner with my youngest aunt and my grandma one night:
p and e have a great community here, and some of their good friends took us on a hike up yang min shan - 'hike' loosely speaking, read: long walk down a paved road with a bus back up. it was fun to be up in the mountains though, and the girls made some new friends.
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| the gang with our two tour guides (right) |
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| leeetle hand and foot |
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| sit and stand |
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| lunch at the bottom at a little place with a view |
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| you can't see, but she's sharing the seat with 2 other kids on a 5 minute ride |
after a power nap in the car and showers at home, we went over to play with our new friends:
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| our first scooter ride! |
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| princess wasn't too happy about being left behind |
on sunday, there was a big family lunch with my grandma's extended family. we got to see the rest of my dad's sisters and brothers and some of my cousins. c did not take to chinese banquet food, unsurprisingly, but she did drink about 6 cups of guava and tangerine juice =p the girls took a bit to warm up, especially since they had fallen asleep in the car, but by the end, c was proudly giving out the bookmarks we had made, and raising a glass of the aforementioned juice with every toast. on the way home, they entertained my uncle and his wife with squeals of 'screaming tunnel!' at every opportunity. so all in all, they did better than i'd hoped for, considering they were meeting 50 new people for the first time.
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| my middle aunt |
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| my oldest aunt |
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| mostly my dad's immediate family |
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| my grandma's extended family |
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| pond and waterwheel outside the restaurant |
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| look at the size of those fish! |
okay! if you're still with me, i think that brings us up to date on the first week. plenty more to come =)
