Last days in Taipei

I never got the chance to post about our last couple of days in Taipei - what a whirlwind. We had drizzly weather, which made it hard to get the girls outside to run off some energy. Lucy continued to improve with each day - fewer tantrums overall, and the ones she did have were less intense and more manageable.

We've learned some things about Lucy. First, the child hardly eats anything. We have tried noodles, rice, dumplings, cereal, eggs. We succeeded with a single Oreo and a handful of Cheetos. Not quite the dining plan I had in mind. Second, Lucy is a snuggle-bug. She loves to be held, rocked and cuddled. She already seems to love giving hugs and kisses. It's funny, because when she is mad, she adopts a stance and arches her back so she is stiff and hard to hold, but usually, she is a koala baby, holding on for the ride. Lucy LOVES animals. She "woof woofs" everytime we see a dog, which is fairly often as the Taiwanese seem to be very into their pets. I thought Americans were the only people ridiculously over the moon about our pets. Here in Taiwan, though, there are vet clinics all around, doggie specialty shops, pet spas - the works.

That leads me to an overall comment about Taipei. What on earth do the people do here for a living? I have never seen more BMWs, Mercedes, etc. All the shops are Armani, Gucci, Prada, Rolex. I thought only Taipei 101 would be so high end, but even the regular little local shops have high end fashion merchandise. Please forgive me if you don't get a souvenir from Taiwan. Chanel isn't in my budget.

I thought Taiwan and mainland China would be similar. Not so much! Taiwan is much more Western...even more so than Shanghai, I think. Maybe it's more akin to Hong Kong. In China, you see lots of bicycles, pedicabs (love those), people walking the streets. In Taipei, and even to some extent in the smaller cities, people mostly have motor transportation. The dress and facilities are all more Western. Taipei has approximately 1 McDonald's and 1 Starbucks on every city block. I just was not prepared for that.

Oddly enough, I also seemed to have a more difficult time communicating with people in Taiwan. In China, even though my Chinese is almost non-existent and many Chinese don't speak English, I was usually able to walk into a restaurant and order by pointing or walk into a business and conduct a transaction through charades and a calculator. In Taipei, I did not encounter many English speakers. I guess my charades are dusty because nobody seemed to understand my requests, and many days we ended up eating in Western restaurants because it was the path of least resistance. (Side note: my charades did work for "where's the restroom?" - great fun acting that one out!!)

I had heard from other parents that the visa appointment in Taipei to get your child's visa that allows them to immigrate to the United States was often stressful, with lots of questioning about a variety of topics. I was dreading the appointment. I am happy to report that my visa interview was not the least bit stressful. They asked me two very basic questions and then said, "congratulations!" While there, I had a lovely visit with an American couple from Missouri who were there adopting their third sweet Taiwanese baby. The only stressful part was that I had filled in Lucy's birthdate incorrectly on some forms, so they needed to redo the visa, which means I needed to come back the next day before closing to pick it up. I came when they told me to, but they were very clearly shutting down for business, so I think I just barely made it!

In short, a good last couple of days, but we were all SO ready to head home.