Surprise! It isn’t me! It’s Michelle.
The problem is, little girls need to eat, but virtually everything her grandparents put on the table she immediately pulls a “I don’t like that!” and refuses to eat. Yesterday we decided that we’d take her to McDonald’s today, figuring that if she sees familiar food she’s inclined to eat it.
In the morning we took both kids out for a walk to the bank and the Metro station. No matter how willing, dragging a three-year old behind you is tiring walking, and the post-typhoon air was clear, hot and unbelievably humid, somewhere in the 90% range. We saw the military band practicing for “double-10” day (October, 10th, founding of the Republic of China) and Michelle fed the giant goldfish in the pond.
On the way back, we overdid it in the sun, or at least I did, and when we returned to the house we broke down and turned on the room air conditioner.
You’d think we’d have the room air conditioner on all the time, right? Wrong. It has only one setting, “Freeze the room”. With it on, the room becomes unbearably cold within an hour and then stepping outside is a torture of the opposite exteme.
Nonetheless, we turned it on, and as I lay there I didn’t realize the insidious trick of fate that was being played on me. When I awoke, teeth chattering, I turned off the AC and realized I had no voice. As I’m still fighting a cold, apparently the cold air blowing on my neck was enough to knock out my vocal cords. Even now, several hours later, I haven’t much voice.
In the early afternoon, we took the kids to McDonald’s as planned. Of course, the first McDonald’s we took them to (one which I had no recollection of ever existing) was gone, so we had to tavel out for a more distant one.
At last Michelle ate something other than rice, and she had a lot of fun playing with the Chinese kids in the play area. We could always hear Michelle because she’d speak to them in English, “I’m Michelle, I’m three-years old”, “I’m Cinderalla-Dora” and “I love you guys!”
We’re trying to get her into a part-time pre-school while we’re here so she can interact with Chinese-speaking kids. Already she’s begun to speak more Chinese. It used to be that she’d spend all day asking, “What are you doing?” which can get really annoying after an hour or so, but now she spends all day asking, “Ni zai zou shenme?” (What are you doing?)
The grandparents, and even uncle Johnny have been really good with the kids, so I had hoped to leave the kids with them this evening and Irene and I could go out somewhere. Irene informed her folks we wanted to eat out for dinner and they agreed.
They made plans for all of us to go out for dinner together.
At least we went to a steakhouse, but the two nearest steakhouses to the house are also gone! What is up with this city?!
Michelle refused to eat, again, but at least we got one full meal in her today.
They had interesting, and very ugly light fixtures at the steakhouse. They are, in fact, made of stone. I know, because I hit my head on one of them. I couldn’t believe how hard it hit me, so I reached up to steady it (and myself) and found it was actually made of rock (quartz, I think) cut and formed into a hanging fixture. Apart from a headache, it also brought realization that I haven’t hit my head on a doorframe yet. This has to be a record, 4 days into the trip and not one door concussion yet.
The typhoon has altered our plans. We were heading for Alishan tomorrow, but have postponed it for a week now. Instead, tomorrow we’ll drive to Hsinchu to visit Irene’s recently deceased grandmother.
I wonder if the name of the town is still spelled “Hsinchu”? In Taipei, they’ve made a half-assed attempt to spell things a little more closely to how it is done on the mainland, so the street we stay on is now longer “Hsinsheng” but “Xinseng” and the park across the street is no longer “Ta’an” but “Daan”.
Personally, I’m more familiar with the mainland spelling, but that’s a political football and a half around these parts. At least it is easier for me to sound out names, assuming the name has been converted to the new spelling. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow if I’m heading to Hsinchu or Xinzhu.