100% Success, Sort of – October 23, 2005

There’s not a lot to report today, but that never stopped me before.

The plan for today was to take James to a crawling contest. We didn’t really think he’d win, but we knew he’d really make the other parents jealous.

I went looking for the nearest Family Mart and discovered every one I though was a Family Mart was a Nikko Mart, and therefore wouldn’t have the special milk bread.

Later I went foraging for lunch on my own, with a deadline of returning to the house by 12:45 so we could make it to the contest. I chose MOS, which, unlike McDonald’s, doesn’t make any concessions to non-Chinese speakers. No numbered value meals or international picture menus for them!

My attempt at ordering met with 100% success. The girl at the counter understood everything I said, repeated it back for confirmation, called the order back exactly as I’d placed it. (It’s not just a simple order, I get the cheeseburger, have them make it spicy and then not put tomato on it – more complicated than it sounds.)

Unfortunately, the people in back got it wrong and didn’t make it spicy, but she did call it back spicy, so from my perspective it was completely successful. I suppose if I could have gone farther and sent it back because it wasn’t right, that would have been extra credit.

It was then that I got the call from Irene saying her friend from Kaoshiung, Min-Min had arrived unannounced in Taipei to see her and the kids, and with the car and car seat situation as it is, I had to bow out of going to the contest and let Min-Min go in my place.

I’m told James just sat and cried when the competition got going, but he did make all the parents jealous.

On my way back from MOS, I picked up a 2005 edition map of Taipei and since I had nothing to do for the afternoon, I decided I’d tried navigating somewhere. I choose to try to find either a Carrefour or Tesco. I couldn’t find a website listing Tesco’s locations, but with some work I found Carrefours’ addresses.

It took a while comparing maps to addresses, using romanized Chinese names whose spellings didn’t match from website to map, then comparing that to the Chinese characters, and finally deciding which Carrefour I could try to reach.

With a new set of batteries in the GPS, I set off.

For some reason, I didn’t go to the nearest train station, but went to the next one, this lead me right to a Family Mart with 2 loaves of milk bread. As I was just starting out, I didn’t buy them, hoping at least one might be there when I came back that way.

I took the train to the end of the line at Kunyang, consulted my map and GPS and headed out for about a mile walk to the Carrefour. It’s essentially just like the RT-Mart, but without the membership requirement.

My curiosity satisfied and my quest for adventure sated I headed home. When I got to the Family Mart both loaves of bread were still there – perhaps they aren’t so special after all.

Tried to get out for a Taipei 101 trip this evening, but family dinner and the kids got in the way.

Tomorrow, I’ve isolated the location of a Costco I haven’t been to that is about 1 mile from a subway station and will try to reach it. I’ve got all the information I need to order a hot dog and a soda in Chinese. This time I’ll have to remember to take my iPod with me, that would have made the walk more enjoyable.