Michael seemed to be doing better today (I only heard him cry once), and I picked him up right after lunch time to let him play in my empty classroom while I cleaned up. He enjoyed that. Then we took a bus to Asia World, a shopping centre with an IKEA, a Toys 'R Us and the best food court in Taipei.
We walked around the entire IKEA first, so that I knew where to pick up everything when I wanted it, then took the escalators to the seventh floor when Toys 'R Us is. I found out I had gotten completely ripped off on the Thomas chopsticks yesterday, as there was a whole array of Thomas dinnerware there for pretty good prices. I bought Michael a plastic Thomas bowl for his breakfast cereal and a Thomas cutlery set (fork, spoon and chopsticks) in a case for him to take to school with his lunches for the same price as those little chopsticks yesterday. Oh well. Now I know. Then the Chinese demonstration lady kept on trying to get me to buy this complicated puzzle toy for Michael that cost over $40 Canadian. Michael liked it, but it was way too advanced for him, and I wasn't about to pay that much for a puzzle, no matter how "educational" it was.
Then back to IKEA. Michael saw the ball pit and really wanted to go in. I noticed that all the parents had to show some form of ID, and I don't carry my passport around, so I wasn't sure if they would let him in with an Alberta driver's license. They did, probably because they didn't know how to say no in English, and Michael dove in.
As soon as he gets in, four Chinese kids start throwing balls at him. Let's all gang up on the white kid. Luckily, very few actually hit their mark and Michael starts throwing some back. The next thing I know, one boy comes right up to Michael and hits him on the face. Michael then tackles him, so the other boy is practically buried, and they both start bawling. I run over to the door and yell at Michael to get off the other kid, while the little boy's mother is right beside me yelling at her son to get up. Neither of us can get in. So the supervisor runs over and sorts them out. Michael mopes around for a bit, then tries to break every single rule in the place (climbing on things he's not supposed to, going down the stairs on his stomach, throwing balls out of the pit, etc...). The poor supervisor, who can't speak English, had to keep running over to redirect him.
Then he plops down in front of the big screen TV and starts watching Chinese cartoons. I did not bring him to IKEA for this, so after five minutes I got him out and we went to get something to eat. I had noticed a picture of a nice looking baked chicken leg with lemon herb sauce on the menu and decided to get that for us to share as Michael usually always eats baked chicken. However, when I got in line, I saw nothing that looked like a chicken leg. I did see a blob that could be chicken, and when I asked for the chicken leg, that is what I got. We also got the all you can drink glass. I noticed that the person in front of me was getting take-out, so I made a mental note to pick up something to take home for later.
Turns out the chicken leg was great. They had just completely deboned it, which was very convenient for me to cut up for Michael. It also came with Michael's favourite vegetable, broccoli, which he enjoyed. He asked for orange soda pop, so that is what we got. As we were eating, I noticed that people were talking about and pointing at Michael. The three people at the next table over were very interested in him and kept on smiling at him and trying to get his attention the whole time we were eating.
At the end of the meal, I showed Michael where we had to take our tray to put it away. Michael decided he wanted to do it himself. I grabbed the glass, and hoped that he would be able to balance the single plate and fork left on the tray. The fork was the first to go. As I bent down to pick it up, Michael looked down as well, and guess where the plate went... Into a hundred pieces all over the floor. As it was falling, you could hear this collective gasp from all over the cafeteria, as everyone was looking at Michael anyways. Anyone who wasn't, definitely started to when they heard the crash. The manager comes running over saying "It's OK, it's OK," while two cleaners come and clean everything up within a minute. Michael thinks he's in trouble and starts crying. Loud. I just wanted to disappear. So, I sit back down and try to calm down Michael. I decide against take-out as I just want to get out of there as quickly as possible. So, I take Michael to the bathroom and run out.
A minute later I hear "Excuse me, excuse me," and turn around. There is one of the men from the next table over that had been staring at us the whole time, and he had my umbrella which I had left hanging on the back of my chair. I hoped my face wasn't too red as I thanked him and whisked Michael away from Asia World and back on the bus as fast as he could go. If I didn't like Asia World so much, I would never go back again.
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