The flower market is a huge parking lot full of vendors of everything to do with plants. I used to love going there with Robert. I wasn't sure how much fun Michael would have, so I told him we were going to buy flowers for his teacher and gave him a 100NT bill (approx. $3 Cdn) for that purpose. He seemed to like that.
I had forgotten how cheap everything was. For 100NT, you can buy three small bouquets of cut flowers. With so much selection at the very first display, Michael couldn't choose, and I didn't want to carry the flowers around the whole time we were looking around anyways, so I told him we would just choose some on the way out.
I did have a shopping list. It consisted of lima bean seeds for Michael's teacher, regular bean seeds for my class, and insects, if possible. Why the insects? The kindergarten teacher is currently doing a unit on insects and had found my pictures from five years ago of a rhino beetle's transformation from a fat worm-like larva, to a beetle. I used to have a couple of those larva in my class, but I think we killed it from too much handling. (Yes, I was always the one with my hand in the "nutritious" dirt digging around for those things. I kept my fingernails very short the entire time they were in our class.) We never saw a beetle in any case. I thought I vaguely remembered someone saying that they had seen them for sale at the flower market, so I was keeping a lookout for those as well.
The market was bigger than I remembered. We did find our bean seeds, although I think I got ripped off by an old Chinese lady. She charged me 50NT for the lima beans and 30NT for the regular beans. As I was looking elsewhere in the market, all seed packets seemed to be going for 20NT each. Oh well. She did seem to be the only one selling lima beans, and Michael's teacher specifically asked for lima beans, so maybe she wasn't overcharging me at all.
I ended up buying a few more seed packets. I figured the kids could "plant" them all (in an open ziplock bag with damp paper towels stuffed in), and we'll see which ones sprout. The beans are a given, and the others would be a nice surprise. I bought watermelon, corn, papaya, and okra.
I also bought Michael a spray nozzle to play with as he was being so good and I thought it would be a fun bath toy for him. They were selling them everywhere. Just the nozzle, no bottle. Of course, he then proceeds to pretend to shoot everyone around him. I don't know where he picked up on shooting games. I think some of the Kindergarten kids taught him. Well, I can't shield him from that sort of thing forever, but it was a little disturbing.
As I've mentioned previously, I have a hard time spending a lot of money, but I was determined to buy something nice for me. I do have a fondness for vases, although I never can seem to get my flower arrangements to look quite right in them, so they usually sit emptly. All the more reason to make sure they look nice alone, right? Anyways, I bought a large crystal vase for about $40 Cdn, the kind that can hold a dozen long stemmed roses (hint, hint Robert). It wasn't until I picked it up that I remembered why they call it lead crystal - because it weighs as much as if it were made of lead!
I picked up a few colored "jewels" for my kids to hide in the sandbox and let Michael look at all the fish. Then I found a nice plant box for me to put twelve little pots in once we transplant our sprouts. It was made of wood and looked like a picket fence, and the size I needed only cost 100NT. So, now I'm carrying a crystal vase, a plant box, an umbrella and a huge purse. My purse is always huge because a mother has to be prepared for everything. Except hot weather as it turns out.
The weather had turned very nice and hot. Like thirty degrees hot. The sun shone and the clouds were nowhere to be seen. Michael never seems to take any notice of the weather when there's a playground in sight, and so as soon as we crossed the street to the park, he was off. His face was all red within a matter of minutes, but he was having a ball.
There was a woman there selling bubble solution and toys. Her kids were the demonstrators. Michael loved chasing all the bubbles around, but there was no way I was going to add anything else to my load. Besides, I knew if Michael had one of his own, he would lose interest.
I was afraid Michael was going to overheat. I kept on having to wipe him down with baby wipes. I also acted like an old Chinese lady and had my umbrella up the whole time to keep me shaded. It really does make a big difference.
I finally persuaded him to leave by promising a drink. There was an orange juice stand on the corner, so I bought a cup for each of us. It was very warm from sitting in the sun. Yuck. But we were both so thirsty, we finished them by the time the light changed and it was our turn to cross.
We stopped off at Burger King on the way back to the MRT station and discovered that they sell small bowls of mango ice. (Mango ice is the greatest Taiwanese invention EVER. It's a pile of shaved ice topped with condensed milk, syrup and tonnes of mango chunks. Highly addictive. I await mango season with impatience.) Of course, it's not mango season yet, so I couldn't get one. I couldn't even get a whopper, as Michael wanted a cheeseburger, but the kids menu only comes with a hamburger, so I had to order a cheeseburger for him and eat his hamburger myself. The things we do as mothers...
Then we took the MRT to one of our bus stops. We didn't have to wait too long for our bus, and I was very glad to be so close to home. Unfortunately, we got on the wrong bus. Yes, it was the number 15, and I don't know of any other number 15s (there are a few bus companies here and they sometimes overlap numbers, but not usually at the same bus stop), but two stops away from my apartment, he went the wrong way. I thought, well, he's probably new to the route, he'll find a place to turn back, etc... Nope. I start getting worried, so when we stop at a bus depot for his break, I pull out my map and start asking when we're getting back to my street. Luckily, one of the other two passengers spoke fairly good English and translated for me.
The bus driver said I was on the wrong bus and that I had to take another bus back. He would drop me off and tell me where to go. I was a little indignant, as I was pretty sure I was on the right bus and he just didn't want to admit that he had taken a wrong turn and just bypassed my area, but he wasn't about to drive me back, so what could I do? Michael had fallen asleep because the bus ride was taking so long.
We started off again and he soon let me off pointing to a bus stop across the street. He wanted me to take the Brown 6, which does go by my house, but I knew it took a very convoluted route and only came once every half hour. Michael was whiny and tired, and I was carrying all this stuff, so I just hailed a cab and paid the 170NT it took me to get back to my house. The first thing I did upon arrival, was check the Taipei bus website to see what other number 15s there were. I couldn't find any. So, I still have no idea what happened. But, I'm going to be paranoid everytime I take the 15 from now on (which is everyday). At least, now I know, if it goes the wrong way, get off at the next stop and the taxi won't cost nearly as much.
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