The Sleepless Wonder

Jeremy is the sleepless wonder. After hardly sleeping on the trip out here, we woke up at 2:00am. He then refused to nap and wanted to stay up the rest of the day. From 2:00 until 6:30 we tried to stay quiet in the bedroom, with Jeremy rolling and climbing around the bed. At 6:30, Michael got up and we decided to go for a walk. That would hopefully let Trina get a little more sleep. We just went out the front door with the stroller and down the long stairway through the jungle. The stroller got pretty heavy, but both boys walked all the way down. We took about two hours to walk around the street and back up, stopping at two very small playgrounds along the way. I had been hoping to find somewhere to buy breakfast, but was disappointed. I think the boys had great fun, though, so it was all worth it.

When we got back, Trina decided that Jeremy and I should have a morning nap. I was too tired to argue. When we got up, we decided to go to the Taipei American School spring fair. We don't know nearly as many people there now, but still thought it would be fun. We took a long bus ride and then, instead of switching to another bus, decided just to take a taxi. Quicker and more comfortable and no need to guess when to get off.



The spring fair was intensely crowded and noisy. Add to that the hot weather (near 30C) and it was a typical Taiwan outing in my mind. As soon as we came in the gates, Michael ran and climbed on a "train" ride, so what could Trina do but pay the man. Well, the whole point of coming was to have fun, so at least Michael didn't make us guess what he wanted. A couple stalls down was a woman from Edmonton, trying to adopt out stray dogs. I talked to her for a while and found that she and her husband (teachers at TAS) had decided to teach in various areas around the world, starting with Latin America (two locations), then Asia... then I don't know, because they stayed in Taipei 15 years ago and never left. I've heard more than once of people who come here for a short while and never leave. We came for a year (five years ago), ended up staying two years, then coming back for four months, so I guess we're not so different.

There was a horse ride that Michael really enjoyed (except waiting in line), but Trina was finding drinks, so there's no photo. Then we had to find food. It was toward the end of the fair, so they were all out of hot dogs (Michael was disappointed, but Mommy was secretly glad). We got a lasagna, which was good, but may not have passed for lasagna in North America, a green papaya salad and a ham and cheese sandwich. Then Michael and Jeremy went and climbed in the bouncing castle.



Jeremy should have been sleeping and got a little out of control after that, so we started walking toward home. Away from most of the noise (other than traffic, which is still significant, given the number of scooters and horns), Jeremy still refused to sleep. Trina found a bus that would take us all the way across the city to our house, and we hopped on. Jeremy finally went to sleep for about half an hour, but Michael realised that he needed to go potty. We were still a good 20 minutes or more from home and we were not in a familiar area. Fortunately, we came to AsiaWorld (the mall with Toys R Us and IKEA) not too much later and got off. Poor Michael had to ride up the escalators all the way to the 7th floor before we found a bathroom, but then we let the kids play at Toys R Us for a while before going down to the food court for take out. Trina told me that the people at her favourite restaurants recognise her now.

We finished our "bus tour" and, as we crossed ZhongXiao East Road, I was amazed at the throngs of people. The boys enjoy the bus and, all things considered, are pretty well behaved. Then another jet-lag-induced early bedtime.