TungHua Street Night Market

The boys surprised us today by sleeping in. Jeremy, who is usually wakes up around 6:30, slept until 8:00, and I decided to wake Michael up at 9:00. I guess we've had some really busy days. We took Michael to school (late, of course), and promised to come back and pick him up at 11:30. That would only give us about 1 hour 45 minutes, but it was a nice day, so I walked Jeremy the way I used to walk to work after dropping off Trina. As I walked past the Hess bookstore where we often used to go to read, I noticed it was closing down. All the shelves had been pulled out and there was a big sign about a clearance sale. I was and I wasn't surprised. Trina had just taken Michael to read there a few weeks ago, so it seemed really sudden. But it seems that stores open and close and move really frequently here. Like the Starbucks that used to be on the corner by our house is a Barrista Coffee now, but the Barrista Coffee that used to be across from the DaAn MRT stop is now a Starbucks.

I didn't find the first school I had worked for. They were just moving at the end of the year in which I worked there and I didn't find the new location. But I walked up to the old location (which is just empty) and through the massively busy morning market that's just two blocks away. That brought back memories.

Then I walked up to the second place I worked, Princeton School. I wasn't sure what I would find. I had worked there the first year they opened, along with two other teachers. And there were a total of about 10 kids. The school is still there, and I rang the bell and asked if I could have a tour of the school with my son. They brought us up and put Jeremy in the recess class to play. I think Jeremy really wishes he could have school, like Michael, because he's always sad when we drop off Michael and he was really sad when we had to leave this school.

Isabelle, the owner, didn't recognise me, but I told her I had taught there and she invited us to their Mother's Day picnic. She also told me that one of my two students moved back to Korea. And the school is now half Chinese, half English. I'm happy for her that there were four classes of about 8-10 kids who looked happy, so the school must be doing okay. They still use the same songbooks and resources, so everything still looks the same (except more kids now).

After we picked up Michael, we came home for an afternoon nap for Jeremy. Michael watched a new DVD, Wonder Pets, because he's a big boy and can choose whether or not to nap. Well, that and he slept until 9:00. We wanted the boys to be rested because we were going to brave a night market, so we could visit what had previously been one of our favourites.

We started with dinner at a knife-cut noodle restaurant, where we used to eat. I noticed during my morning walk it was still there. It's still run by the same people, and they still make a good mooshoo noodle and a good beef and tomato noodle soup. On the other hand, the boys didn't eat much and were a bit of a distraction. After dinner, we walked back to our favourite traditional ice desert place. It looked totally different. They have more space now, so I guess that means it's pretty popular. And their menu is way easier to order from. Before, you would order a la carte from: black jelly, yellow jelly, tang yuan balls, zheng zhu pearls, green beans, red beans, lemon juice and cream. But the lemon juice can only go with the yellow jelly and the cream only with the black jelly, so we were embarrassed a few times when we tried to make combinations that weren't "right". Now they have set combinations that are numbered, so you can just get a "number 4". They hand you a pager and page you when it's ready, even if you're just sitting right in the restaurant. It was really good and Jeremy really enjoyed it. Michael only had a little bit, because he was thinking of the ice cream next door.

Then we went through the night market. It was not quite as we remembered. It was jam-packed with people. Trina found a 10 NT store. We found the deep fried yam and taro balls. Michael only wanted to eat the purple ones. But the DVD/VCD store only sells posters now. It's harder with two small boys and it's less fun with multiple potty breaks (at a nasty outdoor bathroom). Still, at the end of the night market the boys enjoyed looking at all the puppies in the pet stores and then we called it a day.