Rain, rain go away! Little Caitlin Wants To Play!

Caitlin woke up a little out of sorts this morning. I think the word "rammy" would best describe her. I knew we'd need to get out to the park and shake our bones today. The blue skies and mountains of our tropical paradise seemed to be dodging humongous cumulus clouds this morning. This is pretty common so I thought by the time Caitlin finished her breakfast the clouds would be long gone. They weren't so we killed some time by calling Mimom. It was still cloudy when we got off the phone, but I so desperately wanted to get outside so I loaded up our gear and headed out to the park.

We walked past the security guards and greeted them with a cheery, "Ni hao!" They must have been thinking, "Silly American girls. Don't they see the GIANT clouds looming overhead?" Apparently not. In no way did I think it was actually going to rain. I just thought it was going to be a cloudy day. Well, I got about 1/4 of the way down our lane and the heavens opened up! This was some serious rain. For a split second, I thought about continuing to the park...although I have to admit now that would be a serious error in judgement. What do you do with a 20 month old in a park in the rain (should I mention that I'm in a foreign country? Or have I established that fact yet? For whatever the reason I feel I need to keep reminding myself. Like being in the rain at a park in the US would make any difference). Come on now, Tara. So we parked ourselves under and overhang because I learned quite quickly that giving an umbrella to a toddler is...well, pointless. Not that umbrella lacks sharp, pointy edges that could wind up in any number of unwanted places as we bounce along the bumpy edge of the road most commonly referred to as a sidewalk, but these are hardly sidewalks. Let's take a moment to examine the "sidewalks" here in Taipei.

Matt often compares Taipei to NYC. I'm not sure where he comes up with these ideas. There are many striking differences between Taipei and NYC. For example the roasted ducks hanging in store windows, unclearly marked or oddly posted street signs, the Chinese language EVERYWHERE, the clear disregard for pedestrians and the zillions of scooters are just to name a few. What really gets me is the lack of space for people to safely travel on foot. What's worse than that (at least for me and Caitlin) is the lack of ramps or any way for strollers or wheelchairs to maneuver in and out of buildings. I'll stick with my sidewalk rant for now. Just like NYC, it's not uncommon for people here to not have their own form of transportation. There is a decent rail, bus and taxi system throughout Taipei and having a car could actually be more of a pain . But the sidewalks, THE SIDEWALKS ARE DEPLORABLE. Now I haven't frequented NYC that much in recent years, but I lived in Philly for a while and with the exception of Manayunk, there are respectable sidewalks. Not like your typical suburban sidewalks either. They have those extra wide ones to handle the large amount of foot traffic (or perhaps to handle the extra large cheese steak eating population). Not in Taipei. If there are sidewalks without big metal covered boxes plunked in the middle of the walkway there's the occasional scooter rider who decides that he/she is too good to ride in the street like the rest of the motorized world. Then there are the potholes, uneven surfaces, stairs and other random obstacles that just make it so darn difficult to get around. Now imagine me with one hand on an umbrella, one hand steering the stroller and one hand guiding the umbrella I just handed Caitlin. Ooops, is that 3 hands? You can see my problem here - even without the added luxury of potholes.

So, we got wet. And laughed all the way home! The security guard met us at our gate and tried to help us through (I had to close 2 umbrellas in order to fit through) by holding another umbrella on the other side. They are so sweet to us and I desperately want to communicate to them - "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"