Shopping Adventures

Those of you that have talked to me since our survey trip in July know that my first shopping experience in Taipei didn't go so well. The day we moved in Matt made the initial trip to our most local food store called "Wellcome" for some peanut butter and bread type staples, but since we can't survive on that alone we decided our first shopping trip as a family would be to Costco. Yes, Costco. Just like in America. There are some more localized things there, (like 200 pound bags of rice), but overall it's full of American imports and they sell like hotcakes.

Okay, so first things first. We knew where we wanted to go and generally how to get there, but we had to find a way to communicate that to a cab driver who most likely didn't speak any English. Matt found the address and printed it in both English and Chinese. We also carry our home address in both English and Chinese so we can get back here. Way to go Matt. I would have never thought of that. Since we don't have a car we needed to figure out how to get a cab. We walked past the security office outside of our building as asked if they could help us get a cab. Unfortunately, they don't speak any English. BUT, they heard the word "cab" and came rushing out of the office, out of the gates of our complex and ran down the street to the corner to hail us a cab. Very sweet and helpful, but we totally could have done that ourselves (if we had only realized that there are zillions of cabs all over the place just waiting for us!!!). We felt really bad for making the poor guy run all over creation for such a simple task. So we hop in this cab, give the driver our destination and we're on our way.

About now I should mention that in his previously mention trip to the Wellcome, Matt brought home the most gigantic and delicious mango that any of us had ever seen. It was soooo good that Caitlin managed to eat about 3/4 of it herself. I don't think I realized she ate quite so much of it until I SAW IT FOR A SECOND TIME!!! Yes, it's what you're thinking. The child threw up mango all over the backseat of the cab. Luckily I had this adorable little straw bucket-type hat with us to catch it and a lifetime supply of Wet Ones to clean with. Oh my. What a mess. What a terrible feeling to totally stink up and mess up someone elses's vehicle and not even be able to say we're sorry. (Note to self...need to learn how to apologize in Chinese.) I cleaned everything the best I could and apologized profusely in English, took our throw-up hat and exited the vehicle. Okay, so we make it to Costco smelling like throw-up, partially wearing throw-up, concerned about what caused the child to throu-up and now we need to apply for a membership. Nice. We go to the customer service counter and they hand us an application (totally in Chinese) and ask for ID. Oops. We didn't bring our passports. Do they take driver's licenses? BINGO!! Okay, so aside from the fact that we can't read the application, we're in business. Somehow we made it though all that with only one minor problem - Matt's membership card has his picture and my name and mine has my picture and his name. Oh well, no one here knows how to say our names anyway.

I was so overwhelmed with our trip to Costco and the sheer volume of people within the store that when I saw giant boxes of Cheerios on a pallet, it nearly brought me to tears! The theme song to "Laverne & Shirley" started playing in my head, "...you're going to make it after all!" Seriously, Cheerios are a main staple in both mine and Caitlin's life. Without them, I have to think about serving a healthy breakfast. Thinking at any point before noon is just not easy for me. It is a well known fact among the expat families here that Cheerios are hard to come by. When you see them, buy them. Buy them in masses. I would have, but my dear husband was a little concerned about exactly how we were going to get home so I didn't push it and only bought 1 giant sized box. I knew I already had 2 other giant sized boxes stashed away at home.

We made it through the rest of our shopping adventure rather unscathed and even had an uneventful ride home. As soon as we arrived back at our complex the security guards came rushing out to meet us, grabbed our stuff and had it all in the elevator before we even paid for the cab. Once again, it was sweet and amazing all at the same time. Either everyone here is just so helpful or we look so totally clueless all the time that they pity us. I'm voting for the latter.

We braved another shopping venture the next day, this time to Carrefore. It's the French version of Wal-Mart. Of course, no trip is complete without some kind of combustion. Thankfully it was just a super wet diaper, but nonetheless I came home all wet as well. Caitlin also managed to lose a sock and tear the strap off of her hat (not the throw-up one, another). This girl is killing me!

Carrefore totally cracks me up. On top of all the crazy Chinese that I try to figure out there's all this French. The back of my mind is frantically calling out to my 9th grade French teacher and wishing I paid more attention...oh please faithful brain, don't fail me now! If I can crack this French business I might be able to shop here! Hmmm...not much luck with the French business. But I walked away with cheese and dijon mustard. Oh well.

We survived and I've survived a few trips out to the feared Wellcome all by myself. It's actually not all that bad. Turns out I was overreacting. Imagine that.

As for Caitlin, she's an overeater and an overdrinker. Always has been. I have seen this girl expel excess food and drink from her little body more often than any mother should. She loves to eat, but doesn't have a lot of room to keep it in. Her eating patterns were so thrown off from all the traveling that I really didn't have a good idea of exactly how much she had eaten and when. She's perfectly healthy and is doing rather well!