What a Fantastic Afternoon

What a great afternoon we had with Fion yesterday! All the other JOH families who have had her for their guide have said how wonderful and sweet she is. Everything they said was right on. She is funny, thoughtful, and just plain fun to be with.

This is a bamboo plant decorated with ornaments, like a Christmas tree.


We went to the handicraft market, the flower market, and the jade market yesterday afternoon and early evening. At the handicraft market, I bought a couple of wooden puzzles for Holly (thanks Jeff & Abbie for that idea) and a handpainted fan. Mom bought some beautiful table runners that she will use for Christmas. When we went through the flower market, I though mom had died and gone to heaven! There were more orchids in that market than any of us had seen in our entire lives. And dirt cheap, too. An orchid that would sell for $30-60 in the States cost about $4-5 dollars here. It just about killed mom to walk through there and not be able to buy anything. We can't take live plants back into the States without preplanning and lots of forms. How sad!

Orchids for sale on just one table.

The jade market was amazing. Lots of handmade earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. There were also loose stones and just about everyone had little cell phone ornaments with jade in them. We bought a few of those because we figured they would make really cute Christmas ornaments for the tree. Some guy tried to sell mom a brass teapot that he said was 3500 years old. If it were that old, it would be in a museum somewhere, not on a market table to sell to foreigners! Kerry, Ann, and Eric in front of a tree with cut orchids attached. The streamers hanging from the tree have lemons attached to the bottom.


There is a huge baseball tournament being played in Taiwan while we are here. Like a real world series; the national teams from a ton of countries are playing in four different stadiums. We were kind of interested in going to one if there were tickets still available. After we returned to the hotel, Fion asked the about the games. We could see one today between Australia and Thailand at noon, or we could go to the Guandu Temple and the National Palace Museum. After some thought and discussion, we decided we will go to the temple and museum. We can see baseball any time, but we can't go to these other places any other time.

Fion took us to a great little resaurant for dinner last night that is just about 2 blocks from the hotel. We all had fried rice and then salted vegetable and pork soup. The fried rice was so yummy! The soup was good; the broth was the best part. They will deliver to the hotel if they are not too busy or we can call in an order to pick it up. We think we may do that tomorrow night after we get the baby. We had Fion write down the Chinese names of the fried rice and sweet and sour chicken so that we can have the desk clerk call it in and we can pick it up. The restaurant owner (?) taught Eric how to say "thank you" in Chinese, but it took a lot of additional help for him to say it back to her. We had a good laugh over that, but now he can say "xie xie" with the best of them!

Needless to say, we are having a really great time. In the back of my mind, however, is always that I get to pick up Holly tomorrow! Hopefully today will be as busy as yesterday to keep my mind occupied.