Goodbye Taipei, Hello New Adventures

We bid a sad goodbye to the Miramar Garden Hotel and its tasty breakfast, but were excited to start the next stage in our adventure. Our guide picked us up, we loaded the car, and headed out.

Happily, our first stop was by the water, so we finally saw the other side of the Pacific Ocean. (As Californians, we are partial to this particular body of water.) The seaside town was simultaneously like every other we have seen and at the same time totally different. We stopped to explore the Yehliu Geopark and all of its fascinating formations.  We glimpsed a variety of sea life and wondered at the lack of waves. 

As soon as we finished there, we went in the totally opposite direction, heading up into the mountains. Taiwan is beyond lush and green, with breathtaking water. The heat and humidity are tough to take, but they do make some magnificent jungle.

We climbed higher and higher on narrow and curvy hairpin roads. Lucky for us our guide is a former fighter pilot for the Taiwanese Air Force and handles it like a pro. Our destination was a lovely tea farm with a view of Thousand Island Lake.  

We stayed for lunch, dinning al fresco on the top of a mountain. Lunch included an incredible mango smoothie, scallion pancake, mushrooms, tofu, sea grass and fried tea leaves that Rob promptly renamed tea fries.

Next up was the largest waterfall in Taiwan, followed by releasing a lantern into the wild. It was totally touristy and totally fun. 

We painted four sides of a paper lantern with wishes and desires. Putting our own spin on it, I also included things for which we were thankful and a bit of Hebrew. We released it as a family and watched it fly. It was surprisingly cathartic. 

Blessings sent up and away, we headed to the historic town of Jiufen, which consists of streets that are more narrow and with more stairs than any in Jerusalem. 

Halfway up the ungodly number of stairs our guide turned left into a crevice, which turned out to be a cave that led to a hidden tea house and photo spot. I couldn't make this stuff up.

While not technically a night market, the neighborhood had that feel, with stores and people and food and trucks and scooters all vying for attention.  Among the three of us we indulged in ice cream wrapped in a tortilla with crushed peanuts, hot veggies submerged in ice cold water and eaten with a spoon, and a funky waffle filled with mango and cream.

Our hotel that evening was nestled so deep in the mountain side we had difficulty locating it. The Adiago specializes in creating a relaxing environment. We were given house shoes to wear, we selected a story to serve as our room number, and were presented with three fragrant rocks to choose our room smell. We went with forest. 

It was a day filled with a LOT of sensory input. Romi is loving it and feeling more and more connected to the country and its people, and can almost feed himself using chopsticks! 

Out and About One More Day in Taipei

We woke up to another humid day in Taipei, but we would not be deterred! We would also not be silly (or hot) and decided to take air conditioned taxis. 

Following our scrumptious hotel breakfast (the steamed buns were back!), we rode in comfort to the National Palace Museum. We hit the jade, ceramic, bronze and calligraphy exhibits. Romi made it a full hour before the call of the gift shop over powered him. 

Our next stop was the Grand Hotel, where we recreated a picture in front of the Golden Dragon from our first visit. This time around our family was flying solo and Romi was a bit bigger. We took in the opulence, hit the bakery for treats and headed back to the hotel to escape the heat of the day.

Next up was Ximending, a bustling progressive neighborhood that is central to Taipei's LGBQT+ community.  Our first stop was the historic Red House, where even the drinks were too hip for us.

We wandered about, did a bit of shopping for clothes that actually fit Romi, stopped at a yummy pasta restaurant for food and shelter, and took our last Taipei metro ride of the trip home.

We leave Taipei in the morning, which makes us sad, but we can't wait for the next stage in our adventure! 

Taiwanese Shabbat

We braved the rain in search of the progressive Jewish community of Taipei. Address in hand, we made our way to the fourth floor of a random building. We picked the door with a mezuzah and were rewarded with a small but eclectic group. They were welcoming but quiet. Eventually the service leader arrived, and began a Conservative Carlebach service. More people trickled in as the service went on, and by Aleinu there was a pretty good crowd. Shabbat dinner followed services, and both the food and the company were equally eclectic. We met people from Israel, Panama, Spain and the U.S. When I asked everyone how they ended up in Taiwan, I was told you get to Taipei three ways: study, love or business. Not surprising at all but we found many connections with Maryland, DC and Tucson, and played a successful game of Jewish Geography with a shared connection to Zach Berger.

We were enjoying the company and novelty of finding community across the world when the jetlag caught up to us and Romi made it crystal clear he needed to head home. We returned to the Miramar Garden hotel and all fell exhausted into bed.

I woke early and not wanting to disturb Rob, I climbed into the bathtub to call Rachel on WhatsApp. This was a far cry from 15 years ago when calling home wasn't even an option. We enjoyed breakfast at the hotel, even with the absence of my beloved steamed milk corn buns. We played a new game called "Is it Kosher?" Players bring food items from the buffet and we used a designated fork and knife to cut them open to see what's inside. We had some surprising results. (Please note "taro" is NOT potato but "croquette" is.)

We explored a bit of the city, fighting jetlag and heat, but managed to check out Xingtian temple and the street of fortune tellers, the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, (where we caught the changing of the guard), and the National Theater and National Concert Hall. 

We booked it over to the Restaurant Bus for our afternoon tea and tour reservation. It was a great way to take a break and still enjoy the city but with air conditioning, views, and fancy food. 

Romi and I got a bit carried away with our dragon dessert. 

All I can say is that it was a good thing Heather wasn't there or we would probably been thrown off the bus (nicely, of course, because the people here are lovely).

We continued to explore and wandered into a Japanese-based store called MUJI. Romi loved it. It had both Ikea and Whole Food vibes, but people also clearly used it as a place to hangout.  Check it out if you ever come across one. 

After Shabbat, we headed to Shulin to the city's largest night market.  They only way to describe it is a shuk on steroids but with more people and color and humidity. We saw so, so many things. I'm still wondering about the avocado milk and frying milk.

23,0000 steps later we headed home to bed.

Taipei 101

We breezed through customs, grabbed our bags and found our guide with no issues.  Before leaving the airport we checked to see if we won the travellers lottery and walked away with a Easy Card loaded with $5000 Taiwanese dollars (roughly $160 US) that we can use for taxis, the metro and 7-11. An auspicious beginning!

We arrived at our hotel around 7:00 a.m. to drop our bags, and I almost cried when they said we could shower at the sauna. The sauna consisted of lockers, a hot dry sauna, a wet sauna, cold and hot pools, showers, fully stocked dressing tables and more. We all found it heavenly after the 14-hour flight, even if Romi was slightly freaked out by the old naked men.

We headed to the hotel breakfast, and while it was a bit meat- and shellfish-heavy, we found plenty to enjoy, and a few items we didn't recognize. I am in love with steamed milk corn buns.

Clean, happy and fed, we then headed out to master the metro. With the help of the very kind locals, we managed to make our way to Taipei 101. The public transportation here is clean, easy, and cheap! But best of all, it's designed for Kelley-sized people. It was lovely to be able to reach everything.

Our first view from the bottom of Taipei 101 did not disappoint. The building is breathtaking, with beautiful details. 

We got there just as the shops in the lower floors were opening. It is the quintessential bougie shopping mall, complete with Starbucks, but a tad disappointing with a heavy preponderance of watch and jewelry stores. The food court was the most compelling part and even had an upscale grocery store—think Whole Foods but with a robot navigating the aisles hawking stuff to buy.

We eventually made our way over to the observatory, where we were whisked into the elevator and launched up to the 89th floor. It took less than 40 seconds to go up a bit more than 1200 feet. (That's almost a quarter of a mile.) I can't even begin to describe the sensation but that is some seriously impressive technology. The trip lasted less than a minute but we still managed to make friends on the way up with a lovely family visiting from Northern California. (Romi hasn't stopped texting 15-year-old Chloe since they met.)

The views of Taipei are impressive, as are the floor-to-ceiling windows, interactive maps, and tasty pastries in the cafe in the sky. 

We also checked out the magic damper, which keeps the building steady in high winds, storms and earthquakes.

The damper

We got ready to leave, but before we could make it out of the building, a Tucson-monsoon-worthy rain broke out. We wandered the now very crowded food court, even running into our new friend Christbel before finding a bank with the most helpful tellers ever and dashing through the downpour to the metro.

We returned to the hotel to check in and clean up before Shabbat. Our rooms are lovely. They have actual doorbells, and we can play music in the bathroom through the TV.

We are off to celebrate Shabbat as we continue our global exploration of Romi's multifaceted identity!

Another parenting fail

Parents make tons of mistakes when raising our kids. We are human, so clearly it's inevitable. Some haunt you, some you laugh at, and some become family lore. It haunts me that in my misguided effort to stop Romi from calling me Mother, I gave him three other choices (Ima, Mom, Kelley). He has been calling me by my first name for years now. (It makes me a little sad but it only scares me in an airport. Think about it.) We all still laugh at the getting hit by lightning legend, and the incident wih Paddington Bear is family lore like it was given to us at Sinai.

Our latest parenting fail? Flying business class to Taiwan. Romi's already declared that he just simply cannot go back to coach. He just looked at the flight monitor and was SAD we only have five hours left.  When we sat down, he spent a good 15 minutes exploring and fell in love with the lighting and feet rest options, the printed menu, noise cancelling head phones, and the North Face bag complete with eyemask, earplugs, toothbrush, lotion and hand sanitizer.

Forget Taiwan.  We may never get him off the plane.

Taiwan, here we come!

A few months back, in anticipation of our trip, I signed up for the weekly email from the Taiwan Jewish Community. Each Wednesday I read about their Shabbat services, learning opportunities, and the comings and goings of the congregation's members. This morning, before Gabi picked us up to take us to the airport, I read the email with renewed interest. This week, the email applied to me--this week, we were going to Shabbat services! I was almost giddy as I filled out the Google Form indicating we'll attend Shabbat dinner. It's crazy to realize that what we've been planning for and talking about for so long is actually here.

As I hit send on the email, I noticed another email from Maggie, the woman from Life of Taiwan (our tour company) who has been so incredibly helpful as we booked this trip. I'd asked her when we'll meet up with our guide since we have a small gift for him. (For those of you who are curious about these things. it's a box of See's. IFYKYK). She replied, and I quote, that a gift for our tour guide is the "warmest cuddle." I am sure it is a translation issue, but gifts in our family will forevermore be referred to as the warmest cuddles.

We had a lovely long layover in LA. It never ceases to amaze me how coming home can feel both so normal and so surreal. But we got to see loved ones, and that's always the best. What wasn't the best was the truly horrific traffic getting into LAX. I have no idea what was going on, but it was epically bad. How bad you ask? Bad enough that when Romi and Rob jumped out of the car at terminal 1 so Romi could pee (damn you Gatorade), Joel kept driving like a boss to the Tom Bradley International Terminal, and they were able to jump back in the car at terminal 2! With our TSA pre-check it honestly took less time to check our bags and get to the gate than it did to get to the airport.

So here we are, at the gate, waiting for the next leg of our adventure to start. We are taking all your love and good wishes with us!

At Long Last...

I know it's been a hot minute since I updated this blog, but I have an excellent reason for it's revival--we are returning to Taiwan!  It is no exaggeration to say that we started saving for this trip 15 years ago when we arrived home with Romi.  We put it off, first for Nana's health, then for the pandemic, and lastly because we were a little freaked out by China's shenanigans.  And now, at long last, our moment has come and we leave tomorrow morning!

We have had countless family meetings planning and preparing.  We've read all the travel blogs and did a ton of research.  We ordered some Taiwanese Dollars from the bank and spent far too much money on clothes, sunhats, compression socks, and travel pillows.  We are as mentally prepared as possible for the 14-hour flight from LAX and the 12-hour time change from Baltimore.

In no particular order, here are some of the things we are looking forward to:

• Taipei 101
• Shabbat services with the Taipei Jewish Community
• National Palace Museum
• High-speed train
• Boba class
• Tea plantations
• Jiufen (historic city)
• Toroko Gorge
• Scootering through the rice paddies
• Sun Moon Lake
• Night markets

We plan to spend some time at the end of our journey in Taichung, the city where Romi was born.  Unfortunately, our adoption agency wasn't able to contact the birth or foster mother, so Romi won't be meeting any family this time around.  Instead we will spend our time in Taichung getting a feel for what it's like to live there, maybe even checking out Costco and Ikea. 

I'll do my best to post photos and updates as we make out way around the island.  If you want to reach us, What's App works best.  Talk to ya' on the other side of the world!

It's a Magnet on My Tongue

It's been decades since the east coast has seen an allergy season like this one.  Blame it on the crazy winter or climate change or the newly-minted phrase climate disruption, but pollen is everywhere, and along with it the mandatory sneezing, coughing and itchy eyes.  Our little guy is suffering the worst of it.  He's had more Zyrtec in the last six days then he has in the previous six years.  We just can't help but look at those puffy, red and swollen eyes and reach for the bottle that offers better living through chemistry.  If we don't, it only gets worse and he starts complaining about itchy ears too.

Unfortunately, one evening last week the bottle of liquid Zyrtec alluded us.  Romi was off to bed, but he was truly miserable.  We looked for the magic elixir but when we couldn't find it we asked the Romster if was game for swallowing a pill.  Not surprisingly our six-year-old adult in kindergarten clothing was up for it.

We took the small white oblong pill out of the bottle and explained the procedure: place it in the middle of your tongue so you can't taste it, take a sip of water, swallow both while leaning your head back if necessary.  I put the pill on his little tongue, handed him the glass and watched him swallow, after which he stuck out his tongue to proudly display the little white pill.  Rob tried next, following the same procedure--with the same result.  Rob then resorted to his dog tricks, throwing it down the back of Romi's throat like he does with Penny.  At this point, Romi took the pill out of his mouth and explained that he didn't care for the taste.  No big surprise there.  We tried again, and again the pill made an appearance.  Rob kept explaining, "How is this possible?!"  Romi kept calmly replying, "It's a magnet stuck to my tongue."

In a bout of hilarious frustration, Rob put the pill on Romi's tongue and had him drink the entire glass of water, after which Romi pulled the pill from his mouth and handed it tback to Rob. 

Next Rob refilled the water glss, dropped the pill in, swooshed it around and had Romi drink the entire thing.  After which Romi once again produced the little white beast and explained that it wasn't his favorite. 

I'm honestly not sure which was more hysterical to watch, Romi's party trick, his calm manner in returning the pill time and time again to his Abba, or Rob's incredulous freak out every time the little white pill reappeared.

In the end, neithber Romi's allergies or the pill disappeared, but the good news is we finally found the bottle of liquid Zyrtec!

Six. I know, right?!

Our little guy is six, as in six years old, as in a year older than five, a half-dozen rotations around the sun, 60 months, that six.  I'm not certain how it happened, but it certainly is a lot of fun.  He has been so anxiously awaiting his birthday, complete with the traditional childhood countdown.  On the day before his birthday, I drove him crazy, asking him a zillion times (or so it seemed to him) how old he was and pointing out this was his last day to answer, "Five."

Romi understood the importance of this birthday when he explained to me that it was a big deal because six takes two hands.  (Think about it.)  The one part of the getting older that Romi struggled to grasp was how Rob could be older when Romi's birthday came first.  I tried to explain to him the concept that Rob's birthday might be three days after his own, but it happened years before his.  He looked at me and asked, "How old was Abba when we got me?"  I love this kid.

Romi's birthday fell on a Friday and I think I was even more excited than he was that he got to go to school on his birthday, something I have only experienced once.  We left for school early so we could pick up a special snack for his class: Munchkins (donut holes from the Kosher Dunkin' Donuts in town).  He had a great day, complete with stickers, a special award, and birthday crown.  We told Romi he could pick anything he wanted for Shabbat dinner that night and he chose his favorite since coming to B'more: smoked salmon sandwiches on flax bread.  While eating take-out sandwiches for Shabbat was a bit unusual, part of me was also thrilled I didn't have to make big meal so close to Passover.  We gave him our gifts Friday night: some airplane PlayMobil pieces to go with the airplane Carrie and LuLu sent and a gender-neutral dollhouse that he absolutely loved.

To say Romi has not been a fan of birthday parties is an understatement.  Not only has he refused to attend, he didn't enjoy his own in the past and has never wanted one before.  This year, however, that changed and his absolute favorite topic of conversation for the past four months has been planning his party.  I explained to him that if he wanted his friends to come to his party, he had to reciprocate, so he has been making small forays into the birthday social scene, albeit reluctantly.



The theme for this party was airplanes and I may have gone a bit overboard.  Here's the invitation we sent out:

We transformed the front walk into a runway; made kick-ass paper airplanes (good job Rob and Marcos!); played airplane Red Light, Green Light (thank you Isabel for explaining to JoJo how the game is really played); decorated parve airplane sugar cookies, and had hot dogs for lunch (thanks Jamie for grilling).  We topped it off with an airplane pinata, which resisted all efforts to merrily dispel its contents so Rob eventually took a 2 by 4 to the thing and even then it took him five good whacks at it.

Romi had an absolute blast.  He has definitely changed his mind about parties and is already concocting plans for the next one!

Random fact about Romi: he is obsessed with Monopoly and is really, really good at it.  He can decipher what is says on the Chance and Community Chest cards, regardless of the fact that he can't read.  He understands that there's 10 spaces on each side and moves accordingly, his biggest joy in life is buying hotels and he can make change like no body's business.  Finally, a financial whiz in the family!

That's Not a Knife....

In some ways, Rob and I are the most cautious of parents, and and in others, well, not so much.  We can't help it, Romi just seems so darn capable so much of the time.  He is far less klutzy then his Ima and far more organized than his Abba.  Poor kid will be in charge of everything by the time he's six.  

In any case, we let Romi use knives.  I don't mean butter knives; we've given him those since he was a baby, much to the angst of fellow diners for years.  (Not only has it never been a problem, but I have always been much more concerned with the tong-brandishing fork).  But by knives I mean the good knives--the Henkels.  Until recently, that has never been an issue.  Alas Romi recently got his first minor cut with the knives.  The irony?  It wasn't him wielding the blade, it was me.  He was sitting on the counter and I got too close.  Oy, the guilt.  Romi still has free reign of the knives but my permission is questionable.

One of the things we love most about out little Romala is his innate kindness.  In June I was having a difficult time as the anniversary of both my parents' deaths loomed.  One day I was speaking with my mom and dad, expressing my displeasure with their departing, when Romi asked me what I was doing.  I said that I was talking to my parents because I missed them.  He inquired as to why I missed them and I explained, yet again, that I don't get to see them because they died.  (Parentless Parenting at its finest.)  Romi, clearly not happy that I was not happy, calmly and lovingly reassured me that he would be my mom and dad.

Of course, it's not all sweetness and nice.  Sometimes it's deviousness and cleverness.  For example, when told that he couldn't play with any more  printer paper (you would not believe how much this boy can tear through!), he simply took the printer paper out of the cabinet and then explained that it was fine since it didn't come from the printer.  On a recent outing he insisted on taking the his huge jangle of keys.  When I asked why he needed them he explained that the Giant grocery card was mandatory.  When I pointed out we weren't going to Giant, he informed me that the card is linked to our phone number (which indeed it is) and that he might need the that information. Little bugger took the keys.

Lately, Romi has taken to pretending to  be a baby alligator, with Rob and I playing the role of Mommy Alligator and Daddy Alligator.  He loves to call us by our first names, bring us "deliveries," and to describe the weather as "bloody hot."  (I have to take the blame for that one.)  

We had a lovely visit with his cousin Tesssa.  Romi fell head over heels for her and tells me a few times a week that he's sad because he misses her and requests her immediate return.  We had a wonderful time showing her around Baltimore, chasing fireflies and eating in all of the best spots.  We missed out on a baseball game since the O's were out of town, but other than that it was a great visit.  One fine but hot day, Steven and Tessa offered to pedal an Inner Harbor Dragon Boat while I relaxed and enjoyed the ride and Romi steered the vessel.  I would have captured the moment with my camera, but when I politely asked Romi to turn around and smile, he dismissed me, informing me that he had to concentrate.