RS's travels: Is there such a thing as a lazy Sunday?

Today was a bit of a lazy Sunday because of the pouring rain and the damp and dreary day. We spent the morning hanging out in the room, mom did some work on the presentation she has to give next week on parenting, dad did some work, and I also did some work and some organizing. When living out of a suitcase, it is essential to organize yourself everyday with your clothing and etc otherwise it is very difficult to find anything. Around lunch time, pops went out to get some hot soup with lots of veggies, tofu, and other ingredients that we had no idea what they were, but it was perfect for a day like today. We ate in dad’s living room area in our fleece jackets because it was so cold! Around 3pm, we met our hosts from dinner last night outside of our place and they drove us to the Jade Market. We were told beforehand that we needed to have an experienced Taiwanese to even begin to decide which Jade is real and which is counterfeit. The market was gigantic and extraordinarily overwhelming with at least 5 rows, ½ a mile long with vendors sitting and standing next to their goods selling jade, pearls, prayer beads, wood, glass and many other chatchkes. We walked around for a bit with our host who knew the “good” merchants and we went and found some beautiful turquoise that I will make a necklace with and mom found some pearls, a pearl necklace, and some silver beads that she is going to make her medical bracelet look much nicer.

We spent almost 2 hours there and were so exhausted and ready to come home, however our hosts suggested that we go to the Taipei 101 buliding (the second tallest building in the world) to look at the shopping mall and eat some dinner there. We were all tired, but decided they were going to drop us off there and it was pouring rain, so why not?! Plus we were meeting them at 8pm this evening for a special Taiwanese foot massage! They dropped us off at the largest shopping area I have ever seen in my entire life- there must have been at least 1000 stores in this area, from Gucci to bulgari and crabtree and evelyn to a crocs store and even an apple store which they call an iStore.

Taipei 101 Building at night

We started to become hungry so we decided to look for a place to eat for dinner and all of the food courts are under ground. So the first one we went to was very expensive though we did buy a baguette to tide us over until we found some real sustenance. Mom and I started looking at some chocolate and became quite hungry.. however when we discovered that the chocolate bars were 11 dollars, we decided we definitely didn’t need any chocolate! Even though we have only been here for 3 days, at the thought of eating any Chinese food- vegetables, leafy greens, soup, mushrooms almost made us want to throw up. Mom and I eat vegetables all the time and usually that is our diet, however here it is so different that it has been hard to get used to. We were craving some form of meat, bread, something that was not going to come out of us as soon as it went in… we almost even went to McDonalds, which if you know us is an unknown entity. We finally found a place that had panini’s and I had a roasted chicken Panini, mom had a tomato, mozzarella and basil Panini and dad had a zucchini Panini and for dessert we shared one tiny cup of cold stone chocolate ice cream!! Yum.

We are hoping that we will be able to cope with the Chinese food because dad said there is not much like this “real” food once we get to China. Wish us luck.

After we finished our dinner, it was perfect timing as our “hosts” called our Taiwanese phones saying they were outside of the Taipei 101 building (which is beautiful at night all lite up)- and in fact you can go to the top, which would be fun except that it was pouring rain and we wouldn’t have been able to see anything, which was the whole point. We probably won’t have time to go back to the top, but if we do we apparently have to wait in line for over 2 hours. We found our hosts outside and got into their car- their daughter actually is my age and she and her father were taking us to a foot massage place that they like to go to. When we got there, we took off our shoes and socks and were given slippers. We then were whisked to the second floor where there were about 12 chairs and 8 were in a small room overlooking the road below. We were given capri sweats to change into so they could massage ¾ of our legs. Suddenly, it seemed out of no where, 5 people came in and were telling us where to sit and to put our feet in a hot water solution (of which I have no idea what it was) and then the massage began. They massaged our necks and backs first with great pressure- it was so nice I didn’t want it to end at that point. I wish my masseuse would have done more on my back as it seemed everyone else’s masseuse spent more time on their back, but oh well. So she then had us turn around and the foot massage began. I think my masseuse had anger issues and pressed so hard on my feet that I could barely breathe and was about to throw up from the pain. I usually have a strong pain tolerance and love deep tissue massages that are extraordinarily painful and I always have to put ice on afterwards. This was 100 times more painful. Everyone else around me as soon as the massage started fell fast asleep… dad even started snoring. I had no idea how they could sleep through this painful experience. Because the massage was 75 minutes long, I had a lot of time to practice yoga breathing the pain away and try to relax. The leg massage was nice and very hard, but I could handle it on my legs. When they finished the massage and we stood up, our feet and legs felt very light, except that I could barely walk. When I put my sneakers back on, the arch of my foot didn’t even fit in the correct place in my shoes. Maybe my arch was so incorrect before that now it’s correct, but now my shoes don’t fit correctly! Hopefully my feet will get back to normal tomorrow. Mom and dad had terrific people and are so relaxed and are planning on returning on Friday evening for another one. I will of course go to, but hopefully I will get someone different this time and have a better experience.