Day 5 - The tallest building in the world
2:30 AM - We were afraid that someone would wake up in the middle night and not be able to get back to sleep. That almost happened to Alex. He apparently woke up and Anna told him that he could come and see us in our room. So Alex walks in the door and says, "You told me that we could read books if I woke up early." We tried to convince him that meant after it was light outside, but he was adamant to have a book read. We were actually afraid he would wake up the rest of the house. So David got up with him and took him into the living room, where he rocked back to sleep. Praise the Lord we didn't have to stay awake the rest of the morning.
7:00 - 8:00 am: We all wandered out of bed, with Adam sleeping the longest (over 12 hours). Thanks to Jon for his impeccable guidance, we seem to have conquered jet lag in only one day.
The boys spent a quiet morning around the house, playing, watching strange sports on TV, and working on the Internet. Jon did an audio interview with the Christian church in Clarence for their VBS. The girls went on an adventure of their own. Here's Sandy's account:
8:45 am: Amy needed to go to the eye doctor, so she invited Anna and me to tag along. We took a taxi to the clinic. We were in and out of there in about 10 minutes! And the cost for Amy was only about $5 (American), including seeing the doctor and two kinds of medicine! Next we checked out the large daymarket nearby. There was booth after booth of fresh fruits and vegetables and all kinds of meats and other goods. I really enjoyed walking through this and seeing all the cool different things that we don't have in America. We sampled a few things and will buy more later when we are not headed to other places. We didn't want to carry a lot with us to all the places we were going today.
11:00 am (10:00 pm Tuesday in Missouri). Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world, was our destination for the day. Adam had done an Eagles report about this building, so we knew a little about it and were looking forward to experiencing it ourselves. After an MRT and shuttle ride, we were finally there. Here's how it looked from the street.
Lunch was in the bottom level of this building, where there was a huge food court. There must have been three dozen places to eat, including a couple of American choices: KFC & Subway. Everything else was oriental food. Imagine my surprise that our kids wanted to eat at Subway. So we come 10,000 miles and our kids want to eat cold cuts and chips. Anyway, Sandy and I were feeling more adventurous, so I found a place where I pointed at what I wanted. For about $7 (200 NT), I bought soups, rice, some strange meat, and some kind of pickled greens. We even ate with chopsticks. Jon snapped this picture in the middle of a bite:
Unfortunately, we had just missed Bill Clinton's visit to this building by a few days.
Since we couldn't see him, we spent a little time looking around a very impressive toy store (Think of a combination of Toys R Us and a jewelry store and you can get the idea of how the place looked.)
We rode the world's fastest elevator to the 89th floor. It reminded me a lot of the observation deck on the John Hancock building or the Sears tower, if you've ever visited there. It was a bit cloudy, but we could see throughout the city. One cool part of the visit was the elevator, which has an animated display showing you how fast and how high you are going.
It takes less than 40 seconds to ascend 89 floors. Amazing.
This was the day of taxi rides, as we split up and took two taxis back to Jon's apartment. For 30 minutes, he talked to the driver. When it was over, Jon informed me that the driver was asking him to explain the gospel and Jon had given him an overview and the church's business card.
I spent the time listening to the three kids in the back seat with me argue about who was touching and leaning on whom. And reading the Chinese newspaper. At least it had pictures.
Jon and Amy had arranged for Leslie, the nanny for the team, to come and watch the kids so we could go out to dinner together. Lindsay is a student at Ozark Christian College who has taken off a year of college to come and help with the ten children of the team members. A few times a week she babysits for the Ralls's. She was great with the kids, and even survived Alex bumping his knee and bleeding.
We took the taxi down to the area near where Chad and Alicia Edwards live. While Jon and David walked around the park and a library, Amy and Sandy had a side trip. Again, in Sandy's words: We went to a little beauty shop and I got to experience a hair wash. It was mostly a massage of the neck, shoulders, and head and rubbing the shampoo in while sitting up. It felt great. I can't wait to tell my stylist at home about this.
Then after quite some time, they rinsed my hair and dried it. All for about 5 dollars!
Jon and Amy took us to a nice restaurant called "Tomatoes." They had a variety of nice American meals in a very pretty environment. We had several courses of food including salad, soup, appetizer, entree, dessert, and drink. Something on the menu caught my eye, and since my meal came with an appetizer, I got wild and chose it: Goose Liver Mousse. Now, I don't know what you think of when you hear "Goose Liver Mousse". I'm not a big liver fan, but I love chocolate mousse pudding. I thought it was worth a shot. It turned out to be a large slab of something that looked like bologna, but was spreadable like a pate. It didn't taste like much, but it was worth trying it for the story.
We enjoyed a great meal and conversation. One other odd thing about the place: The bathrooms are shared by men and women at the same time. In other words, there are multiple stalls in the same bathroom, one marked as men and the others marked as women. It's not bad until both a man and a woman walk in or out of there at the same time. Sandy, Amy, and Jon used the restroom and had no problems. I chose not to risk it.
After a quick taxi ride home, we got the kids to bed in good time.
The adults spent the rest of the evening playing games and relaxing.
Next time: Day 6 - The halfway point of the trip
7:00 - 8:00 am: We all wandered out of bed, with Adam sleeping the longest (over 12 hours). Thanks to Jon for his impeccable guidance, we seem to have conquered jet lag in only one day.
The boys spent a quiet morning around the house, playing, watching strange sports on TV, and working on the Internet. Jon did an audio interview with the Christian church in Clarence for their VBS. The girls went on an adventure of their own. Here's Sandy's account:
8:45 am: Amy needed to go to the eye doctor, so she invited Anna and me to tag along. We took a taxi to the clinic. We were in and out of there in about 10 minutes! And the cost for Amy was only about $5 (American), including seeing the doctor and two kinds of medicine! Next we checked out the large daymarket nearby. There was booth after booth of fresh fruits and vegetables and all kinds of meats and other goods. I really enjoyed walking through this and seeing all the cool different things that we don't have in America. We sampled a few things and will buy more later when we are not headed to other places. We didn't want to carry a lot with us to all the places we were going today.
11:00 am (10:00 pm Tuesday in Missouri). Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world, was our destination for the day. Adam had done an Eagles report about this building, so we knew a little about it and were looking forward to experiencing it ourselves. After an MRT and shuttle ride, we were finally there. Here's how it looked from the street.
Lunch was in the bottom level of this building, where there was a huge food court. There must have been three dozen places to eat, including a couple of American choices: KFC & Subway. Everything else was oriental food. Imagine my surprise that our kids wanted to eat at Subway. So we come 10,000 miles and our kids want to eat cold cuts and chips. Anyway, Sandy and I were feeling more adventurous, so I found a place where I pointed at what I wanted. For about $7 (200 NT), I bought soups, rice, some strange meat, and some kind of pickled greens. We even ate with chopsticks. Jon snapped this picture in the middle of a bite:
Unfortunately, we had just missed Bill Clinton's visit to this building by a few days.
Since we couldn't see him, we spent a little time looking around a very impressive toy store (Think of a combination of Toys R Us and a jewelry store and you can get the idea of how the place looked.)We rode the world's fastest elevator to the 89th floor. It reminded me a lot of the observation deck on the John Hancock building or the Sears tower, if you've ever visited there. It was a bit cloudy, but we could see throughout the city. One cool part of the visit was the elevator, which has an animated display showing you how fast and how high you are going.
It takes less than 40 seconds to ascend 89 floors. Amazing.
This was the day of taxi rides, as we split up and took two taxis back to Jon's apartment. For 30 minutes, he talked to the driver. When it was over, Jon informed me that the driver was asking him to explain the gospel and Jon had given him an overview and the church's business card.
I spent the time listening to the three kids in the back seat with me argue about who was touching and leaning on whom. And reading the Chinese newspaper. At least it had pictures.
Jon and Amy had arranged for Leslie, the nanny for the team, to come and watch the kids so we could go out to dinner together. Lindsay is a student at Ozark Christian College who has taken off a year of college to come and help with the ten children of the team members. A few times a week she babysits for the Ralls's. She was great with the kids, and even survived Alex bumping his knee and bleeding.
We took the taxi down to the area near where Chad and Alicia Edwards live. While Jon and David walked around the park and a library, Amy and Sandy had a side trip. Again, in Sandy's words: We went to a little beauty shop and I got to experience a hair wash. It was mostly a massage of the neck, shoulders, and head and rubbing the shampoo in while sitting up. It felt great. I can't wait to tell my stylist at home about this.
Then after quite some time, they rinsed my hair and dried it. All for about 5 dollars!
Jon and Amy took us to a nice restaurant called "Tomatoes." They had a variety of nice American meals in a very pretty environment. We had several courses of food including salad, soup, appetizer, entree, dessert, and drink. Something on the menu caught my eye, and since my meal came with an appetizer, I got wild and chose it: Goose Liver Mousse. Now, I don't know what you think of when you hear "Goose Liver Mousse". I'm not a big liver fan, but I love chocolate mousse pudding. I thought it was worth a shot. It turned out to be a large slab of something that looked like bologna, but was spreadable like a pate. It didn't taste like much, but it was worth trying it for the story.
We enjoyed a great meal and conversation. One other odd thing about the place: The bathrooms are shared by men and women at the same time. In other words, there are multiple stalls in the same bathroom, one marked as men and the others marked as women. It's not bad until both a man and a woman walk in or out of there at the same time. Sandy, Amy, and Jon used the restroom and had no problems. I chose not to risk it.
After a quick taxi ride home, we got the kids to bed in good time.
The adults spent the rest of the evening playing games and relaxing.
Next time: Day 6 - The halfway point of the trip
posted by Central Christian College of the Bible at
7:16 AM
