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2003 > Day Two |
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Taiwan - Chinese New Year 2003
Getting My Priorities Straight
Thursday, January 16, 2003
Our first day in
Taipei was Thursday having lost Wednesday to the International
Dateline.
Not surprisingly, Michelle's grandparents wanted to spend time
with her; however, she was still not "recovered" from the ordeal of the flight
and was being pretty capricious in her mood swings. Chu-Wan and I left the baby
with Grandma and Grandpa and headed out for a walk in the park - a break from
the baby that we both (especially Chu-Wan) desperately needed.
We
grabbed breakfast from street vendors. I ate at a place that is "famous" for
its Cong You Bing (I need to check the spelling on that) - a deep fried
bread made with a green onion batter. It was quite good, and along with tea
from 7-11 and a couple garlic bread rolls from a nearby bakery and we were
ready to roll.
We knew it was just a matter of time, but so far, jet lag
and exhaustion hadn't set in yet.
Just after leaving Taiwan the last
time, I learned that there were several Costcos in Taiwan, and that they,
according to reports, were the best place to pick up American items not readily
available in Taiwan. Mysteries of the orient aside, our vacations would be a
lot more economical if I had homelike snacks around the house, and I was
determined that we'd go to Costco as soon as possible.
Sure enough, Chu-Wan had arranged for us to go to Costco on our first day.
My brother-in-law, Johnny, is currently serving his national service duty in the Army, but his girlfriend Tiffany joined us for the trip to Costco.
You
might think that spending time going to American businesses as loosing the
flavor of being in Taiwan, and perhaps that's true. On the other hand, I find
it fascinating to see the differences that are adopted by American businesses
as they adapt to the Taiwanese market. Nowhere else can you see the areas where
the two worlds differ so clearly as when you have a "control" to compare
with.
That said, Costco Taiwan is about as identical as back home as I
can imagine. There were physical differences to the building and layout,
reflecting the constrained space. The Taipei Costco is 3 or 4 stories. Two
stories used for shopping and the rest, presumably, for their warehouse.
Parking is in an underground structure below the building. Because it is on 2
floors, they use an ingenious moving walkway to get from floor to floor with
the shopping carts. Each cart is equipped with some form of magnetic wheel
which locks the cart in place, preventing it from slipping as you go up and
down the moving walkways.
Unfortunately, being the first day, we didn't
have a lot of cash and were not able to stock up, but I did managed to get some
caesar salad dressing and (miracle of miracles) flour tortillas and cheese to
make cheese crisps.... ah, snacks from heaven!
Costco also has a food
court with a virtually identical menu. Pepperoni pizza was conspicuously absent
from their available options, replaced with Corn and Green Pea Pizza. Luckily,
they had hot dogs and, amazingly enough, they were far superior to what I
normally get back in the states. Apparently they import Sinai Kosher Hot Dogs
as opposed to the awful Hebrew National Hot Dogs they serve in Arizona. It was
almost as good as a Vienna Beef Hot Dog.
Life was good... at least for a
while, until Michelle began another uncontrollable fit on the way back
home.
I thought that I had finally inured myself to Taipei traffic, but apparently not. The ride to, and especially back from the Costco was so harrowing that I'd wished I'd bought extra underwear instead of the salad dressing. Michelle's screaming didn't make things any more safe, as Chu-Wan's father rushed home so we could tend to her.
Jet lag caught up with us
all and our day ended in the early afternoon. Even Michelle slept most of the
night, only requiring a few "parental interventions" to get her back to
sleep.
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