Thursday

Today was a fun day in Taiwan. Fion took us to the Guandu Temple outside of Taipei. It is up on a hill and overlooks the city. The view from the top was beautiful. Everything inside was very ornate. We skipped the Guandu Nature Park because of the heat. I would compare the heat of Taipei to Las Vegas with the humidity of Florida :>) We decided to go to the National Palace Museum and enjoy the air conditioning. The exhibits were amazing and Emma loved looking everything. We had a snack in the restaurant...Mike asked Fion if it was considered a meal because in the USA we would call it an appetizer. She laughed as she has gotten to know Mike's appetite. In order to compensate we stopped on the way back to the hotel and bought Taiwanese Dumplings. It was at a small restaurant that Fion said was famous for their dumplings. They were wonderful--I wish I could take them home. They cost less than $1 for 3. They were very large, I could only eat 2.

The people here are incredibly nice and gracious. The staff at our hotel cannot do enough for us. They call us by name when we walk through the lobby and great us with warm smiles. I told Mike that I feel like Norm from Cheer's. At breakfast a lady who works here came up to see Emma. She is expecting a baby later this month and said she just had to see her because everyone is talking about how cute she is! Even when we have been out walking or sight-seeing we have been treated with such kindness. Yesterday we went to a tea stand to buy bubble tea and a man waiting for his tea asked if we would teach Emma Mandarin. He was speaking in Mandarin, so Fion answered him with "probably not, why would they?" I asked her what he said and she told me. I explained that we did plan to teach Emma Mandarin as well as our other two children. She then explained this to the man who was very pleased.

We get to go home tomorrow-yea :) I am a little home sick and cannot wait to see Megan and Spencer. We will miss Taiwan and will be happy to bring our family back for a visit.