Coiffing, Climbing and Free Beer

It’s AMAZING what you can find on the Internet! Even though I emailed several people and asked for hair salon recommendations, I did not get any responses. I decided to do an Internet search and found an English-speaking hair stylist not far from where we live! I found her in a Taiwanese forum discussion on haircuts, and this forum contained her email, website, phone number, and directions to her salon! Pretty awesome! She was definitely on the pricey side--$1000 NTs (ca. $30 USD)—which is the equivalent of what I pay in the U.S., but by Taiwanese standards, MUCH TOO HIGH. I know if I told people here what I paid, they’d be shocked! I think Taiwanese people are used to paying around $200 NTs ($6 USD) for haircuts! But this hairdresser I found, Diane, had many great reviews in this forum discussion and she has had experience cutting hair in the U.S. I decided it would be better to pay a little more and be happy with the results than to pay less and have to wear hats and scarves for the remainder of my stay here (this actually happened to me when I had a terrible cheap haircut—this is why I’m willing to pay a little more for a good haircutter).

Another wonderful feature about Taipei is how CONVENIENT it is to get around. Seriously--I don’t have a car, I don’t speak Chinese very well, I don’t READ Chinese AT ALL, I have the WORST sense of direction, and SOMEHOW I’ve managed to travel fairly easily all over the city—even to other parts of Taiwan! Diane runs her business from her home, and I found it without much difficulty. BUT I did commit a few errors on the way. One happened while I was wandering aimlessly at an intersection looking for her alley. I totally wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and suddenly I backed into something in the middle of the street that was VERY hard—it even hurt my foot! I was thinking, WHAT is this object doing in the middle of the street, and it turns out I had run into a man in a WHEELCHAIR! He looked at me like I was NUTS, and I was MORTIFIED—I apologized profusely! I mean, WHAT ARE THE CHANCES!!?? In the MIDDLE OF TAIPEI?? This could only happen to ME!! The other mistake was that I kept buzzing Diane’s apartment and did not get a response. Fortunately I had her phone number and called her, and it turns out it was the WRONG apartment! I was REALLY happy no one was home!

Diane is Taiwanese, speaks English fluently, has a Swedish husband, and he speaks fluent Chinese. She’s lived all over the place—the U.S., Sweden, and Thailand. VERY interesting and creative person! We had fun exchanging stories on being an Asian married to a Westerner. Yes, I realize I’m as Americanized as they come, but I DO have an unfortunate Asian masochistic streak in me—we Asians are INCREDIBLY hard on ourselves and extremely self-critical. As a result, this can cause us to be critical of those who are close to us—another Asian characteristic. We both shared laughs about our husbands’ common responses: “You ALWAYS think I do EVERYTHING wrong!” It has INDEED been a while since I’ve spoken to a fellow Asian woman who’s married to a Westerner! Anyway, the money was well-spent—I really liked the haircut! I’d really like to go back before I return to the U.S., but the problem is that she did such a good job, I may not have to!

The trip to the hairdresser was productive because I also found a couple of stores that sell reasonably-priced kids’ clothes. I have been having a VERY HARD time finding stores that sell kids’ clothes! Most of them are WAY over-priced—I wish there was something like an Old Navy here! Luke is in desperate need for long pants—I should have brought more, but I was thinking I could buy some here since I heard clothes were cheap. Well, apparently this doesn’t apply to children’s clothes! Anyway, I was VERY pleased that I found a couple of stores finally! I also made a stop at the Sogo Department Store because there was this MEGA SALE there, and the Sogo Department Store was so close to Diane’s business. There were extra police at the subway station and at the store because of this sale! This was during the day on a Friday, and it was INSANE! Sogo sells designer brands, and it seemed that prices were cut by around 60%. I only went because I had to experience this—I didn’t buy anything! It was like the Friday after Thanksgiving, only a little more NUTS!

We FINALLY made a trip to Yangmingshan! Yangmingshan is the most famous mountain in Taipei and was the summer residence of Chiang Kai-Shek. Actually, I go twice a week to Yangmingshan since Chinese Culture University is located there. But I still haven’t been to the Yangmingshan National Park, which is where I wanted to take the family. The bus drops us off about a kilometer from the park, and you take a hiking trail to the park. SOOOO, we didn’t actually do as much at the park as we wanted because the kids were pretty tired by the time we walked there! Plus, I didn’t want to tire them out so they could walk BACK to the bus station—I didn’t want to have to carry anyone! But the kids were real troopers and loved running about the hiking trails, and they really enjoyed themselves. Yangmingshan is BEAUTIFUL and a PERFECT place to go if you want to relieve stress. It’s serene, very scenic, and it’s like you’re in an alternative universe from Taipei—also great for hiking. I believe that I made ONE good call on this trip—I did NOT bring a stroller to Taipei, and I think this was the right decision. I really had to ponder that one. My feeling was that Taipei is quite crowded and the sidewalks are unpredictably bumpy and narrow—I thought a stroller would prove to be cumbersome. Luke is at a borderline age—Lauren has NO problem with walking, but I did wonder if Luke could handle it. Well, I think I made the right decision. A stroller on Yangmingshan would have been a pain and I found this to be true in many circumstances. I do see parents with strollers, even people with DOG strollers, but I don’t know how they handle it! And Luke has actually exceeded my expectations—he’s turning out to be a great walker!

We ended up going to the Taipei Main Station food court for dinner. I had to mention this because there were already Christmas trees there!! I did NOT expect this at all—I wasn’t even sure they celebrated Christmas here! So I HAD to take a picture of the kids next to a Christmas tree—how often do we get to see THAT in Taiwan?

We made ANOTHER trip to Carrefour—before any of you say, AGAIN, I MUST write about a couple of things I never had the chance to mention. I pointed out the overstimulation, right? Well, I want to elaborate a bit. When you go there on the week-ends, you can get tons of free samples. The people offering free samples are OBNOXIOUS! Many of them have handless microphones and TALK CONSTANTLY about their products, and they’re all talking simultaneously! Also, you can get free samples of alcohol—the HARD stuff! TODAY when we were there, you could sample WHISKY, SCOTCH, and VODKA!! You can get SERIOUSLY INEBRIATED at the Carrefour! I actually took a sample of Carlsberg BEER! Anyway, one of the pictures is of a skinny Taiwanese girl giving out free samples of alcohol at the Carrefour! Also at the Carrefour—SUSHI EXPRESS, which is where we ate! Sets of 2 Nigiri sushi only cost $1 USD—AWESOME deal! The sushi is ready-made and you grab whatever you want off of a conveyor belt. For the four of us, dinner was $13 USD—a STEAL!! I provided a picture of that as well!

Next up….my piano master class FOR SURE, John’s recital…..