A great day

Yesterday, Monday in Taiwan we left the hotel about 8:45 with our guide Fion to go to AIT for Paige's Passport. We parked in the parking lot that was the location of the Jade Market the day before. We didn't realize that they turned the public parking under the bridge into the area for that Market. We then walked to AIT. You cant take any electonics in so we couldn't take pictures. But I will say this, it is exactly like any other immigration office. When we arrived we were let right in by the guards. We went to what seemed like the 3rrd floor, gave Fion our passports, and douments tht were given to us by TWCA when we picked up Paige and Fion told us to sit in a waiting area until our names were called. There was a woman I recognized by her blog who was adopting a 5 year old boy. She was with Gladney agency, very nice and of course we exchanged blog info. Then there was another couple from anothe agency that were adopting a four month old baby boy. When we went to the first window, they asked us to sign a few documents, and they gave us the translated immunization record, a receipt, and a copy of one of the documents. We then had to sit again and when we were called to the second window, it was an AMerican guy and he asked us how we were doing with her, and why we decided to adopt from Taiwan. That was that.... We didnt have to hand in any of the extra paper work we went crazy gathering.

Afte AIT we went to The Handicraft market. It was 4 floors and there was some nice stuff but I thought that overall the shopping here felt very touristy.
We then went to the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial Hall . He was a President that did a lot for Taiwan. The Main exhibition hall had a very large statue of him sitting (like our Lincoln memorial) guarded by two gurards, then there was a whole history of in pictures and a museum of beautiful objects as well. The building itself was stunning.
We then went to the Martyrs Shrine., Beautiful. It is a memorial that is built to honor the war dead of Taiwan. It was a very peaceful, beautiful place with lush greenery surrounding it. They had two sets of guards, one at the main entrance, one at the back by the "church" part. The guards stand there for one hour and don't move at all. The sweat was dripping off these poor guys in their heavy uniforms. At the top of the hour the guards change and they do a little ceremony. Coleton loved this.
From there we went to the Shilin Night Market... it was around 4 in the afternoon.. we started to walk around and it poured. This place was not what I pictured. It was just thin streets filled with open stores on each side. Most merchandise was cheap and not really anything worth buying.

By this time we, were very hot, very wet, and ready to come back to the hotel. Paige did great all day, and didnt complain once.

Then last night we went to a dumpling place here that everyone told us not to miss. OH MY GOD.. delicous!! We had 2 different types of dumplings and something called buns filled with Taro?? tasted like sweet beans. Really good, and then some rice with shrimp.. and yes I ate it all with chopsticks. After we left the restaurant we we started to walk back, and John likes to do this in foreign countries, gets us into some back streets, walking around. It actually felt very safe and there were many people walking about. Interesting though, that there seemed to be places to buy food on every block. I finally said enough and we hailed a cab, which are very abundant in Taiwan. All in all, the people here are very nice although I find it harder to commnicate than I though it would be.

Paige is great. She smiles at everyone that talks to her. She loves to eat the puffs I brought from home, rice cookies and I gave her some banana yesterdy morning as well. Last night she slept from 9:30- 5:00. Who can complain? And as I am typing this she is asleep in John's arms (7:00 am). Most of the clothes I brought are way too big for her, and they are 6-9 months. The pants fall off her little body. The 3-6 month are actually fitting her the best. We are not used to peanut size. She loves her little brother so much, and he plays with her constantly. We are so impressedby the way Coleton has handled this trip, taken in the culture and fallen in love with his little sister.