Defining Hope: November 9, 2012

So we had court in the morning time and was so relieved when that was over!

Ted decided we looked thirsty so he took us to a "slushy" shop in town. Now in Taiwan, people pretty much just drive where they want to drive. One way streets don't mean anything. There are no rules ---- actually, the 1 rule is to always look forward and keep moving....and that's pretty much what they do. 80% of the vehicles are scooters or bikes because the streets are so small for cars. Anyway, there wasn't anywhere to park at the slushy stand so Ted literally drove up on the sidewalk right to the stand!!! Matt and I were laughing hysterically! We also saw Ted almost get plowed over by a scooter!!! I laughed for about an hour about that :) The scooter locked up their brakes and everything, squealing tires.......and Ted just kept on walking :)

We came back to the home and ate lunch (noodles....I know. shocker!) Matt and I almost flipped off the picnic table in the back....note to self "never sit on the same side of a table". After Grayson woke up from his nap, we went for a walk around a beautiful lake beside the orphanage. It-was-gorgeous!!!!!!! We saw some weird birds, fish, turtles, and monkeys in the trees!!! You could rent some little carriage bikes or walk the path. They also had powerized carriages that you didn't have to peddle :) After walking the lake, we determined a bike would have been the best idea - as it was bigger than appeared :) But Grayson got to go with us, which was fun :) He loved it!

Matt played basketball with some of the kids here. I think he is going a little crazy without it!! They actually don't have any basketball teams here in their schools, so Taiwan kids get groups together and play in the parks for fun. Their huge in baseball here. So if you are a baseball player you are treated like royalty (really). Another interesting fact is the highschoolers here attend school from 7:20am-5:30pm!!! All kids have to either walk to school or ride a bike. There are no school buses.

I almost learned the hard way that when you hear a small van playing music and its painted yellow does NOT mean that's the ice cream truck.....its the garbage man. It plays music so you can hear it coming and take your trash to dump it in. It came to the orphanage around sunset one night and all the kids were screaming and running to it! I was shocked to find out it was the garbage man!! All the kids help with chores, etc and they all race to throw the trash away!!!!......It's funny how in America our kids would throw a fit if they had to take out the trash, but everyone here is sooo happy about life and what they have!

For dinner Ted wanted to take us to a traditional Chinese dinner........we were hoping for pizza hut (they have one!). But the dinner was actually pretty good! Even mom ate some!!!!!!!!! We had fish, shrimp, green stuff, soup (which looked like chuncks of corn and snot) -- sorry, just giving everyone a visual. There was also sweet/sour pork, and another brown meat with peppers in it. Oh, and of course rice.

Overall, it was pretty good :)

We then went to the market. I have no idea how to describe the market (its too crazy for words). There are a zillion shops lined on the sides of street. The one funny thing was that all the shops were playing "american" music???? in English?? We secretly sang along in our head :) There are also scooters allowed in the market so you can literally drive up to the shop! We almost got ran over a few times along the way! It was crazy, but an experience we won't forget!

We got home and got to play with Grayson and have some family time before bed.

There are some pics of today's adventure on our blog :)

Love you all!

Matt, Lindsay, Grayson, and Mom