Anyways we went to eat lunch on Saturday at a great dumpling restaurant and we hung out at the restaurant for a while and just chatted since the heat outside was too hot to enjoy.
After walking around for a bit we headed back to Taipei City! E's friend had a car so it was great to get to just relax and enjoy the cool and comfortable a/c of the car. We then went to Eslite bookstore next to Taipei 101 and just hung out there for a while; browsed the music and books which I always love to do!
After the bookstore, I headed home and had dinner at the Seven Eleven, I know so classy right? Well the truth is that it's air conditioned, has a large variety of choices to choose from in terms of dinner options, and its very inexpensive. The best part is that they heat everything up for you there! It truly is a great convenient store here. It's funny because in the US, Seven Eleven's are kind of sketchy convenient stores, but here they are very friendly and always open 24/7! After dinner, I went home, watched a movie and did my laundry since it had been a while and I need to allow time for the clothes to hang and dry. I went to bed early on Saturday night due to the heat and being exhausted from my day!
Sunday morning, I woke up and went to church as I always do. It was a nice service and always makes me feel connected to home. Even though I got so much sleep the night before, I got very tired part way through the service and was feeling like I needed a nap, but that was not an option. After church, I met up with a student of M's who is heading to Berkley for a summer English program. We went to a cafe for brunch and I had waffles! They were actually quite tasty and exactly what I needed, although I missed the Vermont maple syrup on top of them. I substituted the syrup for chocolate instead which was just as yummy. After brunch he dropped me off at a children's home which I had arranged to visit. The children's home was not what I had expected it to be at all. I was expecting more of an orphanage setting, but it was set up more like a very small group home. The couple who ran the home were very sweet and welcoming to me. They currently had 16 kids between the ages of 9 and 17 years old. It sounded to me like these kids were given to them by the government to take care of until the children could eventually support themselves. The couple told me that although they would appreciate volunteers, the month of July is very busy for them and the children, because all of the kids have a summer break, and so they have activities planned for them for the rest of the month.
After the one children's home, I also wanted to visit the St. Anne's Home, which I thought was a home for mentally retarded children. I was grateful that the woman from the first place I visited took me to the St.Anne's home. Boy, was I in for a shocker; I did not expect that when they said the children were mentally retarded that they meant the children( actually adults) were chair bound, could not talk at all, and could not feed themselves. When I entered the home, it was all so overwhelming for me. I was emotionally overwhelmed just seeing about 10 adults that were all bound to chairs in this one large room and just seeing their quality of life. I was so overwhelmed to the extent that I almost started to cry. I realize I often take for granted all of the talents and abilities that I do have. However, I also realized that volunteering at that home would take too much out of me, both physically and emotionally. I really do enjoy volunteering my time and talents to people I can help, but I just think that this is not the type of volunteer work that I can do while I'm in Taiwan. As I write this blog post though I'm about to cry out of sadness for the adults that were in the home. I can't imagine ever having a life like they do... not being able to do anything but sit in a wheel chair all day. So to sum up my day it was kind of an emotional fourth of July for me! I enjoyed the opportunity to visit the home's that I did get to visit, however they were certainly not what I expected. I ended up staying at the St. Anne's home for about 20 minutes and then decided to leave. T, picked me up, which was another adventure in itself with communication. I was trying to tell him where I was, but he thought I said a different location. We ended up finding each other eventually and he took me to an MRT close to my home.
To sum everything up, I ended my fourth of July day in a very American way. I went to the Seven Eleven, I bought myself a hot dog, had some chips, and a cool ice slushy with it. How much more American can I get? hehehe( I know I have to admit I will always be an American at the core I guess) the funny thing is that I have loathed eating hot dogs for about the past 6 years of my life, because I ate way too many of them when I was a child. Now that I'm in Taiwan, I actually enjoyed having a hot dog to celebrate the fourth of July.
Hope everyone had a joy filled fourth!
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