In The Shoes of Mila Librodo

Mosquitos. Little flying bugs that are more annoying than siblings. Don't get me wrong I love Dai, he's my brother.  There are so many mosquitos in Taiwan. They like to go for the ankles, so wear long socks.  My dad finally won the mosquito war. We kept getting bitten by mosquitos not knowing where they were coming from. He got us all mosquito nets to put up around our beds. When I FacedTimed my grandma she said it made my bed look like a princess bed. I like my prinsess\mosquito protected bed with superhero sheets.  I also have a mosquito zapper thingy in my room. It is a UV light that attracts mosquitos and then fries them. I keep it on when I'm not in my room because my mom says the UV light is not good for me.  Every day before we go out I put on wine-smelling bug spray. I don't know why it smells like wine, it just does. I only put it on my feet because they go for the ankles. This one week I had so many bug bites on the bottoms of my legs that there were tiny r...

This blog post topic was an idea from my mom. She has the best ideas even if I don't know it  Taiwan has some awesome stuff but also has its fair share of wonky, slightly odd things. Well, it's not normal to me anyway. Only in Taiwan do you see so many motorcycles or scooters. There was this one Monday, so everyone was going to work. The whole street was filled with scooters, with no cars whatsoever. Never in my life had I seen so many of the same vehicles.  Only in Taiwan do you see a dog riding a scooter. I have seen dogs just standing inside a scooter, not moving at all. It seems kinda scary to me. Also, only in Taiwan do you see so many dogs not walking. Most of the dogs I've seen have been in strollers or bags. I don't know why, it's a mystery I have yet to solve.  Only in Taiwan can you get such amazing food so easily. Sometimes after getting off the MRT we walk 2 minutes to the night market and get yummy food then walk back to the house. There is food everyw...

 Me and Dai use Chinglish a lot, Chinese and English mixed together. For example when we order food. Ordering food gets easier over time, that's how I felt. When I order food I point, give money, and ask if it's spicy. Sometimes I say something in Chinese and the things I don't know in English. The English part other people usually don't understand. When that happens we play charades with the vendor.  If Dai or I can't do it, ole mighty Google Translate comes out. I love ordering food at the night markets, I'm not really sure why.  You know how else uses Chinglish? My dad. I've been teaching him phrases that are useful. Like, "I don't speak Chinese", "can I have this", and "I'm American". The last one he doesn't say to anyone though. My Dad is getting pretty good at it though. Most people understand him when he says "I don't speak Chinese". When we're walking he likes to practice with me and Dai. My...

 Taiwan is full of cool places to see. We have been to night markets and climbed a mountain. Also, went to other cool markets.  We have tried food from the Shipai Night Market and the Linjiang Night Market. The Linjiang Night Market is much bigger and busier than the Shipai Night Market. I got some yummy noodles that were served cold. I bought this lemon honey drink that was a bit too sour. When I ordered I didn't know it was lemon honey because I couldn't read it, I just blind ordered. The Linjiang Night Market also has some clothing shops and arcades.  One of the prettiest views in Taiwan is from XiangShan. After you climb the many flights of stairs and drive the narrow road to get to the top of XiangShan, there is one of the best sights in Taiwan. When we went it was around 6:00pm so it wasn't so hot and wasn't too dark. It was dark enough so that all the city lights were turned on. You can see Taipei 101 and the whole city. We took some cool photos. There are also s...

I have accidentally punched Dai in the nose, pinched him, played chess with him even though I don't really know-how, and dragged him across the floor so I could get a bouncy ball. Dai has slapped me in the face when making up a handshake,  likes to say what I say, and steals bouncy balls from me.  We aren't mad at each other for doing those things, we remember them though.  Those things are just what Dai and I do, as siblings.  When there is only one other kid around you, which happens to be your little brother, it's your job to have fun. Even if you have to drag them on the floor to do it.  Sometimes Dai can get annoying but thats what he dose as my little brother. I am probably sometimes annoying to him too.  

The food here is amazing. In our neighborhood is the Shipai Night Market, shaved ice, and a lot of things we still need to try. We also found a super cool waffle place. There is still so much more food! The Shipai Night Market  has little booths with different kinds of food, we have yet to try all of it. The food is pretty cheap, but is still super yummy. There is this really good dumpling booth that makes the best dumplings, and sauce. My mom loves them, we have gone there almost every night.  The booth owner are very nice, they like to ask you questions, and encourage you to try their food.  There is this really good shaved ice place near the Shipai Night Market. There is always a line so it’s not that hard to find it. The toppings are endless, they have boba, jellies, fresh fruit, and yummy sauces. I know it doesn't look like shaved ice in the picture, but it is. There is this really good waffle place called Coffee Alley.  I got a waffle with black sesame ice crea...

  I think 7-11 is our new favorite place, we go there almost every day. It’s very helpful you know. You can print things, get lunch, and get SmartCards there. 7-11 might not be Dai’s new favorite place though, he found a small shop that makes the best Green Onion Pancakes. They are so yummy. It’s his new Mod Pizza or Subway (his other favorite places).        The Green Onion Pancake place is super close to our new apartment. The day before we went to go see it, it’s very clean… also the floors are very hard, it hurts my feet. We had to move all of our things from Carol’s house to our new place. Let me remind you, 9 big suitcases, 4 small suitcases, and a bunch of little bags all piled up in front of the security guard's desk, next to the main door. People kept walking in and out eyeing the luggage. I just waved at them like 16 bags were a normal thing to have in the lobby. It took 2 mini, Minivans to get all the stuff to the house. The Uber driver looked confuse...

  The day quarantine is finally over you're gonna wake up super early and bug your parents to wake up. take you out. Once you're out though, you are gonna want to go right back in because it's so hot and you have been indoors for the last three days where there is AC. Well, that's how it was for me and Dai anyway.   The first thing we did was go to Seven-Eleven to go find SmartCards. SmartCards are the passes that are used for the MRT and the buses. It's super easy to add money, just go to 7-11 or the MRT station. We spent a whole hour trying to find SmartCards, it turns out every convenience store has them. Now when riding the bus or MRT just a quick tap will allow you to get on.  The next place we went to was the Apple store in Taipei 101, we needed to get Apple watches. I think I did a good job translating, if we really needed to we asked for someone who speaks English. After the Apple store, we went to a food court that had awesome food.  Finally, we walked a bi...

 Day one of quarantine  I like to watch people, people watching I guess you can call it. The apartment we’re staying in has a balcony, you can see a park, a big one, a Seven Eleven, the subway is near, and tons of apartment buildings surround us. In the morning, like 6:30 people like to take walks around the park. At night, everyone comes out, because it’s cooler now when the sun goes down. I like to just sit out on the balcony and stay there for a while, the only other thing I would do is sit on the couch binge-watching Stranger Things. Sounds boring right, it is. That’s kinda how it is, quarantining and ordering food from Uber Eats or Food Panda, oh and asking Carol millions of questions. Ordering food is surprisingly stressful, you gotta know what to say, how to understand them, and how to make them understand you. Stressful and hard. I don’t know how many times we called the security guard, but it was a lot, we had to keep telling him that we ordered food and ...

Now if you want to do this, go to Taiwan, I gotta warn you it's hot. Humid and hot. Well, it wouldn't matter that much if you come from the East coast, but if you come from where I live, Lake Tahoe, it feels really hot. You feel the heat right as you get off the plane, also when you get off the plane all the craziness starts. First, we had to find out where in the heck we were going, we just followed everyone else who got off the plane. Second, see a long line, probably going to wait in it. We had to for SIM cards, COVID tests, and for stuff, I don't know what is. Then we had to go through customs, get all 16 or so bags, and get 3 taxis. Sounds hard? It was, also add to the fact that only me and Dai knew how to speak Chinese. A 10 and 12-year-old navigated a foreign airport. Me made it though. We got to our apartment, turned on the air conditioning, and slept for all three days we were quarantined .  To: Taipei, 2:35pm, United, G8, On Time   A 12 hour, mostly sleeping, ...

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