Half Term Holiday Day 3 - Babyboss City

I am still getting used to how most Taiwanese spend their free time, which is primarily shopping and eating. It seems almost like a mini-Vegas the way the malls are constructed. Each shopping mall has its own unique flavor with one trying to outdo the other. They each have similar attractions, e.g. an upscale grocery store in the basement, a food court, a movie theater, and a play area for small children. But each one seems larger than life in its own way; whether it's the the world's 2nd largest tower, the world's 2nd largest ferris wheel, or a giant globe in the middle...each one seems unique and alluring.

I’ve often wondered what families do around here besides shopping...especially when it's raining. Isn't there SOMETHING else to do besides shop when it's raining? Even if it’s not raining, I'm noticing that the majority of people I speak with tend to stay away from the outdoors...even with the AMAZINGLY beautiful Yangminshan mountain range behind us! Which brings me back to my original pondering…what do most families do for entertainment BESIDES shopping? Today I got one answer….and of course it was INSIDE a shopping mall.

The shopping mall we went to today was called the ‘Living Mall’. I believe that this shopping mall is geared mostly to kids, as it had a jumpy house and several jumpy-water attractions in the front of the mall. Inside the mall there were floors such as ‘Cinderella Floor’. There was also a HUGE globe in the middle…not certain what it is for, but it looked really cool. On the 7th floor was our destination….BABYBOSS (http://www.babyboss.tw/english/).

I hadn’t heard of this place before Sunday when some friends mentioned it to us. Babyboss City is an entire floor with about 40 stations dedicated to various professions which children can ‘try on’ for about 30 minutes. Each child is outfitted with a costume of sorts, and then led through a series of tasks which each profession requires. Some of the professions represented were: dentist, hospital emergency room, surgery room, hospital nursery, space mission, airplane, hotel, bank, court, broadcasting, news reporting, runway fashion model, fashion designer, pastry baker, beauty parlor, dairy farmer, car rental, fireman, policeman, courier, etc. You can see the appeal?

We were invited to go today with another family, who happens to work with Terry…they have a 4-year old boy and a 7-year old girl. While we all started together as dairy farmers, it became QUITE clear that we all wanted to do different things. So, I took the girls to do ‘girly things’, and Richard took Justin to do ‘boy things’.

I have to remind people reading this that we took the kids on a WEDNESDAY at the end of October…a random week where our kids have no school, but the rest of Taipei DOES. We thought we’d have this place to ourselves! Unbeknownst to us, there are pre-schools out there who take their classes frequently during the day. So, there were about 2-3 schools there along with us. Each station has a fixed number of children which are allowed to participate. Each station also has set times when the 20-30 minute activity will begin. We found out the hard way that just because there is no line 30 minutes before the activity…a 20-25 minute wait was quite normal. In fact, a few were about 30 minutes +!

We felt fortunate that we were able to do most things, although I did have one incident when I had to speak up and force my kids in. When I counted the number of children in line, there were 7…which was fine as my 3 made it an even 10, which was the max allowed. After turning my head for 2 minutes, I looked up and saw that somehow 3 more children snuck in…and I couldn’t tell which ones were the sneaky ones! To top it all off, my girls were already in the back, so at first it looked as if we may have to wait…but after speaking my mind…mostly in Chinglish (my broken Chinese mixed mostly with English), someone bowed out and we were allowed in. While I did feel slightly guilty, I did feel justified in speaking up. Boy, that’s one thing I detest…it’s people taking advantage!!

Thankfully enough, the rest of the day went nicely. In fact, at the end of the day, we had wanted to play ‘airplane’; however, there were too many children. While we were before a few children, given that we had already ‘won’ earlier in the day, we felt happy to give up our spot to someone else…it just seemed right (boy, does THAT sound pious or what!!!).

I do have to say; however….this was a ONCE ONLY kind of place. While it sounds like a lot of fun, it was mostly hurry up and wait for the adults. While the kids were inside their activity, we adults were relegated to simply watching or, as in my case, sleeping and playing on my iphone. It was SUCH a boring day for me, and to top it all off, my girlfriend had to rub it in that the weather was BEAUTIFUL outside (did I mention that we went to Babyboss rather than the hike that I had planned?).

In the end, it was the ‘right’ thing to do as the girls I’m SURE are getting sick of simply spending time with just me, and this was a chance to play with other friends, which is always welcome. The kids truly had a wonderful time, and we had a lovely dinner with our friends afterwards (Terry and Richard’s wife Grace were able to join us as well). I am now REALLY looking forward to our hike, which we’ve rescheduled to Sunday.

BTW...have to share my fun moment of the day. We were waiting in line (which you do a LOT of at Babyboss, btw) and Elaine wanted something. In Chinese I told her 'Dei-sha', which means 'wait'. Elaine looked at me plainly and said 'But MOM, I AM Dei-sha-ing!!' I laughed so hard I thought I'd pee my pants. I absolutely loved her 'Chinglish'. I am also glad that she is SLOWLY getting more comfortable with the language. While Brianna has a harder time with the outside things (such as missing her friends and the fall season), Elaine has a MUCH more difficult time attempting to speak Mandarin. Brianna is FEARLESS in her attempts at the language, but Elaine is more withdrawn about it. All things must come in time, so we're simply being supportive and patient (and practicing in the comfort of our home).