Ceramic city

We took it a little more easy today. We were templed out, and it was hot (shouldn’t be a surprise at this point, but every time we go out of the air-conditioning it still somehow seems shocking that it can be so humid) and Roni had to go off to meet with representatives of one of his company’s vendors.

J and I spent some time sitting outside (couldn’t convince him to watch through a window) watching the excavating machines working on the new subway line that is going down SongJiang Road, directly in front of our hotel. I sat on the step knitting while he stood stationary, mesmerized by the noise and the dust and the giant digging claw. We’d have been there for hours if I hadn’t demanded to go in after 30-45 minutes of breathing in the exhaust fumes.

Tina at the front desk had tried to find a yarn store for me and drew us a map for a place a few blocks away, so Mom and I and J set off to find it. One block later, J was on strike. Reminding him of the 45 minutes I sat by the machinery did not help – he was just too hot. He hollered the whole way there and the whole way back, and umbrellas and hats and shady covered walkways were met with nothing but despair. Grandma became the target of his rage, despite being entirely innocent and not even interested in finding yarn. When we finally made it the three blocks (and to be fair, they were very long blocks) the tiny shop had beads and ribbons and cloth, but no yarn. I’m sure underneath that hot, sweaty face, J felt vindicated in his objections.

But he was quite cheerful the rest of the day. We decided to do our last real shopping (fooling ourselves here) before we get D and have more significant priorities! So we loaded into a taxi and headed to Yingge, the ceramic town on the outskirts of Taipei. Except that Roni showed the driver the wrong line in the tour book and instead of ending up at the ceramic museum in Yingge, we were deposited at the historical museum of Sansia, the next town over. A museum of which the guide book says, “It’s only worth a visit if you can read Chinese.” That is not us. But there was a temporary exhibition of dyeing cloth with indigo which gave me some ideas for my yarn dyeing, and little miniature recreations of the town when it was apparently a dyeing hub (or some place that sent this exhibit was – not being those Chinese readers) so it was a pleasant five minutes. Then off to find another cab and to the correct museum.

Which we were only visiting for the gift shop and the café. J We’d been there before, and it is an excellent museum well worth the visit if you have any interest in ceramics at all – which I do, heavily – but our time was limited, so we got more of the bowls that Mom got last time, ate a wonderful lunch with mango smoothies and herbal iced tea accompaniments, and strolled to our second destination, the “old street” which is now new, cobblestoned, and wall to wall pottery shops. My idea of shopping heaven. I did restrain myself. Really. It almost all fit in my backpack when we left, and some of it was presents. J But I pretty much held, turned over, and mulled about every crackle glazed bowl and clay teapot in the town. J concentrated on the water filled bird whistles and a little toy mechanized fan (that we all not-so-secretly coveted), Roni endured the endless parade of clay with patient grace, and Mom joined me in the pottery lust.

My new little dragon statue is very cute.

So are the bowls.

All of them.

Roni had to be back in time to meet the vendors for dinner, so we bundled into a cab (you can get to Yingge cheaply and easily by train in about 20 minutes as we did during our last Taiwan trip, but we weren’t sure of the time tables and Roni had a deadline). We’d forgotten to take the stroller, which appalled us all when

we started out (even J said we should have it in case he was tired) but J did really well – the morning horrors were the meaningless past to him. He and I set out from the hotel to buy fruit and bakery goods from the little shops behind the hotel, with a few more minutes watching the road crew and their machines, and then we settled in Mom’s room for the evening, the adults watching CNN and J with his Clifford DVD. We made it an early night because we knew we’d be up by 4:00 anyway as that seems to be the sleeping in limit, and also because we wanted to be rested because TOMORROW IS THE DAY!!