Pottery, BBQ, and My Birthday?

         Yingge is a little town near the outskirts of Taipei where they are famous for their pottery. It is a cute town full of personality, but one look at the store above (one of the many like this there) and I can understand why I was told not to bring a toddler.  I can see the image now: pretty purple bowl on eye level with 2 year old Elli; bowls above purple bowl all smashing and toppling to the ground as impulsive Elli runs off with now infamous purple bowl. 

         Back to reality-- thank goodness.  A group of women in my ward were all going there on Sept 21 (my b-day) and invited me along.   One of my friends, Erin, who has a helper everyday, said Elli could stay and play with her son Anders while we went there for the morning.  

Here are some of the things I fell in love with:

Block statues of martial arts/ taichi, and an engraving of chinese characters in the back

 

Little owls-- so adorable

These Chinese dragon puppets- I need to buy some someday soon

 I want to buy a tea set before we leave- these are way more expensive than I would get, 

but they were so awesome that I had to take pics

 My favorite:

 I took this picture because I loved the vase but right after taking the picture I got chased out of the shop by the owner.  Apparently, taking pics of the pottery is a no-no in some shops.  They are worried you will steal their designs and make the same piece yourself.  I think that was a logical fear with me, since my pottery skills are beyond compare.  Pretty sure I can make the vase below in a few hours, no problem, since I have the picture to copy it of course.  ;)

 Sienna was a great  pottery shopper.  She fell asleep too which was really considerate of her.

 Here are some of the women that went along with us and who have befriended me in our expat English speaking church ward.  They are all terrific ladies who I am really enjoying getting to know.

  Here is what I ended up buying: chopstick holders (to rest your chopsticks on during dinner), and chopsticks! The day we went was my birthday, so Brandy and Erin bought me that cool swirly bowl I was eyeing but wasn't sure if I wanted to buy yet.  I can be really indecisive.  They surprised me with it later!  So nice of them.  Next time we go, (now that I know what to expect and prepare for) I want to buy lots more!

That night: we went out to eat with a group of people in our community and from AIT, the "embassy" here.   My friend Sarah had organized it so we could all try this awesome BBQ place about a 15 min. walk from our house!!  I had a really good pulled pork bbq sandwhich in TAIWAN!  Awesome huh!  It was a great dinner and nice to go out on my birthday.

Note:  It would have been even nicer if Todd had decided to even mention to anyone there that it was my birthday.  Or if I didn't have to remind him that morning after we had both been up for a while that it was my birthday.  Or if he had thought, I know we already celebrated Heather's birthday in Virginia before we left, but I am sure Heather might like some flowers because you only turn 30 once- and since flowers are easy to get and fairly inexpensive here.  But he didn't.  I still had gotten to do some great things that day, which made things better, but when we got home and I sat on the couch and Todd said "let's clean up the house before we rest okay" I let him have it, kind of gently (but not really).

FYI to Husbands: Even if you celebrate your wife's birthday early, it doesn't mean that you can act like her actual birthday is just an ordinary day- especially if it is her 30th!

To Todd's credit, before we left VA, Todd and Kenny did throw a birthday bash for me and Nichole. They made it really fun with great BBQ (funny just realized that connection) and games with our good friends which was totally awesome.  We had it in our house that we had already moved our stuff out of, so everyone just brought camping chairs!  It was so fun. 

 Here are those pics since I haven't had a chance to post them yet: 

Birthday Girls

Masterminds

Friends!!!

Looking at these pictures makes me homesick a bit.  I will always be so grateful for such amazing friends in our lives.  I love you guys tons and miss you all a lot!