Ashley, The Hiker

WOW – It’s been a LONG weekend (starting from Friday morning), but a good one!

Friday morning, Ashley and I went on a trip to the city of HsinChu here in Taiwan, with her whole school. We rode on a bus there for about 2 hours – no not a school bus, a double decker tour bus. The bottom is for storing luggage and the top is for seats. It was very nice, comfortable seats that even laid back a little with cup holders, trash holder and TV screens. We went to a Hakka Farm. The farm itself was not very impressive – dirty, with not many animals. Just a few pigs, ducks, chickens and some kind of cow/ox that carried a cart around for the kids to ride in. It was really hot when we got there and the whole place was crowded and very disorganized. We ate lunch there – Chinese box lunch with fish and rice and veggies. It was pretty good. Ashley enjoyed herself, although I think she was disappointed that I didn’t let you play in the dirt much. There were a few moms that were really upset with the field trip and complained a lot about it. It wasn’t what we had expected, but I had also been told to keep my expectations low, so I didn’t really know what to expect. They had some planned activities, which may have been fun, if it weren’t so caotic and disorgazined – but that’s Taiwan for you. Ashley got to help make rice noodles, Hakka tea and ride on the ox cart. A cold front blew in while we were there, so it got pretty chilly – and we were ready to get on the bus when it was time. The ride back was very nice since they played “Lilo & Stitch” on the DVD player. We were both tired and I managed a little snooze, although Ashley kept poking me and saying “wake up mommy, wake up”.

We got back home around 5:00 and Anthony had just arrived with the turkey. While we were on the field trip, he had taken Liz to a work meeting at the Hyatt in the morning, then met Angie at his work so she could take Liz. Liz stayed with Angie and went to Gymboree (which she LOVED) and then her house for a nap. Angie dropped Liz off at Anthony’s work around 3 and he headed to Jason’s to pick up our prepared turkey. I cooked some mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, carrots and gravy and we had a few people over to celebrate Thanksgiving. Molson (a friend of Anthony’s who works at AMD Austin and who was here working), Lili (our Taiwanese friend), Angie and Joseph. It was a lot of fun having people over to eat dinner with us – we miss that! We even had pumpkin pie – which the store had put Christmas decorations on – for Thanksgiving! Hahaha!

Saturday was another busy day. We took the girls to the Jade Market in the morning to find some Christmas gifts for family back home. We also walked through the flower market – saw lots of poinsettas – another market in the area. The girls got lots of attention and we met some US Futsal Team Members who are here in Taiwan playing in the International Games – Futsal is indoor Soccer – they are doing really well in the playoffs and hope to make it to the finals. For lunch, we decided to eat at a traditional Chinese restaurant. They had a semi English menu – meaning it said whether it was a chicken, fish or pork meal – but that’s about it. I ordered the fish, Anthony had chicken dish (ended up being chicken soup) and the girls had pork ramen. It was all pretty good. I got my fish plate – and it was a WHOLE fish – fried up. Meaning, they took a fish, straight from cleaning it out of the river and fried it – so head, fins, everything. Anthony didn’t think I’d eat it, but I was hungry and for some reason, that doesn’t bother me as much as a chicken head. It was good and I hope to become adept at eating fish and removing the bone – as is customary here in Taiwan. Angie laughed when I told her the story of our lunch and said she’d forgotten that it’s not normal in other countries to cook fish whole.

Saturday night, I went out for mom’s night out with 5 other moms from the Parentpages playgroup. We had a lot of fun. We started out bowling – and it was packed. We saw quite a few other foreigners there too. We played two games and although my first game was awful, I bowled a 140 on the second game – although Angie still beat me by getting 148 – and she’s 7 months pregnant! We then headed over the Kama, which is a lounge bar owned by Angie’s husband, Jason. It is a really nice place, with couches and tables where you can just sit back, relax, talk and have some drinks. Jason treated us to some great food too. We sat for quite a long time, all sharing stories of life here with the kids. I didn’t get home until around 1:00 am.

Today, we decided to try out hiking. We’ve heard that there are some great hiking trails around here, due to the very mountainous region that this is. One nearby place is called “Elephant Mountain”. I bought a used backpack carrier this weekend and we figured we should try it out. We left the apartment, thinking we’d take a taxi to the entrance, but no taxi seemed to be able to understand the words elephant mountain hiking (in Chinese) – so we asked the guard at our apartment, who then asked a few other people and found a guy who walked with us towards the mountain. He then pointed down a street and said some stuff in Chinese, so off we headed. We passed a park and let the girls wander around a bit. Then headed up some stairs and up this alley/street and after walking uphill at a very steep angle, finally found a trail. It was steep – many, many stairs, straight up, it seemed, so we headed up. It was a very interesting trail – along the way up, there would be little sitting areas, with roof covers and courts for playing badminton (BIG sport here). There was even an area with slides (for kids) on the mountain! It seemed a bit dangerous to me, so we didn’t let Ashley go on them. We stopped quite a few times on the way up to rest. We had ended up taking a middle trail up to the top, not one of the main trails, which are nicely paved, instead of unevenly paved stairs. At the top, we had a gorgeous view of Taipei City and some of the surrounding areas. It really was beautiful. The trails were really nice up there, little bridges, steep stairs, signs in Chinese writing, little sitting areas to picnic and even a little workout area complete with chin-up bars. We are both very proud of Ashley, since she walked up the entire way. From what we can tell, the top of Elephant Mountain is only 180 meters, very small for a “mountain”, but it was good for us first time hikers, with 2 kiddos. We really enjoyed the hike and hope to continue to take the girls out for some more hiking.

The rest of Sunday was spent recovering from the long weekend. We did go over to Taipei 101 for a little shopping and noticed they are starting to decorate for Christmas. They have a big reindeer and gold Christmas tree outside and lots of lights inside. It’s nice to see all the decorations.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

This will be short…HAPPY THANKSGIVING to everyone back home. We miss you all and wish we were there to celebrate with family and eat lots of turkey. Tomorrow will be a big day for us – I am going on a class field trip with Ashley to a farm somewhere in Taiwan and Anthony is taking Elizabeth to a business meeting in the morning, then she’s off to Angie’s house for part of the day while Anthony goes into work. Once we’re all back home, we will celebrate Thanksgiving by dining on a cooked turkey (from Jason’s Marketplace) with a few friends. It should be a FUN but busy day. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend!

I hate Colds!

Liz threw up after her nap yesterday – I don’t think I’ll be eating Chinese noodles for at least a week. I wasn’t feeling well and Liz had trouble napping, she kept waking up screaming. By the time I finally got her down to sleep, it was almost 3 and Ashley needed to be picked up by 4. I called Anthony and he was able to leave work early and pick her up. I then settled down for a rest myself. Liz woke up right as Anthony and Ashley walked in the door and Anthony went in to get her and that’s when she’d thrown up – ICK. I cleaned up her bed and gave her some water to drink. She was fine after that. She was in a good mood and so was Ashley. I think Ashley enjoyed her daddy picking her up and talking to her on the walk home. Anthony was meeting a colleague who is visiting from the Austin AMD office (Molson) for dinner and so we all decided to go. The girls were great during dinner, we ate at Ruby Tuesdays. Liz kept it all down, although I didn’t feed her too much. I took Liz back right after dinner while Anthony and Ashley walked over to Jason’s Market to order our Thanksgiving turkey. Yes, we are going to celebrate Thanksgiving, but since we only have a little toaster oven there is no way we can cook a turkey, so I ordered one. Liz went to sleep right away and I laid down to rest since I was starting to really feel like I had a head cold. When Anthony got back, he got Ashley to bed and then started playing his game, Halo 2. It’s now become Anthony’s “job” to put Ashley to bed, since she’s become such a handful. She really seems to hate going to sleep now, no matter how tired she is. I am going to get a CD player for her room and see if some soothing music will help.

Today was a good day for me although I didn’t feel well most of the day. Thankfully, Liz took two naps today, from 10am to noon and then 2:30 to 3:45, which means I got to take two naps too! It was so nice to be able to rest a little and hopefully kick this cold! Ashley did well going to school – they got a hamster in her class (although she calls it a mice). I don’t think they know how to translate the Chinese name to an American name, so the teachers were calling it a mice. It’s made going to school a little easier since I ask her to show me the hamster every morning. She also took a book that she has 2 of (thank you Carolyn for the 2nd Princess book, it came in handy!) to school to share with her classmates and since it’s her favorite, the Disney Princess, she was happy to have it at school with her. I missed my first PTA meeting though – it was today at 3, but I was sleeping and so was Liz and I didn’t want to get anyone sick. I really wanted to go since they were talking about Christmas decorations and I was hoping to help out. Guess I’ll have to contact one of the mothers on the PTA board and find out what I missed. I made beef stew/soup for dinner again, although this time I added more veggies than just carrots. It was VERY good – I think it’s one of my favorite things to make, because it’s so easy and good for you. I went to Carrefour after dinner to get some things we needed around the house while Anthony got Ashley to bed. He said it wasn’t easy again – a lot of crying and screaming, but she was asleep when I got back. Molson is over here to play some Halo 2 with Anthony, so I’m off to get some sleep. I’m sure they’ll be up for a while – but I’m glad he has someone to play with – I don’t think he socializes enough with people here, so I’m always happy when someone from home comes to visit and he gets to have some fun.

Tonight, on my way home from Carrefour – I told the cabby our address, he seemed confused, so I then said 200 in English (when telling cabbies address, I say the street name first, then 200 lane, which tells them which lane or alley off of the main street) and he says oh, yes, Er Bai. I had said Liang Bai. Which is 200. Apparently, there are 2 different ways of saying 200 – Er Bai and Liang Bia – and each cabbie is different, some prefer Er and some prefer Liang. It can get rather frustrating, since they will all say theirs is the right way to say it and we are saying it wrong. Same thing happened with the Hyatt – there were 2 names for it and some cabbies used one, some used another. I guess it keeps things interesting…

Screaming Fits

Another cool thing about our apartment – instead of door stoppers on every door/wall like we have back home, there are little metal plates and magnetic “domes” behind every door. So not only do I not have to worry about Liz playing with and subsequently losing or eating the little white caps, but the doors STAY open! I assume they do that more for earthquakes than for the actual point of keeping a door open – since during an earthquake, doors tend to swing easily. It also can be really windy when the windows are open, so those really help keep from slamming shut all the time. Sometimes even the littlest things are so neat.

We have two air purifiers and one dehumidifier in the house. I am amazed at how much water our dehumidifier collects in a 24 hour period. Granted, we keep it in the bathroom, but it’s a lot of water. I am looking forward to having it back home in our bathroom, which is a breeding ground for mildew and is always damp. The air purifiers are nice – sometimes I think they aren’t doing much, but then I realize what a difference in dust between the rooms that we use them in and the rooms that we don’t. They really do make a difference.

Yesterday I had a horrible afternoon with Ashley. Let me just start out by saying I love my child with all my heart and soul. There are just times when I do not understand her in the least bit and that would be yesterday. I picked her up from school; it was drizzly and miserable outside. She was in a good mood, or at least I thought so. I was thinking since she was great when I dropped her off that it would be good to reward her, so I told her we were going to go somewhere for a treat (maybe ice cream). She was excited, so we started walking. I also had another plan that involved meeting Anthony near 101 since he was in the area meeting with some tax people. I thought we could go for treat, meet Anthony and then finally open up a bank account here so we can quit relying on cash withdrawals every few days. As we were walking, Ashley starts complaining her legs hurt (this is becoming an everyday occurrence) and she starts screaming at the top of her lungs. She refuses to talk to me, only screaming, crying, and thrashing around. It is now raining and she won’t hold umbrella, I have Liz strapped to me in carrier and I have the stroller with too (in case we stopped at grocery store, so I would have a way to carry groceries). We are all getting soaked since Ashley refuses to move and if I try to walk around her to find shelter, she pushes her whole body onto the stroller so it won’t move. I can’t pick her up because I have Liz (26 lbs!) on me. Ashley throws herself on the ground (in the rain, in a puddle) and thrashes about, kicking and screaming. This whole ordeal went on for about 25 minutes. Me trying to talk to her, reason with her, find out what is wrong, how I can fix it, what I can do to help and her just crying – not answering me, just screaming. I finally said, that’s it – we are going home, get in the stroller. She climbed in and I had to push her (36 lbs) in the stroller (which is very hard to steer one handed), while having Liz on me, and holding an umbrella. Ashley refused to hold her umbrella, so by the time we made it back to the apartment, she was soaking wet. It was such great fun. Once we got to the apartment, she was fine. Talking, chatting, happy. I tried to talk to her about what happened but I don’t think she understands. Anthony took charge when he got home and once the girls were fed and bathed, he took over putting Ashley to bed. She started whining as soon as he mentioned brushing teeth. So, he ended up in her room with her – she was screaming, crying while he sat on the floor – ignoring her. She did not like this and kept getting closer and closer to him until she was right up in his face, screaming. I was locked in our bedroom, trying to not intervene. She finally calmed down, he laid down with her and she eventually fell asleep – when he got up to leave – she barely opened her eyes and managed to whisper “I’m not tired” as she fell back asleep. It took 45 minutes from start to finish – much better than 2.5 hours, but still! It never used to be this difficult.

Today I went to a nearby park with Angie and Joseph. Angie has a full time helper now – Sumi (don’t know if that’s how you spell her name), she’s from Indonesia and speaks Chinese only, no English. She’s helps out with Liz too when we’re out so it’s nice to have her along. It is interesting to see Angie adjust to having someone around full time to help her. She’ll hopefully rely on her more when baby #2 arrives (you know what I mean Angie!). After the park, we went to Taipei 101, stopped by the bookstore, where I got a book on disciplining your preschooler. I don’t really know if our issue is understanding a preschooler or disciplining a preschooler, so I’ll read this and see if I get any insightful messages out of it. We then ate lunch in the food court there. It always amazes me how many tourists are there during the day and I no longer go there on a daily basis, as I did when we were at the Hyatt, so I’m not used to seeing them all the time. People taking pictures and getting all excited about being there, while we are there just to get our shopping done.
Liz is down for a MUCH needed nap right now, so I’m going to rest some. I haven’t been feeling well lately, I think just a cold, at least I hope so.

Weekend

I took Elizabeth to the doctor this morning for her flu booster shot. She did really well and stopped crying as soon as the nurse gave her a lollipop! Lollipop, you say? What is a 16 month old doing with a lollipop? Well, apparently, due to the fact that this is not a suing nation, it is ok and advisable to give small children things like candy, stickers and balloons. She got all of these from the doctor. She loved the lollipop and was very upset when I took it away. I did let her suck on it for a while and she did fine – and loved it, of course.

Ashley went to school this morning, no problems. It helped that they had bread and peanut butter and jelly out for the kids to make their own morning snack. She can’t resist that. We had problems getting her to bed last night – it took 2 hours to get her to sleep and many, many screaming tantrums on her part. Anyone have any ideas for us to help get her to sleep at a decent hour? We’ve tried laying down with her, letting her lay in our bed, letting her lay on couch in living room (hey, we were desperate), letting her cry it out, taking toys away – nothing seems to be working. She just screams “I’m not tired” and you know she’s exhausted. It’s been going on for a few weeks now, off and on. Some nights are easy, some nights are ok and some nights are horrible (last night!).

The weekend itself was a good one. On Saturday, our friend, Lili came with us to the European School Christmas Bazaar. We thought it would be lots of Christmas crafts for sale, but it was mainly food and kids entertainment. It was fun though, something different to do and it was bizarre seeing all those foreigners (meaning…white people) in one place. It’s rare to see that many together at once. We ate lots of food and let the girls play around for a bit and then we decided we’d had enough of the crowds there and we should go to the opening of the Miramar Mall and see what kind of crowd tolerance level we had. I had bought movie tickets online that morning, so we also needed to pick the tickets up for the evening showing. The mall was PACKED – people EVERYWHERE. I thought the escalators surely weren’t made to hold that many people at once, but they didn’t collapse, so I guess they are. It is a very cool mall – lots of good kid stores, so I’m sure I’ll be back there. The main attraction of this mall is a HUGE Ferris wheel that loads people from the 5th floor. It is pretty neat. The lines were so long though, we’ll wait until the crowds thin out before attempting to get on the Ferris wheel. Ashley is very excited about it. They also have an IMAX theater there – pretty cool.

Anthony and I had date night Saturday night, so we headed back to the movie theater at Miramar after the babysitter arrived. We left the apartment around 5:10, thinking we could make the 5:40 show easily. No such luck. Apparently, traffic was horrible in the area around the mall due to the weekend opening. Luckily our taxi driver did some maneuvering and had us at the mall entrance at 5:43. We ran up to the theater and of course, our movie was showing on the top floor – 9th floor. We made it though, with previews still playing – and Anthony even had time to get me a popcorn and go to the bathroom before the show started. We saw The Incredibles – VERY GOOD movie, I highly recommend it. The theater was great – big seats, lots of room, big screen, good sound, we’ll definitely go back there again. Some foreigners here complain about the fact that you get assigned seating in a movie theater when you buy tickets, but we think it’s great! We were late for a new movie and we didn’t have to worry about it being sold out or not being able to find good seats. We ordered them online and chose our seats then, I really like that.

After the movie, we caught a cab and went to a restaurant called KiKi’s. It’s supposed to have good Chinese food. We ordered a chicken dish and shrimp balls. The shrimp balls were great, the chicken wasn’t very good. The chicken dish had chicken cubes (still with the bone ), mint, ginger and some other strange items. The flavors just didn’t mix for me. The girls were both asleep when we got home – although they both went to bed VERY late considering neither of them took naps during the day.

Sunday was another good day. We went to Costco to get groceries and a bread maker! So now I just need to find the ingredients to try and start making my own bread. I’m very excited. So if anyone would like to send me some of those prepackaged bread making kits, that would be cool. Nothing fancy, just plain white and wheat bread, banana bread, cinnamon bread, that kind of stuff. We then headed out to Chili’s for lunch – mmmm, Chili’s. It wasn’t a very fun walk since Ashley was in a BAD mood and threw lots of little tantrums along the way. I almost thought we weren’t going to be able to eat there since she was behaving so badly. But once we sat down and got our food, she cheered up. The food was DELICIOUS. I really do praise Chili’s here for the way that they have been able to keep all their dishes tasting exactly like they do back home. It just gives us a little reminder of being home, which is so nice. For dinner, we had rotisserie chicken from Costco and veggies and mac n cheese. The girls loved all of it, especially the veggies. I’m so proud that both my kids will eat their vegetables. We keep telling Ashley she’ll grow big and strong by eating them and she takes it literally – she put her arms up in the air and showed us how big she was getting. Now the chicken, although it was very good, I almost could not eat it. It comes packaged up, just like you would get a Rotisserie Chicken back home at HEB, in the little plastic containers, but when I took the top off and started taking the chicken apart for the girls to eat, I realized that it’s a little different than the ones back home – IT STILL HAD ITS HEAD ON. Fully cooked chicken head – with beak and everything. I found it a little disturbing, although I managed to get past it and still eat the meat.
After getting Liz to bed, Anthony and I played Scrabble, in between dealing with Ashley. I managed to pull off a win! Yes, that’s right, I won (which is pretty unusual in Scrabble). It was a very nice way to end the evening.

It's Friday!

Today marks the official day that Elizabeth said something to a Taiwanese person who distinctly heard and understood what she was saying. Every morning and afternoon, we walk through front security gate in our building and the security guard says Hello, Good Morning, Zao, whatever is appropriate for the time of day. He always smiles and tries to get Liz to talk. Well, this morning, she responded by saying “HELLO”. It was great – he really enjoyed it and I got a kick out of her saying HELLO instead of Hi or Zao, which would be so much simpler for her. I think she prefers bigger words: lizard and turtle are two I can think of that she’s said. It’s also her phone voice – HELLO – she says this over and over whenever she plays with a phone, it’s too cute.

Another sight to behold here, people peeing in the streets! On our walk to school this morning, I see a man standing next to a tree, peeing. He’s a taxi driver, he’s next to his taxi, but man, that is so bizarre a sight – right out in plain view and across the street from a REALLY nice upscale apartment complex, wonder if that even occurred to him. I’ve heard (and seen) that little boys growing up here are taught to pee on trees and in drainage areas on the street. I’ve seen little boys in parks just pull down their pants and pee (great, makes you wonder how “clean” all the parks really are!). Now, I must admit that Ashley has peed once at a park here, standing up, but with all her clothes on and it was the first time we were here – she refused to use a squat potty.

One other thing that I don’t think I’ve mentioned before that is different here are the lights. You turn them on and it takes several seconds, sometimes a minute or two, for them to “warm up” and brighten. Interesting, yes, especially at night, when you think you have the room dimmed and then it just gets brighter and brighter.

Thanks for the comments on the blog – I really appreciate hearing how much everyone actually does enjoy reading about our life. To have my life compared to a soap opera – that’s pretty cool!

Random Thoughts

(WARNING THIS IS REALLY LONG!)

We got to look at some vehicles today for test driving. We had asked to see two different cars, the Toyota Wish and the Mitsubishi Savrin. Both are basically small minivan/SUV type cars. I had thought we would have to schedule time to go to leasing office or car lot, but nope, they brought the vehicles to us at Anthony’s work, complete with salesmen – quite funny, I think, but oh so convenient. Anthony drove both around the block and I drove both in a circle in the area right in front of his building (not on the road!). We had Liz and no car seat, so it was just easier that way. We liked both vehicles, but I think we have decided on the Wish. It can seat SEVEN (yes, seven people) but it rides like a car, not an SUV. It has cameras on the front and rear of the car, which you can watch in the center dashboard, for parking and seeing what is behind you – quite amazing! It also has DVD player, GPS Nagivation System (all in Chinese, UGH!) and some other awesome features. All leather interior – seems the norm here, rarely do you see cloth seats. I don’t know how long the paperwork will take, but it will be great to have a car! We do need to get our ROC license at some point, which involves a VERY hard road test and an EASY written test. For example of written test see http://www.tcmvd.gov.tw/d8k/english/k.idc. I have been told it’s best to go to driver’s school where you can do practice driving same as on the test. We are considering that since we’ve both not driven much lately and the test involves a lot of parallel parking and S curve driving, staying within the lines.

It has been fun getting used to this new found freedom of being able to do things during the day that only involve one child. It’s easier to go places and get things done – since Liz usually takes at least one nap a day that gives me an hour or two where I have some down time. So far, I haven’t really done ANYTHING productive, just spent a lot of time on the computer, reading about other peoples experiences here in Taiwan. It is so interesting to see what others think of this place. I really have no idea how I portray this city/country, whether I sugar coat it or not. I know that at times I am not completely honest how I feel about certain things that happen here, but it’s not usually aimed at locals, it’s aimed at other expats.

I find this place to be very different than home, at times very frustrating and inconvenient. People can be downright rude and inconsiderate here. Since I don’t understand the language yet, I don’t even know half of what they are saying – I do know that we get made fun of and talked about wherever we go, but it doesn’t really seem to bother me. We get our pictures taken and the girls get a ton of attention. We even had a lady stop driving her scooter, get off, walk over to us and ask to take a picture of Ashley – it’s the blonde hair. That would never happen back home and just seems so odd, but I don’t really consider it horrible here. It bothers me occasionally, but only when the girls seem upset by it or don’t want to be looked at – and then I tell people no. It seems from what I’ve heard that other expats think it’s horrible and rude that people here do that. I don’t really understand that. There are so many things that I could just rant about and complain about being here, but I don’t see this as an opportunity to complain about the differences between here and back home, but as an opportunity to see how another culture lives, even one that really seems to be quite a bit backwards from the “Western way” of living. There are supposedly phases one goes through when relocating to a different country. I forget exactly what they are, but there is the initial honeymoon phase, then I want to go home phase and then the acceptance phase in the end. I feel like I have passed all the phases and have really just accepted that we are here and I want to make the best of it. I never really have felt the “I want to go home” part (this DOES NOT mean that I haven’t missed our family and friends though!). Who knows, maybe I haven’t even made it over the honeymoon phase. I think that finding a friend within the first month of being here really helped and getting out every day, seeing the sites, walking around, meeting other expats – all of those things that I did in the beginning really helped. Also, the fact that my main friend here has been here for over 5 years, is married to a Taiwanese man and has made her home here (in other words, is not planning on going back to her home country) helps too – she helps me see the good things here and doesn’t complain about all the weird behaviors here. I find it so strange how much time is spent on expat boards complaining about the cultural differences here. I know that it’s a place where people can go and vent, but sometimes it seems to go beyond venting. I couldn’t imagine if there were sites were people were complaining about Americans (I’m sure there are sites like that), and I’m sure Americans would be appalled at what other countries think of us.

Don’t really know why I’m sort of rambling on like this. I don’t get many comments from this blog or questions about our life over here, so I either am covering all the bases or people aren’t reading it or it just isn’t that interesting. I wouldn’t mind a few comments from people – friends, family and even strangers – on what they like hearing about and any questions about what it’s like. I don’t really want the blog to become a daily log of everything we do, I can’t imagine how boring that might become once we just start sitting around the house.

On to other stuff – the one major thing that I think I get frustrated most with right now is the measurement system! And this isn’t even against Taiwan, it’s against the US. Why in the world does the US have such a different measurement system than the majority of the world? (I could be wrong here too since I am just assuming that most of the other countries use the same as Taiwan and China). So everything is in meters, grams and Celsius. That simple – but since I don’t know the conversion and I’m so used to using feet, inches, pounds and Fahrenheit, it can be VERY frustrating for me. For instance, trying to buy meat – I usually buy 1 or 2 pounds of meat, but I have no idea what that converts to in grams and it doesn’t occur to me, until I’m at the meat counter, that I need to know how many grams – UMMM, can you just put some meat in a container for me? – I just kept telling the butcher, more, more, ok, that’s good. Guess I need to carry around a handy little conversion chart or something. I did print out a Celsius to Fahrenheit sheet for the kitchen and for the temperature, so I can tell if it’s chilly outside or hot. Amazing what the difference is between 20 Celsius and 24 Celsius.

Oh yea, since I couldn’t tell how to operate the Japanese Rice Cooker (Zojirushi brand), I emailed the companies customer service department, inquiring about a PDF manual for the rice cooker and do you know, within 2 days I had a PDF manual emailed to me. I find that extremely incredible, since I never really expected a reply in the first place due to me never having ever heard back from any other customer service I’ve ever emailed. Thank you Zojirushi!

We finally had some homemade Mexican food! The other day, I went to Jason’s (in Taipei 101) and found the Old El Paso taco kits – complete with tortillas, taco sauce and taco seasoning – just add meat (hence the I need meat from butcher, but don’t know how much). It was SOOO good. I had found Mexican shredded cheese blend at Costco the week before, so we even had good cheese to go with! MMMM…too bad I can’t find the green or even regular enchilada sauce; it would be great to make some enchiladas too! Someone told me that I can find tortillas at one of the bakeries here so I’m going to have to look for that. The kit at Jason’s cost 299 NT (roughly $10 US!) that’s a bit steep, but it’s so worth it every once in a while – right?!

We took the girls to Page One bookstore this evening; I wanted to get Ashley some books on being different. I realized today that since she’s the only “white” girl in her class (there are several other children from America in her class, but they are of Asian descent, so she’s the only fair skinned, blonde haired, blue eyed kid), she may start to have some issues about being different. This came to my mind after I saw a classmate of hers touching her hair and talking in Chinese while Ashley just looked at me with the expression of “please make her stop”. Someone on one of the boards I frequent offered me some great books as suggestions. So we went and picked up several tonight and I plan on reading them to her everyday and hopefully getting her to talk to me a little about it.

See what happens when I don’t post for a few days, it just goes on and on and on….

Getting Used to Living Here

Ashley was much better by Saturday evening although we still cancelled our date night since we didn’t know when she’d be better. We didn’t do much on Sunday – just hung out at the house all day. We thought we better keep both kiddos inside and out of the public so they didn’t pass around anything they were carrying and so they didn’t pick up any new viruses. It was a LONG day due to the fact that we were inside all day. The girls both took short naps too, which didn’t help.
I am so glad that I shipped over my crock pot. I made beef stew for Sunday and it was SOOOO good! Carrots, Potatoes and Beef (Australian beef over here), mmm…good.
Since I’m staying home now, I try to cook almost every night. It’s nice to eat in, but it’s also quite difficult here since you have to go out every day or every other day to get the necessary ingredients for dinner. Plus, since I’m new to cooking all the time, I never remember enough for more than one or two meals. Guess I should start working on some kind of system.

Ashley was adamant that she didn’t want to go to school this morning. I bribed her by telling her she could watch a movie after school and Anthony came with us to drop her off this morning. She didn’t cry and after I went in to her room and did one puzzle with her, she hugged me and said good bye. That was so much easier than listening to her scream my name over and over again. Tomorrow is their outing day, so she should be happy to go tomorrow without a fight, I hope.

While Ashley was in school, I went over to AsiaWorld, which has IKEA and ToysRUs in it. I shopped for some things we needed for home along with some other things. They also have a really nice Home Store, similar to HOLA with bedroom stuff, bathroom stuff and home decoration stuff, called PINN. There was some nice stuff in it, but Liz was cranky and didn’t want to sit in her stroller, so I didn’t shop there too long. I’ll have to go back someday.
Anthony got home late from work, I’d already made dinner, fed the girls, bathed them and was just waiting for him to come home to put them to bed. I made chicken and green beans and rice, simple enough. I love the rice cooker here. It’s a Japanese brand and although they sell the exact same one in the US at Bed, Bath & Beyond (for $200!!!!), this one is all in Chinese. I really have no idea how to operate it, so I just press what I figured out is the on button and it works – cooks the rice. If I get different rice though, like brown rice, I think I’ll be in trouble since I don’t know how to change the settings. Anthony brought me some flowers. I haven’t had flowers since moving here (well, except for one he bought me one day when we were still at the Hyatt). It was a very nice treat and I love them!

Sickness

I picked Ashley up from school on Thursday and although she remembered that I had left her, she said she had a fun day and liked school. She told me how she cried when I left and screamed for “mommy”. I told her that I heard her, but that she needed to go to school to learn and play and make friends. After school, I took the girls for a walk so we could get some fruit at the local fruit stand. We stopped at the stand and the ladies there are beginning to recognize us since we go about once or twice a week. They immediately take Liz out of her stroller and pass her around, cooing and ahhing and playing with her. She loves it – big smiles all around. Ashley also gets attention in the form of candy – every time we go there, they give her some. There are three ladies there – one has the fruit stand, one has a little flower shop in the back and one has a fruit drink stand – all together in one area. The fruit is good, although it does seem a bit expensice. After buying what we needed, we headed off back home and stopped at another playground in our area – so far, I have found three playgrounds within a 5-10 minutes walking distance of our house. The girls had a blast running around, playing, sliding, bouncing and running off some energy!

Friday was a holiday for Anthony, so he got to stay home from work. We kept Ashley out of school too so she spend the day with us. It was drizzly and muggy so no going to the beach, which is what we wanted to do. We took the girls over to Playspace – and we walked there which took about an hour. Long walk, but it felt good to be out and getting some exercise. Everyone had fun at Playspace and Anthony enjoyed seeing the girls play around. He doesn’t get to experience all the places we go since we go when he’s at work. We then went to McDonalds and had lunch (Ashley’s choice, of course!) and walked back home. The girls took good naps, probably due to all the walking and playing they did. We then went to HOLA after naptime to look for some stuff for the house (bedside lamps, bread maker, etc). We found a few things and headed back home. By this time, it was 6:30 and we were in rush hour traffic – UGH! We were hungry so we decided to stop off at the Warner Complex to get something fast to eat. We ate at a place called SOUPER, which has some delicious soup. Liz ate very little and Ashley ate nothing. I wanted her to eat, but now I am glad she didn’t eat anything or I would have seen it all again this morning when she got sick. She came in our room last night, crawled into bed, said she didn’t feel well and threw up – ICK. And we only have one sheet set for our bed – ICK. We covered it up with towels, then kept a towel near her for the rest of the night/morning. She didn’t keep anything down until early afternoon. She’s running a fever too, although it’s not too high. She’s been so tired, sleeping on and off and just laying down, not really doing anything – not like her at all. I just hope that the rest of us don’t catch whatever it is she has. It’s been a long day, Anthony’s at the store now getting some groceries with Liz, who desperately needed to get out of the house. I didn't think Ashley would pick up something that fast from school, but apparently she did. They take the kids temperature everyday at school and they are sent home if they have a fever, but that doesn't catch all the sick ones, especially since many viruses are contagious before and after symptoms are present. I'd much rather her have a cold though than the stomach virus! It's so hard to see your little one sick and not able to keep anything down. They don't understand what's going on and want you to fix it! I sure wish I could.

School Blues...

I took Ashley to school yesterday morning and she told me she wanted to stay all day, she wanted to eat lunch there and take a nap there, so I talked to her teacher, Ms. Christy and she said if that’s what Ashley wanted, then we would try it. So, I didn’t get her until 4 pm! WOW! I missed her during the day, it was strange not having her with me. Angie came over and picked me (and Liz) up and we went to playgroup at 228 Park. It was nice having only one child to watch while we were there. Liz had fun and I got to swing with her and go down the slide with her and run around with her, which I don’t normally get to do. It is still so hot here, temps in the high 80’s and low 90’s. The kiddos were sweating up a storm and hot.

Liz took a nice long nap in the afternoon so I was able to post some pictures up on our photo site. It was lovely to have a whole afternoon to do things with no kids running around. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my children! It is just so nice to have some ME time and to be able to get things done. I picked Ashley up at 4pm and she was very happy to see me. Ms. Christy said she did good, although she didn’t eat any of her lunch (Chinese food). She refused to leave her blankie and clothes there overnight, so we brought them home. She said she had a fun day and liked her school. When Anthony got home from work, we all went to Costco and did some much needed shopping. The girls were good, although Liz was a bit cranky and was screaming at the end, I think she was having some gas pains or stomach discomfort. She slept fine last night though.

Today, I took Ashley to school and she was fine at first – there were very few kids there and I probably should have just left when she was ok, but I had stuck around, letting Liz play upstairs in the toddler room while I talked to some of the other moms. By the time I was ready to leave; Ashley was clingy and didn’t want me to go. They took her hand and led her to class, where she started having a melt down, screaming “I want my mommy” over and over again. It was just awful for me, I was almost in tears leaving her. This has happened before back home at daycare, so although it’s not new to me, it still causes a pain in my heart. On the way home, Liz and I stopped at the park and I let her run around a bit, while hoping that Ashley was doing ok. I called the school soon after I got home and they reassured me that she was fine, that it’s normal the first few days for her to be upset.

Since I am walking Ashley to school, we go by the same little shops and schools and apartment buildings 4 times a day – so we see the same people over and over again. I smile and say good morning in Chinese and they usually smile and either reply in Chinese or even say good morning in English – usually to Ashley and Liz. The girls get lots of attention and greetings, along with “so cute” (in Chinese, of course). Someday, I hope that I’ll be able to converse just a little with them.

Angie came over this morning and we hung out before going to the Living Mall so she could exchange some baby clothes. Liz enjoyed playing around at the mall, although she did fall down the slide there (no worries, she’s fine). It didn’t even phase her, she got right back up and wanted to do it again! She’s such a little trouper. She’s down for a nap now and it’s so quiet here. I need to get some material so I can start sewing some cute little outfits for the girls (thanks to Pansy for the patterns!).

There was another earthquake last night – a little before midnight – I woke up, knew it was happening, but it was over fairly quick, I didn’t wake Anthony this time and he didn’t even notice. It was over a 5 at the center and around a 2 here in the city, no biggie. Then this morning, around 10am, there was another one, same strength – I didn’t even notice, but Anthony did – he called me right away, but I didn’t even know one had occurred. Strange how that is. I think being on the 2nd floor, we may not feel some of them like we would if we were higher up. Those who live on the higher floors say even a 2 or 3 really sways their building while we just get shaking and creaking, not really swaying. We do have a few cracks in our wall, one in Liz’s room and one in the living room. They just keep getting longer and longer.

Another Earthquake/First Day of School

November 9, 2004

Another earthquake last night – I woke up around midnight to some very loud creaking going on and the bed shaking. I woke Anthony up and we both went to check on the girls. Liz had woken up and was crying but Ashley was soundly sleeping. We calmed Liz down, put her back to bed and then we went back to sleep. I was so tired, even with my heart racing a mile a minute, I fell back to sleep quite easily. It didn’t even phase Anthony, his comment was “why’d you wake me up, I would have slept right through it”. This morning we found out it was a 6.7 quake (a 3 in Taipei) and lasted 58 seconds – much longer than the 30 second one last month.
This morning was Ashley’s first day of school – she’s going ½ days for now and is very excited. She was dressed in a sundress, socks and her new black boots – yes, a fashion statement she was! Turns out they are going on an outing – every Tuesday is an outing and they are going to a park today, so she’s not exactly appropriately dressed and I forgot her water bottle and hat, but oh well, she’ll have fun anyway. Just hopefully, she won’t come back pink from the sun! I am home now with Liz and our housecleaner. I don’t quite know what to do with myself, only have one kid to watch J

November 10, 2004

Ashley had a great time at her outing to the park. She told me that she had to hold hands with her new friend when they were at the park and that she got to ride a bus to and from the park. She was very excited and did not want to come home for lunch. Which also means she did not want to take a nap. So I spent the afternoon attempting to get 2 girls to take a nap – unsuccessfully, I might add. I finally gave up and we went to the Living Mall to get Ashley some indoor shoes for school. After coming home, I decided to go ahead and feed them dinner early and by 7pm Ashley was asleep in my arms and Liz was ready for bed. They were both so tired. And so were Anthony and I. I think I was asleep at 8:30pm! We wanted to watch Carnivale on HBO at 10:30, but there was no way we were making it that late.

Need some sleep

It was a LONG night last night – Ashley wouldn’t sleep. She woke up around 3am and didn’t go back to sleep at all. I finally just said to play in her room so I could go back to sleep and she played until morning. Anthony went in around 5:30 to try and get her back to sleep but she refused. UGH! She was going to start school today, but without any sleep, we decided that would be a bad idea. She has been told that she can start tomorrow if she sleeps tonight. I hope and pray that works since I need a full nights sleep sometime soon. Liz was also up at 3:00 – so I made her and Ashley some sandwiches. Liz played for about an hour and then she went back down until 7 JAngie came over this morning and we hung out talking while the kiddos played for a little while. We then took a walk and went to a local park where the kids played for a bit in the sand and on the playground equipment. I had to get them out of the house, keeping them busy and letting them use some energy. We ate lunch at a little café right next to the park. It was pretty good Chinese food and they even had a menu in English – pretty rare for a little café here. They even brought us a fork instead of chopsticks, which is kind of annoying since I would have liked to have used chopsticks – just kind of get used to using them here. We came back to the apartment and Angie headed home so Joseph could nap. I got Liz down right away, she was tired and ready for nap, but Ashley is a different story. She still refused to sleep! After watching a movie though, she was so exhausted that she finally crashed. It’s 4:30pm and I can’t wake her up, poor baby, she’s just so tired and so am I. I love traveling and visiting home, but this jet lag thing sucks. I get so tired, I’m just dizzy. I thought yesterday that we were having an earthquake, I got so dizzy from being tired and out of whack, strange what your body will do

Home again, Home again

We have arrived safe, sound and sane back home (here in Taiwan) after our 2 week visit to Texas for Anthony’s work. The flights went remarkably smooth, with Liz being cranky on occasion and Ashley being in a great mood the entire time. We flew American from Austin to Dallas, Dallas to Tokyo and then Cathay from Tokyo to Taipei. I really enjoy the seats and service on Cathay. We had one hour layovers in both Dallas and Tokyo and although it was plenty of time to get to the next plane, it was not enough time to relax and let the girls run around and get some exercise. Despite that, they still did well.

Our trip to Texas was great. We had a some inconveniences dealing with our house, but other than that, Anthony’s training went great at work and I enjoyed running around visiting people and shopping (I bought too many clothes for Ashley, I sure hope it cools down for a few months so she can wear them all! They were just so cheap at places like Target and Old Navy, I just couldn’t resist!). There were a few people we didn’t get a chance to visit with (Grandma Bootsie, Grandma Craig, Aunt Linda and Lauren (along with others)) so I’m hoping we’ll get a chance to on our next visit.

It was nice coming home to our apartment and our stuff. The girls really enjoyed coming back to all their toys. They immediately started playing as soon as we walked in the door. For some reason, our air conditioning is not working, and although it was nice outside, it was quite hot in our apartment (25-26 C). We will have to figure out how to go about getting that fixed but since today is Sunday, I don’t think we’ll be getting it done soon.

The girls slept fairly well last night. I was completely exhausted, having only snoozed for about two hours during the flights. Liz was up around 2 am and Anthony got up with her and he played Xbox games while she played with her toys for a few hours. I’m glad he got some new games that he can play around the girls to help keep him occupied while watching them. Ashley, Liz and I were up at 5:30 this morning. I’m still pretty tired, but it will take a few days to get back on this time schedule. We have already been out to the grocery store this morning to pick up some things and we stopped by one of our local neighborhood parks to let the girls run around. To our surprise, it’s been completely redone and they have planted some beautiful flowers and plants, along with laying down a stepping stone path and a picnic table and they have installed a sandpit. Very cool. I remember going to that park a few weeks ago and although it was nice and the girls had fun, I thought it was dirty and dusty – but not anymore.

A few things to write of since I’m thinking of them. Lots of people have asked about winter weather. It should be getting into the 40’s and 50’s at some point soon. And although that isn’t really cold, most places do not have HEAT here. Apartments usually don’t have heat, stores don’t have heat and some restaurants don’t have heat. So although it’s not really COLD out, the tile and wood floors keep the coolness in and so it’s cold and damp. Luckily, out apartment does have heat. It’s one of the rare ones we found and I have a feeling we’ll be very happy in another month or two to have it.
Airports – Did you know that here in Taiwan – they have luggage carts for you to use FOR FREE! I think it’s about $3 or $4 to rent one of those at the Austin Airport to go from the curb to the counter, which isn’t very far. But, here, they have hundreds of them lined up in the baggage area and you just throw your luggage on it and go. It’s so great. Something small, I know, but I think it’s very cool.