"No, Mack, No!"

** The title? Well, it's the most common refrain heard in this house, yelled over and over again (even on the street by Liz, without a Mack anywhere to be seen - I guess she likes to practice...). -antny**

Wow, I haven’t written in a long time! Everyone is pretty much back to being healthy, for the most part. We seem to be just passing around a cold – at least one of us has the sniffles or a cough at any given time. I think it’s just the weather and being in Taiwan – seems everyone has this right now. We haven’t really done much lately. Wish I could say we’ve been exploring or adventuring around Taiwan and discovered some great new places, but we haven’t really been out much. Lots of our friends have been heading home for the summer, so we’ve been saying a few goodbyes. Ashley has been in school for 2 weeks now with just the summer kids. She’s actually enjoyed it and been in a good mood most days. She talks about her friends that “have gone to the States for a while” but she knows she’ll see them in a few months, so doesn’t seem too worried. She also knows that we are heading home soon and is VERY excited! She can’t wait to see granddad and grandmom. We have less than one week left before we leave and we are getting ready. Although I haven’t actually started packing, I have begun to think about what we’ll take and we’ve started a list of things to buy.

The Romano’s Macaroni Grill opened last week and we had dinner there over the weekend. It was SO good! MMMM!!! They had a waitstaff and kitchenstaff from the States to set up and train everyone here, so everything was close to what it would be back home. The test will come once all the Westerners go back home, whether the recipes change and become more Taiwanese. The bread was ok, not as salty as we would like, which we didn’t realize until one of the guys told us they use less salt here than in the States. We knew it was off, just didn’t realize why. We ordered dessert, chocolate cake and our local server asked us if it was too sweet. Anthony and I had a good laugh over that – it’s chocolate cake, how can it be too sweet?! I guess that’s another Western way of food.

We joined in a rummage sale last weekend to try and clear out a few things we had over here that were just taking up space. A few toys, some clothes, etc. The playgroup here used space in a small schoolyard and set up a rummage sale. Many people donated items and the money collected was used for charity (I believe towards tsunami victims). The items not sold were then given to a local charity also. It was good fun for everyone.

Yesterday, as I was driving to playgroup up in Shilin at the Park next to the Science Museum, I saw a cab driver scraping his tongue with scissors. Yes, that’s right, scraping his tongue with scissors. They weren’t little scissors, they were the big handled shears, like the kind used to cut cloth and he was using it to scrape his tongue – it was quite strange.

And tonight, we decided to go eat at a local Teppenyaki place – we’ve eaten there before and it was good. It’s within walking distance, so we took the girls (who were VERY cranky) there to eat. Not the best idea, since both kids refused to eat anything and were whiny and cranky. But, while there, Liz was sitting in a high chair with a tray and I glanced down and saw a roach on the tray – Anthony killed it – and we went on eating. Don’t really think that would happen much in the States. But here, well, it seems to be quite normal to see the little buggers everywhere. Pretty gross. I’ve only seen one in our apartment, but from what I’ve heard, roaches can be a real problem here. We had tape over all our floor drains (they have circle floor drains in the bathrooms and kitchens) to prevent this problem and to prevent smells from creeping up into the apartment from down below. They don’t use typical U type pipes here underneath sinks, like in the States, so it’s a straight shot down into the sewer system. Ewww.

I’ve been a bit emotional lately and am now seeing a counselor here in Taiwan. I had a panic attack a few weeks ago and have noticed how on edge my nerves seem to be. It happened quite suddenly and took me awhile to figure out what was going on. I’ve been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome from the December Tsunami. It’s amazing what our minds and bodies go through when faced with that sort of event. I can’t imagine what it’s even like for those who live in the affected areas, who lost loved ones and some even their whole way of life. I think often of how fortunate we, as a family, are. It’s been almost 6 months to the day – seems like such a long time ago, yet, at the same time, seems like it happened just the other day. I am learning how to deal with it, along with other feelings that I am having. It will be an interesting journey, I’m sure, and one that will only make me stronger as a person.

6 Teaspoonfuls or CCs? That's a big difference!

You want to ADMIT her?

Last night, Anthony came home to a really itchy wife with a large bumpy rash rapidly spreading across her body and to a sick kid who needed to see the doctor. So, off we went to ChungShan hospital. Liz saw a doctor who within a few minutes of examining her said she needed to be admitted to the hospital for 3-4 days. Ummm…No… This seems like crazy talk to us since she’s had a fever for 2 days, a cough and runny nose. No real difficulty breathing that we could see. Doctor told us not to come running back to her when Liz gets worse (nice, huh?). She said she would do some tests to make sure – did Chest Xray and Blood Draw. I was away seeing a dermatologist for my rash while this happened, so I didn’t have to be put through the agony of a toddler getting blood drawn. Anthony did though, poor thing. Liz screamed and screamed while it was happening, but she got over it fairly quickly, although she didn’t want the doctor anywhere near her. Doctor said her WBC was normal and her chest Xray showed some signs more of bronchitis than pneumonia (which is what she originally wanted to admit her for). So, we came home with a load of medicine – three combinations for Liz and three for me, including an antacid. I don’t understand why every time I get medicine here, they give me an antacid too – STRANGE. Doctor said I had Hives, he had a horrible bedside manner and barely spoke a word to me, but the itching went away by morning, so at least the meds worked. No idea why I got them, but hope I don’t get them again since it wasn’t a very enjoyable experience.

Liz is doing better today. She woke up with a fever, but it was gone this afternoon. She ate a little dinner (first she’s eaten since Tuesday night) and played a lot this afternoon. She didn’t nap well, I was holding her during my Chinese Lesson while she napped and then I managed to get her to sleep on the little Princess couch. I remember when Ashley used to sleep on that next to her bed. Too cute. What a great purchase that couch was – they use it all the time.

Ashley had swim class today with Tiffi. I didn’t go this time and I guess Ashley wasn’t really into the lesson and just ended up playing in the kiddie pool the whole time. At least she was in the water, right? Too bad she’s not learning to swim though, I really wish she would learn so I can take them both to a pool and enjoy it a bit. She had some cake and ice cream too and then spent the evening with her friend, Tiffi. She was so tired when we picked her up, she just wanted to go to sleep.

We are going home for a Stateside Visit next month! I believe the dates are June 29th – July 17th. I’m a bit excited since that means we’ll be in the States for my birthday (sorry, Angie!). It will be nice celebrating it there. We are looking forward to seeing family, friends, house, BACKYARD with grass!, good English speaking doctors, Mexican food, American Italian food, etc, etc.

Northeast Coast Beach - would be beautiful if it were clean

Taiwan really is Beautiful, if you ignore the Trash

Argh, Liz is sick now. First Ashley last week, with just a cold, runny nose and cough and now Liz, with a high fever and cough. And, of course, it’s when the weather is absolutely beautiful outside and we could be doing some stuff around town. Oh well, such is the life of a mom.

We had a good weekend. Anthony and I have concluded that Taiwan really needs some PR work. Taiwan is an amazing island, with gorgeous mountains and wonderful beaches – if only, they would keep it clean. We decided to head out to the Northeast Coast on Saturday and go to a beach. We drove along the coast line until we came to Yanliao – which is a beach area. This place also has a little water park area with pools and fountains. Thank goodness for that since the beach area was FILTY. It’s a beautiful sandy beach, soft on your feet, small waves for the kids and yet, there were mountains of trash just laying all over the beach. It is such a sad sight. There was NOONE at the beach and just a handful of people at the water park. This is on a sunny Saturday, with them temps in the upper 80’s. We found it very strange. We played in the water park for a bit, letting the girls run around in the water and slide down a water slide. They had fun.

We then decided to keep driving and went to Fulong Beach, which Lonely Planet touts as one of the best beaches in Taiwan. Again, lots of trash on the beach. This place was supposedly closed, as we were told NO SWIMMING and not to get in the water. There were still people in it – doing wind surfing. We just hung out in the sand and let the girls play with some other kids for a bit. It looked like with a little care, the beach could be great. I don’t really understand it – why Taiwan doesn’t seem to realize what natural beauty they have in this island and why they can’t take care of it. We were told that the beach would be open on Sunday and we still have no idea why it was closed on Saturday. We ended up taking a mountain drive back, which we thought would be nice and scenic, which is was – amazingly scenic at some points. But with all the horrible driving on the mountain roads, don’t know that we’ll want to do that again. Big tourist buses and big trucks passing us around corners on a 2 lane highway going up the side of a mountain. It was CRAZY. It took us about 2 hours to drive 75 kilometers (about 46 miles).

Computex

Ok, so I was wrong about Computex – apparently, it is NOT put on by Intel, it is organized by the Taipei Computer Association and the Taiwan External Trade Development Council. It is the 2nd largest IT convention in the world. There are many people in town for it, lots of foreigners. I thought Intel put it on due to the large number of Intel logos all over town and on every banner for Computex. We were at Neo 19 last night to eat dinner at “The Dining Room” and we walked from New York, New York through the Warner Village area. There are café tables with umbrellas all over and the majority of them have Intel labels. Although Anthony did point out the green ones that had AMD on them. It just seems everywhere you look, you see Intel. But, I am starting to see more and more AMD ads here – on buses and buildings, so that’s a good thing for us.

There is a new restaurant opening up at Neo19, on the first floor – where a clothing store used to be (I think Diesel?). We found out last night what it’s going to be – Romano’s Macaroni Grill!!!! How exciting! Anthony is psyched about that. Hopefully, they will be able to make things the same as in the US – and not turn it too Taiwanese. We peeked in the windows and saw that the inside décor is much the same as in the US – red bricks, yellow and green stucco walls, lots of iron work. We heard it’s supposed to open within a few weeks. It’s so sad that we get excited over a US chain opening up a restaurant here. Some say that it’s horrible, the West invading the East and making everything the same and commercial. While that may be true, we still love our Western food and love when we can eat something that reminds us of back home.

Ashley is sick today – I kept her home from school. It seems everyone in her class has been sick in the last few weeks, so it’s just going around. I wondered when she would get it too. So far, it’s just a cough and runny nose. No fever yet and hopefully it doesn’t turn into any sort of infection.

Yesterday, Liz and I had playgroup up in TienMu (about a 45 minute drive for us) at a park. It was really hot and I had mosquito bites all over my legs which were driving me insane. They have a nice sandpit and Liz really enjoyed playing in the sand and the water from the faucet they have next to the sandpit. She was a MESS after playing. Before we went back home though, I stopped at a store recommended by a friend called “Best Buy”. It’s right before Taipei American School on ZhungShan Road, Section 6. It’s got a good selection of clothes for the whole family at great prices. They also have larger sizes for larger people – which is HARD to find here in Taiwan. I got Ashley a swimsuit, a Disney princess nightgown and a ballet outfit – all for 500 NT (about $16 US). I will definitely be going back there to check things out.