The Next Few Days

So the naps everyone took Day 1 were a mistake. We had the hardest time we've ever had trying to wake the 3 kiddos up, no one wanted to budge. But we thought we were in the clear because at bed time around 8pm everyone went down without a word of complaint. But starting at 1am they all took turns waking up bright eyed and bushy tailed and at least for Kennedy, the night was completely over sometime shortly after 3am. Everyone was awake by 5:30am. This is not an ideal way to start a day.

The problem with having jet lagged little children is that Nathan and I are jet lagged too and so our patience are shorter than usual and with all we were trying to go and get done, dragging our children with us, it made for a day bad enough to at least make it on the list of worst days ever. Think almost 2 hours in a cell phone store with 3 children, no snacks or distractions and LOT'S of people staring at you.

That brings me to another point. I can't get over how everyone just outright stares at us everywhere we go. I swear, we go to eat somewhere and the employees park themselves somewhere nearby with a good view and just stare at us while we eat, it is so unnerving! I think it is partially because we are American, partially because we have 3 not well behaved children (though there is a legit reason for their recent unruliness) and another one on the way- but it just feels like they are looking at us because our kids are outta line. And most of them have only one or two children and I haven't seen an Asian child acting out yet so I am sure we are pretty entertaining, maybe somewhere in the horror genre? Still, the staring is something I'm going to have to get used to I guess.

The taxis were a fun new adventure for our kids, more of a nightmare for the parents. Picture them in their wild state, unleashed and unbuckled in the backseat of a car and let your imagination wander. A few of the rides were pretty brutal with children climbing over the top of me and fighting over whose looking out the window, who touched who, standing up, turning around, good times. But after riding restrained in vehicles their whole lives it makes complete sense to me that they would react to taxis as if they were an amusement park ride. Freaks me out to have Aly anywhere near a door handle though so we've set some taxi ground rules since the beginning: Kennedy is first in and locks the door as soon as she gets in. Seats on the seat, no standing! 2nd and 3rd child rotate who sits where, if Kohen or Aly don't feel they have a good enough view they can take turns sitting on my lap...these have helped immensely. Except now we are renting a car- a whole different set of anxiety with this.

So Day 2 was rough for everyone but days 3 and 4 have been increasingly better. Today we went to church which was of course wonderful to get to go somewhere familiar and get to see people I had met on our house hunting trip. Funny story. I am still getting used to the conversion of dollars to NT. It is about 32 NT to $1 American dollar and so my mind is still adjusting to the math at every turn. That coupled with the fact that some things are outrageously expensive here -a Lexus SUV for instance, would cost $125,000 American Dollars to buy in Taiwan. So when we were at church talking with a couple who are getting ready to move and they offer to sell us their water tower Nathan and I definitely had interest. Nathan asks what they are selling it for and the guy says "3,ooo" and Nathan doesn't bat an eye and is totally agreeing with this guy and trying to work out logistics and I am freaking out in my mind trying to figure out why Nathan is so okay with spending 3 grand on a water dispenser! So I am sitting there incredulous thinking Nathan can forget a second car, he can just ride his water tower to work for that price. Then I suddenly realize the guy meant 3,000 NT, not dollars! They are selling the water tower for about the equivalent of $100 US dollars. I started laughing out loud, could not believe how dumb I'd been but how am I supposed to know what is what in this country that seems like a different planet at times?