Yu Kids Island and Other Randomness

This afternoon I met some of the girls from church at this play place called Yu Kids Island. Everything they had to play on was either blown up with air and rotating or blowing balloons around and the kids had a blast. We were inside but my children were still dying of thirst and even though I had brought water, I can never seem to bring enough here.

Everyone except Aly loved this Coconut Tree, it spins slowly around and you have to hang on. When Aly finally made it up there she kept getting pummeled by the coconuts, they were making her lose her balance and knocking her over. She was having none of that. However, it may or may not have been the highlight of my day to watch.

Kohen was Kung Fu Fighting the giant balloons below- he was entertaining all of the other Asian adults there "watching their children" but really watching mine.

Okay, guess what this ^ picture is of that Kohen drew. I had no idea until he told me- obviously, it's Nathan driving the car! He made it at school and I love it. I want to frame every darn thing he draws. It kind of looks like Nathan was frowning but upon closer inspection the lines of Nathan's neck just ran into his mouth, happens to the best of us. And that is some wild steering wheel eh?

Other randomness. It is incredible how many people smoke here. Young and old. Our children point it out constantly as we drive, lot's of "thumbs down" handed out as we go along. Then Kohen made a keen observation the other day that really stunned me. He pointed out that it's always the men smoking, never the girls. You know what? He's totally right. I am sure some do but so far I personally have seen zero women smoking. What is up with that? I really wonder why that is. It makes me sad though to see so many young men smoking around here.

Randomness #2: of 18 kids in Kennedy's class she is one of only two students who brings a lunch. Of Kohen's 12 classmates he is the only one who brings a lunch. Kennedy asked me why just she and the other girl are the only ones who bring their lunch and suddenly feeling insecure I told her, "Because your mommies love you more, but shhh, don't tell the other kids!"

Am I seriously the only person left who is going to make their child's lunch?! Nathan and I had talked about it and thought that the kids could pick a day to have hot lunch once a week but otherwise I can make their lunch so why not? It's cheaper and I'd like to believe it's healthier (seeing as Kennedy is looking forward to the juice and snickerdoodle that will likely be all she eats of her hot lunch tomorrow) I don't know, be honest. Am I just out of touch?

Speaking of food. There is no fiber here. How do these people poo?! I'm sorry but I'm serious!!! There is NO wheat anything, anywhere. Until a few days ago the most fiberous cereal we could find was Raisin Bran which really, doesn't have that much fiber in it either. When I happened upon some All Bran at a store I about fell over. Everything as far as breads go is stark white and most stores carry a small selection of sugar cereals. I really am curious where this population gets their fiber- I wonder how you say that in Chinese...and how horrified they'd be if I asked them how they stay regular.

Lastly, Nathan said the sweetest thing to me today. The apartment is all tile except for the creepy old carpet in the rooms. I was apologizing to him because it was dirty under the kitchen table. I told him I was sorry but the broom in the apartment is a little half broom (just Aly's size) and the angle absolutely kills my back to use and he interrupted me and said so sincerely, "Honey, I don't expect you to do anything." I was so grateful he didn't make me feel guilty (not that he would) but he actually did the opposite. If I have to do this whole "adventure" thing, I'm grateful to be doing it with him.

9 Months

9 Months... home stretch. I feel like I've been writing this post in my head all month though at the moment I have nothing significant to say that isn't complaining. Pregnancy is difficult and I guess that is all there is to it. But it is good to be within the last few weeks. I think the Asian people are flattering me because when they ask when the baby is coming and I tell them they say nice things like, "So soon?! You not very big!" And then I fight the urge to kiss a perfect stranger. I am big though, this baby is heavy. At the last appointment the dr. did an ultrasound and said he was measuring a week ahead- not that that means anything except he's a big baby- big by my babies standards. The other fun thing she seemed shocked by was that the baby has hair. It looked just like his dads, kind of like a perfect little crew cut. It'll be funny if the baby comes out bald, lol- then I'll be wondering what in the world I'd been looking at! I had my blood drawn and I will have the platelet results at my next appointment. I will let you know if there is anything to report there.My Romanian friend Alina had taken to calling me a Kinder Egg- if you don't know what one is -it's a chocolate egg that has a surprise little toy inside. Quite a fitting nickname I'd say... though I do hope this little guy doesn't come out red with a devious smile.

***Picture by Tara Lynn Photography

Kohen's First Day of K-A

Kohen had his first official day of K-A today which is great minus the fact that because of how far away our apartment is we all had to leave the house by 7am to get to school on time. If you know me well you know the only thing that get's me up early enough to be out the door by that time is a flight (preferably to somewhere I want to go) or fire- so this morning is definitely blog worthy. Aly had orientation for her preschool too, hence the 'uniform', which is really just another way to nickel and dime you to death.

Tonight for FHE Nathan told the Bible story of Jonah and the Whale to the kids using one of Kohen's figurines, his pirate ship and a whale-ish looking box to tell the story. Our lesson was on obedience because heaven knows we could use a refresher on the subject. After, we went for a walk to a park several blocks away and played some red light/green light on the way as an obedience game. At one point Nathan asked Kohen to hold his hand as we approached a busy street, Kohen quickly snapped to and said in all seriousness, "I don't want to be eaten by a whale." I guess that's what Kohen got out of the lesson, obey or be eaten by a whale.
This was one of the nicer parks we've been to. Many are so old and death trap looking. Several of them even have slides where the part you slide on is concrete...Chinese idea of fun??? But this park was newer and it was a nice night (and by nice I mean 90 degrees and not 100% humidity) so lot's of people were out. The girl sitting behind Kohen came right up to us and in the best English I've heard any Chinese child use said, "Hello, my name is LuLu!" and she just chatted us up from there- a really cute little girl. I also love how Kohen has no hesitation what so ever when it comes to playing with local kids. The fact that they can't usually understand him doesn't phase him a bit.

Kennedy's First Day of First Grade

Last week was a pain in the tush as far as school goes. If anyone is interested I will tell you why, if not feel free to look at the pics. Kennedy and Kohen are going to the Taiwan American School (TAS, generally the private school aspect is considered a big perk of living over seas) and they each had to have "interviews", orientation and finally the first day of school. Kohen has been placed in K-A which is like a Pre-K though it runs from 8:30am-1:30pm- that's a LONG time!

The kids were all observed by a Psychologist and then since Kohen is technically old enough to go to Kindergarten but we felt he may do better in K-A, they did their 'analysis' if you will and then called us. We were relieved. After our poor experience with the teachers at his preschool last year, this guy had clearly understood Kohen, his weaknesses and strengths in a matter of an hour watching him interacting and working with other children. His conclusion in a nut shell, was that though his social skills are certainly ready for Kindergarten, he still has a strong need for play and in K-A they do a lot of the teaching and learning through play and he felt he would really thrive in that environment. We feel really at peace with the decision...though for some reason when talking about learning through play Nathan and I started busting up imagining the teacher eating glue like on Billy Madison...anyone remember that? lol.
So Friday was Kennedy's first official day of school and Kohen's orientation. One thing I am loving is the size of the classes. Kennedy's class has 18 students and Kohen's has 12 so far and his class pretty much has two teachers, though neither of them ate glue in my presence. By all accounts it seems like a really great school and as difficult as it's been I am glad we made the effort to be here at the beginning of the school year so that the children would be able to have the orientations and a fresh start. One thing that is a huge hit is that down the Kindergarten and K-A hall the bathrooms have teeny tiny toilets- HUGE HIT with the kids, highlight of Kohen's orientation for sure.

Reality Check:

Here comes a dose of reality, I want to remember the good things but I also want to remember accurately. Last week was hard. Nathan was gone a lot for work, the children were super tired again and having meltdowns and frankly, so was I. Last week was the first time that when Nathan -sensing I was feeling partly cloudy- asked if there was anything he could do I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "buy me a plane ticket home." Friday especially was a hard day. Nathan was gone all day and I was responsible for lot's of driving children 30min + back and forth to school with shouting, teasing and fighting in nerve racking traffic. By the end of the day I had yelled my head off at the kids and pretty much acted like the worst mom ever. That never does anything to improve my mood. Especially when I'm pregnant because then when I have a bad mom day I look at my growing belly and think in despair, "what am I doing?!!" I did have the realization that I have been with these children nonstop since July 28th and maybe, just maybe I need a break (where's my Target?!). I am feeling better now, and I know I will continue to feel better especially in 2 weeks when we get to move into our house. But I just thought a little honesty wouldn't hurt my "Taiwan is terrific!" blog.

Driving In Taiwan

I really, really, REALLY, did not want to have to start driving in Taiwan. Driving is capital C- Crazy here and I wanted no part of it. We've had a rental car for almost two weeks and Nathan has done amazing considering we had no GPS (it's in English but wanted us to put the street names in in Chinese Characters) and no experience actually driving here though Nathan has been coming to Taiwan for 9 years now so he claims he sees "a method to the madness" and a "flow to the traffic". He must need to change his contacts.

But as the beginning of school approached and coincided with a big Tech Show that Nathan would have to be scampering off to it became more and more clear I wouldn't be able to avoid driving for much longer. How we got International Licenses I have no idea, it doesn't seem prudent does it? But then, you haven't seen how everyone else drives here so in that context, as long as you've got one eye open, pinky finger on the wheel and your lead foot on the gas, you'll be better than most.

Monday was my big day:

(Sweaty Palms Not Pictured)

My first experience = not so good. Here's a little Taiwan Driving Trivia for ya, who is more aggressive?

A. Buses

B. Taxis

C. Scooters

Answer? Buses. Buses are incredibly aggressive here. Two blocks from our apartment on my first drive I was on the outer ring of a large roundabout, when out of no where this huge ol bus cuts from the inner lane of the roundabout clear across, in front of me to exit at the last second. I was able to slow down enough not to hit him but it scared me pretty good. Our destination was a store one more block away and Nathan directed me down a side street which is lined with cars and scooters on both sides and there is barely room for the car to get down. At the end of the lane it comes to a "T" where we discover we've driven into some sort of street market. One where a car will definitely not fit mind you. We had to switch drivers and Nathan had to back clear back down the street with old ladies on bikes chewing us out in Chinese for being in their way. I was done driving for a few hours. Though to be fair the Market thing was just funny as I didn't have to back out.

I attempted again that afternoon. It went much better. Check out what a typical stop light will look like. Lot's of important Chinese mumbo jumbo. One of the confusing/irritating things is that on the lights there are signs about times of the day when certain things aren't allowed, left hand turns, U-turns, certain lanes going certain ways- and it can make things stressful. The placement of the actual lights is different than what I'm used to and I have to really pay attention to notice them, plus there is usually only one light per intersection, not one for each lane like in the states. One thing I kind of like is that many of the lights have a countdown so at least you know how blasted long your going to wait.
One of the most scary things for me is unprotected left hand turns. In this picture I am in the proper lane waiting my turn. Notice the bus to my right. He is not in a turn lane but is going to pull up along side all of us and turn with us anyway. This is perfectly acceptable. Then what confuses and scares me is that the person in front just starts inching out into oncoming traffic, eventually forcing the traffic to slow down or stop and then a few cars turn and the process starts over. Needless to say, I hate unprotected left hand turns.

There is a lot of other crazy stuff like how double parking is normal so the flow of traffic all has to sway left to avoid the parked car and you never know if someone is just moving over to avoid a car or coming into your lane etc. You have to get really used to driving super close to other cars and buses which is not my favorite. And the scooters everywhere like a swarm of annoying mosquitos that I have to be constantly vigilant for because they go all around you and you have to swerve around them...

I won't bore you with more traffic talk but please be proud of me that I am driving- and with Nathan's help prepping me to find where I am going, I have driven to several playgroup outings on my own. Even I can't hardly believe it. Don't worry though, I'm not cocky. Driving here is still really nerve racking and I feel like I still have a lot to learn.

PS- on another note, the Typhoon really walloped the mid and southern part of Taiwan. It's pretty bad. There are a lot of clothes and food drives going on and it is on the news constantly. Maybe just keep those people in your prayers if you think of it.

A Few Little Randoms

So it has been a little weird to be in this apartment with just the things we brought with us in our suitcases. We bought a pot, and a few food essentials but we are truly running this apartment with a skeleton crew of items. Kind of Box Car Children-ish really. Sometimes fun and other times it makes me a bit...homesick. I was reading this book and it had this lovely little poem in it that struck a chord with me.

When of thy worldly goods

Thou find thyself bereft,

And from the goodly store

Two loaves alone are left.

Sell one, and with the dole

Buy hyacinths to feed the soul.

That night, Nathan (intuitively?) came back with Kohen's balloons and these Stargazer Lilies. Not exactly hyacinths but even better as far as I'm concerned. They really made me feel better immediately. Made it feel more like a home.

Now a few randoms that've been on my mind. First of all, it should be known that if an American health inspector walked into half of the little restaurants around here and conducted an inspection, I can't imagine many of them passing. All the tanks where they hold live sea food and such, ick. And for the record- I do not like shrimp served with their heads on. Those beady little eyes glaring up at you accusingly? Appetite gone immediately.

The ladies were really sweet at this particular place though. As soon as we walked in one was fawning over Kennedy and in broken English told her she looked like a Barbie. Then the two ladies came over to the table and were just intrigued with Aly, her fair coloring I think? They kept rubbing her cheeks and running their fingers through her hair talking about her curls. It sounds kinda weird but they were sweet ladies and Aly didn't seem to mind so I didn't either. Until they brought the shrimp with the eyes that is. I guess that's how they are usually served here. *shiver*

Now the whole thing with people giving our children stuff? Well, I've made some personal progress in that area. The other day the downstairs neighbor came to the door trying to motion to Nathan that the ceiling in his bathroom, under our bathroom, was leaking. We are renting the place from an older guy named Ivan. Ivan's a great guy. While the plumber has had to come yesterday and today (and likely tomorrow) Ivan comes and sits right by the bathroom and watches the worker trying to make as little inconvenience for us as possible, we can then leave to our appointments and such without worry about a random worker in the house.

Anyway, Ivan gave each of the kids a candy the other day and at least 2 of them had them opened and in their mouths before Kennedy read the wrapper, "coffee" candy. Then the dilemma. We don't drink coffee, this is clear, however coffee flavored candy doesn't actually have coffee in it so it was a weird gray area in the moment. I eventually told Kenna she could eat it if she wanted but that really we didn't need to be eating coffee flavored anything. Cut to the next day. Ivan, wanting to be nice, brings handfuls of the little candies and is passing them out to the kids. The kids were bringing them to me telling me, "I don't really like these" and handing me a bunch of them. That's when I decided, as kind as people are to us and as much as I hate to make someone feel offended- I can't spend the next 3 years just letting my kids have Coke or tea, or coffee candy whenever someone offers it. Sheesh, next thing you know someone will be offering our kids Sake (I know, I know that's actually Japanese) and should I just let them have it so as not to seem ungracious? That's ridiculous. So I've decided from now on I will speak up and try to refuse the things we don't partake in as graciously as possible. It just causes more problems when I don't stand up for what we believe in immediately. Does that make sense?

And lastly- I went in by myself and made my first grocery store purchases the other day. It was all going fine, I saw the total, $787 - got the proper bills and then the girl started going off in Chinese. But never fear, I quickly deduced she was asking if I wanted any bags (5 cents each). Pretty slick, for a first solo run if I do say so myself.

Kohen's 5th Birthday

My sweet Kohen has officially turned 5 and is the first to have a birthday in Taiwan. This birthday took a lot of forethought (not my specialty) because I knew we would have been here less than 2 weeks and I would have no idea where anything was and that proved true. So I was grateful for every little decoration or present I thought to lug over here. The theme was Robot, but more accurately "Kobot" which is Kohen's Robot name given to him by his Aunt Natalie.

We ran into a few problems when it came to our birthday traditions. We felt like it would be really important to continue as many as possible. One tradition we have is that we sneak a bunch of helium balloons into the birthday child's bedroom before we go to bed so that is the first thing they see in the morning. Believe it or not I actually brought a foil balloon over unfilled and Nathan went on a hunt to go find some one with a helium tank- amazingly he found somewhere at a flower shop a ways away. The man was somehow able to communicate to Nathan that the problem with the latex balloons he'd brought was that they will probably only stay up for 5 hours. That had me praying they would last just until morning- prayers were answered as Kohen decided to get up at 6:30 am and the balloons were still fine.

Next tradition/problem: Pinata. I thought we were going to get away with not doing one but boy was I wrong. Kohen kept talking about having his birthday pinata all the time and I knew I had to try and make something legit. That's when I turned into McGyver/McGruber. I seriously had so few supplies, crappy tape, glue stick, no colored paper or markers etc. But I had some boxes from Costco purchases, paperclips, paper bowls and toilet paper rolls. It took me several hours but eventually Kobot 5.0 was finished. In case you're wondering the bottom part is his wheel that he gets around on. C'mon, expand your imagination with me.Kobot 5.o was a hit (that pun was not intended but I got a chuckle...you?). Kohen thought he was the greatest.
I like Nathan's face below, you can tell he's trying not to let Kennedy give him an America's Funniest Home Video Moment... you know the kind I speak of.
Right before we left Boise we took Kohen to Build-a-Bear for his birthday. He reacted better than the girls (age?) and now he always has his Monkey "George" nearby. Even gets the monkey a real banana or other food for meals. He was very excited to get a soccer outfit for George. I have to give a shout out here to both Gma's who both managed to send birthday presents with us- they are on it.
One other thing we had to get really creative with was wrapping paper, couldn't find any here. We used foil, a Disney store bag and also packing paper smoothed out, it worked out just fine. I have to mention the present Kohen is reacting to below. It is a GI "Jones" set that last Christmas cost $55.oo and I found on clearance for $13, thank you very much (Target!). The box was ginormous though and Nathan- I love him for doing this- actually lugged it clear to Taiwan to store at his apartment on one of his previous business trips. I told you I'd been planning this birthday for a while.
The cake was another small problem. Our oven here at the apartment won't fit a 9x13 plus I have no idea yet where to find other cake fixings. We stumbled upon a...wait for it...Cold Stone Creamery in one of the big department stores. When Nathan went to get the cake and asked if they write on them the girl politely told Nathan that "they weren't America or Costco." Fair enough.
When I think about Kohen, well you guys know, you read about him all the time- he is a genuinely good child. He is mostly happy, he is funny and creative and the pretend play is unlimited. He really does have a spirit about him and I am so grateful to be his mom. I am also grateful that he was turning 5 and not 12 so that he overlooked all the quirkiness that came with his first birthday in Taiwan!

Typhoon Morakot

Meet Typhoon Morakot. This was the satellite shot of the storm on Friday and Taiwan is pretty much hidden under the red part. It started on Thursday when we noticed it was not only rainy but really windy and as we drove through town we noticed tape on all the store shop windows and even some sand bags along some of their entrances. It wasn't long before we heard word that a typhoon was on it's way. I guess when there is a typhoon coming everything shuts down and much of the time nothing really comes of it other than a rowdy storm. Only once in a great while does it cause a lot of trouble.

On Friday morning the streets were largely empty and though the wind was really blowing and it had been raining, it wasn't really down-pouring as we headed for the car. The picture is steamy looking because, imagine that, the camera kept steaming up- but enlarge the pic and you can see Nathan, Kohen and Aly walking through a carpet of fallen palm fronds and other fallen debris. I don't know if the picture shows it very well but the wind was blowing with serious purpose. I really feel bad for half of the population who ride scooters everywhere. They wear long rain slickers usually but still, it all runs off and soaks their pants and shoes. We also saw one gust of wind about knock a guy off of his scooter, he had to put his foot down to keep from falling.

The storm was supposed to really hit it's stride Friday evening. By then Nathan had gone to the store and secured some flashlights for us and we had some extra food just in case. You have to know the storms can be intense just from the style of most of our apartment windows (and some of the houses we looked at before) they have this type of double window with a drain in the middle. I think it is in case your outer window breaks or leaks and the water will drain out properly.

We decided to start a Typhoon Tradition since often with these storms things will be canceled and we'll be at home together. We weren't that creative this time but under the circumstances we felt pretty good about our party. We had stopped earlier and found a few American treats- M&M's and some kind of sweetish popcorn (weird but the kids didn't complain)- and as the sun went down and the storm really got under way we turned on our families favorite movie on my laptop, Singing In The Rain and snuggled up with one another as the wind and rain roared outside.

After the children had gone to bed there were only a handful of gusts of wind that made me think for sure our windows were going to shatter, other than that we couldn't really see much of what was going on outside so it was just scary sounds. In the morning I was so surprised to hear nothing. It was completely quite. The wind and rain had stopped and the sun even shone through the clouds once in a while.

There were lots of broken trees, the one above was impressive and had actually taken out part of a metal fence, but most were large branches of trees and smaller trees. Apparently the storm dropped around 39 inches of rain which is nothing to bat an eye at and part of the island was out of power for a time, though not us. Oh, and the apartment pool was missing at least a foot of water whipped out by the wind and impressive when you think how much rain also fell. Overall, we were warm (always warm) and safe inside which seems like as good a place as any to ride out your first typhoon.

The Natives Are Restless

The natives are restless. Each day the walls of this apartment seem to close in a few inches more. There has been a lot of playing pretend and the children making good use of the very limited items they have to play with. But the playing often turns to tiffs and there is no where to get away from each other. Most recently we've had a rash of the children destroying things. I'm telling you, this typhoon's got nothin on my kids.

I know it was accidental but still, who sleeps with Silly Putty not in it's container?! Kohen does. He woke me in the middle of the night to show me how his Silly Putty had brutally attacked his eye mask as he slumbered. It also strategically spread itself on the blanket he was sleeping on, the one he was covering with, and his pajama shirt. All ruined. It's the seedy under side of Silly Putty I tell ya- if it gets ground into something, it ain't comin out. Before it was all said and done one of my few clothing items, a skirt, was somehow also ruined. :(

Then this morning the kids were playing and it was kind of escalating into wildness quickly when we heard a large crash. The closet door in Kenna and Kohen's room had quite literally been ripped off the hinges. There are of course conflicting reports on exactly how the door was maimed but it sounds like some sort of football type tackle move against it... it is an old door and hinge but still- what's a good consequence for that?

And last but not least we have Kenna sporting her un-puttied eye mask as she attempts to go to sleep with gale force winds whipping around right outside the window. You may notice her bunny tucked into it's sleeping bag next to Kenna, all 3 children got one as a present when we moved into the apartment for their respective stuffed animals. It's been a big hit to have someplace temporary for their treasured animals to sleep just as they are somewhere temporary... anyway, I hope there is something left of this apartment when we leave. It is old and not up to the rigors of 3 caged children.

We've Complied

We've complied, swim caps for all. It is so funny to see my kids lookin like serious swimmers with the caps on. We've been swimming a couple of times at the apartment pool- I guess I said "we've" but truth be told I just sat in the heat and watched because swim lessons were going on and we were already a bit of a spectacle and there was no way I was getting in the pool with all those parents gawking. Nevertheless, Nathan and the kids have had some pretty fun times.

Our traditional "chuck the kid" picture- though these are a little blurry. Poor Kohen, waistband on his shorts seems to be failing him.

Aly was not a fan of the "chuck".... too bad. Family tradition, all must participate- just like Festivus and the feats of strength, no one gets out of the pool till they've been chucked!

Kennedy's a pro by now- had some cool shots of her mid-air acrobatics.

We had Kennedy's interview at TAS (Taiwan American School) which went well- they were very complimentary with how Kennedy tested, especially her reading skills, which always makes a parent glow. Kenna is asking all the time when she gets to really start school. (end of next week)

After the interview we had an appointment to go up and show the kids our house-to-be. The German family that has been living there has been so gracious to us. Angelica came out to greet us and showed us around and let the kids explore to their hearts content... which didn't turn out to be that long since she has a dog that they were totally distracted by. We are scheduled to be able to move in Sept. 1, for those of you keeping track that is exactly 2 weeks before my due date... At least I will be distracted, right?

I also went in to the hospital to see the OB who will be delivering Baby #4- the appointment went fine though somehow I left in a blue mood about delivering here. But reading my Maternal Handbook from their office did make me smile. I found Nausea spelled with a W- Wausea, and an H- Hausea...*giggle* And my favorite part: "The Mouse Cavity Hygiene"- where it tells me to, "Avoid feeling sick or vomiting." Will do! And, "Do the mouse cavity checkups during the early and middle pregnancy." I don't know about you but I always worry about my "mouse" and it's hygiene when pregnant.

Coming soon*: our first Typhoon!

*as long as there aren't any lengthy power outages.

It's Bloody Hot

I was trying to be tough because it isn't like I didn't know what the weather was like here, especially in July and August. But it has been so incredibly hot, and that combined with the humidity...It's an oft used description but since it is so accurate I will repeat it, walking outside is quite literally like stepping into a steam sauna fully clothed. The natural response- besides going back inside- is to take your clothes off asap, though I suspect that's frowned upon which is a real bummer.

You can try clicking on the picture, we'd been outside less than 5 minutes, but you can see Nathan and I 'glistening', Kohen and even more so Aly's faces just turn entirely bright red and even after we go inside they tend to stay flushed for a while. We learned quickly to B.Y.O.W.- Bring your own water- everywhere we go. I am embarrassed that 3 levels underground in a parking lot (imagine stifling heat that has no where to go) your favorite pregnant lady swooned- nearly passed out. It was weird, I was just so hot and I couldn't breathe. Felt like a bit of a boob. But then just today we were told it has been hotter than it has been in 5 years and so now I'm feeling like we're handling the heat quite well.

(Taipei 101)

Okay, next subject. Our kids are rockstars here and it's making me a tinge crazy. On this night we were downtown and had to go to Nathan's Accountant to sign papers for our ARC cards (Alien Resident Cards). Everywhere we go the people are so nice and treat our kids like royalty. The accountant actually sent one of his secretaries out to a store to bring back something for the kids after Aly embarrassingly yelled, "I want cold water!" having been served the traditional warm/hot water everyone drinks here. First Aly get's ice water- ice water! Ice is about the hardest thing to come by here and I was totally shocked when I saw it in the cup. Then the girl brings back a bag full of treats, gummy bears, Mentos, 3 Cokes, giant juice boxes filled with some kind of tea- we were only in the office for all of 15 minutes! And in case you are wondering, both drinks were a bit of a navigational mine field as we don't drink tea and Coke isn't a soda we would normally serve our kids (though one of the only ones you find here) and we didn't want to offend...

Next we found a place to eat and when Nathan took the children to go wash hands before the food came a lady had made cranes out of her napkins to give to the kids as they went back by her table. Those were a huge hit. For whatever reason Kennedy would not touch her noodles at dinner. They were like plain noodles in broth- very simple and understated but she would not eat. Towards the end of dinner she actually asks if there is something for dessert (insert my crazy 'as if' cackle here). I of course reply, "No, but even if there were I'm afraid you wouldn't be having any since you didn't touch your food." Not 5 minutes later here comes our waitress with complimentary bowls of ice cream for our 3 children.

All of this happened in about an hour and a half- it blows my mind. The people here are very nice and generous, that much is obvious. Will my children get through this experience without becoming completely spoiled, that remains to be seen. And for the record, Kennedy had to eat noodles before she got to eat her ice cream.

On our way home we learned valuable Taiwan Lesson #1: Always carry an umbrella. Admittedly, it should be a no-brainer but... We all got soaked going the short distance from the curb to the lobby. Surprisingly it doesn't cool you off that much which seems a bit unfair. Aly kept running back out claiming she needed to "take a shower" and I let her, deciding on the spot that there will definitely be more dancing and playing in the rain in Taiwan for our family. And why not, you're already soaking wet from the heat, might as well.

An Outing of Acrobats

First of all I have to say thank you so much for reading all my long-windedness and leaving comments of encouragement etc. Being over here in such a new place and far away from family and friends, you guys don't even know how much it means to me. So, thanks.

The girls from our church ward invited us on an outing to the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts where each week their students put on a Performance of Chinese Acrobatics followed by a tour of their Jun-ju Museum and then a performance of Beijing Opera. The acrobatics was cool, a couple times they had to try a trick 3 or 4 times to land it which actually made it more realistic but didn't take away from the performance. All of my children seemed dully impressed, at one point Kohen leaned over and I was expecting a question about the logistics of the crazy and amazing stunts he was seeing, instead he asked in wonder, "How do they change costumes so fast!?"

After the 1/2 hour acrobatics they had us go upstairs to the museum which was about 75% over the kids heads. Our tour guide above with Kohen is actually the girl in the picture behind her with the blue robe on. Below is Aly standing on what she thought was her own stage. At one point she asked if the long feather on the headdress of the person on the pic behind her was a snake, all of the Chinese tour guides following us everywhere thought this was hilarious...I am still unclear why.
The costumes they wear are really ornate, one interesting fact is that the most royal and high color you can wear is gold but that color is reserved only for the real Royal Family and so they aren't allowed to wear gold on stage and instead wear red to denote royalty... interesting.

This was a bunch of mannequins all dressed up like in the Opera and they were more than a little creepy. I thought Kennedy's expression below was an accurate read of how we all felt about them.
The 1/2 hour Opera was entertaining enough. Who knew that Chinese Opera singing literally sounds like a crying/dying cat and I am so not exaggerating. Not sure how much of that I could handle. They had English to the right of the stage that would tell us what was happening in the story and that had some funny mistakes in it. I especially love when the two main characters fell in love and promptly "left to go to bed"! Hello.
I made Nathan slyly take this picture of the Chinese girls who were staring at our row of American kids. I told you they stare unabashedly- I meant it! In this picture you can see 4 girls who were completely loving their life for the free entertainment we were providing. You'd never know the stage was actually in front of them. :)

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?