The D.L. on the Grime and Q's Answered

Nathan and I were trying to find good examples of how everything here is so grimey and dirty. This picture of the car wash is a pretty good example. It's how everything looks. I think the reason is because it rains here so much and there is smog and when it rains it brings the smog down with it. After there is a fine layer of black soot on everything. Plus when it isn't raining it's so humid and it amazes me how the constant wetness just rots everything. It never fails, we'll be walking somewhere and I'll turn to find Kohen or Aly's face covered in black smudges like a full-on chimney sweep, since they unknowingly touched something and then touched their face. I did not bring NEAR enough antibacterial Wet Ones Wipes and when Nathan's boss came last month he brought me about 10 more travel packs. We are going through them like crazy.

I guess my point is that it isn't just the hospitals that are dirty. Though inside the hospital you have to wonder what the excuse is. There isn't literal chunks of dirt on the floor or anything, just an overall unclean feel. Everything is old and grimey. I saw (and then quickly tried to delete from my memory) small stains on the sheets at both hospitals we looked at. And to answer a few other questions from the last post, the new Dr. is a younger Chinese guy who speaks great English. The bag next to our broken out window by our car? I wondered about that too but apparently it was just trash. And Trevi, did they deliver in two separate places in Provo or Iowa or both? I guess I am just a little naive about how birthing is in places other then good 'ol Boise.
Okay some more randoms. There are these Koi fish as you walk in or out of our apartment building and every time we go past it attracts our children like magnets. And yes, I fully expect one of them to fall through that space before we are all said and done here.
One annoying thing that happens here a lot is misinformation. In example. Today we needed to go to Ikea. There is a smaller one near our apartment and a big one an hour away. Nathan got online and double checked that the smaller, nearer one had child watch, cuz hello that's key. We get there and low and behold, no child watch. It's only at the bigger one. And as we walked through the packed eating area I swear a hush fell over the crowd as they all rubbernecked at our family as we went by. No lie, I got pointed at with chopsticks several times and a flash to a camera even went off in Aly's direction. I feel really self-conscious being so 'heavy with child'. I wanted to disappear. But look what we found in the bathroom! How fun is that cute toilet? Just like at the kid's school. I liked how they had this one family size ginormous stall for us girls. We could potty and wash without the stares.
We went out to dinner with some friends and after we went to get this traditional dessert called Bing. It is shaved ice milk with fruit, in this case Mangos, and cream over the top. It is really a cool treat and the kids loved it. Out in the heat it is a race to eat it before it melts but don't worry, Kohen was on top of it.
Tonight in the car Kohen asked if "Space Alients" were real. I said No. Kennedy says, "Well, how do you know?" and I said something like, 'Because Heavenly Father created us in his image, so we all look like him." Kennedy says, "No we weren't. He has a beard."

Kenna's been a little argumentative lately but I had to admit she had a point in her own way.
Last but not least, shall we all take a guess what else could possibly be added to my plate right now, as if the whole world can't see me teetering on the brink of insanity? Nathan and I got callings*** last week. Nathan was called to Young Mens Presidency per usual, and then I was called to be Young Womens President. After the contraction passed and I could breathe again (I may or may not have said, "please be joking right now") the Bishop pointed out that there are only a small handful of girls (4-6) but still.... I am overwhelmed. I am not near cool enough or inspired enough for this call. You don't need to say I am in either, I am not fishing for compliments, just saying how I feel...followed by, heaven help us.

***(In our church all positions, Bishop, teachers, nursery leaders, chorister, etc. are all performed by the members without pay. So you get asked to serve in different callings say as a Sunday school teacher, and you do it as a service and as a way to contribute.)

What A Weird Day

This morning at 7:15am the whole fam headed down from our temporary 10th floor apartment to load up to take the children to school (30min away) and then make an early appointment. This is what we found when we got to the van...... That's never good. Luckily we have a lease and this is our temporary van while we wait for an Odyssey and apparently one of the reasons you pay out the nose for a lease is the service. Nathan called our contact guy and he and the police showed up bringing another substitute van while this one is being fixed.

I jumped in a cab with the 3 children and we headed to school. The entire ride was understandably, filled with a bazillion questions about bad guys and how "the" bad guy did what he did and how many bad guys are there and where are they...

Come to find out, the navigation system in all Toyotas is the same and so right now it is a hot item to have stolen- recently made considerably worse by the typhoon, so we were told. It was a very professional job, power drill to the window, pull it out drop it to the ground. Reach in pop out the console with a screwdriver, cut one wire, unplug 3 things and walk away. I would be surprised if the whole thing took more than one minute. And I was very grateful that it was taken care of fairly easily.

So, okay. We've had baby doctor drama. A little bit. Last week when I went to my appointment with the OB (my 3rd with her, I'd seen her 2 weeks previously) it really didn't go well. She is SUPER nice and easy to talk to. However, she didn't really remember me and went 2/3's of the appointment thinking I was 30 weeks. I thought something was weird and it was confirmed when she tried to make my next appointment for 4 weeks. I said, "I'm due in less than 4 weeks." She was confused and shocked but eventually switched gears to the "time to pack your bags!" speech. I asked her my questions about her policy's and I didn't love the answers. Especially regarding episiotomy's. She admitted to cutting 50% of Westerners having their 1st child- what?! and had stats for subsequent births telling me I'd 'probably' be fine. I said, "but you'd ask me before you would do that right?" She said, "I wouldn't ask you, I would tell you but yes." *frown/glare*

Then she took me on a tour of the hospital. Things went from bad to worse. Usually they only have one labor and delivery room the rest of the time you labor in one room and then are moved to the delivery room (old school like our mothers did it). The dr. explained how it get's intense at the end of labor (cuz it's my 4th and I am unaware of this) and if I'm waiting for a delivery room I "might have to hold the head in" for a bit- like that is even possible! And these are sparse rooms with no soaker tubs or showers even, a bed and tv and that is about it. Post partum rooms were shared 90% of the time. And they keep your baby as much as possible though my friends who delivered here said they were able to get their babies back after a several hours. Overall, I wouldn't be supported in a natural birth by this doctor and I was less than enthused about the hospital.

We checked out a birthing center but it is at least an hour from our home, with traffic could be much more. I was advised to not risk having the baby in the car. The birthing center was better but really far away. Then, in an answer to prayers, a new kid joins Kohen's class and Nathan is chatting with the mom who is a Doula (birthing coach). What are the odds?! She suggested the Veteran's hospital right in Tianmu that is 10-15 min away from our house. This morning she took me over there to check it out.

If you saw it you'd die. Hospitals and health care in general are SO different here. It is not clean and Dr..'s lack the bedside manner we are used to. But I am getting used to how they all look creepy scary now and am coming to realize there is no way around it. Anna has been here 12 years and has the system down. There is absolutely NO WAY someone like me could just walk in and figure out what I'm supposed to do. She got me registered got me an unscheduled appointment with the Dr. who is open to however I want to have this baby and he answered all my questions favorably, then showed me L&D which I took in through half closed eyes. Anna kept telling me, you just have to ignore the dirt! It is very true. Everything is old and grimey. But postpartum here is much more to my liking, I can have things more my way and I liked the Dr. as well.

I am excited to have a Doula this time around, having an advocate especially in this situation seems priceless. Before we left we went to get my blood taken and Nathan had to take a picture because no lie, the place is swarming with people and it is just like the DMV...crazy. But I can see there are definitely pros to socialized medicine. Where else could I switch OB's with just over two weeks left? And pay $40 bucks for the Dr. visit, blood work and ultrasound?!

The Capes of Taipei

We have one week left before our house is ours, I know I can do it- I think I can, I think I can... My talented and crafty cousin Shelly sent a package that I've been saving for the right time to surprise the kids. This Sunday was it. The children have thus far been very creative and have done well but they don't have much to play with or any of their usual dress ups. I knew they would love what Shelly had made, a Super Hero Cape for each of them- they were a loud and boisterous hit.
Each cape is reversible and after not very long the girls capes turned into capes for Royalty while Kohen still ran around being a super hero and kind of terrorizing them with his exuberance about it. He has been missing his old crummy cape and is thrilled at his shiny new one. As are the girls, I had to convince Aly it wasn't proper school attire just this morning. Thank you Shelly for your thoughtfulness!

Of all the children the one I least suspected would have any issues with an overseas transition is the one who is having it. Poor Aly. She has been an early and well spoken communicator for quite some time. There are many Philipino women who come here to work as maids and in our church ward there are many Philipino women and some native Chinese people as well. Aly's teachers in Nursery happen to be Philipino and one Chinese. English is each of their 2nd languages. After the first week we of class she has since been coming completely unhinged when we drop her off and throughout. At first we didn't know what was wrong- and she was just crying so hard we couldn't figure it out. Eventually she started asking us things that clued us in, mainly, "Does my teacher speak English?" *light bulb* She can't understand them because they speak with accents. Her teacher at preschool is from India- same problem, same reaction. It's been rough going.

What's worse is everyone seems to pronounce her name putting emphasis on the wrong syllable and it sounds more like "El-ee" and apparently this really bothers Aly. Her nursery teacher told me how she kind of...how shall I say, corrected her strongly, about how to say her name correctly. I don't really blame her about that. Things were a little bit better this Sunday but I honestly feel sorry for her that she feels she can't understand what they are saying around her half the time. Who would've guessed it'd be Aly freaking out in Asia? Thought that target had been blown up and pinned on my back.
Lastly, part of Kennedy's homework every night is to read a book she brings home and it has become this cute little ritual among the children where they crowd around and she reads a book to her brother and sister. Nathan and I are insanely grateful for the short reprieve and can be found using silent hand gestures to communicate over the tops of their heads if we need to so as not to interrupt and cut short our coveted moment of peace. They are short enough as they are!

Our First Night Market Experience

Tonight Nathan took us to a Night Market for the first time. Lot's to see, lot's being sold, lot's of weird foods- much of which you wish you hadn't seen! As our family went along we were quite the spectacle, understandably. My OB told me yesterday that the birth rate here has dropped significantly over the last few years and the average family has 1.1 children. So being Western and then having more than our fair share of children, we get some looks.
We tried some of this juice, we chose the green lemon one (not lime after all) and it is the coldest drink I have been served in Taiwan so far and it was delicious. DELICIOUS I TELL YOU! We also had these little dough balls and like all baked goodies here they aren't usually very sweet anyway but these were just fried dough that had a hint of sweet to it and they were surprisingly addictive.
The best find of the night were these little bug catching nets. We went swimming with playgroup a week ago and the children all spent most of time with nets catching bugs (mostly grasshoppers thankfully) out in the grass. At $1 each I felt great about the purchase.
There are beautiful fresh fruit stands everywhere throughout the market. They cut it up for you right there. We made it about 5 paces away from the stand we bought some fruit from before our wagon train was halted so Nathan could share with the kids who were acting like starving baby birds. Fruit here is so good it is definitely like dessert.

Nathan thought we should go to this area that is all kinds of different Chinese foods and have dinner there. Let's just say I was less than willing. Well, we walked through this giant tented area for about 3 minutes before Nathan said over his shoulder, "We've got to get out of here!" I was so completely thankful and relieved. The horrors that I witnessed both sight and smell were so offensive I was too paralyzed to even use my camera, where would I start? And it was so crowded and gross, GROSS, GROSS! There is a food here called "Stinky Tofu" which is rotten tofu I believe, I never actually saw it, but I smelled it and it burned the nose hairs clean outta my nose, not even kidding. The kids wanted out too. It was bad. Poor Nathan was apologizing to all of us, kinda funny. We will have to find a better place to try some food next time- and I will take pictures. I'm sorry, I really was just focused on getting out of there.
Instead we went to our favorite Dumpling restaurant. Ahhh, safety. You can double click the pic, it's pretty cool how they make the dumplings. Thankfully they smell just fine. After we spent all week getting our children to bed early we kind of blew it tonight cuz we didn't even have dinner until an hour past their bedtime and they were all pooped but had enjoyed the outing... except for when Kenna about put Nathan and I over the edge when leaving the market with net and treats in hand she had the gal to say, "I thought you said we were gonna do something fun!" We tried to remember how truly tired they were but I really hate it when they do that. Especially when they have "fun" in hand. Other than the nightmare that was the food tent, I'm gonna give the Night Market a thumbs up.

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.