'Tis the Season for School, Baseball and Typhoons

School is underway at last, and both kids are doing great. Caroline, my confident pre-schooler, spends two days each week playing, singing, tumbling and learning a little Chinese. At first, she was confused when her teacher switched to Mandarin during the language lesson time. Caroline kept asking, "Why aren't you talking in English?!?" and when the teacher would say something like "Ping guo is the word for apple," Caroline would insist that "apple is the word for apple!" She has since caught on, though, and seems to be enjoying learning some new words and songs.

Caroline is the oldest in her group, and I think she really enjoys NOT being the baby sister for a change. In fact, within the first hours of Day One, she'd pretty much taken charge of the class. Her teachers were singing "Twinkle Twinkle" with the kids during circle time. When they finished, Caroline stood up and said, "Let me show you how it's done." Miss Ruby laughingly vacated her cushion for Caroline to sing for them. As you will see in the video, Caroline experienced a moment of uncertainty then plunged right into her version. Hope you can catch her comment at the end of her performance...

So what she said at the end was, "That's how you do it!" Her teachers cracked up and have loved her ever since!

Kindergartner Barret is in his second year at Taipei American School, so though his day is a bit longer than in junior kindergarten, he really feels like an old pro. One difference for him, though, is riding the bigger bus. Last year he rode on a little bus with just his classmates, but this year he rides home on a double-decker coach with the K-5 kids. No bumpy yellow school bus for this kid. He sits up top in a plush seat with a great view of the metropolis.

His first day home on the bus was so unlike what I imagine it would have been in northwest Houston. There, I would have walked across my yard and down to the stop sign, perhaps dodging the spray from a neighbor's errant sprinkler. One or two other moms might be there. A dog would bark from inside his fence while we waited. At last the yellow bus would bring me my child, and he and I would chat casually as we headed back to our house for a snack.

Here, I took a short cut through a department store (stopping only briefly to look at a jewelry display) and ended up in the midst of a Ghost Month celebration. The sidewalk where I was supposed to wait for Barret was blocked by an eight-foot table piled with offerings to departed ancestors said to roam during the seventh lunar month. Arrayed on the table were burning incense sticks, trays of fruit, pyramids of beer and canned food, and whole dried fish, duck and chicken with all fins, feet, beaks and coxcombs intact. At the curb where the bus was to drop off the kids, two fires were blazing in large wire trash cans while people pitched in paper ghost money for restless spirits in need of some currency in the afterlife. The fires were getting slightly out of hand and threatening the tree branches above, so of course, people on scooters and in cars were stopping to watch. Thus, when the bus arrived, there was no place to really pull up, so all the parents were dodging ashes, people, and scooters to get their kids and usher them back to the sidewalk. Barret's eyes were popping as he climbed down the steps from the top deck of the bus--look, fire! look, food! What more could a little boy ask for at a bus stop!

Baseball Season

Barret's other big first for the year is baseball with Coach Dad. McLeod and fellow dad, Coach Dana, work with a team of twelve boys and girls called, you guessed it, the Astros. They have a half-hour practice on Saturdays followed by their game, so it works well for both of the coaches, who are usually travelling around Asia during the week. They do a few drills and learn important things like how to jump up and down in unison while Coach Dana yells, "What time is it?" to which they reply, "It's Game Time!"

There are only a few official rules: there is no score and everyone gets to play, everyone keeps swinging until they get a hit either from the coach's pitch or off the T, and if the ball ends up in your hand, throw it to first base and first base throws to home. (The kids recite this last one constantly, but sometimes in mixed up order.) I have also noted a number of unofficial rules:

1. No matter where the ball goes, the whole team should run after it.


2. When the ball is finally stopped, the whole team should pile on top of the ball and each other.


3. If your nose starts bleeding, you have the option of leaving the blood on your face if you think it makes you look more menacing.
   
4. Gloves can be worn on either hand or on top of the head during a game.


5. When running to first base, you should take the bat with you and brandish it like a sword.


6. All base runners should meet up at third base and race each other home.

Going to watch these little sluggers is absolutely one of my favorite things about Saturdays. Goooooooo Astros!

Typhoon Season

We are currently bracing for Typhoon (hurricane) Wipha, slated to brush by us in the next 12 hours. This will be our second typhoon since we got back to Taipei--the first one, Sepat, ended up being milder than we thought, though we did get some good views from our window of the wind stripping leaves off the trees and sending signs flying. I know TX and LA have had some weather themselves recently, so you know what it's like waiting and watching as these spectacular systems inch their way toward the coast. The first bands began impacting us yesterday. I shot some video from our porch of the clouds coming over the mountains.

As I don't watch the local news here, the sky was my first indication that I might want to check Weather Underground to see whether a typhoon was out there. By 10pm last night the expat phone and email cascades had started as we passed each other word that schools and businesses would be closed today. As one of my Mandarin-speaking friends from Singapore said when she called, "I thought I should call some Americans because I know you don't watch the local TV." She was right! Anyway, we will stay safe and dry at home today, with flashlights, radio, and lots of snacks at the ready. Until next time, Zai Jian!