Brag Blog

Ok, I'll admit it. This entry is really for the grandparents so bear with me while I brag on the kids! First up is Barret. He did chores forever to earn a set of building dominoes (the kind you set up and knock down). He cashed in his chore chart recently and has had fun setting up the dominoes with help from Mom and Dad. Last night, though, he painstakingly set them up on his own, using the box top as a guide, and after three tries finally got them to collapse as planned. (I did help a little setting them back up after the test runs.) Take a peek at the end product:

The second brag is on Caroline. She officially kicked the thumb habit four weeks ago, and after proving herself for a month, she got her own reward. Wednesday, I took her to George Pais Beauty Salon to have her nails painted and hair trimmed. The staff there absolutely treated her like a princess as she sat primly in the grown-up chair. She picked out a lovely, sparkly purple shade for her nails and afterward had a blast telling people, "My nails are painted....Wanna see 'em?" Then, we joined friends Nicky and Anne for coffee (and apple juice) at the corner cafe. Caroline, what a nice grown-up girls' day we had! I'm proud of you!

'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!

SCUBA Diving and Elephant Riding

McLeod is my hero! Here is a man who loathes swimming in lakes, oceans or rivers because it gives him the heebee-geebees to think about what's swimming in there with him. He attributes it to a few too many viewings of JAWS while spending childhood summers at Panama City Beach, FL. (Jon Bell, if you're reading this, you'll remember those marathon sessions of watching the Jaws video while eating a pot of Nanny's campfire stew.) But facing his own Fear-Factor issues, McLeod recently completed his dive cert and has since been diving off the coast of Green Island (near Taiwan) and then again on our vacation to Phuket, Thailand. YEA!!! MCLEOD!!!

The Green Island dive trip was a classic guys weekend. The menfolk roughed it on tatami mats in the rooms above the dive shop. There were no showers (really, really stinky laundry and hubby came home from this one). They sped around the island on motorscooters. They nearly boiled their skin off in a geothermal salt-water hotspring. And most importantly, they got an up-close-and-personal view of one of the oldest living coral reefs in the world. It amazes us that more of the local Taiwanese don't seem to know about the ecological wonder at their doorstep. Part of the issue may be that Green Island is like the Alcatraz of Taiwan. The now-defunct prison there was the home not only for hardened criminals but also for political prisoners at odds with the government prior to democracy. So a bit of an image problem. It also lacks much of an infrastructure for tourists, but according to diving enthusiasts, the lack of tourist traffic is part of what keeps the reef protected and a truly fantastic dive site. McLeod's friend John was able to capture some great shots that he graciously let us post for you to enjoy. By the way, that's a scooter tire in McLeod's hand, proving that motorscooters really have taken over Taiwan.

(Green Island photos © John Heinemann 2007)

Spring Break Escape to Thailand

About two weeks after McLeod's Green Island adventure, we headed to Phuket (pronounced puh-KET by those in the know, which we weren't for awhile and so were afraid to announce where we were going, lest we embarrass ourselves). I don't really remember the trip there. To be honest, we'd had a week of pouring rain, frenzied finishing of projects, and general grumpiness at our house. This seems to merge together in my mind with our 6am ride to the airport, scramble to get ourselves and our bags through check in, the change of planes in Bangkok and the general exhaustion of air travel with small children. I'm always amazed at our bag count. For this trip it amounted to 1 suitcase, 1 bag of swim/dive/snorkel gear, 1 set of golf clubs, and 3 carry-ons stuffed with toys, electronics, diapers and all the various medicines we might need (non-liquid, of course, due to airport rules). But Hallelujah, we didn't have to take the stroller!! This was our first non-stroller vacation in 5 years and somehow, that seems like a milestone.

My first technicolor memory of the trip is the ride from the Phuket airport to the Laguna Beach Resort. Bouncing along in a shuttle van, I suddenly realized the sun was shining and we were all smiling. Strangely, the ramshackle collections of buildings that interrupted the pastures and tropical forests looked exactly like the tiny rural towns we'd grown up passing on the way to the Florida panhandle all our lives. We were really going to the beach at last! This thought was interrupted by the sight of water buffaloes cooling in mud puddles and munching grass. OK, we were definitely NOT in Florida. (However, at one point on the trip, two-year-old Caroline pointed to those long-horned creatures and exclaimed, "Hey! We're in Texas!" This is the first time in the 6 months since we've moved here that I've heard her make any specific Texas remark so it was good to know she still has memories of living there.) Once we got to the hotel, we changed into bathing suits in record time and began alternating between the pool and the beach. I was still pretty keyed up from the harried week--I had squeezed 3 interviews in for some articles I'm writing on local artists which meant a whole lot of arranging babysitters, trying to get food cooked up ahead of time for everyone's dinner, plus packing for the trip. McLeod was convinced that I was having a miserable time the first two days because I was so jumpy and generally short-tempered. Honey, I promise you, I WAS having a good time--I'm just sometimes kind of like a Coke bottle that someone shook up, and it takes a bit of time to slowly release the pressure so I don't spew my contents all over everywhere. (By the way, if you read the "Random Funny Things" post, you'll see yet another reason why the pink shirt is so fitting.)

By the end of the second day, though, fortified by a 2 hour visit to the spa for some pampering, I was in vacation mode. I stopped caring what I looked like, became concerned only about things like whether I wanted my lounge chair in or out of the sun and when the 4-year old elephant who lived at the hotel was coming out for her next visit. Relaxing by the pool or walking down on the beach were the top priorities, but we also managed to squeeze in some sailing and kayaking on the lagoon, a Thai cooking class (me), diving and golf (McLeod), and several Kids' Club activities for the kids.

On the topic of elephants, we are completely enchanted by them! Anna, the hotel elephant, was a doll. She'd take bananas out of your hands to eat and then give you a big "kiss" by suctioning on your face with her trunk. Sounds kind of gross but really quite cute. Each morning she'd visit with the guests, and then her caretaker would lead her down to the beach so she could play in the waves. We also got to ride one of the adult elephants during our stay and watch them working, eating, and bathing in the lagoon. Definitely an unforgettable vacation.

General Updates
So now we are back to real life again and counting down the days until summer vacation. This week, I registered Barret for kindergarten (wow) and now we're trying to figure out some extra activities. His top choices are karate and in November, soccer. Might be fun to actually take martial arts from real Chinese instructors. We'll see. Caroline is going to continue with Saturday morning gymnastics in the fall (or "mastics" as she calls the class) and will start 2-day-a-week preschool. That's plenty for us. We like to keep lots of time open to play in the park or just do nothing. We still like having occasional "Totally Pajama Days" where we do things like watch Disney movies and eat toaster waffles at every meal. Those precious times with my babes won't always be here, so I want to savor them.

UPDATE: This video is finally working. Here's the latest of Caroline. She often walks around (or twirls around) the house singing "That's what I do. That's what I do," or her other favorite self-composed song, "I am a PRINCESS." I thought this particular version was funny because a) she mixes in "We Are the Dinosaurs" from the Laurie Berkner Band and b) her motions look like a happy version of her having a two-year-old tantrum meltdown. Even the roaring seems oddly familiar...

Kuandu Temple, Language Class Update, and Thoughts of Home

March has roared in like the proverbial lion (in this case, the fierce Chinese lion/dog, imitated here by Barret) and finally, it's seeming like spring! Azaleas are blooming, and I've heard that there are fields of calla lilies in the countryside so I'm hoping to get out there soon. Now that the weather is starting to improve, the Kindergarten A class got to take their first real field trip. "Real" to Barret means he got to ride a big double-decker tour bus versus the "not real" field trip we took to the market by walking just around the corner. The class and available parents visited Kuandu Temple to see the elaborate lanterns, carvings, paintings and sculptures. I went as a "surprise guest" with my fellow-moms Nicky and Anna. I call us "surprise guests" because we didn't ride the official bus with the kids. That way we got to ride in Nicky's cushy new van, drive through a McDonald's on the way, and most importantly, bring along Anna's and Nicky's scrumptious babies. The school has a no-siblings-on-field-trips policy (bus liability issue) so, "Surprise! We just happened to be wandering around this temple. Fancy seeing our kids here!"

One of the things that makes Taiwan temples unique is the sheer volume of decoration. Kuandu Temple is built into the side of a hill and seems to have some kind of ornamentation on every square inch of it. One of my friends recently gave me a reference book called Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs, and it points out that traditionally, the Chinese have a "dislike for bland undecorated spaces in their works of art." This seems to match up with other comments I've heard regarding the local belief that empty spaces are places where evil spirits can lurk. I had plans to demonstrate this principle of horror vacuii (art term I still remember from Art History at BSC) by cramming in as many pictures as possible into this post. However, Blogger makes it very difficult for me to control exactly how these pictures get posted and sadly, there are always empty spaces lurking around. You get the idea, though. If you click on these images, you'll get a better idea of the intricate details. It really is a bit overwhelming.





Outside of the temple were some other attractions for the kids that were strangely entertaining. There was the mythological creatures gallery (hard to explain, just see the pictures below), a display of mannequins performing various traditional jobs (collecting rice, repairing shoes, making pots), and my favorite, mannequins dressed as pigs welcoming the Year of the Pig. I have the Pig-Men in a video clip but am still learning how to upload, so check back later. We also got to walk through some nice gardens where it just happened to be toad breeding season. All the moms got asked curious questions by our five-year-olds as to what the toads were doing. Ummmmm, playing leap frog? Nope, I'm not putting any Animal Planet footage of that on here.

Playing Hooky

With all the fun Spring stuff going on like field trips, swimming lessons, and generally being outside until dark, I've decided to take some time off from my Mandarin Chinese classes. I had two classes in a row where my teacher looked at me sympathetically and asked if we should stop early because my mind was quite obviously somewhere else. I'm not sure if I've lost momentum because things are busier or I have just hit some plateau where no matter how many times I go over vocabulary words, they just won't stick. Definitely time to take a break. However, I thought you might be interested to know that I have learned a few things and can say the following advanced phrases:
"Your dan bing (egg tortilla) is in the bag."
"My husband would like some ice water."
"I need a highchair." (OK, so technically I should say, "My daughter needs a highchair" but I get confused about the word for "daughter" versus "son." Maybe that's why the hostess gives me a funny look.)

Despite my obvious fluency, I still have trouble making the taxi drivers understand my address. I end up rummaging through my purse for the business card for our apartment building so they can read the address in Chinese. The driver then says, "Ohhhh, Zhong Cheng Lu," and I want to shout, "THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYING." Instead, I just laugh and bob my head while the kids start chanting, "Zhong Cheng Looooo, Zhong Cheng Loooo," to the delight of the driver. Evidently, a lot of expats have these kinds of problems because the international Community Center sells a pack of laminated cards on a ring with the Chinese addresses of major stores, attractions, hospitals, and restaurants. We call them the Magic Taxi Cards because you just say "Hi" to a driver, shove the appropriate card into his hand, and within ten minutes you appear at that location. Still, though, after 20 lessons in conversational Chinese, you'd think I could at least get myself home.

(On a tangent, wouldn't it be nice to have other Magic Cards? Instead of having to say, "Get dressed. Yes, that means shoes, too," you could just hand a kid a card. Or how about for hubby a card that says, "If I don't hide away in a big bubble bath right now while you put the kids to bed, I will lose my mind." I could probably go days without talking if I just had the right set.)

A Taste of Home?

Since we are coming up on the 6 month mark of being in Taipei, I thought you might also like to know that though we are adjusting quite well, we still have moments when we long for the familiarity of home. I mentioned that en route to the field trip, my girlfriends and I went through a McDonald's drive thru. That was the first drive thru window I'd been at since about September 30th, and I was so excited that when Nicky asked me what I wanted, I couldn't even think what to order. I finally blurted out "Small Coke." Then, Anna got a Sausage McMuffin and I thought, "Why didn't I order something like that?" I think I was just so blown away by the fact that I haven't driven a car in 6 months, much less gotten food while still in a car, that I was speechless.

Along the same lines of "so excited I turn goofy," this week I made a purchase that in hindsight was just a little bit pathetic. I am not much of a salad dressing eater, but every once in awhile it is nice to have some Ranch for dipping fresh veggies. I have checked Costco, two importers, and three grocery stores repeatedly over the last six months and never once seen a bottle of Ranch. Then, this week I saw a single bottle back in the organic foods section of my favorite grocery, and without even checking the price or the expiration date, bought it. Later, I noticed that I'd spent roughly $10 US on this bottle and so, told my family that we needed to save it for a special occasion. ("Cassia, it's not wine," was McLeod's comment.) However, I then happened to check the expiration date and saw that it expires April 2007 (as in, a few weeks from now). We cracked it open. Sadly, it smelled just like latex paint and tasted, as I imagine, the same. So, when I make my huge Wal-mart trip while in the US this summer, I think I will stock up on the dry packets of Ranch dressing mix. It might not taste like Hidden Valley out of the bottle, but at least it won't taste like paint, and hey, sometimes it's just nice to have a few of the comforts of home.

Coming Attractions...

With help from Amy, my sister-in-law, I will finally figure out how to upload video clips so I can show you things like the Animatronic Pig-Men and Caroline's original song, "That's What I Do." I should also have some pictures of McLeod's very first scuba experience off the coast of Green Island, just east of Taiwan. Interest piqued? Good! Until next time, Zai Jian!