'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!

Random Funny Things

Fairly often we come across things that seem bizarre or just plain funny. Occasionally, I actually have the camera handy. Here are a few recent examples.

I purchased this shirt because I felt like it truly represented the real me - Authentic, Positive, Creative Gas. Fuel efficient? Yep. Full of hot air? Sometimes, but at least it's authentic, positive and creative hot air.

These next two were spotted while on a field trip with my son. Barret and I have been reading the Chronicles of Narnia so here was an excellent example of a Faun. Except, well, this one kind of needs a sports bra. And as for the sign? Just made me laugh.

More random funny things to come. Yep, still trying to learn how to post videos. Please let me know if you know why when I embed the link in the html, I just get a black box with the play button but no image.

UPDATE: OK, Video seems to be working again. Here is the very low-tech Mannequins dressed as Pigs to welcome the year of the pig. Again, not big-budget special effects here but the kids liked it.

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!

Ringing in the Chinese Lunar New Year: Feet, Fireworks, KTV and the Tundra Zone

Goodbye, Year of the Dog and Hello, Year of the Pig! There's nothing quite like celebrating the new year with friends and a foot massage! With schools and offices closed for a week, we've had a chance to try some new things. Yesterday, McLeod (happily) endured his first traditional Chinese reflexology foot massage, and while there were some moments when he nearly yelped with pain, his feet felt fantastic afterwards.

February 18 marked Day One of the Chinese lunar year and the first day of Spring, and though it is now nearly the end of the month, the celebrations continue, with fireworks and loud, crackling strings of Chinese firecrackers sounding off all day and most of the night. Chinese tradition holds that the fireworks scare away monsters, but I'm pretty sure most folks also think it's a whole lot of fun. We even launched a few fireworks ourselves on New Year's Eve, with a certain group of expat hubbies deciding to sneak down and set off the leftover stockpile at 2am a few nights later. They thought they were blending in with the other Taiwanese revellers. However, American voices shouting "WoooHooo!" and "Fire in the Hole!" pretty much gave away who they were. They were only in the doghouse (pighouse?) a little while, though, because it was awfully funny. Though offices and schools are only shut down this week, the festivities continue for 15 days total, ending with the Latern Festival on March 4th. I'm guessing that March 5th will be the first night I sleep really well! The kids have had a ball, especially since friends have given them red envelopes of money and that people everywhere have candy sitting out. They even agreed to dress up a bit for some CNY pictures. Getting a picture of them both standing still and smiling at the same time is always a bit of a challenge, especially since they make me laugh and so, jiggle the camera.

Singing our hearts out at KTV
Leading up to Chinese New Year, I was busy on assignment for Centered on Taipei magazine, writing about KTV, the much-beloved Taiwanese past time of singing with friends in a karaoke studio. I really wasn't sure what to expect as I arranged a Girls' Night Out at PartyWorld KTV. I had been assured by sources (i.e. the COT editor) that we would find PartyWorld to be a fun, safe, classy environment. I still imagined a rather smoke-filled lounge with American Idol Wannabe's stumbling onto stage, propelled by liquid courage. Instead, fellow moms and I were pleasantly surprised to be ushered into our own private party room where we could dine, chat, laugh and of course, sing our way through roughly 60 songs over four hours. Since most of the music (at least the songs we knew) was from the 80s and early 90s, we also had a great time talking about albums we'd wanted to buy as kids, laughing about prom themes, and remembering all those late nights at college. It was a nice break from the daily routine of fixing dinner and helping with homework, and it turned out to be a great bit of bonding for a group of strangers in a strange land.

Salt and Bread (and only a little frost bite)
Last night brought another new experience for us: Russian cuisine plus drinks at sub-zero temperatures. As our final hurrah before returning to work, several couples decided to try out Salt and Bread. This Russian cafe featured good food (lots of saurkraut-and-potato-garnished beef and sausages, caviar appetizers, and tummy-warming soups) and a first-rate bakery and ice cream bar. The highlight was a freezer-turned-vodka-bar where patrons could bundle up in giant parkas and get a feel for those Siberian nights. My Deep South constitution allowed me to last about 5 minutes in the ice bar, even with the parka, before I headed back out to my warm sausage dumpling soup and beef stroganoff, but some of my New England counterparts were braving the cold in their shirt sleeves by night's end. (I'm pretty sure I heard them say something like, "We're from New England. We laugh at the cold.") As an added bonus, one member of our party won the lucky draw for roughly a case of Russian Baltika beer for our group to take home. Perhaps we'll break it out and reminisce about those long, cruel months in the salt mines?

Combatting the January Blahs

Hello, dear friends.

It's that lovely time of the year I've always known as the January Blahs, which usually last into February but abate with the promise of spring. Do you know the feeling? Christmas has been packed away for another year and the credit card bills are rolling in. The weather has been generally gross. The cough and cold season is in full swing with everyone pulling out their bottles of hand-sanitizer and their face masks. (From what I've been told, Taiwan even made the international news recently from a stomach virus that turned epidemic. Thankfully, we've only had some minor sniffling around here.) Everyone is looking for something to shake things up, to break up the monotony of work, school, and dreary weather. Right about the time Houston was having its history-making ice storm, I actually got to feel a mild earthquake, so that provided some excitement for a day or so. Then, wouldn't you know it, the Blahs came back and we're all kind of moping around waiting for the sun to come out!

But lest you think we've lapsed into complete depression around here, we have had some fun things to celebrate. We've now passed our first 100 days in Taiwan! This was a mental milestone for me, partly because I have clung to the belief since we moved that if I could make it through the first 100 days, the next 100 would be easier. This seems to be true, in that I do feel much more at home in my surroundings and a lot of the shock has worn off. Secondly, passing the 100 day mark was a perfect excuse for creating our own holiday. We decided to mark day 101 of our new life here with our own Taipei 101 Day celebration, complete with a skyscraper cake meant to be the Taipei 101 building downtown. Yes, it does look more like an Aztec pyramid, but it was the best Barret and I could do! You'll also note that the kids are still in their pajamas at 4pm in the afternoon. Occassional all day pajama fests (Mom and Dad included) seem to be part of our prescription for the Blahs.

Another important family date this month: McLeod and I celebrated our 11th anniversary. In Taiwan, the year is 96 rather than 2007 because the Taiwanese use their founding year, 1911, as year one for their calendar. So that means that our anniversary fell on 13 January 96, which apart from the 19- before the year, is our actual wedding day. We celebrated with an American meal at Dan Ryan's Steakhouse, and I wore some sparkly-new, terribly uncomfortable but very cute shoes. Those of you who know that I live in running shoes will appreciate the effort. I looked very tall and svelte as long as I stood still and didn't try to hobble around too much.

McLeod and I also attended a Taiwanese-style wedding banquet recently. The wedding ceremony was a family-only affair followed by a large feast at one of the hotels downtown. Per custom, we brought along a red envelope containing an even-numbered amount of money (hong bao) for the couple. We had some help from the front desk staff here at the apartment in preparing the right amount (certain numbers are taboo, other numbers are extra lucky) and making sure that our bills looked new. When we arrived at the banquet, we gave this to a wedding attendant who sat at the front door and dutifully recorded the names and amounts of each gift-giver. Once inside we were seated with some of McLeod's colleagues and had a great time learning the meanings behind the different foods that were served. Each of the twelve courses was meant to help ensure good luck, prosperity, etc. for the couple. I was very brave and tried almost everything except for the bamboo fungus. (I have a hard time eating things that look like two-week-old leftovers from the bottom shelf of my refrigerator.) There were a few speeches and the majority of the toasts were made by the bridal party, who walked around to each table to raise glasses with the guests. We were very honored to be included, and I had fun comparing cultural notes with one of my Taiwanese friends.

February is already looking interesting with a visit to a KTV (Taiwanese karoake) coming up, an all-day cross-cultural training class for McLeod and me, and preparations for Chinese New Year. I've started writing some for a magazine that caters to the expat community here, so we're hoping that will spur us to explore the island more in the upcoming months. Hope all of you are making it through the winter doldrums with visions of spring dancing in your heads. It will be here before we know it!

Happy New Year!!

Can you believe it's 2007! We rang in the New Year here in Taipei watching fireworks from our balcony, and we even got to call a few loved ones just after midnight here to let them know 2007 had actually arrived and looked great so far. Now we are slowly getting back into the routine of school and work after a wonderful three weeks off. We are also still reliving memories of our fantastic Christmas trip.

On December 20th over Barret's birthday pancakes, we finally got to spill the beans to the kids about our plans to take them to Hong Kong for a week. We were there from Dec. 24 to Dec. 30th, and it still amazes me that we just saw The Actual Hong Kong! Incidentally, we missed the Taiwan earthquake on Dec 26th, though it virtually destroyed Hong Kong's Internet service for the rest of the week. For us, having a forced break from email wasn't a bad thing, and we were relieved and thankful that the quake wasn't devastating to Taiwan.

While in Hong Kong, we pretty much did EVERYTHING. We rode ferry boats, sky trams, cable cars, subway trains, and scary-fast taxi cabs. We saw the view from Victoria Peak, the giant pandas at Ocean Park, the laser light show on the harbor, and all those crazy vendor stalls at Stanley Market. One lovely afternoon we stopped in at a British pub called the Boathouse for a quick thristquencher then headed for the beach at Repulse Bay just before sunset to capture some pictures (and quite a bit of sand in our clothes).

Did I mention that I also got to go to Hong Kong Disney, ride on stuff with my kids, and see the fireworks show that included real fire shooting off the top of Sleeping Beauty's castle? I'm a bit of a fireworks (and Disney) junkie, so at one point I must have let loose a particularly loud, "WOW!" because the Asian families around me all turned around and started laughing. It was a pretty great Christmas present. We'll be thanking "Santa McLeod" for quite awhile.

As for Christmas in Asia, we were surprised at how much Christmas spirit there was here in Taiwan. Most of the stores and our apartment complex put up trees and strung lights and banners with things like "Hearty Christmas!" and "We are open Christmas and Happy New Year!" For our friends in the computer industry: we found out why there was that global shortage in blue LEDs this year. They used them here in all the decorations. No, not blue Christmas light bulbs but actual computer LEDs that blinked in complex patterns all over town.

Santa is very big here, too. One of our favorite department stores decorated around the roof and sides of the building with several long, skinny Santa's made of parachute material. They kind of looked like they were either escaping over a prison wall or perhaps preparing a ninja assualt on someone inside, but we were happy to see the guys in the red suits nonetheless. McLeod, as honored Meiguoren (Chinese for American) and the only one uh...statuesque enough to pull it off, was drafted to play office Santa at the Christmas party complete with snug red suit and white beard. Poor guy had just gotten off a plane from the States after roughly 24 hours of travelling and had lovely red eyes to match the suit. (By the way, he wants me to mention that seeing his belly in a Santa suit has motivated him to start running again and that he has Nike+iPod shoes that are tracking his progress on nike.com for anyone that wants to compete against his running totals.)

As for the real reason for the season, the references to Christ and his birth were small, but we were very blessed by them - a live nativity scene at the park, free Chinese Bibles placed in a lobby, Christmas carols (the real ones like "O Holy Night") playing at Disney, gatherings of people at the few churches. One of the most moving memories for me was at a small ladies bible study I visited in mid-December. Ten or twelve of us were gathered at a table, women from all over the world. We decided to sing some Christmas carols together and when we got to the German carol "Silent Night," I glanced over at one of the ladies from Germany. Tears began streaming down her face. That combination of being far from home in body yet close in spirit got to me, too, and by the time we were singing one of my favorites, "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," I was fighting back tears. There is also nothing quite like singing the phrase, "Joyful, all the nations rise; Join the triumph of the skies," with friends from across the globe!