The Art of Tai Tai Living, Part II

It’s Starbucks Wednesday! That’s the day I do “Library Time with Ms. Cassia” at Caroline’s school, and I pop in for a latte just beforehand. The dose of Starbucks makes me a read a tad fast, but the caffeine-induced sense of well-being aids in my recovery from Crazy Tuesday. That’s the day I hot-foot-it around Tienmu, shuffling the kids to activities while hauling most of their stuff on my back.

Today it will most likely be in the high 80’s, but I will still pretend it’s autumn and that I need hot coffee to warm me up. I’ll also pretend to people-watch, but I’ll actually be playing a game called “Spot someone I know on a bus.” No, not in the bus. I like scanning the ads that wrap the buses, looking for the faces of my “famous” friends.

Or rather, my friends’ famous children. Because as my good friend Nicky says, “You know you’re an expat wife when a picture of your kids goes past you on the side of a bus or you see a poster of them on a random building.” And here’s the real Tai Tai twist… You’ve taken pictures of the pictures, especially with your “famous” model kid standing next to himself.

Of course, you can’t let fame go to your head. Tai Tai’s have a constant mental battle to distinguish between what’s real and what’s gone a bit into fantasy land. For instance it is real for an expat to stick out like a sore thumb. But it is just a bit weird that it no longer bothers me when people hand me their cameras and have me take pictures of them with my all-American cuties. Someone stop us if we start signing autographs. It’s also real that we have to improvise to make holidays happen – buying decorations during summer home leave, spending a mint on a frozen imported turkey – but who in the real world has a serious discussion about whether we can post the housekeepers at vacant houses so the kids can have more places to trick-or-treat? Tai Tai is definitely a frame of mind, girls!!

So for a twist this week, we’ll answer the question, "You know you might have been an expat wife too long when…"

You no longer think anything of going to shady run down studios to model for 1000NT ($30) per hour. Ana

You actually start to like having your underwear ironed by the amah (can't speak from experience on this one). - Liisa (It’s the perfectly folded “panty packets” sorted and stacked in rainbow order that sold me.)

You describe your child in a group by saying, "He's the blond." Kerri

You give your 3rd grader a cell phone because it makes life more convenient for you! - Janell

Your kids start singing the refrain to the latest "Bed world" commercial...in Taiwanese. - Liisa

You refer to flagging down a taxi as "hiring a car" and the cabbie as "my driver." – Cassia (Seriously, his name is Enrico and I think all cars should be yellow.)

Although you and your family are Chinese American, your 7 year old looks at you and says, "Mommy, you don't look like you would speak Chinese because you have freckles." - Cathy

You have your own "pearl lady" in the market because you’ve bought jewelry from her so many times. She knows your name and where you live. She tells your friends she saw you today! Karen

You walk to your kid’s school with your helper, and she insists on carrying your purse while shading you from the sun with her umbrella. (I had to tell her to stop really.) Ana

You suspect that the real reason your friend adopted a dog from the Buddhist monks was so her kids will have something to keep them busy while you're all catching up on Facebook. - Cassia

You actually prefer drinking warm water to ice water. Janell (And when the temp drops below 85, you start looking for your jacket.)

You think it's normal to have at least one authentic designer bag - doesn't everyone have a Louis Vitton or Gucci? - Christine (And you bought said bag a mere 50 yards from home because you live next to a high-end shopping mall and pass by it everyday.)

You are so completely mad because you can only get your usual cleaning lady for 2 days this week instead of the usual 3! Janell

You see every other Expat wife wearing the same outfit as you because the one store that caters to normal sizes just got a new shipment in. - Christine

You let your 7th grader take a taxi back home. - Milena

You have the phone number of the Knock Off watch/purse guy on you cell phone. All you do is call and in a few hours a whole load of illegal items is on your Dining room table. - Marsha

You find that storage space is at such a premium that you now store your Christmas tree in your second bathtub (yes Ana that one is for you) :) Christine

Even though you (still) don't speak Chinese and the person you are communicating with doesn't speak English - you both know exactly what the other is talking about. Janell

Aren't we a good looking bunch? A few of the expat faithful celebrating "Tai Tai'" Mary's birthday!

The Art of Tai Tai Living, Part I

No, Tai Tai is not yoga or martial arts (though it does require flexibility, skill and raw survival instinct). It's basically the Chinese term for "Mrs." as in The Lady of the House, and for the (usually) unemployed expat wives, it's become a great way of explaining the weirdness of our life here. The strangely formal social interaction with our husbands' companies. The shortcuts that make life easier. The ways we've recreated home-country customs. The struggle against bone-wearing busyness. The sheepish looks when we admit our dependency on household help. The days of solo-parenting while husbands travel. The sheer pleasures of parties, charity balls, or just catching up over coffee. The realization that girl friends are a necessity to combatting isolation, self-absorption and homesickness.

Tai Tai's are resourceful. They are daring. They are manicured and pedicured.

And despite how much we tease each other for "living the good life" of travel, household help, and shopping jaunts, Tai Tai's give back to Taiwan. These are the ladies that open their homes to stray animals and their hearts to foster children. They coach the sports teams and lead the pack hikes. There's even a touch rugby team called "The Tai Tais" that formed to give the high school girls someone to practice against. But oh, how we do love to tease and joke about our expat life! In their lovely, funny, self-deprecating way, the Tai Tais filled in the answer to "You know you're an expat wife when..." just so I could give you a glimpse of the Art of Tai Tai Living.

Up this week, the battle for food! Who knew that you CAN'T get everything you need from one store no matter how big it is? Unless, that is, you're willing to cook stirfry A LOT, use toilet paper that should be called Sandy Wipe, and believe toothpaste from mainland China might actually be healthy.

Grocery Shopping and Food: You know you're an expat wife when...

• You grocery shop at 3-4 different stores and still can't find all the ingredients to make your favorite meal. - Liisa
• Grocery shopping takes a full day. You walk to Wellcome to get fish, eggs and dairy. Then you go home to unload your rolling cart and head back out to the bakery to buy your bread, the fresh market to buy fruits and veggies, that only last a week and finally return home. Oh and..... your children flip coins to see who gets stuck shopping with mom! Grocery shopping used to be so much fun! - Karen
• Other shoppers at Costco constantly peep into your shopping cart. You threaten to run over the lady who has stopped in front of you and leaned over to get a better look at what you bought. - Gwen and Janell
• You walk 20 mins from the grocery store with heavy bags, but when you get home, the guard insists on carrying them on the elevator and putting them in the kitchen for you. Where is he when I'm struggling down the road with them? - Elspeth
• You ask your driver to take your Costco purchases home where your amah is there ready to put it away... meanwhile you head off shopping with your friend! - Mary (Mary has truly embraced the Tai Tai life, I'd say!)
• You go to the wet market and see all those weird meat cuts hanging on hooks, and it actually starts to look good to you! - maybe that is when you have been in Taiwan too long... - Janell
• Your week runs the following way....Monday PTA meeting, Tuesday hike the mountain and Costco, Wednesday Coffee morning, lunch at ACC after choir practice, Thursday Ladies Tennis League, Friday - date night, Saturday - TYPA, Sunday - church and dinner at Chili's. - Liisa
• You have been here less than two years and have probably been to Chili's well over 100 times. Sometimes twice in the same week. - Ana
• Sometimes you go to Chili's twice in the same DAY. You know of friends who bring Chili's take-out Margaritas into the movie theatre. (You know who you are.) - Cassia
• You go back to America, walk into a convenience store and do not hear "NIN HUANYING" (Welcome) in a high pitched voice, and you begin to wonder if something is wrong with Americans. - Jennifer
• You have cookie sheets that are too big for your oven, you have an ancient post-it with temperature conversions on the wall, and you debate with friends whether the oven setting with the chicken picture or the cake picture actually cooks the food more evenly. - Cassia
• You order McDonald's 24-hour delivery at 5am for pancakes and hot coffee because you are jet lagged and starving and have nothing in your apartment. You convince a taxi to take you through the McDonald's drive-thru for Happy Meals. - Ana (One of my favorite Ana-isms is, "I don't need a driver. I have 10,000 drivers in yellow cars all over Taipei." That's the Tai Tai spirit!)

Coming up next: Tai Tais in the Fast Lane - more "You know you're and expat wife when..."

A-Scouting We Will Go

We have a cub scout! Yes, Boy Scouts of America reaches all the way over to Taiwan via the Far East Council. Barret is loving it, and somehow I ended up a den leader so it's fun working on Tiger Cubs together. Things aren't quite as conventional as I imagine they would be in the US. Somehow I always thought of Scouts as more of a Dad-Son kind of thing, but with so many expat men traveling and working at odd times, it's the Mommas that seem to keep things running. And this Momma even has a badge of her own that says "Trained." I've so wanted something like that since I became a mom! Now it's official. Since I have no uniform other than a bright yellow Pack 91 t-shirt, I usually just stick it to my forehead to remind my family that I now have credentials=) Here are a few pictures of Barret and his fellow Tiger Cubs at our first big Pack meeting. We took a hike at a camp area on Yangming Mountain. I know you are thinking rustic trail through the woods and it was sort of that but with the typical Taiwan Stairmaster event of climbing huge rock steps hewn into the hillside. We also had the typical crossing of a street adventure in this country where drivers never seem to imagine that a crosswalk might have people actually crossing it. Basically, if you're on foot, you better haul it. After the short hike we returned for hotdog roasting. Here I had to laugh since 50% of the time involved trying to start a fire from damp wood, and like the minature men that they are, the cub scouts all stood around and gave advice to the leaders and older scouts who were trying to get the durn thing lighted. Cuz that's what men do.

Diving Update - Open Water Certified!

While the kids' school year started with a bang as usual, my own "Scuba School" finally wrapped up two weekends ago as I finished my open water training dives. I was so thankful to have had a gorgeous weekend to do 4 dives on the north coast of Taiwan, especially since last weekend seemed to be Worldwide Hurricane Day, with stormy monsters menacing both our homes. (Still waiting to get more information on our Houston home, but from what neighbors could see, damage seemed to be trees and fence.)

The dive sites were about an hour drive from our part of Taipei so we were suited up and in the water by about 10am both days. In an "only in Taiwan" moment, we had to swap locations for the dives because when we pulled up to one of the dive sites, a religious festival was in full swing complete with clanging cymbals, firecrackers and people dressed up like dieties. Would have been a little tough to push through the throng in a wetsuit and scuba tank. Once we got to the other dive site, though, things went smoothly. The two biggest challenges honestly were walking across the parking lot and out onto the rocky outcroppings with my 70lbs of gear--I am not the buffest of gals, as you know, so "heavy" is an understatement--and then getting from the rocks into the water. For our first dive at Pitou harbor, I was supposed to do a classic roll back into the water from a squatting postion. Unfortunately, I hit a slick patch on the rocks when I got to the edge, busted my tail and just scooted in from where I was so gracefully seated. I did manage the roll back on my second dive, though.

My memories of the first day of diving are a little hazy. It was all about kicking properly and mastering bouyancy control, learning to descend and ascend at a gentle steady rate, and practicing some of the basic skills like recovering my regulator if it got knocked out of my mouth. Day two saw us able to dive at Longdong Bay--the festival was over. The drama for me was a giant stride (i.e. free fall) into the water from a small cliff. I know it was only about a 6 foot drop but I kept thinking, What if I smack my the back of my head on my tank valve or something? It took me a few minutes to psych myself up and actually, it was kind of fun plunging into the water like that. The highlight of that day had to be finding the octopus on the coral reef. By end of the second dive I was pretty wiped out. To exit the water I had to pull myself up onto the jagged, volcanic rocks--I was so thankful for no waves that day. I heaved myself up and lay there for a few moments, then removed my mask and wiped my face, not realizing that I had silty mud all over my glove. I also learned from my instructor that I had a nice trail of blood and snot coming out of my nose. Ummm, pretty.

Here are a few pictures from the dives. I was ecstatic to meet this personal goal, and we're already planning dive trips for the remainder of our time in Asia. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me!

Top Ten Best Things about an Expat Summer in Ye Olde Country

It wouldn't be the expat life if we didn't do the annual home leave trip to the US for the summer. Once again, we who have no house to go home to joined the ranks of the expat faithful who sleep in hotel rooms, spare bedrooms, and living rooms with pull-out sofas for 4 to 8 weeks of the summer. Our lives were part summer camp, part nomadic herdsman (the herds comprised of small children and huge piles of luggage), and though it's nice to be in Taiwan again with suitcases stored and our heads on our own pillows, the summer in our home country was truly wonderful. So before I start blogging about another year in Taiwan, here are my top 10 favorite things about the expat summer:

10. Stocking up on Benedryl, Sudafed, Aleve, Advil, and Robitussin CF. Seems mundane but I get really excited about buying my annual rations of OTCs because it means I get to go to Target, order a Starbucks, and wander down all the other aisles between me and the Health and Beauty section.

9. Stocking up on cosmetics, which I forgot to do while stocking up on OTCs. Means another Target trip. Darn.

8. The Summer Eat-a-Thon (which will now be followed by the September Hit-the-Gym-a-Thon). We are Southerners, plain and simple, and so when we get together with family, we eat the best food known to man. Not only homecooked (thank you, Moms, Dads and Nana) but restuarants that are as good as homecooked. I feel a special salute is due to Mrs. Johnnie at the Kountry Kitchen in Eclectic, AL, who outdid herself not only at the Sunday Fried Chicken buffet but personally catered for us a potroast to end all potroasts. Honorable mentions must go to Jim-n-Nick's of Birmingham for BBQ and chocolate pie, Johnny G's (or just "The Pig" as we call it) of Tallassee for general southern buffet and peach cobbler with icecream, Veggies-to-Go of Auburn for southern veggies and cornbread, Milo's of Birmingham for tea that's sweet enough to induce a diabetic coma in an normally healthy person. I have to stop writing now. I'm drooling.

7. Finding ways to save money and pay off all the trips we took this year. Some might call it mooching off kind-hearted relatives. I call it good fiscal policy. In truth, we did find some other ways to save besides just living off the family. For instance, at both of our hotel stays this summer, I raided the breakfast area for everything from Otis Spunkmeyer muffins to a tiny 1-inch bottle of Tabasco sauce. I think I remembered to put the Tobasco in my quart-size "liquids-only" bag for the airplane...hmmm, where is it? I also drove around Houston with all my wet laundry spread around the rental car to dry in the free sunshine.

6. Having friends ask, "Wow, did you buy that sundress in Thailand or Bali?" Why no, no I didn't. It's from the Wal-mart Juniors Department. $12.

5. Being as RED as I want to be. And by red I mean redneck girl in the heart of Dixie. Lake Martin where we are blessed to spend a good deal of our summer vacations is far, far away from the preppy university campus in my hometown of Auburn or the shopping/dining venues of Birmingham where McLeod was raised. Lake Martin, and more specifically Kowalgia Bay, is the real deal Alabama, and I love relaxing in my worn-out lake bathing suit with my hair in a ponytail. True, it is hard to look very redneck when you pull up to a rural gas station in a champagne-colored Mazda minivan and step out in some mighty pricey Keen's surf/shore sandals. But if you wear your thread-bare, too-tight lake shorts that make your belly bulge beneath your tank top with the sparkly American flag across the chest, you can still pull it off. By the way, gas at that Eagle gas station was around 3.89 and falling so I would drive on fumes rather than fill up anywhere else.

4. Back to school shopping with my mom-in-law. We had the best shopping trips ever because Caroline now picks out her own outfits and Barret will wear anything with camoflage on it, which seems to be everywhere. Also, my mom-in-law has a motorized wheel chair which means free rides for the kids when they start getting bored. And when we're all going down the aisle at Wal-mart, me in front with my giant list, kids running serpentine-style after me, and Marie rolling along behind to keep the kids from doing any real damage, we are our own parade. We stop traffic. We love it! Thank you, Mom Marie, for joining us on some funny, memorable moments!

3. Impromtu children's church. Being the mobile family that we were didn't really lend itself to organized religion. So we had disorganized religion instead! The kids picked the songs from the VeggieTales Bob and Larry Worship CD, I read passages from the book of Acts (great for any traveling families), and we pulled together some pretty great applications. Both sets of parents got to join in on this new summer custom and add their own hearts and voices to our little services. By far the best props used to illustrate a lesson were the leftover sparklers and fireworks from the 4th of July. "This Little Light of Mine" was truly blazing!!

2. A special date night with McLeod. McLeod spent most of the summer doing his everyday job, hosting conference calls at weird hours, traveling away from us to log time at the US office, and trying to keep the emails at bay. The last week of the summer was pure vacation, though, and one night the parents kept the kids while we took the boat out to our own deserted island for a long, lovely evening. Honey, I'd follow you to Taiwan all over again. Hmmm, seems I've done that.

1. Being reminded that we have family and friends that love us and will pick up right where we left off whenever we get back to our home country. This was an especially meaningful summer because we got to see our grandmothers. The kids picked blueberries in my Nana's garden and played with toys at McLeod's Nanny's house. Life is sweet!

To our dear parents who hosted us for weeks at a time and our dear friends and siblings who made special arrangements to see us this summer, a heartfelt thanks. We have a collection of good memories to carry us through the year.

Motivation

No, that's not me diving the Blue Hole...yet. I recently got several CDs worth of pictures from our friend John Heinemann which included spectacular shots from the Guam dives. These pictures and the stories that went with them were my original motivation to get my own scuba certification. Since April, I have been working diligently toward that end. I am priviledged to be training with one of, if not the highest ranked PADI instructor in Taiwan, and let me just say, he's been putting me through my paces in the dive pool lately.


I told my mother I was facing several childhoold memories and fears at once. My old dislike of that stomach-turning-as-I-fall feeling surfaces when I must roll backward or giant stride forward into the water wearing 70 pounds of gear. My only recourse is to almost always go first before my dive buddy so I can get it over with. Also, I continue to need several minutes to adjust to the sensation of water pressing on me on all sides while I try to breath normally and not hold my breath. As a child I had a water phobia that would send me into thrashing, flailing, screaming fits of panic if anyone tried to draw me out into water above chest level. Feeling the water press against my chest would trigger a sensation of suffocation that was absoloutely terrifying. I was eight before I was able to work past this fear and join my younger brother in the deep end of the YMCA pool. It was a pivotal moment of letting go and trusting, and I find myself remembering those moments a lot.


Now, though, the main issue is not so much fear under the water as much as feeling awkward, clumsy and inept. More than anything, I hate looking foolish and can say that this dread of embarrassment, of holding up the rest of the group with my fumbling, has often kept me from persevering at learning new things. This is compounded by my old nemesis: I am, for lack of a better term, "spatially challenged." I am never 100% sure which direction is left or right and often have to look for a birthmark on my right hand to double check. Also, I will look at a mechanical object and have no idea how to make that object attach, open, or operate. I am sometimes unable to translate an instructor's directions into the motions to perform that task.


What I am saying is that while my dive buddy is diligently adjusting her buoyancy under the water, I am flailing around and floating away. When the instructor is telling me to kneel on the bottom and watch him demonstrate something, I am slowly, unstoppably falling onto my face because he's also just told me to stop flailing around and floating away. Thursday, we worked forever on getting me to hover in the mid-water, and when we surfaced, my teacher began to point out what I was doing wrong...again.... So, I did what any frustrated, emotionally-in-touch woman would do. I started to cry. Just a little. No sobbing, just a few tears and an inability to get anything out of my mouth except, "I need a moment." My poor teacher had the look all men have when a woman starts to cry. Sheer panic. He kept trying to make sure I was ok which only made me want to cry more. I just had to go take a hot shower and get a grip.


I did, of course, get a grip, and feeling a bit sheepish, resolved not to let my frustration keep me from my goal. Thursday night I got out the underwater pictures again, the pictures that had convinced me I was no longer content to paddle at the surface. They were all the motivation I needed. This lionfish is one of my favorites. Extremely dangerous but absolutely gorgeous. And underwater photography gives a second chance to be surprised since John's camera is able to restore the colors that become washed out beneath the water. What look like grays and browns are really vibrant reds and blacks, for instance. And the colors get even more shocking, with orange and neon green hues showing up on the tiny, slug-like nudibranches.


Hope you enjoy diving into these great shots as much as we have! First up are a nudibranch and a pygmy seahorse. Sometimes the tiniest creatures are the most amazing. John is able to find the details that others miss, like the seahorse camouflaged in the coral. He also photographed a clownfish hovering over its eggs. The close up shows the baby fish developing. Click to enlarge and see if you can spot what we think are their eyes. Finally, McLeod grabs a rest stop on a massive anchor and a sea turtle cruises out to open sea.

Diving Update

In the Guam post, I alluded to the fact that there would be a new diver joining the ranks of the Taipei expat scuba faithful. I am now well underway with my certification, and I recently made a trial "discovery" dive off the coast of Bali, Indonesia. As first dives go, I have to say, IT ROCKED!! On the van ride up to the dive site, the folks with me asked if I was nervous. I told them I was actually more anxious about leaving my kids back at the hotel kids' club, so I think that took my mind off the descending-30-feet-breathing-air-from-a-tank thing. Upon arrival, I got 20 minutes or so of basic instruction from the Balinese guide. Unfortunately, I could not understand a word he was saying. If you have ever watched Finding Nemo, you'll remember the scene where the young sea turtle is giving last minute instructions for exiting the East Australian Current. In a panicky voice Marlin says, "Wait, I know you are trying to tell me something but I can't understand you..." before plunging into the unknown. Yep, kind of the same feeling. In truth, I could tell from his hand motions what he was talking about regarding equalizing ears and mask, not holding my breath, etc., and I did ask him, "You are going to stay with me the whole time, right?" And with that reassurance we began our descent.

Well, sort of. The instructor and fellow-novice diver Lance began deflating their BCD's and descending. My buoyant self continued to float at the surface without sinking. Then to float with my rear end at the surface like a neoprene buoy while my head descended. Then to flip unceremoniously onto my back with my fins in the air. The instructor worked with me on buoyancy control but finally just grabbed my hand and pulled me slowly down under the water with frequent reminders to clear my ears. At one point he reached down to the gently sloping bottom and began picking up rocks to shove in my BCD to add more weight. I cracked up, then wondered if laughing under water would harm me in some way and stifled my giggles.

At last I stopped thinking about the mechanics of the descent and began to explore the reef, soft fan corals waving gently, crabs and urchins clinging to the hard coral, fish everywhere. At about 10 meters, we kneeled on the sandy bottom and simply watched the life around us. I was in the middle of a school of gray and white fish who seemed suspended like I was, simply watching the reef. I looked up through them as one might look up through falling rain drops, and I felt the strange sensation of being in a child's snow globe at a moment just after someone has shaken it but before the glitter falls down. Spectacular.

After about 30 minutes we began the gentle ascent. I had experienced a few moments of over-awareness of my surroundings--in other words, too much realization of where I was and where my air was coming from--but was pleased that I had been able to slow my breathing, relax and force myself to focus on the marine life. It seemed to take forever to reach the surface and my calf was cramping a bit from kicking the wrong way. Just as I was about to point this out to the guide, I noticed a familiar face looking smiling at me around his snorkel. I realized it was McLeod and that I was at the surface without even knowing it. I found myself laughing into my regulator again. This time I didn't stifle it or the whoop of triumph that came out when I popped above the surface.

Now back in Taipei, I am fortunate to have my buddy Cathy taking certification classes with me from a great PADI instructor located only a short walk from where I live. My hope is to complete everything including my open water dives on the north coast before I leave Taiwan for the summer. Not sure how much diving I'll be doing in central Alabama but I hear there's an old cargo plane sunken on the bottom of Lake Martin...


With the instructor and fellow-diver Lance from Boston.

Orangutans, Giant Lizards and the Royal Treatment in Kota Kinabalu

If Guam was McLeod's scuba playground, then Kota Kinabalu in Maylasia was my day spa, with just enough adventure to keep me from being permanently cemented to my lounge chair. Referred to simply as KK by the expat community, this beach town on the island of Borneo was the perfect escape from Taipei's incessant winter rains. We settled in at the Shangri-La Rasa Ria Resort for the week of Chinese New Year and found it to be a good choice for families with young children. We were enchanted by the orangutans living in the protected rainforest area next to the resort. The resort works with other conservation efforts on the island to care for orphaned or injured orangutans and then reintroduce them into the wild. The kids and I have put together a Voicethread for you on our time at this beautiful, jungle-covered island. Flip through the pictures using the arrows or play as a slideshow to hear the commentary.

McLeod's Theme Song

This is McLeod rocking it after he finished his half marathon. He set a new personal best time at 1:56:54 so he was very excited.

If the video below doesn't work use this link.

http://www.fordvehicles.com/cars/2008focus/index.asp?section=ThemeSong&mid=26512099

Happy Easter!

Up early and remembering my high school days of shivering at the 6am sunrise service. The cadence of a youth choir piece is drumming in my brain:
HE is alive.
He is ALIVE.
He IS alive.
HE is alive.
He is ALIVE.
He IS alive.
I turned 33 last week so this is probably my 29th Easter to know that truth with my innermost being. To know that because the ultimate hero willingly laid down His sinless life to rescue me from sin, He defeated not only the curse of sin but death itself. Yes, He IS alive!

So how will we celebrate today? McLeod is running a 1/2 marathon, starting in about 60 seconds, through drizzle and 20 mph winds! GO BABY GO! He told me and the kids he'd be having some special time on the road with Jesus this morning--he just hoped it wasn't going to be like the road to Damascus where Paul was knocked on his proverbial behind and blinded for 3 days by the light of the risen Lord! The kids are starting to stir in their beds and will no doubt be pouncing on Easter baskets soon. I found a note from sweet Barret last night that read, "Dear Easter Bunny. I love all the Chreets (treats)!" Then, we're off to church with our visiting friends, the Georgsons, with maybe some Chili's take out and a little egg-dying to follow. To be here in a country that allows us to celebrate the resurrection is a good thing, and I can't help but think of the home groups in other countries that will be quietly celebrating under the radar, so to speak. Can you imagine, though, how those precious voices must sound to the angels? A multitude of hearts ringing out, "HE is alive! He is ALIVE! He IS Alive!" in some shape or form? And listen: the angels are singing back!!

Happy Easter from all the Texpats!

Guam-erica the Beautiful

Oh, to see the day dawn on your own country, even if it's a tiny spot in the Pacific Ocean! Just a 3 hour flight from Taipei, Guam gave us a great taste of Americana (24-hour Kmart, Macy's, Lone Star Steakhouse, Wendy's Old Fashioned Burgers) and for the divers in our group, some fantastic underwater scenery. In fact, the divers saw so much underwater scenery on so many of our vacation days, that at least one of the non-divers decided she felt left out and has since started her own certification. I'll let you figure out who she is in future entries, assuming I...er, she goes ahead with the plan discussed with her scuba instructor. Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I'm still hoping to get some of John Heinemann's underwater shots posted but until then, here are some pictures of our other Guam pursuits.

A Birthday with Backup Dancers

Barret turned 6 while we were in Guam, so for his birthday dinner our family invited three other families to join us at Hard Rock Cafe. Since coming to Asia, we've always had one or more other families traveling the samevacation itinerary, so it makes for an instant party where ever we go. The birthday dinner was no exception. Kids and grown-ups alike jumped up on stage to dance and sing to "YMCA," and we even convinced McLeod to do his famous breakdance move, The Worm. When it was time for the cake and candles, Barret was the center of attention with the fair Alexandra, Sydney, Grace and Caroline as go-go dancers to the Beatles "Birthday." ("You say it's your birthday. It's my birthday, too.")

All I can say is, someday Barret's gonna look back at pictures and think, "I used to be so cool!" Honey, you'll always be cool to us!

Here I have to rag on our buddy Tom--he was the most enthusiastic dancer of anyone out there. See how hesitant everyone else is with which letter of YMCA they are on? Not Tom. Nope, he's larger than life with that, ummmm, J?

Breathtaking

Guam has some of the most gorgeous volcanic cliffs and blue lagoons I've seen. We were able to snorkle with ease in the sheltered waters next to our hotel. Caroline was content to float along in a small plastic sea kayak tied to McLeod's wrist so that he and I could snorkle with Barret and show him the coral reef and tropical fish. Mc and his diving buddies also did several days of boat dives including Guam's famous Blue Hole, a limestone vertical shaft that descends over 300 feet. I rode along on the boat that day and got a chance to snap photo's of the beautiful (above water) scenery, watch several pods of spinner dolphins playing around the boat, and talk with the boat captain and dive master. These guys cracked me up. They will never, ever go anywhere else but Guam--and why should they? I especially enjoyed talking to the captain who, when he's not hauling tourists around, spends time free diving to spear-fish monster grouper and playing drums for both an alternative rock band and "a badly out-of tune" country-western band (his words). McLeod's dive highlight for the week would have to be swimming with sea turtles. Trumps my dolphin encounter from last summer=)

The divers were McLeod, Kevin, Kathleen, John and Tom. And doesn't McLeod look cute in his wetsuit!!

Typhoon damage is frequent in Guam and evidently hard to clean up. We saw several boats like this one.

Santa and Seafood

A few more pictures to share from our tropical Christmas. The kids were delighted to pose with Santa--who had to have been sweating in the near-90 degree weather! Though the setting was very different than any past Christmas, we still managed to incorporate some traditions. We had a great stocking surprise--the kids each hung one of their sandy little socks on the TV cabinet and woke to find them mysteriously replaced with the real things. The kids also acted out the Christmas story in the hotel room while I read the account from the book of Luke. Abby the baby doll got to be the Baby Jesus, Caroline was Mary, and Barret was everyone else. We even had a Wise Man showed up bearing a gift...for his wife. A lovely diamond bracelet with 17 stones, which he explained was one center stone for our love, 12 stones for each year we've been married, and 4 stones for each of us in the family. Cue the "Awwwww, isn't that sweet...." I really was blown away. For Christmas luncheon and dinner, we enjoyed some great seafood buffets and being the pyromaniacs that we are, we got a thrill out of the Polynesian fire show. Barret was so captivated by the ladies in the grass skirts and coconut bras that he followed them off stage, clicking away with his camera. McLeod had to go reel him back in!

Expat Gals in Hong Kong

One of my highlights of 2007 was a three-day shopping trip to Hong Kong with five other ladies: Kris, Dawn, Karen, Ana and Kim. All of us are moms, and all of us needed a trip during which we were not enforcing curfews or bedtimes, not cutting up anyone else's food, and not visiting sites marked "family friendly" in the guidebook. We were ready for the essentials of a good Girls' Weekend--Shopping, Dining, Pampering, and More Shopping--and we wanted to go somewhere that most of had visited before (albeit while wearing our "Mommy" badges) but had never really gotten to explore from an urban expat gal's point of view. Hong Kong was the perfect fit.

Departure time
Once we'd picked a date and bribed the husbands into spending three days with the kids, brave soul Ana worked with a local Taiwanese travel agent so that we could get a decent deal on hotel and flight. There were quite a few rounds of Itinerary Hokey-Pokey while we shopped rates and times (bless you, Ana!). In the end we nailed down the Sheraton and a reasonable rate with EVA Airways since we were all Taiwan residents. We were actually designated as a Taiwanese tour group with special check-in service at the airport. We got a few stares and some sympathetic help at the ticket counter since a) only one of our group could even pass as Taiwanese, b) we didn't have a tour guide to help us figure out where to go in the airport, and c) heaven help us, we didn't bring a multi-colored flag to hoist and follow, marking us as a guided tour. We did end up buying funny matching t-shirts, but nope, no flag. Of course we didn't actually need a flag since two of the gals, Kris and Kim, are 5'10" blondes. We just followed them through the sea of small, dark-haired folk. Kim was recovering from a series of hair coloring mishaps--a common occurrence for blondes living in Asia--and boasted a particularly brilliant sunshine-y hue that made our group the toast of Taoyuan International Airport.

A side note to any gals looking at life overseas: if you are or plan to be any hair color other than black, brown, auburn, or purple, you should NOT ONLY bring your own color with you from home, but you should have your hometown hairdresser check it and swear on her life that is actually the right shade. In the weeks leading up to our trip, Kim nobley survived being a brunette, a red-head (twice), and a truly shocking, crispy-fried-bleached-white-blonde along the road to her current golden locks (which I must say, suit her quite nicely).

For me, no girls’ weekend can properly begin without a visit to Starbucks, so once we'd checked our bags, we headed to that heavenly latte spot on the upper level of the terminal. For my travelling buddies, though, no girls’ weekend can properly begin without some kind of shopping. So before we even got to Hong Kong, there was shopping at the Taipei airport gift store followed by duty-free shopping on the airplane. During the ninety-minute flight, we also passed around Born to Shop: Hong Kong, a must-have expat gal’s guide by Suzy Gershman that’s organized both by city area and by item (jewelry, electronics, shoes, etc.). Yes, we were about to take the city by storm and couldn’t wait to touch down and begin our adventure.

The Purse Mavens of Monkok
Though we had a great time visiting various stores, malls and markets during our trip, it was our first several hours in Hong Kong that were the shopping pinnacle of our weekend. As soon as we could get from the airport to our hotel, we dropped our bags as quickly as possible and then ran, not walked, to the cab stand to get taxis to Monkok Ladies Market, or as I now call it, Ana’s Land of Copy Bags. This three block stretch of alleyway was crammed with stalls featuring cheap watches, trinkets, toys, belts, watches, t-shirts, and most of all, knock-off versions of luxury brand purses (though few of these are openly displayed).

“Hey missy, copy bag,” chanted the hawkers, eager to shuffle us to the back of the stall and shove catalogues in our hands to see what might tempt us. Were we Gucci girls? Coach fans? If we took the bait, there were cell phone conversations and the arrival of a black trash bag with the selected items. Seemed simple enough, but as I was to discover, this was only round one of purse acquisition. A few ladies bought bags at a few stalls, and we continued to wander down the road, stopping to look at belts, watches (“Hey missy, copy watch.”), cashmere wraps, and Chinese silk outfits.

About an hour into our exploring, I noticed that my friend Ana had a strange gleam in her eye. She had been slow to buy purses at the main stalls, sure she could do better on quality and price. “I’m a girl looking for a deal,” she said, shaking her dark pony-tail, and so far, she hadn’t found it. Later, I was to learn from her husband that her powers of haggling are legendary: here was a woman who, with pit-bull tenacity, could convince sellers to lower their lowest price and then to accept other kinds of currency when she ran short. So she was still seeking the holy grail of copy purse inventory, the stash of A++ quality copies being sold by someone ready to negotiate.

Half-way down the market street, we opted to break into pairs with some time/place instructions for meeting up later—instructions that went completely out the window when Ana began to get her good deals. I began to get a little concerned around 6pm when Ana and Karen seemed to have disappeared from Monkok Market. Fortunately, Ana and I had the only working phones in the bunch and after several tries to reach her, I finally got Ana to respond in a hushed voice, “I’m in the middle of a transaction…I will come out in a moment.” Come out? Where was she? And WHAT was she buying??? I was now about to be initiated into Level Two of purse buying – the back room. Just as Ana and Karen suddenly appeared *poof* like magic back with the group, each carrying new bags purchased from someone named May, our group was approached by one of the sellers who said, “Hey missies, BETTER copy bags, not far.”

No siren’s song could have been stronger. Ana, fresh from her own back room buying experience, and Kris, who had a mental Christmas gift list at least two feet long, immediately set off to follow with the rest of us in tow. Through a door, up stairs, along a hall, (with nervous me memorizing landmarks like “mop bucket and mop on the left,” “Halloween poster on a door to the right,” “flickering fluorescent bulb”, and checking my cell service constantly), we wound our way to what looked like a run-down apartment. Inside, it actually was a run-down apartment but with no furniture other than a long table and shelves upon shelves of bags and wallets. And on a three-legged wooden stool, sat a gaunt, weathered man going by the name “King.”

Shoving a cigarette behind one ear and pulling a calculator from his back pocket, King began to answer the barrage of questions from our group as we pulled bag after bag from the shelves to check zipper and buckle quality, sniff for that “leather scent” and examine the labels for misspelled brand names. Bags under consideration were piled onto the central table while those of us who were new to the game asked about price and whether he had the same bag in other colors. But the seasoned buyers, notably Ana, were asking, “But what is your BEST price?” “Were these bags made in China or Korea?” “Where are the A++ bags?” No matter what price King quoted, the purse mavens would counter with other offers or raise a doubting eyebrow about the quality.

At one point, Karen—Ana’s original back room shopping buddy—pointed to Ana and said, “This woman has five kids to feed. She needs a better price.” This line seemed to work so well, it became a standard bargaining tool over the weekend. So much so that Ana herself later had to stop and think about how many kids she actually did have. (She has three.) At another point in the haggling, King brandished his lighter and held a purse to the flame to prove that it was indeed leather, not synthetic. (For the rest of the trip, Ana wanted to light purses on fire to check the quality. We wouldn’t let her near matches, candles or lighters after that.) By the end of the bargaining, the pile of purses on the table had grown quite large since the gals had decided to buy in bulk for the best price leverage. A bewildered, middle-aged Brit, hoping to find something for his wife, stumbled into the room, took one look at the raucous, purse-crazed females circling their prey, cursed and said, “Where AM I?”

There would be other back room forays that evening, but nothing would match the adrenaline-laced, primal purse hunting of our visit with King. Ana and Karen attempted to find their original purse connection, May, so the rest of us could see her stock. Walking through the crowds, forlornly yelling, “May? May?” they actually conjured up one enterprising young seller who said, “I know May! I take you!” The woman running THAT back room was not May and kept shaking her head “No” even while the hawker continued to insist that she was the May they were looking for. While the group applauded itself on being able to tell Fake May from the real May, they were not so successful at remembering landmark details. Remember my mental notes on the way to King’s? Two more times the girls let themselves be led by different guides past the same mop bucket and mop, Halloween poster and flickering fluorescent bulb, only to be surprised to find they were back at King’s place. No surprise that King wouldn’t let us back in!

We finished the evening at Monkok Ladies Market carb-loading at California Pizza Kitchen and planning for the next two days. Not much of an extreme shopper, I was ready for some pampering at the spa (I had a fantastic facial), some fine dining at Felix in the renown Peninsula Hotel, several more lattes, and some tame department-store browsing. But I will never see or hear a price anywhere again without wanting to ask, “But what’s your BEST deal?” And I will never see another luxury purse without wondering whether it came from King’s copy stash or not.

Thanks to my dear friends for an incredible trip, and I hope those purses are still holding up!!

12 Days Video

Two friends each sent me the link to this men's a cappella group from Indiana University --thanks to Kris and Joanne for some wonderful holiday cheer! Merry Christmas everybody!

Things to do while your spouse is traveling

As of December 14, we're on day 16 of McLeod being out of town, and I have to say, we are ready for him to come home to us! Not that we've had a bad time. It's just time to move out of my "hold down the fort" routine and into the more balanced family life we love. I am beyond blessed to have a network of fellow moms who know the ins and outs of life as an expat gal. They understand those crazy weeks when hubby travels to the far flung reaches of the galaxy or has to work extremely weird, late hours because the US is just waking up while everyone in Taipei is calling it a day. When the grump-inducing exhaustion kicks in, there is nothing like having a friend that will kick you in the pants if needed, remind you of how good life really is, and then meet you at Chili's for some comfort food with your squirrely, sleep-deprived, daddy-missing kids. I did, in fact, have just such a meal with friends last night, a meal during which my daughter spent most of the time either climbing on me, hanging upside down over the bench, or crawling under the table. Barret, meanwhile, hand-cuffed himself to his friend Aiden and devoured half a grill cheese and half a hamburger.

Of course, I haven't spent all my time eating at Chili's and being consoled by friends. I have also taken the kids to McDonalds for "Liang ge Happy Meal" - that's how I order two Happy Meals using Chinglish and gesturing toward pictures of french fries, burgers and yogurt drinks. We also made the trek to Jake's Country Kitchen, which is styled after a U.S. truck stop/hole-in-the-wall. Here the wait staff serves up pancakes, bacon, eggs and burritos but secretly eats rice noodles and dumplings behind the counter. And there have been multiple visits to the American Club for mac and cheese or grill cheese sandwiches, bowls of applesauce, and ice cream for dessert. When we aren't eating out, we consume peanut butter sandwiches, hot dogs or pizza with random side dishes of broccoli and carrot sticks. Since the dining table has been covered by craft projects, Christmas goodies, soccer paraphenalia and library books for the last three weeks, we have eaten most of the "home meals" at the coffee table in front of various Disney movies. Yes, nutrition and wholesome family conversation have taken a back seat to surviving the spiraling-out-of-control hours between 5pm and bedtime.

One would think that just getting kids out the door in the morning, getting them home again, feeding, bathing and putting to bed would be enough of a job while on my own. Yet, somehow, though I always vow to keep life simple while McLeod is out of town, I have once again managed to do a lot of stuff anyway. So if you are looking for ideas to keep busy while your spouse is traveling for weeks at a time, feel free to use a few from my list:

• Take your child to his first modeling shoot - 3 hours of outfit changes, hair and face touch-ups, posing, and bribing with candy. American and European kids get tagged for all sorts of ads here from clothes to cars. More on that in another entry.
• Rehearse and sing at two Christmas events, during one of which a teary-eyed daughter should come on-stage and stand there holding your hand and sniffling because she needs her smelly pullup changed in the middle of Silent Night and you can't exactly help her right then. I had to laugh (later) at this reminder of the first Christmas. You know, the one where another child shows up at an inopportune moment (think, "there was no room for them in the inn")?
• Run a Coloring Contest and Letter to Santa booth at the elementary school Winter Wonderland. Now, this was truly eye-opening for me. There were a lot of standard "Dear-Santa-I'd-like-a-bike-please" letters but there were also quite a few "Please-give-me-good-grades-so-I-can-get-into-Harvard" letters in there, too. Did I mention these were K-5th grade kids?
• Plan a class party. Thank the Lord that this was quite easy since Barret's teacher, Mrs. Winter, is like the fairy godmother of fun, easy crafts and party ideas, and she is blessed with a great teacher's assistant who does a lot of the prep work ahead of our get-togethers. We had tons of parents pitch in, so I basically mananged the train of confirmation emails and showed up with the teachers' gifts. We had a fun time of activities, cookies, ice-cream ("snow") and a great music performance by the kids. Since I was busy with Barret's party, I opted NOT to volunteer to do anything for Caroline's Christmas party other than show up with a bowl of popcorn and my camera. She was a doll singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"!
• Find extra time for standard Christmas shopping/holiday gatherings/card and stocking-stuffer exchanges/stuffing your face with your kids' candy late at night after they go to bed. One of Caroline's gift bags from school had really high-end dark chocolate in it. Wasted on a three-year old, I say. Much more appreciated by three-year-old's mother, which was no doubt the giver's intent!! I definitely believe chocolate should be a staple of any mom's survival kit.

McLeod gets home on Dec. 15, and then it won't be long before we are having a little beach bum time in sunny Guam. (Yikes, gotta pack for that!) I think I'm good for one more round of Easy Mac and carrot sticks until then...

Southbound to Kenting

We've been experimenting with Voicethread.com so thought you'd like to see and hear a slideshow about our recent trip to Kenting, Taiwan. We had a blast at the very family-friendly Howard hotel, swam a lot, ate lunches concoted from things at the 7-11, played arcade games and generally relaxed. We managed to snap a few pictures, so click on my smiling face beside the image to start the commentary and the arrows to browse through the pictures. The kids add their own thoughts later in the show (you'll see their icons appear)--Enjoy!



During the voicethread, I mentioned our cramped return journey to the train station, but I had to quote from my friend Kim's account to her extended family:

It was a great vacation. Well, until we all decided to pile 8 of us in a Ford Escape for our 2 hour trip to the train station. Yes, our friends who had rented this very compact SUV somehow convinced us that it would save on having to hire a driver to take us back to the train station 2 hours away. I have a 6-letter word for that, STUPID. But we all climbed in, 2 men in front, and of course, since the ladies have smaller derrieres, we got to sit in the back with a kid in each lap and 2 in between. (Remember there are no seatbelt laws in Taiwan and in most cases you can't even find the seatbelts in the cars). I will never get in a back seat again unless I have checked for air vents. Cassia and I both gave it each other the “what the heck have we done” look after about 30 minutes of driving. I was already nauseous from the magnification of heat through the sunny window , 98.6 body that had fallen asleep on top of me, and lack of air circulation, when Barret announced he might get sick. We quickly had to shuffle kids around so that should he need to hurl he was closet to the window. Air quickly got turned up from the front. You can only imagine after trying to entertain kids in a sardine can for an hour and a half how well-mannered and calm they are. While we still had the “I’m a little bit nauseous” feeling going on from 2 of us, Nick woke up and decided he should be able to get up and play in the ½ inch space I had between my knees and the drivers seat. Then, Caroline started crying that she was hungry and (I noted) she was drenched with sweat, when Jacob announced quite loudly with his hands over his ears, “These people are annoying me. When can we get in a nice quiet cab??” It continued to escalate at that point only to hear from the front, “Did we miss a sign?” Shoot me now was all I could think. I am, however, happy to say it was a very minor error, and as we pulled up to the train station my hand was on the door handle awaiting the great “escape” from the nightmarish journey into the fresh, polluted, but cool air of Taiwan. What a relief, and we are all still friends.

Poor Kim! She was so traumatized that she forgot to mention that McLeod faced his own bit of trauma while driving. He ran over a pigeon in the road. But never fear. After the thump-bump under the wheels, he looked back in horror to see the bird pop up like a weeble-wobble or one of those blow-up clown boxing dummies we all had as kids. Yes, it was a fake: a rubber pigeon placed in the road by an enterprising veggie-stand man as a ploy to slow motorists. Then, he could wow them with his bins and bins of onions. With the carsick moans, kiddie bickering, complaints about the air vents and general unpleasantness in the backseat, I can see why McLeod didn't brake for the pigeon, much less the onion stand. Just get these miserable people out of this car and on the train!

Caroline turns 3

Our Caroline is a three-year-old! This was her first year to have her very own party--not a family celebration or a joint gathering with Barret but a bona-fide birthday party with her friends. She decided to have a Little Mermaid Princess Tea Party. I decided it would be at the ice cream shop near our home since it's new, it's usually empty during the early afternoon and it has gorgeous ice cream cakes. Fortunately, Caroline told me what theme she wanted while we were in the US this summer, so I was able to buy Little Mermaid party supplies. Otherwise she'd have had a Hello Kitty-meets-Snoopy party, as those seem to be the main heroes here. She invited five girl friends to dress in their finest princess attire. They had a luscious strawberry ice cream/red velvet layer cake (with a Mermaid candle on top, of course) and enjoyed pouring each other "tea" from minature tea sets. Yes, extreme girliness at its finest. It always amazes me that I, the girl who played more in the mud puddles than with the dollhouse, should have a daughter that dresses head-to-toe princess or ballerina everyday, loves pink nail polish, sleeps with a collection of Barbies and baby dolls, and takes great delight in matching her shoes, hairbows and outfits for preschool. While I was typing this, she just came in, took a look at my baggy sweatshirt and old jeans, and sympathetically offered me her golden crown. (I'm wearing it. It is a vast improvement.) Of course, I've always had a thing for make-up and gorgeous evening wear (I've been known to play dress up on more than one occassion). So maybe, despite my pony-tailed hair and uniform of t-shirt and jeans, there's some girliness in me, too.

Here is a video of some post-cake, sugar-induced spinning with her friend Sarah. It really was a nice party, thanks to our dear friends and our funny, fiesty, Princess Caroline:

Thanksgiving 2007

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope it was a great one for all of you. Here's how ours went:

On Thursday morning I walked the five blocks up to Barret's school to pick up two pumpkin pies ($18US) from the school sale--I truly am thankful for this resource in our land far, far away from Krogers and Wal-mart! I wasn't sure how to get to the school kitchen and started wandering around, for some reason heading down to the basement and up a back staircase where I found an employees-only entrance. The kitchen staff were quite startled when I appeared among the industrial mixers and wire racks like Alice in Wonderland popping out of her rabbit hole. But they were happy to give me my pies--two greenish brown circles that tasted kind of funny but filled my mandatory Thanksgiving requirement for pumpkin pie. Walking back from school, I grabbed a coffee from the newly opened Dunkin Doughnuts (another thing for which I'm thankful!), then dropped by the vegetable stand at the street market for carrots and cherry tomatoes for our nibble tray. I began the final two blocks back to our apartment, nobly balancing my two pies, bag of veggies and coffee, congratulating myself on how well I function without a car these days. Then, a gust of wind hit me, and I had to sacrifice the coffee to the wind in order to hold onto the pies. There was a time when I would have felt embarrassed by the dramatic splatter of latte all over the walkway in front of a nice shop. But considering the offerings of doggie doo also on the sidewalk, I figured the coffee smell was an improvement.

Once home, I thawed out some lasagna for our lunch, then pulled out my horded supplies, procured from 3 different stores at a cost of $9.00US , to make one medium-sized green bean casserole--again, I was grateful not just for finding the can of French's french-fried onions but for this reminder of "back home." At 3pm, we loaded the family into a taxi with our pies, veggie nibble tray, green bean casserole, bottle of wine, McLeod's laptop and projector for watching recorded football games, our outfits for changing into for the annual Christmas photo, and various things the kids might need to stay clean, dry, thirst-free and happy. We headed over to another expat family's apartment, where we spent the next few hours enjoying time with the two other families there, snapping photos, pulling together a fairly traditional meal including a real turkey that did NOT have its head or feet still attached, and getting ready for some football. Then, the obnoxious neighbors decided our group of seven kids (all but one of whom were under age 5) were too loud playing in the courtyard at 5:30pm.

What option did these disgruntled not-so-thankful neighbors choose in dealing with our unpleasant noise level? Did they call or go talk to the building supervisor? Did they yell down from their third-floor balcony? Did they send the local cops to issue a warning to those squealing two-year-olds? Nope. They turned on their garden hose and sprayed the little guys. Poor Caroline came running in with a puzzled look and said, "Mommy, why did it rain on my dress?" I just scooped her up and made a quick check to verify that it was indeed only water that had been sprayed on her (add that to the thankfulness list, though I can't say I was exactly happy at that moment). Next began an exchange of remarks in English (our side) and Chinese (their side) about noise, children, and water hoses--with my friend Mary throwing in a valiant, "Ting! Ting!" (which means both Stop! and Listen here! in Chinese). Kim, the friend hosting us at her apartment, came in wide-eyed after a few moments to say, "Maybe Steve (Mary's husband) needs to go out there with Dana (her husband) because he is getting really angry." Steve, the prototypical strong, silent type, went out as moral support for Dana, but when the balcony water-blasters began shouting even more loudly at Steve's wife, he had suddenly had enough. In a voice I never imagined our quiet friend possessed, he boomed, "You better stop right now or I'm coming up there." Which he, Dana and Dana's landlord did. Armed with a digital camera.

Things get a little fuzzy at this point. All I know is that two hours later, the men returned having gotten both the local police and the Foreign Affairs police involved. Our friends decided not to press charges but are hopeful that a report has been filed somewhere if something should happen again. They are also holding onto some lovely photographs of the two people trying to hide their faces, which will be circulated around the neighborhood if needed. Meanwhile, as the drama played out across the courtyard, McLeod had been diligently fighting a losing battle with wireless Internet to set up the football game he'd taped via Slingbox--Dana's last words before heading to the errant neighbors' were, "I'll give you the Wi-Fi code as soon as I get back." So for two hours, instead of watching football, we kept the kids entertained with a slide show of our last vacation including movies of Barret and his friends feeding fish from the pier. By the time all the real-life drama was over, we were ready to load up another taxi and head home--after all, who needs football when you can have it out with crazy neighbors? Truly memorable evening in good ol' Taipei. (Dana and Kim, we'll be sure to bring the Super Soakers and water balloon cannons next time we visit. Thanks for helping us celebrate Thanksgiving, even if it wasn't how we imagined it would be. But sometimes that makes for the best memories later.)

I had planned to update the blog with notes and pictures from a few recent trips, but this weekend's Thanksgiving excitement kind of sent me in a different direction. I'll try to get those up in the next week or so, though. In the meantime, love and blessings to all of you.

Cleaning Up after Super Typhoon Krosa

We are relieved to be bidding Super Typhoon Krosa goodbye. Equivalent to a category 4 hurricane, this big baddie began roaring in during the wee hours of Saturday morning, surprising everyone with intense, unrelenting wind and drenching downpours. More than one family reported that the shrieking gusts and rumbling sustained winds sent all the kids running into mom and dad's bed for reassurance. Looking down from our window during the daylight hours, we could see the wind-driven rain spiral and snake its way through alleys like a misty-white Chinese dragon. And we all kept saying, "This can't be it. It isn't supposed to be here yet! It's supposed to be here on Sunday!" That's about as lame as telling a woman in the final stages of labor that it's not her due date so she can't have her baby yet.

This was my third typhoon since I've been in Taipei, but the first one during which I could actually feel the building sway from the force of the wind. A little unnerving. We also had a minor ceiling leak, as did most of the apartment complex residents. The poor ladies at the front desk dispatched engineers with buckets all over the building and were logging the leak reports in a spreadsheet. I'm guessing maintenance is going to have a busy week ahead. One friend had water steadily flowing out of her light fixtures in both her bathrooms and was dumping full buckets about every three hours. In the lobby water was trickling out of the electrical outlets which is just a little scary. Our building had some minor damage - I heard an unconfirmed report of broken windows in the health club area - with the biggest loss seeming to be window screens. One friend called his wife over to the window of their 16th floor apartment and said, "Honey, do you see that rectangular thing way down there on the street? That's our screen door."

We were fortunate, though, that we only lost power for about half an hour, unlike friends in other parts of town who were without electricity throughout the day. When the power went down in our block, McLeod had taken Barret and a friend Aiden to the movies next door (remember, we all thought we were only experiencing the outer bands and not THE typhoon). They got through about two-thirds of the movie, when everything went dark. Another kid was having a birthday party at the theater and had given all his buddies glow sticks, so of course, what else would you do in a blackout but play tag up and down the aisles of Cinema 2? Barret and Aiden, who weren't blessed with glow sticks, had to sit out that rollicking good time while McLeod got them bundled up to come home. I heard some great stories from the boys about their adventure including 1) climbing down the stalled escalators, 2) seeing a chair fly across the road, 3) getting stuck in our apartment elevator as the power cycled on and off and of course, 4) NOT getting to play glow stick tag with the other typhoon-crazed six year olds. They did get rainchecks for the movie so guessing McLeod or I will be taking them back to finish the movie later this week. I wonder if they'll have a different perspective of the film, Evan Almighty, after actually seeing some flooding around town?

This morning I got out with the camera to check the damage around our area. As you would imagine, there were lots of trees down, some broken windows, and signs blown away. What amazed me, though, was the speed with which the clean up was happening. Not only were the city garbage crews out early picking up the stacks of debris, but everywhere, people were pitching in to clean up the common areas. I recognized several senior citizens brandishing brooms and rakes as the group who regularly meets for Tai Chi in the park behind our house. Elsewhere, families were out sweeping up broken glass, pottery shards and leaves from in front of their businesses and homes. And as soon as they could, everyone was getting back to business as normal, whether that was frying up eggs in rice wrappers at the breakfast shops or selling knock-off sportswear in the market.

Below is a clip of the storm as it rolled in and more shots of the aftermath. We are thankful to be safe and dry. Please pray for the folks who lost property, had injuries, and the few families that lost loved ones. Near us, one house on Yangming Mountain (the mountain behind our home) collapsed on the eight people inside. One person was killed, others injured. Landslides are still a big issue until things dry out. McLeod just walked in from touring the mountain area on his bike and said the roads are strewn with rocks and trees. That will take a little more time to set right.