You deserve a post

After receiving so many requests for invites, I was a little overwhelmed! I didn't know so many people were interested in our blog! So I feel like you all deserve some more frequent postings...
After a short 2 months of summer vacay (at least it felt short), we are back in school. But, here is the start of some pics to catch you up on our summer:

We started out the summer with Chinese tutoring (ILP, for those in the know) in the morning at our house for the girls, and English "tutoring" (more like babysitting with a little of ILP thrown in) in the afternoon for these twin girls, Eenie and Gigi (7 years-old).
The story of how I ended up watching the girls is interesting because a lady who was visiting our church heard that a foreigner was teaching one of the children's classes and, by American terms, she "barged" in on my already chaotic 3 and 4 year-olds class and asked me if her children could live with me for the summer so that they could learn English. I tried to explain to her that I couldn't talk right then (though it was obvious to me) and so I quickly gave her my phone number and asked her to call me about it. I soon started referring to her as "the crazy lady" because I had never met this woman before and she wanted her children to live with me? To learn English? Even by Taiwanese standards, that is a big extreme.
Well, to make a long story short that is full of mis-communications, negotiations, and frustrations, I ended up agreeing to watch them for a trial period of a couple of weeks in the afternoons only. She asked me to name my price, which was awkward for me because I am in her country and didn't want to seem like a greedy foreigner by asking too much, nor did I want to get taken advantage of (which seemed likely the more I knew about this woman), but what do I know about a fair price here? I ended up naming a price which I later found I could have asked about ten times as much and she would have been happy to pay, and she of course jumped on the bargain. The two weeks were enough for me, though, because it made my life a little too hectic, and I canceled after the trial period. They were cute girls, though. Sad that it just wasn't the right time (nor the right price).

Blog replacer

I know it's been a while. We are back from our sweet summer vaca to the normal grind of life. To check out what has been taking up my free time where I might normally blog, it's my new article at Examiner here about Meili's first day of Kindergarten. Also something I didn't mention in the article is that Sophie is actually going, too, because Kindergarten here is 3 years and so you start when you are 3 and go until 1st grade.
I am also thinking about going private with our blog, so please comment on this posting if you want an invite.

Ok, ok, we're here

We have received some gentle promptings from several people to update our blog. So here goes.
I sometimes feel like I am living in two worlds. It is taking some adjustment to combine being an American with living in a new culture and country. I am always overly cautious and overly sensitive about being an "Ugly American" and so I have tried to assimilate to the new culture and ideas as much as possible. Sometimes it is hard, though. I'll give you an example by showing you what my day is like here:
I wake up about 6:00 am. The normal sounds are in my apartment: kids crying, going to the bathroom, asking for breakfast. I also hear the sounds of the 10,000 students coming to the school that we live next to where my husband works. The crossing guards are blowing their whistles, the hundreds of scooters are zooming up and down my small street, the large tour buses that get their money during the week by being contracted to bring in the numerous out-of-town students all are playing in the background. My husband is getting ready to go to work. I whip up some oatmeal (luckily I remembered to get bananas and soy milk from market yesterday-more on that later). My husband goes down the elevator from our 12th floor apartment, out of our building and walks about 20 feet to the security gate to the school where he works.

(A view from our apartment of some of the school campus where Scott works)
I get Meili ready for Chinese Kindergarten, cute school uniform and all. We forgot to do her homework last night so we spend 5 minutes that we don't have finishing it up. I get the kids fed, ready, break up fights, comfort Euan who is crying in the chaos, and out the door. (So far this mostly sounds like any normal Mom's morning in America with only a couple of strange things, right? Homework for a Kindergartner, 10,000 students, hundreds of whizzing scooters).
Now, out into the new world. I greet our Guan li yuan (security guard) in my broken Chinese. Out we go, past the breakfast cafe that is attached to our building and I ask the owner in Chinese to please purchase me some bread with her regular orders(she has the hook-ups to some soft and cheap bread). I take a deep breath and venture out onto the street since there are no sidewalks (nor shoulders) while buses and scooters drive within feet of us. Asian living is not for the claustrophobic. As I walk, I greet my neighbors whose bottom floors of their houses are their businesses: the other breakfast cafe two doors down from the first, the salon lady who just woke up and is opening her gate, the lunch cafe preparing their dishes, another breakfast cafe, the old man who guards the taps to the well water (which we buy). I also greet my other neighbors who are opening their gate of the bottom floor of their houses (much like a smaller version of our garages): the 85 year-old woman who looks not a day past 70 who I also see at the track early in the morning, our electronics family who recently upgraded their bottom-floor of their house business to a larger 2 floor rented space downtown, and sometimes I even see the Bishop of our church's family. Three blocks later I arrive at Meili's school and greet the teacher who is manning the school gate. I help Meili go to her classroom and unpack her homework, lunch container, and water bottle (full of the purchased well water). I let Sophie and Euan play on the playground for a minute while the other students arrive and surround the foreigners, showing off their new toys, asking strange questions, and all the other things that small children do. It's too bad that I only understand a fraction of it.


Around 8:00 am we leave the school and continue down the road to the Farmer's Morning Market.
To be continued...

My new gig

We've been busy lately. We have moved to a smaller, 3 bedroom apartment in our same complex. It's taken some time and extra energy because it looked pretty thrashed and needed some help to turn it from ghetto-like to home-like. There are some things I will miss about our first apartment, but this new one already feels like home. And we are pretty excited that we are paying about 60% of what we were paying at our other apartment.
We are still in school here until the end of June, which makes it hard for me to read all of your school's out activities you are involved in. The bbq's, campouts, picnics, hikes, boating excursions, etc. all make me pretty jealous. Or perhaps "homesick" would be a better word.
Meili has switched to half days of school because she has a perpetual "tummy ache" about going to Chinese school. It makes me sad; I'm not sure how to help her. We've tried to emphasize that she is just going to make friends and not to worry about learning Chinese, but Taiwan's school system is just so serious; I mean she already has homework every night! She has to be in school now or they won't accept her into elementary school... Any ideas on how I can help her?
Something else that is new is that I have started writing for an online web page at www.examiner.com as their National Living Abroad Examiner. My home page is here and I write about what it's like living abroad. It's a lot of fun for me and the hours are perfect for a busy mom (ie whenever I have a minute). They are hiring other examiners who write on a topic for their city or nationally. You should check it out. Plus, if you are hired on by June 30th, I receive a little bonus! Sweet!

Girls will be girls

Isn't it so fun to be a girl? I mean, what can be better than doing your hair, putting on jewelry, and putting on your princess dress for the ball? Really, there is nothing better.

Meili at school

This is an old post that I somehow never put on. Since it has pictures from last spring, I decided to put it on anyway (since pictures take me forever to upload!)

These are pictures of a sport's day that Meili's school had a couple of weeks ago. Sometimes Meili looks a little lost and shy, but I love that I got some pictures of her being truly happy.

The Taiwanese love our kids, but they especially love that we brought them a "gerber baby" from America. I hear it about 10 times a day (no kidding) "Oh, hao xiang wawa" (oh, he looks like a doll!). And they LOVE to hold him. This is Joyce, who is the vice principal of Meili's school (and my adopted mother because she's given me lots of advice on how to take care of my kids here in Taiwan-trust me, it's different).


**Update**
Meili is so much happier at school now that Sophie is going too and also because she is really starting to understand and speak more Chinese and make friends. Phew!

Cinderella, stop yer whinin'

Today I was on my hands and knees cleaning my all tile floors and it reminded me of Cinderella (yes I have little girls) washing the floors before she could go to the ball. Then I thought, "What was she complaining about? Try doing the washing, mending, cleaning, cooking AND taking care of three children 4 and under! Then you might have something to whine about!" What kind of ideals are we raised with anyway? We all think we deserve some kind of fairy godmother to take us away from the things that are difficult in our life. Well, no fairy godmother whisked me away, but I cheerfully finished my work (which isn't always the case) and I went out with my handsome prince and my 3 cute little kids to a Buddhist Monastery for Buddha's birthday and it was so cool!


I added this picture because I thought it was cute that even the nuns at this Buddhist Monastery went gaga over Euan.


Us inside the main place of worship. The three big buddhas behind us (you can only see two)each represented different things. The middle was enlightenment, and the two on the outside were purity and knowledge. At least that's what I think, I'm not sure if I remember... Plus there were 14,800 small buddhas around the room that represented other things. During worship, they all have a light that is lit up.


Here is our Sophie. She is such a ham!


I think that Euan felt like he was the one driving the long golf cart that we drove around the monastery grounds in. It was so cute!


This is the nun who was our tour guide. What I learned from her? All religions have pieces of the truth, and I love the principles that are taught in Buddhism. Those who follow Buddhism are amazing, kind, good people who love education, virtue, purity, service, family, and more. It strengthened my testimony in my own faith! What good examples they are to me. I am so grateful that there are other good people who strive to be better. I am grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and to have a knowledge of the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and I will follow their good examples by adhering to the principles of my own faith even more fervently.