Storytime, List of Instructions

Kyle is finding his writing skills very useful.  Yesterday, he made sure I would remember that he wants to keep the fork from the can of pineapple.

With no TV, the kids spend more time creating on their own.  To be honest, sometimes I am a bit lazy and don't give them any guidance.  Then, they come up with cartoons like this.  This is one of Kyle's first stories that he has written on his own.  He did this earlier this week.

Kyle has a bit of a cough.  He turned his medicine cup into a cute little monster.  Helps the medicine go down.

School Antics

Since school started, I have neglected writing about the children.  They are still here.  So, I should write a bit about them, and their days at school.  Because, I know that is really why you are here; as interesting as stag beetles in compost is, the children really do rise a little above that topic.

Hannah: Hannah is now four and in kindergarten.  She has homework, twice a week.   Yesterday's homework was a sheet with dotted lines on it that she had to trace with her crayon.  She was all set up at the table, doing her first line, so I left her to it while I did some online sales orders.  When I came back, her homework was completed, almost perfect.  The first line was a bit wobbly, but the rest were spot-on.
"Hannah, you drew that so well.  What a nice job," I said.
"Oh, I didn't do that.  Kyle did." Said Hannah.
"But that's your homework!  Why did Kyle do it?"
"It was too hard for me, so I made Kyle do it.  He could draw on the lines."
As the teacher said today when I relayed this episode to her, we have no fear of Hannah handling herself in the world.

The teacher also had a chance to tell a story about roleplay time to me.  The class read Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.  Then, three girls got to be Snow White and act out eating the apple and dying.  Hannah refused to eat it, leaning over and whispering to a classmate, "I am not eating that!  I KNOW it's poison!"

Now, the final Hannah story for today.  The class takes a nap at noon.  Hannah did not like lying down at all.  After much discussion with her, I discovered she did not like lying down without wearing "sleeping gear".  So, now everyday Hannah changes into a nightdress for her daily nap, and then changes back into her daywear in the afternoon.  Naptime goes much more smoothly since this ritual was added to her daily school routine.

Kyle has overcome his hatred of Chinese and no longer needs to move to New Zealand so he doesn't have to learn Chinese.  Over summer, I decided not to put him into a pronunciation class, but to just enjoy some daytrips instead.  I was a little nervous that I had done the wrong thing.  Kyle has proved me right in my choice, getting 100% in his first two tests and being top of the class in pronunciation and other academics.  Most importantly, Kyle loves going to school and often tells me how much he loves his school.  Tonight, he read part of a Chinese storybook to Hannah.  And, he now corrects my pronunciation constantly.  His dad is taking him to buy a new junior Chinese dictionary very soon, as he has taken an interest in my old one.  The old one is just too outdated to be useful for his study.  Chinese changes constantly, and kids need to stay uptodate to get the high test scores.

Tomorrow, we are attending a cultural performance in Keelung, with the children's school.  I'm charging my camera battery in anticipation.

My Garden

My garden is a big mess of dirt, rock, and weeds.  I do have a few things growing:

• Basil
• Parsley
• Sweet potato leaves
• Sage
• Mint

Not much of a list.  I bought some seeds to plant, but I never bring them out at the right time.  Yesterday would have been perfect.  I had several enthusiastic children digging the dirt patch, but never thought to get them to work on planting the seeds.  My friend did bring me an oregano cutting, which has been popped into the ground near the sweet potato leaves.  And, they did spot that I had some kind of squash probably growing by itself in the garden, too.

Richard's friends helping dig some of the garden a month or so ago.

Now and then, knowledgeable people come to visit, and point out wild foods growing around us.  The neighbor taught me how to cut the oversized bamboo and wash it gently for an hour or so to get rid of the bitterness.  We discovered our plant that makes a very nice juice-type drink when boiled and mixed with lemon and sugar.  And, there are leaves that you cook with fish to bring out the flavor.  I'm still trying to tell all of these plants apart from the weeds.

We are also doing some basic composting.  I mix our raw food scraps with paper, hair from the drain, old cotton clothes we no longer need, grass clippings, and dirt.  Due to the heat, it only takes about three months for everythign to become a big mushy messy that can be mixed in the garden dirt.  My garden does look more like dirt than last year.  Now, if only I could find motivation to take ALL the rocks out of the dirt.  The compost bin has been a nesting ground for the stag beetles we have in the yard.  They are cute little things, really.

Flash Flood

Late Thursday night/early Friday morning, without any warning from the Taiwan weather bureau, several months' worth of rain dumped down on Northern Taiwan.  Our little cottage didn't suffer any damage, but the surrounding area got a good hammering.

Closest to our hearts was the car park Richard recently dug out, near the little creek by our house.  Two days ago, it was a flat space to make my car.  After the rain, it looks like this:

Last week, the children and I fed the fish down by the stream:

Yesterday, it looked like this:

As we were heading out to school at 7:20am, our neighbor came over and told there had been a landslide, and not even scooters could get past.  She led us up this rarely-used mountain road and back down the hill, so we could bypass the landslide.  It was very nice of her to come and show us this road.  It was a bit scary, though.  Water was rushing over the road like a small river and there were rocks all over the place, too.  By the time I had to drive to the school at noon to pick up the children, the military were out cleaning up a lot of the mess.  And when we came back in the evening, the slip had been cleaned up.

The school's nature area was totally underwater on Friday.  I parked inside the school, as the carpark area was pretty sludgy, too.  Luckily, the rain eased off by noon, so things have had a chance to dry out a bit.

During that heavy rain, Richard got up several times to check the land.  Today, he asked a guy over to look at building some walls to redirect the water and support the bridge.  Having grown up in a wet area and with a father who built national roads for a living, I had mentioned to Richard about the bridge before.  The dirt under the bridge has been slowly disappearing over the years since it was built, I imagine.  It would only be a matter of a time before it all eroded underneath and the bridge collapsed.  I feel lucky that we had this downpour, as it has made Richard aware and now the gentleman will be helping fix things up to be more secure.

We woke to a sunny day today.  Very hot and sunny.  It's often the way - beautiful clear weather after a big stormy night.  A day like we had for the barbecue.  Here's a picture of our yard on a sunny, clear day:

Kyle Reads, Hannah Listens

We have had a great start to the school year.  We chose to put our children into a small school by our cottage, rather than one of the larger "better" ones by my inlaws'.  The school is public.  There are 65 children in the school, from kindergarten to grade six.  Kyle has five classmates, all girls.  Hannah has 11 classmates.  The school is not pretty and it doesn't have great facilities like a swimming pool or gymnasium, but it has won awards including best kitchen in a Taiwan school and best public preschool in Taiwan.   Kyle and Hannah are happy to walk into the school every morning.  And already, I am accepted into the parent community and have joined  the "group food purchasing" team of mothers.

Kyle and Hannah on their first day of school

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Hannah resting in the library

Roof of the school - garden needs a little work

Back of Kyle's class block

After two weeks in school, Kyle has started reading Chinese storybooks!  He read his first pages today.  From zero to full speed ahead in two weeks.  And Hannah loves her teachers and has learned a lot of good behaviour already.

School Begins & Some Education Links

Today is the last day of the holidays! We have an ordinary weekend and then Monday, the first day of school, is here. I think we all have mixed feelings about this. Kyle doesn’t want to do all the writing related to First Grade but wants friends. Hannah doesn’t want to leave my side but wants to play. I want them to go out and start life at school and have some time away from me, but I want them to stay with me, too. So, today we will spend our last day of the holidays together at Happy Bear gymnastics, the play area, and MacDonald’s.

Kyle is still shining in the area of language and literacy – so far only the English language. His Chinese has some catching up to do. Kyle is reading up to four chapter books a day, and I am ever-thankful for the Taipei City Library for its extensive English-language section. The English area of our Muzha branch library is bigger than my hometown’s library, and we also have access to all the books at the many other branches in the city. Parents have asked me how I taught him to read, and even though he is naturally talented in this area, I would like to share a few good books I found for parents to use.

How To Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons – I followed this book step-by-step, ten minutes a day, over several months. We didn’t use the book everyday but we did every lesson. It covered all the foundations of the mechanics of reading. I am now using it with Hannah, and she is also learning quickly with the book.

Wise-Bauer’s series of books on literacy – Wise-Bauer follows a more classical approach to teaching. Each lesson has clear steps to follow and should be easy for parents even without any teaching experience. Writing With Ease Strong Fundamentals: Children only have to write one or two sentences each day, and through this they gain confidence in their ability. Kyle was unsure of his writing and unwilling to try, but after several lessons he started to write spontaneously without prompting.

Bob Books (Readers) I used these to support lessons in How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. The stories are quirky and appeal to most children.

I was a bit concerned about Kyle’s preparation for his Chinese pronunciation classes. My friend sent me a link to a number of very nice Chinese language sites for children. Here is the link to a woman's blog, that you can click through to find more that your children might like.

I am also using a daily practice series of books to support science and math. The children love these as each day’s lessons are very short and to the point.

Finally, Hannah has been using a set of Kumon books that introduce concepts such as shapes and time, and provide practice cutting, pasting, and coloring. This series encourages children to work independently at their own pace. It’s working for my determined, independent little girl.

I hope some of these books are helpful, or at least start a search in a direction that saves someone time and money!

The Joy of Giving

I just came back from a very nice evening out with a good friend.  I know she is a good friend because I could sit in a coffeeshop with one coffee and talk for literally hours!  It's not easy to get me to sit like that for so long with one cup of coffee.

During the evening, we talked a little about charity and giving, and I have been inspired to write about my sponsored child.

When Kyle was born, I decided to sponsor a child.  I found a child just two years old through Child Fund (Formerly CCF).  Rajkumar is in India.  When I started with this sponsorship, I didn't realise how attached I would grow to Rajkumar and his family, nor how such a small gift from me could mean so much to them.  Each year I give the family 50USD to spend for Christmas and birthday.  With that money, they buy their family of four new clothes, new bedding, school supplies, grains and meats, prepare a birthday party, AND save a little for their future needs.  This giving has also made me look at our own children and what we give them.  This year, I decided to buy them one gift each, and not from me but from the Birthday Fairy.  The whole idea of the Birthday Fairy was more exciting than the presents, and the buildup lasted weeks.   I am putting the "saved" money toward the cost of assisting Rajkumar and his family.  It is truly a joy to assist this family.  Even if we can't make a giant impact on poverty in general, we can do a little something now and then.

It's funny where you end up...

When you are looking for a gas station. Or at least, it's funny where the kids and I end up.  This afternoon, I took the kids to buy some supplies for their birthday party to be held this Saturday.  I had tried to get them to nap at noon but they didn't, so of course they fell asleep and slept for over an hour, which meant flagging the trip to the store that sells the party gear.  They woke up as I was diverting to the highway toward the cottage.  I realised we needed gas, so I got back off the highway and drove along to Xijr.  Kyle was hungry so I decided to find somewhere to stop if we couldn't find a gas station.  Of course, I couldn't (I have a GPS but it listed 20 in no particular order or direction, so I gave that up).  We ended up at Cathay Hospital.  It's like a huge community, and behind the hospital is the start of the cycleway along the Keelung River.  Walking along, we found "叮呱呱", the Taiwan Fried Chicken chain.  The kids hadn't been there before, so we ordered our takeout and sat at the park, eating our picnic dinner.  Our family verdict is, Ding Gua Gua is way better than MacDonald's.  Is that getting too local?  We were quietly eating when Hannah yells, "There's a cow!"  (She takes after me, suffering from the odd case of animal misidentification.)  Coming up to us was this giant pig, with a collar on. It had smelt the chicken and came to ask for some.  It was the cutest big pig I had ever seen.  It was talking to us, and put its head on my knee.  The owner of the pig came over and said sorry but he loves the smell of chicken.  It was fine with us.  It was certainly a "first time" moment for me.  Kyle decided he never wants to be a pig farmer as they "have to chop those gorgeous animals up", and Hannah declared pigs "fantastic".  Funnily enough, less than five minutes later, a man walking his cow walked past.  Now, please note that we were not exactly in farmland, but right next to a highway and large hospital. 

(The bikeway itself is currently 12km long, and eventually will connect to Taipei's bikeways.  It's in really good condition and not crowded at all.)

We then walked back to the carpark, stopping at the local community park.  The children there were very friendly, and both kids quickly made new friends.  But, the promise of a daytrip tomorrow convinced the kids to come back to the cottage when I asked them. 

We got back here and painted the paper clay models we had made a few days ago.  At first they were all painted beautifully, but then the kids decided BROWN was the way to go, and now all the animals are one color.   The kids were quite brown themselves so I had them jump in the shower and head off to bed for stories.

Talking of brown, I was saddened to hear Hannah tell me she is not happy that she is too dark, and not white enough.  And to tell me I am too fat to be a mermaid.  Taiwan media has so much to answer for.  Even if I don't let her watch shows like "美人女" (Beautiful mermaid, a superhero story for girls, with 3 beautiful cartoon mermaids doing cool stuff), even Disney channel shows ads for the mother, selling whitening products, slimming products, and anti-aging products.  There is no control over advertising at all.  Hannah is only four years old, and she is already worried about her skin and her waistline!  I'm going to have to restudy my "advertising ethics" paper materials and educate the little girl before she develops issues she shouldn't have at four years of age!

Sunday Morning at the Cottage

It's been just beautiful up at the cottage the past couple of weeks.  The good weather has brought our neighbors into the 'hood, and this morning was definitely a hive of activity.  I woke up at 6am to the sounds of:

• The great big labrador at the bottom of the hill barking nonstop
• The meditation group playing their Buddhist music at full volume, just up from the dog
• The little girl below us and her mother having rather loud dialog between the inside and outside of the house
• The gentle hum of locusts
• The occasional tweet and chirp from the resident birds

I decided to go and see exactly what the dog was barking about, and get a bit of exercise at the same time.  A TV crew had set up at the restaurant at the bottom of our hill.  They must be going to shoot a few scenes down by the river.  The dog did not like their constant movement, and barked everytime somebody spoke or walked.  After saying hi to the dog, I set off on a little walk along the road.  There were a few groups of hikers out enjoying the sun, too.  There were a few rustlings in the grass by the road, and I assume they were little snakes or lizards slipping away from all the noise.  I got a couple of kilometers down the road, decided I was hungry, and came back again.  Everyone was still asleep, so I had a chance to enjoy a "quiet" coffee before the day really began.  It's now almost 9am, and I think it is too hot for everyone, as there is no dog, no Buddhist music, no chirping birds, and no little girl calling out to her mother.  We are left with the gentle hum of locusts and a view of dragonflies darting by as they look for their mates.  Bliss.... oh wait, here is Hannah, cuddling me and declaring, "I love you, squashy mummy!"

It seems just yesterday that I was dropping Kyle off for his first day of preschool.  Now, we are getting ready for first grade!  And, Hannah will become a preschooler.  It's hard to get my head around some days, that here I am in Taiwan, sending my kids to local school (getting even more "local" in September when we move to the cottage fulltime so they can attend the school out here), where they get a Taiwan education and I have to help them with homework written in Chinese.  Facebook has made it even more strange to me, as many of my Taiwanese friends have moved abroad and their children are being raised to attend English-language-education schools.  The world really is an interesting place these days.

We started our summer vacation early, with Kyle's school closing because two kids in his class had the entereovirus.  It is very contagious, and the more serious strains can be life-threatening, so they are pretty cautious.  This threw my "plans" into turmoil, but we are still having some fun.  I have been driving the two kids around, trying out different places like the Science Museum, Riverside Park Children's Festival in Ilan, Happy Bear's gymnastic classes, and a number of different swimming pools.  Fitting my business around the kids is kind of exhausting and it's hard to focus, but last week I met someone who is going to change my life forever - a drop shipping company!  So, come September I hope to be doing minimal shipping myself, offering a better service, and focusing on developing markets and retail sales.  And of course, spending more time caring for and educating my kids. Exercising. Making exotic coffees... well, one can dream, maybe I will even mop the floors!

We did manage to enjoy Kyle's graduation ceremony.  In Taiwan, graduating students get a fancy book of photos, which you pay about about 30USD for.  Here are a few pictures - two from the book and two from the day:

Hannah is of course her gorgeous, color-coordinated self.  She seems to have my sister's flair for fashion.  A couple of pictures of the girl:

I look at Hannah and ask myself, "What did I do to get such a gorgeous little girl?"

She is seriously funny, creating songs all day long that keep the whole family laughing. 

Hannah and Kyle have been roleplaying lots of boy-girl situations recently.  For example, they "went to a party" where there were a lot of girls.  Hannah sent all the girls home, as nobody could be prettier than her.  Prince Kyle chased them all out to make sure they wouldn't come back and Hannah had the choice of boys at the party!  I guess I read Cinderella to them once too often.

Kyle has bronchitis.  I took him to the doctor today.  I think I have a bit of it myself, tonight.  The kids got up at 6:30 this morning, and Richard had been out, so I did the kid duty for the morning.  I was feeling a bit feverish myself earlier this evening and was almost asleep, but Richard woke me up.  Now, everyone is asleep and it's getting close to midnight.  It seems to be fairly common that the husband gets to sleep and the wife doesn't.  I guess we have a lot of things we have to organise and remember, and it's just harder to shut our brains down.  And, we tend to think of the husband more and let them sleep, keeping the kids quiet.  From discussions with friends, it seems a pretty cross-cultural thing, were the men will wake up the women just to have them help find something or to ask a question, whereas the women will try their best to solve any problems themselves, and keep the kids quiet, too.  Anyway, I won't be surprised if I wake up with a bit of a cough in the morning, having had looked after Kyle through his coughing last night.

On that note, I should try to get to sleep before witching hour!

Going Home, Coming Home

I'm standing on two shores,
My tongue flicks Chinese, English,
A change of station.
I sympathize with both parties.
East Meets West,
My feet are on hot coals,
Jumping from shore to shore.

I wrote this in Singapore airport whilst waiting for the plane back to Taiwan, about ten years ago.  It's still hard for me to grasp that I have been Taiwan over 15 years now.  Last month, I took the children home to my parents' place for five weeks.  I got to celebrate my first birthday with my parents in 20 years.  Having left home at 17 to attend university, and then coming to Taiwan at 21, birthday celebrations at home just didn't work in with the schedule.  I have to say, it was very nice celebrating with my parents.  It just deepened the feeling of being split between two places, though.  The children's desire to stay and play in New Zealand didn't help the tearing of the heart when stepping onto the plane at the end of the trip.

We've been back in Taipei almost a week.  It's OK.  It's just, sometimes you hope things change a little and you come back to new and exciting possibilities.  So far, it hasn't been like that.  We are still split between my inlaws' place and our cottage, and my business is still in need of attention.  I still need to get into exercise and general healthy living and eating.  There was no magic CHANGE FAIRY waving her wand while I was away.  And, my heart hasn't all come with me this time.  Maybe it will catch up and love Taipei again in a little while.

Dancing, Traveling, Rambling

Sitting here at the computer, listening to "Rave Anthems", put on by DJ Kyle, looking out at the hills, and drinking a nice cup of coffee, with sounds of Hannah and Kyle playing drifting down the stairs, I think this defines "Nice Family Sunday".  Richard is silent, as through all of this, he is trying to pretend he gets to sleep in.  Anyway, I am going to try and sneak in  few minutes' worth of updates before chaos inevitably overtakes the day.

Kyle is still taking dance class.  Recently, he has been reluctant to go to the class, but he still enjoys it during the actual class time.  On Friday, the head teacher had a chat with him and found out that he finds some of the stretching difficult, and that he wants to learn some MANLY dance actions.  So, yesterday, I took him to the school's hip-hop class.  Wow!  I havent' seen Kyle so high since we attended the insanely intense Gymboree exercise class when he was a year old.  (His little friend got so overstimulated that he passed out halfway through the 50-minute class, and my friend and I had ringing ears for a couple of hours after the class.)  He would do the actions, run to the side and do a somersault or some other move he had learned in other dance classes, then come back and continue.  Even during break, he was dancing around.  The poor teacher came out of the class in quite a sweat.  The moms said they had never seen the teacher so excitable.  Kyle was happy all through the day, dancing and laughing right through to bedtime.  Actually, Kyle is too young to attend that class but we wanted to show him that guys dance and guys can teach, and that after  you learn the basics, you don't necessarily have to become a ballet dancer.   He told the teachers he wants to continue with dance class now.

When everyone came out of class, one of the girls told everyone, "好憐憫,清松要去紐西蘭找老婆".  I thought a long time and then realised he meant, "找外婆"
(He said, "I am going to NZ to find a wife."  He meant, "I am going to NZ to see my grandmother.")

You can see some information about Kyle's dance school here:
http://www.wenindance.url.tw/en/about.htm

Hannah is one smart little cookie.  She has an answer for everything, in both Chinese and English.  And, she knows what she wants.  On Friday, we had her gymnastics class.  Half-way through, she wet her pants.  I only had a skirt for her, and a pair of Kyle's underpants.  I knew before I offered them to her that she would not readily accept it.  She flat-out refused to wear them, and I refused to let her do tumbling without pants, so she gave up that and our Friday lunch together, to go back to grandma's and get her own clothes.  Going out yesterday, she had to change her whole outfit because she didn't have a jacket to match her skirt.  At least she can dress and undress herself, so I just let her change, as long as she puts everything else away.  Hannah is ready for school, and I am looking forward to letting her go to daily kindergarten in September.  It will be great for her to have some new friends her age to play with every morning.

We are leaving for New Zealand early May.  We looked at Jetstar but the ordeal of booking over the phone and trying to work out how to get there was too much, and we ended up going with Air New Zealand.  The travel agent I used is the first that has given me great service, and fast, for a long time.  Their information:
http://www.martin.com.tw/ (Zora is the agent that helped me out.)  They are the agent Singapore Airlines recommends to you if you call their Taipei office.

We've been reading some great books lately.  One that has helped get the kids thinking about life balance and other habits is "The Seven Habits of Happy Kids" .  It's fun to refer to the characters and ideas in the book rather than just nagging the kids to do exercise, turn off the computer, and so on.

Well, the CD has finished and dirty laundry is calling!

Easter?

Ok, I admit it, I am really really really REALLY lazy when it comes to holidays like Easter and Halloween.  I just couldn't muster up energy to find chocolate eggs, decorating kits, and so on for my kids.  I gave them a candy and made them papaya milk, and that is the extent of my Easter celebrating.  Maybe it's because it wasn't that big of a deal for us growing up anyway, and then there is the whole WORK side of finding things for the holiday.  We did get a couple of books out from the library to read about Easter.  Hannah had two fillings on Wednesday, so I also figure the less chocolate she has sticking to her teeth, the better.

I have spent the day trying to find out about jetstar and other cheap flight options to New Zealand.  I've read some NASTY reviews of jetstar, so if you have something positive to say, please let me know!  The tickets are a third less than the other airlines, and if you take the view "you get what you pay for", it should be OK, right?

On Friday night, we went to a wedding celebration at gardenmall, which you can read about on my other blog (http://www.kidzone-tw.blogspot.com/).  Here some pics of Kyle and Hannah, dressed in their flowergirl/pageboy clothing from the week before's wedding:

With the changing seasons comes the time of friends moving on.  This week, I have found out three lovely women and their families are moving early/mid June.  It's getting harder to deal with as time goes by.  It takes a year or so to get to know people, and most move on after two years.  Just long enough to form friendships but not long enough to really enjoy that friendship after you form it.  The nature of the expat community in Taiwan is, most expat women stay two or three years then move on.  It's really hard work to stay motivated to meet new people when they move away again so soon. But, with somewhat different philosophies toward child-rearing, and probably life in general, its also difficult to develop meaningful relationships with Taiwanese moms.  I mean, I know some lovely local women, but there is some fundamental difference that forms a barrier in total understanding.  I do  have some great friends who are not going anywhere soon, but I know they feel the same way about our social circle.

I've been updating my http://www.kidzone-tw.blogspot.com/ blog, so if you are in taiwan and looking for child-oriented things to do, take a look. 

How to enjoy life

Kyle doing some reading puzzles in the bath.

Hannah draws herself and her brother walking in a magic park.

Riding a bike together at a friend's house.

Gift basket for Taiwan TV celebrity "Ding Ning", to celebrate birth of her little girl.

http://www.littlewonders.com.tw/

Link to the new-look site for my online business.

More of Kyle's Art

This is a self-indulgent post, sharing more of Kyle's art.

Yuan Hsiao Jie - Lantern Festival

Yesterday, we attended a celebration for "Yuan Hsiao Jie" (known as the Lantern Festival), which marks the 15th day of the Lunar New Year.  The area where our cottage is invited everyone to make little dumplings, sing kareoke, light fireworks, watch a show, drink and eat, and enter a prize draw.  We arrived on time at 4pm, which meant the kids and I got to help out with the dumplings, and Richard got to sing before the crowds arrived.

Here are the kids with our neighbor and her daughter (next to Kyle), rolling the dumplings.  You are supposed to put the balls into the basket in the front of the picture and roll them in tapioca flour, but as we had so many, that step was finally skipped.  As you can see, Kyle saw it as a chance to roll some interesting shapes.  I think he was making a robot in this picture.

During the festivities, I think we met half of Kyle's prospective schoolmates.  So far, his first grade class has enrolment of 6 kids including him.  The parents told me it's fantastic, as the teacher knows each of the kids very well.  The children we met yesterday from the school really looked out for each other.  Having only 90 kids in the school will at least mean everyone will know all about me within a day or so.  It gets old explaining to kids where I am from, day after day, when I pick up Kyle at his current school.

I have a great video of Hannah working to throw the unrolled balls to us for rolling, but I can't figure out how to load it...

On Saturday, I took Hannah to my friend's wedding.  Hannah insisted on taking her crown, and waited for the bridal march before putting it on:

Serious case of red-eye, there, and a mouthful of candy.  Quite the stylist, she is wearing her Pumpkin Patch floral skirt and a t-shirt that says "Swiss Pretty Miss" and boasts a dancing cow.  Guess the last owner was from Switzerland.

It was really good to attend this wedding, as I got to see friends from my SPIN days.  I hadn't caught up with them since I had Kyle and really miss them.  Now they starting their own families, we might be able to meet up more often in kid-friendly places, who knows?

Today, Kyle was in school and I took Hannah to Ren-Ai Park in Yung-Ho to see the lantern display, and tried to find the Museum of World Religions.  Of course with my sense of direction, I failed to find the museum, but we did manage to visit a couple of bookstores and have a chat with a teashop owner and a Filipino nanny working inYung-Ho.  With temperature up to the high '20's (celsius), it was a great day for just wandering around.

My baby's first jeans

Here is my "little baby", so grown up in her first jeans.

I hadn't realised she had grown so much!   Here she is in a pair of jeans I picked up from our playgroup rummage sale and a top a mom gave a friend when she left the country, along with a pair of day-market shoes.  Stylin'!  Kyle is in his All Black pants and skateboarding shirt.  Can you tell they dressed themselves?

It's Chinese New Year's Day.  Last night we had the New Year dinner with Richard's parents.  Most of friends get emotionally ready for the big dinner with family at this time of year.  Our dinner is actually quieter, as Lisa and family go down South for the week.  We have relative calm, which suits me, as I am not one to really get into tradition like Christmas of this NewYear thing.

Today, I took pictures of some of Kyle's art.  This is from last year, when he was four to four-and-a-half.  I hope he will get back into it someday as I really enjoy looking at his work.

Flowers.  You can see a smudge in the center.  Kyle bumped it by mistake, but decided it was fine like that.

Cat on the Roof:  They read a Chinese story in the class, then drew their own interpretation.

ER and Plastc Surgery

So, here I am, at Chung-Gung hospital in Ba-du, waiting for Richard to have his thumb saved. It's just the beginning of a two to three hour wait while he is in surgery. When Richard called from the basement this afternoon, "Katrina, we need to go to the hospital," I didn't think too much about it. He didn't sound like he was too much pain, there was very little blood and he walked up to the neighbor to ask him to move Richard's van for us so I could drive out. We left the lights on and a chicken in the oven. Six and half hours later, Richard is probably getting a steel pin in his left thumb or maybe having part of it amputated, the kids are at the grandparents', and the chicken is being eaten by the neighbors.


Richard says he cannot remember what happened exactly, just that the bandsaw was higher than he should have left it and he must have reached over it. I had suggested he wear protective metal gloves or put a cover over the saw, but up until now it had been fine. NZ Health and Safety officers would have palpatations if they saw the kind of safety gear used (or not) here in Taiwan. What can you do? At least the health care here is fast. We came to the ER and stayed here until Richard's breakfast had digested and they found a surgeon to operate. I am not sure if other countries could boast such efficiency. It's Sunday night and I am the only one waiting in the surgery waiting room.

There may not be many foreigners turning up in this branch of Chung-Gung. I say this because I have been "hello" 'd several times already, and just now had a man sit down beside me and look at me for a few minutes before stating, "bye bye" and leaving. The staff have been very nice so far. The great thing about hospitals in Taiwan is, you will always find someone who speaks English.

*In Taiwan, you need to have someone in the hospital to look after you, as there is nobody to look after the basic needs of patients (toilet, food, drink, nose-blowing...) If your family does not have someone available to stay fulltime, you will try to hire a 24-hour assistant to stay with the patient.

***This was written on Sunday night.  It's now Thursday.  Richard had cut through bone, nerve, vein, tendon.  The plastic surgeon put it back on, with a pin in the thumb that will come out in a month.  The damage is about 5cm in length, and when you think of the size of a thumb, that is quite a wound.  We have to watch for infection, and he starts rehab/physio on Friday.  Just a FYI, the whole thing including a night in hospital cost just over 4,000TWD (about 200NZD).  I get to show my sense of duty and love by showering him and helping dress the wound.

And the neighbors really enjoyed the chicken :)

Insomnia

Over my years in Taiwan, I have had periods of time where I just can't/won't sleep until the depths of the night.  I used to think this was particular to me, but have discovered that many expats in Taiwan suffer the same "problem".  I don't know if it's the environment, or if it's something about the kinds of people who come to Taiwan and stay here.  Because, over time I have found a large number of my friends are quite hyperactive or at least with overactive minds.  This trait may be what makes Taiwan attractive to us, or what allows (or compels us) to stay here.  On nights like this, I remember things like my dear friend Brian telling me how he thinks I would make a great smoker, and that it might temper my need to move and do things.  And times when I would roam the streets at three or four in the morning, just unable to settle and not ready for the calm of the apartment.  When I think of things like this, I kind of congratulate myself on the fact I have managed to live in a Taiwanese family for several years, with the boundaries imposed that really make it impossible to release much of the nervous tension that builds up from being in a pre-defined environment.  Very recently, I have had the urge to write again, and to create.  That feeling is like a ball inflating in my chest, being held down my the weight of something similar to water, yet thicker and darker.  I have the desire, but no project, and as yet no creature has shown its face as a subject.  Being stuck in this whirlpool of threatened unreleased energy brings a shadow to sleep and makes the bed rather unwelcoming.  As my rather insightful father once said, "Katrina, boredom seems to create a dangerous situation for you."

Educating the children

Richard and I have been considering where to put Kyle when he starts first grade in September.  We are lucky enough to have choices, and late last year we went to see the school down the road from our cottage.  To our surprise, their preschool won the best preschool in Taiwan award last year through the Ministry of Education, and their elementary school seems to be quite progressive, as well as having small numbers in each class, their own kitchen on school campus, and finishing at 3:20 instead of 4pm every day.  Even better, this school does not need you to have household registration* in the area, so anyone can attend the school.  So, Kyle and Hannah can try the school out and I can try out living at the cottage full-time.

*Taiwan has a household registration system, where citizens need to register themselves in an area. This affects where you go to school, what benefits you have, and what area you can vote in.  If you are a foreigner on an ARC, your children can attend any public school without this limitation, and some schools are not limited by the household registration due to low roll numbers.

Every Tuesday and Friday, I spend an hour with a group of moms whose kids are in Kyle's dance class.  All eight of them lament the amount of homework kids have, the long hours in school, and the pressure to perform put on their kids.  It is very interesting for me to join their discussions, as it really crushes all the assumptions we made as English teachers in the private language school system.  Having kids and putting them in school has thankfully opened up access to a whole other group of parents in Taiwan.  Reading foreign-contributed forums in Taiwan, I realise that as English teachers or just in our daily lives as expats, the limited contact we have with particular groups of people really encourage us to make unfair assumptions.  This two hours a week with the group of moms is both refreshing and educational.  If your kids are in classes, I really encourage you to get to know the parents that are waiting for their kids there.  It can really change your perspective.

A couple of weeks ago I witnessed the unfortunate death of a young motorcyclist in Muzha.  He had one of those silly little hats that they can use as helmets here, and he hit the ground face-first.  Stuck in traffic, we saw them covering him up before clearing the road.  I did some online searching about local safety concerns, and found some interesting statistics about road-deaths.  There are indeed local groups also trying to educate young people, but it really doesn't seem to be enough.  One of the concerning statistics was that 3 children every day sustain serious head injuries due to lack of appropriate seatbelts or carseats, and most of those are in the five-to-ten year old group.  It's extremely difficult to change people's views on the full seat-belt and/or booster seat benefits as opposed to the lap belt.  Even educated people who have been overseas maintain that a lap-belt is enough, even though there is so much evidence to show the spinal and brain damage caused to children when there is a crash or emergency-stop with a lap-belt in use.  Children cannot brace themselves at all and they invariably hit their head on their knees or fly out of the belt.  With all the high-way driving we do, it is really an issue for me.  If we have this knowledge, isn't it our responsibility to protect our children?

Anyway, now I am trying to compile some information about proper helmet use and seatbelt use, to be passed on to teenagers and parents.  If you know of any great information that could be used in print, please let me know!