Back in Taiwan, Back in the Swing of Things

We got back from NZ over a month ago now.  The kids went right back into school, and I went back into Taiwan life.  Back into driving my sweet baby, the little red March, back into school life with the kids.  Not yet back into gardening, though!  It's looking at me, waiting for me to take hold of the weeds.

Hannah is doing great in kindergarten.  The NZ experience really brought my daughter out of her shell, and now she is very outgoing and active in her classroom.  I'm doing a little class there once a week, which is also going well.

Likewise, Kyle is doing just fine.  He suddenly became more organised, more responsible, and more capable and willing to do his studies in Chinese.  Kyle has a percussion contest in November, and an English speech contest in October.  So far, he is much more willing to go to the music class than last semester.

The past few weeks, the kids have been plastering our house in notes and drawings.  Here are a few of the highlights:

by Kyle

A Kyle Monster

You Broke My Heart - by Hannah

Product Adjustment - by Kyle

Thanks to everyone who helped me had a great NZ winter!  It was so very memorable.  Look forward to seeing everyone again!!

Happy Un-Easter, Visitations

Well, I certainly missed Easter this year.  The three Kinder eggs are still in my drawer.  I had plans to give Richard, Kyle, and Hannah one each (the kids' first at-home Easter experience), but a wake-up call from a classmate's mom at 8am made me miss the moment.  I had the Cultural Education class at the kids's school at 8:30, so Richard nicely looked after the three girls that came to visit for the morning, and some of the afternoon.

We did actually go to an Easter picnic yesterday, with Taipei City Playgroup.  It was really a lot of fun, despite the worry about Skippy running around our countryside with a three-meter chain dragging behind him.  (Skippy is our three-legged Taiwan mountain dog that a friend rescued and gave to us.  He escapes daily, bringing a new dimension to my already interesting life.)

Kyle with his basket.

Hannah, not sure if she wants her picture taken.

Case of the sneezes.  This is a really nice park.

Running around looking for the dads who were hiding with candy to give the kids.

We have a group of expat parents that meet a few times a year for big events, and weekly with a playgroup for kids not yet in school.  It's a very nice group of people and it's fun to catch up with families I might only see once a year or sometimes even less often.  People here are quite transient, so they may go back to one parents' country for a while, then return again to Taiwan.  It makes it hard, saying goodbye so often, but I have learned that many times, there will be a hello a few years down the road.

After the picnic, the worry about the dog was too much (the neighbor had called), so I canceled my other plans and we headed back home.  When we got to the driveway, there was Skippy, bouncing around without his chain.  Someone had taken it off him.  I am telling myself some nice old lady needed the chain to make her quota for the metal recyling, and that I have inadvertantly done a good deed.  I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, as I now had no plants, no library books, and no new clothes from the bargain store where we had just been in town, and here was the dog, wagging his happy tail at us.

I came in, put my things down, and the phone rang.  Richard's parents were on their way, to stay for dinner. Panic!  I threw together a salad, curry rice, dumplings, and fruit, made some lemon and mint tea, and ran around cleaning up enough to look like we care.  Richard was at the car repair shop for the day, so it was all on me to entertain and provide. I'm so lucky to have easy-going in-laws!

The kids and grandma and grandpa went for a walk and then we sat down and had dinner. We had finished just about everything when Richard called to tell me he and two friends would arrive in five minutes and they hadn't eaten.  Richard's mum helped me make the leftovers look like they had been prepared for the three guys, and I cooked some more rice and put beer in the fridge.  Luckily, those guys are easy pleased when it comes to food, too.  I was running out of supplies seeing as the grocery trip had been cut off by the dog.

About 9pm, Richard drove the guys back into town and I got the kids ready for bed.  Hannah collapsed before she even got a shower, but Kyle managed to stay awake.

Next morning, Sunday, I got up at 7am and started to get ready for the Cross Cultural Education class at school.  Kyle had been sneezing all night so I gave him the day off table tennis.  At 8am, Hannah's classmate's mum called to ask if she could come over...now...  Richard said it was fine, so she and the three girls headed over on their scooter (yes, four people, one scooter, one helmet).  I passed them on the way to school and she said, "I'll see you this afternoon when you get back."  Indeed, they were there when I got back and ended up staying until 2pm.  Richard helped turn the curry rice leftovers into enough for the eight of us.

At the class, the school principal had me dress up in Vietnamese wedding gear so she could take pictures of me.  She had visited a Vietnamese woman and picked up a lot of artifacts for the upcoming school cultural exchange day.  We read some interesting books, including one "The Night Tree", which I recommend as an alternative, environmental Christmas story.  It's not about the religion, it's about the custom of tree decorating. The family go and visit a tree they are growing in the woods.

Anyway, I came back home to the family and the neighbor's daughter playing with the kids, and the mum waiting patiently on the sofa.  Richard and I got some lunch together and I had a chat with the mum.  She finally got up the courage to ask me how much Richard had paid for me and how to arrange the broker.  Her brother is divorced and needs another mother for his children.  I was tempted to throw out a large number proving my worth but decided to be truthful.  I can understand why people think Richard bought me.  It is what they know based on their experience.  This family has some financial difficulties, raising three girls on Taiwan's low salary, but the mum helps out by collecting recycling stuff with the eldest daughter on their bicycle.

Talking to all these people, the biggest realisation is, no matter where you are from, you have the same base wishes and desires, and troubles, too.  Circumstances may well be very different, but the heart is often very similar.  Being a mother with children in public school has opened up a whole new area of Taiwan for me, as has getting out of the Taipei city.  Life is definitely a journey.

The girls having lunch.

big sister looking after Hannah

Hannah's classmate

So, once again it is Monday morning.  We have "no" food in the house, the floor needs a good clean, and I still haven't tidied the pile of stuff on the sofa.  But, looking back, it's the people that matter.   (Anyone want to come mop for me?)

Have Tent, Will Camp

Dog In The House

Skippy

Chinese New Year Cottage Style

It's been quite a week at the cottage.  Today is the last day of the Chinese New Year break.  And the only day we don't have plans for people to come over to the cottage.  Including children, we have had around 100 people come and enjoy a break here over the past five days.  Richard's parents have stayed over, we've been to two dinners, and visited Richard's uncle in hospital.  I think this is the first time I have sat down in a farily relaxed state, and my legs have started to shake.  I enjoy having people over, but I could not be a professional caterer.  My hat goes off to my mum and my sister for the work they have done in that area.

I sat down with great intentions of tales of the week, but now I am here, my mind is blank.  I guess I will put up a few recent photos instead.

Our Retaining Wall

Here are a few pictures of the retaining wall Richard has been working on this month.  It looked pretty rough at first, but it's coming together.  Richard paid a guy who has been building these, and doing up old buildings around the island, to teach him how to build the wall.

A new year, a new post

I am so happy to report I got what I wanted today.  We had a wonderful day with friends and their children, at our cottage.  The men sat outside cooking on the barbecue and having man-talk, and the women sat inside enjoying good company and drinks.  The eight children ran around the house, through the house, around the garden, and through the garden.  We even got to play some card games, reminding me how much fun it is to play games with children.  It was a very successful start to 2011.

I've also had a few things happen the last month or so that I should write about.  The first one is, I started teaching at Kyle's school, as a volunteer mother.  It's just one class once a week.  It's really a lot of fun.  The children seem to enjoy learning English .  And now, I will be teaching two classes a week, paid, at the school.  I'm really looking forward to it.  It should be a bit of a challenge after so many years away, but it is something I love to do.

Ok, next is, I have been trying my hand at gardening (again).  I was planning on having an organic garden, but after the incident a few days ago, I really don't know if it is possible in this environment.  At 10:30am, I was looking at my beautiful row of brocolli, about break out from the leaf-state it was in. I told myself I should take a picture of it to send to my dad.  I had a shower and did a little work.  When I came out at noon to get the kids from school, I had to rub my eyes and look again.  Every piece of leaf on my broccoli plants were gone.  I imagined a giant praying mantis coming in for the attack.  Gone, all gone.  I had tears in my eyes on the way to school, but on the way home I felt a little anger.  How DARE anything eat my hard work?  I was tempted to make up a spray and wait for the next bug that came along.  After a few days, I am now considering a Net Against Nature.  We have an old mosquito net from the four-poster-bed Richard made us a few years ago that I may well cut up in an attempt to protect my future projects.

Kyle is doing very well in school.  He consistently gets 100% in his tests, and really enjoys all his classes.  He volunteered us for the Christmas show, resulting in the two of us singing a song on stage and then performing four magic tricks.  The teachers constantly tell me how great he is, as if I don't know already.  Kyle is still determined to move to an English-speaking country, as his true love is reading English (although today he told me he loves rollerblading even more - Uncle Neil will not be impressed!)

Hannah is also a star in her preschool.  She loves all her classmates and they all look after each other very well.  Hannah is always preparing things from our house to take to school to share with everyone.  I think the low student numbers in the school really help the children to settle in and make themselves a social group more easily than the larger numbers in other schools.

Seeing as I haven't posted anything for a long time, I have a lot of pictures to choose from. Here are a few:

Kyle with grandparents at Christmas show

Hannah right after her performance

Hannah's letter to Santa

Kyle's letter to Santa



Cousins at our house on Christmas Day



Hannah on the scooter Nana gave her

Kyle with sunglasses that were in his stocking

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.

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.

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!