English Playgroup and Engagement Cake Sampling

Joined and English speaking playgroup today and felt so much at ease just speaking English.
Speaking Mandarin all the time has become  tiring and I feel like my Chinese is getting worse. My cousin Andrew gave me his itouch and I now have a program that helps me read and write Chinese. I just draw the character on the screen and I get the translation immediately. Can do the reverse. So now I am suddenly far more literate! I am probably more literate than most of my American born Chinese counterparts, but there are still so many words that I do not know! Anyway found out one of the moms adopted her son from Home of God's love in Luodong! What a small world. Another mom, Beth, who invited me started a unique English immersion student ministry training program in Taichung 4 years ago. Here's a link to their school: www.taiwan.wolsyme.com. Met another mom who also studied at TaiDa many years ago. Her husband is also Morrison graduate, like Steve. My friend Apple joined us with An-An. We had a great morning. I tried so hard to live like a Taiwanese and not have only foreigner friends, but I did miss the connecting in my own language so am glad to join this group.

This afternoon we went sampling cakes for my sister in law Jasmin's engagement party. It was great fun. We were given some tea and asked to sit down. We could then sample all the Chinese cakes we wanted. I have never seen anything quite like this, for the samples were self-serve! So Seraphine, Steve's mom and I tried  (black) sesame mochi, taro mochi, redbead and mung bean mochi,  butter green bean, some other ones, traditional meat, vegetarian, sesame mochi, sesame mochi, and taro mochi, and I guess we like the sesame mochi the best! We were getting so full but needed to try them so we knew which was best! End up buying a couple and bring back for Dad and Steve to try and the resounding favorite was the black sesame mochi! By the way Jasmin and Lawrence are coming to Taiwan end of February for their engagement! This is all Steve's mom talks about all day. It is a lot of fun.

Went to yoga class this evening. I go M and W nights. Some moves are impossible but I do feel improvement and much less pain in neck and shoulders. Best thing was I came back and the kids were all washed and in bed! Nothing is better than a clean smelling child to hug! Stayed up late with Moses to read his history book.  Decided to make an exception to the schedule on my exercise days. Moses prays in Chinese now and I enjoyed those bedtime prayers. Seraphine fell asleep fast. Her new blanket wrap is just wonderful. I need to take a picture of it.

Tomorrow one of my favorite people to hang out with is coming: Susan Chen. She is an Engineer with a computer science degree from Syracuse University who works in Hsin Zhu. She was my bosom buddy years ago when I lived in Taipei. I am going to to go to small group tomorrow and then take Susan somewhere nearby for lunch while Seraphine naps.

--Tina