Homestretch

I can't believe we're less then three weeks from heading home.  I'm definitely having some mixed feelings about this as Taichung has been our 'home' for the last eight months. For the most part I'm looking forward to going back to our own house, the space, the clean air, our friends, our church etc. etc. At the same time I'll miss my parents, the 'easy life' we have here (no rent/mortgage payments, free use of car, no cooking or doing dishes, etc.), and the new friends I feel like we've barely gotten to know.  My parents have been incredibly generous to us the last few months though I'm sure they've appreciated having the kids (and us?) around for such a long, extended trip.

We've been slowly packing our bags and prepping for the last two weeks by decluttering, giving away stuff, and putting things we don't need away. Tina, Seraphine, and I (Moses wasn't feeling well) had a 'goodbye/thank you' dinner with our pastor and family last week and I think we've got activities lined up for all the weekends and most weekdays we have left.  I'm sure it will be crazy as we get closer to the 21st though.

During this 'homestretch' I've been thinking of making lists of various things. Things I've liked here, things that surprised me about Taiwan, things I'm looking forward to doing when we get back to the States. So here are a few for thought:

Ten Foods I Really Enjoyed In Taiwan and Will Surely Miss

10. The stinky tofu place on Chung Hwa Rd. (of course!)

9. The 'Bei Fang' Jyau Tze (dumpling) stand on CH Rd.

8. The 'Da Lu' jyau tze stand's hot and sour soup

7. Mi Do Bing

6. The '50 Lan' milk tea w/ boba

5. The milk tea at the breakfast place

4. The Shau bing you tiau near Tze You Rd.

3. The Dou Hwa Sisters

2. The tonkatsu lunch in Park Lane

1. My favorite drink place - The Orange Factory

Five Things I WON'T Miss About Taiwan

5. The heat/humidity (especially recently)

4. Polluted air / smells (though, surprisingly, you do get used to it)

3. Noise pollution

2. Lack of parks, greenery where my parents live

1. Mosquitoes! 

More to come ...

Steve

Back Into the Swing of Things--It's April!

Steve's last post was such a kind one and it pretty much sums up the last month.
Now we are realizing we only have a few short weeks left here in Taichung!
Coming back from the States I realize this place is extremely different from Irvine, CA. It is a city, has lots of pollution, mosquitoes, but best of all such convenient food choices. I busy mom does not have to cook in this city, as healthy (and unhealthy) choices abound often for less money than the ingredients separately. And I would not have to shop, prep, cook, clean, and store. I am worried about going back to the States and having to spend large amounts of time on cooking again.

But then how can you nurture a home without good food? Grandma always had food on the table, as does my mom, and that makes a great difference in making family members feels at home and comfortable. At least it does for me.  Everything always kind of falls into place in my mind when someone dies or is diagnosed with an illness. All of a sudden those material things in life are not of such great importance as are all the worries and concerns of everyday. Have faith in the Lord, continue to serve Him, and then have as much fun and love as many people and as much as you can. It's simple, actually, and not difficult when we remember how good God has been to us all these years,  especially during grandma's passing.

I am so thankful for God's grace to our family during grandma's passing. It was hard to lose such a great woman. Her greatness was in her love and care and the way she nourished her relationships with people, especially myself. What an inspiration for me.

The kids have been amazingly well-behaved this past week. Perhaps they are enjoying being together?
Moses is picking up Taiwanese very quickly as he can memorize poems subconsciously. Every week they have a recitation competition at Moses' kindergarten. Kids randomly get chosen to go up on the stage and recite a poem or song in front of the entire school. I am continually blown away at the quality and caliber of education Moses is getting. Each month they have full color progress reports. They are working in small groups and learning to make decisions together and choose leaders, etc. This is only Pre-K.  Seraphine is back to being happy and friendly, especially with Steve's dad. Yesterday he sat down and said, "Gong Gong Ni Hao" like she was starting a conversation. She also has an amazing grip when drawing and can spend many minutes concentrating on her drawings. She is so fun to be around.

Hi Everyone! I am cute!

Both like eating  chicken feet

Moses likes the driving range

We are going to Taichung Christian  Church today--finally after so many weeks and I am sure Pastor Kevin's sermon will be encouraging and it will be great to see our friends. Then we are coming home and driving Steve's parents to a taxation class and Feng Jia University, picking up train tickets,  taking Moses to the driving range, and then going to pick up our parents and go to dinner near Dong Hai University. Somewhere in between we hope to take a nap as I am still jet lagged. Lots of driving but we have to thank God for this car. I need to take a picture of this car for everyone, for it's quite an original. I am sure you've seen nothing like it! It's a jalopy and I get stares and lots of questions about it but hey it runs and I don't worry about scrapes. The pictures don't really do justice. For example, there is no door handle on the right side and the rear view mirror is taped together with black tape. I still can't believe I can manage to drive here. Not easy without a GPS.
  

Next weekend we are visiting Tina's relatives in Banchiao, then more relatives and friends in Taipei, then heading out for two nights three days in Hualien. This will be our second vacation here in Taiwan. Our first was visiting Flora Expo in Taipei.  We are also hoping to visit Sun Moon Lake, Lukang, and Gaoshiong in the next few weeks. The weather has finally warmed up here! Lots of traveling for the Chen family before we begin packing again, and our trek back home. The only thing that I regret is not having found a way to give back to the community or serve in some way.

I had a quick stint as an English teacher at the Teacher college next door, facilitating the English corner for some college students and that was very insightful. I helped with some translations. But with grandma's falling ill and my return to the States I was not able to teach my last two classes. My music classes for toddlers playgroup is also on hold due to the Tomb Sweeping holiday and my own travels. Plus Apple, who hosts our group, has a little girl in the hospital with pneumonia. Poor An-an. Seraphine keeps mentioning her name to me, like she is reminding me to pray for her. She is my little angel.

More later!
Tina

Busy Days/Daze

Poor Blog.  I just realized I haven't written an entry in well over a month.  Let's see, since getting back from the US, I've been sick, visited Korea, cleaned the family grave in Dong Shih, attended my sister's engagement party, and broke the zipper on the back of her dress an hour before the party... that's another story.

Jasmin's engagement banquet

It's been a rough week.  Tina and Seraphine flew back to States just two days after I got back from Korea.  Early last week her grandmother had gotten really listless so Tina's parents took her to the doctors where they found that her bile duct was blocked. Upon further examination they found tumors all over her liver and that she was starting to bleed internally.  As she turned a hundred years old last year, the doctors decided not to operate and sent her to a nursing home / hospice to keep her comfortable. Tina's parent had initially thought she would be OK and told Tina not to come. However, we thought it would be better for her to go asap rather than wait until she was long gone or it was too late. The airfare was exorbitant as this was a last minute flight and Seraphine would be going along too.  I tried to push her to take a flight that flew out a day later but was overruled as 1) the flight would go through Tokyo and, ummm, there's like a nuclear disaster happening near there and 2) time was of the essence.  I'm glad I was overruled.  Tina was able to get there Friday night and spend that evening and most of Saturday with her.  Though mostly unconscious, she would mouth words to some Taiwanese folk songs Tina would sing to her and seemed to know when people were in the room.  

Moses and Mei Mei at the aiport

Tina's grandmother passed away quietly in her sleep on Sunday morning.


We've been trying to Skype each other all week but can only grab a few minutes here and there due to the time difference. I know she's very tired, jetlagged, and stressed about the funeral message she is giving tomorrow but I think she is happy she flew there early and that grandma passed away peacefully. (I hope I can pass in the same way!)


Back here in Taiwan, I've been working and taking care of Moses. Quite honestly he's been a super boy with his mom gone.  It was extremely stressful for him when we were sending Tina off at the airport but his resilience amazes me.  Of course he hasn't been perfect (our night time routine has been shot to pieces and I'm constantly resorting to bribes/threats to get him out of the house in the mornings) but it's been fine overall.  By the way, I have no clue how single parents do this day in and out.  They are real heroes.

Moses helping clean the family grave site in Dong Shih

We've got a busy (keeping Moses busy is a good thing) weekend planned ahead with a trip to the library this afternoon as well as a new stinky tofu shop my mom wants to try, a visit to Taipei tomorrow (in the cold and rain to ride the Mou Kong gondola and visit uncle 'Optimus'), and then it's off to Taoyuan on Monday afternoon where we will spend a night at an airport hotel in order to pick up Mom and mei mei early Tuesday morning.


I've got some sort of cold / allergy thing going on right now. Coupled with lack of sleep from working late my head feels like it's lost in dense fog if that makes any sense.


-- Steve

Getting Sick

Steve came back and before we knew it we had all fallen ill. First, Moses, then Seraphine, then myself and then Steve. So we've been running on empty here. But we are really thankful that Steve's dad is a doctor and we always have medicine when we need it.  And Steve's mom has been taking care of all of us when we need it.  Steve's mom suggested that he get an ultrasound for his liver and his dad suggested Seraphine get some xrays when she was having a lot of stomach pain. We would never take these measures so simply in the states because our insurance would make this difficult, but here in Taiwan, I suppose, these types of services are not unusual and covered by insurance. Plus, Steve's dad has an ultrasound machine on the second floor which makes it very convenient.

Moses is now full of energy, bounding through the house like a monkey, running when he gets picked up from school, etc.  but Seraphine spent half of the day on my lap and in my arms. She has a serious case of constipation.  We had to visit Steve's dad today and she was terrified. We might have to take some more extreme measures tomorrow which I will not elaborate upon here.  She was hit by another little boy today while at the library. I don't know what it is with her and little boys. Either they love her to death and won't stop hugging her (Moses' classmate Howard) or they hit her. So I had to intervene again  and protect her! This little girl is going through a lot here in Taichung.

We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

A Trip Back "Home"

I just got back from a business trip back to the States yesterday. About four weeks ago, I received an email from another business team we work with that there would be a "face to face" (very unusual at our company these days ... most meetings are done over the phone) meeting in Boise the second week of February and that my presence was requested.  I was quite excited about this both from a work point of view (a rare opportunity to connect with and meet some people I've worked with for years) but also from a personal standpoint as well.  I was a bit apprehensive though as Moses' would still be on winter break and Tina would essentially be flying solo while I'm out there.  Talking it through, she thought it would be OK and this would be an opportunity for us to drop off some stuff back home to lighten our load for the move back.  It would also give us a chance to 'resupply' with home and food stuff as well.


The preparation leading up to the trip went quickly as I also had four days off for Chinese New Year. "Uncle Optimus" (my cousin Andrew) came for a visit which was quite nice as it distracted Moses on his 2nd week of break!  Bags packed I had originally planned to take the high speed rail up to Taoyuan but didn't take into consideration that CNY meant all the trains  were booked!  Luckily I had enough time to catch a 2pm bus to the airport. It was a 3 1/2 hour journey (normally 2 hours) but I made it in plenty of time to check in for my flight, grab dinner, and call home before boarding EVA Airways flight 17 to SFO. 


It's been a few years since I last flew EVA and they had definitely upgraded the seating and AVOD systems. I was quite excited as the flight would be on one of their relatively new Boeing 777-300 birds instead of an older 747.  The economy class seat was comfortable (at first) and relatively wide with good (33") seat pitch.  It felt better than a similar class seat on Singapore Airlines.  The AVOD system also a new brighter touch screen system which also beats out SQ.  However, four hours into the 11 hours flight my bootie was going sore and I was shifting cheeks just to keep from going numb.  The food was also sub-par; I opted to eat the fruit my Mom packed for me instead.  While the staff were helpful and nice, there is just something about SQ that puts it's service level from the "helpful and nice" category to "world class".  (Common courtesy and Hagen Daz ice cream do help.)


Landing in SFO I was surprised to clear immigration and customs in less than 30 min.  Having a five hour layover, I had scheduled time to hang out with some friends from the Bay Area so I went outside and I got my first whiff of clean air in five months.  My friend Eugene and family picked me up and we went to have a snack near SFO.  It was weird being back in the States and to be in somewhere I used to call home.  After a much too short reunion, I was back at SFO and off to Boise Idaho.


From a work perspective, the business trip was great.  I was able to meet a bunch of people and provide input for projects slated for next fiscal year.  However, work trips are usually pretty tiring especially if they go on all day and social time is 'required' at night.  After four days of solid meetings, it was finally off to "home" with a Delta flight down to Orange County via Salt Lake.  (Yet another place I used to call "home".)  My sister met me at John Wayne (I love this aiport as It's extremely easy to fly in/out of) and we she took me to her new place in Irvine.  Her house was pretty much unchanged from five months ago. I was also able to crash on my old futon which was being lent to her.


The next few days were a blur of activity from my 'to do' list: visit Moses future elementary school, check on Kindergarten readiness programs, have lunch with my men's group, get rear ended on the way home (ok, that was not on the list), shop at Trader Joe's, have meeting w/ other men's group, go to Costco, stop by the Garner's (my) house to drop stuff off, have lunch w/ cousin, eat oysters, go to church, visit UC Irvine to take pictures of my sister's wedding place, have dinner w/ Tina's family, get an In N Burger, etc.


Before long, I was at LAX boarding my EVA flight back to Taiwan.  It was a whirlwind trip which I'm sure I'll be paying for in the days ahead.  My main concern now is how to help Tina ... She definitely needs rest after the last 10 days.


- Steve

More Winter Break Adventures

I took the kids to my friend Apple's New Year party yesterday. She invited several families and then served us a delicious home-cooked meal.  She was so hospitable and yet so completely down to earth so we all felt much at home. Her home is on a top floor of a beautiful apartment building with some lovely views of the city. It is an ultra modern pad with each design element an absolute work of art. It's the type of place you don't need to decorate much because the design and materials exude style and elegance. Needless to say, I would love to live in that bright, sunlit modern place with a window seat overlooking the park!

The kids and I visited Moses' school in the afternoon, chatted with his teachers (who had to work), and bought french fries and green beans from our favourite fry shop right before dinner. (Woops.)

Today was also fun. Moses is learning to write his letters  while we played bank teller and postal worker.  We bought another overpriced sippy straw (these things are expensive here) and walked to Orange Factory. They usually do not let us have an extra cup there so sharing the drinks with S and M are always a little tricky. Luckily the kind woman who has a sister who lives in Long Beach broke the rules for me and gave me an extra cup. I think she is the owner, actually, so it was okay. She also told one of the cashiers to wait until we left to set off the fireworks. He was going to do it right in front of Seraphine!
We were able to watch from the sidelines and Moses saw his first Chinese firecrackers.

 By the way, Seraphine was bullied by two boys in the baby store while I was trying to insist on ordering those sippy straw cups with the very frustrating staff at this baby store. (The staff seems to not understand what a mom with a toddler needs when she goes into a baby store. For example, they don't seem to understand that it's hard to go up stairs with a toddler and carry two bags of diapers down the stairs while also carrying the toddler, that running out of supplies is very difficult and can be "life or death", that concentration is compromised when a toddler is pulling all the items off the shelf is difficult, etc., etc.)But back to Seraphine, while I was trying to insist that the shopkeeper get me those refills because that's the only cup I have and I don't want to spend another $5 on a malfunctioning sippy cup, two boys aged 3 and 1 started literally beating up on Seraphine! They were hitting her! I used a very LOUD and stern Mommy Bear voice and said in my very American Accent while shaking my finger, "NO-NO" "NO-NO" And then in Chinese, "This is WRONG!" Then I tried to smile at the children when their mommy pulled them away, but I could not do so. How dare they bully her.  She was okay, just stunned. I gave her a piece of chewy milk candy right in front of the little 1 year old boy.  He stared at me longingly.  I wouldn't have given him one even if I had another piece. Meanwhile Moses is sitting on the slide outside oblivious. Of course I had a talk with him afterwards about protecting his little sister and what he should do if this should ever happen again. If this were to happen again, I would have said even more to those little boys and make it a lesson for all the little children around.

After Orange Factory (Try 3C if you ever get a chance) and the caffeine lift, we walked over to get Moses' haircut and then to the teacher's college. At the college, we explored the buildings and we role played "college student". We pretended we were taking classes and studying.  My persona had great study habits and took her coursework seriously. It's never too early to model the importance of doing well in school! Moses' persona was also a very good student with a heavy workload and boundless work ethic. He is learning so much here in Taichung, you see!

Well, that's all for now. More fun tomorrow. I don't know what has gotten into me. I had a bit of a spiritual awakening a couple weeks ago at church and I have become so POSITIVE. I think it's this incessant sunshine.....

---PTW

Night at the Movies and Afternoon with Family

Steve and I finally went to see a movie at the theaters across the street! It only cost $110NT for two tickets. After the kids went to bed we walked across the street to watch the Social Network. It was a great movie. We especially enjoyed all the Stanford and Palo Alto references.

It was another beautiful sunny day in Taichung, which makes me believe this is certainly the best city to be residing in on the island. After taking Steve to the bus station (he is going to Idaho for a business trip) we strolled through the Sunrise shopping center and found a beautiful dress for Steve's mom to wear to Jasmin's engagement party. We were also able to partake of Moss Burger for the first time (it was yummy) and to enjoy the English magazines in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express. The Express is brand new and very nice. There was a young singer in the restaurant area who played soulful indie sounding ballads accompanied by acoustic guitar --in English.

Lastly, there is an ice cream treat from a place called 美方 that I am absolutely addicted to. It's like ice-cream but thick enough to be molded into small rectangles and with distinctive flavors such as taro, green bean, peanut, red bean, and passion fruit. It is kind of the consistency of a thick popsicle that is all flavor.
I will definitely be eating as much as I can of this while I am still here in Taichung.

--PTW