Conspicuous (Attempted) Assimilation

Just a few more days before we move into our new apartment!  We still won’t have our air and boat shipments, but we will have our own place so soon!  We are pretty jazzed about it.  Our hotel has been super nice and we have had a generous food allowance for the last month, but I am definitely ready to cook again.  (I don’t recommend eating out for 3 meals a day for a whole month as a part of any health program…)  

Today started out nicely with the girls sleeping in a bit.  Unfortunately, Edith was sleeping in because she is totally sick!  We rushed to the hotel breakfast and they let us in, even though they were already cleaning it up.  I think they had pity on us.  I scrambled to get food for the girls as they ran around the restaurant, bumping into servers setting up for lunch.  Then I threw some food on a plate for myself, scarfed it down as Cora thew a major tantrum and pounded on the table.  They offered MagnaDoodles to Cora and Mabel to pacify them more a moment.  And that’s about as long as the quiet lasted.  When I was thoroughly embarrassed, we made a quick exit to the elevators—but stopping to get mints on the way out, of course.  I think that’s all Cora and Mabel actually ate for breakfast.  Whatever.  (Bright side:  They all went to bed early tonight so I have time to write this post.  Lame side:  Sterling has a work dinner until late tonight.)

Yesterday we had friends over!  A family in our ward moved to Taipei even more recently than us.  They are originally from UT (but lived in DC) and have two little boys.  We swam in our hotel swimming pool, ate lunch at Chili’s (Cora’s vote), and played in our hotel room.  They live about 30 minutes away from us, but taxied down to see us!  So nice, right?! We had so much fun and I loved having contact with another adult during the day J  Thanks for coming over, Morgan!  We love your family and look forward to spending more time with you guys!

Our friends from the ward came over one day for swimming, lunch at Chili's, and some playing!  (This was taken shortly before Cora totally slammed her shin into the pool ladder when she jumped in.  It was dramatic and she got a bad bruise, but she's good now!

Poolside.

Cora is picking up Chinese!  She’s not shy (as you all may know) and happily talks to anyone in her pretend Chinese (I just pray it doesn't offend anyone!).  She does use actual Chinese phrases with her made-up language :)  Mabel always says "xie, xie" (thank you), knows the words for chopsticks and a few other phrases.  Now me, on the other hand…  I will say a few things here and there, but I just need to embrace the fact that I will mess up.  A lot.  I know it is the only way I’m going to learn this language!  I can’t wait to get a tutor once we get set-up in our new apartment.  (The other day we made paper chains counting down the days until we move!) 

The best thing that has come from our long hotel stay, is being able to really slow down and spend more quality time with the girls.  I don’t have cleaning, errands or other projects to distract me during the day.  The girls are the program.  We spend lots of times doing art projects, playing games, and reading books.  I hope to always remember to slow down just a bit each day.

Cora thought it was funny to wear my bathing suit in the shower???

What's another girl to bring everywhere??? Again, this was Cora's idea.

My $5 sushi!

Jamba Juice.  The lady knows our names by now because we go there so often. 

 Last night we went out for Thai food and Haagen-Dazs ice-cream.  It is THE ice cream place here.  We came out to find a beautiful sunset behind the plaza fountain.  The girls were so cute eating their ice cream cones (as big as their heads)!  A local man jumped at the Kodak moment, but so did I.  Then Mabel lost her flip flop in the fountain.  I’m pretty sure it went down the side drain.  So funny.  Then we got yelled at for getting in the water.  But actually, it was a beautiful evening and I think we are really going to love living in Taiwan.

 

Outside the Miramar Mall with our ice-cream.  

Peppa the Pig is big here.  Edith is included in this photo for size :)

Sterling headed home with the girls after dinner and ice cream while I peeled off for a luxurious, unaccompanied trip to the grocery store.  When we move in Monday, I want to make sure we have things like toilet paper, garbage bags, soap, shampoo and basic cooking ingredients like olive oil, salt and pepper, and noodles.  

I was gone forever shopping.  First of all, I actually like grocery shopping and am a total label reader.  However, when 90% of all of the labels are in Chinese, this makes smart food choices extremely difficult.  Actually, forget about smart food choices.  Last night I just wanted to make sure I was buying what I thought I was buying.  Haha.  When it came to what I could only assume was the soy sauce section, I chose a mid-range priced bottle with good packaging.  I’ll let you know if it was actually soy sauce…

I have a lot to learn about living here.  I am so used to having a big, ol’ mini-van to stuff my groceries into, that I don’t have to worry about how much I’m buying.  Last night was a total joke.  As the cashier was ringing up my groceries, I knew I was in trouble.  There was no way I could carry this all two blocks to our hotel!  Bottles of olive oil and soy sauce, diapers, formula, paper towels, toilet paper, noodles, fruit, cereal, etc.  You do what you have to do, and I made it to our hotel, but I felt so silly walking into a 5-star hotel, dragging grocery bags full mostly of things the hotel provides!  (I’m sure they were wondering why this crazy American lady was buying Windex and sponges for her hotel room…)  I tried to explain myself to the two doormen who generously helped me up to our room, but I’m afraid I just came off even more confusing.  

New goggles!

Cora and I had a mommy-daughter date to her favorite restaurant....(see below)

Chili's!
(This is always where she wants to go!)

On Saturday, we ventured out to the Taipei Zoo!

It wasn't all smiles all day.  

Elephant.

They seriously screamed, "Alpaca! Alpaca!" for a good two or three minutes.

Camel.

Pandas.

After the zoo, we went to the Merchant's house for a delicious dinner and great conversation.  The Merchants are in our ward and, turns out, we have tons of mutual friends from Virginia!  They had also invited over another new family, the Looslis.  Both are wonderful families that we are excited to get to know better!

Ballpit in our new apartment building! 

Fun-Kid-Fun

LDS Taiwan Taipei Temple

Last week we were able to go to the Taipei LDS Temple.  It’s actually on the same lot as the chapel we go to each week.  There is also visitor’s center there, so we’ve seen it from outside, but this was my first time inside the temple.  We went to help another ward do baptisms for the dead.  Our Bishop’s wife and daughter volunteered to watch our girls at the church while we went.  Thank you! (This is an ordinance we do in our church where we are baptized for the deceased, vicariously.  The people we are baptized in behalf of have the choice to accept or decline the Gospel.  If you aren't Mormon and are wondering what in the world I am talking about, HERE is a good explanation.) 

As Sterling and I were getting training for our respective assignments that evening, I ended up in a small waiting room with a dozen or so teenagers.  They were singing hymns in Chinese.  I was handed a hymnbook, but I don’t read characters, so I just sat and listened.  People around me realized that I couldn’t read the characters and they tracked down a hymnal in pinyin (the Romanization of Chinese characters) for me.  Now, I don’t quite read pinyin yet, but I’m atleast familiar with it a little.  It was nice to be able to try to sing along.  One of the last songs we sang is called, “I am a Child of God.”  When Sterling and I were first married, he taught me this song in Chinese and we practiced it every other Monday night for several months as part of our Family Home Evening.  (The other nights I taught him the same song in Dutch!)  It was incredibly humbling to be in a room full of Taiwanese youth, singing with them the same song I learned almost six years ago in our little Arlington apartment.  It was exciting to be able to sing this song with strangers on the opposite of the world.  "I am a child of God and He has sent me here.  Has given me a parents kind and dear.  Lead me, Guide me, Help me find the way.  Teach me all that I must to live with Him someday."  For years I have felt that Chinese was Sterling’s “thing.”  He speaks the language without an accent, he’s lived in Taiwan and China before, and he’s studied the politics and culture of China and Taiwan for years.  It has been easy for me to be supportive and tag along for this ride, but I had the realization that I can—and want—to to make this experience my “thing” too. I’m still figuring out what that looks like for me, but I know that I felt a strong prompting to really invest in the language and our time here.