Back to School
It has been an exciting past few weeks, pretending to get into a schedule. (Tell me, does anyone really have a good, predictable rhythm with kids???) The girls are going to bed earlier (wa-hoo!), but they are also getting up more in the middle of the night and Mabel is consistently waking up at 6:00 am. Whaaat? The first thing she asks for EVERY morning is "peanut butter on a spoon" so I drag myself to the kitchen and load up a huge spoon with Skippy. (I can't find natural p.b. to save my life here.) Then I put her pillow and her Frozen blanket on our rug and pray that she will just stay there for a few more minutes, eating her peanut butter so I can sleep for just a few more minutes. I would put her in our bed, but who wants peanut butter on your sheets? She's just too sweet though. The other thing she says about everyday is, "It's morning time! Look outside. It's not dark." True dat.
Cora goes to Ms. Maria's class everyday. We had a few off days last week, but I think it's because she is worried she is going to miss out on doing something fun with me, Mabel, and Edith. I don't know how to assure her that painting with milk on bread and going to gymnastics is way more fun than sweeping the floor at home. She does love it, but she's also said that she likes going to school sometimes, just not everyday. It IS too much for her little self. That's just kind of the way things roll here, though. School is Monday through Friday 8:30-2:40 with and extra hour-long Mandarin class on Mondays and Wednesdays. When I go to pick her up, she is slippery with sweat from their afternoon recess and is never excited about the 15 minute walk home, uphill, in th 95+ degree weather. Fair enough. I'll give it to you Cora. So, with ALL 3 girls on the double stroller, I HIKE up that hill at a 45 degree angle. It's good for my character.
We try to explore as much as we can, especially on the weekends. I've developed a knack for choosing the most over-priced, average-tasting meals in the city while Sterling continues with a steady streak of being able to pick-out the cheap, authentic, delicious (albeit often greasy) dives! I've decided to let him pick where we eat from now on...
After the Stake Primary Activity, we went with some other families from the English Ward and explored the market and boardwalk. I can't get enough of markets for some reason. We didn't have a stroller for Mabel or Cora, though, so we didn't last long. I did a head count about a hundred times in the first few minutes. There were so many people and our girls are pretty much professional dashers. So...we bought them some ice cream cones, a hat for Cora and a backpack for Mabel. This market is famous for their fishballs. I didn't get any, though. Hmmm. I've had them before, but I must say I prefer other things.
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| Oh, I love my girls! (At Danshui Market) |
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| It's bigger than you, Mabel! |
Since being here, we have only heard about one hardware store and one Target-like place. Setting up our little house, we needed some thing, soooooo, we ventured out to the mega complex that includes both stores. Nearby was a quick little sushi place.
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| Sushi Express |
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| We definitely did some damage... |
Here are some more random photos.
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| City slicker |
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One night Cora started pretending that she was a sister missionary visiting our family for dinner. She broke out her scriptures, read us some of the Good Word and told us all about her companion (Mabel) from Japan. I couldn't stop laughing!!!
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At the night market Sterling and I found ourselves spending a disproportionate time looking at children's clothing.
How could we not buy them two sets of matching dresses and hair bows? |
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| She ripped the bow out shortly after, but it was good while it lasted. |
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| This fruit stand across the street from us is Cora's favorite place. She loves to bring her little Frozen bank (with the lock and key) and count out her money to buy her fruit. She knows how to say a few kinds of fruit and knows how to say "$20" in Chinese--the price in New Taiwanese Dollars. The stand owners love it! |
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| Cora and I went to the local Carrefour (grocery store). She was smitten with the little carts. (Does every parent dread these like I do?) They always seem like a fun, cute idea, but they make the shopping take 20x longer and just beg to be run into things and people... (Yes, I bought her chocolate cereal. No judging.) |
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| The flower market! |
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| Dansui Market |
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| As part of our market hopping date, we went to the fabric market. SO. MUCH. FABRIC! We weren't coming with a particular project in mind, so it was just kind of overwhelming, but so fun. The market is indoors and two or three stories of a huge building. I've been told that the top floor is full of tailors. Now that it has been a few weeks, I'm ready to go back and actually get some fabric for some projects. Problem is I just broke my last sewing machine needle. I wonder if I can find what I need at this market. It's like trying to find a needle in a, uh, fabric stack... |
The top of my Taiwan bucket list was a night market and Sterling made my dream come true! (He actually has an incredible record of making several of my dreams come true.) We didn't eat anything really crazy this time around, but maybe in the future???
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| Happy 6th Wedding Anniversary! Date night at Shilin Night Market |
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| Shilin Night Market |
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| For our anniversary dinner, we really just ate street food: steamed buns, fresh juices, onion crepe thing, dragonfruit, fried squid (but we didn't do the giant BBQ squid thing on a stick!), and lots of other yummy things |
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| Okay, these were so incredible. Candy-covered strawberries. Imagine juicy little strawberries covered in the thinnest layer of strawberry-flavored sucker, so thin it just cracks when you bite into it. Yep. |
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| The biggest chicken nugget you ever did see! I guess at this point you can't really call it a "nugget", can you? Sterling remembers eating these as a missionary back in the day, so we had to get one for good times' sake. While I'm not a huge chicken nugget fan, this was actually pretty good. They pounded the actual piece of chicken in front of you, so you know there isn't any weird processed animal pieces going into it. |
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| Kids fishing for little shrimps at the night market. |
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| The biggest spring rolls ever |
I have more photos to throw on this blog--but it will probably have to wait until tomorrow. I can already hear Mabel crying, "Peanut butter on a spoon!"
Love you all.
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