How Michael Keeps Himself so Smooth

Caught in the act!

Actually, Michael doesn't have any hair on his legs, so he was just tickling himself with my epilator. But, it was on.

Maybe he's spending a little too much time alone with Mommy...

Setting Up Michael's "New Bedroom"

Robert has been worrying about where the boys were going to sleep when he and Jeremy arrive. Michael just sleeps with me right now, and although he kicks and loves sleeping sideways across the bed, it's worked out pretty well - especially since I'm right there whenever he has a middle of the night nosebleed. I'm afraid we've ruined the beautiful bedset May lent to us. I've wanted to buy a simpler, cheaper sheet set, one that I can wash myself in my little washing machine, but I was never sure of my bed size, as asian sizes are different.

This week, I finally measured my bed - using medium garbage bags. They were the only items I could find in my apartment that had a measurement on them. I forget the exact measurements now, but our bed is approximately two and a half garbage bags wide and three and a quarter tall. I calculated what it worked out into in centimeters and inches for when I went to the store. I also measured out our pull out couch, which is where I plan on putting the boys to sleep. It was a little longer and narrower than the bed, but close enough that I figured the same size sheet would fit on both.

At the store, I looked everywhere for measurements in cm or inches. Nothing. They're all in some strange measurements without any units. Finally I found a few labels with the strange units and cm as well, and figured out that my bed is a 5 x 6.2. Maybe it's in feet? I have no idea. I also bought a couple of cute pillows in the shape of teddy bear heads for the boys.

Today was pouring rain, so we decided to set up the bedroom. Michael was so excited. He decided which pillow was his and which was Jeremy's, and which blankets they would use. He then proceeded to jump from the edge of the couch onto the mattress (it's one of those pull out couches that isn't on a frame, it just pulls out and lays on the floor). That entertained him for quite a while.

Then he decided to take a rest. But does he do it in his new bed? No. He takes out a mat (the kind that he naps on at school), lies down with all the books he has here, gets me to tuck him in and "reads" to himself.

I asked him if he wanted to start sleeping in his new room. He said yes, but then changed his mind when it was actually time to go to sleep. I'm not sure how this is going to work later!

We made another batch of oatmeal cookies. They are so addictive. I only bake a dozen at a time, and they're gone within a couple of hours. I cannot even put the blame on Michael. He seems to have a lot of self control when it comes to sweets. He'll always have some, but he never has a lot. He didn't get that from me! Anyways, the recipe is under "Beth's Spicy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies" on http://www.allrecipes.com/ if you're interested.

Summer Has Officially Arrived

Woke up to an overcast sky. I hate those kind of skies on a Saturday, because then you're not quite sure how to dress and whether or not be bring an umbrella. I was planning on taking Michael to the flower market, right by Da-An Park, but I wasn't sure if it would be dry enough to play there afterwards. So, I took our umbrella and dressed Michael in a single layer, but still with long sleeves.

The flower market is a huge parking lot full of vendors of everything to do with plants. I used to love going there with Robert. I wasn't sure how much fun Michael would have, so I told him we were going to buy flowers for his teacher and gave him a 100NT bill (approx. $3 Cdn) for that purpose. He seemed to like that.

I had forgotten how cheap everything was. For 100NT, you can buy three small bouquets of cut flowers. With so much selection at the very first display, Michael couldn't choose, and I didn't want to carry the flowers around the whole time we were looking around anyways, so I told him we would just choose some on the way out.

I did have a shopping list. It consisted of lima bean seeds for Michael's teacher, regular bean seeds for my class, and insects, if possible. Why the insects? The kindergarten teacher is currently doing a unit on insects and had found my pictures from five years ago of a rhino beetle's transformation from a fat worm-like larva, to a beetle. I used to have a couple of those larva in my class, but I think we killed it from too much handling. (Yes, I was always the one with my hand in the "nutritious" dirt digging around for those things. I kept my fingernails very short the entire time they were in our class.) We never saw a beetle in any case. I thought I vaguely remembered someone saying that they had seen them for sale at the flower market, so I was keeping a lookout for those as well.

The market was bigger than I remembered. We did find our bean seeds, although I think I got ripped off by an old Chinese lady. She charged me 50NT for the lima beans and 30NT for the regular beans. As I was looking elsewhere in the market, all seed packets seemed to be going for 20NT each. Oh well. She did seem to be the only one selling lima beans, and Michael's teacher specifically asked for lima beans, so maybe she wasn't overcharging me at all.

I ended up buying a few more seed packets. I figured the kids could "plant" them all (in an open ziplock bag with damp paper towels stuffed in), and we'll see which ones sprout. The beans are a given, and the others would be a nice surprise. I bought watermelon, corn, papaya, and okra.

I also bought Michael a spray nozzle to play with as he was being so good and I thought it would be a fun bath toy for him. They were selling them everywhere. Just the nozzle, no bottle. Of course, he then proceeds to pretend to shoot everyone around him. I don't know where he picked up on shooting games. I think some of the Kindergarten kids taught him. Well, I can't shield him from that sort of thing forever, but it was a little disturbing.

As I've mentioned previously, I have a hard time spending a lot of money, but I was determined to buy something nice for me. I do have a fondness for vases, although I never can seem to get my flower arrangements to look quite right in them, so they usually sit emptly. All the more reason to make sure they look nice alone, right? Anyways, I bought a large crystal vase for about $40 Cdn, the kind that can hold a dozen long stemmed roses (hint, hint Robert). It wasn't until I picked it up that I remembered why they call it lead crystal - because it weighs as much as if it were made of lead!

I picked up a few colored "jewels" for my kids to hide in the sandbox and let Michael look at all the fish. Then I found a nice plant box for me to put twelve little pots in once we transplant our sprouts. It was made of wood and looked like a picket fence, and the size I needed only cost 100NT. So, now I'm carrying a crystal vase, a plant box, an umbrella and a huge purse. My purse is always huge because a mother has to be prepared for everything. Except hot weather as it turns out.

The weather had turned very nice and hot. Like thirty degrees hot. The sun shone and the clouds were nowhere to be seen. Michael never seems to take any notice of the weather when there's a playground in sight, and so as soon as we crossed the street to the park, he was off. His face was all red within a matter of minutes, but he was having a ball.

There was a woman there selling bubble solution and toys. Her kids were the demonstrators. Michael loved chasing all the bubbles around, but there was no way I was going to add anything else to my load. Besides, I knew if Michael had one of his own, he would lose interest.

I was afraid Michael was going to overheat. I kept on having to wipe him down with baby wipes. I also acted like an old Chinese lady and had my umbrella up the whole time to keep me shaded. It really does make a big difference.

I finally persuaded him to leave by promising a drink. There was an orange juice stand on the corner, so I bought a cup for each of us. It was very warm from sitting in the sun. Yuck. But we were both so thirsty, we finished them by the time the light changed and it was our turn to cross.

We stopped off at Burger King on the way back to the MRT station and discovered that they sell small bowls of mango ice. (Mango ice is the greatest Taiwanese invention EVER. It's a pile of shaved ice topped with condensed milk, syrup and tonnes of mango chunks. Highly addictive. I await mango season with impatience.) Of course, it's not mango season yet, so I couldn't get one. I couldn't even get a whopper, as Michael wanted a cheeseburger, but the kids menu only comes with a hamburger, so I had to order a cheeseburger for him and eat his hamburger myself. The things we do as mothers...

Then we took the MRT to one of our bus stops. We didn't have to wait too long for our bus, and I was very glad to be so close to home. Unfortunately, we got on the wrong bus. Yes, it was the number 15, and I don't know of any other number 15s (there are a few bus companies here and they sometimes overlap numbers, but not usually at the same bus stop), but two stops away from my apartment, he went the wrong way. I thought, well, he's probably new to the route, he'll find a place to turn back, etc... Nope. I start getting worried, so when we stop at a bus depot for his break, I pull out my map and start asking when we're getting back to my street. Luckily, one of the other two passengers spoke fairly good English and translated for me.

The bus driver said I was on the wrong bus and that I had to take another bus back. He would drop me off and tell me where to go. I was a little indignant, as I was pretty sure I was on the right bus and he just didn't want to admit that he had taken a wrong turn and just bypassed my area, but he wasn't about to drive me back, so what could I do? Michael had fallen asleep because the bus ride was taking so long.

We started off again and he soon let me off pointing to a bus stop across the street. He wanted me to take the Brown 6, which does go by my house, but I knew it took a very convoluted route and only came once every half hour. Michael was whiny and tired, and I was carrying all this stuff, so I just hailed a cab and paid the 170NT it took me to get back to my house. The first thing I did upon arrival, was check the Taipei bus website to see what other number 15s there were. I couldn't find any. So, I still have no idea what happened. But, I'm going to be paranoid everytime I take the 15 from now on (which is everyday). At least, now I know, if it goes the wrong way, get off at the next stop and the taxi won't cost nearly as much.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Today was the first of two days of parent-teacher conferences. As I only have twelve students, I was only meeting with parents for three hours each day. I actually call them parent education sessions as I spend most of the time explaining to these parents why their kid doesn't act like a perfect miniature adult. It's because they're two years old. It's a huge revelation to them.

I was meeting with one set of parents that had told me before in the communication book that they hit their son (who's not yet two and a half) whenever he hits his eight year old sister. I'm sure they hit him for other reasons as well, but I wasn't going to get into that. They were completely astounded to learn that he did not already know the difference between right and wrong and that he wasn't able to understand that other people have feelings, too.

These things need to be taught! Hitting him doesn't teach him anything, besides it's okay to hit as long as you're bigger and stronger than who you're hitting. (He hasn't learned that lesson yet either, as although he's one of the smallest in the class, he's knocked over kids twice his size in class.)

In almost every conference, I also got to listen to all the excuses why it was so hard to teach their child at home (and how they were so glad that I was doing such a wonderful job of teaching them at school). Most had to do with the "maid." "The maid won't make them behave." Or, "the maid lets them watch too much TV." Or, "the maid just does it for them because it's easier." I felt like telling them all to grow up and take responsibility for their own parenting. They're all astounded at how much I've been able to do with their children in two and a half hours, five days a week over six weeks. Imagine what they could do with all the other hours their kids are awake!

I guess that's why they pay the big bucks to send them to my school (73 000NT for three and a half months with me). And it's nothing to them. The mother of my most active boy told me in the conference that she was taking her kids to the States for the entire month of April. I'm sure she'll be out at least 50 000 NT just in school tuition that she's already paid for her two boys (he has an older brother in the full day preschool class). And they wonder why their kids act so spoiled...

At lunchtime, two of the other teachers invited Michael and I to join them. Michael was busy playing with one of his Kindergarten friends, and refused to go out for lunch when I asked. Then I said, "Do you want to eat with Ms. Franchuk?" who is his teacher. He immediately yelled, "Yes!" and ran for the door. I guess Mommy just isn't good enough. Well, at least all the parents love me...

I finally got around to making that spaghetti sauce I was planning on making last Sunday. Turns out the ground chicken was actually pork strings. I should have known.

The Substitute Teacher

That would be me. Again. The Kindergarten teacher went home sick, so I took her class in the afternoon and her Grade Fives after that. The Kindergarten kids I would take anyday. The Grade Fives, I never want to see again. Actually, most of them are okay. There are just two girls and one boy that make being a teacher a form of torture. There are only eight kids in the class.

The boy wasn't there today, but the two girls were in fine form. I eventually threw one of them out and made her work in the common area (which was quiet and empty) by herself. She kept on complaining that the others were too loud and she couldn't concentrate. Then she decided to creak her chair as loudly as she could in protest. Well, they were supposed to be talking as they were finished their individual work and were working on a group presentation. As she was days behind most of the others in her work, I figured she needed some alone time to concentrate and gave it to her. Let's just say, I'm not in her good books. But that's okay. I sympathize with their teacher. I would stay home sick more often too if I had them.

By the time we got home, it was way too late to tutor Annie, so we just had her over to bake cookies (we borrowed her oven as well). At least the day ended on a sweet note!

A New First

It was only a half-day of work, but we went straight home after school. I realized that this was a first for us. Usually on half-days, I feel that I need to take Michael somewhere. After all, we are in a foreign country. We should be seeing as much as possible while we're here. But, after the weekend and a morning at school, he was pretty tired.

It was actually kind of nice. I got some cleaning done. Michael loves helping to scrub the bathtub and toilet. Then he had a nap, and I caught up on my blog a little (meaning I was only four days behind instead of eight or nine). A nice quiet day.

I woke Michael up by suggesting we make chocolate chip cookies. He said to start without him. He's very difficult to wake up from naps. So, I made as much noise as possible, telling him about all the steps I was taking to get ready to make cookies, and he finally came out ready to help. I decided to add three eggs instead of two as they were the eggs Theresa had given me my first day here, and they really needed to get used up. Probably because of that, the dough was way too sticky, so I added a little more flour as well. Then we phoned Annie, but no answer. We tried a few times. When she called us back an hour later, she said her father was taking a course and she was going to her grandmother's so no one would be home until 10pm. So, we packed up the cookie dough to bake another day as I didn't think our toaster over would be able to do an adequate job. Michael was a little disappointed, but had eaten so much cookie dough that he didn't complain too much.

A Real Easter Dinner

Found a pleasant surprise when I checked my e-mail this morning. Carrie, the bishop's wife, and one of our friends from four years ago, had sent me an e-mail inviting me over for Easter dinner. Well, that sure beats ground chicken spaghetti, so I called her right back and said yes. She said it would be pretty quiet, just us and another family of three who we could get a ride with.

They live up the mountain in an actual house with a yard, and a swimming pool. I wouldn't even be able to guess how much they have to pay in rent for it. But, I'm very happy for them. They have six kids and have worked extremely hard to get to the point they're at now. Their last apartment only had three bedrooms if I remember correctly, and their kitchen was the size of a large bathroom. I'm sure they're even happier.

Michael decided to take the elevator at church alone today. It was going down to the parking levels, so I told him to wait as we wanted to go up to Primary. He ignored me and right before the doors closed, slipped in. Luckily, he just stayed in the elevator and didn't get out in the parking lot. I retrieved him on the way back up with an elevator full of people asking him, "Where's your mommy?"

Then he decided that he didn't want to go to opening exercises in Primary, so I just left him sitting alone in his Sunbeam class while I went to Relief Society. After church, Carrie (who's also the Primary president), said to Michael, "We missed you in Primary today." I said, "What? He wasn't there?" I couldn't believe that he would have just wandered around the building alone for almost two hours. She quickly assured me that she wasn't there for sharing time, so he probably was with his class the whole time.

We had a nice Easter program. It always seems that the people are all more talented and outgoing in English wards overseas. We had a string quartet playing the Alleluia chorus, a ward choir that was small, but in perfect harmony, a family quartet, a female soloist who sang a really difficult piece and a piano solo. What I heard of the Easter message was good too. Potty time strikes again.

Afterwards, the people giving us a ride told us we would have to wait a little as they had to stay for a seminary choir practice. So, I let Michael run around outside with all the other little kids. He had a blast. Once they all left, I went back in to find that she was visiting teaching, so we had to wait another forty minutes or so. Well, waiting is definitely better than taking the bus, but Michael was getting whiny. He fell asleep in the car on the way up.

Dinner was delicious. Nothing doused in oil. A fresh salad, a glazed ham, rolls, beans, and funeral potatoes of course. It was really nice to have a proper sit-down dinner. There were a lot more people than expected as five Rotary exchange students were there as well. They were all teenage girls. The members take turns hosting them on Sundays, and Carrie had completely forgotten it was her week. Michael enjoyed being spoiled by them when they weren't too busy flirting with the two boys there. He also had fun trying to find all the Easter candy that the kids had left lying around from that morning. He got quite a bit, too.

By seven, I had to request a ride to the MRT as Michael was tired and we had school the next day. Carrie took the opportunity to tell all the students to pack up and she drove us all back to the MRT. Some of the girls were talking about how they were going to take Bus 285, which connects to the 15, which goes straight to our house. I decided to do that with them as it would be a lot more direct than taking the MRT, then walking a ways to the bus stop. I had forgotten how little brain power is spent by teenage girls on thinking about the best way to do something though. They knew the bus could only be caught along a specific street near the station. It happened to be a half a block away, back the way Carrie had driven us. But did they go that way? No. They walked a full three and a half blocks around the long way. Poor Michael was so tired, and I was getting pretty annoyed walking so far in my church shoes, and then when I realized we had just walked twenty minutes for nothing... Let's just say, I didn't say much on the bus ride home. Next time, I'll know.

Got a phone call from Annie while on the bus. The bed that we had been sleeping on belonged to our landlord's cousin and he needed it back, so Joseph (Annie's father), had gotten us another one and they needed to switch them that night. So, he came and picked us up where we normally would have transferred onto Bus 15, and took us home. On the way, I asked Annie where he found the new bed and she told me someone had thrown it out. "But it's clean!" she was quick to assure me. Well, it may have been clean, but it doesn't smell so great. Oh well. Only another two months to go. At least my water has warmed up a little. My showers are now warm instead of lukewarm and I don't need to boil water for Michael's baths anymore.

Going to IKEA - the Long Way

Michael said he wanted to go to IKEA to play in the balls today. I didn't have any other plans, so why not? However, I decided to go the long way as I had heard there was a teacher resource store kind of along the way, and I wanted to pick up a few more things at my favourite 10NT store. Didn't find the teacher resource store, but we had a good walk.

We stopped at a chain Japanese noodle restaurant for lunch. I ordered a set meal of beef noodles. The side dish was a bowl of boiled lettuce with pork gravy on top. Michael actually likes boiled lettuce, so it wasn't too bad. The noodles arrived piping hot, so I was trying to cool them down and feed them to Michael using the soup spoon for his bowl. An observant young waiter came up to me and kept on saying something to me in Chinese. I just smiled and gave that, "I have no idea what you're saying to me" look, until he went off and came back with a small bowl and spoon for Michael. At least I know how to say "Thank you" in Chinese!

After lunch, we went to the Hess bookstore that Robert and I always went to as they had a good selection of English books and places to sit (mostly on the floor - but that's normal here). I read Michael about ten books and thereby shamed another mother into reading to her child rather than reading a magazine and letting her child run loose. I'm really glad that Michael loves reading so much. I hope it continues!

Then off to IKEA. It wasn't as crowded as I had feared. Enough children for Michael to have fun with, but not too many. I got my spicy chicken fried rice for dinner and then we went home. We transferred buses at the supermarket as I wanted to pick up some ground beef and mushrooms for a spaghetti sauce for Sunday. Silly me. Ground beef? The only beef they have is thin slices for hot pot. They had some ground pork... That's what May puts in her spaghetti sauces. So, I opted for ground chicken instead. We have chicken with pasta at home. Pork, not so much. At least I found some fairly decent looking mushrooms. All in all, a pretty good day.

Mad, Mad, Mad

I'm writing this even though I want to be asleep in my bed because I am just too mad to relax. Maybe blogging about it and eating cake will make me feel better.

Today was our professional development day which means we have time to do whatever we want at school, have a potluck lunch and attend a two hour workshop. Well, I got "loads" done (to quote my UK babysitter) around my class that I've wanted to do for awhile and never had time. I also volunteered to head the teaching assistants in a project to clean out the filing cabinets in the resource room. There's a ton of great material in there from past teachers, but no one ever looks in it because it's so disorganized and full of extra copies or cute crafty art "samples" (don't even get me started on how those are inappropriate in a preschool)that makes the files five times larger than they should be. I was berating past teachers who have been gone for years, for leaving all these files in such a mess. We barely made a dent in it. But that's not what I'm mad about.

We were supposed to head over to the owner's condo at 11:30 for lunch. No one was near ready to go, so I left with Michael at that time to go get some pictures developed for my student's class name labels (something that should have been done during the first week of school - sigh). I was told the developing place wasn't too far away. Well, five big blocks there with Michael and five big blocks back wasn't exactly close and we were the last to arrive at the potluck. The photo place also didn't allow you to crop pictures right there, and I only wanted closeups of their faces. So, now I'm going to have to go back again, once I figure out how to crop them on my Chinese computer. But, that's not what I'm mad about either.

Two different people had told me that they were bringing dumplings to the potluck, so I knew there would be food there that Michael could eat. The guy that was supposed to bring them called in sick and the girl didn't bring them because she didn't want to bring the same dish as someone else. So, in the end, the food was all too spicy or exotic for Michael to eat. He polished off half the corn on the cobs there (there were only three cobs cut into small pieces)and some fruit, and that was about it. But that's not what I'm mad about either.

What I'm mad about is our PhD childhood education "specialist" who gave a presentation on "self-management" which turned out to be a two hour session on how to bribe children to do what you want. She even did her PhD at some state university in the US, but must have studied under some people with very short term outlooks.

At the beginning, I was more than willing to listen to what she had to say. After all, the title sounded good. Children should learn to manage their own behaviour and not need an adult telling them what to do all the time. Her three methods that she outlined at the beginning were called "token economies," "activity charts" and "self-management." Well, I thought that sounded good. She would talk about different methods that people use, token economies being the least effective and how we should all work towards self-management. HA!

They were all token economies, the only difference being that at the highest level, the students should determine for themselves whether they get their tokens or not. Basically, tokens are "reinforcers," to use her terminology, and should be things that the children consider desirable. Namely, candy, movies, outings, and "special priviledges" like not having to take a test. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I kept on expecting her to say that this does not work in the long run, that you're just developing a society of spoiled brats that will only do something if they'll get short-term gratification out of it. But, no. Not even close. She honestly believed that this was the best way to handle a classroom. Taiwanese parents will love her because she will have a perfectly behaved class that always does everything they're supposed to. Future teachers will hate her because the students will purposely misbehave because they're not constantly being rewarded. Of course, she'll just tell those teachers to use the same method. Voila, problem solved.

Well, by the end of the presentation, I was about ready to tell her that she got a PhD for nothing because she obviously hadn't learned a thing about how to raise children to be independent, creative, self-motivated adults - which should be the real goal of education, in my not so humble opinion. I didn't say that, but I'm not sure I didn't offend as what I basically told her was this: Her methods tell the children that behaviour that we have to bribe them to do is obviously behaviour that they shouldn't want to do by themselves (or else why would we have to bribe them to do it?). I used the word bribe a lot. She didn't even attempt to deny it. She just said we had to use "immediate tangible reinforcers" that the children could associate with the positive actions.

Oh, and she also said punishment was perfectly acceptable if the positive reinforcers aren't working. And for older kids (like teenagers), where teachers don't have access to reinforcers that would motivate the kids (like video games - she actually said that!), we should get the parents on board and they can provide the bribe whenever we tell them to. If a teacher ever told me to give my child special priviledges or buy them certain items, just for exhibiting proper, normal classroom behaviour, I would have a serious chat with their principal about their teaching methods.

If my first principal (who also has a PhD in Early Childhood Education)at this school had heard this woman, she would have kicked her out and told us to ban everything we had heard from our minds forever more. Unfortunately, she is no longer there. We don't even have a principal anymore. The owner of the school tries to act as principal (she had to fire the last one as every single teacher quit last year because the principal was an unreasonable dictator), and has every good intention, but just does not know what proper teaching practices should be. So, she hires people like this woman, who have great credentials, and zero credibility. Unfortunately, she doesn't realize it.

And now the problem is, teachers here who are using this token system in their classrooms already (and there are a few), just had their behaviour reinforced, and were given even more ideas on how to make it "better." These teachers are ones who do not have any training in the field of education. They are hired because they have degrees in subjects that will impress the parents, or they have many years of "teaching experience" all in places where these token systems are common. And bribery is very common. Especially in Taiwan.

There was another teacher (certified elementary school teacher from Toronto) who was just as outraged as I was, and we spent quite a bit of time trying to undo the damage. He even asked her if there were other methods that promoted more self-motivation, that didn't rely on extrinsic rewards. She said "Oh yes. Hundreds." And that was that.

So, he and I start listing off other methods that we have read about or used, and she just stares off. Doesn't try to add anything or agree with us. I was ready to smack her. I dumped her powerpoint presentation in the recycling bin on the way out (not in front of her - I'm not quite that rude), and have been angry for the rest of the day.

She's starting her own business here in Taipei; consulting for schools, and giving parent education classes (a program she developed for her PhD). And these rich parents will be only too happy to pay her money and follow her advice. It's exactly what they want to hear. As long as I don't run out of money, I can have the perfect child. I wonder what the "reinforcers" will be when they grow up. "If you visit me once a week, I'll pay your mortgage," sounds right along this woman's alley. And they'll do it too.

I'm still mad, mad, mad. But, writing it all down does make it seem a little more ridiculous. But when I think of my sweet two and a half year olds who are so innocent and actually feel happy when they learn or accomplish something new, without needing any "reinforcers" it makes me very very sad. Because I know, within the next few years, it will be conditioned right out of them.

It's always when I hear people like her talk that I seriously consider homeschooling again. But, I know I wouldn't be able to handle it, and it's better to have a happy mother than the "ideal" education. I just hope I'll be able to undo some of the damage I know some teachers, like her, will inflict upon my kids. And I feel badly for the good teachers out there that have to deal with the problems these other teachers (unintentionally?) create.

Well, my cake is finished, and I've ranted for long enough.

Why We Shouldn't Take Kids to Amusement Parks

Another beautiful Thursday afternoon. I decided to be adventurous, despite my slightly sore throat, and go somewhere new. I decided on the Children's Recreation Centre (highly original name, I know) which I had read good things about on an online parent's forum here. Super cheap to get in (less than $1 Cdn), and all the rides are 20 NT each. You can't even go on little rides in the malls in Canada for less than a loonie, but here you can go on a ferris wheel, merry-g0-round, little train, twirling teacups, flying swings, bumper cars and a few other little rides for 67 cents Cdn each (at today's exchange rate). There's also a large area with four or five different playgrounds with different themes that are completely free.

I knew which MRT station to get off, and I saw a sign pointing towards the entrance. What I didn't know was that this place was huge. The amusement park section is only a little part of it. There are two other large sections. One focuses on Chinese heritage and is like a historical village, while the other section is a huge science exhibition hall with a 3-D IMAX theatre. There are separate entrances for each section, and of course, I went in the entrance furthest away from the amusement park area.

I knew the amusement park area was down at street level as I had seen it before from the MRT. Everything else was on the side of a big hill. So we climbed up and up and up. Walked around the village a little. It was completely devoid of people. I would have liked to see everything, but looking through old Chinese houses and shops was not exactly Mikey's cup of tea. Then we walked all the way around the science centre and started our descent.

I don't know what it is about amusement parks, but as soon as Michael caught his initial glimpse, he turned into a hyperactive little boy who's favourite words became "I want!" He wouldn't listen to anything I said, and was just running here and there, not caring at all if I was still in sight, unless he wanted more tickets for rides.

We started with the Ferris Wheel, which moved a little too quickly for Michael's liking, but it gave me an overall view of the park, so I knew how to head him towards the playgrounds and away from the rides. My camera started flashing low battery after this picture which is why there aren't more.

Then we headed over to the train. It does a nice little round and goes through a pretty dark tunnel, lit only by a few strands of Christmas lights, so I was glad that I accompanied Michael on his first round. The next time I let him go by himself. He loved sitting at the very front of the train and yelling, "All aboard!" Another little girl also wanted to be the driver, but as soon as Michael clambered in beside her, she scrambled out as fast as she could and moved a few rows back. I guess white boys are scary.

Then we headed over to the playgrounds, but Michael saw the merry-go-round and insisted that we ride on it first. It was actually a double-decker merry-go round in order to fit more people at a time and Michael wanted to go up to the top level to ride. We were the only ones on it. After putting him on, the lady motioned me to get on too (as I had paid a ticket in order to accompany Michael), so I hopped on and off we went. I felt kind of silly as my feet could still touch the ground at all times, but Michael had fun. Then I told him we were out of tickets (which we were - I had just bought seven off of another mother who was leaving and had some extras) so it was playgrounds or home. Of course he chose the playgrounds.

We played for awhile. Bought some ice cream (only $15NT!) and a couple of hot dogs ($20NT each) which apparently did not include a bun as she just put the hot dogs in a paper bag for us. That was fine by me as Michael never eats his buns anyways, and I do not need the extra carbs. I have gained so much weight here already that my pants are getting quite snug. Either that, or the dryer is shrinking all my clothes... If only that were true.

Michael played some more, and then tried to go in the sandbox and steal other people's toys again. When I told him to get out, he refused so I told him it was time to go home and walked off. He took this to mean as he could now do whatever he wanted, so he turned his back on me and started getting himself covered in sand. Sigh. Went back and forcibly removed him, which of course triggered a crying fit of "You make me sad! You hurt my feelings!" which he does whenever we won't let him do something he wants.

We had to go past all the rides in order to get to the exit and I also needed to make him use the washroom before we left, which was right beside the bumper cars. I got out of that one by telling him that he wasn't big enough for bumper cars yet (there was a big sign saying that those under 100cm weren't allowed, even with an adult). I actually had no clue how tall he was, but I needed some excuse. (We measured him the next day at school and he's 107cm with shoes on). I told him how we grow when we sleep so he should sleep a lot and then the next time we come, when Daddy comes to visit, he'll be big enough.

This time I knew which exit to go out through so we wouldn't have to climb that big hill again. But, right by the exit are these two large slides that you have to climb 41 stairs to get to. (No, I did not count them. You can see that they're labelled in the picture).

Michael must have gone up and down those slides at least a dozen times and was still begging for more when I insisted we leave. Another tantrum ensued, but I wasn't about to give in. My throat was really sore by this point and I was tired.

Michael was too. I managed to keep him awake until we got on our bus. He cried all the way from the bus stop to our apartment, then straight to bed. I managed to get his dirty clothes off him and put on his nighttime clothes before he conked out for the night. It was 5:30 pm. He didn't wake up until 6:15am the next day.

Michael Loves School

Michael fell asleep in his classroom before I went to pick him up today at 12:30, so I asked if it was okay to pick him up after he woke up so I could work on parent-teacher conference forms. I got a lot done by the time he woke up. But, then it was recess time, and there was no way he was going to leave his class then. And then it was snack time, and he wasn't about to leave then either. So, he stayed the full day and left with all his other classmates at 3:00. I used to think that being at school from nine to three was too long for three year olds, but I guess it's more fun than being alone with Mommy!

Baking Cookies, a Dozen at a Time

We finally got around to making our oatmeal cookies today after church. I had actually just started when Annie rang the bell, so she stayed and helped us. She ended up doing most of the work stirring while I helped Michael measure out all the ingredients.

Then she offered the use of her mother's toaster oven which she said May had bought especially for baking cookies. Figuring it had to be better than mine (I don't even have a temperature setting - I can just set which burners I want on), I accepted and we all went over there.

Now, you can only bake a dozen small cookies at a time, and cookies take twice as long in these tiny ovens where half the heat gets out everytime you open the door, so it took a couple of hours to finish baking them all. But, it sure made their house smell good and Michael had fun playing with Annie.

They made pasta for supper (with ground pork) and we were of course invited. I left them two thirds of the cookies in exchange, then went home to put Michael to bed. It was a good weekend.

Night Market Foods

I decided to take Michael to the Shilin Night Market today - in the middle of the afternoon. I knew better than to brave the crowds that are there during the evening. I knew that not everything would be set up, but there would definitely be enough for us.

The Shilin Night Market is the largest in Taipei and covers a large area. It's the best place to go for a wide assortment of cheap stuff. My shopping list was: two pairs of sandals for Michael (he needs an indoor pair for school, and an outdoor pair for everywhere else), sunglasses for both of us, and the elusive shovel and pail. It's also the best place to go for night market food. There are tonnes of tiny stands set up that sell all kinds of snack foods that they make right there.

Well, the first stand that we see upon coming out of the MRT is the candy covered strawberries and tomatoes stand. You will not see candy covered apples here, but strawberries and tomatoes, definitely. It's the same candy coating as back home, and it still makes a big sticky mess. Luckily, mothers are always prepared with a stack of baby wipes, even when they don't have babies anymore. Michael picked out a strawberry stick, ate one, made a huge mess, then gave the rest to me. Sometimes there are advantages to having eat leftovers. Yummy.

I had seen a whole bunch of tents set up on the square across the street from the main night market entrance, so we decided to see what was going on first. Note to all mothers. If you see a large collection of tents and are with a three year old, run AWAY. It was a fair with lots of shooting games (like in the above picture) and a little ride. Michael tried to drag me to play all the games but I refused. I relented to his request for a ride. Michael is at the very back in his Pikachu car going around and around. I put Michael on at the same time as a man put three of his daughters on. He then went to pay, so I went too. It was $60NT!

I mean, yes, it's less than $2 Cdn, but I can get into the zoo for that! She also pointed to a collection of toys in front of her, so I assumed that a toy was included in the fare. I couldn't exactly pull Michael off now, so I paid up and waited for the ride to end. I waited, and waited, and waited some more. I wondered if the fare was so high because you could ride as long as you wanted. She stopped the ride briefly a couple of times to let other kids on, but the original three girls were still on there and Michael didn't say he wanted to get off yet so... About a hundred rounds around the track later, I finally just asked the lady to let him off. He got off and picked out a toy. A blow up hammer. I knew that would interest him for, oh, twenty seconds, so I encourage the small beach ball instead. Hello Kitty of course. She blew it up for him and I let him hold it, hoping that it would keep him occupied while as we walked back through the fair as quickly as possible back to the night market.

Well, he still tried to beg for the chance to play the games, but mean ogre that I am, refused. We left the tents and walked into an election parade. The presidential election is in a week, and although everyone already knows who is going to win, they still must save face and keep campaigning. One of them accidentally bumped into Michael, so he gave Michael his flag and a package of tissues (one of the favourite marketing tools here - at least it was four years ago. Robert and I never needed to buy tissues as we were constantly being given packages with advertising on it for something or other.). Then this lady bends down and says, "Tell your Mommy and Daddy to vote for Number Two!" which I found kind of offensive. First of all, his mother was right beside him (did she think I was his nanny? - probably) and she could tell me herself. Second of all, he's three years old. Like anyone is going to base their vote on what their three year old says.

Needless to say, I was not feeling very friendly towards candidate number two's followers (I didn't even know which party it was for), but Michael loved them. He was waving around his flag like crazy and trying to hit people left right and centre as we entered the night market. Now, this wasn't just a little paper flag, but a good sized cloth one on a plastic flagpole. As there are only two political parties in Taiwan, everyone is aligned on one side or the other, some people have very strong views. I was getting pretty nervous that Michael was going to be "accidentally" knocked over or shouted at, so after a few minutes, I convinced him to let me roll it up and hide most of it in my purse.

We found a pair of fake crocs for about $13 that Michael liked so much, he refused to wear his Thomas the Tank Engine light up shoes again. Michael has gone through a growth spurt here and I think they were getting a little tight. I wanted to find a good pair of sports sandals as his second pair, and had just found the perfect Thomas sandals when I see Michael dancing around. I glanced at my watch. He had just gone an hour and fifteen minutes ago!

Off on another memorable night market potty search. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Had to ask two people, wandered through a few very narrow dark alleys, and ended up in a men's washroom (maybe it was unisex?) but went in with Michael anyways as he cannot use squat toilets alone.

Then I forgot where those perfect pair of sandals were and wandered around trying to find them. Michael saw a few people eating small round light brown things on a stick and kept on asking me for one. I promised him that as soon as I saw who was selling them, I would get him one. Well, it turns out they were six fried quail eggs on a stick. I love eggs, and I'm always trying to get Michael to eat more eggs, so I was happy to buy them. And only $20NT! He ate two and I ate the rest. Another yummy snack.

Got to a side alley full of food stalls and a Chinese Temple. We were accosted by a woman selling cranberry lemonade. Well, not too unwillingly as she had free samples, and Michael loves free samples. Ended up buying some (Michael had about a tenth and handed me the rest) and then found a BBQ stall. Michael asked for the chicken skewer and then was really mad once it was done because it was too hot to eat. Later on, he ate only a third, and I had to sacrifice again by eating all his leftovers. Delicious.

By this time, it's getting a little later in the afternoon and much more crowded, so I decided to head out. We found the sandals on the way out. They were $17 Cdn, but so much nicer than most of the sports sandals that I had seen, so I got them. We stopped at a small steamed dumpling place for supper, which finished me up perfectly. Michael figured he still had a little room left in his tummy, because he asked for a cup of cut up, washed strawberries. I never refuse his requests for fresh fruit, and he actually ate the entire thing!

Baby Monkeys and Wrestling Bears

It was another good zoo day. Not too sunny and warm. Before we left the school, at least three people asked where we were going. When Michael responded, "The zoo," they all said, "Again!" Obviously they forget how little of the zoo you can see in one afternoon with a three year old. We'll need at least five trips before we get to everything.

When I asked Michael what he wanted to see, he just said, "monkeys," so I decided to stay in the areas closest to the entrance/exit where the Taiwan wild and domestic animals are. We found the monkeys fairly quickly (they were actually macaques). In addition to the dozen or so adults who were just lazing around like usual, there were six or seven babies (big babies, but they were still cute) who were all fighting over bits of shiny paper and running and climbing all around.

They were still learning how to climb and swing around and occasionally one would fall from quite high up and there was always a collective gasp from the human onlookers. But, they always got back up (without crying - how do mommy monkeys manage that?) and were running around like crazy within a few seconds.

Michael actually sat on the railing and watched them for at least fifteen minutes. I didn't know whether or not to be more amazed at that, or the monkeys.

A little ways further were three sun bears (Taiwanese black bears). One was behaving like the bears always do when I've seen them at the zoo (namely sleeping in a place where it's difficult to see them), but the other two were wrestling all over the place. I was fascinated (so fascinated, I forgot to take a picture), but I guess they weren't as interesting as baby monkeys because Michael wanted to go after thirty seconds. Luckily, mommies have veto rights and we stayed at least five minutes. They were biting each other and knocking each other over, but they're so big that everything seemed to be done in slow motion.

On the way to the domestic animals area, I got a phone call from my school requesting that I return later to sub for the Grade 3 class. I wouldn't need to be back for another couple of hours, so I said fine.

We went through the domestic animals pretty quickly as Michael wasn't very interested (as you can tell from the picture). Here he is with some domestic ducks. Are they not one of the ugliest animals you have ever seen? No wonder they're always killing them for food. You can buy duck everywhere here. It's probably just as common as chicken.

Then we bought an ice cream cone (of course) and returned to school. Michael likes playing with the big Kindergarten kids in the after school program, so he didn't mind.

Searching for Vanilla Extract

Since it has been so rainy here, I decided to make oatmeal raisin cookies with Michael. Being in a completely new place, the one and only ingredient I already had was eggs. As no one bakes here (most people don't have an oven, and if they do, it's just a toaster oven), I knew that certain ingredients like vanilla would be a little difficult to find, but I still figured I would be able to find everything.

I first went to the chain supermarket Wellcome as I knew the prices would be less than at the specialty store in the basement of SOGO. Once I got there, Michael decided he wanted fruit, so we picked up cherry tomatoes, oranges, bananas and grapes. I put Michael in the baby front section of the shopping cart, which was way too small for him, but kept him out of trouble.

Then the search began. I found everything except vanilla, allspice and baking soda. Of course, I had to buy this massive bag of salt because I couldn't find anything smaller, a bag of sugar that looked way too coarse and had to settle for Taiwanese brown sugar (which they call black sugar). Not exactly the light brown called for in the recipe, but oh well.

As I went through the checkout, I started thinking. How am I going to carry this all home? Why on earth did I buy fruit? It ended up being two large shopping bags, very full and very heavy. No hands for Michael in one of the busiest areas in Taipei.

Walked back to SOGO, where the MRT is anyways, and went to their supermarket. Found the baking soda easily enough (although way more than I would use in years in that one bag - volcanoes are sounding like a good idea to do at school now). No allspice. The recipe actually called for ground cloves but all the reviews said that substituting allspice tasted better. So, I got the ground cloves. Then for the vanilla.

Found the extracts section. They had extracts for EVERYTHING. Except vanilla. The bottles were all labelled in Chinese, so I was looking at the shelf labels which were in English and Chinese, scanning them all for vanilla. I found some vanilla powder and wondered if that would do. They seemed to have tonnes of green apple extract. Everytime I thought I had it, it turned out to be green apple.

Finally found it hidden behind (you guessed it), a bottle of green apple. Vanilla was printed in tiny letters at the bottom of the bottle, so I knew it was right.

I had to throw those three things in with my other bags in order to carry them to the checkout. I felt kind of stupid taking only a few things out of my Wellcome bags at the checkout as I knew they had everything that I had just bought at another store. Why didn't I just buy everything there? Why did I go back for my umbrella? My father instilled too many lessons on saving money as I was growing up I guess.

They asked if I wanted a bag, and when I declined, they put stickers on everything to prove that I had paid for it. I then plopped them in my Wellcome bags and got on the packed MRT.

My arms were falling off by the time we got home and Annie was due to come over soon, so we didn't actually make the cookies. We didn't open most of the fruit either. Sigh.

Here are a couple of pictures of Michael in SOGO, before we went to Wellcome. This garden (which is so perfect that you must be a professional gardener in order to enter) is all enclosed on the top floor of the department store. Two of the walls are all glass so you have quite a view of the city as well.

Shopping for Grandma

A few years ago, I gave my mom a fleece top that I had bought in Taiwan because the sleeves were too short for me. Now, it is her favourite top because the sleeves are just the right length for her. She's always complaining that the sleeves in Canada are too long, so she asked me to bring back some more for her.

Now my mom is impossible to shop for. Anything she wants, she just goes out and gets, so no one ever knows what to give her at special occasions. My last few gifts have all been major flops, although she's too kind to come right out and say so. So, I really wanted to be able to honour this request for tops.

Unfortunately, the fashions here are crazy right now. They kind of follow the Japanese culture, but they always completely overdo it. The last time we were here, it was super long, pointy shoes, with lots of sequins. It made me think of what I always imagined people wore in the Arabian Nights. Now, everyone is walking around in these shapeless, balloon like, brightly patterned outfits that are just insane. Even the boys are walking around in things that ressemble pantaloons. And the women's tops look like they're massive maternity clothes. The colours are all very loud and the patterns just give you a headache. Now, the business clothes are not like this, very formal and classic, but business clothes are just sold in places that I never go into as they are all name brand designers.

So, I've been trying to find long sleeved tops, and I know I'm almost out of time as it's the end of winter, but I can't find anything. Of course, I can't look very thoroughly with Michael trying to pull everything off the displays, but I have looked.

Since it was rainy, again, I decided to take Michael to an underground mall to look some more. Nothing, nothing, nothing. The only thing we found of interest was a Thomas the Tank Engine wallet, which I did not buy. Michael hates just shopping, so we hopped back on the bus to Asia World to let him play at IKEA and to eat ice cream. Have I mentioned that they have 10NT ice cream cones? That come in a waffle cone? They're great.

I tried the spicy chicken fried rice at the Thai place in the food court. Delicious. I know what I'll be having every time we go to Asia World!

To Save a Dollar

Well, my vow never to return to Tom Dragon lasted less than 24 hours. I decided that they weren't going to get an umbrella out of me as well, so we went off to retrieve it before church today. We left around 10am, and got to church around 11:30am. A good hour long detour, and an extra 60NT for the MRT ride there and back and the extra bus ride to church.

According to the weather bureau here, Taipei has, on average 170 days of rain a year. I personally think it's more than that. When it says that there's a 10% chance of rain, it usually means that it will rain 10% of the day. And there have only been four days with 0% since I've been here. Most of the rain is at night, so it doesn't bother us too much, but we know to always have an umbrella. Everyone knows this, and yet everyone also forgets, so you can find umbrellas being sold everywhere for 100NT. Nice big ones, not flimsy little ones. Everyone in Taiwan has dozens of umbrellas for this very reason. Right outside my school, there's usually a big umbrella display with many 100NT umbrellas. I also passed one on our way back from picking up the umbrella at Tom Dragon.

This means, that I only saved myself 40NT, or a little over a dollar. In fact, it probably would have been better to buy a new one as Michael had already broken part of ours while playing with it. But, it was the principle of the matter!

I got two thank you cards today. One from the compassionate service coordinator and one from Abby's mom. Another reason why I love English wards overseas. Everyone tries to help each other out because they know there's no extended family around, and they're always so appreciative of every little thing.

Tom Dragon's Castle

This morning, I was talking with my parents and Robert over the Internet (we use Google Chat - it works great!) when Michael heard a father kicking around a ball with his son right outside our front courtyard. He insisted on going outside to play with "his friends." (Anyone he doesn't know is referred to as "my friends" - imagine what the world would be like if we all did that...) I was still in the middle of a conversation, so I just opened the door and let him out. We live in a gated community, and I knew the guard would keep an eye on him, so I didn't feel too bad about it. Twenty minutes later, Michael came running in and asked to go to his friend's house and then ran back out without getting an answer. I quickly got off the "phone" and ran after him to find him telling this woman and her daughter that, yes, he can go.

The woman spoke English fairly well and told me where she lived and said that she would even feed Michael lunch when he was hungry. They seemed nice, so I said he could go. Then she told her daughter, who only looked about two, which resulted in a crying fit. I decided it probably wouldn't be the best idea for Michael to go after all (he might have even invited himself, I don't know), so I told him that we would go for a walk to the playground instead and then get lunch. He runs back to our place and starts crying, "I want go my friends house. You make me sad."

After he calmed down, we headed out. We picked up some fruit, beef noodles and dumplings on the way back for lunch. Yummy.

As I was doing my Saturday cleaning, Michael decided to watch a DVD on our laptop in the bedroom and fell asleep. I had to wake him up two hours later. I knew he needed to get out or he wouldn't go to sleep until after ten, so I quickly went online and found an indoor playground called "Tom Dragon's Castle." As soon as Michael saw the pictures on the website, he started dancing around saying, "I want to go there, now, please." The website was only in Chinese, but I had directions from an English playgroup that had gone there, so I was only looking for the opening hours, as many kids places close at five or six on weekends. I saw two lines that I figured were opening hours. One said 0930 - 1900 and the other said 0900 - 2000. I assumed the longer hours were the weekend hours. By this time, it was a little before five, so I calculated that if we arrived there by six, we would have a solid two hours of playing, and then by the time we got home, he would be ready for bed.

It was looking like rain, so we grabbed our umbrella and left. I was planning on making Michael go to the bathroom at the MRT station, as I knew I probably wouldn't want to use the bathroom at the playground, but I forgot. Michael got really excited as soon as he saw the entrance. The playground was in the basement. I put our umbrella in the umbrella stand, making a mental note not to forget it (can you see where this is going?) and went downstairs. Neither of the two ladies spoke a word of English. The lady helping me kept on pointing at these four different cards. I did not want a multiple pass. I didn't expect to ever go back. So I just kept on shaking me head and holding up one finger. Finally, she just gave up and said "500." The playgroup said that they got tickets for 250NT, so I knew it would be more than that for admission. I was expecting around 300NT. If I had known it would be 500NT ($16.09 Cdn at todays exchange rate), I would definitely NOT have gone. Too late now. I was just hoping that I was right about the opening hours.

Michael ran right in. After he had played for a few minutes, I took him over to the other section where the bathrooms were. As soon as we rounded the corner, the stench hit us. As we had to leave our shoes at the door, they provided slippers for the bathroom. Good thing, because it was disgusting. I refused to even go in. I made Michael put on slippers and go in a urinal where I could see him from the door. He already had his pants down when some air guns started going off. They have a section where there are about ten different air pressure guns that shoot out little foam balls. And this section is right across from the bathrooms. The loud noise really scared Michael and he kept on trying to run back to me. I kept on trying to reassure him that it was all right, that nothing was going to hurt him, and that yes, he did need to go pee. He finally went and then I noticed that the very bottoms of his pants were all wet, hopefully with just water, but around a little boys urinal, highly unlikely. Yuck, yuck, yuck. If I hadn't paid so much, I would have left right then. However, I didn't know how to say "I demand my money back because I won't let my child play in this cesspool" in Chinese and I knew Michael would justifiably throw a major tantrum.

So, I made another mental note to wash him extra well during bath time which I guess pushed out my first mental note to remember my umbrella, because I forgot it there. At least Michael had fun exploring everything. They had these cool rollers that Michael really enjoyed. You can't really tell from the picture, but they're spaced about a foot and a half apart and the child rolls from one end to the other on their stomach.

The other thing that really annoyed me was that they had a table set up with these salespeople trying to sell us these expensive educational toys, guaranteed to double your child's IQ! They knew they had all these parents trapped and were taking full advantage. I refused to listen to them.

At 6:45, there was a loud intercom announcement and 75% of the kids ran for the exit. Guess what time it closed? Since I had paid so much, I was determined to be the last to leave, so I warned Michael that we would have to leave soon, but let him continue playing. Luckily, I was wrong. It did close at eight. And we were not the last to leave.

Near the end, Michael started playing with another little boy around his own age, and that boy's older brother, who enjoyed practicing his limited English on Michael. Michael had tonnes of fun until they started playing monsters, which sent Michael crying to me. I reminded him that if someone does something he doesn't like, to just put out his hand and stay "Stop!" So, he went off and tried it, and guess what? It worked. Mommies are geniuses.

Michael was a little sweaty, but not too bad by the end, as he was just in his undershirt. The other kids there in their three layers were soaked. I don't know why the parents here always overdress their kids. As we were leaving, a lady ran up to me and showed me the hair dryer by the exit, in case I wanted to use it. I laughed and ran out, vowing never to return.

A Princess for My Little Prince

On Sunday I volunteered to go help a pregnant mother of a three year old girl whose husband had gone to Hong Kong for a week. She's in her first trimester and really sick. Plus she doesn't speak any Chinese and lives out in the boonies where no one speaks English. What was her husband thinking? I mean, yes, go to your conference, but arrange for someone to take care of your family while you're away. Sheesh.

Probably in response to her prayers, our compassionate service leader felt inspired to call her right after he left for the airport and found out what was going on. She organized volunteers to go help out all week. The poor woman was so sick that she had to check herself into the hospital the day after he left to get rehydrated by IV and to get some medication.

I was assigned to Thursday afternoon. She lives in Taipei County, near the coast, still on the MRT, but off my map of the city. Instead of having to take make two train transfers with Michael, I decided to take a bus to the MRT line that goes up to her house. I'm getting pretty good at reading bus maps now (in English of course).

Michael tried to fall asleep in the bus, but I wouldn't let him. Then in the train, when I wanted him to sleep, he wouldn't - until we were five stops away. Then he fell fast asleep, and I could not wake him up. He was practically sleepwalking getting off the train, and crying, because he didn't want to be on his feet.

I had good directions to her house and I decided to pop in a bakery on the way to get some buns as I hadn't eaten lunch yet. As I was in line to pay, guess who had to go potty? Well, it wasn't like I exactly knew the area, so I when I got to the cashier, I pointed at Michael and said "Niao niao" (pee-pee) which is one of the first words a preschool teacher here learns. I was hoping she would just let him use the staff bathroom or something. But no. She holds up four fingers and points somewhere down the street. Like I'm supposed to know what that means.

I see a Starbucks across the street (yes, they are everywhere here - except for when I need one - and I was sure glad to see one just then) so I rush Michael there and ask for the bathroom. They point upstairs and we run up. When we return downstairs, at a much more leisurely pace, I feel like I have to buy something, so I get Michael some orange juice. It proved to be more expensive than the BBQ pork on rice with three side dishes that I got later on that evening at a food stall, but what can you do?

I wonder if I will ever go a week without having a potty story in my blog. I doubt it.

I had been told to just keep walking up the street until I got there, but silly me decides to actually read the address and try to make some sense out of it. To make a long story short, I went around in a few circles before finding out that it was just up the street. A very long way up the street.

We walk up to find a cheerful mother in a clean apartment. Someone else had come that morning to help her clean the entire place, and after the hospital stay, she was feeling much better. So we just visited for a couple of hours and then I decided to let her rest and take the kids out. Now she had told me earlier that there were no playgrounds around, so I figured we would just wander around and grab supper on the way back. With two three year olds. In a busy part of town with no sidewalks. What was I thinking?

We found a set of stairs to play on...

Then we found a couple of rides outside a convenience store. I saw that they only cost 10NT for a ride, so I gave them each a coin, and regretted it an instant later. As soon as the ride started, this traditional Chinese music started blaring out from each. Different music, different tempos. Lots and lots of noise. The kids didn't seem to mind, although Michael was a little surprised at first.

The little girl's name is Abby. She's about a little over a month older than Michael, but she's definitely much bigger. And very talkative. And blunt. She had no qualms in begging me to buy her anything that caught her fancy the entire time we were out. And I had no qualms about telling her no, so it worked out okay. The hardest part was navigating the streets. So, I took them on the MRT to Danshui, at the very end of the line, because I knew that there was space for them to run around there.

We got off and I gave into Abby's pleas for doughnuts (we got two donut holes each), and then instead of running around in all the space, they sat and watched two excavators move around mud.


Highly exciting, let me tell you. Then I convinced them to run around a large roller ring that other kids were running around in. When I was sure they had run out of energy, I bundled them back on the train to Abby's house, picking up some dumplings and noodles for them on the way.

We left Abby's house after dark, and didn't get home until after 8pm. We were both pretty tired.

Picture Day

Today was school picture day. Not only do we upset the kids by disrupting their entire routine, but then we plop them in front of a stranger and expect them to smile about it. They were actually pretty good about it. Only a few needed a lot of encouragement. On the other hand, only a few smiled. Trying to get a class picture took some major effort. I had to hold my most active boy firmly on my lap. He tried to squirm out the entire time. He's also been conditioned to hold up his "V for Victory" whenever he sees a camera, like every other kid in Taiwan, so I had to pin his arms down. If we get a picture with everyone looking at the camera, it will be a miracle.

Here's a picture of Michael waiting for his turn with his class.

Searching for a Shovel and Pail

I took Michael back to the market that I didn't have a chance to explore last Thursday. I justified the long walk by telling him that we would find a shovel and pail for him there. I didn't think that I was lying through my teeth, but it turns out I was.

I did take Michael to a fruit stand and let him pick out any fruit that he wanted. At first, he chose the papaya, but he always refuses to eat papaya when we get it in our mixed fruit cups, so I vetoed that. So, he chose the cherry tomatoes. Michael loves tomatoes.

Now the reason I love this market so much is because it contains my favourite store in Taipei. I was really glad that it was still there. I call it the 10NT store, because everything in it is 10NT unless otherwise marked. Kind of like a dollar store, except 10NT is about 32 cents Canadian. I got two headbands, small baskets for my class, ziplock bags for Michael's snacks, and a few other things all for 10NT each. It was great.

The closest we came to finding a pail was some small cleaning buckets, but they didn't look sturdy enough to hold up under a Michael in a sandbox, so I wouldn't let him buy one. I felt bad that all I had gotten for him were some tomatoes, so I took him on a bus to another cheap, everything kind of store, that some of the teachers had told me about. They did seem to have everything. Except sand toys. But, we did find gummy bears in bulk, so the trip was not in vain.

Sand Baby

It was a beautiful day outside, so I decided to take Michael to Da-An Park after school. It's a huge park, right downtown, and I knew that it had a playground, although I had never been there. I didn't make Michael walk, although it was only three bus stops away from the school, as I wanted him to have enough energy to play.

He was excited to see the playground, but even more excited to see the giant sand pit right beside it. He headed straight towards a pile of sand toys (that belonged to other children playing there) as fast as he could. I had to run after him and explain that we weren't at school and that those toys didn't belong to him. He was pretty upset that he didn't have a shovel and pail, and only reluctantly went off to play on the rest of the playground when I promised that the next time we came, I would bring sand toys.


My little monkey is never content to do things the conventional way. He uses climbers as monkey bars and always goes up the slides, rather than down. I snapped this picture right before I told him to get down. He's only allowed to climb up slides where he can see the top, so he knows if someone is going to slide into him.

Then he decided that he wanted to play in the sandbox even without toys. His new game was "Let's see if I can get every inch of myself covered in sand."



Needless to say, he got completely filthy, and was perfectly happy. Luckily they have a tap (that you can see behind Michael's head in the above picture) for washing off the kids after they get out of the sandbox, so I was able to at least wash his hands.

Then, he found his favourite kind of "friends." There were three of them, about sixteen years old and female and they did everything he said. It was great for me. I got free babysitting, but I think some of the other parents were jealous that my kid was getting all the attention. It was kind of amusing watching these three teenage girls following Michael around and helping him climb up slides.

When he started getting tired, I took him to the central library which was right across the street. It's the only library in Taipei with a decent children's English area, but I don't think anyone knows about it because it's in the second basement, around a corner, out of sight, without any signage. The chinese children's area is in the first basement and has a huge sign in English and Chinese that says "Children's Reading Area," so I think most people just stop there, because there was only one other girl in our area the entire time we were there.

We read a few stories and then did something for me. Sat down in a restaurant and ate a meal. Other than the times that I've eaten with Linda, I've always gotten take-out as Michael cannot sit still for more than a few minutes at a time, and hates food that is too hot. Which means I always get warm (if I'm lucky), but never hot fresh food. We stopped in a nicely empty, clean, bright pasta place with an English menu that was more expensive than my usual, but not overly so. It was empty because it was three thirty in the afternoon, but that was just as well, as Michael wouldn't bother anyone else. I had the lasagna. It was really nice. I'll have to do that more often.

My Little Sunbeam

Michael finally went to Sunbeams today. Of course, I had to bribe him. When I went to pick him up afterwards, his teacher firmly told me never to send toys or snacks with him again. Oops.

He decided to sit at the very front and centre for sacrament meeting, and we only had to run out once for the potty. He entertained the bishopric during the rest of the time.

Every time we go to church, Michael always points out the Angel Moroni on the temple beside our building, so here's a picture to remember it by. I had to practically lie down on the ground to get that shot.

After church, we went to May's house to deliver some strawberries that we had picked up yesterday and wanted to share with them and found the house full of cousins. Michael enjoyed playing with all the "big kids."

Here's a picture of Michael on his little trike. It's too small for him, but he still likes pedalling it all around the basketball court behind our apartment. He also likes the little climber. May refused to let him go on the slide until she had gotten a damp rag to clean it, then forced a couple of cousins down first to dry it. Michael is definitely the little prince here.

We then returned home where I cooked for the first time! That is, if you call boiling pasta and adding a can of diced tomatoes and shredded cheese "cooking." All I've done up until now is reheat take-out, with the stove being used only to boil water for Michael's baths. So, I was pretty proud of myself and Michael enjoyed more familiar food.

An hour later, May called us and invited us over for dumplings, so I didn't have to cook after all. She then sent a bunch of frozen ones home with us. I'm going to have to start buying her strawberries everyday.

Aimless Wanderings

Michael hates staying at home, so by around 2pm today, he was raring to go. Somewhere. Anywhere. I couldn't decide on a place to go, so we just got on the bus and left. We ended up down by Robert's old university. I figured that would be a good place to get off as student areas are generally more interesting (and full of cheap stuff).

We wandered around for a couple of hours, got on the bus and came back home. The only remotely interesting place we went to was a big wet market, but I'm trying to put it out of my memory as Michael needed to use the bathroom there. I'll be disinfecting my shoes for the rest of the week.