Still Jet-lagged

I'm still waking up at 2:00am. Jeremy seems to be adjusting a lot better than I am, because he's sleeping until 5:00am. Getting up early isn't too bad, because I can read or write, but falling asleep at the same time as the kids is a little embarrassing. I'm sure Trina's not impressed, since we haven't spent any time together without the boys. It's a good thing we have so much fun with them.

We all went to school together this morning. Michael and Jeremy played together while Trina set up her classroom. Then I told Michael that I would come back at lunch time and Jeremy and I left. I hadn't really decided what to do, but I knew I wanted to revisit some familiar places. So I just turned right and walked up the street, the way I always used to after dropping Trina off at work and walking to my work. But I never had a stroller then and it reminded me of how uneven the sidewalks are.

As I walked along, I noticed almost every single girl ogling Jeremy. I flatter myself that I used to get noticed like that, but not anymore! Strangers come up to me and tell me: "hao ke ai!" (so cute), and some even touch his face and hands. Most are pretty good about looking, but not touching. And Jeremy has started waving at anyone who looks directly at him for more than a moment. He seems to think he's a real star.



We stopped at a bakery for a custard bun for Jeremy and a breakfast stand for a hamburger for me. I guess it counts as breakfast because it has a fried egg on it. We continued up to a major street where the best way to cross was a pedestrian overpass. That was way too many stairs for our stroller, so we turned up towards the apartment where Trina and I used to live. We walked through a street market which was relatively quiet because it was a day off. I bought Jeremy a mandarin orange, and the woman, after weighing it, called back to her daughter: "Shi kuai zenme jiang?" (how do you say: ten NT dollars?), and the daughter said to me: Ten dollar. I feel a little bit bad for making these people feel awkward, but I'm impressed at the effort they make to communicate in my language. I have never done that for a recent immigrant in Canada.

We stopped at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, which is quite a landmark. There's a massive hall, surrounded by a concrete square with a small park and pond at the south side. Jeremy enjoyed climbing the fence and playing in the puddles.



We come half way around the world, and he plays in puddles, just like he does at home. On the other hand, I can't expect him to understand the teaching of Dr. Sun Yat Sen (with which I'm not even familiar), so I might as well let him have his fun. I asked a lady to take a picture of us before starting her taichi routine. Older people also stand around the park and gossip, or practice ballroom dancing with their portable tape players. Kids ride bikes, fly kites and play badminton.



After that, it started to rain and we had less fun. Jeremy had to get back in his stroller and we bought an umbrella before making our way back to the school for lunch. Jeremy fell asleep and then I stopped at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant to order boiled dumplings and beef noodle soup. Very typical. We got back to the school just as the parents were picking up their kids. I could hear through the door that Michael was super excited to be lining up with his friends to be picked up by a parent for the first time. Normally he just stays in the kitchen to eat his lunch while Mommy works. When the door opened, he came flying out and gave me a big hug. But then the door locked behind him, so we had to wait a minute to be let back in and eat lunch in the kitchen. Michael and Jeremy ate lunch together, then played while Trina finished work. We took a taxi home for a well-earned afternoon nap.

Because we slept so long in the afternoon, we decided to take the boys to Yu Kids Island to play. I asked the guard to call a taxi and he asked where we were going. I don't know the Chinese name for Yu Kids Island or for Miramar or for Geant, so we got out Trina's map while we waited. The guard read it for us and told the driver where to take us. It turns out that Miramar is "beautiful empire" and Geant (a French grande superficie store) is "love to buy". The boys had a great time (despite a few bumps) and Trina got to shop for a few minutes by herself.

Yu Kids Island

Click above to view the album.

The taxi that took us home from the school took the long way, which annoys Trina, so she asked me to try and figure out how to direct taxis, in Chinese, to go around left, through the tunnel and up the mountain. With my broken Chinese, I was able to do it on the way home from Miramar. I felt proud, but mostly grateful for the driver's patience in trying to understand me.