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Much Ado

We see people riding around on bicycles in the traffic and I grabbed my camera and snapped a shot before this old guy crossed the intersection since this isn't a typical sight we'd see in Texas.
Christopher got his first Taiwanese hair cut at place where you put a one hundred dollar bill in a machine, then you get a little credit card type of thing and wait until your number is called and you've prepaid for the cut. One hundred NT dollars is about a $3 haircut in the US. It's fast and efficient and nobody leaves a tip either. That's cheap! I have tried tipping places and they will not take it. I kind of like that idea and the service is still good.
We have been seeing these huge floral stands by the roads since we have been here, and they'll come and go, so we finally took a picture so I could ask someone what they're for. We had no idea. The first response was that they are for for a funeral. Then I found out that they are also for grand openings. Doesn't that seem like an odd combination?
We got invited to a birthday party for the three-year-old son of a coworker of Kelly's, Akshay, who moved here to Taiwan a few months before we did. Here is his little boy, Arnav, painting a lion figurine as one of the activities to keep the kids entertained.
Christopher enjoyed painting his masterpiece and I was amazed that he didn't get paint on his nice clothes.
The little girl next to him wanted to paint her animal exactly like Christopher's. She had some assistance from her mommy here and there.
Arnav is a sweet kid and it was my first time to meet him and his mother, Ruchika, whom I'm sure I will be getting better acquainted with during our year over here.
Thomas the Tank Engine was the theme for the day.
Our son was the oldest kid there, but he completely enjoyed himself and did a great job entertaining the younger ones as they attacked him in balloon sword fights.
It was also Christopher's birthday this week and he turned 13! The highlight of his day was officially getting a Facebook account, where the minimum age is 13. He made up a name, Bubbba Baxter, and a fictitious birth date, previously to be able to play some of the games, but I wouldn't let him join as himself because I wanted him to stick to the guidelines. As a result, this ended up being an awesome gift for him that was free. He has been wanting to have his own Facebook account for a couple of years now, so this was exciting to finally be able to get for our big boy.

A great moment for me was going out to lunch with a friend in Taiwan for the first time. Demi took me to the police station so I could report my stolen wallet finally, and we went to lunch afterwards. My wallet got stolen the day after I arrived back in the country when we were out shopping to stock up our refrigerator before the typhoon day, which was also right before the Moon Festival, so the stores were overly crowded. I have since received replacement credit cards and don't think I'll ever see my cute wallet again, but at least the loss has been reported. Demi is great. I enjoyed spending a couple of hours with her.
The food was really good and I'm not exactly sure what everything is, but I liked it, so that's all I know, and that it was pork something. I'm looking forward to taking Kelly there sometime.
Christopher got this over-sized birthday card from his church friends and they all signed it with such sweet greetings and artwork. He is going to treasure this card for a long time and felt really loved and appreciated by his new friends. Their thoughtfulness truly touched his heart.
The birthday wishes were in Chinese and in English.
I have been volunteering to help out the youth at church with a Shakespeare play that they are working on. This was my second week and I took them some chocolate chip cookies that I had baked to reward them for their improvements from the first week. The whole plate of cookies got scarfed down, so they must have liked them.
After their standard peace pose, I suggested that they do another one with all their fingers extended and that seemed to be a fun one. They have all chosen English names to go by and I helped rename one of the boys who didn't really like his previous name of Tony, so I recommended that he goes by Thomas instead, and he loves it. What an amazing group they are. It's the highlight of my week to do this. Even though we can hardly understand each other, I just love these kids! Their English accents are so darling to hear.
From the back row, left to right, there's Christopher, Ruth, Lisa, Alina, Jimmy, Joy, (then Demi's daughter, who isn't in the play), Sophie, and Nancy. On the front row, it's Andy and Thomas. We hope to be ready for "Much Ado About Nothing" by December and I'll continue to meet with them every Wednesday night.

A couple of other things I figured out this week was a laundry service for Kelly's work clothes, that my friend, Janae, helped me to find. They'll pick up and deliver to our apartment, which is convenient since parking is so difficult.

The school that Christopher attends held its first parent association meeting of the year and we elected officers. Nobody was overly eager to volunteer for anything, so I said, what the heck, I can be the president. Then I helped to get some others eager to volunteer, and since I'm one of the few who doesn't speak Chinese, we talked another mom into being the president and I'm going to be the person who helps organize activities and events. I'm looking forward to getting to know the four other moms on the board. We are all going out to lunch on Friday. One of them doesn't speak English or Chinese, so I'm not sure how that will go. She's from Korea and her son helped translate for her during the meeting. Hopefully we can have another Korean speaking person join us.

The final event I want to journal about is that we went to the emergency room on Wednesday night because Christopher suddenly had sharp, debilitating head pains in the back of his head, just after we had pulled into the parking garage after play practice. He suddenly grabbed the back of his head and started crying and said it felt like a hammer was hitting him and I was very concerned. The pain continued and I didn't want to have any regrets, not knowing exactly what was wrong, so I called Demi and asked her about what hospital to go to and took him to the one I'd driven past on Guang Fu Lu, the street where our hotel was.

We never really got a diagnosis, but they gave him some medicine and he felt better. He's been taking it for the past three days and I'm supposed to take him back for a follow-up appointment. I hope it's just a migraine and not anything more serious.

Our belongings that we shipped from the United States arrived today, so I'm as pleased as punch to have my kitchen tools. I've been cooking every meal in a primitive manner with just one dull knife and one pot that I bought the day my wallet got ripped off. I used a plate that the apartment came with as a cutting board because I didn't want to spend money, knowing that all my good things would be arriving soon. It's like Christmas around here!

Comments

Bobbi said…
Cute Christopher playing nicely with the children! And cute you for volunteering for the PTA thing. Sorry about your wallet, what a bummer. Those things are annoying to have to replace, and even harder in a foreign country. I'm glad your stuff arrived. That will make it feel a lot more like home for you. Happy fall, Kelly!
sayfuzzypickles said…
Yea! You got your stuff! I hope christopher is okay and that he was just having a headache. How exciting about the play you are directing, I am sure it will be fabulous.
Have a great week.
Melody said…
I really liked that card :) Have yall developed a habit of putting up a peace sign yet? (while posing for a photo)

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