A Day of Firsts

After a particularly hard day after first arriving here, I came home and had to vent.  So I just wrote about my day hoping that someday I could blog about it (we had no Internet at the time) as it tells a little bit about some of our first moments here.  And just in case you were wondering, the house I talk about below was only temporary housing.  Since then, we've moved to our permanent home, which is surrounded by much bigger sidewalks and fewer crazy blue trucks!

A Day of Firsts- Monday August 20, 2012

#1.    1^st time I went out into the city without a stroller.  My stroller has been invaluable in being able to get around here, although I am definitely getting my workout since it can be a little difficult to wield on slanted sidewalks and bumpy terrain.  Even with this, it is usually worth the extra effort to have control of both girls when pedestrians seem to have the very last right of way even on sidewalks (motorized scooters don’t really have to follow any rules, including staying on the streets!).

There are some places though that only have stairs up or down and quite a lot of them.  The other day, I needed to go out to one such store, and so I left the stroller at home.  I put Sienna in a front pack, put on a small backpack with water, diapers, and snacks for Elli, and grabbed Elli by the hand to walk to the store.   We made it there but it was quite a long walk just holding Elli’s hand.  At one point, she turned to me, looked at me with sad eyes, and said “I wanna car” as she pointed to a car passing by.  I guess we both have to get used to this carless life of ours since Mommy (me) is not driving in this madness. 

 (I got these pics off another fellow Expat's blog, but I have seen things just like this! I just never have the camera ready because I am so nervously watching my kids as we navigate the traffic and sidewalks)

#2.    1^st time I almost got killed in Taipei and 1^st real cry in Taiwan:  So there are these big trucks around here that get paid by how many deliveries they make, so they are pretty much really crazy drivers.  During the outing I described above, while crossing the last street to our 1st apartment (remember I had no stroller, just Sienna in a front pack, Elli holding my hand),  Elli started losing it in the middle of the street.  I kept walking forward, dragging her a little.  Elli was moving, but not super fast.  We had the green walking man for 20 more seconds or so, and I had looked around in all directions before starting to cross.  Even though I was getting impatient with Elli, I was still trying to be aware of my surroundings.   I looked back at her over my left shoulder to tell her to hurry, when I heard a Chinese woman on a scooter yell frantically “watch out” in English.  

I am so grateful and blessed that she did say it in English, because it made me stop immediately.  Right then, this big truck flew right in front of me, with maybe 3-6 inches to spare. He had been coming from the opposite side of the street and was making a left turn across traffic onto the street I was crossing.  If he had been any closer, he probably would have clipped Sienna’s head because she was in my front pack.  I got across the street, and grabbed Elli and held Sienna closer and just started crying.  Elli started behaving and kept asking “mommy okay?”  I got inside our apartment as fast as I could and then I just blubbered and cried through a prayer of gratitude that we were all okay. 

For the next few times crossing that street (I had to cross any time I wanted to go anywhere) I have had to use all my strength not to cry again.  I still can’t imagine what that truck driver was thinking, almost running over a woman, an infant, and a toddler.  I am grateful that the Lord was watching out for us.  Maybe this was a blessing in that I am even now more cautious than ever—I was before but now even more so.  Some people after a while of living here,  get complacent and less careful.  Because of this experience, I don’t think that will ever be the case for me.  I know that traffic is really crazy in so many parts of the world and it has never made me that nervous until I had children.  Kids change everything! 

I took a picture of one of the infamous blue trucks around here.
This is the area where our near collision occurred (it was a much busier time of day.)

This is the side that I was walking from on this day.  I was almost across the street when the truck came from the right side, making a left hand turn, crossing in front of me.

#3.     1^st time I went to and ordered food at a Chinese restaurant without Todd there to help, and first time to drink tea (herbal, that is): So with the frantic feelings of the morning, I knew I wanted to have Todd come with me to get some dinner.  We still have a limited supply of things and since I have no spices and no recipes and no internet, I told Todd that I wanted to get some dinner at a place a couple blocks away.  Todd ended up having to stay later than expected however and here I was scared to cross that street but with a very hungry toddler and a hungry me. 

Well- funny enough- I thought about the time I got bucked off a donkey when I was younger, and my dad made me get right back on.  I remember thinking he was crazy, because I probably shouldn’t have tried to ride the donkey in the first place and I felt like I was lucky already not to have died,  but he made me sit back on it again, even though I was screaming and clawing at him the whole time. 

Well I am not afraid of donkeys now and I didn’t want to be afraid to walk outside without Todd.  So, I decided to go with the girls to get food.  Armed with my stroller this time and prayer we set out , crossed all the streets, and arrived safely. 

However, once we got there I had the next hurtle.  A nice woman pointed out a table for me to sit at and then walked away.  The menu was all in Chinese- no pictures or anything.  I just sat there not knowing what to do.  The original woman came back with another waiter who I thought probably spoke some English.  He did not.  He pointed at the menu (it was kind of a do it yourself order sheet) and gave me a pen and indicated I should circle something.  Then he walked away.   I did not know what to do.  The original woman came back and I tried to use my hands to ask for pictures and then I just started pointing at two tables that looked like they had food that was edible indicating I’ll have that.  She looked confused, then like she had an idea.  Then she brought out a menu with some pictures and some English!  YAY!  Don’t know why that didn’t dawn on her at the beginning.  I still ended up with some interesting dishes, and might have accidentally drank tea (I found out later that it was just herbal tea), but in either case, I think the Lord would be merciful in this instance, and the main point is … we did eat.  I also have been much more careful about what I drink.  A mom and a teenage girl gave me a little help halfway through too - a little tender mercy from my Heavenly Father (they were from California, but the mom wanted her daughter to learn Chinese too so they moved back to Taiwan).  They showed me some free self serve soup (that the teenager hinted to me wasn’t good) and told our waitress to give me some takeout things at the end of the meal.  Halfway back to the apartment, Todd met up with us, he had gotten home and went out to look for us wondering if everything was ok.

Still not exactly sure what I ordered, but one of the dishes was similar to this. A beefy type sesame noodle soup- Mine had much less beef, more like a couple small bits.

The next three "firsts" occur all over the world every day.  To me, they show that amidst the chaos of settling into a whole new life in a whole new country in a whole new language, life does continue, and all the normalcies of life do too.

#4   1^st time Elli went #2 in the potty: To end our very eventful day of firsts, when getting Elli ready for bed, she said she needed to go poo poo.  So we rushed over to the toilet, and yes, she actually went in the potty!!!  She was markedly proud of herself at the end.  Afterwards, she leaned against the full length mirror with one hand buck naked, crossed her leg behind her, looked at herself with a smirk and said “Elli went poo poo in the potty”.  She is such a character!  I tried to capitalize on her success, but constipation and other digestive issues that Elli has been dealing with put a huge damper on potty training.  I am hoping to try to tackle that potty stuff again soon.  Whenever I try to encourage it, though, she seems to reject it, so I have to figure out a new plan of attack.  Any ideas?

#5   1st time that Sienna ate food besides milk!  This didn't happen the same day (it was actually after we moved in to our permanent housing, but since I was sharing firsts I thought I would share this too.)  You will probably think I am crazy for waiting for so long to feed Sienna any baby food (since she is 7 months now), but I say you people that feed your kids baby food early at like 4 months are crazy.  :)  For me, it is tons of extra effort to feed a kid baby food and much more prep especially if you are just breastfeeding.  And since mama's milk is all they really need up to this point and since she was sleeping just fine, I felt no rush.  I have started now, because she needs to start to learn now and get used to feeding, and she is super interested in food now, so it works out great!  Elli really enjoyed helping feed her, although I had to really hold her back, since her idea of feeding her was shoving food as forcefully as necessary into Sienna's mouth, whether it was opened or not!!   

#6   1st time Sienna and Elli have bathed together and I think the last time Elliana has bathed happily.  (Since this time Elli has developed a ridiculous phobia of hair and bugs.  Since a strand of my long hair and sometimes hers inevitably gets in the tub or a small speck of dirt or something that is perceived as a bug often occurs during bath time, she has decided to pretty much scream all during her baths.  Thus Sienna and Elli have not really continued bathing together since she points, kicks, claws at and cries profusely at any perceived "threat".  I hope she gets over this soon-- until then-- I will cherish this photo.

Well that's the abnormal and the normal of a typical day in Taipei!  Love ya!