Family bike

We'd been seeing these cool bikes in Taiwan with small seats on them for kids...I guess you'd call them family bikes. Most of them have three seats, one in the back and one in the front. Even though we've seen lots of them, they are surprisingly hard to find; we heard that might be because they are technically illegal now (I think Taipei is trying to get people to take less of their family on bikes, sometimes you see a whole family of four). Given that Taiwan is the world's largest producer of bikes, Joe ended up finding one and ordered it from a shop in Tai Chung. This one that he found even FOLDS, which is pretty awesome. It's a great way to take Phoebe to school, you'll see the route they take, and how happy she is on it. The bike was assembled upon arrival, and they even put a giraffe light on (which squeaks when you squeeze it), and a "I love my bike" bell on it!

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And yes, they pass by Lawry's every morning. You can smell the butter...

Election Day Fever

It was as if Phoebe knew the results. As we were watching CNN in horror, and as I was refreshing the New York Times page to see the real number of electoral votes in favor of Clinton (as CNN was irritating me), I received a phone call. No one ever likes to get calls from their kids’ teacher. This was Miss Fanny, calling to tell me that Phoebe had a fever, and had put her head down on the lunch table to take a nap. TO TAKE A NAP. That’s when you know that something is wrong. Phoebe never, ever, takes a nap. In fact, she protested going to summer school because Phoebe Does Not Nap. She was so pissed off at the teacher for even asking her to nap, that she refused to go during the summer. But that is a story for another day. So when Miss Fanny told me that Phoebe was sick, I felt as if she was manifesting the queasiness I had felt in my stomach all morning. The dread of those three words: President Donald Trump, that I felt deep down in my insides, making it hard to even think about having lunch. It was as if Phoebe, age four, felt the pangs in Joe and I’s collective psyche on the reality that was imminent to the future of the country.

Joe went to go pick her up, and carried her home from the car passed out. She slept for the rest of the evening on the sofa, ate some soup, and then went back to bed. She slept through the night without a fever. But because she had a fever less than 24 hours ago, I chose not to send her to school in the morning, for fear that she might get other children sick. Throughout the day, she bounced around the house like her usual crazy self, singing songs, cutting paper, tracing letters. Over dumplings for lunch, she turns and said to me, “I think Trump is going to quit.” And for the rest of the day, she continued, without fever, running around like a maniac in her pajamas.

The only thing that explains this is that in another universe, Phoebe Hei, age four, knew that Trump was getting elected at 2:30 PM Taipei time (this was around when the votes were called back in the US). She knew the state of the union, and called it as it was. She physically manifested our shock, our worry, and our complete disbelief. 

Fortunately, she's all better now. My greatest hope is that my country will be fine, and will be without fever, as well.

in her pajamas all day, “i can't believe Trump won."

Hope

One of my favorite photos I've taken here in Taipei.

Election Retail Madness

Was very tempted to buy this yesterday. We went out to lunch in suspense, while the electoral votes were being tallied. Joe and I forced ourselves not to check our phones, as we both knew that the race was going to be called soon, that Trump was at 264 votes and Hillary at 215, and that the unthinkable just might happen. 

non-Chinese readers: you can probably guess what this word means (hint: first word below)

I couldn't pull the trigger though, and besides, my girls yelled at me for being inappropriate. When I put this one on, they were even more horrified.

self-explanatory

So I left empty handed. They did have one that said "Don't Give Up" that Chloe wanted me to buy. I wasn't quite in the mood yesterday, but might go back and get it.

Bikes

One of the few big items that we shipped back from the US were our bikes. Well, just Joe and mine. The kids outgrow their bikes every year, so we didn't bother with those. But I love my bike and wouldn't trade it for any other one, so brought it with me on our flight. I've had so many memories with it through the streets of Palo Alto (and East Palo Alto, for that matter), the Dumbarton Bridge crossing the Bay, the windy small streets of Stanford, and 22nd Street in the Dogpatch, that I can picture myself in any given place or scenario and let the bike take me there instantly. 

I did have a bike accident a year ago, though, so the thought of riding in a city like Taipei was terrifying. But there's a nice bike path here that lines the river, and takes you all the way down to Damsui. Ideally, it would be great to bike straight from our place to the path, but that would be too life threatening, so instead, we drove to a lot right next to the river. There's actually quite a few of these lots, in fact, they are called "emergency evacuation" points here in the city.

There's very few people on the path, and it's actually quite nice to feel the river breeze while riding. Here we are taking a break. You can see my dad's apartment across the river. 

so sweaty, although you can't really tell

joe's on the left, mine on the right

The toughest part of the ride is the head wind on the way back. Joe and I used to bike to work occasionally, and would need to cross the Dumbarton Bridge to get to the East Bay. We both agreed that the wind here actually is stronger than across that bridge, and boy did it make me work. "Push, Pull, Push, Pull," I kept telling myself, and visualizing my spin instructor in the States barking that up a fake hill.

I really felt it the next day, and could barely flex my hamstrings without cringing.

Phoebe doesn't know how to ride a bike yet, so we thought it would be fun for her to get a bike and try it out. So the week after Joe and I rode, Phoebe got a bike, too. 

bike to school day

We took her to school on her bike one morning. She was pretty sweaty by the time she arrived. She's still working on it, but is getting a lot closer. And yes, she wears a motor cross helmet to protect her teeth (note my aforementioned bike accident).

That seemed to work pretty nicely, so we took the family out to the river for a bike ride the weekend after. Girls and I rented bikes (the total came out to like, $5 for an hour). I forgot to take photos of the bikes, but I did get some photos of them at the park next to the path.

so happy to get out of the city and run around.

jumping for joy.

That seemed pretty fun, and we decided that it would be pretty rad if we could actually brave it and all ride out together (from the apartment). So we went out and bought Zoe a bike.

I dig the green color. Phoebe was pissed she didn't get a water bottle holder with hers.

Since Chloe is so tall now, she could actually fit a U-Bike (this is Taipei's equivalent of the Citi bikes they have in NY), that we could rent on the corner. She's actually excited to try a tandem with me - you can rent those at the same place next to the river, so we may end up just doing that the next time.

Only in Taipei?

Here are some cool discoveries over the last couple of months:

1. Fabric awesomeness. We went to the Yong Le fabric mart this weekend, and were amazed by how much cute stuff there was. Not only are there fabric stores, but there are also bead shops galore. And yarn shops (we actually MOVED yarn here from the US, so there was no way I was going to buy more yarn to move back). We did buy a bunch of fabric, though (as seen on our coffee table)...to be used for when we go back to the States. We don't have a sewing machine here!

2. Restroom real-time display. Have you ever seen anything like this? This was up outside the women's bathroom in a subway station here. It tells you what stalls are occupied. It also tells you what kind of toilet is in each stall - some are squat holes and others are western toilets. I wonder what "Investigation Alert" really means (too stinky? clogged toilet? suspicious backpack?)

3. Huge spiders just hanging out.  Joe and I now regularly go hiking up Elephant Mountain. It's become our "Dish" here in Taipei. Instead of a paved trail, though, there are cobblestone stairs. So many that it actually takes quite a bit of concentration to go up and down them. It's just across the street from our place, and is really quite a workout. It's also very lush and green.

Lots of stairs

There are a few stopping points up the mountain, where you get some great views of Taipei 101 and the city. And sometimes you just might spot a spider the size of your hand.

Huge spider in the foreground, Taipei 101 in the background

From left to right (chinese/japanese packages): strawberry wafer, green tea ice cream, double chocolate cone, black sugar wafer, milk caramel wafer, green tea ice cream popsicle, pudding popsicle.

4. The frozen section in 7-Eleven. Geez there are lots to choose from. My personal favorite is the Royal Milk Tea ice cream - I have never seen that flavor before in the US. The wafers are also really good - especially the caramel one. I finally got to try a bit of the pudding pop - it's really quite delicious. 

5. A sixty-year old Wushu teacher doing splits in her white skinny jeans. Chloe really wants to continue her practice Wushu here while in Taipei, so we went to check out a Wushu studio. I found that the Taipei Wushu Association offers classes, and the director offered to meet us there on Saturday morning. She spoke to me about their philosophy, their way of teaching, etc. It then came time for Chloe and Zoe to show her a form. The director watched quietly. Then she politely commented on their horse stance. And then she broke out some Five Stance herself, as well as some splits at the end. We were all in awe. Turns out she's been doing Wushu since she was nine. Note in the photo that she still has her sunglasses on her head, and her cell phone in her hand. 

Splits in skinny jeans.

I think she could have been in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. 

This was in an art classroom, the kids are all lying on the art desks.

6. Cardiac tests in public elementary school. The school offers free tests to all students to make sure they don't have any cardiac abnormalities. Each student gets their ECG taken. I went to school to see what it was about, as I was a little worried that they'd lift up the kids' shirts in public. 

7. A dog in a hamper on the back of a bike, with its own umbrella. This guy was awesome. He had a bike with a laundry hamper secured on the back. The dog was the cutest thing: it had a pink scarf on. And it would follow its owner after it did its business. 

There's even an umbrella in the back for the dog.

8. Parasite tests. You can figure this out based off of Zoe's expression and the drawings on the form. Joe did it (yay!) At least the procedure was performed first thing in the morning.

It's a butt sticker!

9. Loyalty points in exchange for ounces of meat. We went to a restaurant called Butcher's Kitchen, where we ordered two 1.5 kg hunks of beef. Very good meat. Taiwanese love loyalty programs, and this place had a loyalty card that allowed you to accumulate points in exchange for grams of beef. I think that piece of meat was bigger than Joe's head.

US Wagyu Tomahawk, so delicious.

10. Very long, hilly, escalators. This escalator is probably the longest one I've ever seen or been on. You'll see that there's a portion that goes flat in the middle, so that it's not too steep. This one is in the subway station right next to our place.

Endless escalator.

Chloe's Reflections on Xin Yi Elementary, one-month in

I'm the one with the blue backpack.

Well, I don't have many friends here, mostly because it's a little hard to communicate, because they speak super fast. But the girl walking next to me is my sort-of-friend - in case you didn't know I am the girl with the blue backpack - and I also have this other sort-of-friend, she is also a new student, but unlike me she just moved from a different school in Taiwan. 

My class room. That's me sitting down in the middle.

This is my class room, it is quite small. It has a chalk board instead of a white board, the desks are in rows instead of table-groups, there is only a chalk board, desks, drawers, a small desk for the teacher at the very back, and two basketballs, and you have to bring your own everything: your own pencils, watercolor, color pencils, markers, glue, scissors, ruler, everything! At Ohlone they provide everything and have books you can pick from in the classroom, here the teacher just gives everyone the same book to read, or you can go to the library if you want to read for fun.

This is math, the main reason why it is hard is because most of the time I can only read some parts of each question.

When you make a mistake, the teacher folds your paper and gives the book back to you. You can see that my paper is folded above. It bothers me.

Chinese reading.

Reading comprehension, It is the HARDEST! First of all, many of the words I don't know, second of all, if I don't get help I have no idea what the story is talking about.

A test. It was also really hard because I can't even read it, I was actually surprised that I got some right.

Another reading passage...😑. My mom says that the writing is very classic and poetic, people don't talk like this nowadays.

Here are the hardest subjects: Social Studies, science, Chinese. Social Studies is also my least favorite subject, it's funny because at Ohlone Social Studies is one of my favorite subjects. The only reason why I think Social Studies here is boring is because I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE TEACHER IS TALKING ABOUT! But how am I supposed to know? It's not that I don't pay attention, It's that I never learned Taiwanese history. Science is hard also because it's hard to understand the teacher, but it's at least less hard than Social Studies. Chinese=😩. The stories all use super weird language and words and I can't even read a lot of them, and the worksheets are very hard because most of the time I can't read all the words in the question.

English class is the easiest! So it is sort of boring. the question would be something like this:

Tommy is not feeling well, so he can't go to school, he might have to see a doctor, why can't he go to school?

1. He is going on vacation

2. He is hurt

3. He is not feeling well

But I really shouldn't brag because many people in my class think it's hard, and I can understand because English isn't their first language. I am the English teachers assistant, so I get to teach people how to write their English homework, and turn in the whole class's homework, it's pretty cool. I also quite like the English teacher because she is really friendly.

Taiwanese language class is super hard. Honestly, the language sounds so foreign to me, that's only because I never learned a single word in Taiwanese before. Taiwanese is also really hard to pronounce, for example wo我 in Taiwanese is pronounced something like ngwa which I find really hard to pronounced.

Another very different thing is that you have to bow before each class and say "Greetings teacher." Then after every class you bow and say "Thank you teacher." And whenever the teacher is speaking to you you have to stand up whether it's a good thing that the teacher is saying or a bad thing. Also the teachers here yell so loud when they are mad even if it is just a little thing. These three boys were just messing with the tablecloth and then the teacher got so mad that they had to stand on the little stage where he teaches, and the boys had to stay right there and not move a bit then the teacher started scolding them like some crazy person, he yelled so loud that he nearly gave me a heart-attack. But that's not all, after that they had to stand up there in front of everyone and not move a single bit, one of the boys just moved his hand slightly and got scolded again, then they had to stand there for probably about five minutes. I saw that type of thing happen more than once. But I think one of the reasons why the kids here are so nice is because of how strict the teachers are, even though my teacher can be very strict, he still can be very generous. The strictness of the teachers is scary but also good. 

All in all, I am having a pretty good time here, and it is interesting to experience all the differences. 

Seoul Day 2

We visited Dongdaemun Design Plaza. The building was designed by Zaha Hadid, super cool and fluid. Cross between a jelly bean and spaceship, with cool statues scattered throughout.  It's hard to tell the scale here, but the photo below with Zoe in it gives you a better sense.

Splitting nude

Zoe is the tiny girl in blue...statue in the background gives you a sense now for how big it is.

The inside is just as cool, it reminded me a bit of the Guggenheim in New York.

Too many cool things to take photos of, here's a brief summary:

The girls also got 3D printed at the design center. They use about 100 cameras to capture your whole body.  We haven't received them yet, though, as it takes a couple of weeks to get printed. Phoebe had to take out her pony tails since those could break off from the figurine. We'd heard about this through a friend back in the States - there's a store on University Avenue in Palo Alto that does this, but we never got around to doing it (plus I think it was a lot cheaper in Korea).

Hundreds of cameras...better smile, Phoebe.

We headed to lunch afterwards, this time we went to a beef place. The bulgogi was shaped in hearts. It's interesting that all the restaurants have their own specialty: this restaurant only served beef, there was no other meet to be had. And the dinner place yesterday only served pork, and the lunch place only served chicken. It's very specialized. Also, not all places serve the classic kimchee cabbage that we're used to eating outside of Korea. They each have their own specialty. It was very good meat, so good that we had to re-order the bulgogi as it got inhaled by the girls (I barely had any of the stuff pictured here, and was too impatient to order yet another batch).

The girls took a break after lunch outside the restaurant. 

After lunch, we headed to the COEX Mall. It's Korea's largest underground shopping mall. We headed to the aquarium. Some pretty cool ways of showing fish: fish in paintings, a fridge, and a phone booth. And some others like a mail box and vending machine. The underground tunnel was pretty cool. Huge rays and sharks. For a tiny area, they really were able to showcase lots of fish. 

By now you may or may not know that we are obsessed with tiny things. Anything small is cute, in our book (except for bugs). So when we stumbled upon this toy store with tiny food toys, we went a bit nuts. The sushi set was the cutest.

Girls playing with tiny food while we have drinks at the Grand Intercontinental lounge.

We did spot an Orbit which was pretty cool. It's the white edition...which is only sold in Korea and is pretty dope. It also had panniers on, which means these people probably spent $1500+ on this stroller.

Dinner was at JungSik, which also has a location in NYC. Really innovative and memorable, creative Korean fusion with unique presentation. 

Our trip to Korea - Day 1

The girls had a four-day long weekend for the Moon Festival, so we took a quick trip to Korea. On the first day, we visited the Gyeongbokgung Palace in traditional Korean dress. At first, when my sister-in-law asked if we wanted to do it, I was like, "nah, too much trouble." She said that if you dress up, you get to go in for free. So I thought, why not, the kids might like to do that. Turns out, they loved it. The rental place is across the street from the palace, and it was packed. We should have gotten some business cards from them as there were people who stopped us at the palace asking us where to get the costumes. Turns out, though, given that it was a holiday, everyone got in for free! 

Walking to the palace.

Looking at the water...

Shortly after taking this photo of the girls viewing the water, a couple of people went up to the girls and pulled them close by and shot a photo with them. Kind of weird as we had no idea who they were.

For lunch, we decided to try some Ginseng Chicken. Good thing we made reservations...

Longest line I've ever seen for some chicken.

Woman cooking our chicken.

Bought some cool socks, clip-on earrings for girls, and other random things. Then we took the girls to a Korean show. Phoebe's first. My sister-in-law had read about it and thought it would be fun - yet something else we'd never have done on our own! These guys were great painters that painted live on stage. They also got the audience involved...and they actually picked Joe. Girls were rather amused by this. Plus, Phoebe got to drink some crazy apple drink with chunks of jelly in it (not the same as apple sauce).

Waiting for the show to start.

Feeling silly...

Finally dressed!

In front of the palace, with cousin Allie.

Group photo!

We went shopping after lunch, and I'm a bit surprised that I didn't take more photos. This is probably one of the more interesting ones - there was a stand that sold a gazillion different contact lenses. You can see how each one slightly changes your eye ball, some being more creepy than others. 

So many contacts!

End of the show...when you could snap some photos. So I didn't get any of Joe on stage.

We met up with friends for dinner, where we had some pork belly. By then, I was pretty exhausted so didn't get lots of photos. Here's one with some pork in it.

So much pork.

We've moved.

It's finally hit me. We are living in Taiwan. I don't think it's hit me until now, until school started this week. Prior to then, it almost felt like we were just here on vacation, like last summer. Take kids to summer camp, hang out with family, take a short trip to the beach, and then back to summer camp. But now that school has started, it really feels like we've moved. There are forms to fill out, lunches to pack, and homework to be completed...The good news is that the girls really like their school so far. They aren't intimidated by the homework they have, which is a bit surprising, coming from a school that didn't have homework. They've been working hard all week, with at least 2 hours of homework every night, it really doesn't leave them a lot of time to do much else.  School goes from 7:50am - 4:00pm, which is longer than in the US. But they do have nap time, which the girls get a kick out of - they said "the teacher even takes a nap!" I think it's a great idea (and I'm thinking of instituting nap time for myself). The kids really take advantage of it - supposedly some kids don't want to wake up. But Chloe can't bring herself to nap.

Here's a list of surprises:

1) "The boys are SO nice!" - Zoe. She said they are more calm, less crazy than the boys in her class in the States. In general, they both said that the kids are super nice. Chloe spilled the contents of her pencil box on the ground, and she said a bunch of kids got up right away and helped her pick it all up.

2) "The lunch looks delicious!" - both Chloe and Zoe. We'd packed them lunches on the first day, but they came home saying they wanted to try the school lunch. Their cousin used to attend the same school, and had complained about the food being gross, but the girls said it looked really yummy. So we signed them up. So far, they like it! They bring it into the classroom, and the kids go and get the food, buffet style. They bring their own stainless steel container and utensils for the food (more eco-friendly) - there's one main, three sides, soup, and fruit.  

3) There's cleaning chores. The girls seem to like sweeping. Chloe gets to pull weeds and Zoe mops. They said that when the teacher asked who wanted to clean the bathrooms, a bunch of kids raised their hands. They had to rock-paper-scissors to see who got to clean the bathroom! Probably good that they haven't had to clean the toilets yet. As a side note, there are no western toilets at their school. Just squat toilets (yes, holes in the ground. Building some grit here...)

4) They brush their teeth after lunch. I think that's a good habit. The teacher tells them they have to do it. 

5) They have a class president and vice president. They need to lead the class to other classrooms, and make sure that they are orderly. And, one of their biggest jobs is to enforce nap time. The two of them take turns to sleep, as their job is to monitor the kids to make sure they are quiet and put their heads down.

6) At recess, they don't really run around. Most of the time they just hang out inside the classroom. There's no playground for the "middle and upper-school" (3rd grade and above) kids. 

7) Zoe has two minimum days a week. Her teacher called me at Noon today and said it was time to pick her up. Oops (I thought it was only on Wednesdays).

8) If the teachers address a student, the student should stand up. Not sure if this is always, or just sometimes...If you're late, you need to announce it to the teacher and class. 

9) P.E. class seems to be easier (even in this heat)! They have swim class too - they start next week, let's see how it goes. Zoe said that lots of the kids complain about lunge jumps, and ask to stop. She's a little surprised by how much the kids complain about exercising...If you get to school too early, the teacher asks you to go run some laps around the field. I told Zoe she can start going to school later, but she said "I want to run laps!"

10) They try to make sure that their backpacks aren't too heavy. They have 25 text books, but are only to bring back the ones they have homework for. There is a random test on certain days where the school brings out a scale and weigh the backpacks. Zoe's teacher said she was embarrassed last year because some of the packs of her students were too heavy. The text books aren't like the ones in the States, though, they are thin paper backs.

11) There are tests...More to come on that later. Ohlone didn't have tests other than the state mandated ones...

The most significant difference of course, is that everything is in Chinese!

Homework on the first night of school.

First day of school. Chloe = 5th grade. Zoe = 4th grade.

The Maldives

We spent a week in the Maldives. Everywhere you looked there was water, sand, and wood...it was impossible to escape. I loved the way the light would shine on the surface of the ocean, on the nooks and crannies of the reef, and on the edges of the earth. The sight of the sky kissing the ocean would constantly take my breath away. At times, the jetty would try to kiss the horizon, but not quite make it. And at other times, the leaves on the palm trees would try to hug the sand, only to be beaten by the wind. So many times I just wanted to stare and sear the image into my head...but then the sky and the light would change. The clouds would dance, the moon would shift, and the air would breathe a little differently. Was it because the island was so close to the equator? Was it because this tiny, unprotected island, had no where to hide? It was hard to say. I do know that each day was magical, surreal, and calming. Every moment was picture-worthy, and it was almost impossible to see something that did not bring me joy. I didn't want to leave.

Some highlights:

- Biking on the island was super fun. We didn't ship our bikes back to Taipei, so the girls were excited to bike. And the bikes were charming - upright and made with bamboo (vs. my road bike I am used to for biking on the streets of San Francisco). Phoebe rode in a box behind Joe's three-wheeler.

- Watching a movie in the jungle. They called this "Jungle Cinema". We watched Zootopia on a big screen under the stars, on the sand, in the jungle. And had dinner and ice cream.

- Living over the Indian Ocean. Since the water was so shallow, the girls could just walk out, stick their heads in, and see fish. Lots of them. We were on the calm part of the island, protected by the waves. We had two huge box fish underneath the villa, that we named Fred and Ralph. Sometimes we'd see a reef shark (and I'd promptly gasp and swim the other way). We found multiple small coral "houses" - filled with baby damsel fish the size of my thumbnail, which we found so adorable we couldn't stop looking at them.

- The fruit. Every fruit imaginable: dragon, star, passion, lychee, guava, tamarind...some I had never even seen before.

- Fun tube. Getting dragged behind a fast boat. So fast that I didn't want to go (I was scared). But the girls and Joe loved it. Phoebe laughed the whole time. 

- The moon and the night sky. A moon so round and a sky so clear that I felt the vastness of the universe. And felt very, very small. 

BING! - post by Zoe

Our dad has a cousin who opened a hamburger place in Taipei! It's like the only good hamburger in Taipei. Because most of the restaurants in Taipei are Chinese food. So sometimes you get bored of Chinese food, and also the hamburgers are very yummy😋!

Our dad's cousin!

Yummy!

check out phoebe's face...😋