Rain

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day!   I hear thunder.......I guess I have to just go on with daily life, the rain isn't going to stop for me to run to the store.

The rain does not scare away the scooters.  People have special rain coats that cover their entire body to keep them dry while they ride.  I even saw a dog with a rain coat on yesterday!  Have I mentioned the scooters?  They are numerous.  They dart in and out of traffic and swarm to the front of the intersections at the red lights.  I am surprised I have not seen any accidents.

I had lunch with some ladies last week.  It was so nice to just relax and talk and forget that this moving across the world bit ever happened.

I have been looking at some 2 year old photos of the girls in the bluebonnets.  I am so sad I missed the photo op this year, we left Texas 2 weeks before the flowers bloomed.  I can't tell how long I have been here.  I have no sense of the time that is passed.  When I look at a calendar, it seems pretty short, but when I think about all that we have gone through, it feels like a long time.  It has only been 8 weeks..........

I am looking forward to coming to Minnesota this summer.  I want to go to Target and a grocery store.  I want to walk barefoot in the grass, and see open space.   The kids and I walked to a local park last weekend.  I chose the close park, I thought I would hear less complaining about having to walk there.  As we are walking down the path into the park, I see a posted sign (all in chinese, of course) with a picture of a snake.  They are posted everywhere, it can't be good.  There was probably a sighting of a BAD snake in the park and these were to caution us to watch out.  The park is very shady, (buggy) and I am starting to hear hints of complaining.  I just wanted to get the girls out for a little exercise, since we don't have a yard for them to play in.  "I'm hot", "its buggy", "I'm bored", "my hands are dirty".  They broke me, we finally decided to walk back, avoiding any snake hiding spots (unless they fall from the trees....eeewwww).  We see more bug wildlife on the way back and Emma announced, "I don't like nature".  This is also a reaction to her camping experience last week.  She got rained on constantly and survived the gross bathrooms (the camp guides had to do a snake check daily in the bathrooms).  On the plus side, the food was good, she didn't get bit by one mosquito (!!), and she had fun with her friends.  I really don't know what else happened, she won't talk about it (I better get use to this).


On the way back from the park, I decided to be brave and order some food  (for the kids) from one of the street side restaurants.  They had these long deep fried "doughnuts", they looked good.  I have seen people eating them for breakfast, I thought they would be sweet.  The restaurant worker did not speak english, so I was pointing and holding up 2 fingers.  She then proceeded to point to all of these condiments to go with it.   It looked like relish and fish and god knows what else.  I am shaking my head NO, just the doughnuts.  Luckily, a gal behind me in line spoke some english.  I asked her if the doughnuts were sweet.......nope, I walked out of there empty handed.  Now the kids are asking to take a cab home, we were only 3 blocks from home (3 blocks up hill).  I stand my ground, we are walking!  You are healthy and have 2 good legs.  If we cab it, we probably wouldn't see interesting things.... like a big dog walking down the street.  He was beelining it towards the sewer/manhole cover in the middle of the road.  He proceeded to stand on top of it, circle around a few times like he was making a bed (you know how dogs do that), and proceeded to take a poop.  Why?  Dogs here are strange.  BTW, all the dogs are getting their "lion" cut for the hot summer months.....shaved except for the head and tail.

Paul is in India this week, it is just us girls.  We decided to go out to dinner one night, there is an Italian restaurant in the neighborhood that we have been meaning to try out.  Since it is close by, we could walk (in the rain).  The restaurant is a bit dumpy, but what else is new?  Lily has been going through fettucini alfredo withdrawal, so I was hoping to find the dish on the menu.  I did find pasta with bacon in an alfredo like sauce, she practically licked the plate clean!  Emma ordered pineapple and ham pizza and I ordered mushroom pasta.  Halfway through the meal, Emma and I switched plates.....she likes mushrooms now (thank you Camp Taiwan).  The food was okay, I am not sure if it will pass the Paul palate, he is very picky!  One strange thing we have noticed, you see a lot of christmas decorations.  In the Italian restaurant, xmas balls and ornaments were hanging from the light fixtures.  A huge white ball in the corner (have no idea what it is) has cut outs of Santa and reindeer  taped on it.  In a clothing store down the street, there are little santa bears hanging everywhere.  Whatever????

Walking back home, we stopped by a key shop to copy our house key.  A tiny storefront, very narrow.  We walked in and saw, in the back room, a little kid in pajamas playing with a ball.  We think the back room is their home.  All we could see back there was this huge, fancy lacquered alter with pictures of the relatives who have died.  Emma was wondering why it was so fancy.  It was a strange juxtaposition, the dirty cluttered key shop against the formal living space.  It was separated by an open doorway (they must have bug issues!).  I tried to explain to Emma that many people in the city live above or in back of where they work and that what we saw was a very traditional style room with the fancy alter.

Emma has been reading this book ( I read it too!),  it is call Dumpling Days by Grace Lin.  It is a true story about a girl and her family in New Jersey, who travel to Taipei one summer, to visit relatives.  Most of the book recounts this girls discoveries and experiences on her visit.  She talks about the "ice cream" garbage truck, the dumplings, the funny walk light signs on the street, the different holidays....numerous things that we have seen and experienced and wondered about.  I think Emma enjoyed reading something that so paralleled her experiences here.

I am so not a  tourist.  I almost feel guilty that I/we have not gone out and done the touristy things.  We just have been living life, but I feel we could be discovering so much more.  I hope all of that will come.  I guess when you are just visiting for a short period of time, you have to cram everything into a few weeks.
Since we are living here, there is no pressure to do it all now.  I might be learning to drive in this crazy town next week.... I will keep you posted!

The sign that greeted us as we walked into the local park.  I don't need chinese to read this, probably not a lost pet.

This is the reflexology sign in the park.  It shows all the points on the foot and what part of the body it refers to.  Lily is standing on the path in the photo below, she wouldn't walk it barefoot for the camera.

This is the local exercise equipment at all the parks.  I seem to recall a 1980's infomercial with a similar product.

Icky, huge millipedes....about as thick as a pencil.

See the "doughnut" sticks?  Look good, don't they?

Yummy Italian food!

Pasta with bacon.

Strange restaurant entrance, I have never seen it open.

Dog, no leash, just hanging out on the newspaper.  He could care less that I walk by, no running into the street.  I think the newspaper was laid down because it was raining.

Corner motorcycle/scooter repair shop

Creepy sign.

Cute skirts sold in front of the butchers, makes sense to me.

Nice parking job.  There isn't even an inch on either side of the truck.