Papa-time

These past two weeks Judge has gone out with just Leona a few times and once with both of the girls so I could get some much needed sleep. They always have the time of their lives together. A few glimpses stolen from his phone:

[Taking Totoro for a ride]

 

[Letting Totoro ride 'scooter-style' like she does with her Papa]

 

[Test-driving the double-seater bike-strolleresque things...with Totoro]

 

[Leona = Awesomest big sister Eliana could ever ask for]

[Heavy rains don't stop a Norwegian with heavy rain gear]

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Mobility and investigation

Eliana has a really strong ability to focus on what she's doing for relatively long periods of time, and is getting really good at moving around the floor - not scooting yet, but swivelling and rolling.

The other day she rolled back and forth, playing --investigating-- with different toys for a total of about 20 minutes.

I know for most of you this clip is more of a fast-forward-through-it-with-tiny-stops-here-and-there (or skip all together) kind of clip, but for a few (one at least) that are fascinated by babies investigating, this is a good one, in my non-biased opinion of course, as you can really see the cogs turning.

At the start of the clip she is playing with a little rattle that she had been banging on the tiled floor and mat (getting the different sounds) for about 7 minutes - I have the last 15 sec or so, before she moves on to a cloth book I made for Leona when she was about this age...Leona had zero interest in it though, so for me it is especially fun seeing someone be so into it.

She also plays another favorite game of hers with her pacifier, which is grab, mouth, toss to hopefully a difficult distance, then stretch and reach and try to grab again.

At the end I go to pick her up, but her hand had bumped into a 3M post-it dispenser and it caught her interest for another three min or so.

She has also started to do the baby-sign we use for nurse (open and close hand), very conciously and intently, staring at her hand when she does it...but I know there is no link yet for her between the sign and nursing ... just another developmental interest she's into right now.

Because of this, though, I dreamt last night that she was able to talk, where she said sit and stand, and "Can I use a spoon?" I was shocked to say the least, as she is, after all, only 5.5 months old ;)



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toscakake

I have been on a toscakake baking binge lately, ever since my mom made it for a small family gathering in Innvik this summer and Judge fell in love.

This cake is deliciously simple to make as well as eat, and though a regular affair in Norway and Sweden (there's a bit of uncertainty as to in which of those countries this cake originated...and to be honest it doesn't much matter now does it), it has never been seen, eaten or heard of here in Taiwan.

My baking equipment here isn't quite up to par when compared to what I had to play with in Norway, but that doesn't stop this cake-making monster. It also helps that the recipe is very forgiving.

The original recipe calls for a schwackload of sugar, which I have conveniently reduced. I'm not quite sure where my mom copied the recipe from, so I cannot pay homage to the originator. But I can include a picture of the hand-written-down recipe at least:

In English we get the following (with added explanations by me):

Cake base:

• 2 eggs
• 200 ml sugar (I use about 75 ml light brown sugar)
• 50 g butter
• 100 ml milk
• 200 ml flour
• 2 tsp baking powder (I know this seems like a lot, but I think it may be necessary due to the melted butter...? I'm no baking expert, so this is something I will be looking into and experimenting with)

Topping:

• 100 g chopped almonds (I use about 300 ml whole, then chop them)
• 100 g butter
• 100 g sugar (I use about 65 ml light brown sugar)
• 1 Tbsp flour
• 2 Tbsp milk

Instructions:

1. Beat eggs and sugar into an eggnog consistency, about 8-10 min or until it changes to a lighter color and takes about 1 sec to drip off the beater when you raise it out of the mix
2. Melt the butter and then add the milk to the pot
3. Pour the butter and milk mix into the 'eggnog' and mix gently (or pour it in a slow stream while you still have the beater going)
4. Gently sift and stir in the flour and baking powder
5. Pour into 8" round cake pan, where the bottom has been buttered and dusted with flour
6. Place in pre-heated oven (170 degrees C) and bake for 30-40 min, until the cake springs back when you gently press down and the cake has begun to release itself from the sides of the pan

While the cake is baking:

1. Place all the topping ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a boil so you can mix it good
2. Pour mixture over the cake and distribute evenly, then place back into oven and bake for an additional 20 min. or until the top layer is browned (do not over-bake...and do not burn...obviously)

Brew up a nice cup of tea or coffee and enjoy (after it has cooled a bit and you have removed it from the pan)!

This cake is quite moist (thanks to the 'eggnog' step as well as the masses of butter), and the moistness holds nicely even if you freeze it and thaw it later, as long as you wrap it in plastic.

AND it tastes good warm and cold.

I've had to make some adjustments as my oven is a small portable one, and my cake pans are actually bread pans. However, there are two sets of 6-cup muffin tins as well as two round spring-form cake pans in the mail (yay!), and so I will have to make the cake a few more times to find the best baking times using the muffin tins as well as the cake pans.

Also, our egg-beater hand-held mixer contraption just arrived in the mail today, so I have yet to try actually beating the eggs and sugar to an eggnog consistency. Up until now I have just used a hand-wisk and beat it for 2-3 minutes...it still comes out nice.

My mother-in-law is so excited about this cake she wants to make it for Chinese New Year presents for her friends. It's that good.



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KTV

People here love KTV (aka karaoke). Or perhaps I should say they live it.

I think I have previously mentioned the home that is located between us and grandma's place, that we pass every day and that often has a group of KTV'ers in their 50's I think, singing loudly and unabashedly - and off keyedly in most cases - into the mic, with big sliding mosquito-netted doors not buffering the sound out towards the street at all. I will try and inconspicuously get a photo and video of it one of these days.

Then there are the park areas that have the resident KTV-tent set up, along with tea and snack vendors scattered about.

The park by the Confucius temple in Hsinchu is no exception. At the outskirt of the park we have this tent. Usually it has 5-7 people in it, but this time it was just this one guy (and the entrepreneur):

At the end you can also glimps one of the tea-brewer's set-ups.



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more gardens

As an encore to the park-garden post, here are two bigger residential garden areas in our neighborhood (other people have mini-gardens outside their homes, in buckets and Styrofoam 'boxes' practically on the alleys and lanes).

The first one is really close to our house, in an empty lot enclosed by buildings on all sides:

[Assumption: the various lots are tended by different residents and not by the owner of the lot itself] 

 

The second is right by the train station:



[Five plots more likely put there for little flower/shrub gardens, but residents have put them to much better use] 

And the thriftiness doesn't stop there - check out the protective material used by this guy - other people's land/house 'For sale' signs snagged from wherever they had been hung up around the area, and as with the other plots, other general recyclables:

There is seriously so much to love about all of this! In terms of 'culture me this' I mean, not in terms of the pollution that is being absorbed into the food (unavoidable due to location location location - seriously dirty looking gardens when you get up close and personal)~~ 

 

 

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a little train excursion

We live a 10 min walk from the nearest train station on a "side-line" that goes from the main line in to the mountains, through our town. Our destination was, well, the train ride itself actually. For NT38 each (us adults) - a bit more than US$1, we got ourselves a round-trip to the last stop on the line, a tourist destination village at the mouth of the mountains - 30 min ride each way.

 

One thing I really like about Taiwanese local (slow) trains is the round-circle in the middle of them, as it is oh-so Chinese:

[Empty train at one of the stops at a tiny village on the way, as it was this train's end-stop ... we were waiting for the train that would take us onward and the conductor let us hang out here]

[and so hang out we did...literally]

[The train station]

 

 

 

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park gardens

You are perhaps thinking flowers and nice bushes when I mention park gardens, but in Taiwan there is a trend of people in the neighborhood using their local park areas as their own little garden lots, as in they grow their own vegetables there. No joke.

Previously we have come across people using the separator (that originally had bushes and grass) that goes down the middle of the road to grow their vegetables in a residential area. Today we happened upon this set-up:

[Tending to their vegetables] 

[Note the wall...]

[They removed a section of the bushes on the wall separating the park from the side-walk to plant cabbage and other stuffs. Here you can also see more of the park-area.]

[Looks like it is for own consumption, as they seem to not be using pecticides]

It's not technically allowed, but it seems no-one really minds.

 Yet another reason I love Taiwan.



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ants in her pants

Last Thursday we went up to Taipei/Jilung to stay at Judge's sister's for three days so the kids could play and we could hang out.

Day one, we first went and did Eliana's final citizenship application (yay! all done and done), and then met up with Cecilia and her two kids (Owen, almost 4yo, and Zoe, 1y8m) at National Taiwan University because they have awesome lawns and ponds and gazebos and pathways and rocks and sticks and birds and all that goodness.

While at this one gazebo, I saw Leona and Owen pointing to an area and discussing ants, and I thought it was just another normal affair. Suddenly Judge rushes over and snatches a then sitting Leona up. She had sat herself down smack dab in the middle of an ant moving frenzie, and within seconds she had hundreds (I seriously believe they were in the hundreds) of ants crawling all over her lap, legs and up her front and back. She was not disconcerted by it at all, just interested. After brushing all the ants off her, we told her we didn't think it was a good idea to sit down and let them crawl onto her - though they didn't seem the biting kind, it could still be really uncomfortable if they got inside her clothes and all that jazz.

After a couple more minutes where we watched the wave of the ants moving their home (I believe they must have been moving due to some kind of disaster, since it was at a super frantic pace and a good portion of them were carrying little white things...babies? Eggs? Do ants lay eggs? ) they were back to a regular ant here and there kind of deal.

I love that she was curious enough to just sit herself down in the middle of it.

[Leona sitting back down where she had sat when the frenzied wave was right there...now moved a ways further down and on the side rather the top too].

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Eliana's got herself a sharpie

Last night I felt a tiny little point coming out of Eliana's lower front left part of her gums. That's right folks. She's got herself the peekings-out of a little pearly white!

That's at 5 months and 1 day...about 10 months earlier than Leona's first tooth. Of course this is as exciting as all developments and milestones happen, not dependent on timing of these milestones. But, I'm not sure I am actually super happy about this per say - that will depend on if she starts biting while nursing or not ;)

She's become an excellent roller, both from back to stomach and stomach to back, and can manuver herself around the floor or bed pretty well.

She consistently wakes up with a dry diaper in the morning (after peeing once or twice during the night in a bucket scoop aka make-shift potty), and usually just needs a couple changes of lightly loaded diapers during the day (most often because I am busy with other things, or she's with someone else).

She is still generally a super smiley and happy baby...especially towards me. She's started to be wary of strangers, though, and looks for me when others hold her way more than she used to.

At night after her bath Leona and I bath and shower, respectively, and I consistently come out to a crying or screaming little Eliana, who often calms down by just some mama hugs (or if not then definitely with nursing, even if she nursed right before I took a shower). Thank goodness Judge takes it with a smile.

She has the best facial expressions ever.

[Checking out my phone]

[Looking at me]

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Some sweet vocab and more current Leona gems

Leona's vocab continues to skyrocket, while a huge majority of it is Mandarin, there's of course also a lot of English and Norwegian. I need to get better at taking notes at the time of them being said so I don't forget them when I make these lists, but here are some great current gems:

• Awoloo - underwear
• Na fo you (sounds like 'not for you') - love you
• Tåtkj (or 'totch' in English) - stå (Norwegian for stand)...but also used for English's 'stand' as well
• Went from saying Ana (and Noona) to Liana (and Leona) to Eliana (and Aleona - how much do you love that?), but sometimes still also Noona and Ana
• She loves going to the elementary school and play on the swings...walking past during school hours she also loves to peek in on the kids, wishing she was in there playing as well

•  She loves to help push Eliana in the stroller:

• Still loves to run, run, run, throw leaves and rocks, collect rocks, slide, swing and play with dirt/sand - and still loves her Totoro

• She has a current favorite pair of shoes (she changes favorites every so often) - the pink and gray one below.  When Judge was in China, we lost one on the way home one afternoon (she always takes her shoes off when playing), and didn't find it when we re-traced our steps later that same afternoon. Instead of wearing other shoes, she wore the one left along with her last favorite ones - her boots. Two days later, after Judge came home, I was first heading home with Eliana after dinner at grandma's, and lo-and-behold there the shoe was sitting nice and squared on the side of the road, waiting for us two blocks from the house. Next morning I see Leona again with one boot and that shoe - turns out Judge lost the other shoe on the walk home 10 min after I found the missing one. But again, after passing a spot about 15 meters from where the other shoe was found a couple times the next day - with nothing there, on the third pass-by the shoe magically was there waiting for us also. So now she is a two-shoer again.

• I came into the playroom the other day and found this set up - we haven't done rainbows or anything, but the cups were stacked in order, so I guess she just set them out relatively in a row, and then put matching balls in the applicable bowls :)

• She's started loving to pretend-cook, as well as of course still a big fan of helping me bake and make waffles

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Leona's new friend, Totoro



Leona's huge into Totoro. She absolutely loves the song (her first encounter with Totoro was on youtube listening to the song), has watched the movie twice (in several sittings), and has the book with color photos (her auntie bought it for her). Because she loves it so much I figured I should make her one - the middle-sized one (blue with three boomerangs on its stomach).

 

I finished it right before her bedtime, and her reaction as this:

She fell asleep still hugging him.

Next day she said she wanted to carry him in the Manduca (the baby carrier I have), but a small one, so I said I would make her one, and off we went to buy the material. Totoro came with us, of course.

[Resting on a bench.]

 

[Picking up leaves to throw down onto the river bank.]

[Confidently wandering off ahead of me.]

[Totoro getting to sit on the stroller - had to be strapped in as per Leona's instructions -

while Leona went and played on the playground.]

 

After her nap when we got home I made the mai-tai styled carrier for her (the cloth pattern is traditional Hakka), and so she got to 'wear' Totoro over to great grandma's house for dinner. When we got there she didn't want to take him off, so we moved him onto her back so she could still eat.

 

 

[OK, so he's a bit too big...]

When she was finished eating she requested he get moved back to her front:

 

He really is way too big for her to be carrying in the mai-tai, so today I made a smaller one. She was happy as a clam (and is now sleeping with both of them):

 

 

 

 

 

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scooter rider

Riding a scooter isn't exactly the safest thing to do in Taiwan (duh). However, as it is pretty much the most common form of transportation, you can see a huge variety of different scenarios on the roads, from families of four, to a parent or grandparent picking three kids up from school - with their backpacks hooked onto the mirrors so there's enough space to sit, to people transporting the most random things, to infants or toddlers strapped onto the driver's back in a traditional carrier or sitting in a stool wedged between the seat and the front of the scooter, and more.

Usually anyone under the age of 12 or even 15 are helmetless, especially toddlers and infants as no helmets fit such small heads (that we have found at least).

Anyhow, I am principally against our girls going on the scooter, as it is not worth the risk, but last week or so we asked Leona if she wanted to ride the scooter just a little bit down the alley we live on. She declined.

Then today Judge was going to head out to buy some stuff for lunch, driving on smaller roads around town, and asked if Leona wanted to come with him and ride the scooter. Again, she declined, saying she was scared, but that she wanted to walk (not an option this time). Suddenly we realized she misunderstood, thinking she had to ride the scooter by herself. Once she found out that Judge would be driving and she would just be going along for the ride, she was excited to head out.

I was putting Eliana down for her nap when they left and didn't get to see them off, so once Eliana was asleep I headed outside to wait for them to come back...with the camera. After a few minutes I saw this:

 

He had (smart-thinkingly) had her wear her bicycle helmet, and had a little plastic stool that she could rest her feet on so that she could sit on the seat in front of him.

She had looooved it.

It won't become a frequent event, but Judge mentioned to me tonight that no matter how careful one is, he knows it is still dangerous, but that it felt really wonderful for him to be able to share this experience with her. It is such an ingrained part of the culture - and is a part of it that we both love so much.


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test-taker

I got my driver's licence 17, yes SEVENTEEN, years ago (!).

I mean, I have been 'driving' since I was much younger than that. I do not quite remember how old I was the first time I actually sat behind the wheel ... and drove I mean ... but back in the day when I was 13 and living a year on Maui again, my dad would let me drive down the long bumpy road to our house in Huelo. It was a dirt road and so full of pot holes I couldn't even drive fast enough to switch to second gear (as far as I remember), but I was driving none the less.

When in high school at Maxwell, me and two of my good friends went and took the written test together, after which I took all of three driving lessons - around Shawnigan Lake (so one stop-sign in the village and that was pretty much it), before taking the actual driving test in Duncan - the first time I ever drove in town.

I barely passed, just a couple demerits short of failing. An example of a mistake was I saw a pedestrian wanting to cross the street that I was going to turn onto, and I stopped before turning, waving him across. He hesitated for a good while before crossing...and it wasn't until I took the turn that I realized he had the red hand and I had a green light. Not sure if I actually got dinged for this, but still. Another mistake was the tester told me to turn left at the next intersection, and then as I failed to move into the left-hand lane (as it was a one-way street...not sure I had noticed that), he told me to never mind, just keep going straight.

Anyhow, my licence expired a couple years after I moved to Taiwan (so about 6 years ago), and so I have been without a car driver's licence since then.

Now that we have kids though, I have left the scooter life behind me for a while ... for the most part ... for communal travelling at least, which is the majority of the travelling I do, and so in order to be able to head out somewhere just me and them (or help with the driving if it is the four of us), I have purchased myself a Taiwanese driver's licence.

"Purchased", you ask?

In a sense, yes, as I have paid for the driving school so that I can pass the test. And the reason I was willing to fork over the 'big' bucks for the classes is the driving test is administered on a special off-road course, with nine different stations you have to make it through:

- the back-into-the-parking-space
- the s-road (drive-forward-and-back-up)
- the parallel parking
- the stop-at-the-railroad-crossing
- the stop-and-start-on-a-hill-without-sliding-back-at-all-or stalling
- the stop-if-it-is-a-red-light traffic light
- the switch-up-to-second-then-third-gear-on-this-short-straight-away
- the stop-for-the-pedestrian-crossing
- the stop-the-car-and-get-out-because-you're-done

I could have just tried to make it on my own, but I think it would be near impossible to make it through without failing as it is one shot for each station, and if you hit the outlines of the parking spots or road you get 16-32 demerits. The s-curved road part is especially hard, as it is quite narrow.

They basically give you a cheat-sheet-method for the entire course.

For example - backing into the parking space: back up until the 'pole' part of the car separating the front and back door windows lines up with that pole outside, then crank the steering wheel all the way to the right and keep an eye on the front right corner of the parking spot in the right door's mirror, then continue backing up until you see the back left corner of the parking space in your left rear-view mirror, then straighten the steering wheel out and continue backing up until the back-line of the parking spot lines up with the handle of the back door.

Each of the 'stations' has this detailed a step-by-step, so that the students are almost guaranteed to pass (as long as they practice enough).

You can choose to take the test on an automatic car or a stick shift...but if you take it on an automatic you are not allowed to drive stick (!).

You have theory classes you have to take (that I skipped and just signed for when I came in to practice driving), as well as practice hours - an hour a day, five days a week, for about 5 weeks or so, where the instructor sits with you some of the time. I went approximately every other day, and for the last few weeks just for about half an hour or so (three or four runs through the course without making an error). You also get three hours of road-driving, which I just did one of. As the DMV will check their records, I was asked to sign that I had come in on all days that I had actually skipped.

Though driving is like riding a bike (you don't forget how to do it) I actually did learn a couple tricks, all for the start-on-a-hill (I used to be a pro on Maui, driving out of Ho'okipa, but never actually learned how to do it from an instructor with official how-to). My instructor had me try two different methods where you don't use the hand break, just for kicks - spicing up his day. One is where you work the break and gas pedals at the same time with one foot, and the other is to just switch my foot from the break to the gas really fast (so the food is never touching both pedals at the same time), while also working the clutch just right. Easy peasy!

Anyhow, the written test is on the computer, so I also did practice tests the last few weeks, before practicing my driving (I took the test in English). I have to say many of the practice questions are hilarious. Some examples.

In any event, I am now the proud owner of a car license here in Taiwan. Woop.


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example practice test questions

Some of the many gems in the English practice booklet for the written part of the driver's test. Note all spelling and punctuation is replicated as shown in booklet:

Knowing human lives are the top priority for drivers, we have to respect the pedestrians whenever we are on the road. Therefore, we have to yield to the elderly, children, and the disabled. T/F   (...but if you're not elderly, a child or disabled you are free game for drivers...?)

Yield and tolerance are the best manifestation of driving morals. T/F

We check our cars thoroughly before we drive. We make sure our cars are in perfect condition. We always watch for pedestrians and other vehicles. That's how we demonstrate our morals. T/F

It is immoral to tab the horn and make noise without second thought. T/F

I saw a vehicle in front overturned. No one helped him. I'm running late. Although I see people injured and yelling for help, I just cannot give them a hand. T/F

The car behind us overtook us just to avoid dusts. I hate dusts, too. That's why I have to overtake the front cars. T/F

I've been driving for many years. I am a skillful driver. That's why I always chat with the others and sing when I drive. That's how I demonstrate my skills and has nothing to do with safety at all. T/F

I've been driving for a long time. I know how danger speeding-up is. Even if passengers ask me to speed up, I just cannot promise them. Also, I will tell them how terrible it is. T/F

When you drive, you are required don't rush any minute and any second; and are required don't neglect any minute and any second. T/F

Those who are mentally retarded, blind, and epilepsy disorder are prohibited from taking driver's license test. T/F

Those who report accident-causing drivers, assist the injured, and drive with outstanding records are eligible for the awards granted by the government. T/F

If drivers find the vehicles on the next lane have turned on direction lights, they are required to speed up in order not to be overtaken. T/F

If drivers find the water temperature meter pointing higher than the ceiling, they must pull the vehicles to the roadsides, pull the manual brake, turn off the engine immediately, and then open the water tank to check the water level. T/F

You must not keep the unnecessary objects in the vehicles. Thus, you can reduce weights for your vehicles, save fuel, save money and, most importantly, protect the environment. T/F

Vehicles are provided with rear mirror and interior mirror: (1) to help drivers expand their visions and keep up with the road situation behind their vehicles, (2) to facilitate drivers using cosmetics, (3) as decorations.

If all tires' pressures are uneven, that is likely to cause: (1) engine knocking, (2) biased driving, (3) nothing.

Which of the following is the most important for drivers: (1) respecting human's lives, (2) speeding up if drivers are in a hurry, (3) watching the scenery all the way to the destination.

Drivers have to abide by laws, because: (1) they don't want to be penalized, (2) they abide by laws for their responsibilities, honors, as well as the safety for themselves and the others, (3) they are under supervision.

If drivers are intending to maintain an orderly traffic for the safety of the entire society and for the happiness of their families, they are required to: (1) abide by driving morals and disciplines, (2) improve their driving skills, (3) not smoke and not drink, either.

When driving in a long tunnel, drivers throw objects, cigarette or flammable items out of the vehicles: (1) is an extremely immoral and dangerous conduct, (2) is not a problem as long as drivers are happy to do that, (3) is the best way to keep their vehicles clean.


I love Taiwan.


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playmates

Leona has never had any 'fixed' friends. Kind of embarrassing to admit it actually, feel like it sounds like we have neglected her in some important way.

However, here in Taiwan we walk to the elementary school every afternoon. There all the (few) kids that don't go to cram school hang out and play after school, or have their baseball practice, and many grandparents bring their non-schoolaged grandchildren to play as well (and then there are the excersisers that walk/run around the track).

After having gone there daily for the past month and a half, she has now built herself a little network of friends - interestingly enough not kids her own age but rather elementary school kids. I think the kids both like Leona, as well as hanging out and playing and talking with Judge.

There is one girl, a 3rd grader called 巧柔 (Qiao-Rou), that takes especially good care of her (sorry for crap quality of pictures ... haven't bought my new smart-phone yet):

[The girl hanging upside down]

 

 

What a sweetheart.

 

 

 

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