Mohawk Baby!!

Evie's hair is growing!! Strangers here always refer to her as her big sister's 'little brother' and I find it rather annoying. And when I say, little sister, they say - but she has no hair?! (Which begs the question, why am I having this conversation with you at all stranger person???)

In the last couple of weeks her hair has grown! And it's lovely and soft and smells like baby. She even has one golden strand, just one, at the back of her head. So cute.

The B&B

Part of going with the local tour guide, our accommodation was booked for us. The B&B we stayed at was really lovely and everything we could have asked for. The rooms were excellent. I have noticed that for whatever reason, here in Taiwan they like to give B&B rooms a theme. We had a teddy bear themed room. Which sounds awful but it was actually done very well and was great for the girls as well. In the mornings we were treated to a lovely breakfast in the glass sun room which looked out to the gorgeous view of the surrounding mountains. If Tilly had had it her way, she would have stayed right here at the B&B for the whole three days searching the garden for bits and pieces. The fields either side of it are small crops of various vegetables tended to by old grandma's and grandpa's who are growing just for their own use.

Day Two ~ Part One

A stony beach. Coming from Australia I used to always scoff at the idea of pebble beaches and wondered how could they even be described as beaches? I mean, the Australian coastline is second to none, in my humble opinion..... But this was beautiful and changed my mind about pebble beaches forever. The stones were incredible. The wind was blowing a gale and it was cool, windy, salty and fresh. A very beautiful place. And we made our first pebble castle!! Plus, no sand in your bottom (and everywhere else) at the end of the day. What's not to love?!

I could have stayed here all day. There were countless formations to find in the stones. The eastern coast of Taiwan is stunning. The mountains come right to the sea. It's really so beautiful.

Hua Lian Day One

Hua Lian coastline and Taroko Gorge ~ Beautiful. Not long after mum and dad arrived in Taipei we took the train down to Hua Lian and stayed three days doing a wonderful tour of the area. Our personal local tour guide David was excellent. The first two photos here show us standing at the point where two huge tectonic plates meet, the Euro-Asian and the Northern Phillipine tectonic plates. We were standing on the Philipine one. Steve was a few meters away on the Euro-Asian one! Hence the east is prone to earthquakes, the rumbles of which we feel in Taipei on the odd occasion. What we don't have a good photo of, though you can get a sense of it in the second shot, is the highway and the mountains. The mountains and sea and highway meet so closely. The other shots are of Taroko. I actually found driving through there a little unnerving. We were getting to some pretty high points and some pretty narrow roads. Though it would seem we didn't get so many photos of that.

A new concept

Today I sent Tilly off on her first adventure out of the school grounds with the school and without mummy. It wasn't without tears (from both mummy and Tilly). The Science Museum! Wee Tilly on a great big bus. Fortunately her darling teacher had her hand the whole way and was her hand holding partner for the rest of the day. I've been thinking a lot about Tilly's transition into school and how it is affecting her and what is going on in her brain. Yesterday we had another adventure. We went to BSF and all the way there we were in the midst of something special, we came across bridges and rivers and oceans with all manner of sea creatures and forests with lions, watch out for the lion poo!! (why can't people pick up their dog poo..... or lion poo as Tilly called it). We had energy pills to help us on our speedy way home (peanut M&M's), a different colour representing a different element, earth, water, fire, sun - whatever came into her head.... We boarded the magic flying train at the magic Castle (subway station...) She had a wonderful time creating her own imagery. But did it make time to be seperated from mummy at BSF class any easier?? No....

We spoke all week about going to the science museum and how fun it would be and her new friend would be there with her and the teacher too. And about the big bus that would transport her to her destination. But did it make the time to be seperated from mummy when it was time to board the bus any easier?? No...... of course not. I don't know why I thought it would.

BSF class is in English and school is in Chinese. BSF is familiar and old hat. School, not as much. She gets to take off Wednesday from school to come to BSF with mummy and then gets to play with her good friend after BSF for the afternoon. BSF by the way is Bible Study Fellowship, we are doing the Book of Acts and the kids learn it too. They have a team of dedicated volunteer teachers who love and teach the kids while the mums learn a thing or too.

All these worries about leaving mummy and such have only reared their head so dramatically since she started Kindi. I think she likes kindi and her new little group of friends. She'd love it better were I there with her. She told me she sits at the front with teacher. I've seen that, she sits looking on to the kids, beside the teacher. And I said, that's because you cling to mummy when I need to leave and teacher has to bring you back with her. If you didn't cling you wouldn't need to sit with her. To which she replied, "But I love her! I want to sit up there with her.." Ho hum...

This morning I came across a new concept. Third culture kids. I'm not sure yet if that describes my children. But it's definitely a part of their lives. Living in two cultures, speaking two languages, (possibly three if they start learning Taiwanese. Afterall it's their father's mother tongue and their best way of communicating with grandma.) Being the different one. But yet at the same time expected to be the same, because they are half and half.

I was often asked what language I would talk to the children in or how we would approach the whole bi-lingual thing. I never worried about it. English for me, Chinese for Daddy. Which is pretty much how it goes. I get supremely annoyed when Taiwanese say to me, why do you bother speaking in English..... I've even seen a British woman on a Taiwanese chat show say her kids couldn't communicate with her parents very well when they went back for visits in England and how there was a cultural divide. I couldn't believe that one. But now the whole bi-lingual thing has hit me between the eyes as I see my little 'loves to communicate' daugther is held back because she feels she can't express herself fully in that language. But maybe that is just something to do with her personality. Maybe she just would rather be with mum. But I see what a good time she has had in class and how she talks about it when she comes home... So I would rather a few tears and a good time be had, than missing out on it at all.

I came across this blog today. Through another woman who posted it on her blog. I enjoyed the entry on Bi-lingualism and emotional compentency. It's an interesting read. The whole blog is in fact. So back to what language should I speak to the kids in? For me now, both. Tilly has even started asking me now to translate so she knows how to say both ways. Certainly the whole bi-lingual thing is not as cut and dry as I once proclaimed it to be. Or is it not even worth the fuss about? I'm not prone to fussing.....