On Sunday June 7 Samuel left the apartment by about 8am to go early and help set up the AV equipment at the church's rented space. He's been learning the sound board. Evie took this picture of him behind her and her friends.
I was having a tougher morning but seeing Flora and the baby for the first time cheered me up.
We hung around afterwards b/c Wesley whispered to us that they were going to surprise pastor Nanson for his birthday that day. Terry kept trying to keep Nanson engaged in conversation so they could get the cake ready.
It took a while but worked out in the end. He had no idea. So that was fun.
Evie had gone out w friends to the hamburger food truck near church. The boys and I went home for a late lunch. Not long afterwards the boys met up w Evie and her friends for ice cream at Family Mart and then board games at Eleanor's house.
Terry and I went on a short walk to check out the little pastry stand that he and Samuel had gone by after their run the previous day. We got some Portuguese egg tarts (the same kind Macau introduced us to) and a cinnamon roll. We walked a little and then it started absolutely pouring. It has been like that every day since the previous Thursday evening.
Umbrellas up. We're being well-trained to bring umbrellas everywhere.
As we walked between these two buildings, I saw a pretty photo-op and told Terry to take my picture. It turned out great! I made it my Facebook profile pic.
We waited inside our building for it to stop...but it didn't. We walked across the street anyway to get some boba. My pants were soaked by the time I made it back home.
Evie and her crew walking from Family Mart to Eleanor's.
This was all of them inside Family Mart. They're all homeschooled girls. You can see how Samuel and Ezra are the only boys (though Eleanor and Cora do have two younger brothers). We're thankful for this group but that's why my prayer request is for more relationships for the boys.
The following day, Monday, June 8, brought more pouring rain. That morning Samuel had a counseling appointment and then Terry and I had a Mandarin lesson. The kids are still doing school in the mornings (or afternoons if the mornings are full). Terry was gone for the afternoon, first working at Starbucks and then the church staff meeting. I made a dinner menu for the week and was hoping to go to the store... but heavy rain happened.
It didn't really stop, but it lightened. So I brought Samuel with me to the closer, smaller store for a few supplies.
I made fried chicken for the first time that night. I have always used corn flakes and parmesan cheese. I hadn't seen corn flakes until recently, so I scooped them up. Dinner was delicious.
I had really been struggling on Sunday and the week before, wrestling with God, trying to find my peace again. On Monday, while it was raining, I sat down to pray and journal and ended up doing a google search. I found this counselor that really helped me. She was really speaking to me and I listened to a bunch of her videos on YouTube.
Tuesday was a full day, still full of rain. I biked, in the sprinkling rain, over to a new friend's apartment with Lillian. Lillian had been helping Rosalyn, a new mom, move, and asked if I could help organize her kitchen. I was totally overwhelmed at first, but as we opened each box and started grouping items, we got it figured out. We overcame! I told Lillian I was ready to quit in the beginning, and she said she couldn't tell. I bet Terry would've been able to tell, and vice versa. We know our spouses so well, don't we?
After a quick lunch that I made with only the leftovers in my fridge (I was rather proud), I had coffee with another new friend from church and the Friday English bible study, Mpho from Eswatini/South Africa. The Daily Collector coffee shop is one of the businesses on the ground floor of our building, so it's very close. We had a lovely time. It was good for me to get out with friends... like usual.
Afterwards I was still super motivated, probably b/c I didn't have to make dinner that night, and I therefore worked out in our basement's gym. The weights only go up to 20 pounds and are pretty old and rusty... and the air conditioning stinks (it was 85 degrees in there and only cools to like 80), but it's all sufficient. Evie didn't want to run in the rain so she invited Anna to come over. They did an upper body FASTer Way workout. I did it the following day. The girls were so very sore.
Samuel even came down to run. Perhaps he shouldn't have b/c he had developed a cough the previous day and this made it worse. It wasn't very pronounced yet, so I don't think I had noticed yet.
This is the view of the gym from the back.
That evening, Terry went to Taipei for his conversation English class. He really enjoys it. I'll go with him next week since we're going away to Taipei for our anniversary. The kids and I enjoy these nights b/c they're like youth group nights at home - pizza for dinner and popcorn and a movie. This night Evie chose Serendipity. She used it for one of her final assignments in her Fiction Writing course. It was a decent movie.
Porky was being rather adorable.
That night Ben sent us a photo of him and Noah from Noah's first day training for his new IT internship. Sounds like he'll go in on Tuesday and Friday mornings.
Tuesday nights are always so late (Terry gets home just before 11pm) that I didn't sleep that well. I also woke up with a sore throat. Samuel was coughing more, but not feeling sick, oddly enough. So I assumed I was getting Samuel's cold. I felt so worn out all day, but just kept trucking.
On Wednesday the kids and I got up to go to the Morrison library while Terry stayed home to work on whatever. The school opens the library for a few interspersed days during the summer. The kids were very much looking forward to it b/c of boredom. It was completely pouring again, so Terry mercifully ordered us an Uber to the school.
After we had found a considerable pile of books (19), our kids started playing some games with the other kids. They started with Unstable Unicorns and it ended with everyone feeling rather unstable, per usual.
Said piles of books.
The boys played some chess, which was good. That's Simon, one of Eleanor's brothers. He's 13, so just right for Ezra.
Next they played an ever increasingly large game of Bananagrams. I helped identify what was and wasn't appropriate words and spellings. Eleanor's mom was playing a different game with another table of kids. I mostly was reading Tolkien's Unfinished Tales.
The boys and I biked back through mist while Evie and three sisters walked to "7" (7-11) for "lunch," otherwise known as snack time.
Since it wasn't raining hard, I turned right back around and headed to the big Carrefour. I met Terry returning from his run (and talking to Noah). He was dripping from the rain, but at least he wasn't overly hot as usual.
We both noticed how these raised beds were basically overflowing with water from the rain.
When I returned and Terry was cleaned up, I asked him to walk w me to the store Rosalyn had told me about after I discovered pinto beans in one of her boxes. Oh joy! We've been eating black soybeans or very small red beans whenever I need beans (usually used for dessert here!). I was happy to buy some beefier beans for my meal of white chicken chili that evening. B/c the beans were pinto and not Great Northern, it was more like "brown" chicken chili, but still good. Also, I have never seen green chilies here. Whenever I make a new-to-Taiwan-meal from home, I always give the warning that it will taste different b/c I can't find the same ingredients here. Evie said this chili was better than at home.
We woke up Thursday to a new crane right behind our building. We didn't know what they were doing, but it was so close to our windows that it was kind of freaky. The kids biked through sprinkles back to the school for the weekly round of soccer. It was sunny and hot last week but raining this week. We thought they wouldn't play soccer b/c of rain and would instead play basketball in the covered gym area. B/c of his cough, I told Samuel to play basketball and just not push it. Well, instead he ran around in the rain playing soccer! Not great.
I didn't sleep very well again and we had Mandarin that morning. My brain was not working well. I had taken some colloidal silver the days before and maybe it helped, b/c the sore throat was gone. However, I just wanted to snuggle in my bed with coffee. So I asked Terry to walk w/ me to what I thought was a closer coffee shop to get the mocha I liked from there. He's nice like that. It ended up being further than I felt ready to walk, but we did it. The shop is in the shape of a circle and has these big curved windows. It's fun, but not comfortable to sit in, since it only has benches.
At home over lunch we talked to Noah and heard about his job/s!
Terry had been cutting up two or three mangoes for us everyday and we ate them for dessert. These mangoes are life-changingly amazing and delicious. So when he cuts the pit out he eats the flesh off that he can't cut with his knife. He looked like Gollum with "his precious." I don't even judge him for it, though, b/c this is the appropriate behavior for these mangoes.
The dark, dreary days were really getting to me. I took this picture at 2:45 in the afternoon, when there should be sun streaming into our apartment. But it had been raining for a week straight!! I was so sick of it!
The night before, a pan had knocked a glass off the counter and shattered on the floor. This is like the third glass we've broken, but this time I stepped on it and bled a puddle onto the floor. On Thursday afternoon, I broke the top of my glass blender and cut my finger. What is happening?!?! I made Evie help me finish dinner.
I was making dinner early so we (Eva, Evie, Samuel) could go to a 5pm movie. Evie and I made Swedish meatballs while Terry and the boys played Settlers with Justin, Terry's English student. They also did a short lesson.
We finished just in time and walked into the mist to sit on another wet bike seat to go the theater in the mall to watch the new Michael Jackson movie. From outside we could see what that huge crane was doing - disassembling the yellow scaffolding or elevator thing. So tall.
I always get nervous to buy things here b/c I don't know how much English people will have. Most have more than I expect. I can handle the grocery store but everywhere else causes me a little anxiety. At first we couldn't find the theater and Evie wanted to ask people for directions. But how would we understand the Chinese directions? We did find it on our own and the movie clerk had enough English that I only had to use Google Translate once. We got our "large" popcorn (haha, that's not an American large) and sat in approximately the right seats since there was only like six other people in the theater. I had no idea what to expect, but the movie was great! It was truly heart-warming and so fun. They included full-length songs. Michael's nephew was incredible with the dancing and acting. It was so fun. Definitely worth watching.
For whatever reason, I could not sleep Friday night. Just a terrible night. All I wanted to do was stay in bed that day. And then it rained AGAIN. MORE RAIN. I tell you what, I am sick of the rain. So frustrated. All this to say, the last two weeks have been more of a down time, and I'm pretty sure it's some culture shock. I could be wrong and I'm just grumpy for my own reasons, but eight days straight of rain really affected me. I think everyone else had been affected too, but I'm writing this mostly from my perspective.
I don't know if the off-night was a result of this weird Chinese charm we discovered in our apartment the night before. We asked Mei, our member care missionary friend, about it. She said we should definitely get it out of our house b/c it's associated with the temple, used for good luck, and a Taoist charm with the name of the god people hope will protect them. She suggested we pray in Jesus name to cleanse our house and dedicate it to Jesus alone. We did that and didn't think much of it honestly. But I do wonder if my sleepless night had anything to do with it. I don't know. I struggle with insomnia all the time so maybe not. It wasn't something we were very anxious about.
I took zero pictures on Friday... which means I didn't do much. The only one we have is this selfie from Evie working out with her friends Lydia, Nehemiah, Eleanor, and Ezra. Terry was more productive. He got up early and made pancakes. He had a zoom meeting about the upcoming English camp. He worked on stuff on the computer. He's always staying busy. I do not. I did, however, manage to bike through the mist (😡) to the store and make dinner. And it was delicious. We've been watching the show LOST in the evenings together, so that's always fun.
Saturday night I slept much better. Samuel is feeling sick now. He's had a deeper voice and coughing for days, but today he actually feels it. So he's chilling. Terry had attempted to have English students come to Linkou and En Cafe again, but unfortunately, no one showed up. He kinda thought that would be the case, but went anyways. We're praying about how to move forward with this idea in Linkou - how to get people to come for English conversations.
But God is sovereign and uses all things, right? So Terry had an orange latte and some extended one-on-one time with Rex, the owner.
Terry and Rex shared this waffle. Then Rex gave Terry another coffee. So kind. I teased Terry had he had a brunch date with Rex. We're praying for Rex b/c his mom, Theresa, is a Christian, but says Rex isn't walking with the Lord.
Meanwhile, I slept great! I felt well enough that I went downstairs and did leg day. Yay!
At noon, we talked to Noah a little and watched another Wingfeather episode. Evie biked to the used book store Nanson and Flora told us about. Terry decided to go on a walk and go there too.
I jumped up while writing this blog b/c the sun came out!!! I went onto Evie's balcony and took this shocked picture. Blue sky! The snap I sent about it was ridiculous.
Once I finished working on this blog post, I wandered outside to breathe the free sunshiny air. Our homeschool friends, Miss Rachel and her kids, entered the park at the exact same instant I did! Wow how cool! I sat and waited for Terry to leave the book store, and told the boys to come down to play.
After a while, Evie returned from her crocheting club and joined Eleanor, Simeon, and Nehemiah. They played various games of frisbee and then an acting game Evie learned at RCC called "Mama, I think I'm dying." I've heard it explained twice and it still doesn't make sense to me 😂
The orchids are blooming everywhere. Apparently, you can just strap the roots to a tree and they'll live. B/c that's what was done in this park. In our community courtyard, the orchid is at least in a pot, but the park ones were not. Their roots were just hanging out. I mean, come on, how crazy is that?! It's that humid here that it works. 😮
We stayed and talked/played for at least an hour and a half. So good for the soul.
We had a late dinner when we got home, watched a LOST episode, and took a family selfie for Ryan Trahan's special competition for the most Joyride candy selfies in America. We posted from Taiwan anyway b/c Jess Homer actually sent us some Joyride in her care package! You're the best Jess! Then we went to bed b/c Terry had to preach the next day...! But that's for next time.
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