Wow! I can't believe that our time in Taiwan is almost at an end. We've had a lot of fun, and grown a lot as a family, in every way imaginable. I'm so grateful for the time that we had here, and for all the fun little adventures we had, and all the wonderful people we've met that have made our trip such a positive experience.
Living abroad has definitely not always been easy or fun. Where we lived there were very few people who spoke English, and it seemed like everyone was always working, which made being a stay-at-home mom very isolating at times. Most of my friends lived more than an hour and half trip away (bus-->MRT-->another bus-->yet another bus). I'm grateful for the people that always made me feel welcome in their homes (because when you spend an hour and a half+ getting somewhere you want to make your visit worth the hour and a half+ trip you're going to take back). Having an easy-going child also really made things a lot easier than they could have been. Alec to this day will behave the whole trip to church ( 1-1 1/2 hours on 2 buses and the metro) with only minor distraction techniques employed. I am also grateful for a wonderful supportive husband that picked up a lot of my slack because things were just harder for me here (i.e. grocery shopping, cooking, keeping house). It was such a blessing in disguise when they cut his hours to part-time. Alec and I really enjoyed all of the time we got to spend with Nick this year. I'm also glad we took the plunge and decided to get our own Costco cards. That was such a lifesaver! I don't know how I managed the first 9 months without one.
Despite the difficulties I faced, there are definitely things that I will miss. Everyone is very friendly here. They are always kind to me even though my Chinese didn't really improve too much while we were here which made communication difficult at times. Also, the Taiwanese LOVE Alec. He is like a little celebrity, and it's been fun seeing him get so much attention. One time we decided to count how many times we heard the word "ke ai" (cute), and after less than ten minutes we stopped well above 50 times. Needless to say, he knows he's cute, and he knows how to "work it". When we are on the bus or Metro (MRT) Alec is always on the look out for someone to charm with a game of peek-a-boo, or blow kisses to and say bye-bye. I love how Alec says "shi-shi" and "wei" I'm sad that he couldn't learn more Chinese while we were here, but having lived here during such a critical language learning period will hopefully make it easier for him to learn it when he gets older.
I will definitely miss a a lot of other things. The fruit: mangoes, mountain bananas, papayas, pineapple, and dragon fruit to name a few. Night markets, and the fun atmosphere they bring to a neighborhood ( I could pass on the smells though) are another thing I will miss. Guo tie (pot stickers), and Indian wraps (a Keelung night market special) are some of the other things we have enjoyed often during our stay. But most of all, I will miss our ward family because living so far from home church really did become my family. I really enjoyed my time in the Taipei 7th ward, and appreciated the open, and friendly nature of all the members. I will especially miss the primary kids and all the fun times we had together singing "Book of Mormon Stories", and their off-the-wall comments during the lessons. It makes me smile just thinking about it.
There are also a few things that I will definitely not miss. Number one would hands down have to be the stinky smells. We live near a water purification plant, and there are tons of open drains here, and they just wreak some days, which only compounds all of the other funky smells that I never got accustomed to (I don't think I ever would have) which alarmingly tended to come from places that sell food. A close second is the humidity, and the rain. Keelung is the rainiest city in Taiwan, which is a very rainy island. It rains 150 inches/year here! It's crazy!!! Just to give you some perspective Mobile, Alabama is the wettest city in the US with just over 60 inches/year, which whoops Seattle's meager 38 inches/year. That's right...it rains nearly 4 times what it does in Seattle. Point made. If that wasn't bad enough, during the summer the temperature often gets up to 33 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit)with 75% humidity. The third thing I will not miss is the bug population. Fruit flies, ants, spiders, mosquitoes, roaches...we have them all...in our apartment...right now. No matter how clean it is I can never keep them at bay. It definitely gets bad if I let things go, which has been a nice incentive to keep up with my chores, especially during the summer when the insect problems multiply by like 5,000.
So there have been good things and bad things about living in Taiwan, but all-in-all we've had a very good experience here, one I wouldn't trade for anything in the world (except maybe a year in Europe...).
Living abroad has definitely not always been easy or fun. Where we lived there were very few people who spoke English, and it seemed like everyone was always working, which made being a stay-at-home mom very isolating at times. Most of my friends lived more than an hour and half trip away (bus-->MRT-->another bus-->yet another bus). I'm grateful for the people that always made me feel welcome in their homes (because when you spend an hour and a half+ getting somewhere you want to make your visit worth the hour and a half+ trip you're going to take back). Having an easy-going child also really made things a lot easier than they could have been. Alec to this day will behave the whole trip to church ( 1-1 1/2 hours on 2 buses and the metro) with only minor distraction techniques employed. I am also grateful for a wonderful supportive husband that picked up a lot of my slack because things were just harder for me here (i.e. grocery shopping, cooking, keeping house). It was such a blessing in disguise when they cut his hours to part-time. Alec and I really enjoyed all of the time we got to spend with Nick this year. I'm also glad we took the plunge and decided to get our own Costco cards. That was such a lifesaver! I don't know how I managed the first 9 months without one.
Despite the difficulties I faced, there are definitely things that I will miss. Everyone is very friendly here. They are always kind to me even though my Chinese didn't really improve too much while we were here which made communication difficult at times. Also, the Taiwanese LOVE Alec. He is like a little celebrity, and it's been fun seeing him get so much attention. One time we decided to count how many times we heard the word "ke ai" (cute), and after less than ten minutes we stopped well above 50 times. Needless to say, he knows he's cute, and he knows how to "work it". When we are on the bus or Metro (MRT) Alec is always on the look out for someone to charm with a game of peek-a-boo, or blow kisses to and say bye-bye. I love how Alec says "shi-shi" and "wei" I'm sad that he couldn't learn more Chinese while we were here, but having lived here during such a critical language learning period will hopefully make it easier for him to learn it when he gets older.
I will definitely miss a a lot of other things. The fruit: mangoes, mountain bananas, papayas, pineapple, and dragon fruit to name a few. Night markets, and the fun atmosphere they bring to a neighborhood ( I could pass on the smells though) are another thing I will miss. Guo tie (pot stickers), and Indian wraps (a Keelung night market special) are some of the other things we have enjoyed often during our stay. But most of all, I will miss our ward family because living so far from home church really did become my family. I really enjoyed my time in the Taipei 7th ward, and appreciated the open, and friendly nature of all the members. I will especially miss the primary kids and all the fun times we had together singing "Book of Mormon Stories", and their off-the-wall comments during the lessons. It makes me smile just thinking about it.
There are also a few things that I will definitely not miss. Number one would hands down have to be the stinky smells. We live near a water purification plant, and there are tons of open drains here, and they just wreak some days, which only compounds all of the other funky smells that I never got accustomed to (I don't think I ever would have) which alarmingly tended to come from places that sell food. A close second is the humidity, and the rain. Keelung is the rainiest city in Taiwan, which is a very rainy island. It rains 150 inches/year here! It's crazy!!! Just to give you some perspective Mobile, Alabama is the wettest city in the US with just over 60 inches/year, which whoops Seattle's meager 38 inches/year. That's right...it rains nearly 4 times what it does in Seattle. Point made. If that wasn't bad enough, during the summer the temperature often gets up to 33 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit)with 75% humidity. The third thing I will not miss is the bug population. Fruit flies, ants, spiders, mosquitoes, roaches...we have them all...in our apartment...right now. No matter how clean it is I can never keep them at bay. It definitely gets bad if I let things go, which has been a nice incentive to keep up with my chores, especially during the summer when the insect problems multiply by like 5,000.
So there have been good things and bad things about living in Taiwan, but all-in-all we've had a very good experience here, one I wouldn't trade for anything in the world (except maybe a year in Europe...).
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