A typical evening at the park

Sunday evening was sunny and perfect, so we went for a stroll to see what we could find. On our way, we went through an underpass where vendors gather every day to sell juice, watermelon and other fresh produce from the back of carts pulled by horses or donkeys. Imagine that in the middle of “spaghetti junction” in Atlanta! But since so many people walk everywhere, it’s a good place to do business.

After venturing on and having a fairly tasty dining experience, we made our way to an exercise park a couple of miles from home. Exercise parks are just that—outdoor parks filled with exercise equipment. They’re common here and are very popular in the evenings, so they make great places for Caleb to burn some energy while we mingle with the locals and practice the few phrases we know. Susanna found herself in her own version of Where’s Waldo, while Caleb ran around, flirted with a little girl and posed for the many photos.

It was fun to see everyone enjoying our kids so much. After all, I guess it’s not every day they see a tow-headed toddler with a 5 month old blue-eyed baby sister!

A time to laugh

So, what do you do…
…when you can’t read the label of a household product?—You end up putting floor cleaner in your washing machine. (Yes, I really did that the first week we were here. It looked just like the laundry detergent. But it sure smelled different… Oh well!)
…when you can’t communicate with the waitress at a local coffee shop—you end up with 2 different smoothies and try to act like that’s what you wanted.
…when you find out that you’ve been telling the cab driver “Work!” instead of “Turn left!” …or that you just pointed to an item in a store and said, “I’m sorry” instead of asking “How much?”—Well, you just feel really dumb, take the opportunity to have a good laugh, and tell everyone else so they can laugh too. =)
Yes, we’ve had ample opportunities for laughter since we’ve been here. But sometimes it’s not so easy to laugh—Like when the waitress mocks your efforts to communicate in her language…Like when your kid splashes in a puddle on the sidewalk that is not water (yuck!)…Like when you get off at the wrong bus stop and end up quite lost in the middle of the city in the rain with 2 hungry kids...like when your bike gets stolen and you can’t communicate with the cop to tell him what happened and you try calling your interpreter for help and your cell phone runs out of minutes… (Yes, all of that really happened as well!)
It is totally against our nature to place ourselves in uncomfortable situations, but here we are nonetheless, overflowing with opportunities to feel stupid, frustrated, and helpless. And it is in those moments that we are learning to redefine the meaning of “a time to laugh”—by asking for a better perspective, choosing to relax and practice patience and flexibility, and realizing that sometimes laughter is the best medicine for an unpleasant situation.

So, how are the kids?

Energetic, curious, and always ready to laugh, Caleb is having the time of his life exploring his new world and making new friends. During the first couple of weeks, he had some uncertainty, frustration over the language barrier, and sadness over the loss of his family and familiarity, but lately he is really enjoying our new home--he's back to his singing, jumping, cheerful little self. In addition to the many Asian children in our apartment complex, our coworkers also have small children, so our little extrovert is enjoying his plethora of relational opportunities. His favorite activities, among playing with friends, include having pillow fights, making “caves” and going on bear hunts, going “fishing” with willow branches in the lilypond, dancing, reading, riding his scooter, and splashing in puddles with his rain boots, to name a few.

Little “Suzanie” is 5 months old now, and is growing, changing, and sweet as ever. She loves to squeal and coo, giggle and smile (Yes, she’s already a heartbreaker!). She learned how to roll over the Sunday after we moved here and is loving her newfound ability. She’s been spending a lot of time on her belly as of late, and will soon be scooting all over the place (though I’m in no hurry for her to be mobile!) But when she is on her back, she practices her latest talent—grabbing her feet and of course trying to eat them. (Somehow anything is cute when a baby is doing it!) She’s also really good at impersonations—Kramer and the rhino horn are two of her best. And she loves reaching for and grabbing anything within arms’ reach—especially noses. She's been hard at work getting her first tooth, and lately she’s expanded her palatal horizons to include cheese and rice crispies, thanks to her big brother… =)

So overall, the kids are doing great—growing, happy and enjoying the world and each other. Still the very proud and protective big brother, Caleb can hardly wait until his “little cutie” is awake each morning, and she reserves some of her biggest grins and squeals for him. They’ve been interacting more lately as Susanna gets older, and it’s been fun to see their sibling camaraderie grow. They’ve seen quite a bit from the seats of their little luxury sedan and are finally beginning to get used to all of the staring, photos, chattering, and interest from perfect strangers. In fact, I think they’re rather fond of it! When people approach Caleb, he greets them with a hearty “Good-bye!” in their language (At least he’s trying!). And Susanna puts on her own little performance of grins and coos, sometimes even falling asleep in the arms of her admirers. Hopefully our kids won’t grow up to be narcissistic from all the attention!

Some things we're adjusting to...

As you can imagine, soooooooo many things are different here--not bad, just different, as they say. =) Of course, the obvious one is the language, and that is quite a challenge in itself. But there are plenty of other things that we hadn't thought much about before we arrived, like the system of weights and measures, which make a difference when you're at the doctor, receiving directions, or buying furniture! Traffic patterns are crazy, as I'm sure you've heard. The rule is: anything goes--driving on the sidewalk, between two lanes, or on the wrong side of the road is A-kay here! Needless to say, --- A couple of weeks ago our cab driver hit a biker--nothing bad, but both kept going. The police weren't called, nobody got mad, nothing. So different than home! There's so much more that's different too--of course types of food, eating with chopsticks, money, cost of living, clothing style and size, shoe sizes, shoes not worn in homes (even delivery guys and maintenance men take their shoes off!), bargaining, leisure activites (cards, badminton, and majhong), no car seats, the water (use filtered for everything), the weather, business hours (the donut place wasn't open yet at 9:30 am!)--it's hard to even list them all. But here are some of the ones we've really noticed...

Toilets

Also known as “squatty potties”, in public these beauties are BYOTP, pay to use, and sometimes co-ed with no stall doors! We're thankful our apartment has a Western toilet.

Transportation

Our transportation repertoire has expanded to include taxis, buses, and “san lun ches” (covered motor tricycles). But our bike, the double stroller (which we brought with us thankfully, since they don't sell them here), and our feet get most of the mileage!

My new clothes dryer

Dryers are nowhere to be found here—clotheslines on balconies are the trend. Line-dried laundry is great when it’s sunny, but on my enclosed balcony during rainy season it can take up to 3 days for a load to dry! So the smell of mildew is in—we’re way ahead of Bath and Body Works with our new fragrance… =)

Asian potty training

Need I say more? =)

Sloshing

Last Saturday we decided to have an adventure in spite of the drizzle, so we grabbed our ponchos and umbrellas and hopped on a bus downtown. Our first stop was a big park near the school where Dave will be taking language classes. Rainy season doesn’t slow people down here--folks were out in the paddle boats on the lake and vendors were still selling their food and goods. For a brief moment I felt like I was at home when we passed by the boiled peanut stand! We got Caleb a snake woven from bamboo leaves, and he enjoyed (a little too much!) poking it out at people from under the poncho cover. =) Lunch was a nice treat--sweet and sour squirrel fish has become one of our favorite dishes here. Then we were off for more exploring, until a torrential downpour hit and Dave and I were thoroughly soaked from the knees down--and somewhat damp from the knees up! Thankfully the kids stayed dry beneath their poncho stroller cover. We were conveniently near the Dona Donuts--the Asian equivalent of Duncan Doughnuts--when the storm hit, so we were able to dry off a bit while enjoying a sweet treat. On our way back, we found that the sidewalk had become a full-blown pond, which Caleb loved, of course. We had a great time out, but were glad to get back home out of the wet, and have definitely gained a new appreciation for dry shoes and socks!

A trip to the Nationalities Village

We recently had a few days of gorgeous sunshine and 70 degree weather, so we decided to take advantage of the break from the rain and go with some coworkers to the city's Nationalities Village. It's a very large exhibition where each of the 26 different ethnic minority groups present in this area display their culture, housing, customs, and wares.

We decided to rent a four man bike so we could cover more ground, which was an adventure in itself! We attached the stroller to the back and all four of us adults were holding a kid and peddling...man did we draw some attention! You'd have thought we were the main event! Everywhere we went, people would stop taking pictures of the attractions to take pictures and videos of us. So we officially dubbed ourselves the "yee-haw village" on wheels. :)

Anyway, the scenery was beautiful--lakes, mountains, grass, and trees--the most green I've seen since we've been here!

One of our first stops was an elephant show. It was fun watching the elephants do tricks, but the highlight was after the show, when we were able to pet them and let the kids feed them green bananas.

I even got brave and had my picture taken on one!

After the show, we moved on to some of the village displays. In one of the exhibits, we went into a hut where we were able to sample some rice bread cooked over hot coals by one of the minority ladies.

Another village had a music show, and another was demonstrating a cultural dance. One thing we noticed in all of the exhibits was the strong religious symbolism; each one had statues, altars, prayer flags, a temple, or some other religious element. It is definitely a big part of their lives.

It was fascinating to seeing all the different types of people, cultures, and customs throughout the day. Each group is so interesting and unique.

We're looking forward to learn-ing more about these mi-nority groups and visiting some of the villages that are in the surrounding areas outside the city. And hopefully one day we'll be able to live in one of those villages...

Rainy day fun

Though the rain is not so fun to walk in, it's good for our creativity and relationships. We spent all day last Thursday at our friends' place, trying to keep from going stir-crazy after several soggy days in a row. We adults enjoyed the company and our boys had fun too. After creating several watercolor masterpieces, they were ready for some action. So we had a race between Benny and Goliath, they boys' two pet miniature turtles. It was a close one, but Benny pulled it off at the last second. Here's some footage of the great turtle race...

So this is rainy season...

After five weeks of rain nearly every day, we've learned that they weren't kidding when they said rainy season! This was the underpass (not a river!!!) near our friends' apartment complex last week after several hours of torrential downpour. Cars and bikes and motorcycles alike were pushing through in spite of the foot or more of standing water! Believe it or not, the road was back to normal by the evening.