I keep forgetting why we only end up with 1-2 activities a day max when we were in Taiwan. Because we kept stopping to have a snack or lunch or snack!
Itinerary: Department of Health, Swimming
It continues to rain rain rain here, non-stop. The kids no longer find novelty in holding an umbrella and walking long distances. We’ve yet to purchase rainboots and raincoats so it makes every outing a nagging session (“hold the umbrella right”, “don’t step in the puddles!”), which I’m sure is not helping.
I decided we needed to get started on getting residency, given how many surprises I’ve encountered each time I try to do something related to this. The first top is the local Department of Health to translate their vaccination records into Chinese. Taipei is carved into districts and each district apparently has its own health department, kind of cool. Ours happen to be super close, just a 15 minute walk with kids.
But first, a stop at our Starbucks. I have not managed to purchase breakfast the night before and I’m trying to not have the kids eat a 7-11 onigiri for every meal. So off we walked in the rain. This Starbucks did not have so many western style pastries that I liked. Though I did learn the names for scone in Chinese (司康).
It is at times like this that I wonder the point of going to Chinese school in the US. You go to school for that long and just like many foreigners learning English, you go to target country and discover you actually don’t know enough of the daily language to function.
After the kids finished fighting over who gets more hot chocolate, we walked to the Department of Health, which was practically empty. The lady standing by the door (so much good customer service) whisked me to the info counter and helped us fill out some info to get the Children’s Health Guidebook. It’s basically a booklet every child has which contains their immunization records plus all these helpful info. I gave them all my docs and they went off to translate our vaccination records.
In the meantime, I asked a lot of questions. You get subsidized for child health costs for children under 6. And though we have to wait 6 months after getting household registration to get healthcare, vaccinations are nevertheless free. So Thumper and Astroboy will be going back this Friday to get their Japanese Encephalitis shot at the health department.
Everyone remarked on how well the children spoke Chinese. I think if I don’t tell them we’re from the U.S. they probably wouldn’t know. The whole process took about an hour. And they told us how Astroboy is behind in his shots. But they didn’t ask us to catch up. Though if Thumper were to go to school here, she’d have to finish her shots I think.
Unlike California, there is no getting out of vaccinations in Taiwan. Don’t quote me on it.
The children were antsy after this visit, so we went home, changed into swimming suits, and went to get some onigiri for lunch first at the local onigiri store. The children loved watching the lady at the counter making onigiri. Thumper kept remarking on how warm and delicious it was and declared at the end that she wanted to stay in Taiwan.
On our walk to the swimming pool, Astroboy walked right into a metal corner and had a huge bruise that swelled up. And it almost looked like he had a dent on his forehead. Though he stopped crying after a few minutes, I decided to take the kids home, especially since they’d been whiny all morning. He took a 3 hour nap. I had to wake him up so we could all go swimming.
But first, since it was already 5pm, we went off to have some 紅豆湯 and 豆花 (red bean soup and some tofu pudding in ginger soup). I wanted some ginger soup since I’ve been feeling a tickle in my throat the last 2 days. For each one we had some glutinous riceballs, which was a hit.
The children swam in the warm pool for more than an hour. I bought a swim doughnut for Astorboy but it was kind of useless. He was still scared and I was worried since I couldn’t go in. I think I have to go buy a swimming suit for myself. But they had a lot of fun.
Did I already mention how much I like the warm pool. There are actually 3 of them with different “jet powers”. So I did not have to worry about them getting cold at all. And we took our shower there, which saves me a shower at home.
Of course, another delicious dinner followed by my uncle showing Thumper how to brew tea. They have some tea every day after dinner. She had learned the tea ceremony in school and that’s important. But I also really like how this isn’t something special, just something you do daily. It isn’t a “cultural” thing, just a daily life thing.
My uncle also taught Thumper how to play Chinese Chess. But she was a very sore loser and threw the set around when she lost. I’m not quite sure how to teach her to be a good loser. Astroboy in the meantime entertained his cousins with his cuteness. He’s talking A LOT in complex sentences and asked them to toss him around and play with him, which they oblige. I’m very glad we’re staying with my aunt and uncle, though I feel bad that it’s a lot of work for them to entertain us nightly.
And that concludes our day and off to bed we went at 10pm. Thumper is still sleeping at 9am today. I hope she catches up on her sleep.
