Wise Friend

Thursday. Dead of night.

Expat buddy had cautioned me that keeping expectations low will help to keep frustrations low too. Trying hard today to do that. I use "today" in the most literal sense only as it's an hour and 47 minutes into Thursday but I'm wide awake.

The blondes and I handle time-change and jet lag very differently: they wanted to plow thru the afternoon and go to bed for the night at 6:50pm. We were all exhausted so I capitulated, got several hours of sleep and here I am ready for my day in the middle of Taipei night. I'd prefer an afternoon nap, stay up late local time to get in the saddle here, then sleep normally. No definitive answers that work for all, but this surely isn't working for me.

Long, tedious day of decorating decisions yesterday. As carefree as we're trying to be about the apartment, it was discouraging to see it yesterday- there's tile work going on with a new tub, serious cleaning needed and paint was just selected so existing walls looked awful. Hard to believe we'll be in within a week and we were hoping for the weekend before Claire starts school. That's clearly out of the question.

The furniture is custom made for us which was unexpectedly lovely (thought we'd be stopping by the local Cort Rental to pick everything) but won't arrive for a month or so. Gotta love Made in Taiwan! We'll have basic pieces delivered once apartment is ready so we can function but won't be able to really nest until our selections arrive. Claire had a great time choosing everything. It's fun to see her opinions and rationale on what goes together. When something was a bit funky and she explained it- most of the time it made perfect sense. Chris did draw the line at the raspberry pink giant sectional. I think (hope!) Claire was messing with him.

She FaceTimed home with several friends yesterday. On vacations in the past she has never asked to do that, so it's clear she's painfully aware this is monstrously different. Several times a day she calculates the time change and figures what her classmates are doing. Her desire to stay connected with folks at home is keen and hurts my heart a bit. I'm anxious to get her into school and socializing. There were 33 new students in the lower school added over the holiday break so she won't be the only New Kid. But they all started early this week and she's a week delayed (at least). We'll attend a parent orientation at Taipei American School (TAS) Friday morning and she has assessment testing in the afternoon- smack in the worst part of the jet-lagged day. Super. TAS has two lower school counselors and we meet with them as part of the transition and orientation process. They are aware of our recent move and I'm hopeful they will be valuable resources for us and keep an eye out for her.

With all the erranding we've done, there hasn't been much fun yet. Today I'm planning on our behaving like tourists. It's been mostly logistics thus far and I'm feeling like we need an injection of some enthusiasm for this process. I'm discouraged that the settling into apartment won't happen as quickly as desired and I need a perk up! When my loves awake we're going to the 101, or a museum, or the Grand Palace or or or!! Just some fun today.

It turns out the errands still needing attention are on hold anyway- getting a work permit is only the first step. We thought we were done, but that only allowed us to enter the country without a return ticket through a much shorter customs line. We need an Alien Resident Card to do the banking, lease a car, get a phone etc... so we're on hold with those chores for another 7-10 work days. We are two bright adults, with a cadre of immigration attorneys hired by Western Digital and this process is still unbelievable involved and convoluted. I simply cannot imagine navigating this on our own initiative. It's hard when you don't know what you don't know. We appear a bit Forrest Gump- hauling around this sheaf of papers and cluelessly handing our sloppy stack over when folks ask for our ARC, which is truly a little card like a driver's license. We were given more clear direction yesterday on next steps for that card, which we hope is the last piece of our immigration puzzle. It's no wonder folks are illegal aliens - doing it properly is pain in the Bèihòu

We're explored some new foods yesterday: saw smoked chicken feet but were too chicken to try, ate some fabulous dumplings, tried unusual fruits that looked alien... then, Outback Steakhouse for lunch. As Chris reminds me: let's go for a soft landing here, plenty of time to expand and enjoy the new locale and reminders of familiar home things are precious. He's right, of course, but I mocked him anyway. We are all trying to keep a sense of humor and had an amusing moment when we turned around at furniture place and Claire was sacked out on one of the couches in the middle of choosing material.

We had our first odd "we're the foreigners" incident and oddly- it was mine, not the blondes. Walking down the street, middle of crowded sidewalk in the financial district near the Westin and a middle-aged, professionally dressed man walking toward us barked once at me. Loudly. According to my very proficient Mandarin he either called me a horse, mother or hemp. We all kept walking and pretended like it didn't happen. So bizarre. No one around us flicked an eyelash.

The familiar and foreign is present everywhere. The large Christmas trees are still up in hotel lobby but now decorated with New Years decor. Our translator said that folks will decorate soon for Chinese New Year even tho it's in later February. The early decorating bug isn't just American! The Westin concierge has cards to write on your new year's wish then hang on the tree. Claire's wished us to have a safe, happy and healthy 2015- couldn't agree more!! More later~