Finally Getting To It...

October 06, 2022

Finally Getting To It...

Sooo we're finally doing it--BLOGGING in Taiwan! Two months living in the country already so we're a bit late to the game, but better late than never. I realized time is passing a lot faster than I anticipated, and I don't want to head back to America with only a fraction of memories my mommy brain may let me hold on to. So here we go!

I wanted to start from the beginning of our story, but before we get there...

Here's some answers to questions people have already asked us--

The #1 question I get asked from friends is...

1) How is my American/English-speaking/non-world traveller husband adjusting to Taiwan? (I think many people are curious how an American adjusts to life outside the States.) As I am equally curious, I will let him speak on this...

Dan:

Well hello! Adjusting to Taiwan is very easy as an only-lived-in-SoCal-my-whole-life person.  It is nearly 100% due to the fact that everyone here is very nice - Taiwanese people will go out of their way to help you, even using any English they know despite feeling embarrassed.  It still amazes me every day how nice people are.
Language-wise, some people know English pretty well, otherwise I use translation apps and learn key phrases.  Long-term, it will become absolutely necessary to speak the local language to fully enjoy and adjust to living abroad.
Food-wise, it’s a large adjustment.  We ate Asian food 60% of the time in Los Angeles, now we are eating 95% Asian food.  I think we are still adjusting.  If you eat very little Asian food, you may never like living in an Asian country.
So those are my thoughts!

The next most pressing question I get asked is--

2) How is Gemma adjusting to Taiwan?

Since Gemma can't speak much for herself, I will try to put myself in her shoes and speak on what we've observed. She basically loves the food we've been giving her--sushi, fried rice, pork rice, beef noodles, dumplings, basically any kind of noodle. No issues with food adjustment. We've enrolled her in a local Kindergarten around our house since kids can attend Kindergarten starting 3 years old here, and that was a harder transition for her, but still surprisingly not terrible. In California, she was used to an 8 hrs a day nanny, and most friends/family hangouts that we went to did not include other kids her age. Combined with the fact we were deep in a pandemic for most of her life. So pre-Taiwan--0 social skills. Needless to say, Gemma's first few days of school were met with tears. After day 3 or so, she stopped crying at drop off, and she found a teacher who she likes and has been using her as her new nanny basically. We are EXTREMELY lucky that the teacher is accomodating and will stick with her most of the day to help her transition to being around other kids more and develop social skills. She still warms up to adults more than kids, but hopefully that will also improve with time. Gemma's Kindergarten is Chinese-speaking, though they do have an English 'class' every Thursday in which the kids learn the English alphabet and such, so that's cute. She just transitioned to eating lunch at school before coming home, so she really has been making huge leaps and gains since starting school in August! We are so proud of her :) Overall she seems happy, she's doing great around our Taiwan relatives and even has little cousins she can play with! She does ask about 'old casa' from time to time, but I think it's great she can still recall good memories from our LA life as well :)

And finally..

3) How are you and Dan adjusting to full time parenting/not working?

Full Disclosure--This is from our POV, and not to speak on others' experiences that may be different. For us, full time parenting is harder than working. Even with our stressful jobs back in America, there's still some level of respect and compensation you gain that makes you feel a little better about not sleeping at night. However, parenting is nonstop--you don't get compensated, you can't just close the door to your office to take a breather and a lunch break, you don't get respect from your screaming toddler when they want to wear a certain dress and you say no. I tell people this--parenting is more exhausting, but working is more stressful. Though I know parenting is also stressful, so overall yes, parenting is hard. The first month in August when we arrived, we were navigating adjusting to Taiwan, in addition to adjusting to full time parenting, and that was difficult. Dan and I really had to learn how to work as a team, but it was nice to work together on a common goal, with both of our energies on parenting instead of feeling like one of us was carrying the weight alone. Gemma is at a turning point age where she could swing between bossy brat and obedient child. When we were both working in America, we never had time to work on Gemma's behavior development, and we also understood it was not the nanny's job to correct and discipline Gemma if she was tantruming. Now that we actually have time, we are reining in tantrums a bit better (a BIT--parents ya'll know what I mean). It's a lot of work and patience, but we are slowly and steadily seeing results! Also, with Gemma in school longer now, we have a bit more time to experience free time (?!!!). We constantly get asked if we get bored, which the answer is a resounding no because you are never bored when you have a child, but we do have a bit more time now to work on our health (we joined the local gym and I got a personal trainer for a month--absurd, I know), feel more present and relaxed, explore a different lifestyle, and spend time with our Taiwan relatives. They have all been amazing to reconnect with and super welcoming of us!

AND...just some bonus thoughts...

What do we miss about LA?

The things I miss about LA are the DIVERSITY OF FOOD (Ethiopian, Thai, Vietnamese, Italian, Mediterranean, etc all within driving distance?!), the beach, the fresh air (we live in a more congested city in Kaohsiung so we have more of a city vibe, the smell of motorcycle/scooter exhaust is always present...), and obviously friends and family. I will say that the first few weeks of Taiwan I mourned the diversity of food a lot more dramatically than I should. HOWEVER, I have moved past this, thankfully.

So now that we just summed up a LOT--

I may leave the genesis of our Taiwan trip to the next entry. It's worth explaining how we got to this point of taking a year-long trip across the globe, how we saved up financially to make this happen, and what we hoped we would gain from this experience. Stay tuned friends!!!

Here's some pictures of our recent escapades: