August 17-24, 2014

 

It is so nice to have a routine again.  School is very challenging in more ways than one.  Especially in High School there are very few caucasian kids.  Emmie only has one in all her classes.  It is her new friend from the ward Rebecca Gordon, who is a senior.  That is the first challenge.  To be the only blonde one with everyone staring at you all the time.  The second challenge is it is so academically challenging!  Tons of homework and the classwork is extremely tough.  Emmie luckily only has 5 classes, because of mandarin not working out in her schedule.  Most Asian kids here (which is most of the student body) are carrying a load of 8 classes a day.  There is 45-60 min of homework per class each day.  She was feeling bad about it until one of her new friends from the ward, Colton, told her he just dropped 2 classes. He is a sophomore and just moved here from Shanghai, but is originally from Idaho. He even met Britton Parker this summer when he was back 'home'. (The boy who cut Emmie's hair in 2nd grade and was one of Adam's obnoxious scouts.)  Lacie is doing well but has really been feeling her homework level.  She has an hour plus of work each night.  Good thing dance is during the day and right after school, and at the school.  Cuts down on our travel time!  Emmie uses her free periods to do her work or see the teachers for help.  She also has 40min. between Seminary being over in the AM and school starting.  On "A days" she has a free period 1st period and on "B days" it is last period.  Lunch is a crazy amount of time- 80min.!  School starts at 7:45a.m. and goes till 3:45p.m. for Emmie and Lacie goes 7:45a.m. to 2:40p.m..  She spends the hour after school in the Library doing homework while she waits for Emmie to be out or dance to start.

Early morning Seminary is killing us.  I am dragging around by the end of the day after getting up with Emmie at 5:20a.m. and going to bed at 10:00 or 10:30p.m.  We got more sleep when she was a baby.  Not sure how she is keeping up.  She  is only getting an hour more of sleep then us.  Adam is doing fine, but is hiking the mountain stairs a couple times a week in the early AM so he's pretty wiped out by night-time. We are on our second week of it and try to go to bed as early as possible!  Unusual in the Batteen home.  We now try to be in bed, girls no later then 8:30p.m. and us by 9-9:30p.m.  It doesn't always work but a worthy goal.  The nice thing here is it is light by 5a.m. and is dark by 6:30p.m.  SO you don't feel like you are missing out.  We have found, though, that Asians in general don't go to bed till late and get up late.  Most stores don't open till 10am and no markets are open on Mondays.

Lacie is starting to learn to play the flute.  This school is not only huge on academics but also the arts.  Lacie is required to pick one of the following ... Choir, Band or Strings.  She decided she already knew how to sing and does it every moment she can, so she would try Band or Strings.  Violin was her first choice but then decided because I played the flute, that it would be fun and I could help her. (It's been a very long time since I played in junior high! Hope I can be of help still.)  Plus it gives her a head start on Band in Middle School back home if she still wants to do it.  Since the school here provides the flute, she can practice on mine during Christmas and Summer and we will not have to pack it back and forth.

Emmie has to have a preforming arts as well.  Once you are Middle School you can dance.(next year for Lacie)  The High School has  levels you have to pass.  The first day of dance for Emmie- her schedule had a room number on it, so that is where she went.  It ended up being Dance 2 and not Dance1.  The teacher decided after watching her dance that she could stay in that class, they would wave dance1 and she could dance with the Sophomores and Juniors.  That will make it so she is eligible for International Dance Team next year as a Sophomore.  Otherwise you usually have to wait until you are a Junior to do this.  That is divine intervention!  Just because she went to the room on her schedule which was a mis-print, Emmie will get to be part of all the dance experiences here.  She is so excited!  Emmie had tryouts for the fall Dance production starting today- 3 days worth!  We won't know till next week the results.


Meridian Temple Ground Breaking!
One of the things that is hardest about being here is missing special events at home.  We would have loved to be at the ground breaking of the Meridian Temple!  Emmie's best friend Caylee texted her all about it and her lunch with Elder Bednar. (Caylee's Dad is the Stake President of one of the Caldwell stakes ??)  Lacie was sure Elsie was there without her!  We later found out that not only was she there but got to be part of the ground breaking- shovel and all!  LUCKY GIRL! (Elsie's Dad is Stake President of the Middleton Stake) What a wonderful day it sounded like.  We are so hoping we get back in time for all the celebrations when it is finally done.  Girls will be bitterly disappointed if it is finished before our assignment is over.  I remember when the Meridian Temple was announced.  The girls began jumping up and down and chanting "We get a temple! We get to see the Prophet! The Prophet."  After Emmie getting to be a part of the Boise rededication celebration, she is super excited about this one.  This time Lacie will be old enough!  We are going to try and get to the Sapporo Japan Temple open house if it is finished before we go home.  It is estimated to be done sometime in 2016. It will look a lot like Meridian Temple, don't you think? So glad we are living near a temple here!  Blessed to have the little Taipei Taiwan temple just 20 minutes away from us.

                                                         

Elders Die in Tiapei Taiwan Mission
Sad news from here.  Two Elders were found dead in their apartment on Saturday (8/23/2014)  They had missed an appointment.  A new member found them when they didn't show or answer their phone.  Other missionaries began to be worried.  Looks like carbon manoxide poisoning.  The Mission President and his wife are in our ward.  President and Sister Day and all the missionaries are having a difficult time with their passing.  We heard on Sunday of their passing, but I didn't know which mission it was in.  There are three missions in Taiwan, Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Taipei.  Our friends, the Brinley's, son is serving in the Taichung Taipei mission.  He has been out just over a year.  We heard one of the elders was from Utah and I was worried it might be him.  We later found out it was not Elder Brinley.  We did get to meet these two special Elders when we first arrived (Adam doesn't think we did... but I think I remember them) and I pray for comfort to be with their families.  We have been asked as a ward to pray for their families and the missionaries they left behind. We are also praying for President Day and Sister Day.  This has been a hard few days for them.  What a blessing it is to know they are living again with Heavenly Father and their families will see them again. Families are Forever!  Adam felt impressed to pack our carbon monoxide alarm, so we have it in our condo.  Monday we had Elder Richardson and Elder Wilson over for FHE and dinner.  It was such a nice evening with them. We are hoping the missionaries are as big a part of our lives here as they were in Singapore.  We love the missionaries.  I made chicken enchiladas, salad, spanish rice, black beans and wacky-cake!  Elders were super excited, neither had had food like this for over a year.  At the end of the night we sent them home with Wacky-cake, left over potato salad and meat balls and fettuccini.  They buy all their meals here every day and rarely eat with the members. They were super excited to have something other than Chinese food (noodles)!  Here they don't have dinner appointments usually.  Batteen's are here. That is going to change!

Elder Connor Benjamin Thredgold, 19, Spirngville, UT & Elder Yu Peng Xiong, 24, Kaohsiung,TW

Good New from here....
The girls felt the need for some animals.  Yes animals.  Really not my thing in a condo.. But.. the night before school started we walked down to the bird store (about 3miles round-trip) and bought some tiny cute little finches.  I really do enjoy their happy little sounds.  They are very quiet.  We had them about a week and now there are 2 little eggs in their nest!  WHAT have we got ourselves into?  Girls are so excited!  YIPPEE!  Next they want baby turtles!  Can you tell they are country girls?

I have been invited to join several expat women's groups.  One meets on Mondays to ride the many bike trails in Taipei.  I am a bit worried I won't be able to keep up.  This Monday they rode 18 miles! The same group meets on Wednesday and hikes the trails in the jungles around Taipei.  This week was 30mins. of stair climbing then somewhat flat trails along the ridges of the mountains.  I am not worried about going up the stairs- just down. My hip gives out when it gets tried and I fall. (thanks to an injury during Lacie's delivery)  Adam has had to let me hold his shoulder and go down in front of me on the hikes we have done.  SO I'm a little worried about that one.  My new friend from Sweden, Jeanette and I might try them and be the slow ones in the back! :)  I met Jeanette at some of the pre-school appointments.  I like her very much.  Tuesday another group (a lot from ward in each of these) meets at the American Club for a choir practice. They perform around Taiwan.  So lots of invites, now what to do?

Adam is super busy with travel to Southern Taiwan and sub-cons here.  They treat him very well!  Even had a private car for him this week to send him home in. They want him/Micron happy!  The sub-cons are often sending us gifts. Some are good and some are not so good.  Not sure what to do with all the tea, the moon-cakes, and the pineapple cakes.  Most know he doesn't drink tea, so they send moon cakes and fruit.  He is liking his job and settling into it.  It is nice to have him around some days with him working from our condo.  We even get to have lunch together sometimes and he is here almost every morning to get girls off to school.  That is something that has never happened in all their lives.  Nice change after so much time apart.  If nothing else that was worth the move here.

Things I love about Taiwan...
There are families here!  In Singapore you didn't see families very much.  Here you always see little families.  Granted it is not the huge Idaho or Utah families but you see Mom, Dad, Baby or maybe 2 or even 3 kids.  Now that is a trick on a scooter.  I have been trying to get a picture.  They are stinking fast! Every morning I walk to school with 100's of other mom's and dad's doing the same thing.  I love to watch them gently tossel a child's hair or wipe a face.  I also see a deep tenderness for the elderly here.  Every day I see adult children caring for an aging parent.  They walk arm in arm down the sidewalk or you often see them holding an umbrella over them to provide shade in the terrible heat.  It touches me and I am grateful for such a tender people. 

I love Costco!  Not like home but still a bit of home.  They even have US prices!  Huge here where everything is so expensive.  We go about every 2 weeks.  Never loved those hotdogs like I do here!:)

When there is no place to eat you eat at your cart! 

Taiwan Moment...
Here everyone sorts their trash into recyclables, paper or cardboard, cans, glass and food waste. Which is used to feed the animals of Taiwan.(food is)  We are lucky- in the basement of our condo are cans to put our trash in and a freezer for the food scraps (you even do this in restaurants) Most people go out to meet the trash trucks (Boone you would love the garage trucks here, they come every day!)  You know they are here because you hear the music which sounds like the ice cream man in the US! :) 

Ghost Month just ended.  It started 27 July and ended the 24 of August.  During this month we often saw elaborate banquets layed out for the spirits of their dead ancestors.  People burn hell notes- paper effigies of money, houses, cars, clothes, toys, scooters, games, candy, etc, etc to send to their dead family members in Hell.  There is a lot of incense burned and parades.  The Taipei American School even opened up the gates (to let the bad spirits out) and put up their own banquet table feast for the spirits.  It was full of things children like to eat.  What I found interesting is all the elaborate things are all made of paper- just to burn.  Clothing, cars, computers, iPhones extra.  Here are few photos from celebrations around Taiwan.



Below is an interesting explanation of  Ghost Festival from the point of view of one who believes it.

What is Hungry Ghost Festival? 
It is the festival that the god from hell (god that guards the world below the earth) opens the door of Hell. It is called Phor Tor or Yu Lan Sheng Hui (盂兰盛会,it is read as yú but not mèng. They are different Chinese character that look similar.) as well that means to release souls from suffering or transgression (超度in Chinese, web translated into English). To Chinese like me, we're educated to be more cautious during this month as it is a month that most the souls were release that sometimes are meant to be back for revenge or take lives to substitute them on facing what they are suffering. Travelling around and celebration should be avoided.

What do we do during this festival?
For Buddhist, we read mantra or some might even hire monk to read mantra to make the souls able to undergone transgression and soon reincarnate. As Taoist, we burn paper shoes, paper clothes, paper treasure, Hell Notes which is consider normal.

Paper treasure, - See more at: http://alisonous.blogspot.tw/2012/08/ghost-month.html#sthash.0uyCleVP.dpuf

That is all from the Batteens for this week... stay tuned for the next episode of Taiwan craziness!