Problem Solving a.k.a. Life Before Smartphones

Things are moving very fast here in Taipei, much faster than when we moved to Shanghai.  In Shanghai, we literally knew only one other couple for the 3 weeks until school started.  The girls were little and still had naps every day and getting a meal on the table was just about the only thing I could accomplish in a day for a very long time.  We didn't start exploring for quite a few weeks.

In Taipei, however, we were introduced to a whole bunch of fun and welcoming people the first weekend.  I mentioned in another blog that it was fantastic to talk to other adults and soak up some knowledge about living here.  But equally important was the chance for the kids to meet new friends.  And then we were generously invited to playdates at a variety of pools this week.  It's been such a blessing because it's been 95-100 every day and just walking two blocks in this heat and humidity takes it out of us.  A pool with new friends is just the thing for revival!

One of the challenges of contacting people and confirming playdates and locations and pick-up times etc is my phone.  I have a borrowed phone, and I'm incredibly grateful for that because without it I would have nothing.  But the phone is not a smart phone and it doesn't have data.  So it's strictly calling or texting...and texting is the old-fashioned way, withOUT predictive text. Almost as much as I miss the ability to text efficiently, I miss having a map program!  Or even having a paper map of the Tienmu area where we live.  There are google maps, but we have no printer as of yet, so I can't print one out.  And you can't buy a map of the area.  It makes getting around a little complicated, you basically have to walk til you find what you're looking for, not an easy task in this heat with little ones in tow.

Yesterday we were invited to a swim playdate at Zane and Cara's house.  Zane works at Intel and they are also from Portland, and we had a chance to meet Cara and their kids before moving to Taiwan.  Ironically, they also have a 4 year old named Mimi!  Our Mimi has been truly looking forward to the day when the "other" Mimi arrives in Taipei.  So yesterday we were headed to their house after G's tennis lesson.  Actually, back up, here's how the day started out:

8:30 New Parent Orientation at TAS (Taipei American School) - not supposed to take kids, but what are we going to do with them?  We pack up Livi for basketball camp, pack a backpack of stuff for the little ones to read and play quietly during orientation.

9:00 Send Olivia off to bball camp from middle of orientation meeting

9:30 Orientation done - stand in line for campus ID photo, have picture with bad frizzy hair taken, put money on Olivia's lunch card.  Joe heads to bus stop to jump on bus to work.

9:45 Walk to bakery to get more wheat bread because we're almost out...wheat bread is fresh out of oven and too hot to slice, please come back later

10:00 Home - G gathering stuff for tennis lesson, Mimi on toilet complaining of Taiwan tummy, me sitting in front of my computer looking at google maps trying to memorize the roads to get to Cara's house.  Then looking at bus routes that get us close to their house.  Think I have a plan to get us 75% of the way there on the bus before we have to walk, but the bus we need only comes by every hour.  More yelling from Mimi on the toilet, G dancing through the family room without any tennis gear...me making a sketch of the google map

10:30 Realize that if we're going to execute our bus & walk plan to playdate, need to have lunch in the 15 minutes between end of tennis lesson and catching bus.  Frantic making of peanut butter and jelly sandwich (just one, since we're out of bread) and throwing fruit and snacks into bag with swimsuits.

10:45 Out the door to tennis lessons.  As we are walking to tennis lessons in sweltering heat, realize that the walk to playdate (which looked uphill on google maps) may be bad idea.  Maybe we'll take a taxi after bus.  I have address:  No. 45, Lane 25, Dong Shan Road.  My problem is I don't know the Chinese words for "house number" and "Lane."  I can't just give the taxi driver a bunch of Chinese numbers with English words interspersed, how do I figure out how to say the whole address in Chinese?

Side note:  Why don't I have a smartphone?  Why can't I just show a taxi driver the address in Chinese on my smartphone?  Oh yes, because you cannot buy a phone plan with data until you have your ARC (Alien Resident Card).  And you cannot apply for ARC until you're in the country and then it takes 2-3 weeks from the time you apply.  Thus, why I have a borrowed phone in the meantime.

11:00 Drop G at tennis lessons, text Joe and ask him to ask colleagues at work how to say "house number" and "lane" in Chinese....15 minutes later get the answer in phonics.  Good enough, I can work with that.

11:30 G finishes tennis lessons (indoor courts with no A/C).  We sit on steps inside school in cool A/C trying to let her cool down before walking outside.  Eat our picnic lunch.

11:45 Let's go girls, we've got to catch the bus!  Walk briskly to bus stop, sweat dripping from all possible places on our bodies.  Find bus stop no problem, feeling good!  Turns out bus doesn't come for another 23 minutes, sorry for the hurry girls.  :(  Other buses coming by frequently, but I don't know exactly where they go, and the maps at the bus stop are all in Mandarin characters, no help to me.

12:15 Jump on bus.  Air Conditioning.  BLISS.  Maybe we'll just ride around on the bus all afternoon.  But alas, our stop comes...and then goes.  Bus driver doesn't stop at regular stop even though I pushed button, goes all the way down the hill and then stops.  We get off and walk back up the hill as I'm looking around for the right street.  I double back at one point trying to get a look at a street sign and Mimi starts to whine that we'll miss the playdate with other Mimi because we're lost.  "We're not lost, I'm just getting my bearings."  Then G chimes in with, "I wish Daddy were here, then we wouldn't be lost." I'm seeing red at that comment because I think I'm a pretty damn good problem solver in a foreign country, but instead of yelling, I politely say through clenched teeth, "Daddy's no better at finding his way than I am, he just has a phone with a map on it to help him out."

We find the right road at the top of the hill.  Looking at an uphill walk in 98 degree heat on a narrow road with no sidewalk and two exhausted kids.  Taxi comes by, I decide to go for it and flag the taxi.  Get in taxi, tell him address.  He shakes his head "no" and points to a detour sign at the bottom of the road.  I'm trying to tell him to take the detour, but that's no help because I'm doing it in English.

He says something else and G says "he says he can't go that way Mom" and I'm muttering to myself, "what's the words for 'other way'?" when G just starts talking to the taxi driver.  Again he tells us he can't go that way, then G tells him another car (a Mercedes, no less) just went around the detour sign.  Taxi driver follows Mercedes, YEAH!!!  Big hugs for G!!!  Speeding up hill, I keep repeating what house number we're looking for and taxi driver just keeps driving until we get to a dead end, then looks at me. He's not even helping look for the address!  I tell him go back down slowly while we look for house number.  Least helpful taxi driver I've encountered yet.

I find #45 gate, but it's next to empty lot with broken down cars and tractor, could this be their house?  We get out of taxi and I'm trying to figure out in my head how to say to some unsuspecting Taiwanese person who opens the door "Hi, I'm looking for my American friends who live at No. 45 on Lane 25?"  Luckily, it was the right house and we found Cara and Zane and Alex and Mimi.

Lovely couple hours in their pool, and even lovelier ride back to TAS in their car with their driver.

3:45 Pick up Olivia from last day of basketball camp, where she got a medal for "most improved" camper during the week.

4:00 Walk back to bakery for wheat bread.  Kids talk me into chocolate chip cookies...am wilted by heat and have no more brain power left, no ability to say no.

4:30 Make it home again.  Plop down on couch under air conditioner.  Can't move.  Joe texts that dinner plans are cancelled. Crap, need to make dinner.

5:30 Joe walks in, I'm still sitting on couch reading Facebook, CNN, email.  Children are running around like lunatics.  We're going to get complaints from neighbors below us.
Joe patiently listens to my day and even nods sympathetically in all the right places, except about the part where G wished he was with us so we wouldn't be lost.  There he gave a chuckle!  Joe graciously gives in to my whining about cooking and we head out to dinner.

God bless the Italians and the way their food is available in almost every country around the world.  A glass of wine and a brick-oven pizza revive my outlook on life in general.  Lovely stroll back to the apartment after dinner, feeling mellow and happy to have our family together and on a new adventure.  Shops are open and it's fun to look in and see what's what, we're all enjoying ourselves on a Friday night.

Stop into a bookstore next to G's new school to get her some notebooks for when her tutor comes on Monday (more on how we found her later).  Kids picking out pens and notebooks and having fun, then G mentions how at her old school they gave them all the supplies and her new school will be different.  I nod absently, and then freeze.  Oh My God.  There is going to be a school supply list, and it's going to be in Mandarin, and I'm not going to know what to get or where to get it.  Holy crap.

Mellow mood disappears, shooting panicked look at Joe.  Thank goodness I am married to the perfect partner for me.  He tells me it's a problem for another day and we'll figure it out then.  He's right, indeed we will.  And I'm sure it will be it's own adventure...