Amy’s third birthday

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DSC06997 DSC06999This year we celebrated Amy’s birthday three times. On her actual birthday we as a family have been on vacation. Besides presents and birthday cake, we enjoyed our time in the hot springs and flew a kite on the beach. One week later we celebrated Amy’s birthday in her preschool. Once a month they have a birthday party for all the kids whose birthday is in that month. The parents and siblings are invited to join the birthday party. We also ate cake and the kids who celebrated their birthday got a present. Not long ago we celebrated Amy’s birthday at home. We planned to invite two girls from Amy’s preschool with their families. But because the both told us last minute that they could not come, we invited some young people from our church to eat birthday cake and make German Christmas cookies.
We are very grateful that God gave us Amy and for all the time that we could already spend with her.

Excursion with Amy’s preschool

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Last Saturday we went with Amy’s preschool to a small farm. Amy usually goes on excursion with her preschool once or twice a month and sometimes the parents can join them. We played ​​some games, made crafts, looked at the animals and plants and baked pizza together. Our Chinese is now good enough to understand what is going on (most of the time at least 😉 ) and to talk with the other parents and teachers.
It was a great day and it was good to have the opportunity to get to know the preschool teachers, other parents and children better. One mother even can speak German :).

Moon Festival

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In September the moon festival (also called midautum festival) was celebrated in Taiwan. The festival is celebrated according to the moon calendar at the time of the first autumn full moon. There are two holidays where all the families come together for BBQ. During the holidays everywhere in the parks and streets was the smell and sight of BBQ. One evening we barbequed with Amy’s kindergarten and the following two evenings we have been invited by our neighbors. There was hour-long BBQ including different meat, fish, seafood and vegetables. It was really delicious and we are already looking forward to the moon festival next year. But for now we need first to work out a bit to get the body back in shape…

Thermal Valley

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A while ago one of our friends took us to a little trip to Thermal Valley in Beitou, a suburb of Taipei. There is a littler river running down the valley into the city which looks normal but actually consist of hot thermal water. Following the river upstream leads to a steaming pond of nearly boiling water that looks really impressing.

Receipt Lottery

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Won! We won $200 in the receipt lottery!
OK, Taiwan dollar, unfortunately its only about 5 Euros (7 USD). But at least there is finally a payoff, after setting aside hundreds of receipts and checking the numbers. In Taiwan each sales receipt has a number on it and every two months there is a big lottery draw. If you have the super receipt, then you’re lucky. If at least the 3 last numbers match, then you are getting a 200 Taiwan dollars prize.
Well, seems we’ll have to go shopping even more, so that we might increase our chance to get the big prize one day…

New Family Life

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It has already been more than a month that we posted anything. We are really busy at the moment getting used to a family life of four and finding a new rhythm. Regarding the Taiwanese culture, Simone can now, one month after giving birth, leave the house again. Traditionally Taiwanese women have to spend the first month at home to rest. They are cared for by their family, eat special things, such as chicken soup and do not wash the hair. Today not every Taiwanese woman is doing all of that anymore. Nevertheless, many times when Simone left the house for example to pick up Amy from preschool, we got well-intentioned advice from different people.
We are very happy to have Anna with us now, but it is also a big challenge. Especially the nights are sometimes hard. We hope that we will not have to get used to this and that it changes soon ;). Simone also has to find a new daily routine, in which also the Chinese learning has its place. Twice a week, one of Simone’s teachers comes to our home now. This is really great!
Amy is a very proud big sister. She often wants to hold Anna and cuddle with her. If Anna is crying, she quickly goes to her giving her the pacifier or singing a lullaby for her. She is also a big helper with changing Anna’s diapers :). It’s great to see how much she loves her little sister. Sometimes she is also a little bit jealous ;), but not too much :). We are very thankful for God giving us this great gift of our two lovely girls!

Preschool

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Since February, I am now going to a Taiwanese preschool. It was a big change for me (and of course for mommy and daddy, too). But now I really enjoy going there and my Chinese has already improved a lot. With the kids on the playground I try to speak in Chinese and even at home I sometimes talk to mommy and daddy in Chinese or tell them how to say a word in Chinese. Sometimes I ‘m even use correct small sentences. Mommy and daddy are sometimes quite amazed about what I already can say in Chinese ;).
Every morning at 9 o’clock I go to preschool. Daddy brings me there because mommy is already in school. Like all the other kids, I wear a “preschool jogging suit”. The other kids always say hello to me at the door and are happy to see me. In preschool, we do a lot of different things. We play, sing, dance, go to the playground in the park next to the preschool, do sports, and sometimes we even go on a trip. Last Saturday for example, we went together with our moms and dads in a chocolate factory.
I ‘m also eating lunch in preschool. Almost every day we have soup, rice, vegetables and meat. At first I did not always want to eat that. So I told mommy at home that I would not like to eat rice, but noodles and tortellini. But now it does not bother me anymore and I think it tastes quiet good. The other kids then take a nap, but mommy picks me up at 12:30pm. It’s really nice that I can do so many great things with all the other kids.

Taiwanese Dumplings

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Food is very important here. Taiwanese love good food. There is one dish called “Dumplings” (chinese: “JiaoZi”). Recently, two women from our church taught me how to make such “JiaoZi”. Pasta dough is filled with a mixture of ground beef, cabbage, spring onions… Then you boil or fry them. You can eat them with soy sauce or a mixture of Chinese vinegar and chili paste.
It tastes really delicious! Also Amy loves JiaoZi. When a short time later another friend gave us some homemade JioaZi, Amy was very excited about that. Of course she would not eat them with a spoon, but with her chopsticks. In the meantime, this works quite well :).