Just at dinner tonight, I said to friends, “Now that I’m back in Taipei, I don’t ever want to leave!”
My declaration was met with overwhelming enthusiasm from the dinner party. Naturally, because everyone’s living here by choice. It’s the small things here that make life easier. If i have to choose one thing that I love the most about living in Taipei, it has to be the convenience of the life style. And what’s so convenient about living here? Everything!
Just watching the facebook live broadcast of the Hong Kong protests, Yeah I would want to too.
I’ve been getting a lot of questions from friends, acquaintances, or just followers on the blog about how to relocate the family to Taiwan. To be honest, for me it’s not a question of relocation, it’s more like homecoming. I’m Taiwanese so I didn’t have to worry about getting a work visa or resident visa; I have residency, we have an apartment, I know my way around the city, and have a good network of support as well – I have a guy, or know a guy who knows a guy for every odd type of job there is. So the only big decision was choosing the right school for the kids.
Hi everyone this is my first blog! In this following blog, I will tell you all about my new school because I just moved to Taipei for the first two weeks. My mom told me to blog about it even though I don’t like blogging and I never tried it before.
Anyways, my first fourteen days at this elementary school has been long and hard. They are doing math my level, they are not doing English my level. However,Chinese is a harder level, so I have to keep up on both. What I’m trying to say is that its been hard on the Chinese but easy on the English and normal on the math. In the first day of the second week, I passed the English test, so I have to sit down and read an English book in English class. Talking about books, where I go every recess is to see Ashley (my younger sister) or to the library which is often sometimes where I see her when we are bored, we go into this section in the library where you have to take your socks off, then we have a competition on who can slide on the floor the farthest.
Dear Blog,
I can explain. I know it’s been a while since I blogged or posted anything, but I have a few very good reasons. So, just hear me out…
I gave birth.
Yeah, so shortly after my last post… a month to be exact. I found out that I was pregnant with no. 3. So I was busy being pregnant, working and mothering. And then I gave birth, and life with 3 kids and a full time job was even more hectic.
I change jobs and moved.
I had a career change. I knew I was ready for a change after my last maternity leave. I knew I wanted to work in tech but in what capacity? An opportunity to return to Taipei came up and I jumped at the chance. It meant relocation but we were talking about it for so long, it is finally happening! And so, three years and 1 kid later, I’m back in Taiwan, working in tech, and the kids are settling into a brand new life. All is good except for one minor detail – the husband is not here with us. He’s going to be commuting back to Taiwan on weekends while based in Hong Kong for his job. It sucks I know. But sometimes when life gives you lemons, you make lemonades.
The kids have switched schools
One of the key drivers for moving back to Taiwan is for my children’s education. In Hong Kong, my eldest went to an international school, while the second went to a local school. We wanted a good mix of bilingual education and weren’t getting it from the private school and obviously not the local school. Taiwan seems like a great option. I purposely picked a school in our school district that touts its English education in the curriculum. I’m happy to share that both Max and Ashley will be in the same school, same campus for the first time ever. I purposely enrolled them in the local schools because I truly believe that this is the best way to learn Mandarin, adapt to a new culture and, did I mention the cost? Oh yeah, it’s free. What I’ll be paying for is the after school programs that they will attend after school ends at 1pm for the 1st grader, and 3 for the 4th grader. School starts this Friday. I’m excited. They are scared.
So there you have it! 3 really good reasons for not posting for 3 years. But don’t worry. I will try to post more often now. I’ve even enlisted the help of a 4th grader who will be sharing his journey in a new school with us. In exchange for blogging, he can have some video game time. His sister will get some too, as soon as she learns to write and type.
We want to share this blog with our friends and family from near and afar who want to check in on us once in a while to see how we’re doing. Most importantly, this blog will document the days that we’re not living under the same roof as daddy.
This truly is our love letter to him. Thank you for making the sacrifice for the family.
xoxoxo,
Mommy, no. 1, 2, and 3
最近兩個新聞都讓我認真思考「媽寶」這件事。
一個是王大陸要跟經紀公司解約，另外一個是小Ｓ跟Makiyo聊天時，說前男友羅志祥太在乎家人，太care媽媽。
先講王大陸好了，一位二十四歲的男明星初嚐到走紅的滋味，反過頭來要求跟經紀公司解約，因為他說一直不適應公司的「文化」和「謠言」。爸爸曾出面跟經紀人談解約，但是和解書上面註明，如果男明星不同意內容，和解書就不成立。果然，王大陸不點頭，所以和解無效，現在只好對薄公堂，走法律程序。
但是這就奇怪了，攸關自己演藝事業的重要大事，為何還要請請爸爸出來幫你談？你說他是小孩子嗎？其實二十四歲，是個成年人了。如果都成年了，為何還要請爸媽出面，幫他解決事情？可能是習慣使然，就是不管出了事，爸媽會挺身而出，幫孩子排除萬難，讓他們前面的路平平順順。當然，王大陸在經紀公司這幾年發生的事情，如果有受到委屈，當事人不講，外界也不得而知，可是合約精神不就是這樣？用一張紙約束雙方，for better or worse,我們就是命運共合體，藝人不能事業一不順遂，就想要離開公司，經紀人也不能因為花了太多錢捧這個藝人，可是他怎麼樣都不紅，就請他快點滾！如果是這樣的話，那還要簽那張合約幹嘛？
Last Christmas Eve, I ran home and out of the blue wrote a column that my friend Michael had been encouraging me to write. After finishing it, I sent to him and asked for some suggestions and constructive criticisms. He said, “Great, I’ll publish it in 1 hour”. I replied frantically, “No, no, no! It’s not ready yet. I’m not ready yet.” Michael told me, “you will be ready when it goes on line. Otherwise, you will never be ready”.
I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted and written anything. The truth is, October was extremely hectic and stressful for me. The bad news is, I had to deal with a health scare of a close family member. I’ve had to travel back and forth between Taipei and Hong Kong. The good news is that she’s fully recovered and we’re so thankful that she’s okay.
I love surprises – good surprises that is. I love watching movie stars surprising their fans, Oprah surprising her audience members with a free trip to Australia, or Ellen DeGeneres surprising a school teacher with a $10,000 check from Target. Surprises gets me every time. Although surprises don’t come that often in my life, my girlfriends from Taiwan gave me one of the best surprises this weekend, as I was heading to our regular Girls Night Out dinner on Friday night.
話說，我最喜歡看明星surprise fans, 或是歐普拉surprise 忠實觀眾，送她們一張免費機票，然後全場high 翻，哭著抱成一團，當然在現實生活中，我想強尼戴普不會來敲門，劉德華應該不會唱歌給我聽，我還在癡癡等待歐普拉送我一棟房子，不過，幸虧我有一群超級貼心的死黨姐妹淘！今年給了我即將到來的里程碑生日一個最棒的禮物.
I love having professional photos taken of the kids. When you look at your kids through someone else’s lenses, you always find something that you haven’t notice before.
This summer is a special one because we decided that finally, it’s time for Max to go and stay with Grandpa/Grandma in Canada for 2 weeks by himself. He was going to fly there with them, Mom and Dad will pick him up at the end of two weeks. Mei Mei, however, didn’t go because she’s still my little baby girl. Before Max left for his summer adventure in Canada, I found a photographer within a day, thanks to the power of “HK Moms”, a Facebook group. I booked a professional photo session for the kids and the grandparents with Paula, a fellow HK mom and a professional photographer. This was my “Thank You” gift to the Grandparents for all the free babysitting that we were getting. Here are some of the photos that I LOVED.
今年的暑假對小麥而言，好像是他的成年禮一樣。 因為我們終於答應讓他跟爺爺奶奶飛去加拿大，住上兩個禮拜，然後爸爸媽媽跟妹妹再飛去跟他會合。之前我們總是擔心他太小，會想家或者是不習慣，ㄟ爸爸媽媽想太多了，小麥簡直是玩瘋了，每天的節目都非常豐富，晒得跟小黑人一樣，我想要離開加拿大之前，他可能會嚎啕大哭，跟我說他不想回香港吧！
在他離開之前，我在香港找了位攝影師，讓她去捕捉小麥和小艾這個年紀的神韻，而透過她的鏡頭，我的寶貝看起來淘氣，調皮，看起來天真無邪，可是看完整組照片，媽媽也很感慨，因為『我的寶貝真的長大了』！
就是這個新加坡廣告，引起許多媽媽們不滿，紛紛上網幹譙。
原本廣告訴求只是要提醒新加坡的外傭僱主們，讓外傭一個星期至少放假一天，因為許多在新加坡工作的外籍家傭，一個月只休假一兩天，有些甚至完全沒休假。近幾年政府才明文規定，家傭應一個星期放假ㄧ天，但還是有很多僱主不遵守規定。於是這個廣告找來了ㄧ群母親和她們的外傭，請她們回答一些關於孩子的問題，然後播出孩子的答案。結果在廣告中所呈現出的，是外傭一面性壓倒勝利，答對了所有問題，對小朋友的大事小事都暸如指掌，最後一張黑底白字的字卡出現，寫著『請給予家傭她們法定性的休假日』。
我看完廣告第一個反應是，『這個廣告也太歧視女性了吧？！』 首先，它把照顧小朋友的責任都歸咎於媽媽以及外傭身上，那爸爸是在幹嘛？ 爸爸都不用負責照顧小孩嗎？ 再來，這邏輯也很奇怪，因為如果母親沒有答對答案，就表示妳不太瞭解小朋友，所以妳應該讓外傭休假。 但是試問，如果母親若答對所有問題，是否就表示外傭不需要放假？ 我討厭這廣告的另外一個原因，可能是因為它觸痛我這位職場媽媽內心的最深恐懼 – 小孩跟外傭關係緊密更勝過於我。
deartaipeilovehongkong.com 