Happy 8/8 Day!

 One thing I love is learning about new holidays I never knew I could be celebrating! This past Thursday was one of those days: August 8th (8/8) is the Chinese Father's Day because the number 8 [ba] sounds like Daddy--which is "ba ba." How cool is that!

Ryley made this poster which shows "ba ba" written out in characters.








I made this poster, of course in honor of Ben, but also to try and impress my new Chinese tutor. It says "fu qin jie kuai le" which is the more formal way to say "Happy Father's Day." This poster had several draft attempts and the assistance of a much repeated character stroke-order website animation :)









Julien also had his Ba Ba day contribution: he made this card at school. He made sure Ben knew that he had given him teeth so he could eat and "nose holes" so he could breathe.






 


As a grand finale to the day--and this was Thursday, mind you, the day that the honeymoon officially ended when Julien wouldn't go to school, and my tutoring lesson was in 2 minutes increments between all 3 kids crying/fighting/climbing on me, and a full awareness of my true burden on Taiwanese society started to sink in as all I could do was mutely smile and shake my head as the OK-Mart cashier talked at me and the apartment guard talked at me and the City Super clerk talked at me--but seeing as it was Ba Ba day, I stuck to the plan of meeting Ben at a Chinese dumpling restaurant close to our home after he got off work. The day still deserved to be celebrated.

I had scoped the place out the day before and noticed a long line to be seated, and fearing that Father's Day would be even worse, the plan was for the kids and I to go early to get our names on the list and then Ben would meet us there. But this simple plan actually had me quite nervous, especially as my nerves were already rather raw from the day's sequence of events. Here are a few highlights of the misfortunes and good fortunes that shaped our evening:

- misfortune: I still don't have a phone (have to wait until my resident card comes) so I needed to keep a watch out for Ben's email saying he was leaving work and that was our go signal to head out to the restaurant. Man, I miss my cell phone!

- good fortune: The hostess taking names for the reservation list spoke some English, I was thereby able to clarify, with only minor difficulties, that we in fact needed a table for 4 people and 1 baby because their father was on his way.

- misfortune: After a significant amount of uneventful waiting time, when our table could have been called at any moment or Ben could have come and would need to find us at the spot I told him we'd be, Julien decided an urgent, non-negotiable bathroom break was needed.
 - good fortune: I remembered to stick my Chinese phrase book in my purse, so when I couldn't find the bathroom and the first person I tried to ask didn't speak any English, I was able to point to the "where are the restrooms?" phrase and get the needed information.


- good fortune: We made it back to the restaurant waiting area before our table was called, plus there was the good fortune of knowing when our table was called because of a display board with the numbers being called (there's no way I could have understood the number 5014!)

- good fortune: As we were being seated, I mentioned that my husband should be there any moment and asked if they could bring him back to our table. The hostess was about to take his name but hesitated and asked if he were Taiwanese or American. Then, knowing that she would be watching for a conspicuous foreigner, she put her pen down and just nodded--no problem.

- misfortune: Theo's baby chair didn't have a buckle to secure him down and even with one hand on him at all times, he managed to reach over to the table next to us and knock over their soy sauce bottle (And they laughed at the "ke ai" [cute] little child! Which only encouraged him!)

- good fortune: my purse has a detachable strap that was able to be wound around him and the chair to limit his escape'ability and allow me to focus on my chopsticks.

-misfortune: Theo managed to get all tangles up in his efforts to escape.









-good fortune: The walk back to our apartment is really pretty at night. The trees are all lit up and it isn't even Christmas time! Although Ba Ba day would have deserved such an exceptional show of festivity, the tree embellishments are actually a constant benefit from the mall that's a couple of buildings away from us. Nice.