A Surreal Life

So I'm in Taiwan. My full time job is my son. My part time job is maintaining sanity. One of the sweetest things my husband has said to me-on a day when things were not going well at the part-time job was, Aly, you are not a woman of leisure. He knows. He appreciates me. He loves me. THAT is pretty awesome. Wyatt and I have been here just a little over a month now. Sometimes I'll stop in the middle of what we're doing and look around in complete disbelief. The Lord works in mysterious ways indeed.... I mean, we're in Taiwan. HOLY CRAP.
A month can teach you some pretty crazy things. Let me share some of the things I've learned thus far..... you know, to spare any of you reading any potential stress should you come here upon receiving your tax refunds. I want you to feel prepared.
I've learned that:
*I like watching MacGyver. ALOT. We don't have cable, so a great deal of what we watch is what we order through our apple TV off of iTunes. This being the case, we have started ordering the seasons of MacGyver...and I love him. I do. I confess.
P.S. My husband is privy to this information.
In addition, being that our son is not the most coordinated, my hope is he can pick up some sweet Mac skills. He too is a fan. Great clean family fun right there. (Note: we are NOT giving Wyatt a pocket knife)
*I am not ashamed to say that I go to the McDonald's play-land. It is what it is. If we go there multiple times a week- so be it. I don't have to necessarily buy food every time I'm there, but for months at a time it rains here and the play-land is cheap and guarantees an instantaneous playmate for my kid....and some reading time for me.
* Food here is NOT made to order. What you see is what you get. There is no arguing, no attempts at using persuasive hand gestures or wasting your breath. Wyatt: I want chocolate cream (instead of the vanilla and strawberry that it shows the clown face ice cream having in the picture). We order with two chocolate scoops instead. It comes. Wyatt is crestfallen. It is strawberry and vanilla. Me: We ordered this with chocolate- Waitress: But that doesn't look like the picture.  Chocolate will not be pretty.  SERIOUSLY??? They do NOT make a plain cheese pizza here. But I can't stop trying. I WILL NEVER STOP TRYING!!!!!
* Crosswalks- The little green guys with the seconds underneath that indicate you should go are actually ticking time bombs towards your up and coming demise. Yup. The green men on the signs actually start running faster when the seconds get closer to 0. They're trying to get away as well.
* I need to remain diligent in making/maintaing friendships. This is a lot harder for me than I thought. I'm wayyyyy more anti-social then I had been giving myself credit for.

Oh Sure. DIY.

* I need to embrace my surroundings, the people (not literally), the culture, the food,the language, the environment- otherwise my time here would be completely wasted. What is the point of running all over Taiwan trying to find what I would be using in the United States. (Not to say I won't have a big fat juicy burger at Chili's every now and then, or stop looking for a slice of cheese pizza). Otherwise, I need to give it up. It takes too much energy and is just way to frustrating. Case in point. I wanted to bake little Valentines Day cakes the other night. Now should I pay 3X the amount for a Duncan Hines mix when there is a perfectly good Taiwanese cake mix next to it that said cake powder? LET IT GO. I got the box I couldn't read, got some help from my Mandarin teacher... and guess what? It tasted like cake. This one is going to be a challenge, but I'm determined not to be some kind of ethnocentric egomaniac.
* I really need to lighten up. I believe that Will thinks this is one of the reasons we're here. I'm wound pretty tight- I'm not disillusioned by this aspect of myself either- I've got enough self-awareness to know I should have started taking Xanax a while ago. With the Lord's help, perhaps I can start to loosen up a bit. My schedule's not stressful- at this point I'm not over committed and "yessing" myself into a black hole.- This is a whole new beginning- it's me coming to the full realization that I'M NOT THE ONE IN CONTROL. It's also OK to enjoy myself while I'm here. Time goes fast. I'm not being disloyal to my parents, friends or animals if I actually like it here a little. I can just let go and play with Wyatt. I need to enjoy him while I have him with me...and while he still kinda likes me. WOW. sorry guys. I feel like there's a lot of self- talk here.
*After that big spiel on embracing my surroundings, I think that adjusting to the bathrooms here will never happen. End of story. You will have to visit to know what I'm talking about. Pure GA-Ross-ness. ughhghghgh.
* Ditching the car and walking/biking everywhere is AWESOME. It is amazing the things you miss by driving in a car. Riding on the bike helps you to take it all in, and perhaps another passenger if they don't move out of my way quick enough.
* The sun does come out here!!! Some days you just have to look a little harder for it.