We started Mandarin lessons last week. They are interesting. The method we are following was developed by a Chinese linguist. She teaches language the way children learn; spoken first and then later we worry about writing and spelling. It is not easy but at least the grammar rules make sense and there aren't a lot of verb tenses to worry about so far. By the end of the second lesson we were asking simple questions and answering them in short sentences. It is challenging to hear the four tones but I have developed a method for remembering how to speak them during the sound drills. The first tone is like a tuning note. It should be firm and not wavering up or down. The second tone is the "Valley Girl" tone. It ends with an upward tilt like a perpetual question. Next is the "valley girl" goes Midwest. It starts then drops but recovers with the lilt. The fourth tone is all downhill. The punctuation mark is downward like one half of a frowning eyebrow. It isn't really an angry tone but it is a downer. Of course there is the "no" tone or the straight phonetic pronunciation of the sound. I never really understood phonics as a kid either. Of course none of this is valuable since the sounds have to be combined in order to make intelligible sentences.

We'll see how it goes.

Today is the second day that I haven't gone outside at all. It is rainy and cool but I tackled several days like this in Taipei, in December. So what is different? I think that I am having sympathy cabin-fever based on the snow, sleet, and ice storms swirling through North Texas and Oklahoma. As I catch the "local" (for Dallas anyways) news and they are predicting more problems on the roadways with ice conditions, I mentally run my checklist to see whether or not we have enough food to make it through the day. I suppose that I really need a reality check since there won't be snow and ice here; if only because the temperature is in the high 50's. Maybe I'll restate the temperature to the high teen's in Celsius. There, I don't look like a wimp now. It is genuinely cold, or not. For now, I guess I'll just blame the reluctance to go out on jet lag and the cold I picked up in Las Vegas.

It has been really hard to keep current with my blog. My laptop has been non-functional since the end of November. Although it was built in Taiwan, it is an American name brand so I had to take it back to the US to have it worked on. So I took it in while I was in Texas. They replaced the motherboard but didn't fix the problem. Mark took it back to the repair center. Of course, they shipped it back two days after we left Texas. Now I am waiting to see whether anyone can ship it to me. So I am using our TV/entertainment center as a personal computer. It is harder than I imagined to work with an 37 inch screen.

Being in Texas was wonderful. We spent so much time with our friends and family. But when we got back to Taipei, Mark and I realized that we also have a home here. Everything is becoming familiar to us. We feel more settled in that we realized.

Probably the best part of returning to Texas was seeing how independent our daughters have become. It is the job of parents to raise your children right and then let them go. Letting go is the hardest part but what a joy to see that they could be independent and still be close to us. They have managed to surround themselves with good support from good friends and family. I don't think I will be as nervous about leaving them as I was during the first few months. Miss them, well I don't think that a parent ever gets over that part.

We have been blessed with wonderful weather, warm and sunny, to help ease our transition back. Oklahoma and Texas have been blessed with cold and ice. Sometimes, it is nice to be somewhere else.