Expat Living

I completed 35 years of my existence today and one feels that somewhere you are half way through considering an average life expectancy of about 70 years.

I thought it would be a good time to look forward immediate and far beyond and review the past...

And I was lucky as a good neighbour of mine have taken the girls to play at her house with their daughter so that I can think and update my blog which I would definitely want to read when I am seventy hopefully Google keeps it free still....

When I looked back I have spent my life over in 5 places...I have considered only places where I lived at least a year.

Kochi - the place I grew up till I was 10 and went on to do 6 years of college and the city I met my wonderful husband.

Ooty - I spent a year in a boarding school.- really dont have too many memories..

Kodaikanal - most of my middle school and high school - yet another boarding school.

Bangalore - my entire working life( about 10 years) and first 8 years of married life.A city we would live in if we were to live in India....great memories... good friends....

Singapore - 2 years of my life - which I enjoyed - motherhood - and opened my eyes to beyond what India had to offer. - one of the most fulfilling experiences meeting different people with varied culture every day...I did every course I could lay hands on and tried every thing you can from home ....my horizons of thought have definitely gone far and wide, and I have begun to understand a job is not all that life needs to be successful....people have been successful even working from home and I met atleast half of them while I was in Singapore...great inspirers!

Taipei - soon will be a year - fulltime home maker doubling up as maid too....and living in a land where no one understands your language and sometimes coping with challenges to how to get to a shop considering the taxi driver has to be told where to go in Chinese.Any little information helps here to get things done...

Life is now at a stage....career hardly matters....yet the innate urge to be successful beyond family matters still lies deep within my heart also I feel if I dont put in practice all the life skills I picked up at Singapore its just not right...My husband has indeed been a constant source of encouragement and shows immense faith something will come out of it all. I often wonder where he gets his deep conviction from...


Yet the priorities on family...bogs me down everyday and they look endless...
Getting Riona to read well is the top most at the moment...and its driving me crazy daily....I am not sure how I coped with Tanya but I think focusing on one child and having a helper may have helped...at the moment coping with two kids in an alien environment has been challenging and I keep consoling myself nothing else should take priority...
and getting Riona to where Tanya is at 7 is the real goal so I am doing what it takes as there is very little help you can find in Taipei in terms of classes and avenues to go for enrichment courses for kids...

I sometimes feel you may be assessed finally by your kids by what you did for them as a child....or I guess you will assess yourself where your kids are 20-30 years from now.

Today Tanya can fare decently in all her academic pursuits.
She can sing well , dance well , draw and paint well play piano to a limited extent , swim well, skate including ice skating. She can speak Malayalam and can read and write Hindi apart from English. She probalby can say about 100 words in Chinese too...These are some basic life skills and I am grateful to God every time I see my daughter doing any of these activities...I still know she needs to learn cycling and one sport, yet they are desires and things I want my daughters to know...but hopefully that will happen when we are in a English speaking environment.

So getting Riona to this level is top priority and the challege seems endless...2/3 years from now I hope I can see Riona do all of these.

Apart from that I remember countries we have seen as a family.

India
Srilanka
Singapore
Malaysia
Brunei
Taiwan
Japan
Hongkong


We have great memories of these trips and every time Sedj packs for a business trip these days you can hear a prompt question from the kids .." Papa are we going to another country to live?"

Moving places have already become a part of their life ...and they know they need to adapt....Tanya is already convinced that she has to make use of opportunities she gets...she often remembers and appreciates some of the classes like art / drama she attended and even says they were so good.....Riona is still lost but knows we wont be in Taipei for ever and keeps wondering which would be the next city.

So all in all I had a quiet day at home yet noisy with 3 kids ( my daughters and a friend's son ) all day playing at home and my husband thousands of miles away.....
Tanya wondered couple of times amidst her playing why Mama didnt cut a cake and Riona was "obviously oblivion" but they had a great time whole day blowing bubbles, playing with balloons, drawing sketches of tigers and boats....

I have learnt to thank my God for each wonderful day.....and to have these great relationships as a family...