flooding, zoo and art museum

Wow!! We had an absolute downpour last night, and schools and offices are closed today. It took us volunteers at Dada School awhile to figure out it was because of flooding...in Zhongli, the tunnel under the train station was flooded. So, they went to Taipei on the bus, and I'm here anticipating Tom returning to Taiwan tonight to finish things up and HEAD HOME!! (source of picture: michaelturton.blogspot.tw) The chorus this week at my visits with the kids was, "Where is ge ge (older brother)"? He was missed, but we muddled through!!! The original Children's Art Museum plan mentioned in a previous post worked out this time around, so Mei-Yun,Tsung-Lin, Mei, our translator and I all traipsed off to the museum. It was wonderfully interactive and hands-on: costumes, a stamp for every area, puzzles, computer art games, an Alice in Wonderland play area complete with visual tricks to the eye, and their favorite, the food preparation and cafe area. (big benefit of going to a place like this was seeing what they gravitated to...now we'll go home and get our tea set and fake food). It also bodes well for future food preparation at our house--more helpers!!! GOTOVIDEO Mei-Yun is a pretty sensitive little girl, and if there is a Chinese speaker around, she's there. BUT, when the translator wasn't around, she was just fine--she'd talk and interact with me more willingly, so just trying to give her a little space. I did a sleepover at Han-han's on Sunday and met the South African family who fostered him on the weekends for a year...fun to hear about that. Then we went to the zoo on Monday-HOT and HUMID! lots of running and stopping for snacks and singing and talking about elephants. Han-han loves music, evidenced by this video clip of him singing about giraffes. GOTOVIDEO Another heartwarming moment on the zoo trip...walking in the train station, Han-han saw another little boy holding his mom's hand and said to her, "This is MY mom." so far, so good!