Enter the Dragon

My name is Ryan. I'm Canadian. I live in Taiwan. I work as an English teacher and I've been here since 2002. I'm married to the most wonderful Taiwanese woman in the world. Her name is Iris. She's also an English teacher. We were married in 2006. We've been having fun ever since.

As of today, Iris is twelve weeks pregnant with our first child. It was neither expected nor unexpected. We have be what is commonly referred to as "trying" for about a year but we have always been of the opinion that if it happened, it happened and if it didn't, so be it. Oddly enough, when it did happen, we were both stunned. So be it.

As the father-to-be I'm left in sort of a holding pattern. While Iris undergoes all the physical, hormonal and biological changes that pregnancy entails, I'm still the same old Ryan. Waiting. Watching. And since there has been no discernible change in my wife's appearance as of yet, I thought I'd show my support by starting a blog about our adventure in pregnancy. Don't say I'm not a pillar of support.

Both of us are in our late 30s.

Neither of us is superstitious.

You might think that last statement is a little superfluous, but it's not. Taiwan is an incredibly superstition country and pregnancy is, by nature, a superstition magnet no matter where you live. In Taiwan, doubly so. When we told Iris's family one of the first things her mother mentioned was that the baby was to be a "Dragon." My first thought was Game of Thrones.

I read too much.

According to the Chinese lunar calendar this year is the Year of the Dragon. The Year of the Dragon is an auspicious time for traditional Chinese couples to have children and Taiwanese (and Chinese people the world over) are clambering to have children this year. More on that in a future blog post. It's insane. I assure you.

I can also assure you that we might be the only couple in Taiwan who were unaware of the year when we visited our doctor for the first time. The Dragon simply didn't occur to us. I'm a Rabbit. I don't know what that means. I'm also a Virgo but I don't believe in astrology. Astrologists always tell me that my lack of belief is typical Virgo behavior. So be it.

But the Dragon did provide me with a snappy title for this blog, a blog which I aim to use as a means of chronicling the wonderful process of a mixed culture couple having a baby in a deeply superstitious culture. We've barely begun and already I've got material to last me weeks.

So put your arms down and walk with me backwards into the future as we don't wash our hair. (that will all make sense in a few weeks, I assure you).

I hope you will enjoy the show.