Time goes by...

Another weekend has gone by...not much to report. We saw three apartments at the end of last week, one was pretty horrible, the others were so-so. We are now negotiating on one from the beginning of last week that we saw near the Hyatt, in an area called Hsin Yi, along with looking at one other, possibly two, tomorrow near Anthony's work. All of our stuff that we shipped over is here, sitting in storage, just waiting for it's home. We will be very excited to have a home, just hoping we can find something that will keep us all happy for at least a year.

We rode the MRT on Saturday over the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, which is one of the major touristy things to do here. It's absolutely beautiful with amazing structural elements, amazing grounds with sculpted gardens and big fishponds with koi fish to feed. The girls had fun at the fishpond throwing food in. Liz just wanted to jump in with them and go swimming. After the visit to CKS, we walked over to the Handicraft Mart, where most people buy their touristy items. They have four floors of things made here in Taiwan to buy. Anthony bought me a gorgeous silver ring with red stone in it for our anniversary. I get to pick it up tomorrow since I had to have it sized, I'm very excited! The Handicraft Mart has wall hangings, scultptures, scrolls, jade carvings, wooden toys, clothes and a ton of other stuff. It was fun looking around, although I'd like to visit sometime when every other second I don't have to say "Don't touch that", "Put that down"! For lunch that day, we actually ate in the basement of a hospital. There was a hospital in between CKS and the Handicraft Mart and they had a big food court in the basement, with Mos Burger and other Chinese foods. We ate at a chicken place with rotisserie chicken, it was pretty good. We also walked by convenient stores, personal hygeniene stores (like Walgreens), a bookstore and a supermarket - all in the hospital itself. Pretty interesting!

Saturday night was our date night. The girls stayed at the hotel with Linda, our regular babysitter now, and we took off to see "The Bourne Supremacy" - very good movie :) We really enjoyed it. Then we went to a restaurant called "Marco Polo" here in Taipei at a hotel. It's on the 34th floor (or somewhere up there) - so you can see out over the whole city. It was very pretty. The restaurant itself was ok - you know how it is - a really nice fany restuarant with really nice fancy dishes that are really small and taste very different. Wasn't the best food, but with that view, it was a really nice date dinner. We got back to the room and the girls were both asleep and had been fairly good. Linda said Liz didn't want to go to sleep, she cried quite a bit. Oh well, at least someone else got to experience our sleep routine with her :) And she was paid to do it!

Sunday was a restful day for me, I pretty much laid in bed all day, relaxing, reading and watching TV. Anthony watched the girls most of the day and took them out occasionally so I could be alone. It was nice, something I definitely needed!

Not much else going on - even over in another country, it can be quite boring :) We are getting used to living here, sometimes we even forget we are in a foreign country. Even when we are in a crowd, not able to understand anyone around us, it's becoming normal for us. Ashley is picking up on the language every day - she's now able to count to 5 in Chinese, say thank you, your welcome, hello, see you later, dog, cat and other various words. I, on the other hand, haven't really learned much yet. Maybe soon I'll start getting serious about learning the language :)

Typhoon headed our way!

And it's a big one this time, headed straight for us. It's been raining since yesterday, pretty much nonstop. We are headed out this morning to look at three apartments, then back here to the safety of the hotel where I'm sure we'll be staying for at least 24 hours. It's supposed to get really bad tomorrow around 5am. There are actually 2 typhoons, one after another, although the second is headed more north, but could still collide with the first, causing even bigger problems. Schools and government offices have been closed today. Anthony just called, he made it to work right as his secretary called to tell him not to come in, so he's on his way back right now. Guess it's going to get pretty bad today too. We will keep you all posted!
It's now 5pm and it's still raining. Typhoon is just east of us, still hasn't reached us completely yet, seems to have stalled or is going really slow, so we are getting a ton of rain. We ventured out, walked next door to 101 for lunch and to go to the bookstore. It was raining and winding when we wanted to come back, so we took a cab from the underground garage at 101 to the hotel - a $2.00 US taxi trip to go right across the street, but totally worth it!
The typhoon is over (it's Thursday morning here). Basically rained 2 days straight. We had no problems here in the hotel. They barracaded the doors shut and we didn't leave until yesterday afternoon, after all the rain had stopped. It was amazing the number of trees down and limbs all over the place, bicycles twisted in branches, leaves and glass everywhere. No flooding right here where we are, but lots of flooding elsewhere on the island. I've never seen so much rain and wind before. Everything shut down for 2 days. I'm glad it's over! I'll post some pictures on our Webshots site http://community.webshots.com/user/akaearmstrong

Another weekend gone by and no apartment

Friday was a fun day. I first took the girls to The Transportation Museum here in Taipei. There is a group of moms from the TienMu area who were meeting there for a playgroup; it had been posted on the Community Center website. We showed up a little late, it took about 30 minutes longer than I thought it would since we took the MRT and had to change trains once. The walk alone to the station takes 15 minutes from the hotel. Once we got there, we noticed the group and went up and said hi, but then they moved on. So, we just went off on our own. The Museum has a big area outside, much like a little kiddie amusement park, with cars to ride on, little roller coaster, pony rides, airplane rides, etc. Ashley had a great time riding on the rides. It was so hot outside though, almost unbearable. We decided to go inside, where they have an indoor playground area, complete with bumper cars, mini trampoline, play cars, a ball pit, slides, etc. I managed to talk to some of the other moms while we were down there and they were very nice, apologized for not talking to me outside, not realizing that I had come to meet the group. They meet 2 times a month, so I’ll probably keep an eye out for those meetings, to get out with the girls and do some fun stuff. They mentioned that there is a downtown group and a TienMu group. I got the impression they don’t intermingle much, although there was one mom who goes to both. Seems kind of strange to me. Most of the women I have met so far and talk to are from downtown and they have been very friendly and helpful.

After the girls had their naps, I then met Blythe, Angie and another woman at a place called “Playscape”. This is a wonderful little play area for both the girls. They have open spaces with lots of imagination toys – building blocks, train sets, costumes, puzzles, toys, ride on toys, etc. We were there for over 2 hours and both Ashley and Elizabeth played the entire time. Elizabeth was climbing on everything! I swear, she’s going to be a rock climber and not afraid of heights! She also was able to get herself in and out of the little ride on play cars and onto a rocking horse, all by herself, which is quite a feat for her age. I really enjoyed talking with Blythe (she has an almost 3 year old boy and a 6 week old girl) and Angie (who has Joseph who’s just a little younger than Liz) and the other lady (I can’t remember her name!). Her daughter was in preschool, so it was just her. She showed us some beautiful little books one of her friends had made with some beautiful paper here in Taiwan. She also showed us a journal that’s very unique in that it’s a journal sent around the world to friends and each person fills in a page or two and sends it on to the next person, it was beautiful and very interesting. Blythe also shared that she is writing an article for an online website about expat living and having a homebirth in Taiwan – she just had Ada at home here in Taiwan with a midwife – which is VERY rare here. We all had a great time and made it home just as Anthony was coming home from work.

Saturday morning, we woke up and noticed a small “market” had been set up in front of City Hall down the block. We walked over there after breakfast and walked through the stalls. It was just a set up similar to a fair, with food booths, carnival games, little trinket booths, etc. They even had a small airplane ride for the kiddos. Both Ashley and Elizabeth got to ride on that and LOVED it, especially Liz. There was some drum banging and then these little ornate “temple” looking structures were being carried around by men, dancing in a very distinct pattern. We have no idea what it was for, but that seemed to be why the “fair” was set up. It was interesting.
After naps, we decided to go to Neihu and walk around a bit, seeing if we could find any apartment complexes we particularly liked or that had for rent signs on them. We didn’t really have any luck with that, although we did try to speak to several real estate agents, but it seems most of the ones we ran into were selling places, not renting. We found a mall in Neihu and walked around a bit, doing a little shopping for Liz and letting the girls run around the kids floor, playing with toys and games. I got Liz some two piece pj’s since she seems to be outgoing what we have for her already! We went into an electronics store and many people were standing around watching the TV’s. We saw that Taiwan and Japan were playing baseball for the Olympics and it was in the 9th inning. We sat down and watched Taiwan not score at the top of the 9th, so we let, figuring they’d either lose or tie. We took a cab back to Neo 19, where a crowd had gathered outside, watching a TV, where it was the bottom of the 10th and Japan was up for bat. Japan ended up scoring, so everyone was not very happy. It was cool to watch it though and get excited for the chance of Taiwan winning the game against Japan. We don’t get to watch much of the Olympics here, they mainly cover Judo, wrestling, badminton (big over here), table tennis, and other odd sports. I’ve seen a little of gymnastics and some swimming. Haven’t been able to watch many of the US wins though – that kind of sucks. We ate dinner at the wonderful Chinese restaurant in Neo 19 and I had the best KungPao Chicken I’ve ever had! It was so good! That has become my favorite restaurant here in Taiwan.

Sunday, we started out the day with breakfast on the 22nd floor as usual. Ashley got a present from one of the ladies, Chanelle. She got a Hello Kitty water bottle and two (yes, two) bags full of chocolate! She’s going to be so spoiled! We decided to go swimming, and had quite a bit of fun. Ashley still won’t really let go of us to try and swim on her own, but she’s getting more used to the water everytime we go. Liz just loves the water and we dunk her a few times whenever we go to the pool. She doesn’t like it much, but she doesn’t cry when we do it either. One of these days, she’s bound to understand how to close her mouth, right? Anthony and I also both tried our best to get some exercise and do some laps. Swimming laps is a big thing they do here for exercise, so most pools have lanes in them. We don’t really know the official way to lap swim – so we do a lot of splashing around, but I definitely worked out my legs and Anthony said he worked his arms. Maybe we’ll keep trying and get good at it soon. After the pool, we walked over to the Convention Center next door and visited the “Game Expo”. Definitely more Anthony’s cup of tea than mine. After lunch, the girls went down for their naps and I went to the hotel Spa for an hour massage treatment (thank you Dad and Carolyn!!!!). It was wonderful to get away and relax for a little while! To my surprise, after the treatment, I was told I have another hour to use! I’m looking forward to another relaxing afternoon spent at the Spa. Once I got back, Anthony took off back to the Game Expo, where he enjoyed playing Halo 2, along with some other Xbox games. We went to Costco after the girls got up, needing some more Cheerios and other snack foods. It’s so packed and crowded at that place on the weekends, more so than I’ve ever seen it in the States. But, it’s too hard to do the shopping myself with the girls, so the weekends are the only time we can go. It’s still manageable, you just learn how to navigate crowds. People also don’t get out of your way here – they’ll just be standing in the middle of the aisle, ignoring everyone around. You basically have to touch people to get them to move when they are in your way here. I’ve had people do it to me and it’s very strange, to have people push you out of the way, but that seems to be the norm here.

We then had dinner at Chili’s – mmmmm. I think the girls ate the most last night than I’ve seen either of them eat since we got here. We had our regular waitress, Candy, who now recognizes us when we come in and she loves the girls. We had a window view of a dressed up Kiwi downstairs outside. There was a dressed up Chili pepper inside, handing our heart balloons and candy (it was Chinese Valentines Day yesterday). We asked if the Chili was going to take on the Kiwi and a few minutes later, the Chili went downstairs to “fight” the Kiwi. It was pretty funny and all in good fun. Of course, we didn’t have our camera with us, we never seem to when the most unusual things happen! Anthony did take some camera photos of Ashley hugging both the Kiwi and the Chili. She enjoyed watching them both.

Today we are supposed to go look at some apartments, here in the XinYi area downtown. They still haven’t been able to find us any apartments in Neihu. It’s frustrating, but we’re biding our time. Luckily, Anthony’s work is being understanding on the situation and isn’t forcing us out of the hotel. It is raining today – 2 typhoons are headed for us, I think the first one is supposed to hit on Wednesday and they look like it’ll be a straight shot over us. Should be fun!

I am missing home, little things here and there remind me of our house, our family and our friends. I see a lot of the same plants I have planted in my front flower beds here in town and it always makes me think of home, missing our house, my flower beds and our backyard. Ashley is doing really good. She’s begun to call the hotel home and she talks about missing granddad and grandmom and the cats, Blaze and Juliet, but she seems to understand about being very far away and not being able to visit. She picks up payphones are calls her grandparents almost everyday – it’s so cute – she just sits there and talks and talks, mainly saying “yea, ok, yea, ok, bye”! She does it in the MRT station, in the malls, basically anywhere she sees a payphone she can pick up.

And the days fly by

Tuesday, I was so fed up with the apartment searching, I called an agent on my own, someone I found through the community service center book (a center for expats). The agent showed us two places in Neihu on Tuesday – one of which is great and one which was only ok. It’s not exactly the area of Neihu that we are wanting, so we are still going to continuing looking for a few more days. I’ve also enlisted the help of some of the other moms who live in the area we like to try and see if they see any for rent signs or know of any agents who work that area. The commercial guy that we are using (because of AMD) sent an email today saying that he’s no longer working with us (THANK GOD!) and that his colleague will be taking over since she speaks both Chinese and English and can talk to landlords directly. She then emailed us and said there is nothing available. UGH! I find that so hard to believe in this city. We are hoping the agent I called with be able to come up with some more apartments to see soon.

It rained a lot yesterday and people seemed to be bracing for some strong winds, but it appears the typhoon headed up north and missed up completely, so it was just rain and no heavy winds. It cooled down a bit, which was nice in the evening yesterday. For dinner, we ate in the hotel, at a restaurant called Cheers. We had fried rice and fish with mashed potatoes, strange combination, I know, but it was good! We then got the girls to bed early – which was AWESOME! We rented (pay per view) a movie (The Day After Tomorrow) and about 20 minutes before the end of the movie, Anthony accidentally hit the remote and ended up turning it off, so we couldn’t see the end!

Wednesday was mostly a great day. I took the girls on the MRT (subway) to a park called Peace Park for a playgroup date. It’s so easy to ride the subway here and it’s so clean, it’s just amazing. No graffiti, no trash, lots of neat sculptured artwork, elevators and signs for getting around. At the park, there were quite a few other expat moms there and kids both Ashley and Elizabeth’s age. We enjoyed the playground and the park. Ashley did very well, usually when we go to park or playground, she’s very clingy, wants me to be by her side all the time, isn’t too adventurous, etc. But with this group, she was running around on her own for over an hour – I could see her, but she didn’t have to have me right next to her. She kept coming back saying she was playing with her friends. The kids speak English, so that may be why she is more comfortable with them than other kids she meets on playgrounds. I had a good time talking with the other moms and finally met Angie, with whom I have been corresponding by email for months, ever since finding out about moving here. She has an almost one year old baby, Joseph. We stayed a long time and after taking the MRT back to the hotel, the girls took a long nap (along with myself J They were both pretty tired and filthy dirty after playing in the ground at the park. We have to find Elizabeth some shoes she’ll keep on because her feet get so filthy crawling around on the ground. I gave the girls a bath after naps and we were all cleaned up and ready to eat when Anthony got home.

Once Anthony got home, we decided to go out in a taxi to an Italian restaurant. Once we got there, both Ashley and Elizabeth were throwing fits and crying. We ended up leaving before we’d even ordered. This was one of the first times we’ve ever had to leave a place due to upset children. Liz just did not want to sit in her stroller or a high chair – she kept arching her back and screaming. And Ashley’s leg hurt so she was crying and upset. She’s been having lots of leg pain lately – could be from all the walking we do along with growing pains. So, we walked around outside, which calmed the girls down immensely and found a SOGO department store with a food court downstairs and ate at McDonalds, yes, McDonalds. I know, it’s getting old…but it’s just so easy to fall into that habit with the kiddos. McDonalds is so popular over here, you can buy school supplies at them – and the Happy Meal toys – you can buy them – they have the free ones with the meals, but they also have a large selection of other items that you can buy – interesting, huh?! After dinner, we walked around a little – the mall was PACKED! Don’t know why, but at 7 pm at night, it was just crazy. We went to the kids floor to look around at shoes – and they had this little play area for kids. So the girls had fun playing in that while I looked around. Anthony said some lady kept yelling at her kids, forcing them to bounce on these little bouncy toys. He said it was weird. We took a cab back home, got the girls to bed, and reordered The Day After Tomorrow and fast forwarded to the end where it stopped before. Ok movie – great effects, wish we’d seen it in a movie theatre.

Today, Thursday, we didn’t do much. I spent the morning instant messaging my mom and brother – it was great to “talk” to them both. Anyone who has MSN and would like to IM, use my email address to find me as contact. The girls and I decided to go for a walk after Liz just wouldn’t calm down – she was cranky and miserable this morning for some reason – I think teething, but not positive. She does well when we walk around, she’s begun to enjoy being in the stroller. So we walked over to the Warner Village complex and ate lunch at the Tepanyaki fast food place there. It’s usually really good, but was just okay today. Then we walked over to Mitsukoshi mall and walked around a bit, just browsing stuff. We went to the 4th floor (kids) where they had some Disney princess toys on display – Ashley was in heaven. They had a little teacup set on display she loved playing with. Another little girl was getting her picture taken seated next to it so the mom asked if Ashley could be in it – so the little poser that Ashley can be sometimes, she posed for the lady with this little girl next to her – too cute. We then went outside and played around on the playground and rode some of the kiddie rides. It was a fun time. Walked back to the hotel and we all took naps again. I keep meaning not too, to take the time to work on pictures and the blog and read, but then I lay down next to Ashley and just crash. Guess sometimes I just need the rest too.

Weekend

Last week ended with us going to see 2 apartments at 5 pm on Friday, nothing like waiting until the last minute. One apartment we had already seen before and one was definitely not for us – only 2 bedrooms and really different interesting furniture. We went ahead and said to start negotiations on the one we had already seen. It’s a nice apartment, big, three bedroom plus a study, three bathrooms, kitchen with small oven. It would work for us, although the drawbacks are no bathtub – three bathrooms but no tub, no courtyard or common area to meet other people or for the kids to play, on a busy street, right downtown. It’s in a nice area and there is a Wellcome store (supermarket) nearby. After looking at apartments, we ate again at Chili’s – just can’t stop going there!

Saturday we slept in late, as late as you can with two little kids. We ate a late breakfast at the 22nd floor and then walked over the Taipei 101 bookstore, Page One, to look at books. They were having a 20 percent off sale on all books. It was pretty busy, there was some very popular trade show going on next door at the Convention Center so a lot of people came over to the mall also. We got the girls down for their naps fairly late in the afternoon and they were still asleep at 5 pm when the babysitter (Linda Lee) showed up. We had to wake them up, which didn’t bode well for us leaving them. Ended up taking a while to leave them, we had to get them calmed down first. Linda brought a coloring book to share with Ashley, so that was cool. Anthony and I took off and went to eat dinner, we were going to eat Steak at a nice place here in the hotel, but found out they don’t open until 6pm, so that wasn’t an option. So we walked over to Taipei 101 and ate at a Chinese restaurant they have. It was all very good – shrimp balls, chicken with cashews and egg/vegetable soup. After dinner, we saw Collateral with Tom Cruise. Anthony liked it more than I, but I still thought it was pretty good. Again, it was nice going out and having a few hours with no children to watch. On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped by the FREE MTV Concert to listen to a few songs. They set the concert up in front of the Taipei City Hall, which is right in front of the hotel. There’s a little park area. Arvil Lavine was one of the guest singers, although we didn’t get to see her. There were a ton of people there, but we were able to listen to the music and see some of the acts from far away. It was pretty cool. When we got back to the hotel, both girls were asleep and Linda said they had been good. She said that she had to call for help because she didn’t know how to give both of them baths (she explained that she doesn’t have children, just watches many of the hotel kids). The lady that came to help also brought a marker set for Ashley. The girls are so spoiled here, it’s not even funny.

Sunday was a good day. After breakfast, we took the girls downstairs with their bikes and Ashley rode around on her bike, even going up and down a little ramp and Liz walked and crawled around, pushing her little bike and enjoying the exercise and attention. We got some video of them and hopefully soon I can figure out how to get it on a website for viewing. We all took naps, except Anthony, then decided to go to the jade market, which I hadn’t been to before. On the weekends, there’s an area underneath a highway, that is usually for parking (for those in Austin, it’s like the parking underneath IH35 right across from the police station, only much longer) that is converted into rows and rows of tables where people sell jewelry. For someone who likes to make jewelry, this would be a perfect shopping experience as there are beads and jewels galore. Ashley and I both picked up some lovely little purple bracelets for a few dollars. Then next to the Jade Market is the Flower Market. This is like a HUGE nursery where you can buy plants, flowers, pots, gardening supplies, etc. I got a little lucky cat with some bamboo and some plants to go in the little fish tank we have for Ashley. It was a nice walk through this area and I am excited for when we get an apartment with a balcony so I can get some plants to put on it. We went back to the hotel and had dinner (more like snacks) next to the pool at the hotel. It was a nice evening, with a cool breeze, so it was nice to sit outside for a bit and enjoy the cool, instead of melting in the heat.

Monday was fairly uneventful. The girls and I went swimming in the morning. Ashley is getting better in the water, although she still refuses to go under. Liz just kept going back and forth from the kids pool to the baby pool. They both took good naps. Anthony got back from work fairly late – after 6pm, and we went to eat at a Japanese buffet in Taipei 101. It was pretty good, with some really good sushi – with some very spicy wasabi hidden in some of the pieces, some good fried shrimp and some other dishes. They also had some great ice cream for dessert! YUMMY!

After the negotiating on the apartment didn’t go very well, we decided to forgo the apartment and keep looking. We really want to find one, and we liked that one, but they weren’t willing to negotiate very much and we were settling for less than what would really work for us just to get out of the hotel. So, we are back to looking again. Hopefully, something will happen soon!

So much for a big typhoon :) Just a little bit of rain and some wind, wasn't too big this time. No flooding either, so that's good for a lot of people here.

Nothing much is happening here. We ate at a Tepanyaki restaurant in Taipei 101 yesterday for dinner. It was a very elaborate meal, something like 6 courses, and it was fabulous! Yummy! It was also EXPENSIVE, but oh well, gotta treat ourselves sometimes. Ashley ate quite a bit, along with Liz, who after awhile, we just let crawl around on the floor - now what nice restaurant in the US would smile and laugh and coo and be happy abour a 1 year old crawling around on the floor and a 3 year old playing with rocks in the floor? They didn't seem to mind. Even the chefs came out from the back to stand and stare and smile at the girls. We'll definitely go back there at some point, hopefully just the two of us though instead of four.

Yesterday evening, when Anthony got home from work, the girls and I were playing in the living room, Liz saw Anthony and got very excited. She was standing up with me holding on to her and Anthony put his arms out for a hug and she TOOK TWO STEPS to walk to him, without holding on to anything! Yeah! So, she's trying! I've been practicing with her, holding her hands and walking. She's doing good and I think she'll be walking on her own soon! I hope so, because everytime she gets put down anywhere here, she gets filthy from crawling. I can't wait until she can walk and only her shoes/feet get filthy. I don't know how many wipes I go through a day cleaning her hands, knees, feet, face, etc.

Today, I had to go back to the hospital and pick up my ARC medical paperwork, which was ready. I passed so I am acceptable to live in Taiwan as a spouse to a working husband :) The girls and I walked there and then walked around the city some more after that, stopping to sit every once in awhile. Ashley gets tired of walking, so anytime there's a bench or chair, she wants to sit in the shade for a bit. We probably walked for about an hour and a half or so. We snack and drink when we sit, it's pretty leisurely and fun for me to get out and about. It's so strange that nothing really opens up here until 11:00 or later - so shops are usually closed when we go for our morning walks. We stopped at a playground, really nice one in, just in the middle of a busy area, completely shaded, so that was good. Liz got to crawl around a bit and play on the slides - she thinks they are for climbing up, not sliding down and Ashley had fun running around. No other kids there, just some old people - there was a little picnic area where a jug of tea of water sat, looked like a regular hang out for the elderly, that's also quite common to see here. We then took a taxi to Anthony's work again to drop off the ARC medical paperwork and eat lunch. We asked Ashley were she would like to eat and mentioned Mos Burger, and she was quite adament that we go there - tried mentioning other places, she just kept saying Mos Burger, I want Mos Burger, so Mos Burger it was. Yum, Yum - I think Anthony's getting tired of the place though - he went yesterday too.

We also went shopping last night after dinner. I tried on lots of dresses at this store in the basement of Taipei 101, where they have cheaper clothing and not name brand designer. The saleswomen kept bringing me more clothes to try on, I finally had to say, NO MORE! Enough!
I did find some cute dresses and shirts, so I'm quite happy about that as is Anthony since I only packed mainly shorts, nothing too dressy.

Girls are awake from naps, I must go get them!

Typhoon Rananim

We are now experiencing a typhoon here in Taiwan, Typhoon RANANIM.
http://www.cwb.gov.tw/V4e/index.htm (main)
http://www.cwb.gov.tw/V4e/typhoon/news/TYtrace.htm (tracker)
http://www.cwb.gov.tw/V4e/weather/satellite/index_e.htm (satellite)

It isn't really going to make landfall here, we are just experiencing lots of heavy rain and some wind. It hasn't gotten too bad yet, although they've strapped down the hatches and started filling sand bags in some areas. Anthony left work early yesterday so we could go look at an apartment (no, we aren't getting it, it was out in the middle of slum land, out in the middle of nowhere - no grocery stores, no shopping, just apartments for locals, very strange) but he was told by a colleague visiting from the States that around 5 pm they strated broadcasting an emergency message throughout the building AMD is in. So, he came back to the hotel. The worst is supposed to be around 5pm today, so Anthony's going to come back to the hote a little early so he's not out in the thick of it. Unfortunately, we've only found the above website for information, along with a map of the typhoon progress on a board in the lobby for information. There is no English news channel here, so we can only watch the weather in Chinese and we have no idea what they are saying. It's funny though, on the all Chinese news station - they'll have written in English "BREAKING NEWS", but that's it in English, nothing else, all is in Chinese, written and spoken, except for that - too funny!

We are planning on going over to the bookstore at Taipei 101 in a little while - we can walk over there without being in the rain for more than one minute - so it's not too bad. We did go over to the bookstore, they had the shortcut closed for some reason - I think due to high winds, the shortcut is a walkway bridge over a road and maybe they don't want people on it? We just walked outside for about 10 minutes. Got a little wet, but not bad. We played in the bookstore for awhile - lots of attention for Liz since there was a small schoolgroup there who played with her and laughed and followed her around. We ate lunch at the Food Court and bought some supplies we needed at Watsons, the local Walgreens here. Once we walked back to the hotel, it wasn't raining at all, but windy and the clouds look ominous. Without it raining, I can look around and see that they've stabilized trees with metal string, boards and anything else they can use. They've also cleared the pool deck and used rope to keep stuff from flying around. People are still swimming in the pool - many people do laps here for exercise, I guess with no lightening, people are just going to keep swimming. It's weird to see it pouring down rain with large wind gusts and people doing laps in the pool!

Quick fyi, on tai-tai, xiansheng

Husband post -
Btw, the cafe we ate at on Monday is called Fei Tai-tai. Which is, basically, "Mrs. Fei's".

Tai-tai(pronounced tie-tie with falling tone) means wife and Xiansheng (pronounced see-en-shung) means husband. But they're also used for Mrs. and Mr. respectively. So, for example, Kimberly is Armstrong Tai-tai, and I am Armstrong Xiansheng.

Just waiting...

I took Liz to the hospital on Monday morning - they use hospitals here just like clinics back home. You go in and register and then wait to see a doctor - luckily, we only had to wait about 2 minutes for a doctor and she spoke very good English. She laughed when she saw what the other doctor from the Hyatt clinic had given us to give to Liz. She said Liz still has right ear infection and possible sinus infection with cough and congested nose. Liz had developed spots all over her body and she said that was a result of her high fever from the days before and they would go away in 4-5 days. Then she prescibed her some medicine and sent us to the pharmacy which is also in the hospital. When she types the prescription into the computer, it automatically gets sent to the pharmacy and you wait your turn to pick it up. That took the longest, about 15 minutes and were done - after paying about NT550 for everything - so around $18 US dollars. She is doing much better today and the medicines really help her cough and her nose. She's been in a much better mood, causing all sorts of chaos in the hotel room and with her sister.
We didn't do much over the weekend, some walking, waiting to hear on apartments (which we never did) and that's about it. With Liz feeling bad, we didn't venture out a lot. Monday we looked at some more apartments in a complex we liked, unfortunately, they were both ones we had already seen and said no to. So, that did us no good and wasted an afternoon of not working for Anthony. We took a long walk last night from an area called DaAn to the hotel, took us a long time and wore us out, my back started hurting a bit, but it was good to walk off some steam as I was pretty frustrated at the apartment situation. We ordered Pizza Hut for dinner, pizza plus some chicken wings and bread. It was pretty good. Everything here has a distinct different flavor, some sort of spice they use in almost all the meat. And they don't use a lot of Italian sauces like we do back in the US, so it always could use more and seems a little dry. Ashley loved the chicken and the pizza, so she ate well, along with Liz.
Today, I took the girls and took a taxi out to the Shilin apartment we are considering. There is a multilanguage preschool right next door, so I took a tour of it. It's a really great facility, with English in the morning and Chinese in the afternoon. I then took a taxi to Anthony's work and found out that the drive is doable, but a little long and taxi rides are more expensive than if we lived in Neihu or downtown. So we are still thinking about it, but probably won't take that apartment due to the commute. The preschool was great though and Ashley had so much fun playing with the kids while I toured the facility. We ate lunch with Anthony at his work at a place called Tai, Tai's - which means wife in Chinese. I am often called Tai, Tai. This afternoon I was supposed to take the girls and look at an apartment in Neihu, but that was cancelled at the last minute, so I woke them up from thier naps for no reason - UGH! So, we went over to Taipei 101 and did some grocery shopping, bread and drinkable yogurt - which has become the girls favorite way to get some calcium - flavored drinkable yogurt - yum....

Earthquake!

One of my biggest fears living in Taiwan is the earthquakes they have here. I'm not too excited about the prospect of being in one. They build buildings made for earthquakes here, I keep reminding myself.
Last night, Anthony and I were playing Scrabble in bed when I felt the bed moving, Anthony's legs were bouncing, so I thought he was making the bed move. But, we also heard a little creaking, it only lasted a few seconds, just enough for our brains to register, I think this is an earthquake, then it stopped. Anthony called down to the front desk to ask since we weren't sure. They said they thought it was, but hadn't seen any confirmed reports on the news. There is a website here to monitor earthquakes and I checked today...and it was. So, we've been in our first earthquake. Wasn't too bad, but of course, it was only a 1 on the richter scale here in Taiwan. The origin was 5 something. I'm still not looking forward to a big one, but maybe we'll just have little ones whle we're here - at least I can hope!
http://www.cwb.gov.tw/V4e/seismic/quake_e/EE0808211252079.txt

Tofu Update - aka 'oops'

Husband post:
So, the whole stinky tofu coming from cow manure is my fault, I heard something similar, and it did go a ways toward explaining the smell (although it's still significantly worse than any cow crap I've ever smelled).

Anyways, the truth is apparently more pedestrian, it's just chemicals and fermentation, but still way nasty... Here's a couple of links:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A58021-2003Oct21&notFound=true
http://www.choudoufu.net/
Thus, once again, reality rears its boring head.

Btw, I'll eat stinky tofu or squid on a stick with anyone who comes to visit who has the cahones for it... But I think only the fried stuff and only after significant liquid preparation... Um... probably. I reserve the right to wuss out at the last minute, though I've not been known to do so with other heinous 'foods.' Raw jellyfish, anyone? Whole octopus? Sea urchin?

Thank God for Chili's being an international chain.

If you've enjoyed reading this post half as much as I've enjoyed writing it, than I've enjoyed writing it twice as much as you.
Thank you, Seattle.

Weird Things

HBO - we get HBO Asia in the hotel and we have noticed that they cut scenes that contain excessive violence and nudity. We watched "Final Destination 2" last night, this movie contains a lot of blood and gore when people get killed, but every scene that had excessive blood was cut from the movie. Very strange. Yet, on other stations here, they do show violence and nudity. Just depends on what station it's on.

Night Markets - they have these places called "night markets" where store owners set up little stalls and sell items for way below the price you would find in the department store. This is a good thing obviously, although you have no way of knowing the quality of what you are buying. We walked through one last night and Ashley found some shoes - they like shoes here and since this seems to be Ashley's favorite item to shop for right now, along with fancy dresses, the night market is a great place for her. The cost of her sandals - NT100 (about $3.00 US)! Who knows how long they'll last, but who cares for that price - she loves them. The market we walked through last night closed at 8 pm. We thought that was odd since most night markets open in the evening and stay open until midnight or so.

Taiwan World Trade Center - now a Convention Center - has a round water pool with flags surrounding it from different countries - Japan, Mexico, Korea, Switzerland, Sweden, US, Canadian and the best one of all - TEXAS! Yes, they have a Texas flag as a country.

Seat Belts - Anthony requested a cab with seatbelts in the backseat for his drive to work from the hotel. The attendant laughed at him and told him that seatbelts in the backseat and good for sleeping, resting head on shoulder strap, but not for driving around. He said they have seatbelt in the front seat. It is a new law here that seatbelts must be used while in the front seat of a car - so cabbies are required to wear one and if you ride in the front seat you must wear one. But, in the back seat it is not required and most cabbies hide the seatbelts under the seat so you don't have access to them. There are a few you can find, but it's rare. Good thing is they rarely drive fast due to the amount of traffic, so there are few accidents here.

Showers - Many bathrooms don't have shower curtains or separate areas for taking a shower in the bathroom. There will be a drain in the middle of the floor and there will be a sink, shower head and toilet in the room. Most of the places we've looked at aren't this way since they tend to show us more "Western" style apartments, but we have seen a few.

Toilets - Many toilet stalls here are called "squat toilets" - you don't sit on it, you squat over it. Interesting concept. Most modern places will have some stalls with squat toilets and some stalls with sitting toilets. Ashley doesn't like the squat ones so we are always on the lookout for regular ones. There are many places also where you aren't supposed to put toilet paper in the toilet, you're supposed to put it in the garbage. I don't think some of the sewer systems were built for it. Unfortunately, since I can't read Chinese, I have a hard time knowing which ones you can and which ones you can't. Ashley has refused to put any paper in the trash since she has only known that it goes in the toilet.

Slides in Parks - At several of the parks here, where there are kids play areas, they have concrete slides, yes, concrete slides. They are usually fairly wide and HOT from the sun. We've seen Ashley hurt herself on plastic slides back home, I can't imagine how hurt a kid could get banging their head on a concrete slide. They also will have a ground cover all around the kids area with BLACK spongy stuff. Now, the spongy stuff is nice, but since it's black, it soaks up all the heat and is so HOT, which makes the play areas even hotter for the kids.

Taipei 101 - this is the tallest building in the world right now. There is a five story mall built into it and there are many entrances into the building, probably a set of doors, every 50 feet or so, around the building. But, each entrance is blocked off, except for 2 - yes, only 2 are usable. We assume this is for security, and also for SARS - the first time we visited there, they were taking the body temperature of everyone that walked in the building.

cellophane - Everything is wrapped in Cellophane here. Books, clothes, toys, magazines, food, everything. At the bookstore, all the books are individually wrapped. Fortunately, in the kids section, kids have taken it off of some of the books so you can see what the book is about, otherwise you have no idea. Clothes are individually wrapped also. They'll have one or two on display. We bought bibs and each one was individually wrapped. We saw some tricycles in the mall, they were all wrapped in plastic.

Stinky Tofu - one of the most disgusting smells on earth. They have tofu, which has been marinated in the ground in cow dung (at least this is what we've been told) and it smells absolutely disgusting - and people eat it! We've smelt it in the night markets where there are food vendors selling that along with squid on a stick and other odd items. At least this is in the open air and you can walk away from it. But, one mall we went into had a vendor selling it. You could smell it for three floors - it was so gross!!!

I'm sure I could go on, but I'll save some more for another day.

By the way, each post has a comment section at the end of the blog and you can post comments or questions that you have and I will try and answer them if you have any.

Sickness and Apartment Searching

Thursday, we met Anthony for lunch at his office. There are several buildings in his office complex and there are many different places to eat in each one. There is also a beautiful water feature that runs in between the buildings with a lovely waterfall that Ashley and Anthony really enjoyed. We ate at Mos Burger again – seems to be one of our favorite fast food restaurants here to eat at. They also had this small area with sale items like clothing, kid’s toys (mainly Hello Kitty stuff), kitchen stuff, shoes, handbags, etc. It’s like a little flea market, but with fairly good quality stuff. They even have little booths with curtains to try stuff on. Anthony was completely weirded out by this, a little shopping area where people try stuff on right in his office complex. I purchased some undergarments here as they had a great deal – three for NT1000, whereas the department store prices are three or four times that much. We also got Ashley a really cute Hello Kitty shirt. The day before Anthony had bought her a coloring book and a puzzle at the same place. The girls and I took a taxi back to the hotel, and the taxi driver was crazy – he was driving 2 times the speed limit, which is pretty rare here since traffic usually prevents this. He had a weird rearview mirror, which kept flashing “speed limit” in red in the mirror. It also flashed a circle with a spoon, fork and knife and another circle with a camera in it. Very strange! I have no idea what any of that meant. He didn’t seem to care that he was speeding, that’s for sure. The girls and I took naps and Liz woke up with a pretty high fever – 102.1 F. I tried to make an appointment at the doctor we saw last time we were here, but they don’t have their office there anymore. So, the hotel staff said they have a clinic at the hotel. I took Liz down there and she saw a nurse who called a pediatrician to come to the hotel to take a look at here. The pediatrician said she has an ear infection, along with chest congestion and cough. They mixed up some powder medicine, which is awful to try and give her and gave us some antibiotic drops to put in her ear. We started giving her the medicine and all it seemed to do was make her more cranky. Friday was miserable for her, she cried and cried and wouldn’t nap, all she wanted to do was nurse, and that hasn’t been the norm for her. We looked again at the apartment across from the National Palace Museum yesterday afternoon and have realized how small it is and that it may not work for us. We went ahead with negotiations on the apartment though, seeing what the landlord would deduct. We were supposed to hear back today about the apartment and negotiations and have heard nothing. We stopped giving Liz the medicine after her last dose last night and she is in a much better mood today. Still cranky, but nothing like she was on the medicine. She’s still running a fever off and on so on Monday we will need to find a different doctor to take her to.
This morning we went and looked at another 4 apartments. We found one apartment that we really like, so we have cancelled the negotiations on the other one and are going to decide between two other ones. Very confusing, I know, even more confusing for us, since we have to go through so many different people and have people negotiating for us and waiting for people to get back to us. Hopefully, by next week, we will have an apartment contract. The one was saw today that we liked is in an area called “Shilin”. It doesn’t have amenities, such as pool, kids area, etc, but it’s a nice area, close to parks, close to science museum, close to shopping, fairly close to Anthony’s work and a great size, perfect for the girls and for having visitors. The other apartment we are thinking of is in an area called “DaAn”, is further from Anthony’s work, but it has kids area, pool, work out facility and is more expensive. So we have a few things to consider. It’s not easy to find places here and figure out where to live. This has been one of the most frustrating things so far.
Ashley is picking up on Chinese fairly quickly. She's even trying to teach Liz a thing or two. She tried to get her to say "cat" in Chinese today. Liz is also trying to speak more and said Moo while we were reading her a book with cows in it. They are still getting attention everywhere we go. I went for a long walk yesterday and at one point was stopped and asked if a woman could take a picture with Liz. Strange to think there's photos of our girls with strangers floating around, not to mention all the camera phones used to take pictures of them. Speaking of phones, we both now have mobile phones, but it's going to take us a while to figure them out since the instruction manuals are in Chinese! I'm hoping to find an English manual somewhere, although the brand of phone I chose is specifically a Chinese brand, so I don't know if there is one available. Anthony got a supernice Motorola phone. It's nice having a cell phone now, I don't feel so out of touch when I take the girls out alone.

A Visit to the Library

Today we set off for the library. A playgroup of expats was meeting there at 10:00 am. We took a taxi to the main library, which is close to DaAn park. The library is HUGE, with I think about 5 floors, maybe more. There is also a Western book section, so once we have residency here, we can check out books from there. They have two floors of children’s areas, with little desks, chairs, tables, computers and books. Lots of English books. There is one room with these HUGE English books and little tables and chairs for reading. I sat down with Ashley and started reading some books to her. Then this large group of school children came in and surrounded us and before you know it I was reading to everyone surrounding the table. The teacher even took a picture of us – without asking my permission, which is a little annoying. I enjoyed reading to the kids, it was interesting. I would point to items and they would say what it was in Chinese and Ashley would say what it was in English. I read two books, then moved to a different area since I saw some of the expats show up. They thought I was the teacher and a part of the school group. I was then introduced to several of the women and their children. They are from all over the world, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, England. The schoolgroup had moved into the other room where we were. I had let Liz out of the stroller to crawl around and she had a large group of followers. She had a blast, crawling as fast as she could and having a group of Chinese kids after her. They touched her and played with her and made her giggle. Their teacher asked if it was ok or if they were bothering her and I said she was having fun so it was ok and that I would get her if it seemed to be too much. Ashley had gone off and found some books to look at since she seemed to be overwhelmed by all the kids and just wanted to be alone. Some of the expats didn’t seem to understand me letting the kids play with Liz, they said I was a laid back mom and that I was more willing to let the Chinese kids play than they would be. It was interesting. One lady had even said that she would have stopped reading to the kids in the other room if it had of been her. I think it’s interesting to find that sort of attitude from the expats. I understand that maybe after awhile it can get old or overwhelming with all the attention. But even in the States, if I was reading to Ashley and a group of kids wanted to join, I’d keep reading, no matter whether they are Chinese or English. I had fun doing it. One lady joked that since I was a newcomer I didn’t know the going rate for reading a story in English is NT1500 an hour. Maybe that will be my new job J We did manage to spend a little time talking to the expats about areas they live in, how long they’ve been here, how old their children are, etc. There were quite a few moms there and I can’t remember everyone, but hopefully as we get together more, it will become easier. I have a playdate next week with just two of the moms that weren’t able to make it to the library. They are from California, so it will be nice to talk to some Americans and see what their view of living here is like.
We ate at Chili’s last night, Anthony met us there from work since he didn’t leave work until 6:15pm. He had his first day of what seemed like real work yesterday.

Sun Yet Sen Memorial

Today, I set out with the girls for a walk, hoping Liz would fall asleep in the stroller since she was cranky and tired. We walked a few blocks to the Sun Yatsen Memorial Hall. http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Sun+Yat-sen+Memorial+Hall
This is a beautiful structure with pictures, paintings and statues of various important Chinese people through the years. The grounds are very pretty, with lots of flowers and bushes everywhere. There is a small lake on one side with a bridge going across it. Ashley loved looking in the lake, trying to find fish and turtles. We did see one turtle and some rather large fish. No feeding them though, they had signs everywhere. Ashley wasn't too happy about that. We were greeted by a few people while we were walking around. Many people here tell us it's too hot to have the children outside and that we need umbrellas covering us and sunscreen and water, etc. I tell them we are from Texas and used to heat and that we use sunscreen and stay in the shade and drink lots of water. Seems to satisfy most of them. We had a nice time at the memorial and I'm hoping someday to go back without the kids so I can read up on the history of the place.

In order for me to get an Alien Resident Card, I had to get a physical. For some reason, the spouse of the working individual must have a physical, but not the working person. I had the hotel call the hospital last week and make me an appointment. Luckily, I left early since there are three buildings to the hospital and I couldn't find an English speaking person to tell me where to go. I finally found it and had my physical done, all the normal stuff, blood sample, bp, pulse, weight, height, urine and stool - this was unexpected and about as bad as you could imagine, but at least it's done and over with. The Chinese also consider this year as 1993, so for all the medical records, I kept writing my birthday as 1975, but they put it in their records as 1964. It was weird seeing my birthdate as that!

We bought Ashley her first bike, a pink Hello Kitty one. When we took her to her 3 year checkup, they asked if she could ride a tricycle, we said we thought so and have tried to get her to ride one ever since, but she can't seem to get the pushing of the pedals down good, so we decided getting her a little bike to practice on would be a good idea. Plus, we figured we'd give the hotel staff more headaches by having a three year old riding a bike in the lobby :) She did okay with it this evening, but she keeps pushing the pedals backwards instead of forward since it's easier on her legs.

We ate sushi and other appetizers on the 22nd floor for dinner. Planned on going out, but it was all so good, we just filled up on that. yum, yum.... soon we hope to visit Sushi Express where you get two pieces of sushi for 30NT (roughly 1 us dollar).

Husband entry:
Grand Club (the 22nd floor Kimberly mentioned) is awesome, that's where all the staff loves our girls, and you can hang out, make a drink(between 5:30pm and 8pm) and snack on whatever happens to be served that night. 'Sushi night' (my name for it, not theirs) is easily the best - they seem to rotate a set course of hoeur d'ourves (sp?) every week or so. Unfortunately, the food at the Grand Club is usually high quality Far East fare, which means usually not too tasty. What I wouldn't do for a Sonic cheeseburger most nights...

Anyways, Kimberly headed back early with the girls to give them a bath (they've been getting pretty dirty playing around everywhere), I hung out a little bit longer, then came back, cleaned 'em up, and we started our nightly ritual of desperately trying to get the girls to both go to bed. This involves a lot of crying and a lot of wear and tear on our patience. As I write this, it's 8:30pm, and both girls are crying (Ashley bloody murder, Liz a whine or two here and there in sympathy of Ashley's louder cries). Fun fun fun.

I'm trying to get used to the new work life here, too, while trying to find an apartment with an agent who would rather tell us his life story filled with woe and an office full of more politics than this year's elections. Not to mention in my first week, I've already had an employee tender his resignation. At least I can say it's not my fault, even if I have to pick up the pieces. And that's on top of this being first time to manage ANY group, much less a foreign one.

That's all the usual complaints, but still, the people at my office are wonderful and friendly, the hotel is beautiful with consistently the nicest people I've met (note that as Kimberly mentioned, with Ashley riding a bike in the lobby of a VERY nice hotel, not one person complained), and overall a great country. Certainly could be worse. Plus, the girls have been very good. Sure they have their bad times, but no more so than any children, and they're wonderful kids as you all know... Hard not to feel blessed with them.

Just thought I'd throw in my perspective on occasion. Hope it's welcome.

August 1, 2004

For dinner this evening, we decided to walk over to the Neo 19 building, about 2 blocks from the hotel, and eat Chinese food at a recommended place called The Dining Room (http://www.diningroom.cc/). (Neo 19 is also home to Chili’s, which is Ashley’s favorite place to eat here and in the States.) Ashley sat down and immediately told the waitress “I’m hungry, I want chicken”. I don’t think she understood English, but she laughed anyway. The food was delicious – the best Chinese food we’ve had so far. We had shrimp balls, fried chicken and beef with onion stir fry. Too much food, but that means I get leftovers at the hotel and can skip going out for a lunch meal. On the way back to the hotel, two girls stopped at the stroller to get a picture taken with Liz. They thought she was very cute.
I am looking forward to this week, hoping that we find an apartment or that the landlord can be talked down for the one across the street from the National Palace Museum. The grounds are beautiful with nice rock water formations in the huge courtyard entrance. There is a small river that flows on the back side of the property (which backs up to a mountain) and a small pool, with kids area, is near the river. Only downside is the hours are from 2pm – 10pm during the week. They also have a huge basement common area, with couch areas for reading and relaxing (all carpeted), basketball courts (also volleyball, badminton), chess/card playing rooms, karaoke rooms (of course!) and the best part, a HUGE kids playroom, completely covered in foam with kids tables/chairs, a kids playscape with slide and tunnels, a ball area and little cars to ride around in. Completely perfect for us, especially with how icky it gets outside. It would be about 15 minutes to Anthony’s work, which is perfect, and about 15 – 20 minutes to both Tien Mu (the expat area where many foreigners live) and downtown for shopping and entertainment. The nearest supermarket is within walking distance and Costco is about 10 minutes away. It would be perfect for us, I think, and not being right in the heart of downtown would be nice for the girls and the air quality. The actual apartment is small compared to what we are used to. But three bedrooms so the girls would have thier own rooms. We'll see what happens.
Yesterday, we managed to find IKEA – exactly the same as in the US, of course. We are looking forward to getting our apartment so we can shop more there and do some organizing. We did buy a stool for Ashley since she can’t really reach the sinks here in the hotel and some kids cups. In the same shopping mall as IKEA is TOYS R US! Although the prices are a bit higher, and the store is small and completely jam packed full of stuff, it’s much the same as in the US, with the giraffe everywhere. We got Liz a great little ride along/push toy which she likes very much. She’s walking around pushing it, and she took 1 step by herself this evening, so maybe it will help her learn how to walk alone.
In our walking around today, we stopped at Page One bookstore in Taipei 101. This is a wonderful bookstore, with books in both Chinese and English. We got Ashley her second Alfie Bear story, Be Gentle, Alfie Bear. We bought her first one last week sometime, Time to Sleep, Alfie Bear. This book series is in both Chinese and English and comes with a video CD in both languages. She loves the books and knows the difference between English and Chinese writing. She’s started asking what things mean in Chinese or how to say something in Chinese, which is pretty cool. Yesterday, she asked Anthony what “toilet paper” is in Chinese, he didn’t know that one.
We were in an elevator at Taipei 101 today, which was packed full of people, at a group of girls were looking at Liz and talking to her, Anthony told them they could touch her and they just squealed in delight! They all touched her, tickled her and tried to get her to laugh. It’s so funny to see a group of girls get so excited over a baby. When we got out of the elevator, the entire group of people were waving goodbye and they all laughed as Liz waved bye back to them. I know it’s because she white, but it’s so cute how she can make so many people here smile.

First entry after one week

We have been here for a little over a week. This first entry will probably be long, just random writing as I think about the past week.
It's hot and HUMID! Ashley has decided she doesn't like the sun and doesn't like walking during the day. We've tried going to a few parks with playgrounds and it's just so hot for the kids, we can only stay a few minutes before we're all drenched in sweat and the girls are pink from heat.
The girls are getting a lot of attention from everyone. It's rather enjoyable now, but I'm sure it will get old. It's weird to think that no matter how long we are here, we will always be foreigners and the girls will also get stared at. Even teenage boys like to play with Liz and try to get her to laugh. We had lunch today at Swensons (yes, American food) and the female and male wait staff were trying to get Liz to let them hold her - the male won, she went to him and he seemed very good with her.
People are very friendly here and like to help. Doors get opened for us (especially for me when I have the girls alone), people help us on the street to carry the stroller or go up/down the stairs.
We haven't had many issues with the language barrier, only when attempting to get a cell phone. It seems because we are foreigners, we don't get a good deal on a cell phone and service. They suggested we find a Taiwanese friend to purchase a phone for us so we can get the cheaper rate. I am hoping someone from Anthony's work can help us out on that one. I would feel a little safer having a cell phone with me while I travel around the city with the girls.
We take Taxis and walk everywhere. Taxis are interesting, most don't have usable seatbelts - very frustrating. And they drive like crazy. Most of the time, they don't speak English, but most of them seem to like kids and try to make Ashley and Elizabeth laugh and smile.
I've taken the girls to the Science Museum here and it was interesting. I'm sure Ashley will like it more as she gets older. It only cost $100 NT (about 3 us dollars) to get in and it's three stories of Science stuff - body, electricity, physics, etc. On the day we went, there were huge school groups there. Ashley had fun running around with all the kids, I think she misses daycare and playing with other kids. She's gotten good at saying "NiHau" (hi) to other kids and sometimes they respond and sometimes they just stare.
We've looked at a few apartments, found two we like. One in downtown and one near Neihu right across the street from the National Palace Museum - literally, right across the street. We have to see if we can talk the landlords down in rent before accepting and also see if any other may be available in the same buildings for less rent. The process of finding an apartment has not been easy and I think we may have upset the main guy we are supposed to be working with, but we are now working with two different local rental agents and things seem to be going better. We've seen some gorgeous places and some interesting places - some sleazy - pink toilets with black furniture everywhere - interesting! Hopefully we'll decide on a place this week as I'm getting tired of the hotel life.
The hotel is great and people know who we are now - it's nice having maid service everyday, but not having a kitchen is getting old - trying to find things for the girls to eat at all the food courts here - there are food courts in the basement of malls here, and we have Taipei 101 mall, New York New York mall, Warner Brother Village mall and Mitsukoshi Mall all within walking distance, so lots of places to eat. Buying items at the malls is expensive, clothes, jewelry, etc. They carry all designer brands and Taipei 101 has Dulce & Gabanna, Cartier, Tiffany's, Espirit, Louis Vetton, etc...we haven't figured out how people here afford to dress!
Anthony and I did go see a movie last night - we had a babysitter from the hotel watch the girls and we went out for dinner (had some REALLY awful steak) and saw "I, Robot" subtitled in Chinese. When you buy tickets here for movies, you are assigned a seat, so you know that you'll always have seats together and no standing in line to get into the theatre, which we found out after we stood at the entrance of the theatre to get in and wondered why no one was standing there since it was the opening weekend of the movie. It was good to get out without the girls and escape while watching a nonreality movie.
Until next time!