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.
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.
posted by The Armstrongs at
8/23/2004
