And the days drive by
Ok, let me just say…I LOVE having a car here. I know the traffic is horrible and parking is bad – especially if you aren’t really good at parrellel parking in TINY spots or backing into spots (no one pulls into spots here!), but it’s such a freedom to have a vehicle. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until we got a car. Just two days ago I said we wouldn’t be driving at night for awhile and what did we do last night? We drove to Costco.
Yesterday, I drove Ashley to school and then took Anthony to work. Then I drove all the way up to TienMu, which is FAR away. It took me an hour and a half. I was visiting a friend that moved up there from downtown Taipei. She said I was very brave for driving all the way there my first time. I was quite nervous on the way to Anthony’s work, but after my trip to TienMu, I’ve gotten over the nervousness. It can actually be fun driving here, lots of dodging of people, taxis, buses and scooters. It is definitely interesting! I am SO, SO, SO thankful that Stephanie was able to get us the GPS unit in the car. The map itself is in Chinese and so are the instructions, but with some help from a coworker of Anthony’s, we have home and AMD programmed into the GPS unit. I know how to turn it on and show me how to get home. It is THE COOLEST thing ever. I don’t normally get all excited about electronic gadgets, but this is pretty neat and I would be completely lost without it. Anthony managed to figure out how to program the TienMu destination in yesterday and without it, I would have been lost for hours in the backstreets of Taiwan. And I was able to get home in around 30 mintues, which is fast from TienMu to where we live. I picked Ashley up from school, then Anthony from work and we went to Costco after having the same coworker program it into the GPS Unit. Eventually we hope to have most of the places we visit saved so we can get around. Anthony thinks it’s cool that it’s in Chinese since he’s trying to learn the characters and this will help. I only know the characters for Taipei City and for Exit (very important in parking lots). It was wonderful going to Costco knowing that we’d have room to put stuff in the car and we could drop it all off at the elevator instead of the sidewalk.
Today, after walking Ashley to school, Liz and I went to Gymboree with Angie. There is one near her home in Neihu. Liz had a lot of fun. It’s set up the same as in the US, same posters, same slides, balls, ladders, tunnels, Gymbo – just with Chinese writing. Liz really enjoyed climbing on everything. It’s seems pretty expensive to me - $13104 NT ($436 US) for 28 classes – so I don’t know if we’ll join or not. I don’t remember what we paid back home.
Ashley did great going to school this morning, of course because it’s Friday and she doesn’t have to go to school tomorrow. She’ll probably be upset again on Monday, but hopefully we’ll get to spend enough time with her this weekend, that she’ll be ok with it.
We are desperately trying to book a vacation for Christmas time. You can’t just look online and book airline tickets yourself – maybe if you read Chinese, but not if you only read English. Chinese like to travel in groups and last minute, so it’s all done through travel agencies, but it’s hard to find agencies that will work with you and be reliable and thorough and get you good deals. We’re thinking of going to Thailand, Phuket – which is a beach area or to Singapore or Hong Kong. I’m waiting on prices from the travel agent now and hopefully we can have a trip booked by Monday. It will be nice to get out of here for a few days. We are anticipating Christmas as being really hard for us, the first Christmas away from home. I’m already missing the lights and decorations and trees and family/friend get togethers. We picked up some Christmas things yesterday at Costco, but it’s just not the same.
Yesterday, I drove Ashley to school and then took Anthony to work. Then I drove all the way up to TienMu, which is FAR away. It took me an hour and a half. I was visiting a friend that moved up there from downtown Taipei. She said I was very brave for driving all the way there my first time. I was quite nervous on the way to Anthony’s work, but after my trip to TienMu, I’ve gotten over the nervousness. It can actually be fun driving here, lots of dodging of people, taxis, buses and scooters. It is definitely interesting! I am SO, SO, SO thankful that Stephanie was able to get us the GPS unit in the car. The map itself is in Chinese and so are the instructions, but with some help from a coworker of Anthony’s, we have home and AMD programmed into the GPS unit. I know how to turn it on and show me how to get home. It is THE COOLEST thing ever. I don’t normally get all excited about electronic gadgets, but this is pretty neat and I would be completely lost without it. Anthony managed to figure out how to program the TienMu destination in yesterday and without it, I would have been lost for hours in the backstreets of Taiwan. And I was able to get home in around 30 mintues, which is fast from TienMu to where we live. I picked Ashley up from school, then Anthony from work and we went to Costco after having the same coworker program it into the GPS Unit. Eventually we hope to have most of the places we visit saved so we can get around. Anthony thinks it’s cool that it’s in Chinese since he’s trying to learn the characters and this will help. I only know the characters for Taipei City and for Exit (very important in parking lots). It was wonderful going to Costco knowing that we’d have room to put stuff in the car and we could drop it all off at the elevator instead of the sidewalk.
Today, after walking Ashley to school, Liz and I went to Gymboree with Angie. There is one near her home in Neihu. Liz had a lot of fun. It’s set up the same as in the US, same posters, same slides, balls, ladders, tunnels, Gymbo – just with Chinese writing. Liz really enjoyed climbing on everything. It’s seems pretty expensive to me - $13104 NT ($436 US) for 28 classes – so I don’t know if we’ll join or not. I don’t remember what we paid back home.
Ashley did great going to school this morning, of course because it’s Friday and she doesn’t have to go to school tomorrow. She’ll probably be upset again on Monday, but hopefully we’ll get to spend enough time with her this weekend, that she’ll be ok with it.
We are desperately trying to book a vacation for Christmas time. You can’t just look online and book airline tickets yourself – maybe if you read Chinese, but not if you only read English. Chinese like to travel in groups and last minute, so it’s all done through travel agencies, but it’s hard to find agencies that will work with you and be reliable and thorough and get you good deals. We’re thinking of going to Thailand, Phuket – which is a beach area or to Singapore or Hong Kong. I’m waiting on prices from the travel agent now and hopefully we can have a trip booked by Monday. It will be nice to get out of here for a few days. We are anticipating Christmas as being really hard for us, the first Christmas away from home. I’m already missing the lights and decorations and trees and family/friend get togethers. We picked up some Christmas things yesterday at Costco, but it’s just not the same.
posted by The Armstrongs at
12/03/2004
