Shock and Awe?

Hey.......what I saw on my walk on Sunday.  I finally had a moment to myself.  I went walking at 9 am Sunday morning, I thought it would be a very quiet morning, was I wrong.  Everyone is out on Sundays.  I found a park where many people were gathered to walk and exercise.  I even found a path that was for reflexology (points in the feet referring to other points in the body), it was a very rough, rocky path that you were supposed to walk barefoot.  I just wandered around the park and neighborhood ( I wanted to take a lot of pictures of the park, but I felt very conspicuous taking photos with people in them ), I found my way back home after an hour.

Costco was a trip.  We got there at 9:45, they open at 10:00.  The store was already packed with shoppers......they probably broke the door down.  I saw only 1 other "westerner" there.  There was a combination of asian and american products.  Very random.  Even if you do find american products, most of them have chinese labels, it is very frustrating for a label reader like myself.  With my diabetes, I need to know the carbohydrate count of all the food I eat.  I suppose I will be learning the chinese character for carbohydrate pretty soon.  We spent far too much money there, but when you see products that are from "home", you just can't help buying them.

I am finding out that I will never be able to do all of my grocery shopping in one store.  You never  know what you will find, you can't plan specifically any meal, its all based on luck.  Tonight I will be making tacos.   I think I spent $30.00 on ingredients between 2 or 3 stores......is that a lot?  Most nights we are going without dinner, we are not in the mood and can't figure out what to eat.  I did find 2 extremely small import stores.  When you are craving pop-tarts, you might find them.  Only place I found walnuts...real mayonnaise too.

The girls have gone to school for a week.  Lily has been really enjoying it.  She comes home from school and tries to teach me Mandarin.  Emma has had a rougher start.  A few times this past week she has refused to go to school, I still made her go....that was hard.  By Friday, she was better.  She has made a friend and has invited her to come over and play ( the taller girl in blue under the ball hoop).  I think there are just too many changes for her to absorb right now.

We have been to the American Club a few times.  I thought it might be a haven for us.....nope.  It is a club with a pool, gym, hair salon, market, many restaurants, tennis courts, etc.  The food is terrible and rarely do I see an "American".

This is the playground at the American Club.  The Grand Hotel, a beautiful, huge,  chinese temple style hotel is in the background.

















This last week I went out to lunch with a gal from Steiner Ranch and a few of her friends.  Nice, but at this point no "connections".  I have also been led around town by another gal.  She has given me a lot of info.......hard to remember all the places she has pointed out to me.  Actually, most everyone I have met has said, "if you have any questions or need anything, just ask".  What I really want to ask is, "where do you find friends?"  I have also been to a PTA meeting, joined the local gym (hired a personal trainer so I will for sure go), and am trying out a free class  at a yoga studio.  I may go biking with a group on Wednesday on the west coast of Taiwan, will let you know if I go.


Yesterday, Lily got her wish.  We went to the top of Taipei 101.  Super crowded, just a tall building....woo hoo.  But, Lily loved it.  While standing in line ( there were many lines ), an old lady kept fawning over Lily.  I had no idea what she was saying, but she sure liked Lily.

Lily spying Taipei 101 around every corner on our walk to the building.

I think our neighborhood is between the first low green hill and the mountain (under the buildings curly cue)

Another view from Taipei 101, very mountainy, not city.

A gentleman who makes sugar animals and puts them on a stick for really cool suckers, very talented!

The girls are off school for half of this week and all of next week for spring break.  Will need to find something to do.  Paul is in China this week........kind of weird to be alone.

Lily's stories

My special day
On Sunday it will be a special day. We are going to see Taipei101. I am so excited. It will be fun. I want to go on Top of Taipei101. It has 101 floors. It is the 2nd tallest building in the world. I want to go inside of Taipei101 on Sunday. I like Taipei101 because it is really tall. Taipei101 is really tall. but it is my favorite building.

When I Grow Up
When I grow up I want to be a gymnast.  hears all the things I can do. A cart well, Kick over, front walk over, back walk over, round off, quick touch, splits, handstand,tic tok, and a front hand spring. When I am odder I think I will be even better at gymnastics. My first time at gymnastics was when I was 3 and my sister was 6 she was in gymnastics with me. I hope I will be a gymnast when I grow up.

There are yummy bread shops all over!  We went 2 days in a row to this fancy one, it all tasted so good!

We went to Haagen Daz for $10.00 shakes, or as Lily refers to it, "Hoggin Dogs".

Off to Costo this morning....I hear it is a zoo!

First week here, I miss home.

 Flight was loooong, but the girls are good flyers.  They just sleep or hang out.  I am not looking forward to that flight again or the jet lag.  We spent Sunday (the first day) sleeping, looking at our town home and driving to the local 7-Eleven to buy milk (the store bears no resemblance to those in the US, not a slurpee in sight).  Lily was sad when the Cheetos she bought tasted "different".   We ordered Dominos Pizza, tastes like it does at home.

Monday, we went to a mall.  It was "fancy".   There is a grocery in the lower level, but I didn't care for it, not enough western products.  We stopped at Starbucks and the girls had a treat.  They are getting a lot of treats these days, trying to keep them happy.  More sleeping.

Tuesday was spent at IKEA.  The girls picked out beds and desks, we will need to go back to complete their rooms.  They ended up switching their rooms once they got here and both could not be happier.  Once again, we passed out around 2pm.  I tried to wake the girls around 5pm, literally like waking the dead.  We have been waking up around 2am every night.  Thankfully, Paul insisted we set up Slingbox
(a way to watch American television) and the girls have been watching a lot of TV in the middle of the night.

Wednesday, IKEA delivered and assembled the girls furniture.  The girls LOVE their rooms!  Emma slept in her room for the first time last night.  Once we have all their stuff, I will post photos.  After IKEA left, we went to the girls new school so the girls could meet teachers and have a tour.  Emma met a few girls in her class, can you believe they were taller than Emma!  Lily is afraid she is going to get lost, it is a big school.  They will start next Monday.  This is the first day that we didn't take a nap!  Progress.  I actually made dinner last night.  Don't get too excited......it was all done in the microwave.  We had "Johnsonville" cheddar brats and steamed potatoes & carrots.  It actually tasted really good!

Thursday.  Today was going to be the day the girls and I were going to walk around the neighborhood and explore.  It is the first sunny day we've had since we got here (rain, rain, rain).  Instead, we woke up to plumbing issues.  Last night the kitchen sink was very slow to drain....hmmmmm.  This morning, the main floor toilet wouldn't flush and the urinal overflowed when Paul flushed it (yes, Paul has a urinal....he is overjoyed!)  Upon further inspection, we found water leaking through a light fixture in the basement, there is water on the floor.  Soooooo, no using toilets, sinks or showers.  If this does not get resolved, we may end up in a hotel today.


Good bye, friends......miss you!

This is just our checked luggage, we had a huge pile for our carry-ons as well.

My first homemade dinner, impressive huh?

I am not happy.......won't be the first time.  I am at the mercy of other people trying to solve my issues.  I don't know how to navigate in this town yet, I might even get lost walking out my front door.  I want to find a grocery store that I can shop in and find some of what I am looking for.  Just thinking about reestablishing everything is overwhelming me...........all of this makes me really miss home.

Bye Texas..........it's been fun.

It is a rainy day today, Texas is crying........so am I.

 We are leaving tonight.  The girls are going to their last day of school.  It has been hard saying goodbye to all of our friends.  We will miss you all!  Aside from our great friends, this is some of what we will miss.

Laura Welch Bush Elementary........bye bye.
Cups N Cones.
Hill Country Pasta House, Lily will REALLY miss the fettuccine alfredo and the dinosaur statue.
The ever diminishing Lake Travis.
Clay Pit and Louie's 106, favorite downtown restaurants.
Steiner Ranch.
The U.S.
My chiropractor.
Gymanstics.
Knowing where everything is and how to do it.
Target, this one is hitting Emma especially hard.
Rise and Shine Bakery.....blondies!!!
Girl Scouts.
Book Club, thanks for allowing me to come, even when I didn't read the book.


I never thought in a million years that I would ever move to Texas,  now I can't imagine not living here.  Austin, you are a great town.  It will be interesting to see what my reflections will be once I have lived in Taipei for a bit.  I will probably be having dreams about HEB (Austin grocery store).

FYI......if anything looks strange on this blog, it is because now that I am Taiwan, my blogger site is filled with chinese characters and I do not know the blogger page well enough to select the right command.  At this moment, I am not sure if I am about to post or save this blog, cross your fingers!  Sorry, no photos on this one.