The Kim Family in Taipei: April 2012

The sidewalks in Taipei are clean, there is someone always sweeping and hosing it off, no trash laying around. Buildings are dirty on the outside, some "sewer" smells, a lot more open running water. There is no grass anywhere, but they are very serious about plants, trees, and flowers.....they are everywhere, and usually very pruned or in a design layout. You see a lot of stray or free roaming dogs. There are 2 dogs that we see almost every morning at the bus stop. They just sit in the middle of the road and casually walk out of the way when a car comes. No chasing cars or barking at people. I see dogs riding on scooters with their owners, just standing there, not jumping off, not being held....it is a way of life. I would think that there is very low unemployment...everyone is employed in sweeping the sidewalks, washing the floors in the parking ramps, and guiding people off of the escalators. In retail stores, there are people everywhere to help you, you do not need to search them out. They take recycling very seriously here. We have to sort out all of our trash. Cans, glass, plastic, any paper, food scraps and finally trash. Every night around 7pm, we hear music, ice cream truck music. The kids would get all excited, wanting to run outside with coins.....I have since learned that this music is from the nightly garbage truck, not ice cream! There is this sweet lady that "lives" across the street. There are two garage doors behind which is "junk" filled to the ceiling. A big garbage truck is perpetually parked in front. She is always there sorting and separating and repurposing trash. She has many pots filled with all sorts of plants and herbs on her "corner". She has also taken it upon herself to help guide the kids across the street to the bus stop. She knows all of maybe 5 words in english....."bus", "baby", "good morning" and "okay". I have never not seen a smile on her face, which invariably puts a smile on my face. The mosquitos are pretty bad, but they don't make any noise....you have no warning you are about to get bit. Unfortunately, Paul and Emma are mosquito magnets, poor things have got bitten to bits. Paul has gotten to paying the kids for every bug they kill. We have these special "tennis rackets" that zap the bugs as they are flying about, it is quite a sport.

Paul's parents were here for a week, we brought them to downtown Taipei to see Taipei 101, we went to a well known dumpling restaurant "DinTai Fung" and took his parents and the kids to see Paul's office. You should have seen Emma going through Paul's desk drawers looking for "stuff". She was squealing like a kid in a candy store, finding pens and paper and god knows what else. She loves office supplies like you wouldn't believe....every time we go to a store, she is in the pen and paper aisle. We also found an american style diner called, "The Diner". It was very good! Another treat we had was going for lunch at a very fancy shmancy seafood restaurant, appropriately called, "Really Good Seafood". We got to go to the aquarium room and hand select our seafood. The waiter made some really good suggestions on preparations and alternatives. We had hairy crab, soft shell crab, lobster and rock lobster. My favorite part of the meal was the dessert (yes, the simple dessert in a seafood restaurant), homemade coffee yogurt and some really fresh fruit on the side. It was actually the perfect end to the meal. I was surprised I ate as much as I did considering I do not love seafood. In fact, I ate a cheese sandwich before going to the restaurant, thinking I wasn't going to eat much of anything.

This week I went on a hike up in the mountains (different mountains) with a couple of gals that organize hikes every week. This was a short hike, only about 1.25 hours. We drove up into the mountains, past some famous hot springs, to get to the start of the trail. It was very beautiful, lots of steps and nice views. Two old gentlemen were going down the steps backwards and were faster than we were.....one of them was barefoot! I guess Taiwan had an earthquake a few days ago, 5.4 magnitude, Paul felt it at work....I didn't

Next week Emma will get to go on a 2 night/3 day required school campout. They go to this camp up in the mountains, it is actually owned and run by americans (it reminds me of the girl scout camp that Emma went to last year, even the same activities). They do not let parents go to chaperone, it is only students, teachers, and camp guides.

This is what we see out our front door. It is manicured paths out to the driveway. We feel like we are in this pretty, little, protected sanctuary. As you can see, no yard.

They make "pictures" with plants.

Another neighborhood view, I walk on streets like this everyday.

Paul's parents

Emma sitting at her dad's desk.

Paul's office, notice Emma rummaging through the drawers.

View from Paul's office.

Hairy crab.

Views from my hike.

A giant fern-like plant. The swirly frond was the size of a cantaloupe!

Eeewwww! A hammerhead worm.

Two gals I went hiking with.

Lily, about to take a bath in her wooden tub.

Another american homemade meal. Sloppy joes, canned corn, hand cut coleslaw. Buns are hard to come by, you usually have to rely on regular bread, which can also be hard to find.

Emma took some pics of Lily and added fun effects to them. Lily just finished watching America's Next Top Model and was practicing her best moves.

We have officially been here 1 month. I feel like I have learned a lot in that time, but there is so much left to still learn. The girls have been on spring break for over a week, I think we are all ready for school to start back. We have kept pretty busy. Emma has had many playdates and even one sleepover already. I/we have gone biking, swimming, ice skating, shopping, lunching, movie (The Lorax 3D), out to dinner (Indian food), running around a kids fair, Easter festivities with new friends, and just meeting people. Oh yeah, we also received our sea shipment with all of our furniture and "stuff"". Thank goodness we thinned out our possessions, thank goodness we have decent storage..........and yet, we still have too much stuff. It will just take awhile to find homes for everything. Everyone I talk to continues to say how much they like it here, how friendly the people are and how safe it is for the kids. Kids go off on their own with much less supervision here. A couple of days ago I went on a hike up into the "mountains". I say "mountains" only because they don't seem super high like in Colorado, for instance. These are jungle mountains, no snow caps here. Just right out my door, UP the hill for about 15 minutes, you come across a trail of steps going up into the mountains. Another 15 minutes up the steps and guess what I saw........monkeys! They are Formosan Macaques. You are warned not to bother them, feed them, or stare at them, apparently they can attack. Even though there were plenty of people on the trail (and quite a few tasty little dogs), I was a little scared. I tried taking a few photos, but every time I had one in focus, another one came. It felt like Hitchock, "The Birds". I kind of got freaked out, I turned around and left the area. Paul's parents are here this week, we will see what we can discover.

The girls walking to the bus stop down the shared driveway.

The bus pulling away from the bus stop which is on the grate by the potted plant.

On the coast for my group bike ride.

We saw many of these along the beach, one writes on little pieces of paper and then burns it by placing it in the gold door on the bottom. I think you write the names of relatives that have passed away?