Taipei has made room for us.

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?

Fishing boats on shore.  You can see Taipei across the bay.  We had to take a short ferry ride to get here.

Lily got a pony ride at the kids fair!

Lily participating in an Easter egg hunt with local kids.

Lily won the sack race, she is a good hopper!

Our house is 2-3 blocks up this hill and to the right in an alley.

The main drag in the neighborhood, the school is the red brick building on the right.

Typical street in the neighborhood....shops, apartments and scooters!

An ornate temple right by the school.

Taipei knew Emma and I were coming, they opened up this shop just for us!

Views on my "monkey" walk up the mountain.  I will try to take an actual picture of the monkeys next time.  This is only about 1 mile from my home.