Typhoon Jangmi

Since everyone seems to be asking about our welfare, I thought I'd blog a bit about the storm that has hit headlines all over the world. I think it even made the front page of CNN.com! In any event, if you've been living in a cave or bogged down by obnoxious political rants, this past weekend brought Taiwan yet another typhoon. This one was named Jangmi. The name Jangmi was contributed to the greater typhoon naming bureau by South Korea and it is Korean for the word rose. It's hard for me to imagine naming a storm after a delicate flower, but perhaps they are metaphorically comparing the opening of a rose to the gentle unfolding of the storm...



And it was a very gentle beginning. Matter of fact, as of Friday night it was only supposed to nick the southern portion of Taiwan and blow some rain our way (Taipei is waaaayyy north). Friday night was quiet. Saturday morning there was light, misty rain and everyone was still out and about. Including us! By Saturday night the rain got heavier and there was some evidence of "whistling" wind. You get that a lot here. These tall buildings are so close together and when the wind whips through them it whistles! Or screams - depends on whether or not it wakes you up from a dead sleep and you have no idea what is going on. Anyway. By Sunday afternoon all hell broke loose. It was raining in a hundred different directions and the wind was fierce. If we read all of the weather reports correctly, this turned out to be a category 5 storm with winds reaching 90-125 mph. Monday we had our very first "Typhoon Day." It's like a snow day, but no snow. All of the government offices were closed, schools were closed and imagine this - IBM was closed! Matt was still glued to his laptop, but things at work were much slower than normal. By Monday the storm was pretty much past us, but a lot of rain fell.



Besides looking around our little village, it is very hard for us to gage what kind of damage was done to Taipei. We cannot understand the local news and the larger venues for news tend to mention the event on the island as a whole. Caitlin and I went out to the park today and all we could see was natural debris. The clean up crews were already out sweeping up the streets with their adorable pointy Chinese field worker hats. These hats are a riot! They are painted in florescent orange and yellow stripes so they can been seen (for miles). The kids at the elementary school were out cleaning up the playground with giant sets of chopsticks. Everyone is getting a jump on the cleaning while it is still cool (let me tell you, 82 degrees almost feels cold). The continued thick cloud cover keeps the sun from baking us. I love the sun and bright blue skies, but the coolness feels glorious!



I've attached a video clip that Matt took of the storm on Sunday. Enjoy!

Hong Kong - Part 2

Ahhhh, so where was I? I think y'all heard enough about Saturday. How the rest of our stay?

Sunday, September 23rd

We met some native North Carolinian's, Brian and Chandra, who are expats in mainland China for lunch. Matt met up with them a few other times when he was on a previous assignment in Hong Kong. They are at the tail end of their assignment and were coming over to Hong Kong anyway to cross some more sight seeing points of interest off of their "list." You hear about lists a lot around here. I, personally am a huge fan of lists. I think in lists, although Matt may argue that I think in 2 points. I always seem to have 2 points to support my argument. But that's besides the point. Anyhow, what I'm really trying to get at is the fact that all foreigners make lists of places they want to get to before they move back home. This is hugely practical as many of us won't make it back to this side of the world ever again in our lives. Matt and I are working on our list. So far it is rather lame. We've got Guam, Japan, mainland China and Australia. Perhaps we need to do a little research and pin down some specifics. All in good time...

Back to lunch. Lunch was great, but getting to the lunch spot was where I officially fell in love with Hong Kong. It was a million degrees and I was carrying Caitlin and a back pack and holding on a conversation with Chandra, so I can't really say where I was or how I got there but I can best describe it as a smarter version of San Fransisco. You know how San Fran is a series of steep inclines all jam packed with shops and restaurants? Okay, this is exactly what I saw in Hong Kong only I didn't have to walk up all these crazy inclines I could hop on this outdoor, under cover (of course), escalator. How smart is that? It must be all those omega 3's they consume around here. In any event, it was on this smooth ascension that my eyes feasted upon more little coffee shops (which I absolutely adore and I don't even drink coffee...I just love the confections they offer), girly shops, delis, restaurants, art stores, shoe stores, clothing stores, Italian restaurants, pubs, Chinese food restaurants, sushi restaurants with conveyor belts, little markets, book stores and a Mediterranean restaurant called "Olive." All this on a narrow cobblestone street. It was a lot to take in. I really didn't know where I wanted to eat first! We decided to go with Italian - "Fat Angelo's" to be more specific - and it was very good. I was itching to explore the area more, but we needed to get back to the hotel and put Miss C in for a nap. More quality bathroom time for us - well, at least for Matt.

While Caitlin was happily sleeping I left Matt in the bathroom again and took off in search of one of those adorable silk Chinese outfits for my niece, Paige. I want her to have it before Halloween so she can dress up as a Chinese girl with an "authentic" outfit. I also was hoping to bump into one of those stands that sells knock-off designer purses since I think I am the only woman in Taipei without one and that seems to be synonymous with mention of the city of Hong Kong. Not that I actually carry a purse, but anyway off I go.

One of the titles of this blog was going to be, "The Things I Would Do For My Niece." Okay Paige, this is how much I love you. I take off into a foreign land all by myself in one million degree heat and 200 bazillion percent humidity and at first all I can find are furniture stores. Oh and a gelato place, an Italian Deli and a place called "The Mozzarella Bar." More love for Hong Kong. Either way, that's not going to do it. So I cut through a whole bunch of tall buildings and find a path labeled "Monmouth Path." That seems like it will get me to the other side of the hotel and SURELY there will be little silk Chinese outfits and knock-off designer bags over there. Hmmmm...not so much. Monmouth "path" is actually Monmouth "mountain." You see, they must not understand the direct translation of the word "path." A path does not have thousands of stairs that ascend upward at some radical degree. A path does not leave you completely sweaty and soaked through your clothes. A path surely would not end at a stinking gas station in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country. See, a path just wouldn't do all that. A mountain, on the other hand, just might. I absolutely climbed a stinking mountain in Hong Kong and there were no cute clothes, no people to bargain with, no purses - there was NOTHING at the top! So, I found the next "path" down and wound up at the British Consulate and then in a wonderfully manicured park. Hong Kong Park to be specific. It was soooo beautiful! I wandered around the park for at least an hour. It actually took my mind off of the heat, the Chinese outfit and fake designer bag for a little while. I must have snapped a hundred pictures. It boggled my mind how such a wonder of nature could be parked right in the middle of a bustling city. It had a pond and lots of waterfalls...I was just dying to jump in. People were, but I was wearing a white t-shirt that day and decided that wouldn't be my best idea...and apparently I was already short on good ideas that day. It was nearing wake up time for Caitlin and I headed back to the hotel empty handed. Sorry Paige, but I am determined to find one of those outfits though. You just might get it for Halloween next year.

This is what the people of Hong Kong call a "path." This was only half way up.

After nap time & snack...

We packed up the baby and headed underground to train over to Tung Chung. Tung Chung is home to the Ngong Ping Cable Car which offers a shorter means of travel to the highland city of Ngong Ping, home to Po Lin Monastery and Tian Tan Buddha. The cable car ride is a 3.5 mile, approximately 25 minute ride in a glass enclosed ski lift. During the 25 minute journey, you can see panoramic views over the North Lantau Country Park, the South China Sea, Hong Kong International Airport, the Tung Chung valley, Ngong Ping Plateau and surrounding terrain and waterways. As you get closer to the city of Ngong Ping, you can see The Big Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery. As uninterested in heights as I am, I have to admit that the views from up there are absolutely breathtaking.

Up, up, up we go!

This is the cable that carried our car over the water and up the mountains. How's that for feeling secure?

Matt & Caitlin enjoying the view

Our 1st glimpse of the "Big Buddha"

The view was spectacular!

The village of Ngong Ping

The tea house in Ngong Ping

The tea house garden. Sooooo pretty!

Before the cable car system was erected in 2006, there wasn't a city of Ngong Ping and the monastery and big, giant Buddha probably had an extremely quiet existence on this earth. Perhaps they grew tired of it that way or perhaps this sort of tourist attraction was necessary to provide the essential funding to keep it all financially afloat - I don't know, but I loved all the quaint touristyness that this little "town" had to offer. I only wish that we had more time there.

Matt, Caitlin & and the Big Buddha

We closed Sunday night with a rather uneventful dinner...we stopped at the first place we saw that wasn't McDonald's and the food really wasn't all that good. I think Caitlin agreed because she didn't eat much of anything. After that it was back to the hotel, a round of baths and showers for all and an early night into bed. We were all hot and tired from running around.

Monday, September 22nd
We woke up very early and quickly set out to find a decent breakfast for the 3 of us. We found a "pop up" cafe called "The Met" in the center of the mall completely filled with folks dressed for work grabbing coffee and breakfast to go. We enter, the only non-Asian looking people around, with hungry bellies and a container of Cheerios just ready to make a mess of the place...we didn't do so bad. We were definitely something to keep your eye on though (as many did). We propped Miss C up on her daddy's laptop backpack and filled a bowl with Cheerios and milk. She gobbled that up before our breakfasts were served so her 2nd breakfast was a combination of fruit and whatever she grabbed off of our plates. You know, I am a firm believer in straps. Without straps to keep this child in place neither of us can sit and eat. Life without straps leaves us dealing with a mess, but we managed. There was a little spillage, some chasing and a lot of food stuck in between those little fingers, but we got through the meal feeling happily nourished and rather clever for having both spotted a place close by and devising a way to get her at table height and keep her there. Whew! Check. Breakfast done.

From breakfast we moved onto the Taiwan Bureau of Consulate Affairs (BOCA). This is where we handed in all of our paperwork to get the proper visas issued so that we can get our Alien Residence Cards. Here is where I offer many, many thanks to Matt's administrative assistant, Kirsten. This whole process was extremely difficult to get through due to many language barriers and lack of information. There are so many different steps involved and papers need to be copied, filled out and authenticated, but none of these things are actually written out so you can be prepared ahead of time. Kirsten did a lot of homework on our behalf so we were ahead of the game. We lacked a few copies of things and the proper amount of money to pay for this service so Matt took a run to the bank and a Kinko's type place for copies while I entertained Caitlin at the BOCA. The paperwork would be completed by 4pm. Check.

From here we went to the American Express office to pick up Matt's new credit card. Check.

Now we're off to IBM Hong Kong where Matt spent the better part of 6 weeks this past spring. Here we met Tiffancy, the administrative assistant to the VP that Matt was the technical assistant to. Tiffancy is a warm,. adorable woman who just loves Matt. She may be in her mid 40's, but it was so hard to tell. I think what makes Matt so unique to most other foreigners is that when he is in another land he wants to immerse himself in their culture. He wants to be a part of their daily lives and they just love him for that! There are few limits to what he'll go visit, eat or do. I admire this sooo much about him. I am not quite that adventurous and really wish I could be, but it is truly not in my wiring. Anyway, Matt had been in touch with Tiffancy and she had reservations for us to go out for dim sum.

"Dim sum" is a Cantonese phrase that literally means "to touch the heart" or "to order to your heart's content." I think I forgot to mention that in Hong Kong they speak Cantonese not Mandarin so the 2 words I use here in Taipei were completely useless. Luckily there was all this British influence so English came in handy! Anyway, dim sum is Chinese cuisine which involves a wide variety of light dishes served alongside tea. The portions are small and shared. They may include meat, seafood, veggies, deserts and fruit. The food is usually served in bamboo steamer baskets or small plates. So what was is like? Oh, how I wish I took some pictures of all this! I don't know why I didn't, I think it was because I was a little unsure of what I was going to try to put in my mouth and that took away from my picture taking. Plus, I could already tell that people were looking at us - mostly due to Caitlin - and I didn't want to make more of a scene. We sat in a huge banquet room that could have easily been set up for a wedding. There were round tables of all different sizes. The larger tables had big, giant lazy susans in the middle. They set up a baby chair for Miss C and we all parked ourselves while Tiffancy poured tea and picked out our cuisine. Seriously, I was slightly terrified by all this. Remember that not so adventurous spirit I mentioned earlier? Okay, so perhaps terrified is an exaggeration. But seriously, what on earth were we going to feed Caitlin? Chicken nuggets anyone? How about a cheeseburger for the other non-Asian looking person? The big one with crazy hair. Don't forget fries. Oh, and pass the ketchup. Did I mention that there were only chopsticks to work with here? How about a fork? Knife? Actually, on a good day I can hold my own with the chopsticks. Usually the wooden ones work best for me. The wood seems to offer a little more sticking power. And I always have a set of utensils for Caitlin - not that she actually uses them. Anyway. The food started to arrive. We had super yummy fried won tons with an awesome sweet and sour dipping sauce, steamed BBQ pork buns (also very good), marinated, chopped, steamed chicken with a garlicy/oniony/cilantroy salsa sort of stuff (quite tasty, but cold and I wasn't expecting that), cuddle fish in some sort of hot sauce (did not touch the stuff), fried rice with meat(very, very yummy!) and a Chinese cake (ordered especially for Caitlin by Tiffancy which was soo good). So, the Chinese cake answered a burning question I've had for a while. Why are Asian kitchens often missing ovens? Answer: because they steam their cakes. STEAM. Imagine that!!! The cake came out in one of those little bamboo steamer baskets. Tiffancy popped up and single handedly "sliced" a piece with cop sticks - a maneuver I would still be standing there trying to figure out and then plated it. The cake was awesome and Caitlin devoured every bit of it! She also liked the chicken. With hesitation that I didn't want our host to see, I tried everything except the cuddle fish. To my most sincere surprise, I did not die in total disgust. I actually liked it. I even learned a new trick. You can eat your rice in a bowl with this crazy glass spoon instead of fussing with chopsticks and a plate...of course I only learned this after I fussed with the chopsticks and rice on a plate. As with most experiences in a new land, the food was only a small part of what I walked away with that day. The conversation, learning new ways of life, getting questions answered, making friends and extending invitations for future visits here and there lent so much more to my memory of it all.

Full bellied, we rushed back to the hotel to check out by 2pm and then made our way to the airport check in station at the train station to check our bags. Check. Once the bags were out of our hands we taxied back to the Peak Tram in hopes to finally make our way up the mountain see the sights. The line was short of course...who in their right mind would want to go up an unairconditioned trolley to see a smog covered sky on a really hot day? Only us. At the top we ate some gelato and quickly got back down again. Check. Note to reader: I blogged, in great detail, about the Peak Tram in Hong Kong, Part 1.

The view from the top of Victoria's Peak

Caitlin & Mommy at the top of the mountain

By 4:30pm we were on our way back to the BOCA office to pick up our passport and visa paperwork. Everything was finished, as promised. Check. We then hopped back into a cab in rolled back to the airport train station. Caitlin had been going strong without a nap and finally gave in on the cab ride to the train station. We were so happy that she was able to settle herself to sleep. It was a long day for her and we still had a some travel left to do. We checked into the airport and refuled/rehydrated /cleaned up at the Cathay Pacific Airlines lounge. It was a short wait before boarding time and Caitlin woke up right before we had to take her out of her seat. Luckily it was a short flight and we were home safely before we knew it!! Whew, what a weekend!

Hong Kong

Some Facts & History...

Hong Kong, officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China's south coast. The island is approximately 426 square miles and has a population of 6.9 million people. It is one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

Beginning as a trading port, Hong Kong became a dependant territory of the UK. In 1839 the refusal by Qing Dynasty authorities to import opium resulted in the 1st Opium War between China and Britain. Hong Kong Island became occupied by British forces in 1841, and was formally ceded to Britain at the end of the war. In 1860, after China's defeat in the 2nd Opium War, the Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutter's Island were ceded to Britain. In 1898 Britain obtained a 99-year lease of Lantau Island and the adjacent northern lands, which became known as the New Territories. The official transfer of Hong Kong's sovereignty to the People's Republic of China was in 1997. It is one of 2 special administrative regions and is generally not considered a part of mainland China. Hong Kong is largely self-governing and maintains a capitalist economy.

Renowned for its expansive skyline and natural setting, Hong Kong is one of the world's leading financial capitals and a major business and cultural hub. Its identity as a cosmopolitan center where east meets west is reflected in its cuisine, cinema, music and traditions, and although the population is predominantly Chinese, residents and expats of other ethnicities form a small but significant segment of society.

Hat's off to Wikipedia.

And onto our trip...

Saturday, September 20, 2008

As you have all come to expect, we Heller's start our trips off with a bang. The moment we arrived in Hong Kong, a mere 1.5 hour flight from Taiwan, we realized that we left Matt's business credit card with the driver that transported us to the Taipei Airport. OOOPS! This surely adds a new dimension of fun as this trip is technically a business expenditure and according to IBM policy, (blah, blah, blah), all costs related to this trip need to be accounted for on this approved credit card. Ugh. So, Matt made a few phone calls and regardless of what he tried to do, all signs pointed in the same direction - we needed to get a new card. Luckily there was an American Express office close to our hotel and we swung by there to get a new card. Lots of phone calls, a giant pain in the rear for Matt, but problem solved. Oh, and the driver was hugely apologetic. He promised to bring the card back to us when he picked us up at the airport on Monday night. You know, after he purchased a new TV, home theatre system and a car.

Ahhh, Hong Kong. We arrived in daylight, but by the time we were settled in the hotel, fed and hit the town it was dusk. Hong Kong's daily sun schedule is the same as Taiwan. The sun is up early in the morning and it is dark by 6pm. The weather is also quite similar to Taiwan's, so it was upwards of 90 degrees the entire time we were there. In addition, they experience the same long rainy season in the spring that we will. So I decided that either they are much more clever than the Taiwanese or their development boom happened in more modern times, but they created a smart public transportation system that takes you from the airport to basically anywhere on the island without the traveler having to come up from underground. This way if it is pouring down rain for hours and days on end, no one has get get wet going from place to place. Nice. We literally went from the airport to the hotel without the sun touching our skin. How cool is that? Not that this underground rail system is actually all that "cool" in temperature...I've never seen Matt sweat as much as he did when he wasn't doing yard work. Apparently I haven't mastered traveling light. But I can't take all the blame - it's the littlest person in our lives that has the most stuff. There was one suitcase for the 3 of us, her portable bed, her carseat on wheels, Matt's backpack and Caitlin's backpack. I think it's the bed that threw us out of balance. That thing is heavy! Either way, we survived and Matt gets major props for lugging all our stuff for a few miles in the heat.

We stayed on the 23rd floor of the Marriott. It was a very nice hotel, but the service didn't quite compare to what we've experienced at the Hyatt in Taipei. The only thing they had over the Hyatt are the most amazing hand-made chocolate truffles. These are, simply put, a piece of chocolate heaven. They had a paper thin, crispy chocolate cup type shell filled with a slightly bitterish-creamy chocolate filling and one or two itsy bitsy crunchy things on top. Mmmmm...I'll be dreaming about them for days to come. (A little raspberry would have been good with that or even a fine pino noir...) After the chocolate, we were greeted with fresh fruit, water and tea. It was great to have the fruit on hand. Everything else was standard; big bed, lots of pillows, desk, TV with cable that we could actually understand, internet connection, phone, lamps...you get the picture. Thankfully, the room was also equipped with a very large bathroom where Matt and I spent a lot of time hanging out waiting for Caitlin to fall asleep (for either nap or bedtime). The joys of globetrotting with a toddler.

The hotel is connected to a very large, upscale mall filled with shops that showcased every major designer I could think of (and many of which I'd never heard of). You know, funny thing about me and fashion. I really love it and admire fashion magazines and people who wear it, but truly I am at a point in my life where I just can't be bothered. Most days I'm clean, comfy and as put together as a mom in a tropical climate can be. Anyway, it was fun to walk through the mall eating my gelato and take a glimpse at the fashion world I've seemed to leave behind. But I am getting way off topic here. Oh, did I mention gelato? After we put Caitlin to sleep for the night, I left Matt in the bathroom and slipped out on quest to find milk and other breakfasty stuff for us to eat the next couple of mornings. I found an amazing import market in the basement of this mall. My heart was all a-flutter with joy! There was English - actual English everywhere!! ENGLISH!!! You simply cannot imagine the complete and all encompassing ecstasy, the absolute elation to find a food store where I could actually comprehend what I was buying! I almost cried. Then I saw it. On my way out of the store I spotted the gelato bar. It was if the Good Lord knew that I would be a complete woman again if I both purchased food items in English and had actual creamy, dairy rich, frozen treat. So, I bought myself a scoop of mint chocolate chip wonderfulness and savored each and every spoonful as I drifted back to our hotel room. Oprah has this thing going on right now about being "present" in your life. I don't think I was ever more present than those moments when I enjoyed that actual ice cream ALONE. No big, giant Matt bites that usually consume most of my treat. No slobbery Caitlin bites. Just Tara bites. Oh, and they were soooo good. I did have intentions of saving some for Matt. Poor guy stuck in the bathroom. But somehow, it was all gone when I got in. He forgave me.

I guess I got a little off course here. I meant to mention that in this mall were a whole bunch of restaurants and cafes. Earlier that evening, we ate dinner at a place Matt frequented when he lived in Hong Kong (on his assignment prior to us moving to Taiwan). It's called Dan Ryan's Chicago Pub. The food was familiar and good while the atmosphere was fun and perfect for Caitlin. From here we hopped in a cab and headed out to the1st attraction on our list, the Peak Tram.

"The Peak", or Victoria's Peak is the tallest mountain on the island proper. It soars at 1,180 feet and on a clear day offers amazing views of the city. Even as early as the 19th century, prominent non-natives (I'll call them) sought out this property for its beautiful sights and slight relief from the tropical climate. Although, I feel compelled to interject here that we didn't actually experience any relief from the heat when we were up there. Perhaps it was different in the 19th century without all the global warming and such...Anyway, these non-natives built homes up there and were originally transported to and from by human powered chairs. Then came along horses and carriages and finally a cable car tram (train looking thing - I didn't get a good picture. Sorry, it was too hot to hold Caitlin and get the camera out). The human powered chairs and even the horse carriages were terribly inhumane means of transportation. I cannot begin to paint the picture of how incredibly steep the incline to the top is. But let me try. Close your eyes and imagine yourself in this tram car and as you are ascending to the top your back is forced to the rear of the bench your seated in and you're looking ahead of you at super tall buildings-skyscrapers-but these skyscrapers and your eyes are totally in the same direction. More simply put, you are actually "seated" at a 90 degree angle. If you were to stand, you would fall. For goodness sake, it's a mountain! It was very cool. At the top of the peak there is a great viewing deck, all sorts of shops and restaurants. It would make a superb date or place to propose (hint, hint Todd!).

So we tried to go Saturday night. It was a relatively cool and clear night. Apparently everyone else visiting Hong Kong had the same idea and the line for this attraction was around the block. It was after 7pm, Caitlin didn't have a nap and there was just no way she was going to make it. We got out of line and hopped aboard this double decker, open topped bus that had a wrap on it advertising The Peak. We knew that there were alternate routes to the peak and assumed that this was one of them. Hmmm...not so much (you can do the Borat thing here again. I do it all the time!). This bus actually took us to the IFC or International Financial Center, formerly the tallest building in the world. According to Matt, it is now the 3rd tallest building. In case you're wondering, the current tallest building is Taipei 101 here in Taiwan. From here we took our hot, twitchy toddler on a ferry boat to Kowloon, a small strip of land on mainland China (no passport required), to watch the light show. Kowloon, or at least the very small part of it that I saw in the dark was really cool. The pictures of the lantern display were taken there. Then we climbed a bunch of stairs to a viewing platform to look over at Hong Kong. Very interesting perspective...every major financial institute and electronic brand you can think of was magnificently illuminated. Zillions of light bulbs. Made me wonder how many of those bulbs our families have empowered through the purchase a few TV's, cell phones, personal computers, computer monitors, etc. The whole riverfront twinkled to the sound of music. It was so cool. My pictures didn't do it justice. But it was hot and Caitlin was totally at her end, so after 10 minutes we took the ferry back and hopped in a cab to the hotel. So the pictures I took of the signs was all I saw of The Peak that night. But I did get there again...

This is turning out to be a really long post. I'm really tired so I'll continue tomorrow. Attached is the link our slideshow of Hong Kong. There are just too many pictures to add to this manually so the slideshow will work better. You may have seen them already, but they might make more sense after all my lengthy explanations. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/taralheller/2008092022TripToHongKong?authkey=kmej-6R-SiE#

Our Little Dumpling Eats her 1st Dumpling!

Sometimes my dinner creations, although well intended, go a little wrong. I was trying to clean out the fridge for our upcoming trip to Hong Kong and the final turnout wasn't so great. So I told Matt to pick up his favorite Taiwanese food on his way home for dinner. He brought home lots and lots of dumplings (apparently Matt forgot that we are leaving this weekend)! Caitlin had already eaten dinner, but she still wanted more so we gave her a dumpling! She ate a few bites of it and in the end she wasn't all that interested, but she gave it a try!

Pure Bliss

While Matt and I are enjoying Taiwanese cuisines and tourism, Caitlin is the connoisseur of mango ice pops! This particular pop has a layer of vanilla ice "cream" (we use the word cream loosely here. It's not quite as creamy as anything we're used to in the US). Umm, umm!

Sinlaku Typhoon - Another weekend, another cultural experience

Typhoon. To the average person reading this, the word "typhoon" may trigger alarm or fear. I often find myself using the word "typhoon" as an exaggerational adjective (Who me, exaggerate? By the way, I'm not totally sure that exaggerational is actually a word) that describes the scene at our wedding reception. For those of you who were there or even those who have been held hostage long enough to see our brilliantly produced (thanks Pete) wedding DVD, I actually am not that far off on the description.

To be precise, a typhoon is a tropical cyclone that forms in the northwest Pacific Ocean. More specifically, they form in the within the Pacific Ocean from Asia, north of the equator, and west of the international date line. Storms from the Eastern and Central Pacific crossing the date line are re-designated as typhoons. And if you're interested, the word "typhoon" comes from the Chinese 颱風/台风 (pinyin: tái fēng; Jyutping: toi4fung1). Whatever that translates to. Thanks Wikipedia. To make it easier to relate to, a typhoon is simply a hurricane on this side of the world.

On September 13th the fourth typhoon to hit Taiwan this season made landfall. Typhoon Sinlauku. Each typhoon is given a name, but not after a person. Instead, they generally refer to animals, flowers, astrological signs, and a few personal names. Typhoon names are submitted years in advance and can be recycled. The name of this past typhoon, Sinlauku was last used in 2002. "Sinlauku" refers to the Legendary Kosrae Goddess. I can't seem to find too much information on this legendary Goddess so we'll just have to take it at face value.

The storm was in and out of tropical storm and typhoon status. At it's strongest it may have been a category 2 storm, but I'm not sure where it was parked at that strength. It was a super slow moving storm, creeping along at about 8 miles per hour (seriously, I can walk faster than that) and therefore dumping massive amounts of rain for a long period of time. The rain began on Friday and it rained and rained and rained...today (Tuesday) is the first time I've seen a blue sky since last Thursday! Oh my goodness, it rained so hard. It rained in a million different directions and you couldn't see a thing for a few minutes. The it would slow down, but never actually stop. I'm pretty sure I've never seen so much constant rain. With all the mountains around us I expected to see some scary wind action. I think strongest winds we felt were early on Saturday morning and after that there wasn't much of anything.

Luckily, we never lost power, cable or the Internet. Thank goodness because I don't even have a candle here (not to mention that I don't know where to get one either). We watched a lot of Elmo, stuck stickers, ran around outside in the rain, napped and ate. We got totally soaked while venturing out to visit a friend's dwelling nearby and had lasagna, salad and browines a la mode (oh wow everything was sooo good!) and met a few more IBM expats. It was good family boding time, but we're so happy to see the sun shine again!

The "Tub"

If you were to ask Caitlin and I where our favorite place in Taipei is we'd say, "The Tub!" Little Caitlin can't seem to make the "c" sound in club and replaces it with a "t." "The Tub" (aka the "American Club China" most commonly referred to as the ACC), is a country club for expats and citizens alike who are interested in meeting other people from around the world. Remember I blogged about my melting pot experience in the park a couple weeks ago? Let's call that the clay pot of melting pots. The ACC is like the fine china of melting pots. And secretly (well, I guess not so secretly anymore) I LOVE IT.

The club isn't too far from our house...probably less than a 10 minute cab ride if you're going in the middle of the day. It's located right next to "The Grand Hotel" which is something I totally love about it. Even at the most simple restaurant you have a fantabulous view of the Grand Hotel and all of its color and majesty. The other thing that I really love about it is that even in the middle of a major bustling metropolis, the setting is serene. No one can do serene quite like the Asian culture. They use landscape, water and music to block out the sounds of the city and post signs that ban cell phone use (not a problem for me because I still don't have one and am loving the freedom).

Because I love to eat, let's talk about the food. Oh, the options...first, there is bar called "Rendezvous" where you can eat, watch a game, go to happy hour, enjoy live entertainment or have a fun dinner. In addition to a zillion other cuisines they serve traditional western bar food and cocktails. Yum. It's quite polished and more like a swanky night club meets martini and cigar bar rather than a sports bar. Complete with lights and ambiance...Speaking of sports bar, the "ACC Sports Bar" has a pool table, giant flat screen TV and a bunch of other manly stuff (and since I'm all girly and I'm doing the blogging that's about all I'll mention on that. I'll probably never step foot in that room.). Next door to "Rendezvous" is the "Napa Grille." Oh how I love that name! Anything with the word "Napa" in it brings a smile to my face. Gotta love California wine country! Anyway, the "Napa Grille" is the finest dining at the ACC. Complete with an age limit and dress code. Obviously, we won't be frequenting this establishment too often. But when we do our taste buds will relish unique flavor combinations such as "swordfish carpaccio with eggplant caviar or pan-seared yellowfin tuna steak with lemon oreganata potatoes and sautéed mustard greens." Hmmm...do that serve that with chicken instead of fish? On second thought, don't worry about it. I'll just drink the wine. Who needs food when there are vast selections of wine from the Napa Valley?

Then there is "Sigis" which offers both indoor and outdoor dining. I just love the look of this place and the food...oh, the food (can you tell that we've been there a couple times already?) It's everything you need when you can't get your stove to stay lit or you can't find the right ingredients to make anything you've got a hankering for or you just CAN'T (believe me, there is such a syndrome as "CAN'T." I believe it's unique to expats in Taipei). And they love Caitlin-complete with all her messes and fun. It's my own special mommy place for happy hour. Come to think of it, Sigis leads to many happy hours. Preceding dinner happiness is because I know I don't have to cook and my family will still have a healthy dinner. During dinner happiness is actually more like elation because I am consuming really good food and I didn't have to do anything but point. Then there is post dinner happiness because I know I won't get stuck doing the dishes and can just bask in the joy of a food coma. The portions my be large or perfectly normal...I don't know because I clear my plate each time I'm served. Simply put, I love it. Oh, and they serve chocolate fondue. I've never actually had it, but the first women visitor that I have will be tossed in a cab to join me for wine and chocolate covered bliss. Beware!

Finally there is the "Terrace." The "Terrace" is the most simple of dining establishments, but also very tasty. Caitlin and I have been there for lunch at least 2 times each week we've been here. After a morning of swimming, climbing and playing this is the perfect spot! They've got a salad bar and a dessert display - complete with cookies, YUM!!! I haven't actually tried the cookies yet in fear that they might be delicious and then I'll need to have one every time I'm there. Obviously I have no self control when it comes to cookies. Chocolate chip to be specific. They've got great paninis too...okay, enough with this food business. I'm starting to get hungry and we just left the place!!

How about the facilities? For kids, this is the place to be. There are outdoor swings, slides, climbers, see-saws, animals on giant springs and rubber floors. There are indoor climbers and chutes. The nursery is most impressive. First is the level of cleanliness. There is an air purifier, place to wash your hands, a place to leave your shoes at the door and little sanitary stations to get some of that alcohol stuff to clean your hands with. No one is allowed in with a cold. There's a bit of a security system and a babysitter who will watch up to 15 children between the ages of 2-6 (for a maximum of 2 hours). There are lots of toys, puzzles, colors, blocks, ride in cars, slides, kitchen set, climber, slide. The place is totally stimulating and fun! Caitlin LOVES it. There are teen rooms with plenty of fun stuff, snacks and media. There's a library, movie rental, spa/hair place, conference rooms, ball rooms, pools, saunas, jacuzzi, loungers, tiki/poolside bar, social events, Sunday brunch, tennis courts, squash courts, personal trainers, couches, swim team, swim lessons, workout facilities, fitness classes...I'm probably still just scratching the surface. It really is quite the place.

For more reading pleasure go to www.americanclub.org/tw. Hope to be able to bring y'all there someday!

Rain, rain go away! Little Caitlin Wants To Play!

Caitlin woke up a little out of sorts this morning. I think the word "rammy" would best describe her. I knew we'd need to get out to the park and shake our bones today. The blue skies and mountains of our tropical paradise seemed to be dodging humongous cumulus clouds this morning. This is pretty common so I thought by the time Caitlin finished her breakfast the clouds would be long gone. They weren't so we killed some time by calling Mimom. It was still cloudy when we got off the phone, but I so desperately wanted to get outside so I loaded up our gear and headed out to the park.

We walked past the security guards and greeted them with a cheery, "Ni hao!" They must have been thinking, "Silly American girls. Don't they see the GIANT clouds looming overhead?" Apparently not. In no way did I think it was actually going to rain. I just thought it was going to be a cloudy day. Well, I got about 1/4 of the way down our lane and the heavens opened up! This was some serious rain. For a split second, I thought about continuing to the park...although I have to admit now that would be a serious error in judgement. What do you do with a 20 month old in a park in the rain (should I mention that I'm in a foreign country? Or have I established that fact yet? For whatever the reason I feel I need to keep reminding myself. Like being in the rain at a park in the US would make any difference). Come on now, Tara. So we parked ourselves under and overhang because I learned quite quickly that giving an umbrella to a toddler is...well, pointless. Not that umbrella lacks sharp, pointy edges that could wind up in any number of unwanted places as we bounce along the bumpy edge of the road most commonly referred to as a sidewalk, but these are hardly sidewalks. Let's take a moment to examine the "sidewalks" here in Taipei.

Matt often compares Taipei to NYC. I'm not sure where he comes up with these ideas. There are many striking differences between Taipei and NYC. For example the roasted ducks hanging in store windows, unclearly marked or oddly posted street signs, the Chinese language EVERYWHERE, the clear disregard for pedestrians and the zillions of scooters are just to name a few. What really gets me is the lack of space for people to safely travel on foot. What's worse than that (at least for me and Caitlin) is the lack of ramps or any way for strollers or wheelchairs to maneuver in and out of buildings. I'll stick with my sidewalk rant for now. Just like NYC, it's not uncommon for people here to not have their own form of transportation. There is a decent rail, bus and taxi system throughout Taipei and having a car could actually be more of a pain . But the sidewalks, THE SIDEWALKS ARE DEPLORABLE. Now I haven't frequented NYC that much in recent years, but I lived in Philly for a while and with the exception of Manayunk, there are respectable sidewalks. Not like your typical suburban sidewalks either. They have those extra wide ones to handle the large amount of foot traffic (or perhaps to handle the extra large cheese steak eating population). Not in Taipei. If there are sidewalks without big metal covered boxes plunked in the middle of the walkway there's the occasional scooter rider who decides that he/she is too good to ride in the street like the rest of the motorized world. Then there are the potholes, uneven surfaces, stairs and other random obstacles that just make it so darn difficult to get around. Now imagine me with one hand on an umbrella, one hand steering the stroller and one hand guiding the umbrella I just handed Caitlin. Ooops, is that 3 hands? You can see my problem here - even without the added luxury of potholes.

So, we got wet. And laughed all the way home! The security guard met us at our gate and tried to help us through (I had to close 2 umbrellas in order to fit through) by holding another umbrella on the other side. They are so sweet to us and I desperately want to communicate to them - "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

The Danshui Experience

Our First Cultural Outting



On Sunday, September 7th we decided to meet some of Matt's coworkers, their families and friends at the coastal town of Danshui. Danshui is just about a half hour from Taipei and the rail system is such easy and relaxing way to travel. So, we packed up the girl a few snacks and we were on our way.






A little history...according to Tara's interpretation of "The Rough Guide to Taiwan"



The name Danshui literally means, "fresh water" and is thought to have been given this name by early Chinese seafarers. The settlement was established around Fort Santo Domingo by the Spanish in 1628 and later occupied by the Dutch. By 1662 the Dutch were driven off as more Chinese immigrants started to arrive. Danshui boomed after the Treaty of Beijing opened up the port to foreign trade in 1860. Soon thereafter, Robert Swinhow, a British vice consul arrived and started a full-fledged customs office. This enabled Danshui to become a bustling port exporting Oolong and Baozhong teas. Unfortunately, Danshui's harbour lacked deep waters so it began to lose precedence to Keelung by the 1920's. Today it is home to a healthy tourist trade as well as home to two universities and a growing number of Taipei commuters. It's also well known for beautiful sunsets.

How the day went...


As you're reading this, please keep in mind that we have only been parents for 20 months. 20 months is hardly enough time to know exactly what you are supposed to do with your child in a foreign country without a car, right? So we may have made a poor decision, but it was based on a prior experience that in hindsight was not at all related to how things would go on this particular day...and so the story goes. Here's how it all went down.


We made the executive decision NOT to bring Caitlin's stroller. Somehow we had the impression that we were going to a park-like place (I, in some dreamy far off moment of wonder thought we were going to the beach!) . Someplace that Caitlin could run a-muck. Hmmmm. Not so much (insert Borat accent here! It will make you laugh, just do it!). This was more like being on the boardwalk at the Jersey shore on the 4th of July in 4,000 degree heat and 200% humidity. There were people everywhere. There was a river on one side and make shift sort of shops, concessions, carnivalish games and zillions of people consuming entire grilled squid on a stick or 2 foot high ice cream sort of things (someplace where any American would totally expect to find milk, but alas no milk in this "ice cream") while texting on their cell phones on the other. There were loud speakers with Chinese gibberish belching out random advertisements and music. There were balloon makers and junk sellers. This was no place for a toddler to have any sort of freedom.

In all this chaos, we still managed to be the center of attention. Well perhaps not we, but she. Oh and the 7 foot tall white guy we were with, Adam. Adam has self proclaimed that he is the biggest guy in Taiwan and we can claim for Caitlin that she is the cutest. Caitlin gets a lot of attention in our everyday travels, but nothing like this. People were stopping and staring. They wanted her picture, to touch her hair or to simply get her attention. The poor girl was just dying to jump in the river and play with the "bubbles." She kept asking me for her "soooouit" and pointing to her body (as if to show me where it should be).


We forgot to feed the poor girl a snack, but kept her very well hydrated on sugary lemonade. By 5:00pm, she had enough "fun" and we left the crowd to head home. Caitlin slept soundly on the lap of luxury (her daddy) the entire train ride home.











Caitlin sleeping on her daddy

Thank goodness for guide books otherwise I would have never known were we'd been!!

Heller Family Traditions

There are 2 Heller Family Traditions that we are just not willing to give up-regardless of where we live in the world. One is "Friday Night Pizza" and the other is "Saturday Morning Oatmeal Buttermilk Pancakes." "Friday Night Pizza" was previously known as "Friday Night Pizza & a Movie," but the birth of our daughter and her immersion into a toddlerhood has nixed the movie festivities - unless we want to watch Elmo. Since 20 minutes of Elmo is all that we can take each day, the pizza is consumed at a "normal" dinner time and the movie is viewed only after Caitlin has gone to bed.

The pizza tradition materialized from my Catholic roots and dates back to the mid-1980's. My dear mother grew weary of stuffing unwanted fish sticks down the throats of her land-lubbing children on Friday night's during Lent(If interested in learning more about the origins of Lent, click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent) and gave into the most universally beloved mainstream American cuisine - pizza. Ahhh yes...pizza.

In our lives, pizza equals love. Matt and I fell in love with a garlic coated, thin crusted, mushy-gushy, brick oven baked pizza at Fiorello's Cafe in West Chester, PA (my hometown) about 6 years ago. We savored every morsel of that pizza and throughout the years we have tweaked our dough and pizza sauce to reflect such a fond memory. Everyone in our family knows that Matt & Tara's pizza is simply THE BEST. And mostly everyone who knows us knows not to mess with Friday nights (I am such a creature of habit!).

I ceremoniously made one last pizza at our home in Raleigh for my mother, Caitlin and I (Matt was in Taiwan) before our bread machine, pots and pans were packed up by the moving company in mid-August. Mmmmm, it was good. (Sorry, this post is really hard for me to write without getting super hungry!) We were all ready to take on Taiwan and their Pizza Hut pizza until...

...we went food shopping. Let's start with the cost of a can of tomatoes. Apparently canned tomatoes aren't widely used here in Taiwan and the only ones that are available to us are direct imports from the US. Okay, no problem if you want to pay a few dollars PER CAN! These are not the giant Shop-Rite cans either, these are simple 14 ouncers. We are willing to bite the bullet on the tomatoes because I use them in so many different ways. At the risk of sounding somewhat obsessed, I am also willing to purchase fresh tomatoes, blanch them, peel them and freeze them, but I can't seem to find any local ones that aren't grown in a hot house. Hmmm...I wonder why? Taiwan has perfect conditions for growing tomatoes - even an extended period of warmth for more growing pleasure. (If you can't already tell, I love my tomatoes the way my nephew loves his vacuum's). Anyway so there's the tomato obstacle and I supposed you could consider it overcome now that I have a pantry full of canned maters from Costco. Let's move onto the cheese.

I think I've mentioned that dairy products aren't all that popular here either. While the Taiwanese put milk into cold tea, juices, shaved ice and a variety of other places that we Americans don't normally put it, they don't get into regular hard core consumption the way that we do. There are a few import stores here that sell most of the cheeses we're used to - IF YOU WANT TO PAY $10 FOR A 4 CUP BAG OF MOZZARELLA CHEESE!!!!

So, after a long week of jet lag and figuring things out we put our pizza making on hold and found Taiwan's most popular (and possibly the only) pizza joint called "Alleycats." Their pizza surely wasn't as good as ours, but it was wasn't bad either! Seriously, the fact that we even found a pizza place in Taiwan is nothing short of a miracle. God must have known that the absence of pizza would surely throw me over the edge. We were so hungry that we each got our own pie! The crust was fired in a brick oven so it had that thin crispiness that I just love! Since we were a two pie family this night, Matt got a pie full of meat while Caitlin and I shared some cheese. They served lots of beer, really good red wine (this could possibly be a new favorite...called Tall Horse from Australia) and a great salad with a tangy, Dijon-y balsamic vinaigrette. The food was great, but it was even better to get out on a Friday night in a hopping city and doing something we always do. I just love Fridays!!

So I mentioned that there were two Heller traditions...the second one is Matt's homemade oatmeal buttermilk pancakes. If you've ever had them, then you know that they are just a piece of Heaven on a Saturday morning! Regardless of what we would like or not like to spend on dairy products, buttermilk is nowhere to be found on this island. Luckily Matt is good at science and concocted something that resembles it and the pancakes were divine! It was a great start to the weekend!

Melting Pot

When I get really frustrated with my surroundings, I ask myself (or the space around me) "What am I doing here?" The answer is really quite simple, Tara. You're here because your husband's job is here. While that is a perfectly factual answer, it does nothing to cease the wonder and complete bewilderment of the current location of my life. I understand where I am on a map and I understand the factual basis in which lands me in Taipei, Taiwan, but really what am I doing here? Perhaps I should rephrase the question to "What am I going to do here?" Aha! Yes, what am I going to do here. Up until a few hours ago, I don't think I knew. Thank heavens for a few hours ago...I might still be talking to space.

So the grand epiphany happened at the children's park across from our home. Now that I've escalated the "moment" to a "grand epiphany" I had better make this good. Sure hope I can convey it all with the pomp and circumstance my loving readers are hoping for. I foresee this post being in draft mode until I get it right...anyway. I had lofty goals of getting to the park yesterday, but I never seemed to get off the webcam. Since it's so hot here, it is morning or bust when it comes to outdoor parks. Today I got up as soon as Matt left for work, showered, ate breakfast and was waiting for Little Miss C to rise and shine. It is time to get this girl out of the house and let her run, run, run!! (Running leads to sleeping and sleeping leads to blogging time for Mommy.)

Water bottles in hand, we strolled the park before 10am. This park is sooo much fun! There are tons of things for Caitlin to climb on and the grounds are completely rubberized to minimize boo-boos. What great thinking. Most of this particular park has been updated within the last 6 months. Caitlin just loved it! She climbed, bounced of the ground (poor girl is only so good at walking), went on the wee-wa (Caitlinese for swing) and did the wee (Caitlinese for slide). She ran around until her hair was wet with sweat and every inch of her skin was red from heat and sun. (Note to all mom's and grandmom's reading this...she had sunscreen on, a hat and sunglasses. As you can imagine, only the sunscreen remained). So while Caitlin was having a blast, I was becoming totally engaged in the most amazing conversations with women from all over the world. One was from Japan. She moved here last Saturday and will be here for 2-3 years. One was from Jones Beach, NY and she's been here for 3 years, but leaving soon. One was from Columbia, but married to a man from Sweden so she speaks Spanish and English and is learning Mandarin. They have been here for 6 months and are expected to stay for 2-3 years. She lives very close to us too! Anyway, we were all talking and smiling and watching our kids run a-muck in the sweltering heat of Taipei, Taiwan. We all spoke English (some of us more than others) and we were all foreign to this land. So here I am laughing and sharing experiences with these women from all over the world a zillion miles away from my native land and finding myself a new comfort zone...in the melting pot. It finally occurred to me that it's not just me out here so far away from "home." I've actually never met anyone who has been transferred this far away. So to have this occur to me, in my very own little life has left me rather self absorbed. I am so thankful to have met these women, to embrace the playspace, the heat and the moment of clarity...I think I finally arrived. The jet lag has passed and I am present in my life.

So if it's not clear to my readers, I will articulate the answer to my rephrased question, "What am I going to do here?" I am going to go out each day. Not only am I going to go out, but I am going to reach out to people. I will turn friends into family and make home where I am, not where I'll be in 2 years.

I'll also make sure my daughter has clothes on that cover her legs a little more (those plastic surfaces get way too hot) and perhaps go to an indoor playspace when it's above 90 degrees. Phew, it was a hot one!!

Shopping Adventures

Those of you that have talked to me since our survey trip in July know that my first shopping experience in Taipei didn't go so well. The day we moved in Matt made the initial trip to our most local food store called "Wellcome" for some peanut butter and bread type staples, but since we can't survive on that alone we decided our first shopping trip as a family would be to Costco. Yes, Costco. Just like in America. There are some more localized things there, (like 200 pound bags of rice), but overall it's full of American imports and they sell like hotcakes.

Okay, so first things first. We knew where we wanted to go and generally how to get there, but we had to find a way to communicate that to a cab driver who most likely didn't speak any English. Matt found the address and printed it in both English and Chinese. We also carry our home address in both English and Chinese so we can get back here. Way to go Matt. I would have never thought of that. Since we don't have a car we needed to figure out how to get a cab. We walked past the security office outside of our building as asked if they could help us get a cab. Unfortunately, they don't speak any English. BUT, they heard the word "cab" and came rushing out of the office, out of the gates of our complex and ran down the street to the corner to hail us a cab. Very sweet and helpful, but we totally could have done that ourselves (if we had only realized that there are zillions of cabs all over the place just waiting for us!!!). We felt really bad for making the poor guy run all over creation for such a simple task. So we hop in this cab, give the driver our destination and we're on our way.

About now I should mention that in his previously mention trip to the Wellcome, Matt brought home the most gigantic and delicious mango that any of us had ever seen. It was soooo good that Caitlin managed to eat about 3/4 of it herself. I don't think I realized she ate quite so much of it until I SAW IT FOR A SECOND TIME!!! Yes, it's what you're thinking. The child threw up mango all over the backseat of the cab. Luckily I had this adorable little straw bucket-type hat with us to catch it and a lifetime supply of Wet Ones to clean with. Oh my. What a mess. What a terrible feeling to totally stink up and mess up someone elses's vehicle and not even be able to say we're sorry. (Note to self...need to learn how to apologize in Chinese.) I cleaned everything the best I could and apologized profusely in English, took our throw-up hat and exited the vehicle. Okay, so we make it to Costco smelling like throw-up, partially wearing throw-up, concerned about what caused the child to throu-up and now we need to apply for a membership. Nice. We go to the customer service counter and they hand us an application (totally in Chinese) and ask for ID. Oops. We didn't bring our passports. Do they take driver's licenses? BINGO!! Okay, so aside from the fact that we can't read the application, we're in business. Somehow we made it though all that with only one minor problem - Matt's membership card has his picture and my name and mine has my picture and his name. Oh well, no one here knows how to say our names anyway.

I was so overwhelmed with our trip to Costco and the sheer volume of people within the store that when I saw giant boxes of Cheerios on a pallet, it nearly brought me to tears! The theme song to "Laverne & Shirley" started playing in my head, "...you're going to make it after all!" Seriously, Cheerios are a main staple in both mine and Caitlin's life. Without them, I have to think about serving a healthy breakfast. Thinking at any point before noon is just not easy for me. It is a well known fact among the expat families here that Cheerios are hard to come by. When you see them, buy them. Buy them in masses. I would have, but my dear husband was a little concerned about exactly how we were going to get home so I didn't push it and only bought 1 giant sized box. I knew I already had 2 other giant sized boxes stashed away at home.

We made it through the rest of our shopping adventure rather unscathed and even had an uneventful ride home. As soon as we arrived back at our complex the security guards came rushing out to meet us, grabbed our stuff and had it all in the elevator before we even paid for the cab. Once again, it was sweet and amazing all at the same time. Either everyone here is just so helpful or we look so totally clueless all the time that they pity us. I'm voting for the latter.

We braved another shopping venture the next day, this time to Carrefore. It's the French version of Wal-Mart. Of course, no trip is complete without some kind of combustion. Thankfully it was just a super wet diaper, but nonetheless I came home all wet as well. Caitlin also managed to lose a sock and tear the strap off of her hat (not the throw-up one, another). This girl is killing me!

Carrefore totally cracks me up. On top of all the crazy Chinese that I try to figure out there's all this French. The back of my mind is frantically calling out to my 9th grade French teacher and wishing I paid more attention...oh please faithful brain, don't fail me now! If I can crack this French business I might be able to shop here! Hmmm...not much luck with the French business. But I walked away with cheese and dijon mustard. Oh well.

We survived and I've survived a few trips out to the feared Wellcome all by myself. It's actually not all that bad. Turns out I was overreacting. Imagine that.

As for Caitlin, she's an overeater and an overdrinker. Always has been. I have seen this girl expel excess food and drink from her little body more often than any mother should. She loves to eat, but doesn't have a lot of room to keep it in. Her eating patterns were so thrown off from all the traveling that I really didn't have a good idea of exactly how much she had eaten and when. She's perfectly healthy and is doing rather well!

Moving In! All about our new home

Regardless of how tired we all were, there was a definite air of excitement as 10:00am on Friday, August 29th approached. Our realtor, Roy Hsu, met us at the Hyatt to take us to our new home. The furniture we picked was already delivered and since we heard that our belongings were actually in Taiwan already, there was promise of our shipment being delivered that day as well. All went quite smoothly from this point forward. The apartment was clean and arranged beautifully. The furniture exceeded our expectations and we were thrilled with how everything looked. By 10:30am or so the moving company called and indeed, our shipment was in Taiwan and they were going to deliver it that very day. The Internet/cable companies called and they were all lined up to install those connections as well. It all came together so perfectly!

About our new dwelling...

It's hard to say exactly how big it is because the Taiwanese measure space by "pings" which doesn't really translate into anything that makes sense to us. We originally thought that it was about the size of our 1st house in Raleigh, but after being here some time we think it's a few hundred square feet bigger than that. So, let's say this place is about 1,550-1,600 square feet. It has 3 bedrooms, an office, kitchen, dining room, 2 full baths and a living room. The washing facilities are on a little porch area outside with the water heater. We're in 1 of 2 buildings in this little complex on the 5th floor. There are 12 floors in our building. There's a very well landscaped little courtyard and beautiful decorative gates to mark the entrance. The floors in the main living areas of the apartment are white marble. The bathrooms and kitchen are tiled while the office and bedrooms are mahogany stained bamboo (I think). Most of our doors are pocket doors in teak. Fortunately, Caitlin hasn't discovered all the fun a pocket door can offer so we haven't had to deal with smooshed fingers just yet. Another neat feature of all these washable surfaces are the drains in the floor. Each room has a little drain in it so that when you're cleaning you can let the water drain down instead of pooling up. It makes cleaning so much easier! The downside are the granite thresh holds that divide each room. They stick up about 3/4 of an inch off the floor, so poor Miss Caitlin trips over them and is "splat" all over the floor a hundred times a day. I've been teaching her to watch her step (by pointing and constantly sing-song saying, "watch your step!" and so now she repeats me every time she gets to a doorway...very cute! Anyway, Caitlin's room has carpet in it that we were told was custom designed and made of wool. We tried to roll it up and store it elsewhere, but it didn't fit so we bought a carpet to put on top of it (another trip hazard for the poor child). This way if she has any sort of bodily spontaneous combustion or gets a hold of a writing utensil, we've got most of this custom made carpet covered. Phew!

The office is one of our favorite features. It's a glass and teak enclosed room right off the main living area. It's just so striking! Unfortunately, Matt will be spending a lot of time in there. At least he'll be able to see what the rest of us are doing.

Our furniture...
One of the perks of this little overseas adventure is being able to work with an interior designer and pick out some furniture. It's so much fun to pick out things that you don't have to pay for and you only have to look at for 2 years! Everything we/I picked is more colorful, sparkly and edgy than anything I would normally pick. And guess what, we LOVE it!! Perhaps this will cure me of my obsession with beige...hmmmm, guess time will tell. So this dear, sweet, interior designer spoke pretty good English and we were able to communicate pretty well throughout the furniture/color process. She knew I didn't like the drapes in this apartment and that I wasn't allowed to change them. Thankfully she talked me into this apple green couch to offset them! She got a little stumped when we were picking furniture for Caitlin's room. I wanted a changing table and a convertible crib since she may work herself out of a regular one and into a bed while we're here. Apparently changing tables aren't all that common here. I showed her a picture of one on JCPenney.com and she got the idea...only it's about 7 inches too short. The changing pad from home hangs over the edge. Someone hand crafted this piece of furniture out of real wood (not particle board)! They did a great job otherwise. Then there's the crib...It's a beautiful sleigh style white crib and it's ENORMOUS!! Also hand crafted just for us. It doesn't fit any of the sheets I brought. I can't reach to lay her down in it (I tried once and wound up dumping her into the bed). I can actually fit in there with her (more on that later). So now we're on a mission to find sheets for this giant crib.

All in all, it's starting to look like home. We have toys here an there and Caitlin has already scribbled on the white, marble floor with a purple crayon. We've started to cook meals here and eat around the table. The TV and our million channels of cheap cable are completely useless (they're mostly in Chinese), but hey - it's cheap! We are so thankful for the Internet, Skype and our WebCam to keep us close to those we love. I'm quite sure now that this is really going to work out just fine.