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.