First Day in Our Apartment

I guess this is a good place to start my blog. It’s our first full day in the apartment. We checked out of the hotel today. While the Grand Hyatt is a beautiful hotel with many luxurious amenities, hotel living is simply not comfortable for a family of four. Our room came with a king-sized bed and an extra twin-size bed…so we slept with Elaine in our bed the first night and Brianna last night. Brianna was much easier to sleep with than Elaine, as Elaine thrashed around and wound up horizontal on the bed between 3 and 5am.

We’re slowly getting over our jet lag with moments that are mostly good and some that, well…we’re just hoping to get past J. Overall, bed-time is around 7-8pm and we wake up around 5-6am. I would LOVE it if we could keep that schedule…it’s quite nice to get up in Taipei while the city is still sleepy. There are a few street vendors open and making the most delicious breakfasts and some cars on the road; however, it’s mostly quiet, and the best part…it’s not crowded and it’s cool.

We’ve been blessed with some decent weather thus far. The high feels around the low 90s. Today by far was the hottest and most miserable. Thankfully, Terry recognized that we were all fading and agreed with no hesitation when I suggested we go home and cool off. It rains on and off, and it’s mostly overcast. I have a feeling that when the sun is out with no clouds, people will be partying in the streets and calling in sick…much like I perceive people would do in Seattle. It’s also been windy here, which helps with the heat. The most difficult part for all of us is the thick air. With the humidity so high, not only does our skin feel sticky, but our clothes feel hopelessly stuck to our skin. It seems that most of the clothes I love wont’ do well here. I am NOT going to be buying new clothes; however, I can see a few pieces that weren’t necessarily my favorites before coming here moving up on my list J. It’s a relief when the rain falls and thus far, it’s not been too heavy. When Terry and I were here in August, it wasn’t pleasant getting soaked when it was hot out. I wasn’t looking forward to the girls complaining about wet feet…thankfully the weather has been very welcoming which has helped to make this transition easier.
For me coping with the sheer number of people here will be an adjustment. I am not one who really prefers crowds and I find I have to get mentally prepared to face a crowded shopping mall at Christmas. Here, it’s like the maddening, Christmas frenzy every day. People are constantly coming and going and the cars pay no attention to the pedestrians. Terry and I have been holding the girls so close that I’m amazed that their hands don’t have bruises. Aside from bringing the girls to school, I think I will make every attempt to go out during nonpeak times. Our anticipated trip to the night market this weekend will be VERY interesting as the last time we were there, it was crazy. I found it simply too much for me…the blazing heat and all those bodies being herded like cattle through stalls of street vendors who shout at passersby in Mandarin to come and buy their wares. I found myself falling line like most cattle and followed the longest lines…which was frustrating as I tend to be quite impatient, but typically was rewarding as the food here is truly amazing.

The food….ahhhh the food! At first I anticipated that I would lose weight here as I have to spend quite abit more and look quite hard for my ‘comfort foods’; however…I find the food here to be too good. Much of the food on the street is ridiculously inexpensive and the portions are just right. Of course, I don’t think that my hips or belly would agree with my personal favorite foods. The milk-pearl tea is fabulous, and so are the pan-fried onion cakes (that have egg on the bottom). I am finding that everyone in our family LOVES Taiwan breakfast; however, we’re struggling a little bit to find dinner-food that agrees with everyone. Granted we have not really had an opportunity to really sit and enjoy dinner as we've been going to bed EXHAUSTED and super grumpy at 7pm, so perhaps I am expecting a bit too much. Tonight, we went to Taiwan's most famous dumpling place, Di Tai Fung. Their pork dumplings are something that everyone agreed on. Even Brianna, my most picky eater, ate 6 dumplings on her own! So, perhaps there is hope yet.

That's it for now...the girls are in their own beds, boxes are everywhere, 'stuff' is all over the floors and not put away yet as I ponder how to arrange the apartment (and wonder where I'm going to put all our crap...will it all fit?), but we're HERE. And now I can rest.