One Month has Passed

So one month has passed since we arrived. Let's see what we've learned....

We've learned that you can iron clothes even though your ironing board is two feet big and your iron is barely bigger than your hand...
We've learned that people will STAND and eat noodles out of a bowl if it's good enough... (There are always 30-50 people here all the time, I couldn't fit them all in.)

We've learned that child labor is okay....

We've learned that you don't have to be white and from America to learn Chinese... (The guy in the back doesn't count, he's from Holland.)

We've learned that Kentucky Fried Chicken does indeed have a Drive-Thru...

We've learned that bugs do keep getting bigger... (This one was 1/3 the size of John's foot!)

We've learned that not only is McDonald's open 24/7, but that they also deliver... (You can't see it very well, but look at the red sign on the box)

We've learned that while we have to walk up a flight of stairs to get to our house, it could be worse... (You can't see all the way to the top, but this was a stairwell that went straight up for 6 stories. All you can really see is 1 1/2 flights of stairs.)

We've learned that it's okay to park your bike on the sidewalk...

We've learned that traffic here puts any theme park ride to shame....

We've learned that no matter where we live that we will always be a family...and we will always love and miss everyone that we are away from!!!!

Little vs. Big

So this week, we are focusing on some of the larger and smaller things around us. Please enjoy.

We are also going to try to take a picture every week and let you tell us what they do/sale there.

"Little" Angels.... ya right!

"Big" Rain!! It rained like this for for about 3 hours.

"Little" Garbage Can - Yes seriously, this is my kitchen garbage can. The garbage man comes quite often. You know when you hear music like the ice cream man, and you get all excited? Yeah, for us it's the garbage man!! Seriously, they play the music and everything and then everyone runs out and gives him their garbage. You're also suppose to separate everything -- garbage -- recycle, etc.... They're way into the global warming, recycling thing. In fact, when you go to the store they will charge you for the bag if you want one.

"Little" Refrigerator, "Little-er" Washing Machine(far left), and "Little-est" Dryer (middle). I had Casey stand next to them so you could get more of a perspective. We can only wash one day's worth of clothes at a time. And then I dry them three times.

"Little" Fuzzy....
"Big" Fuzzy!!! And yes it does get worse, but you don't get to see it. "Little" School Bus. And it does actually look like a school bus inside, not just a van.

"Little" Bug... It's a cockroach to be precise, and yes it is small... The larger ones are as big as your finger and fly!! Can I tell you how excited that makes me feel? I'm scared to death of grasshoppers, let alone a frigging flying roach!! I haven't experienced it for myself yet, and I'm afraid that if I do, I'll be on a plane home. And no mom don't send me any!!

"Little" Mall. This mall really isn't that little, it's at one of the train station terminals, and I'm just showing you one small portion of it. But comparative to some of the 12 story malls, it's little.

"Big" Temple. This is the temple that is across the street from us. It's bigger than most, but not as big a some.

Let's proceed to the "little" stove. We only have two burners, but we've only actually cooked one meal since we've been here and that was macaroni and cheese.


And as always we love and miss everyone!!!!

Our House

Well this week, we thought we would spot light our home.


We live on the corner of Lin Sen and De Hui. (Yes I am aware that that doesn't mean squat to most of you. ) Just trying to share!!! We live on the 10th floor. The elevator only goes to 9. Do the math, yes we walk up a flight of stairs once we get off. We have all hard wood floors and lots of windows - yay windows - boo floors. Actually, I guess the floors are okay except we have to sweep every other day if not sooner, and the kids tend to fall a lot. Okay, okay, I tend to fall a lot!

Any way we have attached a few pictures of the inside of our house. We have a living room, a kitchen, three bathrooms, two bedrooms, and a bedroom/office. OH - I almost forgot, we have another room on the roof. But that will have to wait until later. We have to give you a reason to read future episodes!!!

By Taipei standards, our house is large!! Most people don't have a third of what we have, so I consider us lucky. The kids don't sleep in the big bedroom because the air conditioner isn't working quit yet and they would die of suffication. Oh, there is the possibility that they might drown from their own sweat as well. Any way, not necessarily an option we want to pursue at this time. Possibly another couple weeks of walking to school may change my mind.

The other really cool thing about where we live is that there is a 7-11 on the first floor!! And yes - it's open 24 hours!! Not to mention the coffee shop on the 2nd floor. Sadly it doesn't open until 11:00, so I can't get a cup on our way to school. I knew you would feel sympathy for me. You're nice. Anyway, that's about it. Enjoy!!


And as always, we love and miss everyone.


This is our living room. Notice my daughter with the broom, yes she is sweeping!! That or just staying in touch with her other witchy side!













This is a room just off of our living room. It is mostly used for Karaoke. I have renamed it the Hell Room. There will be a subsiquent blog on this don't worry.

This is John and I's room. We're very close now, whether we want to be or not!














This is the kids' room. What can I say, they always want to sleep on the floor.










This will be the kids' room, once we get the air fixed for them, either that or I finally lose it and kill all of them. Then of course we'll make it into the movie room.

This is my Kitchen. It is also quite large. And ya gotta love the windows!!!


Stay tuned... more next week.

Week One

Our new adventure began with a fourteen hour plane ride where I forgot to bring my children's games. Oh, I remembered to bring their nintendo's all right, but I didn't bring any games for them to play in them. So I got the benefit of lugging around 10 pounds of equipment, but no quiet time from my children as they would have played their games. Yay me! Casey did get a little air sick, and did end up throwing up in the tiny, yet absorbent, air sick bag.


After arriving we began our mass hysteria of trying to get everything done. Immigration is sooo fun!!! There is an unbelievable amount of paper work and running around to get documents, that it's unreal. We have literally been doing this all week. I dont' know what we would have done if his mom wouldn't have been helping us.

We also registered everyone for school. When we went to sign me up, we found out my class started in 10 minutes. Fun huh! But I really like it. Hopefully I'll be able to actually understand and speak in a few months. Ashton started school on Wednesday and he seems to really like it. The school bus picks him up in the morning and drops him off in the afternoon. It's fabulous for me, cuz it's really far away... and you can't really take a subway, so you walk the whole way. They are teaching both Chinese and English. The girls start school on Monday at the same place I go, so I'll take them in the morning, come back to the coffee shop and then go back to my class in the afternoon and then all three of us will come home together. It takes about 45 minutes to get there each way... that's subway and walking time combined. Unless of course you're stupid like me and go the wrong way then it takes about an hour and a half.

It's Saturday today, and we went and bought us a bed... a soft bed!! Yay us!!! I was way excited.... ya ya ya, I know it really doesn't take much.

So right now we're still adjusting. I find myself waking up at 4 or 5 in the morning and can't go back to sleep. It probably has something to do with the sunrise too. They don't do the daylight savings thing here, so it get's bright pretty early in the morning. The kids are doing much better than me.

John's been working pretty much non-stop since we got here. I'm not too thrilled about that, but hopefully it won't last much longer. He's excited to go eat and show me all the good places. But I don't think that I'll be venturing out by myself much for the next little while until I get my bearings.

Well that's pretty much it until next week.

We love and miss everyone tons!!!!!!!!!