Category Archives: housing

The Kevin and Zhou Were Here

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The illustrious Kevin and Zhou, who are on a ten-month trip around the world (read their blog HERE), came to Taipei to see me for a week. They got here on Tuesday, and we just dropped them off at the airport a few hours ago. Luckily for me, my usual 7-9pm classes were canceled for the week due to their Chinese tests, so I had lots of time to spend with them.

Unfortunately, my studio is a bit small to fit three people, so they stayed at a hostel. Their hostel was called Taiwanmex, and from what I saw, it looked like a very nice and convenient place to stay for a good price. It was very close to the Zhongshan MRT on the red line, so they were able to get around the city rather easily.

While I worked during the day, they did touristy stuff like Taipei 101 and Longshan Temple, and we met up for good food at night. The rest of the time, we biked by the riverside for 15km (but to my thighs for a few days, it felt like 100km), went to Danshui, ate delicious food, went to the night market, played poker with the Taiwan Poker Tour, ate some more, played lots of spades, and ate and ate some more. Zhou really liked her bubble tea, and she had at least one a day while she was here.

Here is a list of the good food and restaurants for the past week:

  • Toasteria
  • Din Tai Fung
  • Shilin Night Market
  • Beef Noodle Soup
  • 辣中間Hot Pot
  • KanPai Yakiniku BBQ (read: the next post)
  • Cosi Cosi Gelataria Italiana (read: the next post)
  • The Diner

It was a great week; the weather was gorgeous, the food was delicious, and the company was delightful. I’m going to miss them very much, but I wish them the very best on the rest of their travels.

Moving!

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I know I have been MIA for awhile, and I apologize. Things have been so hectic recently!

1) I found a new studio apartment, so we are in the process of packing, moving my belongings there, and trying to get rid of a lot of stuff from this place.
2) Jen is going to Vietnam tomorrow for three weeks, so the apartment has to be mostly empty before she leaves. Or else I can’t do it all by myself when she’s gone!
3) We have a lot of stuff to get rid of. A LOT. Does anyone need a TV or a mahjong table?
4) I finally finally have plane tickets to go home. It was stressful for a bit there since I seemed to be wanting to fly when everyone else is going back to school. I would be very mad if I missed the wedding. And to see my parents of course. I will be in the States around the end of August and the first week of September. Tickets were very expensive, but it’s going to be totally worth it.
5) I have way too many clothes… but yet still never have anything to wear.
6) We’re also trying to plan a weekend trip before I go back to the States, and Michael goes to the Army. (Will explain more on this later.)

I Hate Birds

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and HATE is such a strong word.

I am up at 6:30 in the morning, partly because we’re going on a trip to a wooden cabin for the weekend, and mostly because some neighbor owns birds which start chirping EVERY MORNING at 6:30AM.

So, question for you:
Does anyone own a BBgun? How do you soundproof a window?

Home Sweet Home

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We are officially moved into our new apartment, and after some cleaning, it is sparkling and beautiful. We also have cable and fast internet, so all we need is a TV.. Once we get a little bit more furniture, I’ll take some pictures and share them with you. We also just discovered an adorable little wonton restaurant right next door to us, and it’s delicious. Guess who’s going to be regulars soon?

We live about a 10-minute walk from the closest subway stop, and about a 20-minute walk from Taipei 101. You can actually see 101 pretty well from the front of our building, so when New Year’s rolls around, and everyone is trying to get there to see the fireworks, we can set up camp right on the sidewalk or just walk there and not have to deal with the transportation madness.

I got to write in communication books today about my students to send home to the parents. I also had to write a letter introducing myself as a new teacher and explaining that I am “really excited!” to be teaching their children. Who would’ve thought that the little girl who got “talks too much in class” in her kindergarten communication book would one day get to rate her students and write their parents letters?

Fun Fact: McDonald’s delivers here! We’re so hitting that up. It really is a good thing we walk a lot here, or else I would be paying some serious overweight fees on the flight home.

(I finally have a facebook album up of some random pictures from the past few weeks.)

Two Weeks

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We have an apartment! It’s about halfway between Jen’s and my work. It’s also across the street from a Carrefour and a block away from the Living Mall, which has a movie theater too. Prime location, indeed.

We’re paying $18000NT a month, not counting utilities, which translates to $575USD a month so that equals about $300 apiece with utilities. As you can tell, Taiwan is very affordable. You can get a meal for about $30-50NT, which is about $1-2USD. A can of coke is $15NT, which is 50cents. And to put it into perspective, as of now, I work 13.5 hours a week and I get paid $620NT ($20USD) an hour.

We’ve found a couple of furniture/house sales online where some English teachers are moving back home. Our apartment already comes with a sofa, TV cabinet, full size bed, desk, fridge, air conditioning, and a washing machine. (Fridges, AC, and washing machines do not usually come with places, and dryers do not even exist. You hang clothes up to dry.) There are two bedrooms: one’s a regular size bedroom, and the other is probably half the size of that and does not quite fit in. I’m taking the big one for now, and Jen and I will switch halfway through the year. Anyways, we’re trying to sparsely furnish our place since we’re not staying long anyway. Jen needs a bed, and we need a TV.

We’ve met tons of Americans/non-Taiwanese people who’ve been here for 3, 4, 8, 12 and such years. The interesting thing is that most of them intended to come and teach English for a year and ended up staying for much longer. They say that life is too comfortable here, which we can see why, since everything is so much more affordable and teaching English is quite a lucrative job. Jen and I are a bit scared that that may happen to us. What if we never want to leave?

My older cousin, Maggie, tried to take us to the Millet exhibition, but when we got there, the line was down about three blocks and looped back around. I wasn’t that excited about seeing paintings on a wall to wait that long; besides Jen had already seen them in France, which is probably the real deal. That’s definitely one thing I’ve noticed about the people here: they like to wait in lines for pretty much everything. And they’re so patient about it too. The last time I saw a line like this back in the States was when the Apple iPhone first came out or something.

We’ve been to two night markets thus far, which are amazing, since you can buy pretty much anything and everything there for cheap. The food is amazing, of course. I’ve eaten so much fruit since I’ve been here. Every day, I’ve had at least a cup of fresh-squeezed of something, mostly mangoes and guavas.

(Jen has pictures up, so go see them for a bit of satisfaction. I promise, promise, I’ll put more up when I don’t have to share the internet cable every 10 minutes.)