I am going to try to make myself blog once a week. Easier said then done especially right now when there is no school in session. We have been in Taiwan officially for one week. There is still a lot to do, but much has been accomplished. I tend to stress myself out with all that needs to be done, but D keeps reminding me that it will all work out.

It has been very warm here and a couple of days we have had torrential downpour afternoons. Interesting to experience and some of it, I think, is a byproduct of the typhoon that missed Taiwan and pummeled Hong Kong. Coming from the Northwest you get used to it cooling of at night. That is not so here. This last weekend there were record-breaking temperatures in the upper 30’s… 38, 39 celsius that is… Roughly 100 farenheit. I keep telling myself that it is a free sauna like a constant facial. Let’s sweat out those toxins! The amazing part is you will see the locals wandering around in long pants, long sleeves, and one woman even bundled in a scarf! Not sure I will ever get to that level, but I fully expect that if I do acclimate to this it will be cold when I come home. Someday before I leave I hope to join the park ladies in their morning jazzercize. It is so much fun to watch, but I did not want to be a creeper, so I took a picture as I walked away towards school, which I think might be even more creepy.

The best part of traveling is all that you learn about a place and yourself. Being here and not speaking the language at all is really humbling. Everything that we have done on our own is by trial and error. The Taiwanese are so willing to try to help. For instance, tonight we found this delicious Taiwanese restaurant where we got noodles for dinner. The woman behind the counter did not speak English, but the random customer who was making a to go order had some knowledge, so she helped us order. A similar experience happened when we were trying to pay and the cashier did not have a display monitor with the numbers (which we roughly are learning, D more than me) and another customer helped us figure out how much we owed. I cannot say enough good things about the people. Having a rug delivered, taxi called, and buying anything is all due to helpful go between. I hope someday that I can give even part of the assistance that they have given to me.

It is still a work in progress making this apartment home, but it is fun in the process. We essentially are starting over. We gave most everything we had away and the apartment provided is lightly furnished, which translates to mostly empty. We do have some items arriving Friday, but they will be in customs for at least a week and none of those items are furniture. I have been cooking, but my favorite knife is in transit, so I have been using our leatherman aka camping swiss army knife. It gets the job done, but it is not as convenient as a regular knife. In the process of planning out what we need to buy and what we have coming I have looked at one too many pictures of decorating on pinterest (thanks Heather 😁), but have some ideas for creating a place that feels like home. Today I bought a couple of house plants that add life to this space. I pondered briefly naming them, but I don’t think I am that crazy.

I will blog again next week, unless I have something eventful to talk about, or if I have some extra time to talk to you all. Love and miss you all and hope life is going well!