We're still here... here's proof

Wow, it's been a while since we've posted anything. We came over to this country telling people to check our blog, that we would be updating more often than we did in Beijing since we'd have more energy for stuff like that.

We didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into when we said that. Apologies.

Part of it is that I (Chris) have been reluctant to log onto Blogger and post something because it felt as though I had little to say that wouldn't be negative, and I didn't want to post something that was pure <blah!>. You see, work is just really consuming and, at times (very often, in fact), nonsensical. It can make it hard to see the upsides of living in Taipei.

And living in Taipei really is a huge improvement over living in Beijing. Not always as interesting, but much less of a headache, less harmful to one's health, and more beneficial to eyes accustomed to green foliage and lungs used to moist air. We're making friends, slowly, but surely, I guess, including a few from the Northwest. We had this one couple over for dinner on Saturday and the guy, despite hailing from Portland, had never really had coffee, though he'd expressed an interest. So I invited him to have an after-dinner cup. I opened a brand new bag of Kenyan peaberry that I'd just bought from a local roaster (one of the blessings of Taiwan is that good coffee is much more readily available than in Beijing), ground it, and brewed it in our Bialetti stovetop espresso maker. I only gave him a quarter of the batch and wasn't worried, since I usually drink a whole batch myself without feeling much effect.

I was only halfway finished when I noticed my hand shaking. We found out the next day that our initiated friend was up until 2:00 a.m. that morning. Looking on the bright side, though, he informed us that their apartment got really clean.

I guess maybe it's time to name names, since this next story involves this same couple: Miles and Kristen. We randomly met them in our neighborhood our second week in Taipei. We were checking out at the grocery store with two piles of food to take back to our newly leased apartment and Kristen must have thought Grace had a friendly face because out of nowhere she asked her where the two of them could find an electric fan. We talked. They were from Portland. We were from Seattle. It was cool. Anyway, flash forward to this weekend, we went to Costco, the four of us. The two of them (Kristen and Miles) joked that they had made up their minds to come to Taipei when they found out that there was a Costco here. On a rainy Sunday, after two subways and a taxi, we could see the familiar giant beige box with red letters. Well, familiar, but not.

Kristen and Grace getting geared for amazingness.

First of all, perhaps due to concerns about space, many Asian stores have levels whereas American stores would be flat. Fred Meyer in Ballard - one massive floor with a really high roof. Auchan in Beijing, Carrefour in Taipei - just as massive, but stacked on three levels with a series of escalating ramps. Asian Costco was a combination: massive floors on two levels. You enter and the ramp takes you directly to the second level.

Ahh, familiarity, kind of.

Up, up, and away.

Ah snap! that's the food court down there, and they have hot dogs!

Aight, here we go. Kirkland brand, here we come.

Level two was all the non-food stuff. I didn't last too long up there because of Sunday afternoon sleepiness and the crowds, so I came down and got a soda for 20NT ($0.66). The food level was more interesting to me anyway. Samples, just like in the US. Except people stand in long lines for the best ones. There was no line for the whiskey sample, though. We quickly found the Tillamook sharp cheddar and the Kirkland organic corn tortilla chips.

Muffins and scones!

Rice, rice, baby.

Yeah, represent. In USD, that's roughly $12.

We got a couple other staples that were either a better deal or harder to come by at the local groceries stores, things like olive oil, salsa, peanut butter, feta (of course, more cheese). Our one bulk Asian item: a four-pack of wanton soup. And, at the end of it all...

Classic.

Living where we do, it's oddly comforting to have a tub of Jiffy peanut butter in the cupboard.

I should share at least one school story, and then wrap this up. Around Christmastime, my school has a big production for the parents that includes all of the students in the bilingual classes, K-8, and it's planned, produced, and put on by us teachers. For the longest time, our director kept telling us to hold off on planning anything because the administration still hadn't made up their mind on the theme, and she didn't want us to jump the gun. Two weeks ago, we still hadn't been given the go-ahead, and so we teachers expressed the concern that we were running out of time if we were to organize something coherent for this production. Still no word. That Friday, someone had gotten a verbal indication that the theme would be something Christmas-related, so we could move forward with planning something. The teachers held a meeting that same day and decided on a rendition of "The Grinch," with three actors from each class, and each class performing a Christmas song. OK, cool, totally different from what I'd been told we were doing before, but still, nice to have a real plan. The next week at our English staff meeting, our director asks us what our plan is (even though she already knew). One of the teachers summarizes it simply and succinctly, just as we had all agreed the Friday before.

"OK, well, let me just interrupt you a little bit."

(?!)

Our director proceeded to inform us that the theme that had been decided upon was Thanksgiving. (again, ?!) Secondly, each class needed to do its own song and play; no single big play with a few actors from every grade.

Back to square one, and this just a bit more than a month before the performance, with two weeks of testing in the middle. I almost, almost raised my hand and suggested that we hold off on preparing anything at all until just two weeks before the date, since things keep getting changed on us; then we just devote half of our weekly classes for those two weeks to focus on rehearsal and forgo less important things like math and science and reading.

There was lots of head-shaking in that meeting.

The next day, what did we find out? The plan that we had been told to throw out just the day before was, in fact, good to go. But still with the Thanksgiving theme.

We'll just tweak all the lyrics. Thankful bells, thankful bells, thankful all the way. We wish you a thankful Christmas, and a thankful New Year. Rudolf the thankful reindeer, had a very thankful nose.
Anyways, speaking of Thanksgiving, I believe this will be my third away from home. No four-day weekend for us, though this Saturday and Sunday we get to go on a short retreat outside of the city with our church. Should be a great opportunity to escape the city and get to know some more people.

Work is definitely an ongoing challenge, for multiple reasons, and it's hard not to get stuck in the mentality that "work is my life and it sucks!" The truth is, though work is really challenging, life here is good. We have good food, a good apartment, we're making good friends, we get to do fun things (when we have the time and energy left over). We've gone indoor rock climbing twice in the last two weeks, which is double the number of times I climbed in an entire year in Beijing.

We (Grace writing) will be thinking of you all this week.  Have very merry celebrations (no.. wait, wrong holiday).  Um... thankful celebrations?!  Basically, eat lots of turkey for us :)  We love feedback, leave a note if you've stopped by.  Peace out.