Kingswells in Taipei

Yangminshan today! SO, NOW we know that to go up the mountain via one route by car, one requires a special permit. There must be other routes! That said, it isn't hard to get there by other routes. Once can take the 260 bus from Tienmu somewhere! AND THEN, one can catch the 108 around the park and have corndogs or fried fish while you wait. If it is important, one can also have a Starbucks! They are everywhere! We've not really left Seattle... not really. It has been pouring rain all week. POURING. Today the sun came out while we hiked up to the visitor center at Yangminshan. The birds and bugs were singing the whole way up. It was only 0.7 km, we could have taken the bus, but we didn't know it was there! The kids were great, we got to get out of Taipei proper, and we even saw a little skink/ghecko dude. It was maybe 2.5 inches long from head to toe and brown as the detritus on the ground. We saw cool spiders, big ants, a freshly wrinkled butterfly, and not-too-many people, as I think most were expecting rain again. We are all here. It feels like we are supposed to be here, and then we get an OH-MY we are in Taiwan moment and it is all unreal for a bit.

Check out this scooter! Paul took 3 or 4 shots of it! It appears to be a scooter to carry a wheelchair. It really was impressive!

Shabu Shabu tonight. I think it is Japanese hot pot. They boil water at your table and then you throw in whatever rawness you feel is yummy. We did discover that Sam likes squash and that Jessi really wants to see the brains inside the shrimps head (just to get an idea of what ours might look like!) Remember the last post.... We are looking forward to thunderstorms. It be raining. Oh what happy mosquitos there will be. This is buckets coming down. The 10 minute walk to school can be very wet when you look at the window and say "oh, that isn't much rain - lets go". Today was beautiful in the afternoon. Cool, clean, and once again, busy very busy.

Jessi had her K interview today. She's very excited and wants to take ALL of the afterschool activities. Sam will be in Summer camps. He could use the interaction! The change has been good for both of them. Now that all is settling down, we should be able to get into a routine.

We get to head for Hong Kong soon and are very excited about our likkle vacation!

The weekend has gone by! The kids and I have been to multiple parks, met more great new friends, and the entire family got to go to "Wonderland" at the American school Saturday night. Tonight was dinner out. We had a beautiful meal only one lane from our home and then went for a walk with Daddy to find a few birthday presents for the Kingswells of England!

Today was the flower market and Da'an park with our friend Carol. We taxi'd to the Westin and walked the long haul down to the flower market. We saw plants that we wanted, fish tanks, fish, turtles, fountains... you name it. And Da'an is HUGE! I'm definitely thinking that I need a night out to do some serious market shopping. Sam washed his whole body in a small fountain today. I know it felt good, but ooh, it was old water!

I still can't get over how friendly the majority of people are here!

We are here! We've moved in to the apartment and are in the process of getting settled. Moving in seems harder than moving out. So far this is an amazing place with great potential. The people have been incredibly friendly and (so far) the driving is not so bad.

Keep in mind that this is the beginning of summer. We've been in the fountains once already and are extremely excited when the thunderstorms come.