Kingswells in Taipei

Jessi and Sam are in School!
Both are very happy to be dropped off and durn tired when I pick them up. They've great teachers and good friends. We aren't getting out and about so much, but are instead living the life of the expat. It all rotates around school at this point. Even grocery shopping... picking out snacks, etc. That said...
I finally went to the Shi Dong market. It is a local "5 star" market with great produce as well as every part of the pig and chicken available for purchase. There are varieties of wares, live fish, snack kiosks, and veg/fruit sellers. Also, we've a great dumping (dim sum) spot, lunch food for takeout, and some nice sushi. The sushi tends to have pork floss, egg, cucumber, and rice and is quite tasty. I saw some Eel and Ebi yesterday, but I was into fried pork sushi. SO, I've included a photo of the stash. The bag in the lower right corner are taiwan sausages. A friend recommended them. The sushi was about $3. I paid too much for my potatoes and onions. The grapes are apparently concord. The little green things are avocados... Apparently. So, this is about $20 worth US. I've NO idea if that is good, but it is better than the local expat market! I'm glad I've started the shopping there. It felt good.


Hope all are well!
Steph

TWO IN ONE DAY.

Here is the children's story house in Tienmu. The stories are in Chinese, so we didn't understand all of it, but I was impressed with the decor.

USA women's baseball team wins women's world cup in Taipei!!!

The little girl with Jessi is her new friend Isabella. She is a lovely girl, and her parents are great as well! Isabella, Jessi, and Sam got little souveniers from the Australian women's team and the USA team. We should have brought a baseball for signatures!!!!

School "starts" on Monday the 14th with some orientations and partial days of school. On the 21st, both kids start 5 days a week. In 3 weeks we head to Okinawa, Japan for a weekend! Three weeks after that Sue and Ray Kingswell come to visit and hopefully we'll keep them busy for the 3 weeks that they are here!! Watch out taipei! Love to all, Steph

And another month. It is August already. Both kids have orientation on the 14th!!! Both kids start 1/2 day classes on the 17th! Summer is done. Apparently, August is the hottest month. It seems less hot, but Paul is fairly sure that I've just gotten used to the weather! We've got an actual typhoon coming tomorrow, so Paul may be home with us. If I'd found yeast ANYWHERE, we'd be having a bread baking day. Looks like scones.

This month has been fun. If we are here next summer, we'll do swim lessons and chinese lessons and play. Camp was fun, and staying home takes a lot of energy, but it beats going to camp every day. They'd get bored. Nevermind.

This week has been playdates, meeting new friends, checking out the schools, and having a fishing day with daddy. We went "fishing" at Dahu (big lake) Park. The lake was huge-ish and the architecture quite grande. The swimming pool looked like a lot of fun! HEY - Jessi can very happily hold her head under water for a count of 16. (seconds or otherwise, she was at the point where I almost pulled her up!). Sam can do the counting...perfect! We've discoverred various water parks throughout Taipei. The BIG slides are Jessi's favorite (not coverred) and Sam is into the feel of the Laaaaazy Riiiiiiiivers.

We went out with some new friends just here working for Dupont yesterday. We headed to the southern end of Taipei. The children's transportation museum was great. Jessi really wants to see the museum part next time. We just did the rides! What a hoot. It was mildly hot and we had light rain (Jessi, Brendan, and Nathaniel decided to call "rain" by the new name of "salad dressing", so it was lightly salad dressing all day). Today both kids met some wonderful friends at the park as well! It is obvious that people have come home from summer vacation. We're excited about the upcoming months.

Ahh - story. Last Thursday our apartment manager, Mr Fong (kids get to call him Fong Yei Yei - grandpa Fong) took Vicky (amah), her daughter, and the kids and I out to this monstrous water park. Afterwards, we toured the warf west of CKS airport, the fish market, and showed us where we could go to see wild pigs... gulp. He took us to the Beitou revolving restaurant for a lovely tea as well. It was this great tour of Taipei. THEN, we came home. I decided to cook a gorgeous chicken for my hubby. This chicken, mind you, was purchased at Costco! It LOOKED like a chicken I would buy back home. I took it out of the wrapper, turned it over, and found the head attached. I AM NOT SQUEEMISH!! I bolted to the other side of the room and started laughing and squirming. I did. Then, I was fine and accepted that head removal would be necessary, so I went to check for the giblets. FEET!!!! FEET STILL ATTACHED. Cuss, spit, oh-my-gosh. (Vicky says they are good. We tried them at the night marktet. They were ok. Tasted like chicken.) That was it. Vicky finished cleaning it for me. Next time, I'll leave them all attached and cook it that way, but I was just not mentally prepared for that real time Taiwan experience! It was a great day, and I'm glad for all of it. I had to share.

AAARGH>>> photos will be attached later. Looks attached, but no photos show up!

Hope all are well! Steph