Living on a tropical island...

We have had several experiences lately that have reminded us that for better or worse we live on a tropical island (ok, some of these points aren't necessarily limited to only tropical islands, but they certainly aren't regular occurrences in the Mid-west US, well, except number 3.):

1. There are palm trees EVERYWHERE! This mid-western girl is just amazed at all the beautiful palm trees. This picture is taken on Joey's school's campus! Just amazing!

2. We went swimming in the pool of a waterfall (is that how you would describe what I'm trying to say?)! So at the moment I don't actually have any pictures from the waterfall but this picture was taken on the way to the waterfall. More pics to come (I hope).

3. We are experiencing a little bit of an ant problem. I know this happens everywhere, but I'm just a little annoyed and had to vent! Sorry, I refuse to take pictures of little ants crawling everywhere! :(

4. We experienced our first typhoon! Well, the winds had died down so much by the time they arrived here in Kaohsiung, they were actually only calling it a tropical storm, BUT because typhoons are so unpredictable and this one in particular had caused considerable damage in the Philippines on its way to Taiwan, the whole island had a government-declared typhoon day! YAY! And while it wasn't a typhoon technically, it rained from Sunday afternoon until Tuesday night (And, well, it's still drizzly today)! UGH!

Enjoy this video!

On our own...

We said goodbye to our live-in grandma, cook, babysitter, cleaning lady and companion yesterday. Today, Monday we are on our own, starting what are to hopefully become our routines around these parts for at least a little while.

Joe and Ellie were off to school this morning while Siri and I were off to figure out what we should be doing to stay productive and happy. The timing of Steve and Merrilee's visit was perfect! We are so thankful not only for that time for the girls (and us) to re-bond with them but also for us to get things figured out! For example, we learned lots about grocery shopping, we got LOTS of furniture, we baked lots of cookies, we started Ellie in school, Joey started school, we got a movie rental card, we got a new TV, we found the quickest way to the best bubble tea (AND I learned if you use your own bottle, you get 3NT off), and we even got cable (for 3 USD a month!). So needless to say, we seem to be getting acquainted.

Here is some of the cookie baking experiences:

And here is a list of a few taiwan frustrations of mine, just in case you were so curious:

1. COMMUNICATION! I can not stand being unable to communicate with the people around me! As a result, I'm quite motivated to learn Chinese NOW.

2. MILK: The milk situation here in taiwan is out of control! Apparently it's a newer thing for Chinese people to drink lots of milk, however thanks to Costco people drink it quite a bit nowadays. HOWEVER, one gallon of milk is not cheap, costing US$6.70 at Costco. And if you think that's a lot don't even bother going to a local grocery store where it is TWICE as much! Yep, you'd spend about US$12 for a gallon of milk! To make matters worse, Costco, where you can get it for "cheap" is 30 minutes away; Costco is obnoxiously crowded at all times; you can only buy 2 gallons of milk at a time if you only have a gold membership AND they RUN OUT because the demand is SOO high. So even if you did decide to take the 30 minute trip and withstand the crowds, you may not even get any milk at all!!

3. PARKING: I can not seem to understand what is legal with parking and well driving in general. There aren't parking lots so everyone just double parks right in front of the store, but sometimes it seems SO wrong I just can't seem to be confident in what is ok!

Ok. That is my rant, thank-you for listening.

So as to not end this post of a negative note, here are some more pictures!

This is Ellie in her other uniform that she wears on Wednesdays (the yellow shirt and blue shorts are worn on Mondays):

And these are just cute:

She did it!

Ellie successfully completed her first day of school...and so did I! :) Of course what would a first day of school be without pictures! Siri felt very special too! ;) (oh, and notice the green wall in the living room?)

And now we're getting creative:

And now I'm just stalling cause I don't want to let her go!

Sounds like overall things went pretty well! After a full day of school she came home pretty tired but in good spirits! Praise God for a successful first day of school!

According to her teachers:

"Ellie did great!"

"Ellie was very caring towards the other kids."

"Ellie didn't eat the black egg at lunch (duck egg)."

"Ellie learned some Chinese colors."

According to Ellie:

"I didn't speak Chinese."

"A boy in my class was making funny faces and got a spanking!"

"I didn't want to take a nap."

"Mom, what does 'Ma?' mean?"

And quickly, here are some pictures of some of the painted walls in our place...Pictures just don't do justice but you get the point!

The playroom (purple on bottom, yellow on top with a white stripe in between where we will place decals or paint butterflies or something):

The dining room (ocean breeze, I believe is what it's called):

Oh and here's the desk in the office (and the walls are painted a pale blue...very calming, I think):

Growing up!

Ellie knew three things about Taiwan before arriving here:

1.) It's HOT

2.) There are bugs

3.) She will go to school in Taiwan!!

And so we were greeted by HOT weather and bugs immediately upon arriving and now number three is coming true......

This little girl:

is going to school!! And she is SOO excited! I'm quite excited too as it seems she gets bored at home, always looking for something new and exciting and ALWAYS wanting more friends to play with. We knew Ellie would be ready for school this year and our move has provided the perfect circumstances to do so. Not only is school cheap (relatively speaking), Ellie will also learn Chinese! She is excited to learn Chinese and has already expressed that one day she would like to speak Chinese as well as her dad. All the while, her dad is hoping she will one day surpass him in his abilities. For now, to optimize Chinese learning while attempting to keep our little girl safe and healthy, we have decided she will go to school for full days on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The nice thing is the kids take naps after lunch in the afternoon which will hopefully keep Ellie sane! We really don't know how full days will go for her, but the nice thing is they are very flexible and willing to work with us whatever our needs! Praise God! :) So should we decide it's too much (most likely just because I will miss her so) then we can always change those days to half days.

One of the blessings of this particular transition for us is we have grandparents with us! Last week Steve and Merrilee arrived and have been with us, helping us and the kids feel more adjusted to this new place (and doing lots of translation for us!).

Steve left yesterday, but Merrilee will stay with us through the end of next week! :) This is perfect timing for me as I say goodbye to a wonderful summer filled with family and welcome a new stage in life in so many ways. We are excited for the change and Ellie can't stop talking about going to school! Siri will also benefit, I think as I will now have all this time and energy to devote to her, right? She doesn't know it yet, but she's excited too!

Our place so far...

I've taken a few pictures of our place so far so you can get an idea of where we live! We still have not received our container of things (300 Cu. Ft. of boxes and bedroom furniture expected to come at the end of August) but we have bought lots already! We will also be painting all of the rooms in this place, so I imagine in another month, this place is going to look very different!

So to start, here are pictures of our place before we bought any furniture and were using the school-provided stuff....

Ok. this picture isn't the best quality, but SO funny so I had to post...notice how empty this living room is:

Here's another view of the living room

This is our dining room viewed from the living room. I had very lovely models:

This next picture is the hallway. I'm standing in between the living room and dining room and looking towards the hallway and bedrooms. We have LOTS of closets right here in the hallway! It's wonderful!

And if you walk down the hallway, just past the closet/storage on the left you will find the playroom! The things in this room are all ours that we bought at ikea within the first few days of being here. We have added a few more tiles, we've added a futon, and the wireless internet router is no longer there but you get the idea:

This is also in the playroom:

Then if you go back into the hallway and go straight to the end of the hall there is a T with Ellie and Siri's room on the left and Joey and my bedroom on the right. But straight ahead is this bathroom:

Going back into the hallway and heading to the right, you will find Ellie and Siri's bedroom. (Yes, they are sharing a room, though it looks like naps will be separate!) Oh and that green rug is the only thing that will be the same in here when all is said and done.

Ok. So then you step out of the bedroom and back into the hallway and go past the bathroom straight into the master bedroom where there is a bathroom and a walk-in closet! For some reason I only took a picture of the walk-in closet, but there's just a mattress on the floor in that room for now anyway. We are anxiously waiting for our bedroom set to arrive safely on the container!

Then if you head out back into the hallway and head towards the living room again, you will find another small room on the left. This is the study that Joey is in charge of furnishing! :) So this is what we have been using temporarily instead (until we got this desk that I didn't seem to take a picture of!).

On Tuesday, we added LOTS of furniture! So here is an updated (but still not finished) version of our place. We got a three piece set of living room couches (a couch, a love seat and a chair).

A TV stand and shelving unit

And a table and chairs!

Oh and did I mention we have our washer and dryer in our kitchen? Our kitchen is so spacious there's plenty of room for them.

And so that is our home. Now you can clearly see we have plenty of space for visitors, so DO come visit! We'd love to have you! :)

Week 1 in Taiwan!

Ok! Now that I've given an abbreviated summer update, I suppose I should share about our adventures here in Taiwan in our first week!

It started with an uneventful plane ride. The plane from San Francisco to Hong Kong was only about 1/2 full, so we had lots of room to stretch out! We flew Cathay Pacific, so the plane was big, comfy AND had personal TVs! yay!

In this next picture, the paper on Ellie's head is to help keep the big earphones in place and the scratch on her cheek is compliments of Siri.

This happened for only about 2 hrs total the entire 13 hr flight. Thanks a lot Benadryl!

We arrived in Hong Kong at around 6pm and then waited in the airport for our 1 hr 10 min flight to Kaohsiung. We were all pretty tired at that point as it was about 3Am San Francisco time. So, we got to our gate and sat down however rest, we did not due to the crowds of people gathering around to see the "cute, chubby" blond haired, blue eyed little girls! UGH! While they were kind, it was a little exhausting at that point in the trip! Some took pictures and some even took video! It was quite the welcome! :)

We arrived into Kaohsiung around 11:30pm and were quite tired, so we went straight up to our place (unpacked a little) and went to bed! Upon entry into the lobby of our apartment buildings, I was greeted by a cockroach crawling into the elevator with us! I faked not being totally grossed out and went right up to it a smashed it with my foot! HAHA! Thankfully I haven't seen anymore since that night!

We bought a car from a teacher's family who left taiwan this past May! :)

We also got our international licenses before leaving the US, so our first full day in Taiwan we were able to drive and explore! :) (This is the main road in DaShe.)

We found an AMAZING bubble tea shop. My favorite large passion fruit green tea with pearls is only $30NT (USD=$1)!!

Oh and can you see how RED the girls' faces are? That's because it is SOOO HOT here! Yep, so incredibly hot! We were just at the market before getting teas and we all were just dripping sweat! That's what we get for being south of the Tropic of Cancer! UGH!

We've been to IKEA several times and Costco twice which are both in downtown Kaohsiung which is where we found this park

Siri is apparently over her swing fear! YAY!

We've also had Shui Jiao (dumplings) a few times and some other yummy slushy drinks and treats. Today I even had starbucks! SO needless to say we've been quite busy here, but are finding our way around and trying new things which has been lots of fun. We've been most preoccupied with furnishing our apartment as it has some basics in here for now, but we are to be fully equipped with everything we need by October (which is actually a long time but we'd like to be settled in before then). We've put a lot of our things on a big container which is probably crossing the pacific ocean as we speak, so hopefully that should come by the end of August! Until then, we are attempting to buy furniture and bookshelves, to place all of our things in!

Here is a look at our kitchen for now (with lots of junk and no real kitchen items!)

Well that's all I have for now! When we get a little more settled, I'll upload some more pictures of our place!

Last stop in the US: San Francisco!

We spent our last six days in the U.S. with Joey's brother, Jesse, and his family in San Francisco.

Lucy:

Mary:

Edmund:

And baby Wayne:

They were more than kind to us, giving us their room to sleep in, providing meals for us and allowing us to borrow their van to make last minute trips to Target and things like that that they don't seem to have here in Taiwan. And we had lots of fun, catching up and meeting the newest Torgerson!

We had lots of fun hanging out around the house, too.

Mary is quite the artist:

We took the train to UC Berkeley.

And on our last day, Steve and Merrilee came to town.

We decided we had better expend some energy with Grandma and Grandpa at the park.

Joey is quite the photographer, in my opinion!

And of course, we had to get a picture of the grandparents with all their grandchildren!!

Thanks, Jesse and Kelly for a wonderful, memorable time!