daily routines

After a blisteringly hot day on Tuesday (80+ degrees), we’ve had rain and more rain. Tomorrow we expect rain. And the forecast calls for rain again through the weekend and into next week. We are wet, and when we’re not wet, we’re feeling damp. We hear the drip, drip of raindrops as well as fierce sheets of water blown against our building.

Today is Binbin’s third day at Montessori daycare, about a 2 minute walk away from our apartment. The daycare is quite new, as they continue work on a rustic, log cabin style building with a grassy lawn, which is exceptionally rare in Taipei. Zhenzhen laoshi, his teacher, is in charge of the “youyou” class, the youngest students who are about 20 months to 3.5 years. In their brightly lit classroom are an array of wooden puzzles, little boxes and marbles, and other baubles, arranged neatly in individual trays on shelves throughout the room. Children may select one tray and bring it to a table to play with. Each tray must be re-shelved before a child may select another. Zhenzhen laoshi expects to keep Binbin today through lunch and naptime. We are to pick him up at 4 this afternoon.

The Starbucks at Aimai (“Love to Shop”) shopping center has become Jack’s de facto office. The internet connection there is a speedy 3 megs, the cost is 500 kuai for a month. Coffee and pastries are extra. They serve up a delicious chocolate lava cake that is unlike your typical not-too-sweet Taiwanese dessert.

Aimai is just across the street from Meilihua, or Miramar shopping center and entertainment complex. This is the place with the oversize ferris wheel. Miramar is hip and posh and the place to get sensory overload. We usually hit the fourth floor, the children’s/family floor. Here are toys galore, clothing and strollers and carseats, little playground areas, a children’s hair salon where clients sit in cars or motorcycles while watching an LCD screen playing Ping’gu the penguin cartoons. Also roaming about are mechanized, oversized bears with steering wheels that two can ride on for 30 kuai, or about a dollar.

I commute to Academia Sinica in Nan’gang irregularly. It’s about 10 kilometers from our apartment, or 20+ minutes by cab. The Nan’gang area is at the beginning of a major building boom. In about 3-5 years, it will become a kind of technology center. Currently, it is a mix of the old and of outsized construction sites. Academia Sinica is an oasis of quiet.

More scenes from the 'hood

We have been remiss about showing more of the 'hood in which we live. We live in a guozhai (governement project) high rise put up for low income people, in American parlance 'the projects'. Many of the low income have sold their apartments for lots of money and moved elsewhere. So now, people like De-nin's relatives live here. There is also a picture here of the luxury high rises along the river next to the projects. Quite a neighborhood. And what would a neighborhood be without a Buddhist temple.

nuevo architecture in Dazhi

Well, we went for a walk to see some of the architecture around Dazhi and found a most interesting structure. It's an artsy, hip tearoom designed by a woman who is described as "an amateur architect." Binbin enjoyed the outdoor furniture.

Scenes of our neighborhood

Here we see Binbin in his new neighborhood: eating at the table like big boys do, stopping by the local breakfast joint while baba gets a couple scallion pancake with egg to go, and flying a jet to defend Taiwan from foreign aggression.

in our neighborhood

The enormous ferris wheel is our local landmark. It is part of a shopping/cinema megaplex, a consumer paradise called Miramar.

Picture of Dazhi, Taibei

Well, after a somewhat interesting journey across the Pacific and getting settled in De-nin's aunt and uncle's second apartment in Dazhi we finally have begun to settle into our new home. Here are some pictures of the area around the apartment and Binbin's tatami room. You'll notice that Binbin is already in the spirit of Taiwan and likes to pull the grocery wheelie around to the grocery store.

The Chicken has Plummetted to Earth

We have made it to Taiwan. We've been here for one week now. Still no opportunity to properly update the blog. Soon De-nin will be able to update from Academia Sinica and add some photos. We hope you're all doing well out there in the wider world.