Our First Weekend

Hooray!  We've made it through our first weekend and can report that it was great.  Well, it was mostly great...there was that episode where we found out we're fat.  Even when you know it's coming, it's still shocking to have people comment so blatantly on your physical attributes.  But I digress.

Saturday morning was leisurely, got a few things done around the house.  Since we have only rental furniture (couch, coffee table, dining table, chairs, and 4 beds) and our clothes and some kid toys, there is not really a lot to be done.  We basically tidied up piles of stuff.

We decided to tackle public transportation in the afternoon, but first visited the local gym.  World Gym is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment, and since we spent the last 3 months stuffing our faces with as much mexican food as possible and eating whatever else we pleased, we actually need the gym now. We went in, kids in tow of course, which got us a lot of looks.  We asked for a tour and pricing information.  "Eden" was our tour guide and there was absolutely no telling if we were speaking with a he or she.  You would think the name would indicate female, but names are tricky things between cultures.  Sometimes people don't understand the significance of a name, or the fact that it's typically a male or female name.  For example, I know I am totally clueless about Chinese names: if you gave me a list of Chinese names and asked me which ones were typically male or female, I would have absolutely no context and no idea.  I would purely be guessing.

Regardless, we followed "her" around the cardio and weight rooms.  Then she took us to the Personal Training desk where the one English (kind of) speaking person asked us to take off shoes and step onto a machine.  As happens so often, we have no ability to ask what or why and understand the answer, so we just go along.  It turned out to be a diagnostic scale of sorts.  We each got a print out with our weight, bone density, hip & waist ratio, BMI, etc.  Then, in barely functioning English, a trainer took us through the analysis.  About the 5th time he mentioned the word "overweight" and "out of normal range" he also mentioned that maybe we eat too much friend chicken.  The kids all cracked up at this, especially since we never eat fried chicken.  Aiyo!  We voluntarily came into this gym???  But yes, we joined the gym, because hey, it's air conditioned!

Next we planned to hop on bus 285, the bus Joe will take to work.  But first we had to get mass transit cards, which we did at 7-11.  By the way, there is a 7-11 or a Family Mart on practically every block in Taipei.  It's amazing how many convenience stores exist here.  And you do everything at 7-11: pay bills, send packages, buy transit cards, buy tickets to concerts/movies/shows, buy alcohol, local snacks, and anything else you can think of.  7-11s are definitely not this useful in the US.  Although, sadly, no slurpee machine in the 7-11s in Taipei.

The bus ride to work was about 40 minutes (not in rush hour traffic), it's clean and efficient.  Once at the office building, we figured we might as well learn all the mass transit on the same day, so we found the closest MRT station (subway) and headed across town to Taipei 101.  A truly impressive building among all shorter buildings, although I have no idea why there are no more tall buildings in the Taipei skyline, perhaps there's a rule?  101 was the tallest building in the world in 2004.  We treated the kids, and ourselves, to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, then hopped back on the MRT.  Rode it all the way back to Tianmu (our neighborhood), then a 20 minute walk home and we had made a complete trip.  Kids were troopers the whole time and now know how to navigate bus and subway!

Sunday started a little rocky with the 4:30am call from our bank's fraud protection unit calling to confirm that Taiwan purchases were legitimate.  Seriously?  There is a note on our account that says we moved to Taiwan July 27th and activity on our cards in Taiwan will be common!  Apparently, that's irrelevant.  But things improved with an 8am Skype call with friends in Portland.  Technology is such a godsend when you're living abroad, especially for kids who are afraid their friends will forget them while they are gone.  So good to see the people you're talking to!

We were invited to Joe's co-workers apartment for snacks and swimming in the afternoon.  Turns out they live a 3 minute walk from us and they invited over a number of other friends.  So great to meet a few people, and for me to pick the brains of all the other moms.  So many questions!  My head is swimming with new information, but most importantly, they told me where I could find deli meat!  I have been to 4 different grocery stores so far and have not seen deli meat.  Starting tomorrow Olivia goes to basketball camp and I was in a bit of a panic about what to pack in her lunch.  I'm not feeling creative enough to send her anything other than a sandwich, which is why I walked to the store at 9:00 tonight and paid $23 (!!!) for half-pound of ham and half-pound of turkey.  OMG.  I'm going to have to figure out a different lunch, sandwiches at that price are clearly not in our budget.  (In case you thrifty folks are wondering, Olivia's school is a peanut-free zone, so no economical PJB sandwiches.)  But any and all other lunch suggestions are welcome.  :)

Anyway, the kids got to swim and play with other kids, Joe and I talked to other adults, and we have lots of new information about the place we live.  We are feeling very satisfied with our weekend and ready to tackle the next week.  Olivia is going to basketball camp every day, Gigi is taking tennis lessons each day, and Mimi has an "interview" to get into her Montessori school.  Wish us luck!