What boredness can lead to....

A normal Sunday afternoon at the Clarkson place. Spending time with eachother and being weird and lazy, and of course our new tradition of watching Monk. Me and Reagan took some cool pics on the mac. Man I love Sundays.
Happy Labor Day for those of you who are Americans.

My New Look

What do you think?I worked really hard.It took 3 long minutes.So which is the best one?And did you see my hand up there. Yeah it looks awesome up there just like a piece of old art. I'm trying to go for the  small nose and mouth. And big eyes! Tell me what you think.

Sounds good to me.

I can hear the thinking wheels turning.

Cracking!

Night life in Taiwan

Last night I attended open house for the high school where I got to go around and go through Keely's class schedule to meet all of her teachers. By the way she has awesome teachers this year so she should have no excuse not to do well.

Open house ended at 9:30 and since I do not have a car my mode of transportation home is of course walking. Back in the states if I walked home at 9:30 I would probably see very few people walking around and only a few shops open and a few cars driving on the roads. I would be driving home at 9:30 as well. Wow it is amazing how different life is here.

As I walked home last night, there was still quite a few people on the streets. Almost every shop on the stretch of road that I walk home on was still open and had people in them shopping and what not. I also saw a garbage truck on the side of the road and it was playing a song similar to something you might hear an ice cream truck play. I am not sure of this but maybe he was letting the shops know he was there so they could bring their garbage out.

Garbage collection here is much different than the states. It is very much a self service garbage system. There are garbage bags you must buy from the convenient store in various sizes, but everyone must use these garbage bags. I don't think there is a select garbage collection day, people just take their garbage to a dump or someone in their apartment building takes care of it. I know this because we live some what close to a collection place and I have seen people carrying their garbage bags to this place. I have also seen people with garbage bags on their mopeds transporting them somewhere. We however just have to put it in a trash can in the stairwell and some takes care of it for us it is part of our maintenance fee. But I digress.

The city was very much still alive as I walked home and some ways more alive than when I run errands in the morning. A lot of places are not open when I go for my morning errand run and do not open until sometimes after noon. This way of living is much different for me because I am an early riser and by the time evening rolls around I am ready for bed. I guess there will be very few days that I will take advantage of the night life here, but I guess it is there if I need to. It also makes me feel better if and when Keely does things at night. The streets seemed very safe and pretty lit from all the shops that are still open.

Millet in Taiwan

Yesterday I went to the National Museum of History in downtown to see the Millet exhibit. It was very crowded, it has been said that people wait two hours or more to go in and see this famous exhibit. Something like 8,000 people go through the museum daily. We had a scheduled group visit with a docent so we did not have to wait in line.


We rode the MRT to get there, which was an experience because it was during rush hour and it was jammed packed. There were about 15 expat ladies talking and being pushed by the sheer numbers as people got on and off the train. When we got off the train we still had about a 15 minute walk ahead of us. I must admit I was so busy chatting and meeting new people I did not pay attention to how we arrived at the musuem so I could not go back on my own.

I met several great people on this journey from all over the world and yet just down the street. One of the ladies I met is from Hutto just down the road from Pflugerville it was kind of weird talking about places and streets back home and to be so far away. Other people were from Australia, Germany, Canada and Norway.

When first got to the musuem we had to get headphones so that we could hear our docent speak. The paintings were amazing. There were also paintings from the same time period. Some of the paintings were huge and so realistic. I am glad they were big because of the crowds it was hard to get close to see them.

Some of Millet's most famous paintings were in the exhibit. I got to see the Angelus, The Gleaners, and Winnower. My favorite of his paintings was one called Spring. I loved the story it seemed to portray.



After the exhibit there was a gift shop and then we waited outside for everyone to finish at the gift shop. Here is a picture of my friends Lena and Elspeth and a group photo out front.





My friend Lena is from Venezuela and my friend Elspeth is from Scotland. I had a blond moment with Elspeth before we started our tour. We were all talking about what languages we spoke and I asked Elspeth how many languages she spoke and her response was, one -English. I asked, "They speak English in Scotland?" She responded "Yes, Scotland is part of the UK." Boy I felt stupid. I hope she doesn't hold it against me.

After the musuem we went to a coffee shop for lunch. I had eel, rice and salad it was delicious. One thing I still have not gotten used to about eating out here is you usually get your drink at the end of your meal. It is pretty hard at times because I really like to drink while I eat. I guess it makes you cherish your drink that much more. I had a good visit with the ladies at lunch.

At the end some people were going to take the MRT home and some were going to take the bus. I decided to go with the bus group since I had never been on the bus yet. Riding the bus was pretty easy. Once again though, I was so busy talking I did not pay attention to how we got to the bus stop.

It was a forty minute bus ride home so not too bad. I think it cost about a dollar for the ride. Here is a photo of me on the bus. The lady behind me is Julie. She is originally from Hungary, but calls Canada home now. I love her accent and she is so friendly and helpful.


I had a great time and I can't wait to go on our next outing.

My trip to Tin Mu baseball park is tomorrow !

Tomorrow I am going to the baseball park. We will go there after lunch so we will eat lunch at school. We will be able to bring stuff to the park but I can't because I don't have my stuff. I will play with my friends. we will play with balls and tag. I love to play with my friends. Its weird that were going but not seeing a game. It will be a long time. 1 hour and a half long recess.

tetherball man

I love to play tetherball. It keeps me occupied at recess. It is really fun. I play with Dane, Harrison, and Patricio. I can't beat Dane but its fun to play with him. I can beat Patricio in one serve. Harrison takes about 2 minutes. We hit the ball back and forth. We made a club called the tetherball agency. Harrison can beat me but that happens once every day. I play tetherball for two of my recess's. Its really fun playing it.

The food I eat in the cafeteria.

I had turkey breast with mashed potatoes with gravy.I had watermelon and a cookie. The food here is really good. The mashed potatoes are orange but really good. The pizza is really good.I think the food is great.

Gavin's I Am Poem

I am energetic and sporty.

I wonder what my neighbors are doing.

I hear chirping crickets at night by my window.

I see cool buildings in Taiwan.

I want my grandpa to get better.

I am energetic and sporty.

I pretend I'm sleeping at night.

I feel fantastic when I'm reading.

I touch weird rocks.

I worry about Texas.

I cry when I cut myself myself really bad.

I am energetic and sporty.

I understand math, reading, and science.

I say I'm funny.

I dream of being in the Marines.

I try to do my best in school.

I hope to be a professional Baseball player.

I am energetic and sporty.

It Could Be Worse!

I think sometimes in life we get so caught up in complaining about things that don't go our way or things we don't have. The funny thing is we as human beings need very little to sustain or even enjoy life, but we think that we are entitled to so much more. When I want to complain or when I do complain I often think about Matthew 6:25-34. Why do we worry and complain so much? God always supplies all that we need in more. Thank you God for all of my many wonderful blessings.

Our time in Taiwan is teaching me so much about what is important. I miss my beautiful home and my wonderful kitchen and I long for the wonderful dream home we are planning to build in Granbury. But it is not the time or place for those things now.

We are living in a very nice furnished apartment that has all that we need. The kitchen is small and I have to wash every dish by hand, but I found out yesterday that our water is good again. No more boiling of the water to wash dishes. YES!!!!

This morning as I was washing up from breakfast and the stopper did not hold and I lost my soapy water. I thought to myself. "It could be worse- I could have to boil a whole new batch of water before washing the dishes."

Awe, the little things in life that bring smiles to our faces. When I have my new kitchen in my new dream home in Granbury I hope I never forget how blessed I will be to have that wonderful kitchen.

Until then I will enjoy washing my dishes by hand with just water from the faucet.

When it Rains in Taiwan, it POURS

Yesterday afternoon there was a 60% chance of rain. When you walk everywhere, you tend to pay more attention to the forecast. Anything over 50% means you really gotta be prepared - bring all the umbrellas. So we stayed in, I made gumbo, and we watched some Monk.

When the rain finally came, it rained so hard that we could feel it hitting the building and could hear it pounding the windows and the streets below:



As I set here on Sunday posting this, the skies are darkening and I can hear the thunder in the distance again. Only, this time, Amy and Keely are at the church office which is a good walk from here with no umbrellas. Maybe somebody with a car will take pity on them.

Where the Sidewalk Ends

There's a Shel Silverstein poem that's been on my mind this week as I traverse the ups and downs that are the Taipei sidewalks:

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

I'm not one to trip or fall down at all. In the past month that we've been here, I've done it twice. Well I've actually only fallen down once but I've stumbled another time. Because I walk everywhere I have time to think about a lot of things - some of them useful for work or home and some of them just ... ponderous.

In America the national pastime used to be baseball. But in the last 30 years or so it has been replaced by suing people. America is easily the most litigious society in the world. I've personally been involved in at least one lawsuit that involved an automobile accident from several years ago. The other person was actually a Chinese immigrant - but it wasn't them suing me, it was their insurance company.

When Keely broke her leg a few years back, our medical insurance wanted to know exactly where it happened because if she had been riding her scooter on a neighbor's sidewalk then they could sue that person to recoup their costs. We told them it happened on our sidewalk. :) They were very angry, but what could they do? I guess they could sue us...

But I digress - the point is that here in Taiwan it's not like that at all. They are not litigious by nature and the insurance companies aren't the underground mafia that run the country (at least not yet). As a result, the sidewalks are not flat. They go up and down as you walk in front of different store fronts. It's just simply not flat!

When I was visiting Taiwan, this was not a factor because everything was so new that I was hyper-sensitive to everything going on around me. But as I've started to settle in to life here and getting into a daily routine, it's easy to not pay attention where you're going and essentially walk around on autopilot. That's a bad thing around here and a good life lesson: always look where you're going - don't assume that the way in front of you is flat.

Gumbo: Taipei Style

While planning the weekend's activities and menu (of course), I came upon the realization that we had everything we needed to make a nice pot of seafood gumbo - everything, that is, except for gumbo file.

So Amy and I went off to the market (hey, it's my favorite weekend activity!) and we got all the ingredients: fresh pork (for the roux and the rice), 2 live crabs, some live shrimp, some green bell peppers, some scallions, and some celery.

I learned how to make gumbo from my dad. Gumbo days were some of my fond memories growing up and it seemed like it took hours to make the roux.

First order of business was to create a roux. We don't have access to a lot of cured pork (ham, bacon, etc.) so I bought some fresh bacon with the skin still attached. I cut it up in small pieces and then rendered it down. I didn't get as much pork fat as I'd like so I added some soybean oil to the pan.



Once the pork fat was rendered and ready to go, I went to work on the shrimp. They were still alive, which was different.



But I needed their heads to make a stock, which would form the basis of the gumbo. So I quickly dispatched the poor little guys and started up the stock. Shrimp heads and shells make the best stock - but this time around I just had the heads. I made the mistake of buying shrimp that were too small to peel.

Once the shrimp heads were busy turning into a rich stock it was time to face the crabs. I spent about $40 on these guys - paying a premium for their size and the fact that they were alive. I didn't know just how alive they were until I cut off these bindings that kept their claws immobile and close to their body. As soon as I got them off, the crabs went crazy, fighting anything that moved, including each other.



But I finally got them whole into the stock and got them going. The shrimp heads and whole crabs were going to really make this a rich and tasty gumbo. Next up was to start up the roux. I took the pork out of the fat (it was crispy and tasty with a little salt on it!) and added some flour. Just like I did as a little kid I slowly stirred the flour and the fat until the flour was nice and cooked.



It takes a lot of patience and attention, but eventually the roux turns a deep brown the color of chocolate. The rule of thumb is that a "raw" roux has more of a flour-y taste but has better thickening power. While a cooked roux has a deeper flavor and less ability to thicken. The latter is what I wanted for this gumbo.



While the roux was cooking it was time to take the crabs out of the stock along with the shrimp heads. These crabs were worth every penny as they were loaded with lots of good meat.



I added the crab meat and the roux into the stock along with all the veggies: celery, bell pepper, and scallions. I like a lot of veggies in my gumbo, but some don't. It's just a matter of preference. I cooked this on low for a few hours for the stock to evaporate as much water as possible to leave a thicker, more flavorful gumbo.

When it was almost time to eat I added the shrimp and cooked for a few more minutes.

Oh - you might be curious why I needed pork for the rice? Well I've found that when you cook rice in the rice cooker it comes out much better when cooked in a broth. So I boiled some of the pork and rib bones in some water to make a broth for the rice.

I recorded the entire process (like the geek I am) in this short video. It's only about a minute or so long and includes me being afraid of the crabs. The claws were huge and they looked like they could pierce my chubby little fingers like Vienna Sausages!



The finished product! I'm getting hungry again just looking at this!



And of course when the steam settles, the only thing left is for my sous chef Amy to whisk in and do the dishes. It's a good partnership: I cook and she cleans.



I promise we'll get out more in a few more weeks. Right now it's just so hot to get out and wander around not really knowing how to speak the language and where to go. Your patience is sucked out of you pretty quickly in that scenario and it makes for a long day. For now we're getting to know our neighborhood and where we can go for a good meal, to buy essentials (like $40 worth of crab!) and other things.

What about today (Sunday)? Well Amy and Keely are at a training for Awana (a children's ministry thing here at the church) and Reagan is at a friend's house. Me and Gavin when to go see the Clone Wars at the local theater and now we're chilling at home and I'm cooking beans. Maybe I'll share that process with you one day but it's pretty boring.

But since we don't have an oven, we've taken to making cornbread pancakes to go with the beans. We've added a little Chines flair by adding chopped scallions to them. Then you just place the pancake in the bottom of the bowl and ... yummy!

Anyhow - off to face another week. This Wednesday will mark 1 month here and that means only 11 to go! Time is flying and we're all happy, healthy, and safe. I heard this week that our household goods are on a "vessel" that is scheduled to arrive in Taiwan on September 4th. It's a little unnerving to think that our stuff is out on the Pacific Ocean right now, but I guess it's better than us being out there. Anyhow, after a few days going through customs we should be able to get our stuff delivered.

And that will change things around here pretty drastically.

Until next time...

My New Laptop

Behold!!!! The reason I haven't blogged in a long time.

Reason one: My new laptop( it's a loaner for now... but close enough)

Reason two: My facebook

Yes my parent's finally gave in and have let me have a facebook. As happy as I am, they just don't understand how I can sit there for hours and do nothing but make it so cool. Well that's not all I do. I talk to a lot of my friends from middle school, church, girl scouts, and even elementary school.

My first few days of school were rough, for those of you who were wondering. However besides all that, things are beginning to smooth over.

So there you have it. You'd think that now that I have my own laptop I'd blog more, and maybe I will. Well..... toodles.

My week in Taipei

I have meant to blog several times this week, but just now sat down to do so. I have lots of time to think as I walk my errands. On my journey I think of many things I should blog about and try make myself remember when I return home.

My week was pretty full. I had something scheduled almost everyday of the week plus my daily errands to the market and grocery store. I think over time I will figure out how to buy for more than one day so I won't have to go everyday, but for now I usually only buy for one day's meal.

Two mornings of my week consisted of going to the school for welcome coffee's to welcome us to TAS. They were basically information meetings about the school. They were very informative and I was glad they had them especially the Upper school meeting. Keely is not always forthcoming with information because of her age so now I have better idea of where I can find out information.

On Wednesday I went to a ladies coffee at the church office. It was nice to meet several new people both local and other expacts. Everyone was so friendly and helpful. I am looking forward to making friends and lasting relationships. The ladies were a wealth of information about where to shop, doctors, medicine and other things you need to know about living here. Next Wednesday we are going to a museum.

Thursday, I ventured out to find Carerfour. Carefour is a place like Walmart. I just walked around soaking it all in. I am so glad that I now know one more place to shop for things that we might need or want. I could have bought a couple of cart loads of things, but I only had my little cart. I filled it with things I knew I really wanted. I took a picture of my cart.


My walk from Carefour was about 20 minutes so it is not somewhere where I will go everyday, but maybe once a week. I don't care how far the walk is it comforting to know where I can go to find things I need.

I also went to the market and visited my favorite vegetable stand. My friend was there and made suggestions for my purchase. Everytime I go he always offers this one thing that I do not know what it is I always say no but Thursday I said yes. I asked him how to cook it and with hand motions he showed me how. He also found someone nearby that spoke English and could tell me it was bamboo shoots. We had them for supper that night and they were delicous they remind me of water chestnuts.

Video Updates

I know many of you think that we're sending "email" updates to you. In fact, we're not. We're updating our blog and it is located at www.ronamy.com. Anytime one of us updates the blog, we an email is sent out automatically using an automated service called Google Groups. When you reply to those emails, you're actually sending an email to all 5 of us, so be careful what you say... :)

Videos especially don't work in the emails, so you have to go to the website to check them out. Here are some of the latest videos. If you didn't log on to the website and see some of the videos I posted last weekend, you're missing out.



We'll do some more videos this weekend hopefully.

In Retrospect: First Day of School Pictures

We never did post these pictures, but better late than never I guess.







There you have it. Short and sweet!

In My Defense...

From Amy's post today:

The shrimp ramen was delicious. There are pictures of this that I will have to post later. I guess I really need to figure that out since I am blogging more than Ronny these days.

I've been a tad busy and a little lazy the past week, so blogging didn't hit my radar until right now. (Monday has become this weird time warp of a day when the vast majority of the people in my company are still sleeping, so things can tend to be quiet. However, as I write this the sun is rising on the East Coast so I suspect my inbox will start dancing any minute now.

Then Tuesday is an extraordinarily long day. I start the day off with a 4:00 AM staff call (now I'm that poor sucker who has to wake up early to get on the call.) and end about 10:00 PM with a few calls in the evening.

Last week was busy as were sprinting towards the finish line for 2009 planning. Granted, this is just the first of many heats that will culminate throughout the month of January 2009 in an around the world sales bonanza. This year I went from Marbella, Spain to Orlando, Florida, to Taipei, Taiwan (hey maybe I won't have to travel for this one this year!) and finally Tokyo, Japan. I was actually supposed to be in Cupertino for these planning meetings, but I didn't have a passport since the local immigration authorities had it to process my ARC (Alien Resident Card) application (yes, you guessed it: I'm a proud holder of a genuine green card). So since I couldn't be there I had to wake up early and dial in. Am I rambling? This paragraph seems to be rambling to me.

In addition to all the work stuff, it was the kids' first few days of school so it was a hectic week for all of us. All of us except for Amy - I'm not sure what she does all day now that the kids are at school (Ha! Take that!). I think she spends at least three hours every day waiting to boil the water to do dishes. She acts like the water here resembles the famous "Swill" water made famous by Bill Murray in one of those fake Saturday Night Live commercials from the 70's. Dredged from the waters of Lake Erie... I'm pretty sure she just wanted those sweet rubber gloves to complete the look of the happy housewife.

(All kidding aside, she's adjusting quite nicely and is doing a great job of keeping us all sane, clean, and fed. You should see her flirting with the vegetable guy at the market like she's always been a local! I only go to the market on the weekend so when we came around the corner on Saturday he saw her first and a huge smile came across his face and then he saw me and the smile faded ever so slightly.)

We still lack four key things to complete our assimilation into the population here:

1. Aforementioned ARC
2. Bank Account (so I can get paid - always a nice thing) - requires ARC
3. Cell Phones - requires ARC
4. Our household goods shipment

Hopefully we should have our ARC before the end of this week and get 3 of the 4 above knocked out in rapid succession.

On Friday of last week we decided to take the kids out to celebrate their first week in school. The little ones were loving it (couldn't get them to stop rambling on at home, but then again we couldn't get them to write about it on the blog) while Keely was less than enthused after her first few days. So we headed off to Chili's.

You know how at home one of the guiding principles of eating at a Chinese food eatery is that if there are Chinese people there, then the food is bound to be good. This has never failed me. Well if the locals here have the same adage then if they go to Chili's they will think to themselves, "Score. Lots of Americans here so it must be good American food."

Sheesh it was like stepping through some kind of inter-dimensional warp and in one step crossing the boundaries of the Pacific Ocean and stepping into a Chili's in Anytown, USA. I ordered my Chili's usual: the Chicken Ranch Sandwich. I told Amy as we were sitting there enjoying our "American Food" that the good news is that it tastes just like Chili's. The bad news is that it tastes just like Chili's.

We were sitting right next to the bar and they have the great big Margarita signs everywhere in there. At one point I told Amy that were ready for her parents to visit now that we've located a good place for Friday night margaritas. She responded with, "they sell margaritas here?" Ummm...

All in all it was a good dinner of 100% comfort food, exactly what the kids needed after their first week of school and Amy's never-ending battle with the invisible bacterium that I'm suspecting live somewhere in our water.

On Saturday we slept late to 8:30 AM and yadda yadda yadda, it was dinner time! At some point I had grand visions of taking everybody on a cultural tour (yes, Clarksons, they have those here) via the train (aka subway, MRT). But I think we just wanted a relaxing day at home and around our neighborhood.

So instead of studying the tour guides, I studied a cool Chinese Food cookbook I bought at Taipei 101 a few weeks ago. I found a recipe for Cashew Chicken, even though I told Marsha that I'm pretty sure it was an American invention, specifically for buffets. Turns out I was wrong! So now that I know how to whip up some, I'm ready for you to visit, Marsha. Just make sure you bring your walking shoes...

I also found this cucumber relish dish that was actually really close to Josh's cucumbers, onions, and vinegar recipe. This was a little bit more spicy, but it was good.

The other was a sweet and sour cabbage. Blech.

When not wandering around the neighborhood on Saturday, we lounged around watching Season 1 of Monk on DVD. It's a really good show that I've never really paid attention to before. All five of us can sit around and watch it and the kids really enjoy it as well. I think it paints me in a good light because I could always be as anal as him, which would drive them crazy.

(Great, I included the word anal in my blog - there I did it again. Now I'm going to pick up all sorts of weird visitors from various search engines.)

After dinner we walked around and saw the neighborhood at night. What's really cool about Taipei is that it's constantly changing throughout the day. Shops open and close and vendors roll up carts at specific times and there is even a carnival-like atmosphere at the local night market. We ended up at a Coldstone creamery which again was good comfort food. Reminded us of Kaleidoscoops in Pflugerville, only Alex wasn't there enjoying his Dippin' Dots and Olivia wasn't eating her blue ice cream and showing off her blue teeth and tongue. :(

On Sunday we got off to a slow start again and then went to Jake's for breakfast. We all really like it and evidently as the morning wears on so does the rest of the neighborhood. Gone are the weekends where we are strolling through the door at 7 AM thanks to jet lag...

Then we went to Church at the kids' school, which is only about a 5 minute walk from our apartment. It's about as close to a non-denominational church as you can get I guess. It's called Taipei International Church and I think we are all really enjoying it. Best of all, the people are so friendly and seem genuinely glad that we are there - that aspect reminds us of Sugar Grove and that's a good thing. I haven't seen them yet but I've been told by Amy and Keely that there are even some Allahverdians roaming the hallways here. I wonder if they like to cook and have people over to eat...

Sunday afternoon we went again to a local book store for some school supplies. This place is pen heaven. If it writes, you can find it here. Then while walking I decided that I wanted to make shrimp ramen with fresh shrimp from the market.

We came across a shaved ice place on the way so we decided to stop and have a treat. I really like the shaved ice here in Taiwan and in general, the price is very right - about $1 US a head. I'm sure this will become a pleasant weekend diversion.

We got to the market relatively late on Sunday afternoon - about 3 or so. Many of the vendors had already packed up and gone home to spend the remainder of their weekend with their families. Amy's boyfriend was there, so we had a good time chatting with him and buying vegetables. Imagine that - we had a good time buying vegetables in 2008.

There weren't many seafood vendors at all, but there was one who had the big prawns I was thinking about trying in my ramen. These things are huge. I got one to try and good pile of regular looking shrimp.

On the way home Amy popped into 7-11 to pick up some shrimp ramen and we headed home. Yes, the ramen here is different than in the US. The soup base is much richer and more flavorful. While the ramen in the US comes in one flavor (salt) these flavors are all very different and yummy.

Gavin was the main chef of the shrimp ramen and also the photographer:



Amy and Reagan telling Gavin to stop taking pictures of them:



Look at the size of this prawn! I should have put something next to it so you could get a better idea, but that's a full-sized cutting board its laying on:



The fresh shrimp go in next:



The finished product on the table:



All in all it was very yummy as was the prawn from another world. Ramen is definitely going to be one of our staples because everybody in our house loves noodles and all you have to do is add some fresh meat and veggies.

Well it's about 8:00 PM right now and that means that I have a call in 8 short hours from now. No big plans for this weekend yet, not that there's anything wrong with that. Maybe some more cooking and some neighborhood exploring. It's too darn hot to do anything else right now!

Until next time...

Just another weekend in Taipei

We had a good weekend. On Friday night we went out to Chili's at the department store. It was just like Chili's at home. It was nice to have American food. Reagan of course ordered her two favorites macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes. I ordered Margarita grilled chicken and it was almost just like home. At the department store we bought the first season of Monk so that we had something to watch besides old movies. After supper we took a different way home and saw a few side streets that we had not seen yet.

Saturday we slept in and had a lazy morning. Ronny and I went to the market at about 11:00 to get supplies for our supper. Ronny bought a Taiwan cookbook when we first got here and so he found three recipes to try from that. We of course went to the same vegetable stand to see my friend. We had already purchased the cashews for one of the recipes and my friend taught us the Chinese word for cashews. We then came home dropped off the ingredients we bought at the market and went to the grocery store for the rest. We needed several different ingredients that we had not purchased yet. It took us awhile at the store because we could not find some of the ingredients at first. I am sure that they have a system for the way the grocery store is arranged and I am sure it makes sense to them, but it is a little confusing for us especially when there is a language barrier. We walked up and down aisles and finally found all of the ingredients we needed.

After our food shopping was done I had to take Keely out to purchase running shoes, shorts and shirts for cross country. This task might be easier back home because we would just go to academy. Here we walked around to several different shops. We found shoes, shorts and sports bras at one store and then had to go to the department store for some more shorts. On our way home we stopped off at a store to buy tank tops. This shopping expedition took us about two hours, but I was pleased with the results.

The menu for supper was Diced chicken with cashews, Sichuan Cucumber Relish and sweet and sour cabbage. My favorite was the cucumber relish, but the other two were good as well.

After supper we went out for dessert. We walked toward Wellcome where we thought there was a shaved ice place. We did not find the shaved ice place so we settled for Coldstone ice cream instead. It was very good and actually a little cheaper than it would have been in America. We all were able to order with ease thanks to the picture menu.

Sunday we got up for our usual breakfast at Jake's before we headed to church. I got something different this week called Scotch egg breakfast where they put a boiled egg inside a sausage ball. It was interesting but my favorite part about the breakfast was the fruit. We are attending Taipei International Church. Church was really great it is a very friendly place and we are excited about getting involved there.

After lunch we headed to a store called the New Life Book Store that has a variety of school, office, craft supplies. Keely needed a few school supplies and we let all the kids choose a few fun supplies for school such as pencil bags, boxes and cool pens and pencils. This store also has scrapbook supplies when I need them.

We then decided to walk to the market to buy shrimp for shrimp ramen for supper. On our way we found a shaved ice place and stopped for a snack. Keely was the first to order and was able to get 4 different toppings: grape, mango liche, and taffioca jellys with a sugar syrup poured on top. Reagan and Gavin just got ice with condensed milk. Ronny and I shared one with grape, mango, liche and boiled peanuts and it was delicious and much cheaper than Coldstone. We really should have brought our camera but didn't.

The shrimp ramen was delicious. There are pictures of this that I will have to post later. I guess I really need to figure that out since I am blogging more than Ronny these days. All and all it was a very nice weekend that of course did not last as long as we would have liked.

Who in here knows what a tortilla is?

My first day of school was awesome!  My teacher's name is Ms. Hsu.  It is pronounced like shoe. She is really cool.  Ms. Hsu is the best.  My friend Hannah fractured her toe on the first day.  She had fallen off the straight monkey bars. She had also sprained her ankle. I took her to the nurse,stayed with her in the library during our second recess and got her lunch for her. During writers workshop my teacher read us a book called the tortilla factory. She said "Who in here here knows what a tortilla is?"And guess what, I was the only one who raised my hand.  I felt like such a D.O.R.K dork!  After she read it to us it was 2:25 and time to pack up.  So I walk out of the room at 2:30 being the tortilla queen. 

My first day of school

On the first day of school was great. I made a lot of friends. But Dane is my best friend. I hung with him all day. He is new to. He lived in Washington. I got to see a lot of stuff like the playground, the lunch room and the library. We have a hamster named Marshmallow. My teacher is named Mrs. Fox. We do not have desks. We have tables of four. We built a tower out of shaving cream,toothpicks and straws. It was challenging. We played a game where you say your favorite food  and then say the favorite food of the people in front of you.We have 3 recess's. We have lunch at 12:00. We have a pizza bar and baked potatoes and regular food on the menu. Well thats my first day of school.     

Little things are sometimes a big help

Life here is very different than the life I am used to. I think that I am adjusting pretty well. I have my ups and downs but for the most part I am enjoying my time here. There are some little things that make a huge difference for me.

Rubber gloves: Our water is unsafe to drink at the moment for reasons I do not know. I am having to boil the water before I can use it to wash dishes. At first I was boiling it and then waiting until it was cool enough for me to put my hands in it. The sink stopper does not always seal well and so sometimes as I wait for it to cool the water leaks out and I have to start the process over again. Washing dishes has become quite frustrating. I bought rubber gloves yesterday and they have been a huge help. I can touch the water almost immediately. Wow, I can do dishes without waiting.

Umbrellas: We have been in Taiwan for almost 3 weeks now and today was the first day that it has rained when we needed to be outside. We have seen people carrying and using umbrellas for shade everyday that we have been here but we did not see a need for one until today. Dismissal was at 2:30 and Ronny and I went to pick the kids up. It started raining and we were without an umbrella. We immediately walked to a store and purchased an umbrella for everyone. Just one more step to fitting in here in Taipei.

Little things are very important. I am thankful for all of the little things in my life that make my life better. Today it was rubber gloves and umbrellas who knows what it will be tomorrow.

First Day of School

Well I dropped off the kids for their first day of school. They were all a little anxious. I think Gavin was more excited than anything. He wanted to see the friends he had met the day before at the orientation. Reagan was a little nervous, but was excited about the routine of school again. Keely was her usual jovial self because she was nervous and not quite sure what to do. None of them were interested in me taking pictures at school. I guess those days are over. I did get the usual wake up pictures though.

It was kind of sad for me because I was not really part of the first day. Normally I am so wrapped up in meeting my students that I don't get to spend much time with my own children so they could have out grown me long ago and I am just now noticing it. I am anxious to hear about their first day experience.

After I dropped the kids off I came home to take care of the breakfast dishes. I then went to the market to buy my daily groceries. I go to the same vegetable stall each day and have even befriended the old man who works the stall. The past couple of times I have gone he was not there. Today, he was there. He helped me choose the vegetables for supper. It was good to see his smiling familiar face . I then bought chicken and fruit.

I also went to the grocery store after lunch. I am now sitting here waiting to go pick the little ones up from school. I will post the pictures and videos I took this morning later after Ronny downloads them for me.

Granbury Video Fun

I was going through some of the video we've taken in the past month or so both at home and here in Taipei and I came across some videos that I thought were worth sharing.

This first one is at Babe's in Granbury and it's just randomness of a few of the kids who have evidently had a rough day. It just made me chuckle - from William trying to eat the plate to Gabby falling asleep:



This is one of Amy doing the dreaded birthday chicken dance, but what really made me laugh was the way Fooch is doing a slight little dance to the music playing in the background:



Cammie Cakes has a good grasp on the Pledge of Allegiance: "Pledge alle-shence, to the flag, of the 'nited States America. Into the plulublic, which it stands, one nationder God, indivisible, with T and that's for all!":

Shilin Night Market: Stinky Tofu

Here's a video of Amy and Keely trying the stinky tofu.  Despite the look on their faces, they both ate more than one piece, so that's saying a lot, especially for Amy.  As stinky tofu goes, this was pretty mild - so it was kinda like stinky tofu with training wheels.

Shilin Night Market Food Adventure

This weekend we went to the Shilin Night Market, which is only about 3 stops away on the MRT. Shilin is the biggest and most popular of the many night markets throughout Taipei. It was a Saturday night and it was extremely crowded, especially when you're new to the experience and aren't quite sure what to make of everything. All in all we went there to experience things and have dinner. And have dinner is what we did - and then some.

One of the first familiar things we happened across was a booth where you could "fish" for live shrimp using sticks with thread and small treble hooks. It took me a while to figure it out, but you get 7 poles for $100 NTD, or about 3 bucks. There is an element of chance and skill to it as the poles are not constructed with space age Jimmy Houston fishing materials and start to deteriorate as soon as they get wet and within a minute or so the hook falls off. So you essentially get 7 tries. Not impossible and many people walk away with 5 or more shrimp. The "winning" shrimps get a skewer up their backside and then are placed on a nearby grill for some fresh BBQ. You probably saw this on Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern - my kids did and thus they had to try.

Reagan didn't have the stomach for such things and didn't catch any, while Gavin was pretty good and you can see the fruits of his labor below:



Next we went walking around to try and get the lay of the land. I was looking for a few specific food stalls that I'd read about or seen on TV. We eventually came across a potato chip vendor that was cutting potatoes in this spirals and then deep frying them on a skewer. This is no joke, but these were quite possibly the best potato chips I've ever tasted. She had various flavorings and we got Cheese, Pepper, and Garlic:



Keely with a deer in the headlight look:



You must know that Gavin was (shock!) pouting because we passed some video games and other games in general and we didn't stop (other than the shrimp) so in classical Gavin fashion, he proceeded to force himself into a bad mood for the rest of the evening. Initially he didn't want any chips, but after he realized we were able to show the willingness to walk away without feeding him, he relented:



The ultimate prize of the night was stinky tofu and I knew that if we were going to be successful at bagging some that we'd need to eat some early while our stomachs were still empty and begging for food, even stinky food. Here it is - the fried variety, or as I called it in an earlier post, stinky tofu with training wheels:



Reagan and Gavin opted out completely, but Amy, Keely and myself gave it a go and were able to get several pieces down:



When we were first married, Amy ate a total of 5 things and one of the 5 was water. Now she is adventurous enough to try one of the most bizarre foods on the planet:



Next up on our list I figured we needed to come back down to earth after that culinary experience, so we found a nearby shaved ice vendor:



Shaved ice here is very different - they shave it very fine and serve it in a mound on a plate or bowl and then top it with many things, but my favorite is fresh fruit and condensed milk:



We got one with mangoes and strawberries (above) and one with kiwi:



Everybody enjoyed them but Gavin - he was still in full on pout mode so he only ate a bite or two:



There was nothing left by the time we were finished and by this point the stinky tofu was a faint memory on our palettes:



There were a few more things I wanted to try before we called it a night (boy was it crowded by now!) - scallion pancakes and oyster omelets. We found a vendor nearby and the stall next to them was open and I accidentally stepped in the recessed drainage "ditch" (for lack of a better word) and stumbled. Amy looked at me like I had some sort of debilitating disease, even after I quickly recovered. There's nothing wrong with me, I was just fascinated by the food and didn't see the hole in the ground. So I fell down ... she beat me to it on one of the first days we were here and that was a relatively flat sidewalk. :)

Anyhow, a scallion pancake is basically a flaky dough with, you guessed it, scallions. They generally cook them right in front of you and add a fried egg on one side. This one was delicious and we even got Gavin to give it a try and he actually liked it:



By now we were completely full, but I had one more thing on my list: oyster omelet. This is pretty much what it sounds like an omelet made with oysters (which are plentiful here). One thing that's weird is that they first cook the oysters on the griddle with some oil, then they pour a bit of a corn starch like mixture over the oysters, which cooks into a gelatinous consistency. Next they add the eggs and any veggies. The final dish is served with a thick, flavorful sauce:



Everybody was full, so it was just me alone with my omelet:



After that, we walked across the street to the MRT station and then took the train back to our stop. There is an awesome dumpling vendor right when you get off the train and Keely asked to get some. They are about $4 NTD a piece, or about a dime. Yummy.

Our evening at the Shilin Night Market was fun and we'll definitely be going back, but I think we were all a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people that can actually be in the same space at the same time. I think next time we go back will be on a weeknight so things aren't so hectic and crowded and maybe try a few more dishes.

Until next time...

I've Been Busy: That's a Good Thing

I know, I know - I haven't updated all week. I think I spoiled everybody when we first got here and I was jet-lagged and had a lot of free time on my hands. I'm pretty sure I hit the ground running this week and am settling in quickly now that I'm going into the office. In addition, there were some folks from Japan in the office this week and also some partners from Canada, so that meant a bit of entertaining and a lot of extra meetings. On top of all of that, we're doing planning for 2009, so that means a lot of extra work too.

Before I forget, what's up with the hankies? It's simple. It's hot and humid here. And I have what you might call a little bit of a weight problem. A simple mathematical calculation equals a lot of sweat. The hankies help me wipe it off my bald head and boy do they work well. I look like an old man with my hankies, but I don't care.

Speaking of the heat, it's still hot. If you're outside and the wind stops blowing it is absolutely stifling. But all in all I think I'm getting used to it. 80 degrees inside is actually starting to feel comfortable. We're still deathly afraid of our first electrical bill, so we're still a bit stingy on the A/C. That means we keep it on 27 degrees Celsius, or 80 degrees Fahrenheit. At night we turn it down a few degrees. The kids actually lay around with blankets, so I guess it can't be too hot - at least inside.

My commute to work takes me about an hour or so. I walk about 15 minutes from the apartment to the MRT station, ride the train for about 30 minutes (includes two transfers) and then walk about 10 minutes from the MRT station to the office. The first day I wore a brand new pair of loafers so I looked presentable at work. By the time I got home my poor feet were on fire. The skin on my pinky toes was absolutely about to fall off and then I stubbed my toe on the desk in the office here at home and that took care of that - no skin anymore. Needless to say I wore tennis shoes the rest of the day.

The custom here in the office is for people to change into slippers. I'm going to take a pair of Crocs into the office to wear and give me feet a breather during the day and then change back into my shoes for the commute. I haven't had to worry about my feet since I left the Marines - but now that we walk everywhere, I can see that I've been taking them for granted. After a few days of tennis shoes and a little Neosporin, they're back in top shape. But a very painful lesson to learn during my first week of commuting to work.

To give you an idea of some of the sights and sounds that I come across on my way to work, I took my camera the other day and snapped some pictures. This is a river/stream that runs not to far from our apartment:



A typical side street. Some of them have sidewalks and some of them don't:



This is probably my favorite part of the walk - some very old trees have over grown the sidewalk and so it is completely shaded:



When you walk through a part of town with a lot of shops, this is what it looks like. What I really like about the way things work here is that many of their restaurants and shops are situated right on the sidewalk, so you don't have to veer too far off your path to grab a snack, some milk, whatever:



You never have to walk very far before you run into a 7-11. I bet many of you haven't seen one of these for years, but they are alive and well in Taipei - Slurpees and all:



The entrance to the MingDe MRT station. The kids keep asking if I take the train or the subway. We had to explain to them that the train, the subway, the MRT - they're all the same thing. This particular station is elevated above the streets. As you get closer to downtown, many stations are underground:



You can pay cash for the subway, but we all have EasyCards, which look like credit cards and you can add money to them when the balance is low. I spend $27 NTD one way to take the MRT into downtown - that's about $1 US. Not bad these days, especially with the price of gas. Here is where you can buy tickets for the MRT and reload your EasyCard:



The MRT uses very exaggerated photos and drawings to explain safety rules and other important tidbits like no food or drink and especially no fighting. Here is an example - in this case it's a picture of what could happen to some unexpecting person who wears Crocs on the escalator:



Waiting for the train. This is actually pretty empty and it can get especially busy in the evening when it seems like more people are trying to go home at the same time:



A typical sight inside the train. Notice the young lady putting on her makeup on her way to work:



Like I said, many of the restaurants are right on the sidewalk and offer up many yummy options for breakfast. Usually it only takes a few seconds to order up a fresh and hot meal and be on your way again:



One of my favorite things here is Milk Tea. It's essentially lightly sweetened iced tea with a bit of milk in it. It's very refreshing and yummy. This is a place across the street from my office and I stop in most days for a drink, which is only about $1 US:



I'm not sure why, but the Milk Tea shop has an old-school Castle Grayskull. The only thing missing is a He-Man doll along with Man-e-Faces while I'm waiting on my drink:



MMMmmmm. I like mine with "bubbles" or "pearls" which are essentially colored tapioca. They don't taste, but offer up a nice texture while you enjoy your cold drink:



Friday night after work we all went to my favorite restaurant in Taipei: Under the Tree. This is like a salad they serve before hand. It is boiled peanuts and lightly pickled cucumbers and carrots:



Something that is very popular here is very small dried fish or shrimp - they make delicious snacks and you eat them whole, heads and all (hey, they're tiny...) This dish has the dried fish stir-fried with some peppers and scallions. Yummy:



No dinner is complete in Taiwan without some Taiwan Beer, the national beer of Taiwan. It's by far not the best beer I've ever tasted, but it goes very nicely with the salty and spicy food here. You have to be careful, though, because the bottles are big and the glasses are small - so you drink a bit more than you plan to, especially when your hosts are constantly re-filling your glass:



This dish is a garlic basil dish and usually contains pork, chicken, or even squid. I have a tendency to eat too many of the garlic cloves and the basil is special kind of basil that is local to Taiwan. Amy hates when I eat this dish:



This is bitter melon. It is literally that: melon that is bitter. This is not a bad dish, but it's definitely not one of my favorites. Short of intestines, this is my least favorite dish at Under the Tree:



A little dish I like to call... just veggies:



This next dish is truly unbelievable. They call it Pineapple Shrimp Balls and it is basically just fried shrimp and pineapples tossed in a sweet cream sauce. It is very good, unbelievably so:



Behold, my least-favorite dish - intestines. The sauce and the veggies are simply delicious, but I just can't get past the "earthy" flavor of intestines. I would rather eat stinky tofu (for the most part):



My taste buds start to water just thinking about this fried pork with black pepper, dipped in a sweet, spicy sauce:



Another favorite. This is squid mouth (not kidding), deep-fried with peppers and peanuts. The "mouth" is actually the muscle around the beak - they remove the beak and what's left is quite scrumptious with loads of texture and flavor:



This is a dipping sauce that is simply just soy sauce and chili peppers. Doesn't sound like much, but believe me, this adds just the right amount of salt and spice to just about anything you can dip in it:



The coup de grace. Roasted pork is moist and succulent - you dredge the pork through a bowl of white vinegar and ground black pepper. This is truly a dish to behold:



Don't worry - we weren't done yet. The hospitality flows freely during a Taiwanese dinner. Next up were some clams with basil and tomatoes:



Snails. Escargot. Whatever. By now I'm getting so full that the mere thought of any food makes me queasy:



And finally - yes finally - a very light fish soup to aid digestion. Believe me, it works. The broth was lightly salted with fish and tofu. What a great way to end a wonderful meal:



I decided to take a taxi home instead of messing with the MRT. A taxi from downtown to our apartment runs about $10, so while it's not terribly expensive, it's okay when I'm not in the mood for a 60 minute commute. By car with limited traffic, it's about a 20 minute drive.

I think that's enough for one post. I've got some pictures from the night market, but I'll post those later.