Urban Forest

That's the name of our apartment!  We are very happy we found such a great place to live.  We were worried after our initial searching, but we've found a very modern (pretty hi-tech) abode.  :-)  We moved in on Saturday and went shopping for some essentials like toilet paper, towels.  Then on Sunday we explored the area around our apartment.  One of the best (so we've heard) bookstores and Starbucks is on the corner of the street--maybe 50 feet away from our apartment!  Our view out of the bedrooms is great and there is a park across the street.  I love people watching, so I've been glancing out every now and then to see what's going on in the park!

We are the only tenants on the 5th floor- 2nd Floor is EF Tours, 3rd Floor is a Beauty Salon, 4th Floor is a Psychologist office (but hasn't moved in yet).  The elevator always smells good because of the salon!  ;)  We discovered that our apartment includes security cameras in the bedrooms, dining room, hallway, and elevator.  So, as soon as we hear the elevator, we watch to see who is getting in the elevator and what they are doing.  Usually the women check themselves out in the mirror and fix their hair.  HAHA! 

We will take pictures of the apartment soon! Here is a picture of our business card that our real estate agent, Bettie, made for us  (BTW, her son's name is Kaiser!  hehe!):

Feel free to call us, or better yet, send us a package!  ;-)


Here is our rental car and our American sized parking space!  HAHA!  Aaron realized that parking in those spaces was pretty tricky, so the security guard showed him this spot.  He took it right away!  :)  The parking space is in the basement of the same building as Starbucks. 


It took forever for our internet to be set up because of all the wiring they had to work around throughout the building.  Then we went to IKEA!  IKEA in Kaosiung, Taiwan!  How cool!  (We also went to Costco, but I didn't take a picture of that.)  Kaosiung is the 2nd largest city in Taiwan.

Check out the scooters too:

My lunch today including a rice dumpling filled with pork and some sort of soup.  There is a place across the street from Starbucks that advertises that they make the best rice dumplings.  That's about all that's in English at this shop.  I just went there for lunch and risked asking them if they spoke any English and ordered a rice dumpling with 'pig'. They cook the rice dumplings in (I think) corn husks that are tied into a triangular shape and dropped into a big pot of boiling broth (again, I think!).    I have no idea what was in the soup, but it was good!  I do know it included what they call a Chinese doughnut for the dumpling part of the soup (that's the part of the soup that looks sort of slimy).  I got this entire meal for $50 NT, which is equivalent to about $1.50 USD!  So cheap!

 Here are some pictures I've just gotten around posting from Taipei:

Taipei 101

Our hotel

     

Eating chicken noodle soup with Chopsticks.  Go me!

Aaron at an American restaurant in Tainan.

 An Engrish sign at a department store:

Oh my, what a long post!  That's what happens when I don't have the internet for 4 days.  Talk to you soon!