Getting settled

So here were are almost a week in Taipei and it feels like in a way we just got here and also like we've been here for months. Everything you do here you have to think about and plan out, by the end of the day we're both mentally and physically exhausted. We settled into our new apartment which is near the Shida University. It's a very young, hip area with tons of restaurants, cool shops and at night the streets turn into a "night market" which are very popular here and all over town.

Our landlord "Joseph" is about as nice as we could have asked for. Joseph is from a smaller town south of here called Tainan but lived in Texas and went to undergrad and grad school so he speaks perfect English. He is a funny little man but so helpful and I know if we were ever in a bind we could call him for help. After meeting with Joseph and signing the lease, he showed us where a store we could buy sheets and blankets. I was very excited about decorating our new Asian apartment until I saw the selection we had to go with...bright pink Snoopy blanket or baby blue with grandma looking roses all over it. We opted for the blue rose print but flipped it over so it's just light blue. It was the Asian decorating motif I was imagining but it will do.

As soon as we got settled into the apartment, Alan got in Alan mode and immediately started rearranging furniture and making lists of things we need to buy. I curled up in our rock hard bed and yelled out my two-cents.

Now that we have a more stable living situation we are looking for teaching jobs. We are in a time crunch to find jobs before the Chinese New Year which starts in a couple of weeks. From what we have heard the whole island just sort of shuts down and there are festivals and parades and parties etc. A new session at the schools starts after the new year so we hope to have something secure by then.

I'm new to the whole blogging thing so be patient...still trying to figure out how to post all of our pictures. We also created a flickr account under the same name Rambling Mandarin. I'm not sure how to like over to that yet but I think you can look us up under that name on http://www.flickr.com/.