My boxes have arrived!!

I had them pretty much packed in June when we sold the house. At that point everything was either given away, sent to storage or packed to come to Taiwan. In July I did a little bit of last-minute rearranging when I thought my suitcases were too heavy. 

Then, at the end of July, the boxes were picked up by the shipping company, ready for their slow boat to China. I had thought, back when we were comparing shipping costs, that waiting until the end of September was just fine. By then we would be settled in a little and I'd be ready for some diversions. Unfortunately, the shipping company was not in any hurry to load them onto the boat and kept asking for paperwork they already had. Once that was cleared up my precious cargo started on its 68 day tour of the seven seas and arrived in the lobby of my hotel this afternoon.

So what was inside? Clothes (boring but some of it will be useful and some of it I'll probably never wear because it will never get that cold) and craft supplies:

My table loom, yarn and equipment for weaving. A sewing kit, office supplies, knitting needles and yarn for knitting. And before you begin wondering, yes, I usually use different yarns for weaving than I do for knitting. There are also a couple of small blankets and the quilt that I've been making for our 10th wedding anniversary. I'm almost done with it and we've only been married for 31 years. Good thing it arrived so I can get it done just in time for our 32nd.

Now the hard part comes in - finding a place to put all the stuff.

I gave my students a writing assignment the other day where they had to find their favorite place at the school, take a picture of it and write a story about why it's their favorite spot. I like to start assignments like that by telling them my own story so I talked about my favorite place - the first grade garden. They have a space carved out of the edge of the playground and it's been going great guns in this tropical environment, despite the occasional basketball rolling among the rows.

Here's what it looked like last week:

This is the corn, eggplant and something that might be cabbage. Plus one of those errant basketballs.

There are also pots of lettuce, tomatoes and the two little trees on the right are papaya trees.

Here's another view of the papaya trees:

But the cutest thing of all are all the mud boots lined up, just like at the Children's Center.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, Taiwan-style. At least it is in front of the mall.

This morning we ventured off our regular morning commute route in search of alternatives for our missing dumpling cart. We had gotten used to stopping for a treat on Friday mornings - one less breakfast to have to plan, prepare and clean up after. The cart across the street was a poor substitute and there were no other carts along our regular route. We pass two or three 7-11's but that is not my idea of a breakfast treat.

We took Huarong, the road the passes over the railroad tracks and one of the first streets we got to know when we first arrived. Biking to school this morning we passed by a little park that I will always think of as a little oasis from our early days. During the first week we were here we were walking home from school (this was before we had bought our bikes) and I felt completely lost and just needed to sit down and reorient myself on the map. This tiny little spot of green park appeared just when I needed it and we plunked our tired little lost butts down on a park bench and pulled our Lee's phone. It turned out that if we kept walking in the same direction another couple blocks we'd be right back home. It was so comforting to be able to figure out where we were that it made me feel like we could figure out this whole living in Taiwan. It was a little epiphany moment.

Driving by that park this morning reminded me of how far we've come in less than four months.

But that wasn't actually what I wanted to tell you about when I started typing. I really wanted to tell you about our quest for breakfast. Huarong, it turns out, is lined with breakfast options. There were quite a few tiny storefront restaurants serving breakfast in the early hours but we were just out doing reconnaissance, not actually looking to stop. So I made some mental notes of where we might go next Friday.

But then, later in the morning one of our friends mentioned that we must be happy that the dumpling cart was back! The one day we decide to use a different route is the day the cart returns! Now I have another dumpling dilemma. Lee is perfectly happy going back to the cart, which I'd like to do too, but now I have Huarong-envy. That street smelled so good this morning. We may need to do a couple of breakfasts out this week...

Lee and I ventured into the city last night to look for some dinner and a little diversion from our neighborhood. We live a couple miles north of the center of the city, out in the higher end, up-and-coming area of Gushan, and while it's lively enough with night markets and street fairs it's not like being downtown with all the glitz and neon.

Four stops on the MRT (mass rail transit - Koahsiung's subway) and we were at Central Park. It's not anywhere near as big as NYC's but lovely, just the same. We found a nice little place to eat using the tried and true method of wandering down little streets and finding tables on the sidewalks full of happy looking diners. If the place is busy the food must be good.

Many of the restaurants we find to eat at are just counters where you place your order (this one had an English translation of their menu!) and tables and chairs on the sidewalk. The food is served one plateful at a time and you dig in when it arrives, while your dining companions look on hungrily. For US$7 we had grapefruit iced tea, kung pao and Thai spiced chicken, rice, scrambled eggs, steamed greens, some other vegetable I couldn't identify and seaweed tied in knots.

After fueling up we walked over to the park and were surprised to find our creepy little doll friends.

Either it's some traveling exhibit or they really do sprout from seeds and grow in random meadows around the country.

An even better discovery was this group of young men dancing with fire.

We decided we need to get into town more often!

We had another Saturday morning short little bike ride that turned into a lovely all-morning discover-someplace-new event. We need to start packing our bikes with the appropriate things for longer jaunts even when we plan short trips. Where's the sun hat? the gorp? the extra water bottle? Some days we do actually go for an hour ride but not always.

Anyway, this morning we retraced our steps from earlier this week and went to find Chengcin Lake. We made only one little mistake finding it. It still amazes me when we discover these peaceful, natural settings in the middle of a city of 2 million people.

We found a nice section of bike path that skirted around this young, little tree....

and past a much older tree with the most amazing root system trying to take over the sidewalk....

  This is my favorite picture for the morning.

After circling the lake we came to the Chengchin Lake visitors' center, paid our NT$100 entrance fee (about $3 each) and joined the throngs of other people who had come to the lake for Toyota Family Fun Day. We plan to come back when it's not Toyota Family Fun Day and enjoy a slightly more peaceful experience.

It was still very nice, despite the throngs.  We saw giant-leafed trees, lotus flowers and orchids....

The trail was often quite secluded.

We even found an observation tower nestled among the trees on an island in the lake.

Getting there was a half hour of crowded, busy streets but it was worth it. We'll be back again with a picnic, a good book and plans to spend the day.

Last night for dinner we went by the evening market and picked up:
steamed, seasoned edamame
vegetable dumplings
"waffles" filled with chocolate and cream
scallion pancakes
cukes, peppers, mushrooms
passion fruit
and watermelon/guava/apple smoothies

Tonight we're joining friends at an expat bar and plan to eat lasagna and fish and chips.

Our lives are filled with contrasts.