Yesterday morning we had a hankering for a cup of coffee and rather than going to Starbucks we stopped into a little shop that turned out to be a treasure. It's two minutes from the apartment, three skinny floors, overlooking the park.

And it serves breakfast sandwiches all day.

The sign outside claims they're open from 9 to 9 but we've walked by plenty of times when it was closed. They're closed on Tuesdays so maybe we've just by chance only walked by on Tuesdays. Hmm.

Our friend Simona is with us this weekend and we had a great afternoon together yesterday. Learned some Chinese around the apartment (the possibilities with the AC remote are endless!), did a little shopping and had dinner at a little, forgettable hole-in-the-wall. We finished the evening off with ice cream at the night market. Today we may head to Tainan on the train or we may stay in town and visit the 85 Tower and see Kaohsiung from the tallest building in the city.

We have a bit of a dilemma. For Chinese New Year we get a week off from school and realized we need to start making plans. Everyone in China/Taiwan/Hong Kong travels during the week and stores and restaurants shut down so by all accounts we should go off-island.

Our dilemma: where to go? For April break we're planning a trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. We have nearly three weeks off because the school is moving into the new building during break. With that kind of time we figured we'd do a nice extended trip. So those places are out for our February trip and Europe is just a bit too far to travel for just a week.

Right now Japan is our top pick. The disadvantages are that it's cold in February and expensive. The advantages are that it's Japan! Anyone been there? Any suggestions on where to go?

I may have already mentioned this, but tomorrow (10/10 - happy birthday Jill!) is Taiwan's 104th birthday, which to me means no school. I'm sure there will be fireworks, the burning of ghost money and possibly offerings of food placed on card tables on the sidewalks. Or maybe not the last two since those are more religious rites rather than governmental.

Anyway, back to no school tomorrow. I had thought about taking Lee to Tainan, the closest big city to Kaohsiung, about an hour up the western coast from here. Tainan was the original capital city of Taiwan and has an ancient history. Some of the students at KAS take a bus or train down from Tainan. They are usually the ones looking a bit bleary-eyed in the morning.

But instead of traveling we have a guest traveling to see us. Simona is one of Lee's former students from Ethel Walker. She lives in Taipei and is coming down for a couple days to act as our interpreter. I don't know that she knows that, but we plan to make use of her Chinese to help us figure out the controls on the AC, washing machine, dish dryer and rice cooker.

washing machine

dish dryer

rice cooker

We may also visit the Escher exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, make a foray onto the subway and visit Central Park, and visit the night market. Simona is our trial run for having a guest spend the night. We'll let you know how it goes!

One of my very earnest, sweet little 5th graders gave me the vocabulary words she was working on with the Chinese translations. I think it's beautiful.

I think it is also unlikely that I will ever be as good as Mia is with Chinese vocabulary.

I have been trying to send a package to Amherst with a few goodies and it is turning out to be way more work than I anticipated. It took awhile to find a box to fit the stuff, then finding packing material to keep it from rattling around. I ended up with some sheets of newspaper that my produce was wrapped in to keep it from bruising. Then tape was a bit problematic because all I have around the house is Taiwan's version of scotch tape. I haven't really solved that one yet but at least the box is staying shut.

Next I had to get it to school which meant my bike basket had to be empty which meant having to put everything I needed that day at school into my backpack. At school the secretary patiently explained the paperwork I needed to fill out and where to find the post office. She talked me out of Federal Express because it's "very expensive." Part of her assistance included this note for the people at the post office:

Basically it says please weigh the package and let me know how much it costs before I have to decide if I want to mail it or not.

So with package, paperwork and pink post-it note I was finally ready to go to the post office. Unfortunately, it was packed with people waiting patiently (not something the Taiwanese normally do, waiting patiently) and it had already been a long enough day. So I checked when a better time might be to come by referring to the incredibly helpful sign:

There's more English on this sign than I have seen on anything else in the city. Unfortunately, the post office is "off service" on the weekends and National Holidays and closes at 5:00 on the weekdays, which explains why there was such a crowd at 4:30 today.

So now I have to cart the box back to school and ask about how expensive Fed Ex really is. I may also try leaving school a little earlier and dutifully waiting my turn with everyone else. See what I mean? Way more work than I anticipated.

I need to just make note of the fact that we left the windows open in the living room last night and it was actually almost pleasant this morning. The temperature is nice, the humidity is still too high for my taste.

The Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts is surrounded by about 100 acres of parkland known as Neiweipi Cultural Park. It includes outdoor sculptures, a lake and miles of pathways. So what to do on a lovely Sunday afternoon?

Have your wedding photos taken.

Check your emails while your dog waits patiently.

Help your dad fly a kite.

Or just bring your lawn chair out and take a nap in the shade.