Soup's On

You may ask, what do we do here in Taipei?  How do we fill our days in a foreign city on the other side of the world?

Mornings are pretty much spent taking care of basic needs, like laundry, mopping the floors, shopping for lunch and dinner, and going out for breakfast.  Taylor and I also take little exploratory trips around the city.  We like to be home by noon though, because that's usually when David brings Soup to our apartment.  That is when the most important part of our day begins.

Soup's first project is to take off his socks.

Tah dah!

We have several story times.

Soup likes to check out his own special cupboard.

There's always a meal or two.

Soup gets tired with all the activity, so he takes naps.

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Grandpa also needs to take a little rest while Soup is snoozing.

Disaster Averted

Last night I broke one end of my size 5 Knit Picks circular knitting needle.

Fortunately, there is a yarn shop in Daxue Village.  I went over there this morning and managed to make my needs known to the shop keeper who knows slightly more English than I know Mandarin.
After measuring my needle she showed me two options for a size 5 circular.  I made my choice and then browsed around in the small, cramped, humid shop.

In spite of the heat, the resident dog wore a sporty sweater.

I thought I was going to get out of the shop with just the needle, and then I spied sale bin.

Who knows if I got a deal, but the yarn is 70% cotton, 30% mystery and quite pretty. I spent 800 twd which is about $25.

What I find amazing about this entire experience is that when I first came to Taiwan in 2011, I was too timid to go out on the street by myself.  Now, I'm out on the street and I'm shopping all by myself.

Where's My Bike?

National Taiwan University

If only I had parked my bike out on the street.

At least there are instructions on how to get my bike on the upper level.

Religion in Daxue Village

One of the aspects of Taiwan I enjoy most is the prevalence of temples.  There are 30,000 temples in Taiwan.  Apparently that is more than any other country in Asia. The temples have been built by Buddhists, Taoists or practitioners of Chinese folk religion.  Pretty much every where you go you run into temples, large and extravagant, small and informal, or modest but distinctive.

A pint size temple in the Hakka Cultural Park which is within walking distance of our neighborhood.

This temple is on a table in a corner of the Gongguan Traditional Market which is across one of the main roads from Daxue Village.

One of the disappointments I've experienced living in our current neighborhood is the lack of temples.  2.6% of the population in Taiwan is Protestant, and they all seem to live in our community.  We've got a large Baptist Church, a larger Presbyterian Church and the Lutherans are here too. I'm not going to include photos, because you know what they look like.

We had a big surprise yesterday morning while taking our morning walk.  We strolled past Daxue Park which we had visited before.  This time, we approached the park from a different angle, and lo and behold - here is our local temple!!!

Now I feel that all is right with my world.  I've got at least one temple in my immediate neighborhood.  There are probably more, I just haven't figured out where to look yet.

Let's Talk Trash

When I'm not thinking about Solomon/Soup, I'm thinking about trash.

There are two major differences between our current apartment and the one we rented last September. First, we paid $600 more for this apartment. Second, we have to take our own trash to the garbage truck.  There was no mention of trash disposal in the Airbnb description of this "Central Lush 2BR Apt @ Guting/Da-an".  And it never occurred to me to inquire about trash services because I'm an American and trash just magically disappears in my part of the world.

When we got here and read the information booklet about apartment rules and regulations, we discovered that we were responsible for sorting our trash and for taking it to the trash collection site.

 For advance  practise, we followed the map to the collection site expecting a giant dumpster.  There was nothing to indicate that we could leave our trash right there on the main street, so we called our landlady.  She explained that trash pickup occurs every night, except for Wednesday and Sunday, at 9:00 pm.  She told us if we couldn't cope she could come over and get our trash for us, but it seemed ridiculous to me to let her into the apartment every night for a month because we were too damn lazy.  However, learning to live with trash management has been challenging.  We have gone through at least 7 stages of emotion to reach acceptance.

7 Stages of Acceptance for Self Managed Waste

• disbelief
• pissed off (we're paying $600 to take out our own trash?)
• anxiety (how do we do this, where is the collection site, will we be late and have to take our trash home?)
• hilarity (we can't believe we're running through the streets with our night soil)
• desire for education (how do we sort the trash so the collection men don't yell at us?)
• resignation (we can do this)
• research (you can't believe how hard it was to find information on how to get rid of our trash.  I found lots of amateur blogs, but very little official information.)
• acceptance

Schedule

• Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat   Blue bag trash and food waste
• Mon, Fri  Paper, flattened recyclables
• Tues, Thurs, Sat   3D recyclables like clean styro foam, cans, bottles, containers

How to Sort

• Buy official blue bags from 7-Eleven for the used toilet paper (remember - no flushing), and used Kleenex, diapers, napkins, all disgusting stuff and things you can't figure out
• Save paper bags to put your flattened paper items in, in an orderly manner
• Save plastic bags to put your flattened plastic items, in an orderly manner
• Place glass and plastic bottles in another bag. These items will be dumped into a bin and you will take that bag home with you
• Save plastic bags to put food waste in.  You don't have to take these bags home - they let you throw them into a bag on the truck.You can also use a bucket, but we aren't going to buy one.   

How to Do It

• When you hear the music (it sounds like an ice cream truck), walk in an orderly manner past people dining in charming restaurants four blocks to the parade of trucks that will take your trash
• Truck number 1: Blue bags
• Truck number 2: Food waste -dump it into the bins in the back.  This will be boiled up to feed the pigs.
• Truck number 3: Whatever recycle is being picked up that night (refer to the schedule above)

Wrong

The trash collection man yelled at me because he couldn't see what was in the American white plastic bag. The pink bag has mixed recyclables which is a no-no.  One blue bag has food waste in them is not allowed.  We also had tied up the white and pink bags which is discouraged because the collectors like to see what you're throwing out.

Right

We have 3 blue bags, one of which has food waste in it (we're still learning).  The bucket also has food waste but it's in an appropriate plastic bag inside.  The pink and white bags have bottles  - plastic and glass. Everyone was nice to us on this evening

We should get a big smile for this contribution. These small bags contain our flattened paper and plastic.  This is a week's worth of recycling.  I can't believe I have one enormous blue bin in Portland for each week's worth of recycling.

Unexplained Mysteries That Happen Along the Way

Taylor broke a planter.  Where does that go?

Now that I have trash out of my system, I can continue to share the more interesting parts of living in Taipei in future posts.  I will also be more mindful of my trash when I get home, and where ever I travel.

Everything We Need

Here we are, living in Daxue Village in Taipei, Taiwan. Daxue means university, so we're in University Village.  We are right near Taipei National University.

Our apartment is at the blue dot.  Daxue Village is a triangular area bordered by three busy roads: Xin Hai Road at the top going SW to NE; Xin Sheng South Road to the east; and Roosevelt is the connection running from northwest to southeast that forms the third side of the triangle.

In Taipei, addresses tell you the closest main street, the smaller lane that comes off the main street, the alley that juts off the lane, and finally the building. The system of going from large to small is very logical, once you understand it.

 To come visit us, you have to find our nearest main street which is WenZhou St.  It runs somewhat parallel to Xin Sheng S. Rd.  If you enter WehZhou from Roosevelt walk along WenZhou until you come to Lane 74. Turn left onto Lane 74, and left again at Alley 3.

This bookshop is closed right now.  When it's open the map disappears, but when it's closed it's a good marker telling us that we have arrived at Alley 3.

The number 2 tells you that you have arrived at our building - No. 2.  We're on the 3rd floor.

All of this is complicated if you are driving because the lanes and alleys are one way.  Another challenge if you've never been to this area before is that WenZhou is not the major thoroughfare that most addresses have.  Daxue Village is a small enclave, quiet most of the time.  I think the residents are older people, students and families with young children.  The buildings tend to be up to 7 stories tall, with shops and restaurants on the first floor.  Few cars come through.  Most people walk, use motorcycles or bikes.

If you look closely at the map you will see two green triangles.  Those are lovely little parks.

Daxue Park is small, but charming.

WenZhou Park is closest to our apartment.  We walk by it every
time we go to Wellcome to get groceries.

We sometimes buy a cup of coffee at Family Mart, and then sit on a bench near this quiet corner of WenZhou Park.

Everything we need is in this little village.  Even a yarn store.

Living Like the Locals

It is 6:00 a.m.  Taylor and I have been up since 3:00 a.m.  We just slept our 3rd night in our Airbnb apartment in the Da'an District of Taipei.  We managed to fall back to sleep the first 2 nights when we had our 3:00 a.m. wake up,  but there was a lot to do this morning.  Taylor had it in mind to mop the floor, and I had it in mind to read my novel and fix a knitting mistake.  Now we're having Nespresso made in our little Nespresso maker.

This is a nice luxury.

I know my readers are wondering about the accommodations.  Yes, we had a cleaning frenzy but it wasn't as intense as last year.  This year's frenzy was confined to the kitchen area and the rest of the apartment was very clean.  We especially appreciate the tile floors that can be swabbed up after feeding a 9 month old.  It makes for a clean environment for our precious Soup.

None of us would have allowed our boy to crawl on last year's floor.

Learning from last year's experience, I made some changes in selecting our current apartment.  One major change was to up my price limit  $600. The result is that our 2 bedroom apartment is much smaller and cleaner than the previous one. It is easier for David and Chia to come visit.  The neighborhood is fabulous.

There are two considerations that didn't occur to me to question.  The first is the Taiwanese bathroom.  I knew that there would not be a shower door, but I thought I could live with that.  However, what this means is that the bathroom is basically a shower with a toilet and a sink in it.  The floor never seems to dry. Try walking into a wet bathroom all day long.  

You can see the corner of the sink.  The toilet is just to the left of it.  You can see the drain below the shower curtain.

The second question that I never, ever thought of is, "Is there garbage service?"  Well, the situation is that in addition to doing all the sorting that we do in Portland, plus used toilet paper, we actually have to take it to the garbage trucks ourselves.  At 9:00 p.m. every night but Saturday and Wednesday we can walk 4 or 5 blocks to add our trash to the trucks (separate trucks for refuse and recycling) that come through.

We are ready for our first trip to the garbage collection sight.

Dealing with the bathroom and the trash seemed like insurmountable situations for me in my jet lagged state.  However, now that I am rested and recovered I have come to terms with both.  After all, we like to pretend that we are living like locals when we travel.  This time we have the privilege of paying a higher price to really live like the locals.

Safe and Sound in Taipei

We are here, in Taipei. We made the journey with no drama.   However, the 13 hour flight from San Francisco to Taipei was a bit grueling.  This is what that long flight looks like on a woman of a certain age:

Morning coffee at Mr. Brown's, the only coffee shop we found that was open at 7 in the morning.

As Taylor and I struggled through jet lag on our first day, we kept our sights on our first meeting with Soup.  I worried he would have forgotten us and would take a while to warm up to us.  It didn't take long

The first meeting of grandpa and grand boy.

Soup was happy to show us his new skill of slithering around the floor in our apartment. He's a busy boy.

When we've had full recovery from the jet lag, and when we have cleaned the apartment, we'll begin our exploration of Taipei.