August 26, (er, 27th) - Carol

August 25, --Carol

This weekend’s installment is a little early, (well, so much for that, it’s actually late!!) as I think we’ve got a lot on our metaphorical plates and I don’t want to miss it. Like all of them so far, it’s been full of lots of new experiences.

Home-wise, I just keep trying to make the apartment ours, curtains and cushions and all that stuff, but in between, lots of expeditions. On Monday morning early, my friend Kathleen and I hiked up the “thousand steps” to Yangmingshan National Park. Actually, it’s 1,500 steps! Then you get a little rest to look at gorgeous butterflies and falls, etc., before continuing around the mountain looking vistas of tea fields, horse farms, other hills and mountains as well as views of Taipei itself. On a clearer day you can apparently see all the way to Taipei 101 downtown, but it was a little hazy so I’m looking forward to that view as well later. The reward for this effort is a little settlement of more affluent homes up on the mountain which receive more breezes and cleaner air. The best part is the Starbuck’s to revive one’s caffeine level and rest the feet before the descent by foot or taxi. (I’m not telling!) There are huge multi-colored butterflies everywhere, even on our front balcony, big black swallowtails, luna moths, and those little bright blue sulphur moths. The birds are harder to identify, I just got a little bird guide and hope to figure out some of them. They are just not the same as home. The beautiful little white heron in our park is a Little Egret and we have discovered a sort of quail, fairly large, which won a pitched battle with a 12” worm after a recent rainstorm. He consumed it all in one extended swallow! Speaking of rain, we have now experienced a couple examples of the local variety of “Taiwan weather”! It doesn’t exactly rain so much as the heavens open and dump a large quantity of water on you! Then, it stops. Everything steams for a little while, the sun comes out usually, and the umbrellas now are sunshades! Just don’t forget the parasol ANY time you leave the shelter of your home.

We just received the sad news that our stove has seen its last days……by lighting the top burners by hand we can still cook, but the oven’s a goner, so tonight’s entertainment will be negotiating for a new, proper, Taiwanese Magic Chef model that parts can be obtained for! It truly owed us nothing, as we did not pay very much for any of the appliances that we got from the previous tenants, and so far, with the exception of the 110V clothes “dryer”, which actually only toys with the wet laundry, they have performed quite adequately. I have an ingenious mechanism which lowers and raises the laundry line in our back storage-cum utility area, so it really isn’t a big deal to hang out the laundry when the temperature is always 75-85 degrees F. It is already beginning to seem pleasant at 20-25C, hot above 30C, and an item at $NT1000 will not blast the family budget for the month! However, the repair man refused payment for the house call to deliver the bad news…..

Oh, there goes a beautiful black butterfly with turquoise spots all the way down both sets of wings—I’ve only seem a photo of it before!

Tuesday afternoon we were treated to a lovely concert given at the school by two TAS alums who will be returning to the States to school next week. They played Paganini, Britten, and Beethoven. Tea and cakes were served, flowers were presented, all in all, very excellently performed. The student accompanists were also amazingly gifted, I will be pleased to hear them in solo works as well this year.

Wednesday we had an outing which I recommend highly to any other faculty groups wishing to bond. The entire music faculty K-12, made our way up the mountain about 10 minutes to a restaurant called Palm Tree SPA Hot Spring Restaurant! Dinner was a lovely communal Chinese dinner in a private room complete with karaoke set-up for after dinner entertainment, stunning décor, and the grand finale—each couple had a private hot spring Jacuzzi bath! There were huge koi in the pond and fountain, hopefully not destined for the extensive sushi bar available, and apparently a group pool is available for men and women (separately) for more social types! The water is very hot, the jets VERY strong, a cold water shower is provided above the stone tub in case you get overheated and need to cool down, and to shower afterwards as well. The sulphur is very pronounced and turned our sterling jewelry, which we forgot to remove, an astounding shade of coffee! Another reason for the post-soak shower! This evening ran us around $15US per person. We oozed into bed mindlessly.

Thursday the power was to be off for four hours in the morning, for reasons untranslatable to us, so an expedition to Taipei downtown and the 101 tower was mounted. Kathleen and I did not go up the world’s tallest building, as apparently the best time is actually right at sunset for the views, but we did window shop. Believe me, only window-shopping was feasible as the first sweater, a little Missoni knit number was a mere $1,000!!!! US! Fortunately, our goal was the PageOne bookstore which had a substantial number of titles in English, the first real choice we’ve seen, and they will apparently order anything in as well. It is like Barnes and Noble or Borders, and is comforting to rely on for all kinds of accessible reading. A lot of the things we are enjoying are relatively new to Taiwan, within the last 2-5 years, so we really are fortunate to be reaping the benefits of growth. We had lunch at Shannon’s Irish Pub, very nice, listening to old-style Bossa Nova, talk about your fusion experiences! I struggled home from IKEA with pillows and actual dishes, only to return to school for a TGIT. In another of those “where am I?” moments, the Upper School faculty was invited for a little wine and nibble TGIF party in the kindergarten classroom area. I wanted to go back to kindergarten desperately after seeing their days! Actually, with all the little tiny computer stations, I probably would be right at their technological level!

Friday was the fruitless search for a stove—no one uses an actual stove-oven combination here very often, only foreigners, so Costco, 3C, B&Q, Hola, Carrefour, etc, not to mention a couple of actual appliance stores proved frustratingly free of such a cooking device! In the end, we just had our fine Mr. Fix-it get one for us. It is to be installed at 6:00 PM on Saturday evening. Just in time for our first guests tomorrow we hope! Breakfast was easily solved by a trip to “Jake’s Country Kitchen”. This funny little place has quite creditable American, British and Mexican style breakfasts and good home-style cooking in all three cuisines for the other meals as well. They are definitely the place to go for homesick, comfort-food-seeking expats.

The “Class of 2005” threw a welcome party at a faculty home on Saturday night, and was a blast. Tons of conversation, tons of shoes in the hallway and on the stairs outside, tons of good pot-luck food and drink and a decibel level not experienced by these elderly party-goers in about 5 decades! I had spent the morning at the orientation for volunteers at the orphanage up the hill from us. What an impressive organization! Most of the children are adopted to the Netherlands or Australia, and are so darling. They love to see the volunteer smocks coming because they know they’re in for cuddling and attention. The entire facility is just fabulous. I will be helping with Kindermusik, and probably just heading up the hill when “empty arms syndrome” hits, it’s a win-win all around. We took a brief jaunt to Taipei 101 since Bill had not been there and I had, and browsed the bookstore, but took a taxi back as a huge thunder and lightning storm brewed while we were inside, and we would have drowned on the street! Even the scooter brigade took for shelter!

More soon, we remain enchanted by all the new experiences and delighted by our contacts in the school and community. We think of you all at home, and talk often. Keep in touch!