Apartment!

     Ok.. next up, my apartment! Actually our apartment as I share it with Antony and the Gerd as well.  So, when we first arrived we went through an intense 9 day training course before we were “officially” hired and could start working.  It was also during this time that we found out where we would be living in the country for the next year! We had one day off during the training course where we were able to go to our city and apartment hunt.  We met up with some teachers from our branch, and the agent.  It felt kind of like I was on House Hunters Internationals!  Instead of the crew of HGTV however, we got Miss Cho (yes, this is her real name).  Apparently our school uses her as their housing agent whenever they get new foreign teachers, so now it’s become quite Miss Cho’s specialty to pick out apartments she thinks us foreigners will like. Before we came we were even able to express what types of amenities were important, size, and price range.

     

                                    I shall also take you on a virtual tour of my home.  This is the entrance to our apartment!  All homes in Taiwan have a little divider like this because the Feng Shui master says it's bad luck to be able to see the entirety of a place when you walk in. So this little guy blocks it off!

       



 I was rather overwhelmed by all the apartments Miss Cho had in store in for us.  We were in a group with 3 other people, one of which was searching for a one bedroom/studio and another couple in search of a 3 bedroom, so we really go to see the whole spectrum of apartments in Jhongli (also, Chungli or Zhongli, I shall try to stick with Jhongli so as not to confuse), in one afternoon.  It made me tired as we walked back and forth (and really we did go in and out of 2 buildings across the street about 3 times in a row) from building to building, entering room after room.  I thought of apartment shopping in St. Cloud, where I sat in my bed browsing postings and photo’s, only calling and viewing places after narrowing everything down.  Miss Cho took us to see everything she had available, and we ended up choosing the very first apartment we saw.  If only we could have known, it would have saved such time, but it was nice to see what else is out there.

     

                                    

This is the living room space.  A lot of windows makes it feel pretty open, and there's a nice view, sometimes.





All of the places we saw come completely furnished.  This is quite handy as I’m pretty sure it’s not cost effective to ship a couch and bed back to the states once we plan to move back home. It was nice to see the units and know exactly what they would like with everything in it, because, there it was!  The downside, is it’s already completely furnished, some with such hideous selections.  Who picks out a pink couch covered everywhere with cream colored stars… and then thinks “You know what this needs?  A few pillows made from faux cow-hide!”  I mean, really!  I sure hope this décor is not from a former foreign teacher, but it probably is. (Shout out to your couch Stacy and Lawrence!)

Here's the table. Also please note: Anthony in the background, the chairs serving as a holding place to dry some of my clothes, and our awesome fly swatter (that we've yet to use) hanging on the wall!

 

Behind the table is the kitchen and bathroom.  There are sliding doors so when closed, like above, it almost looks like nothing is there!  To the side is what it looks like with the doors open. 

We have now been living in our 2 bedroom apartment for just over a month.  Part of what drew me to this place was actually the furnishings.  The couch, coffee table and large table appear to be a set and look really nice on the ivory-type tile floor.  Carpet is very rare here, our hotel had it, and it did not look so nice.  The floors are just so hard to keep clean! It’s ridiculous. Anyways, both bedrooms have really nice bed’s with a lot of storage and huge built in closets and even one desk and some dressers.  The actual mattress’s of the bed... not so fantastic.  The softness is about one level above the floor, extra firm with just a bit of give.  Greta bought a separate cushiony pad to make hers more comfortable, but I’ve gotten slightly used to it.  However, every night I dream of the new fabulously soft bed I will buy when I return. 

Here's the kitchen.  Rather spacious, eh?

 The kitchen in our apartment is pretty great, because it’s there.  Most of the apartments we were shown had kitchen’s, but I do know it’s not uncommon for a unit to only have a mini fridge, and that’s the kitchen.  Of course there’s no oven, because there aren’t any ovens anywhere.  They don’t believe in baking cookies and brownies and cakes here.  At least not at home, you need to visit the bakeries for that! 

Outside of the kitchen then you will find our washer and dryer.  And by dryer I mean clothes line, as you will hardly ever find a dryer in an apartment as well.  You find clothes lines, with pins.  However, right across the block from our building is a laundry mat, and apparently the dryers there are super speedy and only take about 20 minutes to dry a load.  Greta uses them, I’m sticking with the clothes line because I hate hauling wet laundry around. 

There she is!

We pay 17,200 NT a month for rent.  This equals out to exactly 581.29 US dollars, at least right now, the rate is ever-changing.  This includes the security fee, there’s a 24-hour doorman (well, doormen, it’s not always the same guy), and internet.  Electricity comes every 2 months and is roughly 1,500 NT total I think, we’ve only been here a month, so I guess we’ll see.  There are 3 air conditioners, and we use them.  It’s pretty fantastic that we get to spilt that all by 3 though, which makes our rent very desirable.  The area that we live in is booming.  There’s a hella huge movie theatre across the street that’s open 24-hours, everyday.  They have showings at 3 am! We’re also right next to the SOGO which is a huge department store here and extremely expensive, aside from the basement where there’s a convenient little grocery store and a food court.  There are tons of food vendors, when they decide to be there, and just a lot of people at all times.  Also, it only takes about 7 minutes to walk to the branch here (where Anthony works every day, more on this later), and that’s beyond awesome. 



     Going from the living area to the sleeping area!  Anthony and me to the left, Greta straight ahead.



                                                                          

Here's my room!  I like it.

Alright, finally one of the most bomb things about our apartment: in the basement, there’s a trash room!! People in the states, you wonder what kind of cesspool wouldn’t have a trash room/ dumpsters outside the building.  People in Taiwan, yea I bet you’re jealous :)  This, however, is a topic I shall discuss at a later date.  If you’re pants are burning (does that sound weird?) to know more right away, Google it.

     Our bed has a secret compartment!  How neat is that?

That’s it for now!

Zai jian! (That means peace out)

Actually it means goodbye.

Nihao!

Alright Folks,


Here I am. I've decided to start a blog because, well, I've wanted to for a while, but wasn't sure what to write about.  Now that I've moved to another country and am embarking on a new life journey, it's finally time to start.  It's been just over a month since I moved to Taiwan, and I have been teaching for 3 full weeks! Although my teaching schedule is pretty hectic and demanding at the moment, I have still found a bit of time to wander around my new surroundings.

And this is what I found outside my apartment.


"The word you're looking for is, 'anyways'...."








My first observations have been centered around things the Taiwanese seem to be OBSESSED with.
   
       Numba 1: Jelly, jelly, jelly! There is a wide assortment of jellies in all types of tea drinks, some good, some that taste otherwise. You've got your typical tapioca jelly bubbles, as well as some long clear jellies that taste like an I.V tube. It's always a mystery as to what I'm going to receive in my drinks, though I'm assuming if I could speak Chinese and exclaim my dislike for odd jellies I'd be able to dictate the level of which I enjoy my drinks. There's also jellied coffee which comes in plastic cups from the 7-11 or Starbucks. Jiggly jellied desserts line the shelves of every store, and honestly frighten me. AHHH It's Alive!

 

    

      

       Number 2:  Corn. It's odd that they are so crazy for corn here, considering it grows outside my high school's windows and we pump it into our cars back home.  Pizza here is covered in it, perhaps partly due to the extreme lack of cheese (don't even get my started on that, yet), but I think they just love it.  I'm not saying it's necessarily a terrible thing, I do like corn, just a bit strange. Tuna comes with corn mixed in, corn soup is always just around the corner, and corn itself is just a strong staple in all meals. Don't forget the packets of corn syrup they hand you to dump in your coffee, at least they give you the choice.

            

  



      

        Number 3:  Linkin Park. It blasts in stores, restaurants, and from the streets.  Is this music where they get their stereotypes of Americans from?  Sure, there's also Colbie Caillat and obviously you couldn't escape Lady Gaga if you moved to a desolate village, but Linkin Park's full Cd's will play through while I sit in a restaurant for 45 minutes eating a meal.  If I venture out for a few hours of shopping, I'm able to learn and memorize at least five of their songs.

                   Here I am, rocking out to some Linkin Park myself.  

                                                                        Awesome? meh



      

       

       Number 4:  This should be pretty obvious, the peace sign. What is it about that sign that Asian people love so much?  I find it quite funny, and try to throw it up in pictures as often as I can remember.  Of course, when taking a picture with any locals it's not difficult as they whip it out the instant a camera is in view.

Here I am with 2 of my co-workers at an open house for work. Notice our lovely paper hats? Yea, more about this later.

     Aaaand Number 5:  Soup!  Why does everything I order come out as soup?!  It's so lovely that many food shops here offer us inconvenient foreigners a nice picture menu from which to place our orders. However, said picture menus are often extremely misleading. Countless times now, I've pointed to a picture that looks fabulous, and then, after some awkward questions that I haven't a clue as to how to answer, I receive my food.  Only when it comes out, it's my bowl of food, covered in liquid now soup-i-fied! EERRGGG. Why?! Now that I've written this, I realize... hey, it's because they try to ask me questions and I just stare at them. Why not just give me exactly what the picture looks like? They really must just see me and think, 'oh she's white, she must want soup.' No More Soup!! Eating soup with chopsticks... not so easy. I always end up slopping it all over myself, which isn't so much fun when I'm on my way to work. I just want some noodles, enough with the noodle soup people!