We Miss….

Laura and I often talk/email with friends and family back home.  Sometimes the conversation turns to things we miss that we don’t have overseas so we’ve decided to start a little page of things that pop into our mind now and then.  I guess we could use it at as a list of things to do, see, or get when we go back home.  It goes without saying that family and friends are always going to be at the top of our lists.

Since this page will continuously be updated we’ll make it a permanent page.  There will be a link on the bottom part of our banner at the top of the page.

Laura:

U-Village -

Law and Order – We bought a couple seasons for our ipod, but it’s not the same as having it on TV 24 hours a day.

My Miata– We just bought an old Nissan, which has really made our lives better here, but it’s not the same as my little Miata.

Good milk and ½ and ½ – The milk here isn’t very good and they don’t have 1/2 and 1/2 at all.
Steve:

HDTV – You all know that I’m a huge tech geek and fact that I left the states just as HDTV was becoming mainstream has been tough to leave behind.

Taco Time/White Castle/Steak-n-Shake – We have the usual places like McD’s, KFC, and Pizza Hut, but I miss the beef burrito at Taco Time, the cheese burgers at White Castle, and the Chili Mac at Steak-n-Shake.

Border’s – We have a pretty good book/cd shop, but it’s not the same as walking into a Border’s with a Starbucks and browsing for a couple hours.

TIVO – I never got a chance to ‘tivo’ any shows, but from what I’ve heard it’s the only way to watch TV.

Finding Places – I miss jumping in the car and being able to get somewhere easily without guessing where I should go.  Understanding Mandarin is one thing, but being able to read the road signs is a whole other thing.

Sepat’s Come and Gone

Typhoon Sepat turned out to be much less potent than originally thought.  I did head out for a short errand and saw some trees down and branches all over the road, but structural damage wasn’t seen.  Everyone along the main streets had their storefront windows taped up and every store and all the malls were closed.  Maybe that was the most remarkable part of the storm.  I’ve NEVER seen the streets that empty.  In many ways it was peaceful to see the streets empty and the stores closed, but of course 7-11 kept their doors open. 

Thanks for the emails and phone call that were made to check on us

We Finally Get to Meet Sepat

After tracking typhoon Sepat for the last week we finally get a chance to see what all this is about.  It’s nearly 11PM right now and all is calm outside.  There were some times when the wind started to pick up and the rain was heavy, but that must have just been one of the arms of the typhoon.  The storm is supposed to hit our end of the island later tonight and we’ve filled up the bathtub with water and taken out our flashlights just in case.  If I get a chance to take video or photos I’ll get them posted as soon as I can.

This was what the sky looked like earlier today.  Bye bye blue skies.

Calm Before the Storm

Deep blue skies over Taipei. 

We’ve had beautiful blue skies the last two days in Taipei.  This is all courtesy of a category 5 super typhoon called Sepat.  The typhoon becomes a category 5 storm when sustained winds are more than 160 MPH.  Sepat currently has winds of 160 MPH with gusts to 195 MPH and is headed straight for Taiwan.  It is scheduled to hit in the next 48 hours.  Things should be quite interesting in the next couple of days.

This image (courtesy of Weather Underground) shows the current information about Sepat.  We’ll update this information tomorrow.

Shopping for Fabric

Milano coffee shop near the fabric market.

We headed out last week to get some fabric for our classrooms.  Laura’s been there with her friends several times in the past, but it was my first visit so she was my guide.  She said it was like me dragging her around the part of town where all my camera shops and computer stores are.  I’m not sure why I didn’t take any photos of the fabric market, but trust me when I say they had every type of fabric imaginable.  I was looking for a very specific design for my classroom and pretty much decided ahead of time that I wouldn’t find it and was about to settle for my second choice when we come to a stall with the exact pattern I was looking for.

Afterward, Laura brought me to Milano Coffee just down the street.  It was a very intimate cafe with great coffee.  We sat inside for a bit while the rain blew over before heading home.

Getting ready to head home.

 

This photo is a very typical scene of nearly any street in Taipei.  In a country of 23 million there are about 13 million scooters.  Take away anyone under the age of 18 and the elderly that are unable to drive scooters anymore and that equals about a 1:1 ratio of scooters and people, it’s the highest ratio in the world.  I have no idea how many taxis there are, but you’d be hard pressed to take a photo of the street without getting a yellow taxi in the picture.  Then there’s the double parking.  Parking can be very, very difficult so double parking is accepted up to a certain point.  The common practice is to leave a card on your dashboard that has your phone number so that if someone needs to move and your car is blocking, the other party can get in touch with you.