Yangmingshan with the 523, and a Night Market to Boot! 陽明山與夜市

Two hikes in the same week! Hurrah!

While we were still in the States, we found a hiking and mountaineering club in Taipei that goes by the name "523 Mountaineering Association." They have a Facebook group you can join. Of course, we joined it! Right away we got invitations to various hikes. They do about one a month. Ping remembered it and we made a point of going on this last one to Yangmingshan National Park. Sunday looked kind of iffy, weather-wise, but again...let's go take a look!

This is Our Backyard! 後院

We want to get this up as quickly as possible, so we may update it later. We just wanted you to get an idea, as we are, just how cool it is to live right at the base of Da Tun Shan, the mountain that dominates the skyline in Beitou.

In the true spirit of "Let's Go Take a Look," Ping said, "You feel like going for a hike today?" YES! It took us a bit to decide what to wear, what to bring with us, etc. We haven't been able to take a real hike for MONTHS so it's been a long time. Plus, we're in Taiwan. How different should that be from any other hike?

All Our Stuff! ...and a Kitchen! 東西到了，廚房也來了

We've been very busy, so busy I've not had time to post. The good news is...OUR STUFF MADE IT HERE! Oh, and the other good news is...OUR KITCHEN IS IN! Wow. For us, this is huge.

We had a string of beautiful days, no rain, cool temps: very nice. Then when the day came to get all of our boxes from the States delivered, it got cloudy! Mark worried about the boxes getting soaked at the last minute. Mold is a real issue here. Amazingly, the rain started up after everything was safely inside the house! This is one more example of how this trip has been. So many things have "just worked out." Not everything has, but many things have!

IKEA in Taiwan 台灣的宜家

Amazingly, we have IKEA in Taiwan. We've been looking for storage--a BIG DEAL in a small space--and trying to come up with something that is good enough quality, decent price and flexible enough to work for us. It came back to IKEA. Since we don't want to spend the money on custom furniture, modular will be our next best bet.

So we've spent hours and hours doing the design work and the math to see which systems will work best for us. Imagine trying to put together a house in Swedish, Chinese and English! We get a bit slap happy after awhile.

"Are you still talking about Billy or is this Besta?"
"Besta? No, this one is Balståd."
"Ballstud?"
"Well, it was either that or Dombås, right?"
"Dumbass? I don't remember that one. Weren't we just looking at Stoûpud?"
"No, the Stoûpud system didn't have the doors we like."
"Oh, right...how about this one from Rëddikulis?"

In the end, we'll probably go with Sumfriggen or Hunohswat...

Wish us luck.

Finding Our Way Around 找路

If you look at a map, you'll see that Beitou is on the north side of Taipei. In fact, it literally means "North Head."

(Yeah, we know: "Toe" = "Head." Go figure. Also, a "Shoe" here is actually a "Tree." "Poo Boo" has nothing to do with having a lousy Halloween; it means "Waterfall.")

Back to the original point: we're learning how to get around on public transportation and on foot. The good maps are all in Chinese.

Wonders Underfoot 新地板

It's amazing what a new floor can do for a house! When we arrived at the house in Beitou, we spent hours mopping up concrete dust from the original floor.

This is what the original floor looks like. You can see where the cement guys working on the walls didn't totally clean up the floor. The floor itself is ground down with a machine that almost nobody has anymore. To take care of this floor, you have to wax it, apparently. Everyone we talked to said it was so outdated no one knew how to properly maintain it.

Hobbit feet for relative size reference. (Which relative, we wonder...)

New Use for a Bear Canister 舊物新用

When we were packing to come to Taiwan, we sold off a lot of stuff, including Mark's beloved (if lightly used) ice axe, our snowshoes (<sob!>), our camping chairs and our two burner camping stove. Little did we know how handy all but the ice axe and snowshoes would be during our first weeks in the new house!
One of the items we actually didn't part with was our bear canister! We picked up a "Bear Vault" a couple of years ago because we were going in and out of Yosemite, Lake Tahoe and Sequoia/Kings Canyon a lot, and needed something to keep our food safe. It's got a clever lid that bears can't open, even with four-inch claws, and it locks the scent of food inside very effectively. Since we still had it after all the boxes were packed, Ping suggested we bring it in the luggage. Okay. But what kind of bears would we find in Beitou?

Garbage Night Update! 垃圾夜（續）

We did another garbage run last night and learned something from the tall, friendly guy in No. 9 across the street.

Garbage Night Meets the NFL! 垃圾夜

Garbage Night Meets the NFL

Tonight! Live from Beitou, Taiwan… Let’s Go Take A Look Productions brings you…

GARBAGE NIGHT!

Registered Marriage in Beitou 婚姻註冊

The doorbell rings. Who should get it? That's kind of moot at this point since Mark doesn't yet know enough Mandarin to say more than "Dung yi shya!" which means "Just a minute" and then go get Ping.

So when the doorbell rang around noon today, Ping answered it. Turned out to be a nice lady on a scooter. She delivered the special marriage gift we were promised when we registered our marriage the day after we arrived here. Special, indeed!

How does it work?? 怎麼用呀

Michael Olsen was wondering how the washer worked.

It's self-explanatory. Just read the labels...

(That's what Ping says, anyway.)

Got it.

Halloween in Taiwan 台灣的萬聖節

Ping's parents took us out to dinner to celebrate Double Ten with her older brother Terence last night. There's a nice Japanese restaurant right next to their place in Zhuwei. We took the bus to the MRT which drops us off right across the street.

This pumpkin is an example of how Taiwanese celebrate Halloween.

It says: "Attract fortune, enter treasure." They put it in front of the door to the restaurant.

How interesting to contrast this with the phrase "Trick or Treat!"

And here's our Halloween treat! Mark "zinged" himself pretty well with the wasabi--and loved it!

Baba, xie xie! ("Thanks, Dad!")

Art Happens! 隨手畫

It's been awhile since I've drawn anything besides room dimensions and furniture layouts. Today, I finally sat down with a sketchbook and started drawing again.

The trees in Taiwan are so interesting! Everywhere we go, we see gnarled, bumpy, draping, broadleaf trees that just fire the imagination. I have wanted to draw Taiwanese trees since we went hiking on our last visit.

I'll draw some from life when I get a chance; there's a nice park with plenty of them not far from our house. In the meantime, it was great to do one from my impressions so far.

To me, this attempt is a bit closer to the wonderful Alan Lee trees which I've aspired to emulate for so long!

--Mark

Random Shots of the New House in Beitou 北投的家

Folks have been asking for pictures of the house. Well, it's definitely a work in progress. Here's a quick sampling. As you can tell, it's a holiday here, and Mark's taking it a bit more slowly today.

We got there around midnight, came straight from the airport. I opened the luggage, took out my camera and...Why is everything so foggy?... oh, yeah...It's Taiwan!

Beitou Flyover for Double Ten 雙十國慶

I forgot to include the pictures of the Double Ten flyover from this morning! I was able to get the camera out quickly enough to catch a few shots!

Like I said, the mosquitoes here are awesome!

Hello, from Beitou! 大家好 - 從北投問安

Hi, all! Folks have been asking us if we're going to start a blog on our adventures in Taiwan. We've been saying "yes" for awhile now... We're finally getting started!

It's been quite a ride so far!