Driving in Taipei

First of all, I’ll note the delectable answer to the guess-the-building quiz is up in comment#12 of that post.  Sharon – who is the winner?

On the topic at hand: driving.  Sharon and I now have a car, a Toyota Wish.  It is basically a Camry, but in  station wagon/semi-crossover top frame so it seats 7 with two small seats in back.  Definitely would be great to get in the states, sadly unavailable.     We have noticed 1 or 2 other families who have their kids in car seats.   It certainly isn’t the law.     

Taipei driving is much less crazy than Vietnam and Thailand (all circa 2002).  It does have a lot of resemblance to them in style however.  The secret as a relatively large car is to think like a tank – relatively slow movement, nose your way into left turns and lane changes.   One is basically not responsible for anything other than in front of you – think downhill skiing – so cutovers are common.   And the army of mopeds just has to basically be ignored – they are smaller, their job is to avoid you.  Our car has bumper proximity sensors –very useful when parking, not so useful with mopeds whizzing by inches away.   So we turn those off except when parking.  

 

The net traffic result is not very pretty or efficient, but a  functional traffic flow.  Although we have seen a couple of near deadlocks at intersections: car A making a left blocks some big bus B also turning left from another direction, which blocks car C which blocks car D which.. is almost blocking car A.  

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Peter in Shanghai

I am in Shanghai Sun-Fri this week to work with the SQL development team being built here.    This is both my first time in Shanghai and my first time in China.  The cliché first impression of China is big.  And that is definitely mine as well.  Big freeways.  Big population.  Big building.  Big traffic.   And, sadly, big air pollution.  Lots of construction.  

 

I am staying near Xujiahui Park, which is a beautiful urban park.  In the mornings I walk across it to catch the Microsoft shuttle to Microsoft, and it is full of what one would expect – people doing taichi, etc.    Hundreds of them.  In the evening the basketball courts are full.    The neighborhood has quite a nice character – tree lined (but wide and busy) streets, interesting mix of building architecture, age, etc. 

 

The mix of bicycles and motorbikes is almost reversed in Shanghai compared to Taipei – 80/20 bicycles here.   The big streets seem to have big, barrier-separated bike lanes on each side.   Semi-controlled chaos reigns at all times. 

 

Coworkers of mine (who also have 2 kids near Lucy & Leo ages) report being mobbed when they take the kids to the playground here.  Questions, tweaking cheeks, etc.  In Taipei  we get smiles from the grandmas on the bus, but there are lots of mixed-race expat couples and their kids running around – at least one other family every time we’ve been to the big playground nearby. 

 

The Microsoft office is the best implementation of open floor plan I’ve seen.  Low cubicle walls with clear glass on the top 1 foot; high ceilings, lots of light, the cubicle walls are arranged so each group of 4 has a common center area.  The side meeting rooms are numerous. 

 

Of interest was the flight here.  It is 427 files – so maybe an hour flight if it was direct.  Until June, it was via Hong Kong, Korea or Macau – so 6 hours and a plane change, minimum.  Now it is a 3 hour flight – because while direct flights have now been agreed to, the plane has to enter Hong Kong airspace (but not touchdown).   I am not sure who saves face with this arrangement, but I hope there is soon an agreement for truly direct flights.   

 

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Finding a Health Club

So after much hemming and hawing, Peter and I finally decided on our exercise plan for the next year.  We’ve signed up for a year’s membership at Agora Garden.  Yep – that’s the hotel we stayed at when we first arrived.  It’s got a good lap pool, squash courts (neither of us plays), and a small but well serviceable exercise room.  They also have an aerobics room but classes are very few and not at convenient times.  We expect to do mostly swimming.

The main thing that Agora has going for it is simply that it’s clean.  Yes, it has some “luxury” touches that we don’t particularly care for but it’s shockingly hard to find a clean place to go swimming around here. 

Near our home, is a SOGO department store (really high end Japanese store – think Neiman Marcus – with goods that are waaaay out of my price range) and when we heard that it has a family oriented health club on the top floor of one of their buildings (there are 3 huge ones near our apartment building) we thought if anything it might be too fancy for us.  Boy, the price tag was indeed too fancy, but the facilities were frankly disgusting.  We took the kids swimming one afternoon to try out the club and while they had fun we did not.  The plastic mats were encrusted with nastiness and afterwards I kept asking myself why I didn’t just turn around when I saw the “locker room” in the first place.  Plus the pool was super crowded!  The place seems popular which I don’t get at all.

Another totally gross place I tried was the gym of Taiwan Normal University where I’ll be taking Mandarin classes starting in December.  Same nasty plastic mats this time with bonus hair all over the place.  Ick!

So one place I was afraid wouldn’t be clean but turned out to be quite respectable and definitely on par with any public pool area you’d find in the states was a community pool which was an easy bus ride from Lucy and Leo’s school.  I haven’t the foggiest idea why the expensive SOGO health club (think US$300/mo for the family!) was so darn gross when the cheap community pool (one visit about US$3 and you don’t have to commit to coming ever again) was so much nicer.  Clearly there were people paying to go to SOGO which baffles me.

We thought long and hard about whether to just rely on going to the community pool.  It’s has this bonus 50m long lap pool which interestingly makes doing a requisite kilometer swim seem to go faster even though you are covering the same distance.  I think there may be something fatiguing about counting laps.  Anyway, in the end we figured that even though it is respectably clean it isn’t the kind of place you’d be happy plopping your 2 year old down on the floor so it’s just that much more stress, it’s completely out of the way for Peter and I think it’ll be hard enough for us to set up our lives for him to get enough exercise, and you have to haul towels and flipflops when you go which back in the states when you drive isn’t a big deal but if you are relying on public transportation and don’t want to carry a big towel around with you all day because you don’t have time to go back to your apartment between apointments, then maybe paying for a little luxury makes sense.  Plus, at Agora you usually get a lane to yourself.  At the community pool you will be circling the lap with at least 4-5 other people and people around here are not fast swimmers.  I am considered fast and everyone knows how slowly I swim!

So, don’t ask us how much we’re paying for membership at Agora – we don’t undrestand why it’s so expensive.  We did call around though and the price is comparable to other places.  But pay it we did and if it means we are motivated to go just about every day to try to get our money’s worth, well, then that is a good thing.  It’s across the street from Peter’s office and a short MRT ride from Lucy/Leo’s school so should be very convenient for all of us.

For a stylized photo of the place see Agora’s website – http://www.agoragdn.com.tw/en_health-6.htm

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Lucy and Leo school update

Lucy has been attending school for almost two months now and Leo a couple weeks less than that.  At the beginning Lucy wasn’t as keen on school as we would have liked her to be.  This wasn’t surprising at all – would you like to go to school where you don’t know what the teachers or any of the kids are saying?  Of course this was hugely stressful for us and we asked ourselves daily about whether we’d done the right thing “throwing her into the deep end” so to speak.  She never said she hated school or anything like that but she did often display a long face about it and would cry in the morning at dropoff – although for those of you who know her you know that she often cried at home in the US at dropoff too so that was not that unusual – she never likes to seperate from anyone.  When dropoff would not go well I pretty much was anxious most of the day.

Anyway, here we are nearing the two month mark and I think it’s been a couple of weeks since Lucy made any complaint about being dropped off and yesterday she even told me she loves school.  She knows a number of her classmate’s names now and apparently has picked out a few as her friends.  Also, while I wouldn’t at all call her fluent, her Chinese has improved.  She often corrects her father these days and I can tell her comprehension is good.

Leo is his usual happy go lucky (except if you have something he wants) self and apparently is doing well using the potty at school.  Unfortunately he seems to have pretty much zero interest in using it at home.  He’s pee’d for Peter a few times I think but for me never.  Basically so far there’s just a lot of mopping the floor after his ‘accidents’ at home.  In the mid-afternoons we always slap a diaper on him to make sure he feels comfortable pooping – not wanting to risk anal retention this early.  *shrug*  For now I think we’re just backing off on pushing him at home and hopefully he’ll just up and decide that’s what he wants to do.  Peter and I are also trying to devise some kind of reward system for him but we haven’t come up with a good plan yet.  Any suggestions are welcome.

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Ahhh…

Leo had a bad cold this week and missed school yesterday but when we woke up this morning, it was glorious and Leo seemed better so…

Sharon, Lucy, and Leo at beach

 

We went out.  Before you feel too jealous – remember that we wilted for almost two months until it cooled off enough for us to be able to even think while outdoors.

Strangely people on the streets have begun wearing all manner of jackets and sweaters.  We’re still most comfortable in shorts.  People have told us that it will get cold and since our apartment has no heat we’ll be pulling out the sweaters but I’m having a hard time believing it.  AC is still on at our house.

Anyway, we had a great time today.  Usually the kids are engrossed in playing with the sand toys and they did play with them today, but they also picked up an appreciation for just sitting in the water and letting the waves lap over.  This beach (Baishawan on the north coast) is perfect for little kids.  The slope is so flat the water is super shallow for a long time which makes for safer playing for them and only the gentlest waves.

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They don’t make shoes that big.

Asian cultures have a reputation for being less direct when communicating than Western cultures.  However, I’ve found this is not always the case.

In particular everyday communication with people one does not know and is unlikely to meet again seems to pretty blunt.  They following have been said directly to me:

“No, we don’t have any shirts that would be big enough for you”

“You want what size?  They don’t make shoes that big.”

Needless to say, I have not bothered even hazarding inquiries for items like pants not being sure I’d be happy to hear whatever answer they came up with.  🙂 🙂  Anyway, my sense from the people saying these things was that they were not being mean in the least but rather stating what they saw as fact.  All the same, can you imagine a store clerk saying that in the states?

Anyway, shoes are a nonstarter for me around here.  My mother, who is half a size smaller than I am said she had a lot of trouble buying shoes here way back when.  There was one store she knew of that would carry her size but that store is gone now although apparently someone I went to high school with (hi Fred!) married the granddaughter of that store’s owner.

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Enjoying Pomelo Fruit

To continue with the theme of fruit as big as our heads…

 

There are two types of pomelo around here. 

 

Big and round and pear-shaped.  I’m not sure about the big and round type but with the pear shaped, the conventional wisdom is to let it sit for a really long time before eating – to the point that the fruit is wrinkled.  It’s hard to test this but it has been the case that the ones we’ve left sitting around for longer have been better tasting – although to be honest, none have rivaled the juicy sweetness of the ones we ate in Thailand.

Anyway, another funny thing about the pear shaped ones is that they are differentiated by how old the tree that grew them are.  The fruit of younger trees is not as desirable as the fruit of older trees.  Boxed fruit that is meant as gifts (boxes of fruit are popular gifts to bring people who invite you to their homes) may come from trees that are 20 or even 40 years old.  Apparently there are also boxes of fruit from trees 60 years or over but the grocery store staff said they don’t put those out.  They are in a back room and you have to ask for them.  I believe there is some theory that fruit from older trees taste better but I haven’t been able to verify that.

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Bad Hair in Taipei

First off let me just say that I am not known for my super fasionable tendencies – I’d wear a tshirt and shorts everywhere in this city if I felt I wouldn’t stick out completely.  Most people on the streets are much better dressed than your typical Seattlelite which I acknowledge isn’t saying too much.  After all, Seattle is home to the idea that going out with socks on under your tevas or Birkenstorks is both sensical and acceptably fashionable.  It’s not.  So usually I’m underdressed around here and lately I’ve been trying to make an effort to dress a little better.

But, I have to rant about guys’ haircuts.  Who told Asian men that making their hair fuzzy and long (not long enough to be truly long, just long enough to be overgrown) was a good thing?  I could spend hours snapping photos of examples but I’ll keep it just two.  I was nearly overwhlemed one day when a local high school let out and reams of guys came pouring onto the street with bad hair.

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Fast Food at the Park

This past Saturday Peter and I decided to venture out in a car on our own (with kids of course – I meant without relatives or other Chinese reading type people).  At one point Peter asked me, “What does that sign say?” to which I replied, “Umm… the second character is ‘car’.” Indeed we made some wrong turns on the freeway which meant we didn’t wind up where we intended to go, but given that we didn’t really have a strong preference of any particular place over another, when we found ourselves going a certain way, well, we went that way.  We wound up in the 5th longest tunnel in the world – 12km – which sent us on a quick trip out to the northeast coast and we made our way to Beiguan Tidal Park. 

After a fun morning looking out at the view over the ocean we decided we were hungry and maybe should go eat – but where?  We took the easy way out and opted to just eat right there. 

When I think of a touristy fast food restaurant at a National Park or something, invariably I think bugers and fries and maybe other options available from commercial food service where items are frozen and shipped thousands of miles such that the burger you eat in Yosemite may be distributed by the same company as the one you’d get at the Grand Canyon.

So it was with a little wonderment that we went to a coastal park on Saturday and had lunch at a Taiwanese version of the on site touristy fast food restaurant.  We had steamed fish, mountain cabbage, steamed rice, a couple of seafood eggrolls, and seafood rice.  I didn’t verify this, but I do not believe anything we ate was caught more than 10 miles from that spot.  Similar to other traditional markets I’d seen in Taipei, the woman doing the cooking led me to an icebox with a variety of fish.  When she saw I clearly didn’t know what to choose she picked out a couple she told me were especially good for kids (“fewer bones, more meat,” she said).   The kids liked it.

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Guess what this is!

Here’s a little contest.  Winner gets a free place to stay if you visit Taipei. 🙂

Guess what this building is.  I offer two photos.  To make it a little easier, I’ll make it multiple choice:

a) Observation Tower at the Domestic Airport where they let a different local high school every 4 years paint the facade

b) Soy Sauce storage tower run by Weichuan foods

c) Garbage Incinerator complete with revolving restaurant

d) Former Water Tower now transformed by complex jungle gym inside where paintball matches are played

 

I’ll give people 10 days or so to vote and then I’ll post the answer!  Please, if you are a Taipei resident, keep your knowledge to yourself for a while. 🙂

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