Home Away From Home

We moved! A couple weeks ago we moved to a little bit bigger place with our own bathroom and such. It's nice, but it looks better in the photos. :) As with any rental there are things you'd like to change or things that don't work so well and you just think, "Oh well, not my problem." That's kinda how it's been for us here. But the other place didn't seem like it was mine, this place does. (Probably because Jon lived alone in that apartment for so long, it was really more like his domain...)

Here are some photos of the new place! It's on the 14th floor of a pretty old building, but the inside is (mostly) newly renovated.

This is the courtyard. We live in D area, and it's enclosed like this (our apartment is behind me in this photo). You can enter at multiple places, but you have to have an electronic key, or if you come through the main entrance the guard has to let you in. We feel pretty secure, especially since you need the key to use the elevator, too.

This is the living room area. The entire apartment came furnished, so we pay a little more, but we don't have to worry about buying furniture, or moving it when we move! We have since bought a couple tables, but those are small and will be easy to move. To the left when you come in the door there is a closet for shoes, rain gear, bags, etc.

This is the study area. You can close the partitions or leave them open. I think this is originally supposed to be a Japanese style dining area, but we just eat on the couch. Seriously. Maybe one day we will eat like civilized people, but it's not likely to happen until we have kids. :) You can sort of see the kitchen behind the study area.

Here is the wall opposite the couch, complete with TV which I don't know how to work without Jon because everything on the remote is in Chinese. And that door to the left opens into the bathroom. My favorite feature is the fact that it's a tub which we added a shower curtain to. Many bathrooms here don't have wet/dry separation, so when you shower, everything gets wet and then you have to mop down the whole bathroom.

Here is the kitchen with two bar stools and a counter for eating area. We do occasionally use this area to eat. ;) The best thing is our fridge, because now we can keep leftovers or buy food and cook. This morning I made eggs on our waffle iron. Yum!

Right off of the kitchen we have a sliding door and a balcony. The balcony is super small and triangular shaped, but it has a washing machine which is so nice tot have! Other places we looked at you had to share, it was coin operated, or you had to go to the laundromat. Not a huge deal, but this is a big time saver for sure!

Our bedroom has an entryway with a closet, which is where we store our drying rack for laundry, and then you turn to the left and we have another wardrobe and our bed. There's also a little vanity in the opposite corner, pictured below. To the right in the picture is he door to the bathroom. Super small and also oddly shaped, it's not much, just a sink, shower head, and toilet, also pictured below.

And we also have a small guest bedroom that I use for working out. It's not fancy and doesn't have a wardrobe or closet (because we moved it into the master) but it will be just fine for our guests (if we have any!) It does have a mattress now! It didn't when we first moved in.

We have added a few things here in there, like these carpet squares you can buy so that your whole house isn't tile floor. Hopefully we can add a few more decorations, but I don't think we will go too crazy yet, we aren't sure if we will live here for longer than a year.

The nice thing about this place is it's really close to a bunch of places to eat, buy drinks, convenience stores, etc. So I can walk less than a kilometer and get what I need. It's also 1.5 km from where I work, and there's a super easy way to get there so I don't have to drive on major roads too much.

I've also been learning how to ride the scooter, and we might get another one so I can take one to work. It's just much easier to ride it around instead of a car. The streets are really narrow in some places and there are scooters everywhere. As a car driver, you've got to be super careful because scooters just zip in and out of everywhere. It's actually safer to ride a scooter.

Now you all know, if you want to come to Taiwan, there's a place you can stay! I can't believe I've been here a month already! I start working in a month, too! I miss my home (in Kansas and in Colorado) a lot, and learning Chinese is not easy, but I like it here so far and I think I will enjoy calling it home.