Quickie

So this is just a quick update since John and I have been laughing about it the entire weekend. But this week in Taiwan it is a national "holiday" 2/28 in which John gets Monday and Tuesday off. However, three minutes upon finding out that it was a long weekend John also discovered that by getting Monday and Tuesday off he would have to work 2 additional Saturdays in order to "make up those days"

Therefore this entire weekend we've been hanging out with friends and they've all been celebrating and cheering to the "long weekend" we'd cheer and then giggle at the fact that when you have to work the 2 days you get off essentially it really isn't a holiday it is just substituting the days you have to work for 2 other days.

Weekend Warriors

I've decided that Taipei is for the hard core. Those with longevity that extends beyond what John and I have to offer. We are now day drinkers. We like to get an early start (preferably before
dinner that way we only need to hit one more spot after dinner and we can head home. But Taipei is a city of weekend warriors. Hard working weeks leads to the much needed release on the weekends and therefore our weekends have been jammed packed with activities, heavy consumption (both food and drinks) and late late nights.
For someone who currently does not hold a job, I've developed many large bags under my eyes.

So let me tell you about the last weekend we had in Taipei. It started off with an amazing meal. Our friend has a cooking show on TLC Asia and John and I were asked to be guests on his show.
This week happened to be Goose Fat (much like bacon but with a gamier taste) So he roasted a goose, baked some potatoes and carrots in goose fat and then steamed some broccoli in goose drippings. It was delicious. Here is John anxiously anticipating some goose fat.

We taped in this beautiful show kitchen provided by Sub-Zero & Wolf and it was a super fun experience. Immediately following taping we met other friends at Carnegie A place where the Stella's flows like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano...well not so much the beautiful women but the Stella's did flow like wine.
After many-a Stella's John and I headed to China Pa for dinner and a show...or at least that was what we were told. When we showed up we realized it was a "show." We ate our delicious dinner to the tunes of Jay-Z, Bryan Adams, and Pink all performed by these two lovely folks at China Pa.

They danced, they sang and they even got behind glass cages to us their moves. It was hilarious. I would say that we were thoroughly entertained.



From China Pa, we signed our bill with a large feathered boa and headed out to Stream. By now it is definitely 12:30 (2 1/2 hours past John and I's normal bed time). At Stream we met up with even more friends and that was when the Tequila shots and bourbon started happening.

It happened fast and it was painful. We stayed at Stream until about 2:30 and then just when you thought the two of us couldn't actually handle ANY MORE...we hit up on last spot. There are no photos or evidence of the final spot in Taipei because by that time I think I'd actually forgotten what my iStella was capable of.

All in all when we left Primo at 4:45 am we did not feel like rockstars. We felt sore, hammered, and beaten with a wooden paddle.


It was not pretty. The next morning we woke up at 2:00 pm (not proud at all) and to make things just a little worse John turns to me and sheepishly says, "I feel like Chili's" Nothing cures
a hangover like a large burger. All in all it was a super fun night and an even funner weekend but at the end of it all we realized that we are not weekend warriors. We are not even Monthly Warriors. What we have is a case of 3 Times a Year Warriors. For a day during Thanksgiving, New Years, Christmas and maybe the every other Saint Patrick's Day we may put on our armor, work out our liver and pull a 4:30 am'er, but beyond that the most hard core weekend warrior we'll be pulling is a large cup of coffee and maybe a glass of wine.

Linsanely Great VaLINtine's Day

So for most of the day on our first Valentine's day in Taiwan John was on an airplane flying in from Frankfurt to Taiwan. Therefore, I spent the day walking around and trying to get a sense of the layout of Taipei as I get lost pretty easily. The last time I lived in Taipei was over 10 years ago
from 2000-2001 so most of the streets/restaurants/and places only seem vaguely familiar. Being a wanderlust and marrying a wanderlust means that I've often flown into a city to meet John and due to flight patterns that I cannot begin to explain I sometimes have an entire day to myself while I wait for him to arrive. Case in point, Dublin, London and Shanghai. I've pretty much learned to find a map, start walking and get totally lost for about 3 to 4 hours and then open the map and route my way back home. It helps me learn the layout of the city and it's like my very own Amazing Race.
This Valentine's day I did just that and during my walk I came across a few amazing things. First was this street filled with these ENORMOUS palm trees. It was really a gorgeous sight to behold. I found a sign that explained that these were King Palms imported from Cuba.

After that I also stopped by the gym that John and I go to. It's actually this huge arena that holds sports games, and has a huge track and field and for 50NT an hour ($2.05) you can use there gym which is pretty nice and
very cheap. After the gym as I was walking out and looking for maybe a juice bar, or vending machine that might sell me water I find this instead...McDonald's. I almost choked. Only in Asia would they allow a McDonald's in the same building as a sports arena. It's as if they are saying, "hey good job working out...now grab a Big Mac as a reward."

John was coming home that night around 10 so I wanted to make sure I had dinner ready since before he left we had not moved into the new apartment. This would not only be our first Valentines in Taiwan but we would be celebrating it in our new home. I already new that I wanted to grab some bread, cheese and salami (an old dinner favorite of ours) I was going to get John a nice 6 pack and also some chocolates.

I headed to the grocery store and decided to try out a new store near our new apartment just to see if I liked it better.
Well low and behold I liked it a lot better and for one reason only. I found not only all the
ingredients I needed for our dinner and olive oil to boot, but I also found wine that was decent in taste and in price. it was like hitting the jackpot in Vegas, except I was handing over money. Once I got home I got to "cooking" and by cooking I mean slicing the cheese, bread and meat and pouring myself a glass of wine.

The biggest fine of the night definitely the
40 oz can of Miller High Life...John's Fave


















I had originally thought I would go in and get him a 6 pack of Taiwan Beer and upgrade to Gold, but upon seeing the MHL I knew this was it...I had to purchase this tall, cold Gold can of deliciousness for him for his Valentine's Day present. John arrived shortly before 10 pm and we enjoyed our first Valentine's Day filled with wine, cheese, bread and Miller High Life

Prosperous Blessings 福華大樓

Many of you have been asking for photos of our new apartment here in rainy Taipei, and I promise to deliver once we purchase some last few "finishing" touches. I would like the unveiling of our new place to already feel like home rather than a rental and I think it will take maybe a plant, a couple of pictures and maybe some pillows and we should be all set.
Until then, here is a photo of the entrance of our front door. As you can see there are 4 characters that greet us every time we walk through the doors and it's "福華大樓" The first character stands for Blessings, the second has multiple meanings but for this particular post it is best that we use the meaning of prosperity or being prosperous. The third character is big and the fourth character means floor (as in 1st floor, 2nd floor, etc). together, it can literally mean Prosperous Blessing Building.

I really haven't given much thought to the fact that most buildings, like in America, are named. Maybe it's Feng Shui, maybe it's the ego of the architect, but we all live in buildings that should sound lucky...or blessed. However, I actually think I am getting more prosperous by living in this apartment and here is the reason why.

Since John started his new job that brought us around the globe to Taiwan he has had to make a few business trips to France, Canada, China, Japan, Germany...just to name a few, and usually he comes home after spending hours upon hours on
an airplane and is jet lagged and tired so he usually looks at me and says..."I'll unpack tomorrow." When tomorrow arrives he usually heads off to work bright and early in which it's then just me staring at a big suitcase filled with stuff in the middle of the living room. That lasts for about 2 hours before I feel the urge to unpack and clean it.

Every time I unpack for John it's like a prosperous blessing because I find money from every corner and nook of his suitcase, pants pocket and jacket pocket. I finally took all the money I've found since he started his job and literally found:
Yen: from Japan
RMB: from China
Euro: from France/Germany
NT: from Taiwan
I didn't find Canadian Dollars but then again we just started our journey in Asia and I'm sure by the end of our stint there will be Canadian Dollars and much much more collected. I'm not typically one to believe in fortune tellers or "signs" of any nature, but I gotta say that moving into a Prosperous Blessing building has actually turned out to be literally prosperous for me since I'm richer than I was before and a total Blessing because I feel like I can actually head to many countries without having to stop by the currency exchange...I'll just go into my closet where I've begun a "Monies of the World" collection and just grab from there.

The Logistical Differences

When I first learned we would be moving to Asia I had prepared myself for the cultural differences that would be inevitable. For example, in Asia, they are much more straight forward and open about things like: my weight, consistency of your bowel movements, and when you look bad it's never that you look tired, it's just that you look really bad.

However, what I did not prepare for was logistical differences....yesterday I was invited to watch a Taiwanese basketball game. Although I'm no sports "buff" I thought it would be a fun activity since I wasn't even aware that Taiwan had a team much less 7 teams. A friend and I decided to
meet at the MRT (Taiwan Subway) and take the subway out to the stadium.


*side note* here is a shot of the basketball game. It ended up being super fun to watch despite having grown up during the Michael Jordan era in Chicago. I mean after watching what may be known as the greatest team alive to watching the Taiwanese teams it was a bit of a let down, but they were so bad it ended up being pretty entertaining. Lots of opportunities for yelling and screaming because there were tons of turnovers, airballs, and balls being thrown right into enemy arms. It was entertaining none-the-less. **


Okay so once we got to the subway I figured I would use the restroom (Taiwan subways have surprisingly nice bathrooms) before we walked to the stadium since I didn't know how the stadium bathrooms would be and I didn't want to "chance it"

I walk in and immediately saw an open stall and went in. It didn't take long to go number one and when I was finished I turned around to flush. Now please look at the picture I've taken below. would one not assume that the only button visible would be the "flush" button. Well I did.
Since, for me, logic says that most public bathrooms I've gone to if they don't have a manual flush next to the toilet then it's usually a button or automated. Since I didn't see the flashing green light of an automated flusher and there was no lever I pressed the button. Upon pressing the button, an incredibly LOUD and non-stop siren started going off. It wasn't hard to figure out that I had activated some sort of emergency light and the next thing I know there are people outside my stall knocking and asking me if I am all right. I sheepishly say, "Yes, I am all right, I hit the button by accident" the bathroom attendants say okay and while I'm trying to pull my pants up as quickly as possible and get the heck out of the bathroom while the sirens were still going off I hear the subway po-po arrive and have the following conversation:

Po-Po: "Is victim still inside the stall?"
Attendant: "Yes, but she said it was an accident."
Po-Po: "Accident?"
Attendant: "Yes, she hit the button by accident."
Po-Po: "but she is still inside? and she hasn't come out yet?"
*pound, pound, pounding on my bathroom stall*
Me: "uhm yeah I'm okay...I'm coming out now"

As I walk out of the stall I have about 7 people all staring at me.

4-randoms just waiting to use the bathroom
2-subway po-po making sure I wasn't a "victim" of some horrible toilet accident
1-bathroom attendant looking really annoyed at the turd that just hit a big red button that says emergency

I guess all my preparations for the cultural differences made no real difference at all because I still managed to make one of the biggest bathroom faux pas possible...although I do put part of the blame on the genius engineer that designed an emergency button where the flusher usually is in a public bathroom.

Eternal Young "Adults" Embarking on Our Golden Years.

Recently I had someone ask me if I felt more "boring" now that I'm married. It seemed like such a preposterous question that I snorted...out loud. After the initial shock wore off I really thought about why I found this question so absurd, because most people would probably agree that life after marriage gets a little more secure, steady and predictable. Mainly because that primal need to go out and hunt down a partner has gone away and as a couple you begin to become gatherers as opposed to hunters.

Before marriage, I lived in Brooklyn with my BF of 11 years. We mostly spent Friday nights in cooking dinner, watching a movie and me drinking a bottle of wine while John polished off a 3 pack (6 if he was feeling like partying). He would tell me about what went on during Morning Joe that week and I would catch him on who got eliminated on America's Next Top Model. We'd both spend 30 minutes ranting about our work week and then whoever didn't cook would clean. The only surprises were if John upgraded his Coors Lite with Brooklyn Pilsner then I knew there would be something special on the menu. Saturdays we'd wake up late (*sidenote) for those young'ens reading this post late for us in our mid thirties means past 9:00 am. we'd have some breakfast, go to the gym, putz around the garden, eat some lunch, go for a walk around Williamsburg then dinner and cocktails with friends....you get the picture. Our life was the complete opposite of LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem. But it was nice and I loved every minute of it. John and I had spent a good part of our early to mid 2o's traveling, living in squalor, and tackling adventures all over Asia and it felt nice to be grounded to turn New York from an experience into a true home in every sense of the word.

Then we got engaged and John decided to take a new job....in Taiwan, and from that moment on I would say our quaint little lives were anything but "boring." From the moment the vows were exchanged I would very safely say that I've been back out there "hunting"....take it easy, it's not what you think. I've been hunting for an apartment, for a job, hunting for new friends, hunting down even a screwdriver in Taipei (that was the hunt this morning) because I recently learned that Ikea DOES deliver furniture WITHOUT all the necessary tools. Our lives have been lived, these last 4 1/2 months out of a suitcase, traveling by trains, planes and automobiles and sleeping ----------->
literally on floors, sofa's, and guests rooms. (That's John taking a quick nap on some cardboard boxes).

All in all I feel that those couples who have hit their "golden years" who have worked hard, raised their children, retired and have decided to get back out there and "see the world" and lead a new and exciting life.

The only difference is we're still both working very hard, we have yet to raise anything except for a few plants in our backyard in Brooklyn, and so far we've seen a whole lot of rain here in Taipei. What is true is the idea of having our golden years be now, in our 30's. While one friend asked if married life was boring, I had another friend email this line to me...

"And I LOVE this idea of young couples moving afar to live their lives (forever or for a while). Travel to far away places isn't for the 20-somethings whose brains don't yet understand fear. It's for the 30-somethings that feel the fear and trepidation of making such a large move and do it anyway!" - (*thank you Bree)

People have told me that my college years would be the best adventure, or that married life would be the best adventure, some have even told me that having children would be the best adventure and to all those who have that one adventure you hold onto I can only say that so far my entire life has been one adventure and being married and doing it just means I have someone to come home and tell these ridiculous stories to!

Stella VS. 台灣啤酒 (Taiwan Beer)

Stella! As most of you know it's my beer of choice. I've also named my favorite gadget in the world iStella. I equate this to New York which is my home of choice.

台灣啤酒 (Taiwan Beer). This is what I drink now. I equate this to Taiwan. Both serves its purpose and both does it's job, but at the end of the day my little taste buds prefer Stella over Taiwan Beer, at least in the 3 weeks I've been drinking Taiwan Beer. It doesn't mean that I won't grow to love Taiwan Beer and it doesn't mean that Taiwan Beer is horrible, it's just new and I'm getting used to it's "taste"

It's funny the moments I miss New York. I am typically a very go-with-the-flow kind of a person and typically don't have very strong feelings about where to go, what to eat, or what to do. Sometimes I see John's forehead get all crinkled because he is dying for me to make a decision of where to go and eat. With that being said, I find myself some Tuesday nights with an intense urge to go to Sol De Mer and have their Lobster special. Or a late night on Saturday when all I want to do is go to next door to El Loco Burrito and grab a Picadillo Buritto the size of my head. But those are luxuries in the past and we find ourselves creating other luxuries in Taiwan.

For example John and I were laughing the other night about how we had not eaten McDonalds in almost 2 years and before we were even in Taiwan for a full 4 days we had already had Mc

Donalds twice. It's amazing how in New York I never would get a craving for McDonald's but now that we are in Taiwan there is this strange thing that happens when we stay up past midnight...it's like the only thing that sounds good is a cheeseburger. Bad news is the McDonald's by our house does not serve beef between the hours of 12:00 am to 5:00 am which sort of puts a damper on that craving.

Below are some additional luxuries that John and I have encountered since our move to Taiwan and along with the luxuries comes a little bit of not so luxurious.

1. 大頭-(Big Head)- He is one of two kitties that John and I currently live with. Having not grown
up with any animals I have always been hesitant to get a pet, despite John's constant urging, however after living with this kitty for 3 weeks I can see why people love animals. With that being said, 大頭 has already peed (in my shoes), puked a hairball (right by my feel) and pooped (outside my bedroom door). So I will continue to visit 大頭 during my time in Taiwan but may hold off on cleaning up any puke, pee or poop that isn't my own.

2. Fashion. I've seen some of the best accessories ever in Taiwan. My favorite by far is this knitted hat that comes with a mustache. However, when it rains constantly through winter and never gets all that cold I opted to get myself an umbrella first before this adorbs hat.





3. Art-John and I recently went with a friend to see Ai Wei Wei who is currently at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum and he had an installation up called Forever Bicycle which I thought was amazing *sidenote* that's John there with his arms crossed beneath all the bikes. Ai Wei Wei also lived in New York City's East Village during the late 80's to early 90's and had hundreds of photos of him there which made me so super nostalgic to see. On the flip side there were 5 huge signs around the museum saying that the "intense new bike smell was not dangerous to your health" and when people put that many signs up letting you one thing while huge fans blew through the room it did make me reconsider the message.

4. "Fun"Due Friday. One of the saddest parts of leaving New York and even living in LA for a few months was the lack of access to our beloved familiar kitchen. John and I are known to spend an entire weekend in cooking, gardening and eating straight from the backyard. However, we got super lucky when we moved to Taiwan because our current roommates are chef extraordinaires. We've not only had Fondue Friday, but have woken up to fresh scones, Chili Sunday and even a Fiesta Saturday with 7 layer dip and fish tacos. All in all, it's been a delicious time. On the down side of life, all ingredients Western cost $5.00 more than an arm and a leg.


5. Last but not least-new and old friends galore. As much as we miss our family, our friends and our beloved city, John and I quickly realized how lucky we are to have a small nuclear base already in Taiwan. From the moment we arrived we have had friends we've known for over 10 years take us out, show us around, and help us tackle everything from apartment hunting to getting our keys made in Taiwan. We've also been introduced to new friends like the owner of a delicious little restaurant down the street who will make my 油條臭豆腐 without stinky tofu but with fragrant tofu. And for that he will be a new friend for life. Also, the friend of a friend who was kind enough to give us her 20% discount on Ikea so that John and I may furnish our new apartment. But mostly for our friends and family back at home who have reached out and given us names of their friends who are in Taiwan so that John and I have more contacts than we know what to do with!