Problem Solving

Being on the top floor has made me realize that heat really does rise! Despite having air conditioning, it's hot up here! I decided to invest in a fan from the Carrefour (kind of like a Super Target) that is down the block. Of course there were about 30 different choices...and of course I went for the cheapest one because I couldn't read what any of the fancier ones actually do to make them cost so much haha. When I got home I realized that a) I don't have any tools and b) the instructions are all in Mandarin.

Engage: problem solving skills. Here's what I came up with:

Once I unpacked the box I realized that I didn't really need tools...although they would have been helpful. 

Thankfully there were pictures to follow!

Successful! It even works haha!

Shopping Galore!

I think I may have entered a culture that is almost as consumer-driven as America. I have been impressed/awed/excited/astounded over and over again by all of the shopping opportunities here! From drug stores to grocery stores to Target-like stores to department stores, they've got everything in this place. Even though I am going to miss the Dhaka fabric market, I must say that I almost jumped up and down in excitement when I saw Aldo shoes at the mall yesterday!!! My new Taiwanese debit card is already feeling nervous. I snapped a few pics of the most exciting shopping prospects that I've encountered so far...

A REAL produce section! 

SEAWEED CHIPS!!! Totally my fave ever.

Cheese at normal prices that is not frozen from the Commissary. Happy day!

BEER! Enough said.

The department store right next to school that has all sorts of fun things that are dying to live in my new apartment.

Hard to tell but the little girl has a bag from the "Playboy" section...awkward.

Lori and I stumbled upon this wine shop. Heaven.

The owners are from France and import most of the wine from Europe. They are my new best friends.

I see myself sitting at those tables quite a few afternoons...

Umm...yes please! Burberry and Coach were right next door :)

Apartment SUCCESS!

Woohoo I signed a lease!!! This morning I went to take a second look at the place that was a little further from school because I couldn't stop thinking about the fabulous walk-in closet, haha. I tried to be very adult and check all the faucets and ask intelligent questions about the hot-water heater, but I really just wanted to jump up and down because I was so in love with it! After about 15 minutes my attempts at a smooth poker-face totally failed and the landlord guy could totally tell how excited I was. When he asked if I wanted to sign the lease right then, I said YES! right away. I am now a proud REAL resident of Section 6! I move in tomorrow and get a couch and a desk on Monday. All I need now is for my shipments to come! Not holding my breath about the Bangladesh one though...

Check out some pics of the new place! It will look more exciting once decorated of course.

The 2nd bedroom is all glass! Very nice and bright.

Master bedroom and master bath...in love with the bathroom!

The walk-in closet that totally sold me on this place.

Hallway from the master bedroom into the living room.

Uh hello all that counter space where my face products will be living.

Brand new kitchen! Note the oven - very few apartments here have ovens so I will be popular  when I bake cookies :)

Apartment Hunting is Exhausting

So 15 apartments later and still no idea where I should live. Sigh. This whole I'm-not-good-at-making-decisions-on-my-own thing is really not helping me right now! So far I've found the perfect apartment and the perfect location, but unfortunately they are not the same thing. I can't decide if I'm more attracted to the idea of a really nice interior that is close to the Metro station, or if it would be better to be literally a 5 minute walk from school. Decisions, decisions...

I spent all of Thursday afternoon looking at places with Yi-Ling, the wife of a TAS teacher who is from Taipei and has helped a lot of other teachers find places. She was incredibly nice and we marched all over Tienmu for about 3 hours in the blazing (and muggy) sunshine. By the time I got home, I was so tired that all I could envision myself doing was falling asleep right on the couch, but I got online and had an email from one of the other new MS teachers (Lori) who wanted to go to dinner. Jordan had gotten in contact with me as well and lured me out with the word "sushi." Since I'm not one to pass up a) food or b) new friends, I gingerly got off the couch, washed my face, and walked back out the door for more yummy food. (I'm definitely going to have to watch my waistline in this country! All the food is so delicious and cheap!) We had a good time out at dinner and after grabbing a post-food beer, Lori and I headed back to Section 7; me with thoughts of apartments in my head and Lori with visions of her shipment coming in the morning (super jealous).

Apartment hunting day #2 began promptly at 10 am when a new realtor (George) picked me up in his fancy Mercedes (driving in style). We looked at like ten different apartments all over the area, from huge high-rises to little places in alleyways. He was really nice, though, and didn't mind that I wanted to see just about every single place in his folder. At 1 pm I had to go to school to meet with the HR ladies to set up my Taiwan bank account (makes the move feel super real now). We headed down to Mega Bank (hahaha) and I got all set-up with checks, a debit card, and even online banking!!! So modern. Post-bank was one more realtor appointment, and thankfully he only had three places to show me because by this point I had not eaten in about 6 hours and I was dying. So here I am laying on the couch with images of various apartments swirling through my head. I think it's time for a nap. Pictures to come later!

Side story: When I got home last night I was (more than) a little freaked out when I realized that lights were on and AC units were turned on (which I had not done before I left). I looked around the apartment but didn't see anything/one, so I emailed the teacher whose apartment I'm in, and was like, "Not to freak you out, but any chance your cleaning lady tends to come by in the evening?" I then forced myself to not worry anymore, and promptly passed out. At about 8:05 this morning as I was (slowly) waking up, the doorbell rang and the most precious little Taiwanese lady opened the door. She was the secret visitor of last night, and also the Russell's cleaning lady. She even brought me breakfast! I want to have her come live with me...Misit replacement?

First Night Out!

First dinner = success! I didn't fall asleep in my rice AND I made some new friends...yay! I met up with Zach (other new teacher), his girlfriend (Larissa who is teaching at another school in southern Taiwan) and Jordan (a current TAS teacher) at 7 on the street outside of my temp apartment. They already had a plan about where to go eat (thankfully cause I had absolutely no idea), which included walking through one of the night markets. The weather was really nice - still humid, but breezy and probably hovering around 80 degrees. The market was really cool...tons of food stands, shops, and scooters everywhere!

Night market in TienMu. Note that everything is in Mandarin.

Luckily Larissa speaks Mandarin so she navigated us into this little restaurant right off the street and nabbed a menu. I took once glance at the menu and realized I would be of no assistance because it was all in Mandarin. (Not nearly as much English here as there was in Bangladesh!) But the food was AMAZING...no dumplings but delicious oysters, green veggies (no idea what they're called), legit kung pao chicken, some sort of pork, and really good tofu. Best of all...BEER! No more restricted alcohol intake like in Dhaka! Score. I am definitely going to enjoy the dining experiences in this country :) By about 9:30 pm my jetlag had snuck back up on me, and so we headed back towards my place. I managed to be in bed by 10 pm and asleep by 10:05 pm...and I slept through the night! I still place all of my faith in my No-Jetlag Pills. Highly recommended.

Yummy food! I am definitely going to get spoiled here.

After waking up fully rested this morning, I headed (back) to Starbucks for a little breakfast. I just couldn't resist the call of iced coffee and an english muffin sandwich! They are definitely going to know my order soon, which is totally fine by me! I filled out a bunch of paperwork at school and am now hanging out till I start apartment hunting at 2 pm. Keep your fingers crossed that I find a place this weekend...I want to unpack my suitcases!

Iced coffee + english muffin + Game of Thrones = perfect breakfast!

Time Travel to Taipei

International adventures are bittersweet. In other words, saying goodbyes really suck. July 25th arrived far sooner than I anticipated it would. I spent my last American morning on an early morning hike (6 am cough, cough) with Jena...a perfect way to start out the day despite the early wake-up call. I got the majority of my packing done over the weekend thanks to my mom's expert assistance, so all I had left to do on Monday was last minute items and making sure that each bag was at least hovering around 50 pounds (when we started packing it became quite clear that I would need four suitcases instead of three, haha).

My HUGE pile of luggage!

My dad took the day off work to take me to the airport. We arrived at DIA with the full "three hours before an international flight"...pretty standard :) Luckily I snagged a really nice check-in person who didn't mind that two of the bags were exactly 50 pounds and the third was a bit closer to 52, haha. I managed to camouflage my extremely heavy carryon suitcase my stuffing my purse into my pillow so that the United people didn't realize I had 4 carryon items. Somehow I didn't think they would like that...lol. After eating an early dinner at the airport, it was time to say the final farewells to my parents. Major competing emotions the moment we walked up to the security line; super excited about the upcoming adventure, super sad to say goodbye, and really nervous about a new place! After a bunch of hugs and on-the-edge-of-tears, I dragged myself away (with the rolling suitcase, the backpack, the purse, and the pillow) and headed towards security. Let the journey begin!

First stop...LAX!

Starting out at 7:30 pm made for quite a long night ahead...

The first leg of the journey was smooth although the plane was PACKED. I was crossing my fingers the next flight would have some empty seats next to me! I flew through LAX and had completely forgotten how confusing the airport is...not fun to change terminals via a bus outside...especially dragging all of those carryons! Thankfully I had a three hour layover so I had plenty of time to maneuver everything over to the international terminal. I was a little concerned about the fact that I had to re-checkin at the Malaysian Airways counter because there was NO way they would be happy about the size of my rolly-bag...and I was right. The check-in girl took one look and was like, "Uhh that definitely won't fit in the overhead." She must have seen the distress on my face about the idea of checking/paying for another piece of luggage, though, because she said I could gate-check it to avoid any fees...yay! She was stylish enough to understand why I had a whole suitcase devoted to shoes :)

Crowded gate waiting to board. I came to the sudden realization that I'm about to be surrounded by Asian people for a long time...

Time for the long haul! Minus the fact that I got off in Taipei :)

Friendly message that I would have enjoyed more if I wasn't so tired at 12:45 am.

Everything about the flight was incredibly smooth. I managed to snag a row next to the window all to myself, and I promptly made a great nook with my pillow and the fabulous plane blankets (which I may or may not have taken as a souvenir!). They served us dinner straight away, which detracted from my plan of falling asleep right away. But who am I to turn down food? The first part of the flight was spent eating and watching a movie, and then I managed to get in about 5 hours of sleep before an announcement from the captain stating that we would be arriving over an hour early woke me up. I have no idea how we managed to shave so much time off the flight, but I was a little apprehensive because I didn't think the school would know that I was arriving so early (which proved to be true).

Almost there! I had no idea Taiwan was so close to Japan.

Beautiful sunrise out the window of the international terminal.

I couldn't see much besides lots of lights when we landed in Taipei since it was still pretty dark outside, but it definitely looked different than Dhaka! Getting through immigration was also totally different than Dhaka...it took less than 5 minutes! Of course not many other people were at the airport at 4:45 am, but it was still nice to not wait in lines-for-no-reason (i.e. Zia International Airport). I was crossing my fingers that all four bags would arrive, and I was definitely feeling apprehensive because they were like the LAST ones to appear on the baggage claim belt. Thank goodness the airport had free little luggage carts because there is absolutely no way that I could have wrangled all of those bags on my own! At this point it was 5:15 am and the school thought I was arriving an hour later, so I decided to settle on a bench right outside of immigration, read my book, and not panic about being forgotten at the airport until at least 6:30 am. Thankfully my apprehension was unfounded; around 6 am a really nice white guy walked up and asked, "Are you Savanna?" I jumped up and said YES! Dan (the nice guy) grabbed my luggage cart led me out to the van waiting outside. The ride into the city was great - we took the coastal highway into Taipei. I honestly had zero idea that Taipei was pretty much right on the ocean. It was gorgeous. I'm so excited to live this close to water!!! The drive took no time at all as Dan fielded all of my questions. And of course I had many :)

We arrived at my temporary housing around 7:30 am and were met by one of the HR ladies, Anne (super nice). She and Dan got me set up in the apartment I'm staying in until I can find my own, and left me with a temporary cell phone, some cash (ugh have to learn new exchange rates) and a map. I was on my own for the rest of the day! After making a few Skype calls, it was time for a (much needed) shower. The apartment I'm staying in is fabulous and the family who lives here left great instructions and suggestions about what to do in the TienMu neighborhood (where the school is located). By 11 am I was ready to head out for some exploration, which included sniffing out the Starbucks I had been told was close to school. Armed with my book, my map, and my sunglasses, I stepped outside into my new city! I found Starbucks no problem and set up camp with a skinny vanilla latte and a yummy sandwich to get my bearings and do a bit of reading. Then I headed off to school!

My temporary apartment building!

Really cool little temple on the street right by the apartment.

First of what I am sure is to be many Hello Kitty signs.

Starbucks I love you!!!

Mmmm much needed lunch.

Outside the school gates.

Right inside the main doors. Nice and bright! Kind of reminds me of AIS/D.

Neighborhood marker and lady with a parasol. I have already seen like 100 parasols so I might have to join the trend.

I didn't do too much exploring of the school because I will be back there all day tomorrow, and I suddenly had a pressing need for an afternoon nap (gotta love jetlag). I will admit that I felt nostalgic for AIS/D as I was walking down the sidewalk in front of TAS. It's going to take me a little bit to get used to this new place! But such is life :) At the moment, I am awoken from my nap and am getting ready to go grab dinner with one of the other new teachers. Hopefully I don't fall asleep on my food! It's definitely going to be straight to bed for me as soon as dinner is over. Check back tomorrow for more pics of the school AND an update of my first apartment hunting adventure! Missing everyone in the States!

One Week Till Game Time!

Welcome to the new blog! After finishing up in Dhaka, I decided to start a new blog since Taiwan will be a new start. But no worries! If you're feeling nostalgic (like I am) and want to look back at the crazy Bangladesh adventures, the other blog is still available at http://savannakuislebangladesh.blogspot.com/ :) I head off to Taipei on Monday, July 25th...and this time I'll be all alone since Diane is staying in DC. The journey just won't be the same! However, I'll still have plenty of adventures to document, they'll just be solo missions this time (tear). I'm sure I'll have lots of entertaining stories so check in when you have time!