Advertisement
Published: October 18th 2017
Well, I haven't moved yet but Matt has, so I thought I'd do a quick post just to update everyone.
He arrived in Taichung last Friday, October 13th and gave me a video chat tour of the apartment. We're going to be living in the Beitun District (just in case you want to Google and learn more about the area we'll be in) and our apartment is on the 24th floor of a 28 story building. There are also 6 stories of parking underneath the building. It's a BRAND NEW apartment...there's still paper on the floors in the hall outside of the elevator and plastic over some of the fixtures. The inside is 2 bedrooms and 2 full baths, which is great. It's all tile throughout, except for a strange little raised area with desks where there's hardwood floors. I'll post pictures once I get there so you can see what I mean. The whole apartment is furnished and someone from the team brought over some basics to get us started, which was really nice. Matt is still going through it all but I'm assuming there's some kitchen stuff in those boxes.
The living room is pretty standard as are the bedrooms. There's a screen by the front door that connects to the cameras outside of our apartment door as well as to the ones in the lobby so we can see who's out there (Matt has been talking about getting front door cameras for a couple of years now and this means we'll definitely be getting them when we move back lol). There are no built-in closets but lots of tall cupboards that function the same. The kitchen is small and is Asian style, meaning that we have a gas 2-burner stove but no oven. They apparently sell countertop ovens so we'll definitely need to invest in one of those. It does kind of put a crimp in my Thanksgiving plans though lol. There's no microwave but there's something over the sink that looks like a microwave. Matt says you put the clean, wet dishes in there and it blows hot air to dry them. Pretty interesting 😊 There's a tiny little open-air balcony off the kitchen that's used as the laundry room. We have a combination washer/dryer, so when the clothes are done washing they'll dry in the same machine. There are hanging racks that lower down from the ceiling so the laundry can be line dried as well, which I'm a big fan of. There are vertical bars over the balcony opening that restrict any sort of view you might have but keep the laundry from flying out, which I appreciate. The bathrooms have bidets, which I'll be interested to learn how to use lol. There are also windows in the shower but Matt said no one can see in. I still don't know how I feel about showering in front of a window, regardless of how many floors up we are! We'll see how that goes 😊
He got his car...it's a Nissan but some model that we don't have here. He didn't tell me the name. I've posted a picture of it though. It's also brand new...hopefully it stays that way with the crazy driving in Taichung! I'm really not planning on driving there, but I did get my International Driving Permit just in case. It's super easy...you just go to a AAA office to get it. There's a painless application you fill out, you show them your U.S. driver's license, either bring two passport pictures with you or they can take the pictures there, and pay $20 for the permit. It's a little more if you get your pictures taken there instead of bringing them with you but it's a pretty easy process. It's good for a year so we'll need to get new ones before they expire. It's easier if you get them before you leave but AAA can mail them to you as well, which is what we'll have to do for the renewal.
As for me, I'm still in Tennessee but heading up to Ohio this weekend to visit family up there for two weeks. I bought my airline ticket a few days ago so it's official now 😊 I'm flying out of Nashville the morning of November 10th and will arrive in Taichung the evening of November 11th. It's about 25 hours travel time plus the time difference (Taichung is 12 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time and 13 hours ahead of Central Standard Time). I'm flying Air Canada for the first two legs of the trip (Nashville to Toronto then Toronto to Hong Kong) then Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong to Taichung. I purposely booked with Air Canada because they have a luggage discount for Canadian and US military and military retirees. You get three checked bags up to 70 pounds each! I'm hoping that my military retiree spouse ID works and gets me that discount to save me some money on my three overweight bags lol.
I don't know if I'll post again before I leave for Taichung (I will if Matt has something interesting to share) but definitely be on the lookout for another post in mid-November, live from Taichung!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.157s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 12; qc: 59; dbt: 0.0608s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Hello Mandi
I discovered your blogs this morning and I am looking forward to reading about this next chapter of your life. Sounds exciting. Today I'll go back and read some of your past blogs. Glad you've decided to start blogging again. Good luck.