September recap

How long we’ve been here:  11 months!!! Or 335 days. That’s ALMOST A YEAR!!!!

Where we live: Welllll… in case you DIDN’T hear, Dave and I were forcibly evicted from our apt this month. Not because we did anything wrong, but rather because a couple months ago we got a new landlord and he decided he wanted to live in our apt. He was absolutely unwilling to renew for any length of time, so we decided moving out now rather than as we’re coming back from Australia would be tons easier on us.

God does provide, though, and we now live 8 floors above our old apt, have an amazing view, a smaller fridge, and an absolutely fantastic new landlord!! (We live in a rather large apt building where the apts themselves have many different owners… it’s a little confusing, but we’re learning!!)

While we ARE moved in and unpacked, I still haven’t put all our decorations back up, so I’ll withhold pictures until it looks a little more like a home. You can check out the one shot I have of the difference between our views (old to new) though!

Favourite thing to eat:

Dave:  My favourite thing is called a Dragon Ball, and is the innards of a squid. Where the beak is attached to the body there is a chunk of meat you can roast or fry. It has the same significance as a cod cheek or oyster from the chicken leg.

Steph: I’m waiting for Dave to make soup again. As much as I do enjoy Taiwanese and Chinese food,  I am a Canadian, and over here Western food = comfort food. Dave made herbed mashed potatoes the other day… I savoured every.single.bite!!

Coolest thing this month:

Our friends had BABIES!!!!! We’re not biased, we really do love them all, but we kinda think our nephew is the cutest thing…

Most significant thing you’ve done:

Dave: I just completed my six-month internship at a Taiwanese restaurant!!

Steph: I FINSIHED MY AFGHAN!! Well, technically I still have to sew the ends in, but it’s as finished as it’s going to be in Taiwan. Ten months after we arrived, it’s chilling on the couch, and alternating between being thrown on the bed and over my lap. I love it!

Thing you’re looking forward to most:

We’re going to Kenting (south of Tainan) for a weekend away on the 10/ 10 weekend. We get the day off on Oct 10 to celebrate Taiwan’s ‘birthday.’ We’ll take it!! Hopefully we’ll be visiting the aquarium and going snorkelling!!

Something you’re grateful for:

Dave: My wife!! Lame, I know, but the truth! Seriously though, I’m also grateful for the amazing experiences God has given us in this country. I don’t understand how so many people say they get bored of this country. There are SO many new things to taste and smell and see and witness. I think we have a strong desire to see new things as well as a desire for adventure. Because we intentionally go out of our way to have a new experience our homesickness has thankfully been kept to a minimum.

Steph: My friends who now really are all over the world. I’m not the kind of person to have a million close friends, but the ones I do I hold really close. They’ve been wonderful since we moved here with managing to keep in touch (short emails, long emails, skype dates, texts, Lines…. AMAZING!!!), and supporting us from the other side of the world.

Something you’re getting used to:

Dave:  Learning the culture is always an interesting thing here. But I’ve learned to brew my own coffee! With a mug, a tea filter and some paper towel. My friend Dave sent me some amazing Muskoka maple coffee in our care package (check out my sweet Ottawa Sens jersey!!), so I had to get creative if I wanted to actually enjoy it!!

Steph: IT’S COOLING DOWN!!!! Summer is officially turning into fall. No, we don’t get the gorgeous colours, but yes some of the plants do die and leaves fall, but it’s no longer +30 every night!! It’s time for scarves again!!!! 

Dave's new jersey. Thanks Dave, he wears it whenever he can!!

Care packages from home are the best!!

My kids love making crowns and putting them on my head. Apparently I'm the queen?

Inside the cake there were these marshmallows shaped like pumpkins. They tasted kinda like the orange/ yellow no name minis from home!

I asked S what she was drawing. In Chinese, she told me. A couple seconds later I figured out she was saying 'strawberry.' 'A red, ripe strawberry like the little mouse had?' I asked. She and her classmate nodded.

My favourite story growing up was The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear. I found it in our school's library and HAD to read it to my students. Twice. 

This is one of the first time I've seen one of my kids draw something directly related to what I had taught them (that I could understand). I was pretty impressed!!

Such a doll!! Ty loves to send us 'real-time' pics when we're skyping. I'm not complaining!!

Also, happy 1st month birthday (yesterday) little man!!

Mmmm... Dave's bagels!!

Honestly, I have about 3 or 4 nice outfits. It must be something special if I'm wearing one (as opposed to my work clothes). Yay for date nights!!

Seriously, what a cutie.

This was pretty cool. I wrote a piece about family farms for World Food Day. You can check it out here.

Dave's monster pepper. He's roaring, I think?

Dave's delish pasta salad... 

...which we brought here, to our first Taiwanese BBQ to celebrate Moon Festival!

You can read the story that goes with this picture here.

So many stitches, but SO worth it! From now until I go home I'm confined to smaller projects... ie ones that won't take a whole box to themselves to get home...

Btw, this is our bedroom! Recognize the bunting? I made it, we used it for K and T Fiss's wedding and K and D Dyck's engagement session!

For our ARC we had to get health checks. We stopped at the park on our way home before the sun set. We hadn't visited the park in AGES!

Oh, and we bought 7-11 ice cream because we were both brave when they took blood.

I loooove willows!! (And yes, there really is that much red in my hair!)

Cute little Taiwanese house!

Ari's birthday (borrowed from her Instagram account!)

Mmm.... homemade apple cinnamon bread.

Our old apt, mid-move.

Yikes!

From this view...

To this! Wait until you see it at night!! (You can use the green roof as a reference point!)

Breaking in the new apt with a skype date with some of our favs from North Bay!!