day 62_a little more Local

Left: Pale foreign girl... Right: My building manager, Charles

If you are going to take a picture in Asia, you should probably throw up a peace sign. (Why???) Clearly, I was unprepared.

Walking across a sky bridge in between some of the department stores near my home

Taipei 101 - she is awfully pretty, and they switch up the lighting often to keep it interesting

I have been exploring my new book this evening, and there are so many interesting things to learn, I'm not sure where to start! Here are a few of the things I have learned so far:

--- How to prepare your child for an international move, how to pick the right international school for your children [Yes, I am practically an expert at this now]
--- How to dispose of your waste - trash & recycling, which includes listening for the truck that drives by each day playing Fur Elise over it's loud speaker, and taking pre-purchased blue bags with your trash or bags of your choice with your recycling, and delivering them by hand to the garbage men on the truck... (As it is, I currently live in a building which has a waste room, so I simply divide up my trash and recycling into the bins that have been provided by management - Whew!) Taipei has actually made huge improvements in the amount of waste vs. amount of recycled materials over the past 10 years - the city is significantly cleaner and provides significantly less waste than many other cities of the same size/population worldwide. Reading about it is encouraging!
--- Fines are rare in Taipei, but they do enjoy keeping the city clean, and one possible violation is spitting! [I am totally fine with that...]
--- Pretty much every bill you receive can be paid at the local convenience store, such as 7-11 [talk about a new level of convenience!]

And one last thing I have confirmed this evening... (not in the book, just in real life)... my air conditioning unit has a heating option!!! Which is fabulous, because A: Probably 90% of residential buildings here do not have heaters, B: Who can brave this 65 degree weather without a coat?! [Clearly, I am turning into a local more every day ;) ]