Home Sweet Home

Two adults and an infant living out of a tiny hotel room with no window and no storage space is not a comfortable situation. We made the best of it for the six days we were in Hotel 73, but the jetlag and lack of space gave us a strong desire to get an apartment. Any apartment. We resisted the urge to jump on the first apartment we viewed, and we ended up looking at about six places before finding the one that really suited our little family. So here we are in our new home. Yes, it is tiny by pretty much any standard, but it is very comfortable (euphemistically called “cozy” by real estate agents), well-designed, and has more fancy amenities than I’ve ever experienced.

Let me first start with the setting – Yong Kang neighborhood in Da’an District. It isn’t the area that Jess and I imagined for our year here. There are definitely too many opportunities to spend money and meet foreigners. To understand what I mean, do a Google street view of our neighborhood and just look at all the shops lining the streets! There is every kind of restaurant and specialty shop imaginable within two blocks of our apartment. Not exactly a traditional Taiwanese atmosphere, but it is an interesting mix of Japanese tourists, up-scale Taipei residents, and bohemian university students out on dates. We could have done worse. We are already getting to know our neighbors, thanks entirely to Abel, who immediately causes anyone in sight to drop their guard and be super friendly. It is pretty hard to miss the white couple walking around with a baby strapped to their chest.

 Our building is very new and quite nice. We have a 24/7 guard downstairs with a locking gate. Even the elevator requires that we use our special microchip key-fab thingy. Then we have to enter a code to get into our apartment on a keypad. If a guest comes, then we have a video screen that lets us see who is downstairs before we buzz them up. I feel like I’m boarding the Enterprise Starship every time I come home.

 The interior of the apartment is also nice – all marble floors and high ceiling. As I said, it is tiny, but not claustrophobic. The floor space is probably less than the living room of our old apartment, but a sleeping loft frees up a lot of space, we have two big windows, and the bathroom is roomy with the nicest shower I’ve ever had, or probably ever will have. Taiwan is a very humid place that can get both hot and cold, so we are lucky to have a dehumidifier, two air-conditioner/heaters, a washer/dryer, and a dish dryer. Yes that is right, not a dishwasher, but a dish dryer. All-in-all, I think it will be a very comfortable place for the three of us this year. The icing on the cake is that our landlord is a very sweet lady who speaks excellent English. It also helps that she thinks Abel is adorable and wants us to be as comfortable as possible. She has already emailed us to tell us she has bought a new coffee table since the current one is made of glass and not suitable with a baby in the apartment. 

Thanks again to Abel for making our lives easier here! We spent the weekend visiting Ikea and other local home-goods stores to make this apartment a home. As of Sunday evening, we have made great progress. It was a long day of wandering around the city in search of wooden spoons, diaper pails, chopsticks, and other essentials, but we came home and cooked for the first time in the apartment – and I must say it was pretty tasty. I have to admit that it is hard to motivate myself to cook when there are literally dozens and dozens of cheap delicious restaurants within walking distance. Unfortunately, if I eat out every night I won’t be able to fit in our compact apartment, so tomorrow I should probably make another trip to the grocery store . . .