City Slickers

I love living in Taipei! There is so much to do and see just minutes from our apartment! Besides the base level stimulation of living in a big city (think noise, people, pollution), I think the kids are getting some really interesting experiences spending their first few years in the big smoke! Here's a glimpse of what goes on in a span of a week...

One afternoon we met Cynthia & Hilo at the Huashang Culture Center to see an art exhibit called "The Starry Starry Night". Now of course we didn't really 'get it' per se, but the kids did enjoy the colors and sounds and the experience of walking/running through a gallery with some interesting installation pieces. Of all the pieces on display, though, Hunter was most impressed with this big screen display of the earth... looks like we'll be hitting the astronomical museum in the next month...

This was part of a piece that the kids particularly enjoyed because it was in a side room where they could run around a partition and look at people. I didn't say my kids were especially cultured yet, but hey... it's all about exposure, eh?!?

After a rainy weekend, when I asked Hunter what he wanted to do one day, he said in Chinese that he'd like to go to the zoo... I thought about it for a moment then said SURE - LET'S GO!!! So we made a couple phone calls, hopped on the bus and headed over to the Taipei Zoo.

New friends Anna & Tilly joined us on our spontaneous adventure that lasted only a couple of hours but what a great resource... all this within less than an hour's commute! We love it!!!

The next day we wanted to check out the Public Library's story time... it was a pretty well organized function, but my kids couldn't sit through more than 3 minutes of it...

instead they found themselves seats in the "Small World" and enjoyed the oversized books with our friends Ellie & Abram... what a great discovery!!! Hunter loves the books and Helena loves the chairs... we'll be back!

After a bit of 'contained' time, Kristie & I brought the kids over to Daan Park (the biggest park in the city) for some 'uncontained' time running all over the playground. Hunter & Ellie did pretty well considering we were bombarded by a group of school kids twice their age and size...

Hunter, of course, LOVED having all the big kids around and joined in their games as best as he could (and as best as they'd let him).

And these are just a few of the reasons why we love living here in Taipei... and I guess this would mean we're city slickers at heart... though we are looking forward to our camping trip in NZ in January!!!