Home Sweet Home

I'm living on the 11th floor of an apartment building in the Gu-Shan district of Kaohsiung. This district is a little outside of the main downtown area and is considered to be the posh part of town. In a city with 2.5 million people, it's really quiet in this neighborhood. There is very little traffic and most of the noise you hear is construction.

My apartment has a big open kitchen eating living area, 2 bedrooms, 2 full baths, and a study. It's a lot more space than I expected.

O

A few interesting and funny things about an apartment in Taiwan are:

1. I have a dishwasher and a dish dryer. I don't have an oven or a microwave but I have a dish dryer.

2. My washing machine is on a porch outside of my kitchen. I don't have a dryer because in this country you pretty much hang everything to dry. But the washer is outside! Also, all of the directions on the washer are in Chinese so I don't know how to use it. I can turn it on but that's about it.

3. Everything is air conditioned! You can't live without it here. There is no heat anywhere but you've got air conditioning.

4. There is a sprayer attached to the toilets. Still haven't figured that one out yet.

5. There is tons of storage in apartments and some of it is so high I can't reach it and I'm tall. I actually won't be able to fill all the storage that is in this place. Something very freeing about that.

6. Every cabinet and closet had something scented in it. Either it's a bowl with potpourri or little plastic balls that hang that are scented. Gross! That was one of the first things I did when I moved in - threw them all out.

I keep finding strange, unexplicable things in closets so I feel a bit like a detective. I'm sure I'll figure those things out.

So, if you're ever in the neighborhood, I've got plenty of room for you to stay. Just drop me a line.