Good evening!…morning? Just kidding. We are exactly 12 hours ahead of all you people living in the USA. So good morning from us to you!

It’s been a busy, cultural shocking 5 days. We arrived in Taipei last Sunday around 7:00pm after an exhausting 2 days of travel. After an interesting cab ride in (the taxi driver was watching TV while driving), we passed out in a small private room at Walker’s Hostel in the heart of Taipei. If you read the previous post, we decided to come to Taipei without an apartment. A lot of people thought we were nuts for showing up in a foreign city without anywhere to call home! It’s quite the opposite actually. First of all, we only had an idea of where our school was located. The last thing we wanted to do was sign a year lease and find out the apartment wasn’t near an MRT (subway) stop or on a bus line. Secondly, pictures can be very deceiving. Sarah and I both wanted a place that was comfortable, a place we could call home. We wanted to see the potential apartments in person before signing our year away.

So fast forward 1 day. I contacted a friend of mine named Yvonne. She is a Taiwanese who lives in the same area as our school. Let’s just say our first few days here would have been incredibly stressful if it wasn’t for her. She met us the day after we arrived and started calling on apartments we were interested in. After striking out on almost every apartment we liked,  we finally found a nice one. Turns out it was out of our budget….but good thing we ran into a lady on the street that had the exact same apartment for rent 2 floors below! Plus it was within our budget! We met with the landlord to go through all the details and to make sure they were OK with renting to foreigners. They liked us! We found, signed, and moved into our home in Taipei within 2 days! Such a blessing. It’s tough moving to a foreign country without a place to unpack and unwind. Thankfully it only took us 2 days. I have to give a huge shout out to Yvonne for all the help she gave us. It would have been impossible to get settled this quick without her. So thankful for her help!

Neihu is our slice of Taipei. We live a few MRT stops from downtown Taipei and only 1 stop from our school. It’s super convenient. We have a good mix of natural beauty and the hustle and bustle of a large Asian city. There are nature trails and lakes nearby, but also exciting night markets and skyscrapers. Perfect blend. So, without further adieu, here is our place!

Our building is the tall, skinny one!

View from our window!

Upstairs loft and my office. Nerd alert!

Check out the technology on that seat! Butt warmer and butt washer 🙂

Tub/jacuzzi thing.

Sort of like a mudroom. We wash and hang our clothes out here.

We love it. It’s in a brand new building and we are only a 5 minute walk to the MRT. We’ve slowly been discovering how to live life here. As we explore more of Neihu, we’ve been able to find the supermarket, bakery, bubble tea shop, aquarium store! 🙂 and the infamous 7-11’s.

We are so happy to be settled in our apartment. It makes the transition so much easier. As we continue to learn and explore Taiwan, we are excited to open the doors to you through our blog! Stay tuned as we have the next week off….hmmm, where should we go?!

Kyle and Sarah