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Here's a crazy story.

About two weeks ago we were sitting at home and it was getting late.  Suddenly Warren started yelling "What is that? Oh my god, there's a bat flying in our living room!" and he rushed into the kitchen and slammed the door.  We both watched through a small opening as the bat flew back and forth in our living room, hallways, bedrooms.  We were kind of freaked out but mostly stunned.  How does a bat get into an apartment? 

 We never open the windows but there is a small opening under our front door, which has since been fixed.  So we opened our front door wide and the living room windows, waiting for it to leave.  But we waited an hour and it wouldn't leave.  I had to go to bed so poor Warren had to deal with the bat on his own.  THe bat ended up going into the light fixture in the living room.  It wouldn't leave and kept making noises everytime Warren would tap the ceiling with a broom.  So just so we could at least get some sleep, he taped all the holes in the light fixture and trapped it inside the ceiling.  The next evening Warren saw it trying to get out so he taped a garbage bag to the ceiling and waited until the bat flew in and he trapped it in the bag. Then he went out and let it outside, back into freedom. 

I actually like bats (from a distance) and i've sat at the window at sunset, watching them eating bugs and flying all over the place.  There's tons of them around our building.  It seems our apartment attracts all kinds of creatures.  We've had a huge flying cockroaches, small beetles, moths, ants, geckos and even a centepede once.  It sounds gross I know and there's many nights I haven't slept well, knowing there's creepy crawlies around but I've gotten used to it now.  And we only find something every week or so (not that bad)

The weather is cooling down a little now, so hopefully the bugs will disappear with the summer....

 We actually have somewhat of a life now.  Warren still works long hours but is now getting regular days off and I see him much more.  He's getting used to the way of life here and is more adjusted and happy.   We've been able to explore more of Taipei together and have discovered some cool spots to hang out and eat.   There are soooo many restaurants and eating establishments here, it's crazy.   I say eating establishments because some places are just street vendors or a garage with a kitchen  in it and a couple of tables.   I wonder how they make money with so much competition.  

 And there's hundreds of  beetle nut stands.  Beetle nuts are small green nuts that have a red liquid inside and turns your mouth bloody red.  It's chewed all over Taiwan and gives a mild high apparently, a bit stronger than caffeine.  It's pretty gross because you must spit out the liquid so there are red stains all over the sidewalks!  Warren's boss got him to try some a while back.  He said you have to try it once, just to know.  I have no desire to make my mouth and my teeth stained red.  Since there's so much competition between stands, some of the girls selling them dress in skimpy outfits.  The whole thing is just strange.

We will post some pictures later of our first party.  We had a housewarming/birthday party for me.  We invited our co-workers mostly and a few friends I've met at some other parties.  About 20 people came and there was a good mix of taiwanese and foreigners.   We got to know some really cool people and hopefullu will go out with them again soon.   It was tough at times not understanding conversations though.  Warren and I are finally going to start some real chinese lessons.  Learning with a book/cd is not so easy to get motivated by.   My friend Kara recommended her really good chinese teacher.   I've heard Kara speak chinese, she's very good so we'll see if we can manage the basics at least.

Thanks everyone for sending us emails and keeping us in touch with your lives.  We love hearing your stories too.  Keep them coming! Talk to you later.  S and W

Well being the hockey fan that I am, I decided to check out the CBC’s broadcast schedule for our beloved Vancouver Canucks.  Check out how many high definition games the Canucks will be broadcasted in versus Toronto.  Even though I don’t have a TV allows me to watch HD, still seems unfair!

“High production values” is not what I think of when I think of SlantyWars.

But apparently, at least SlantyWars used color. Compare to XKCD, the webcomic. There’s lots of them there, you could check out the on referring to bad music.

Jerry and Missy won the Landscape Envy contest.

That’s sweetness. I’d like to see lots of before and after pictures.

When we have SPiced hAM, its called SPAM.
When we maintain a weB LOG, its called a BLOG.
When we JOG and jugGLE, its called JOGGLING.

And if you’re crazy and from Toronto, apparently you can joggle a marathon. The craziest part is that he actually took the record BACK from somebody…

Went to see the Belfast Giants play on Saturday night. It was good fun to see what a non-hockey culture cheered and booed at. Some good quality hits got the crowd booing the ref, and some clear boarding incidents went by without comment from the crowd. My favourite was they all made donkey sounds when the other team was sent to the sin-bin.

It was a decisive 5-1 win over the Newcastle Vipers, and you can take your beer to your seat. And while the beer was overpriced, it wasn’t nearly as bad as back home.

Meet the newest member of the Kelso family: Spencer

Spencer was happily adopted from the German Shepard Rescue Society of BC, I encourage you to visit the site as he left a lot of brothers and sisters behind.