Tag: family

Ramblings

Apartment Hunting in Taipei: Real Estate Agents

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I want to interrupt our Europe blogs to share our experience apartment hunting in Taipei. We’ve actually been in Taipei for over 2 weeks now, so I’m obviously very behind in blogging 😅. But there’s just too much that has happened, and I want to document it all before I forget.

If I had to sum up our experience apartment hunting in Taipei, I’d say the overarching theme would be “expectations vs. reality.”

Let’s start with real estate agents.

In the last post about Taiwan, I shared that we’re using a real estate agent to help us look for an apartment. Normally in the US, this would be a DIY effort. We scour the internet to look for listings and work directly with the landlord to rent. Case closed.

Taiwan is different. Not only can we not speak the language, but we’re unfamiliar with the rules, laws and conventions of apartment renting. So, about a week before we left the US, I reached out to an English speaking real estate agency to get on their radar.

There is a cost to working with an agent. If you rent an apartment from the agent, you pay half a month’s rent as a service fee. The service includes negotiating the rental contract, assistance with utilities setup, acting as a liaison between you and landlord for the entire duration of your lease, and some agents can even help with purchasing furniture or appliances.

We told Kathy, our agent, what we were looking for in an apartment:

  • Ideally, the apartment is in Da’an district
  • It has 2 bedrooms
  • Near MRT (Taipei’s metro) or bus stop
  • At least semi-furnished
  • At least 30+ pings. Taiwan uses pings 坪 as a measurement of floor space. One 坪 is equivalent to about 35.6 square feet.

About a week before we landed in Taipei and while we were still in Rome, Kathy sent us a list of properties to look at. We were interested in a few of them, but we noticed the listings were all from her agency. We had seen a number of apartments that fit our criteria on rent.591.com.tw (which is equivalent to Craigslist in the US). Why weren’t any of those included?

This is where our expectations did not align with the reality. In the US, your agent can show you any property available. They collaborate with the buyer’s or seller’s agents and split the commission.

In Taipei, agents do not work with each other. If you wanted to view an apartment that isn’t listed under your agent’s realty company, you’d have to contact the representing agent yourself by phone or Line. (Line is the communications app commonly used in Taiwan.) Many times, the agent doesn’t speak English very well so Google Translate quickly became our best friend.

It’s possible for your agent to try and call the landlord and arrange something, but more often than not, the landlord doesn’t want to engage with another agent.

We had expected our agent to be a one-stop solution. She tracks down all apartments that fit our criteria, works with the landlord, negotiates the contract, and voila! We move in. The reality was Baba and I had to do a lot more work ourselves. Almost every night for 2 weeks, we’d scour rent.591.com.tw, create a spreadsheet of potential apartments, contact the different agents and schedule viewings with them. We were on a timeline (we rented an Airbnb for 2 weeks) so we had to act quickly.

On top of all this, we had to consider how the apartment would affect school registration for the boys. I’ll share more about that next.

Ramblings

Porto

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It was hard to leave Spain, but we were also looking forward to visiting Portugal. Portugal has been in the news for being one of the most popular countries Americans flock to, so we were curious about it.

We took a 1-hour flight from Madrid to Porto and stayed here for 4 days. Porto is one of those quintessentially charming European cities, with cobblestone streets, narrow alleyways, and beautiful river views. We also got a reprieve from the intense Madrid heat. Porto’s weather was in the mid low to mid 80s while we were there. This is a major reason why Porto is one of C and O’s favorite cities. 😅

Porto is famous for its bridges. It currently has six bridges across the River Douro, with the most famous one being Ponte Dom Luís I (pictured above). The top level of the bridge is for the metro and the bottom is for cars, but pedestrians can walk on either level.

The food in Porto was delicious, with plentiful, fresh seafood. One of Portugal’s classic dishes is bacalhau (pictured on the far right), which is salted cod. It was tasty when mixed with other ingredients but can be quite intense on its own. The cost for food wasn’t as cheap as Spain; a typical meal costs $15 to $18 per person.

Of course, we also had to try the Portuguese egg tarts (or pasta del nata) while in Portugal! They are filled with an eggy custard with a texture that is similar to crème brulée. The filling is sweeter than the Chinese egg tart, and the crust is an amazingly crispy and layered puff pastry. We munched on these little treats whenever we could.

The Francesinha sandwich is also native to Portugal, specifically from Porto. It is made with layers of bread and meats like steak, ham, bacon. Then, it’s topped with sliced cheese and doused with a tomato and beer sauce. Oh, and it comes with fries too – in case you needed more calories 😏. Honestly, this wasn’t one of our favorite things to eat in Portugal but we had to give it a try.

While in Madrid, we had the idea to send postcards to friends and family back home. We tried to mail postcards from each city we visited, including Porto. It was great for C and O to see what the stamps looked like, and how the post offices operated in each country. (Little did we know that it would take a month for people to receive the postcards, good lord! 😂)

Porto can be a little touristy, but it’s hard to resist its charm and beauty. Thanks for a great time, Porto! 💙

Ramblings

Secret Nun Cookies

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Before going to Madrid, I had watched YouTube videos about buying “secret” cookies from cloistered nuns in a 400 year-old monastery. It seemed like a cool experience, and I made a mental note to visit the monastery when we were in Madrid. Of course, now that this has been posted on YouTube, it’s not much of a secret anymore.

The “secret” nun cookies are sold at Monasterio del Corpus Christi, and this was the line when we got there. 😂

Before the secret was out, cookie buyers have to ring a doorbell that reads “Monjas” (nuns) and say, “Tienes dulces hoy?” (“Do you have sweets today?”). If they do, the door would open and you’d walk along a corridor to the turnstile. But because there were already people ahead of us, we were spared this step.

The corridor leading to the turnstile. We had to wait about 20 minutes for our turn.

Here comes the interesting part. Since the nuns are forbidden from contact with the outside world, the entire transaction is completed using a turnstile/lazy Susan (pictured below). You say your order into the turnstile, place your money on it, and within a few minutes, it would turn and your cookies would appear along with any change! It was so fun to witness. This was also the only time we had to use cash in Spain. Can you imagine if the nuns accepted Apple/Google Pay? 😂

The nuns speak only Spanish so Baba had to ask for the cookies in very, very broken Spanish. 🤣 We used Google translate for help but it was kind of hopeless. Miraculously though, the nuns understood what Baba was asking! (If you want to see a video of Baba speaking “Spanish”, I posted it on Instagram.)

We ordered two types of cookies – one was an iced shortbread cookie and the other was a cinnamon cookie. Honestly, they weren’t the most amazing cookies we’ve had, and they were quite expensive (about €12 for 1/2 a kilo). But it was such a cool and memorable experience!

Ramblings

Reality Check from Taipei

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A lot of people asked if we have an apartment in Taipei yet. We don’t! Renting an apartment in Taipei is like anywhere else. Unless you’re willing to start paying rent before moving in, you’ll want to physically be there to check out the area and apartment before signing a lease. So, we rented an Airbnb for the first two weeks of August for apartment hunting. We do have an idea of the district we want to live in (Da’an).

In the middle of our vacation in Madrid, we got our first reality check. Our real estate agent in Taipei asked if she can look for apartments in both Da’an and Xinyi districts. I told her we wanted to concentrate in Da’an because we plan to use our Airbnb address (also in Da’an) to register for a nearby school. Then once we find our own apartment, we will update our address with the school. This is what some expats have done in the past, according to forums I lurk in.

But Kathy, our real estate agent, asked: “Did you ask your Airbnb host if you can use her address to register for school?”

Oh. Whoops.

It turns out our Airbnb host couldn’t let us use her address for school registration. We’re not sure why – maybe that address is already registered with a school – but we had to come up with Plan B, whatever that is.

We struggled with deciding what comes first – do we look for an apartment and then find a school nearby? Or find a school first, and then an apartment? I posed this dilemma on an expat forum and people advised to look for a school first because by the time we arrive in Taipei in August, many of the schools may be full.

Thankfully, a helpful stranger on the forum sent me a PDF of all the schools that were full in Taipei. I did some cursory research on schools that still have space (just based on Google reviews, the school’s website and Facebook page), and narrowed the list down to three. They are all in Da’an or Xinyi districts.

So now, our apartment hunting strategy is to find an apartment within walking distance to any of those schools, which is easier said than done. Apartments apparently get rented out quickly in Taipei so we’ll have to act fast. We have about one month to find an apartment and register for school before school starts on 9/1. We signed up for an adventure and we sure got it! 

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La Boqueria

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(An overdue post)

Baba and I have reached an age where grocery shopping has become our hobby. 😅 We love to explore markets – supermarkets, wet markets, farmers markets – it’s our favorite type of shopping!

So naturally, we had to visit Mercado de La Boqueria, a huge public market in Barcelona. The market is a labyrinth of vendors selling fruits, seafood, jamón, and tapas. It’s crowded and touristy, but a definite must if you love food. You could spend hours getting lost in there. Just show up early! We showed up at around 9:30am and it was packed an hour later.

Jamón is a staple in Spain and found everywhere in La Boqueria. Many stalls even sell jamón in paper cones for easy handling! (Of course I had to get one.) O wasn’t a huge fan but C loved it.

The boys were drawn to the colorful fruits and fruit drinks at the market. We were surprised to see a few exotic fruits there, like mangosteen and passion fruit.

But the highlight of our visit to La Boqueria was eating at El Quim, a food stall with bar only seating. Their specialty is baby squid with eggs, and it did not disappoint! The squid was so savory and delicious – I just wish the eggs were more runny. Even O, who is a notoriously picky eater, loved the dish. We also ordered padrón green peppers but thought it was a bit too salty.

We had plans to eat at Bar Pinotxo too, but had so much trouble finding it. By the time we found the place, there was a wait and we realized we weren’t that hungry anymore. Bar Pinotxo is supposedly popular for their chickpeas and blood sausage and oxtail stew. If you ever go, let me know how it tastes!

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We ❤ Barcelona

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Barcelona is really easy to fall in love with. It’s a vibrant city with lots to see and do, yet has a laid-back vibe. The streets are lined with trees, cute little shops and cafes, people walking their dogs, and conveniences like grocery stores every few blocks. We stayed in the Eixample district, a quieter, more residential area with many chic cafes and restaurants.

I visited Barcelona in 2009, but with a student’s budget and schedule, I saw (and remember) very little about it. This time, we’re lucky enough to be here for 10 days and get to experience so much more than the usual touristy spots. On most days, we’re just wandering around the city and trying to soak up the atmosphere around us.

What we love about Barcelona:

Weather. Spain gets over 300 days of sun a year, and that’s no joke. Even with all its glorious sunshine, it doesn’t get unbearably hot because of Barcelona’s proximity to the Mediterranean Sea.

Food. Spanish Mediterranean cuisine is rated one of the healthiest in the world and it’s easy to see why. We’ve been eating a ton of seafood – all SO good. Meals here are simply prepared (usually just olive oil, salt and garlic) but use fresh, high quality ingredients.

Convenience. It seems that regardless of which area you’re in, you are likely within a few minutes walk from grocery stores, restaurants and cafes. Every store, no matter how big or small, accepts Apple/Google Pay too so there was no need for us to exchange cash or even bring our credit cards!

Public transportation. As someone who hates to drive, having great public transportation is a huge plus. Our Airbnb is a 3 minute walk from the metro station. The metro comes every 2-4 minutes, and buses maybe every 5-10 minutes, that can take you all around the city. The boys loved taking the metro and bus.

Tip: If you’re traveling with kids, you can purchase a family (or “T-Familiar“) card for a discount. One single card can be used by up to 4 people (2 adults and 2 kids). You can buy a card for €10 for 8 rides over 30 days.

Vibe. Sometimes, you just get a good feeling from a city and Barcelona is one of those places. Casual, charming and cosmopolitan, you’ll never feel bored here.

Tomorrow, we leave Barcelona for Valencia. During our awesome time here, Baba and I had second thoughts about moving to Taiwan instead of Spain. But then I remembered the lackluster dim sum we had here, so maybe not. 😅 We need our Asian food!

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A Fond Adieu

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The time is finally here! What began as a flippant idea has become our new reality. Even though we’ve been planning and talking about this for 5+ years, it’s surreal that in 2 months, we will be living in another country.

In the past few weeks, we’ve been showered with many dinners, get-togethers and parties from our family and friends. During these moments, I pause and take a look around to appreciate what’s in front of me. I tell myself to remember this moment.

It’s human nature to take things for granted. We take things for granted on a daily basis, always with the assumption that if we need something it will be there. I’m no different.

But now we’ve come to a point where the things we are used to having may not be there anymore. So while it’s been incredibly hard to say goodbye, I learned to cherish everything about our life here, big or small – from how warm and cozy our apartment is, to the love and support we have from our family. I guess we sometimes need reminders like this to realize how lucky we are to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.

See you on the other side of the world. 😉

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Summer, Kind of Wonderful

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On top of planning our move abroad and clearing out our apartment, we had the brilliant idea of planning a 2-month trip to Europe over the summer before flying to Taiwan 🙄. I’m excited that we could go on this trip but planning so many things at once is a bit chaotic to say the least.

We thought it would be a good idea to spend time in Europe since we’ll be in Asia for the next few years. And because Spain was our second choice after Taiwan, we definitely wanted to visit it during the trip.

Our full itinerary:

Spain (26 days)

  • Barcelona
  • Valencia
  • Madrid

Portugal (14 days)

  • Porto
  • Lisbon

I’m really intrigued by Portugal. While I’ve been to Spain and Italy (over 15 years ago!), Baba and I have never been to Portugal. For the past few years, there has also been a huge influx of Americans moving to Portugal because of its easy visa requirements, laid back lifestyle and mild climate. I’m curious to see what the hype is all about.

Italy (15 days)

  • Venice
  • Florence
  • Rome

It will be HOT in Europe during the summer, but I guess that will prepare us for the inferno that awaits us in Taiwan? Ahh! I’m not sure my heat-sensitive body can handle.

We are mostly staying in the major cities but plan on doing a few day trips to smaller towns (e.g., Montserrat in Spain and Pisa in Italy). This time, we also have the luxury of staying in each place for an extended period. Our shortest visit is in Porto, where we’re staying for 4 nights. With two kids in tow and 4 suitcases to lug around, we thought it’d be best to take things slow. This is totally different than our previous trips, where we’re zooming to the next place every 2-3 days!

What’s also different this time around is that we’re not planning everything to a tee. We do have our airfare, train tickets and Airbnbs booked (we’re not that crazy!) but we don’t have a set itinerary where we have to see a certain museum on a specific date, or have dinner reservations at a certain restaurant. This is probably due to us having a lot more time to dabble around. But it’s more likely that we’re just being lazy.

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Goodbye Brings Hello

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Last week, we submitted notice that we won’t be returning to our school in the fall.

It’s a simple form, but I felt so conflicted filling it out. Even with our first year of kindergarten being completely virtual due to Covid, we found a wonderful, welcoming community at our school. I will miss seeing familiar friendly faces, soccer games and get-togethers, and the 5-minute walk to school.

Besides missing the obvious things like our school, family, and friends, I thought about all the “little” things I will miss about living in SF:

  • The oven: I LOVE to cook and bake with my oven. However, most Taiwan apartments don’t have ovens but maybe we can get a small convection oven as a compromise?
  • Food diversity: Taiwan has amazing food but I appreciate the variety of cuisines and ingredients in SF. Now that we’re only 1.5 months away from moving, I’ve been trying to cook and eat foods that will be hard to find in Taiwan (which includes Mexican, Indian and Southern fare).
  • Weather: I probably complained a little too much about the rain and cold this year but oh, I will yearn for the cool weather in SF when we have to face the typhoons and hot, humid weather in Taipei!
  • Neighborhood: While our 2-bedroom apartment is nothing to write home about, we love our neighborhood. Close to family, school, parks and grocery stores, the location is so convenient. I’ve heard that everything is incredibly convenient in Taipei so I’m not worried about that while we’re abroad. I just hope that we can find a place just as convenient when we return to the city.

As I get wistful about moving, it’s nice to find encouraging messages in unexpected places. One of those places is in a children’s book called Goodbye Brings Hello. I borrowed a ton of books about moving and dealing with change for C and O, but it turns out I may be the one who needs them most.

“There are many ways of letting go. With each goodbye, a new hello.”

This short but sweet book is about changes in life. It can be so difficult to say goodbye to the familiar. But the beauty is that when we say goodbye to something, we are often saying hello to something else. So as we say goodbye to our friends, school, oven, and neighborhood, we will say hello to many new things and experiences in Taiwan. And those hellos can be fabulous.

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Close, But No Cigar

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Whew, it’s been a minute! I have some good news and bad news. First, the good news: my application is approved! I’m now officially a Taiwan Gold Card Visa holder. Bad news: Baba’s application is still in limbo and there are still so many things to do before we can all officially move to Taiwan.

Our visa application process hasn’t exactly been a walk in the park. A couple of weeks after I submitted my employment certificate, I received a response that my application does not belong under the Field of Economy but rather the Field of Finance because my former employer is in the insurance brokerage industry. The problem was, I wouldn’t exactly qualify under the Field of Finance. In addition to needing to have earned NT$160,000 a month, I would need some kind of financial expertise which I don’t have.

We decided to write a letter of appeal. I argued that while the my company could be classified under the financial industry, my job responsibilities and degrees are purely in business.

Meanwhile, Baba also received a similar response. His application under the Field of Economy was denied but they offered to do a special review with the National Development Agency. We learned that this process could take 1-2 months. We were already approaching March and plan to leave on June 3rd so we didn’t have the luxury of waiting.

We felt stuck. Doubt started to seep in and I was stressed. We started googling visa requirements for Spain. Although we could qualify for their Non-Lucrative Retirement Visa, timing would be extremely tight. And do we apply for Spain while waiting to hear back from Taiwan? How much time should we give Taiwan to get back to us? Is there anything we can do now for Spain’s application that is easy and low-cost in case our Taiwan visa gets approved? Why didn’t we apply for our visa earlier?! We had many questions but no answers.

But then, on the evening of March 6, I received the fantastic news: my application got approved! The next step was to submit my passport for inspection, and go through a final review by the National Immigration Agency. On March 15, I received my temporary Taiwan Gold Card. (I will need to pick up the official Gold Card when we’re in Taiwan.)

Baba’s application is still under review. At this point, he had written a letter to the visa office with more information about his work experience and education. He requested that his application be approved under the Field of Finance since his former employer is in the finance industry and he had worked closely with finance managers.

Initially, the visa office denied Baba’s request to move his application to the Field of Finance. They told him they need to do a further review of his “unique expertise.” But just this morning, Baba received an update that he could apply under the Field of Finance. Wish they could’ve made this decision when we made the initial request – that could’ve saved us 2 weeks!!

At this point, Baba could technically apply as my spouse but he won’t be able to work in Taiwan and there is more administrative work. For one thing, he would need to get a health examination that includes a chest x-ray, syphilis test, skin exam, among other things. He would then need to get a health certificate from his doctor and get the certificate “authenticated” by the Taiwan consulate. For now, our plan is to do two things at once: Baba re-applies under the Field of Finance and goes through the health exam in case the former option doesn’t work out.

But wait, there’s more! We have kids! Before we can apply for visas for C and O, Baba and I have to prove that we’re married. (Apparently, Taiwan doesn’t recognize children born out of wedlock 😆.) But the joke is on us, because our marriage certificate is from South Africa which complicates things a bit. All documents issued outside of Taiwan must be authenticated by the Taiwan consulate from where the document originated. Well, we obviously don’t live in South Africa so we had to hire an agent to help us with the authentication process of our marriage certificate. The Taiwan consulate in SA sent us a list of agents, so I contacted one, wired him money and prayed that this isn’t some elaborate scam. Our agent told us the process can take 4-5 weeks so we continue to wait.

In addition to the marriage certificate, we have to provide and authenticate C and O’s birth certificates and vaccination records. We also had to get a health exam and certificate for C, which of course needs to be authenticated too. (Children under 6 years do not have to get a health exam so O is spared.) Thankfully, since these documents were all issued in the SF Bay Area, we can bring them to the Taiwan consulate in San Francisco ourselves. And this all needs to be done before we fill out the actual visa application for the boys!

At the very least, my application is approved so there’s a high chance the rest of the family can get their visas too. But there’s still so much do to before we get there. I’ll post another update as things move along!