Posted on by Mike

A year abroad in Taipei

We had always talked about taking the family to either China or Taiwan for a year. We realized that the 2017-2018 academic year would be the best timing for the kids’ school, but it seemed hard to disconnect from work and everything else at home in California. However, when Mike quit his job in April 2017, we started talking about this adventure as a concrete possibility. By mid-June we had committed to taking the kids out of school in the U.S. for a year, and by mid-August we were in Taipei!

Posted on by Mike

Packing up

To get ready for the move to Taiwan, we threw out about half the clutter in our house, and packed the rest of our stuff into storage.

We were allowed 12 pieces of luggage on the plane… including Mike’s digital piano in an oversized box ($200 baggage fee). Here is Clifford in the almost-empty house posing with one of the eight duffle bags we bought at Costco, and the box containing the digital piano. We sent these pictures to the airport shuttle driver in Taiwan, so that he could judge the volume of our stuff; he decided we needed to order two vans.

Posted on by Mike

Plane to another planet

While on the plane back to Taipei from our break in Indonesia, I looked up at the map screen on the back of the seat in front of me. I was shocked never to have heard of any of these places!

  • Palawan Trough
  • Kota Kinabalu
  • Bander Seri Begawan
  • Miri
  • Long Akah
  • SULU SEA
  • Sandakan
  • Jolo
  • Zamboanga
  • Butuan
  • Davao
  • Koronadal
  • CELEBS SEA

They sound like place names out of an Ursula K. Le Guin novel! I felt like I was looking down across the new cities built on Mars after it had been terraformed by Elon Musk. (Maybe I missed class on the day our Geography class covered SE Asia?)