Settling in to Taipei

I am currently working about 40 hours a week at my new job at Happy Marian School. This school is very expensive and so all the students are from wealthy families: they all have nannies and the district attorney's son is one of the students. I have a very small class of only four students, who are 3 and 4 years old. Their names are Dhwani (Indian child from Gujarat), Jeff, Max and Jessie. They are cute but speak almost no English, which is certainly challenging. The school is very nice and well-organized and both my co-workers and the administrative staff have been helpful and supportive. All the teachers (8 others) are Westerners, which is nice because it makes me feel less isolated. So I think I will enjoy working here.

B and I are now looking for housing, which is not readily accessible to foreigners. There are plenty of rental properties available, but nearly all listings are in Chinese and most landlords do not speak English. So we are finding it somewhat difficult. However, I think that with some perseverance, we should be able to find an apartment in the next two weeks. At least now we know what we want. We can definitely afford something nicer than our apartment in San Francisco, so I think the new apartment will have two or more bedrooms.