I need to write a post about getting a Household Registration in Taiwan. My mother thought I was crazy in getting one since we don’t live there. But it makes life so much easier when you have an ID and is household registered. You can go to school there!
We went to the library a few more times after this but honestly I did not like my library experience. They’re big on the children being quiet, even in the children’s section. Not sure how that attracts any child to want to stay at a library.
Itinerary: Chinese breakfast, Household Registration ID, Daan Park, Gyoza lunch, Taipei library
The days are starting to blur together and I’m taking fewer and fewer pictures.
In keeping with my plan of just one main event a day, I decided I needed to get my Taiwanese ID today now that the kids are semi-adjusted to jetlag. Astroboy woke up at 5am in the morning, and we went on our typical walk to the neighborhood Chinese breakfast place after getting coffee at 7-11. We saw a kitty cat in a restaurant and stopped to admire him. Astroboy said, “It’s drinking coffee!”
He is getting used to the Taiwanese intersections. He likes to point out when the lights are green or red and is very concerned when we do not wait at a red light. The road parallels a metro line that’s up high and he likes to ask when it’s going to arrive every 3 minutes as we walk to the restaurant. The metro doesn’t start till 6am daily.
Today there were more scantily clad women with much older men eating breakfast at the break fast place. Wish I could have taken some pictures!
After breakfast, since it was close to 6am, we decided to hop on a metro. But we got a text a few stops in telling us that Thumper had woken up. I didn’t think she’d wake up so early considering she went to by at 9pm. But we rushed home after that.
After Thumper had her breakfast, we headed out again by taking a taxi to the Household Registration office. This is where you register for your whole family. For what purpose I have no idea. But I needed to do that in order replace my super old ID.
Your household registration is transferred out when you leave the country for over 2 years. I had to give them the household registration record I’m transferring in, a head shot, my old ID, and an hour later I had my new one! It was really painless and the office is the most user friendly one I’ve ever seen; unlike most public service departments.
However, by this time the kids were hungry, so while we waited for the ID to get made, we rushed out and tried to find a 7-11 for some snack. Failing to find one (how is that possible?), we went to a Mos Burger, which is a Japanese hamburger chain store. We got the cheese burger and K did not like it at all. It had some sort of strange ketchup sauce that had chopped up tomatoes in them. Astroboy wolfed it down. I was told later that I needed to try the rice burger instead.
After we got our ID, I decided to walk in the light drizzling rain to Daan Park because the kids have been antsy at home. Astroboy fell asleep in the stroller so Thumper played there by herself for a bit. She fell from the monkey bars because it was slippery. And Astroboy in his rolled up pants (he’d gotten hot chocolate from Mos Burger on them) invited a few comments about how it’s too cold.
Very typical Taiwanese response. People are concerned with food, and if you’re wearing enough clothing.
Things were wet so we couldn’t really do much. But there were still kids there. I really like the Daan Park area especially now that the metro line opened this year. It’s just so close to everything, schools, shopping, eatery, etc. I imagine it’s super expensive to live here though, having that nice park right across the street from you.
By now it was 12:30 and I was getting hungry, so we double backed the way we came via the other side of the park (it’s a rectangular park), to Taipei Main Library. It was a long walk and I was famished by the time we got there. I spied a gyoza place 八方雲集 and we had gyoza, soy milk, and some corn chowder (which the kids didn’t care for). This restaurant was a designed vendor when there was the International Flower Expo 2 years ago and my mom said that only really tasty vendors get chosen. I don’t know if it’s true but I do really like their gyoza.
There are 11-15 floors to the Taipei Main library, including an area just for kids to study. The children’s collection was down in B1. It was a much smaller collection than I thought and most of the books were well flipped through. I was very surprised by it. The other thing I didn’t like was that there were signs every where saying library is a quiet place. There were 2 other children there on a weekday afternoon but I didn’t feel comfortable staying long since the kids wanted to talk. I thought it was strange because if you want children to like the library, especially young children, I didn’t think posting “Quiet” signs is the way the go.
We chose 6 books and went upstairs to get a library card. You can borrow 10 books for 30 days. I’m so glad I have an ID now. It really opens doors on so many more things in the city. We checked out using an automated system. Oh and my Easy Card is my library card! So convenient. Every book has an RFID tag, which is the controversial short radio frequency system they tried to implement in Berkeley library and had much opposition because it’s wireless. Here, we just put a stack of 3-5 books and it automatically checks it out for you.
As we left the library, I spied a automated library book checkout machine. It’s a huge vending machine-like contraption with books inside. You can browse through them behind a glass and then use your library card to check it out. It will dispense the book into the slot below just like a vending machine. A really neat machine.
We walked the long way home and by this time the kids were tired from all the walking. Strangely, the minute they got home, they wanted to play with the cousins and neither wanted to sleep. I took a nap myself while they roamed free and then we had a delicious dinner at home before turning in again at 9pm.
All in all a very productive day!
