I’ve moved to Shilin (士林)! The district gets its name from back in the day when scholars (士) were as prevalent as trees (林) here. I like to think that I’m helping to maintain the validity of the name these days…
As it is, I have arrived at my palatial residence! Here’s a shot of the building ^^
*sings* “Our house! In the middle of our street!”
Well, the palatial part is a bit of a joke. It’s just a cheap room in a shared apartment (雅房 as they call it here). I used a Taiwanese real estate site to find it (www.591.com.tw) and was mainly attracted to it due to its low price and the fact that the address contains most of my lucky and preferred numbers. After running the address through Google to make sure there were no murders or deaths in the building, I went to check the place out. When I arrived, the landlady warmly grabbed onto my arm and began treating me as she would her daughter. I don’t know if that’s a sales tactic or if she just really liked me on sight.
Don’t act so surprised… Some people enjoy my company!
Here’s some pics of my crib:
I’ve got my own room and we share the bathroom, as well as the washing machine and clothes lines on the balcony.
You may note that the laundry machine is all locked up on the balcony there. The landlady made sure to notify me several times to keep it locked so the apartment next door doesn’t use it and run up the water and electric bill. It’s all good in the hood, eh?
My door is decently decorated now and I’ve just purchased a copy of Korean Vogue so that I can make a cool collage out of the advertisements and create a cheap n’ chic wall paper by my bed. Hello living space!
All those Hello Kitty drawer baskets, bedding, and the extra set of curtains I bought to make the ones in the apartment less permeable to the sunlight were procured at this marvelous mecca of household wares called B&Q (特力屋) / HOLA (特力和樂) [You can check it out at Taipei City, Shilin District, Jihe Road, No. 258 / 台北市士林區基河路258號]
2011 is the year of the rabbit and as a result HOLA was giving out Chinese New Year gifts to hang on your door to welcome in the new year! They say 迎春 and 兔福 ~ Meet spring bunny blessings!
Perhaps the best part of where I live is the fooood. There’s all sorts of market food ^^
Also, near Shilin Station there’s an amazing bunch of Western comfort food, like Pizza Hut (although Pizza Hut here has really glocalized. I’ll post on that later), and everyone’s favorite addiction: Starbucks ^^
