Officialness

Nothing says "I'm an official resident" like a library card!

...a close second is that other government-issued resident card in my purse that took us forms upon forms and weeks upon weeks to actually get.  And admittedly, it was a prerequisite to get this here library card. But still--public library officialness felt really good :)




Here is Theo, contained once again in his stroller, after he had gone nuts pulling books off the shelves to put in his rolling basket he had commandeered for his book-borrowing mission.

The children's section of the library is amazing. About half of the books are in English. We got a few of those, but what I was really excited about were the simple Chinese books with audio CDs. They're a bit above my level, but the pictures are nice and I can follow along if there are "beeps" :)

This whole library trip was only possible thanks to my sweet friend Ming Li (who I met at church our first week in Taiwan). She met Theo and I at our apartment and helped us take a bus to the library and fill out the forms, etc.  She's an absolute angel!

This is the card scanner that I need to tap with my bus card after I've managed to get Theo, stroller, and self up the 4 steps onto the bus. Again, this was only possible with Ming Li's assistance this first go-around. It will be a tough dance to choreograph on my own.  Timing will be key. Luckily, the bus stop right next to our apartment has an electronic indicator that says which bus is approaching next (luckily the numbers are Arabic numerals vs. characters in this case so I can recognize them amidst the other characters that I have no idea what they mean. This heads-up lets me get Theo out of his stroller and fold it up at just the right time.


This is Ming Li's finger telling me what bus stop we were at right next to my apartment. I took a photo so I could count the dots next time.