xiang pian

these are the pictures from my birthday, and a few more from abha's engagement ceremony. this is the ooonly picture i have of guillermo and i by ourselves.

fun time at lustre pearl.
this was abha's engagement table/altar? i don't know what it's called. but if you look carefully, you can see the laptop in the bottom left behind those flowers.
so colorful! kelly and i were feeling left out in black and white.
once we all had the stuff on our heads.
could they look any happier?!

yesterday we had rain all day from the hurricane moving up from the gulf coast. kind of put a damper on work since the kids had to stay inside an extra hour and a half. craziness definitely ensued, but we made it. this morning is still pretty wet, but it isn't raining yet.

mid twenties

it's my birthday!
andy and i went to walton's fancy and staple for lunch, which i had never heard of/looooved. it's owned by sandra bullock and it's new to austin. kind of a bistro, but in the back it's a florist and stationery shop. so beautiful.
i could live in there if they would just tuck a bed into the side of the wall or something. so light and bright with fresh daisies everywhere and giant white windows.(these are pictures i took with my iphone. so fancy.)
then we went to a frozen yogurt place for dessert. what a nice start to my birthday.

tonight i'm going to the melting pot with the fam. right now i'm in the process of talking my mom into letting me open oneee present. i'm not winning the battle, but i haven't really given it my all yet. i'll post pictures after dinner tonight.
update: i got to open gram's presents. check out how fluffy my shoulders are in this top.

other than that, yesterday i sorted everything in my room that's been accumulating in there since i was little. you wouldn't believe the things i uncovered. pictures to come.

and everywhere in between

driving in a pack is awesome. i can see why there are motorcycle gangs. tonight, 8 or 10 of us drove to a thai place in nan kan for carly's birthday dinner and it was so much fun to drive with people you know around you. they all drive faster than i usually do, so maybe part of the excitement was flying around turns and zipping past other people?

when we got back home, we went down into the garage one after another like a little mototcycle/scooter parade. it sounds lame now that i'm typing this, but you'll just have to imagine the awesomeness. for 3 minutes, we were our own little biker gang of english teachers.
dinner was reaalllly good. pad thai made by people who are truly from thailand. it came with an elegant little presentation of crushed peanuts on a lettuce leaf and a wedge of lime and then 4 white ceramic sugar bowls with sugar, chili oil, chili flakes and fish sauce to add according to your tastes. for $5.
carly is from england and she's here with her boyfriend, steph. they're so caring and sweet toward each other even though their style is kind of unconventional. love carly's eggplant colored hair.. she reminds me of my favorite parts of studying abroad in brighton.
that cake was chocolate with a layer of blueberry jam. it alllmost tasted like cake from home. i don't know how to describe taiwanese cake except to say that it's just full of air and doesn't have much of a taste. if your eyes were closed, you wouldn't be able to tell what flavor it is.
the best part of desserts are the teeny little utensils they come with. i know people will think i'm one of those weirdo's who's obsessed with the country she briefly lived in, but i'm definitely going to serve desserts with miniature spoons and forks from now on.

i'm loving having you around

adventure of today: getting dyed blonde in taiwan
thanks to a good samaritan, i missed the fast train and wound up on the super slow train to taipei. then i encountered a series of helpful people including a flier-passer-outer, a taxi driver, and 3 guys who work in a kitchen who were in a back alley on a smoke break. thanks to those 3, i ended up at the salon.

it could be a very long story but the highlights are..
-dark purple satin merlin robes that the attendants helped you put on in the middle of the waiting room of the salon
-the attendants themselves were dressed in khaki one pieces that would remind you of what mechanics wear.
-my stylist, peter, spoke lovely english and i told him about 400 times that i was completely freaked out and that i would definitely be in tears if my hair turned out orange at the end of it
-when i got my hair done in austin over christmas, i asked my normal stylist what the worst thing they could do to me would be.. she said leave the color on too long. it should be 10 or 15 min
-peter told me he intended to leave it 30min
-i told him to come check me at 15
-he didn't come. i demanded that someone rinse me out
-they said wait a minute
-i stood up and just made a mini-scene until someone walked me to the sinks
-it turned out very well! it's more or less the right color. no orange, no green

the real highlight of my day was a man in the train station telling me my chinese was very good. i asked him a question and then we started chatting. i never get tired of encouragement.

tonight we had a big birthday party for katie/jerry. it included pinatas, tequila, balloon animals, pin the tail on the donkey and various other party games that tess dreamed up. super fun, super messy. a beer and a bottle of vodka both crashed and flew into a million pieces on the tile.
big day tomorrow. time for bed.

you would be in bloom

these are some leftover pictures from park day yesterday.
on monday, my 9-10 year old class had the QA 'what do you like to collect?' with the new vocab 'stamps, marbles, stickers and coins'. i got around to one kid, scott, who's cute and likes to joke around with me and he had written 'a pretty Megan'. i gave him a sticker, but i had to tell him that you can't collect megan's.
it has been so crazy windy the last few days. it's so scary to be driving along and then it feels like someone just pushed the wheels of your scooter out from under you. all of the sudden you'll be 2 feet to the left or right and you can't do anything about it. i just stay a little further away from the side of the road and try to be extra aware of who's behind me and how fast they're coming up on me.
(the next 2 pictures are from the little park next to our house).
twbf sent me a whole list of places we can check out today and their corresponding websites!
tonight i had a demo with my kindy girls. the parents were concerned that i talk too fast and that their kids don't want to listen to the CD that goes along with their book. we told them to let their kids watch any kind of english shows or cartoons they're interested in.

i finally know enough chinese that those meetings are starting to make more sense to me. it's pretty weird to be in a conference when everyone's talking about you and your class but you don't understand what's being said and no one's translating.
katie turned 24 (or 25?) today and we all sang happy birthday and someone bought her a taiwan-fab cake.
it had..
a layer of jello-y custard
a thick layer of [some kind of] purple bean
some jelly covered fruit
and tons of cake art on top
and it came in a super patterny box.

i'm doing research for my outside class tomorrow who chose to learn about sports, comics and the environment and i found..
at greenbydesign.com. sad.
all the more reason not to buy plastic things and buy things likeee..
these organic bags bec sent me the link to yesterday. they're on saleee. $34.99 for all 5.

i don't know if you can dance

you would think you were in two different countries with the weather differences between yesterday and today. yesterday was rainy, gray, dreary and gross. today was sunny, warm, breezy and beautiful. 4 of the girls from the dorm went out for lunch today which was nice and then dena and i did our lesson plans in the park in the sunshine.

i might be totally ridiculous but i think i have a teeny crush on my language exchange. we've been jokingly calling him taiwanese boyfriend at the dorm today. i was beginning to wonder if i wasn't dead inside, so it's been nice to have the hint of a sparkle, even if i wasn't looking for it.
we're going to have lunch tomorrow and maybe go on a field trip on sunday with bobo and friends if we can find a way to this park. we need a train or a bus or something because we both only have a scooter and it isn't scooterable.

i knowwww, i took the bait. but i've been driving myself insane overthinking my future and spending too much time alone lately, so it's nice to have something/someone else to think about for a bit. even it is just a new friend. i guess we'll see what happens. i'm out of here in july. what's the worst that could happen.

today is josh's birthday so we all went out to a korean bbq place where you grill stuff on charcoal grills at the table. it was really cool. i think i ate my weight in little strips of beef and lamb and kimchi hot pot. the servers were all crowded around the server station next to our table seeing if they could understand us, but i saw one say ting bu dong (hear but don't understand) to another, so i guess not. fun night though.

p.s. this reminded me of my favorite local businesses in taiwan/austin
check out their website at the 3/50 project

happy birthday ripley

this is ripley in her happy birthday life vest so she can swim with us at the lake.. it looks like that may not have been her birthday wish.

talk like an open book

my jr high class was really amusing today. it was a review class about food and drinks and i had no idea what i was going to do. i put a bunch of pictures of food on a flash drive and i had planned to just discuss the pictures, but i turned it into a game where they had to identify the name of the dish, the country of origin, the ingredients, and whether or not i made it.
here are some examples..
bbq sandwich. ..i said it was from america but heck if i know where it originated.. pork/beef, onions, cabbage, carrots, bread. i didn't make it
meatloaf. america. beef, onions, eggs, bread, ketchup. i didn't make it.
enchiladas. mexico. tortillas (a whole mystery on their own), tomato sauce, peppers, cheese, meat. i didn't make it.

and i showed them a picture of sushi from my favorite sushi place in austin (sushi niichi) just so they'd get to see what sushi is like in america i.e., not covered in corn and meat floss.

today is kristin's birthday. we all signed a card for her and the secretaries bought her a piece of cake. she seems to be adjusting relatively well. she's the only new person we've had that has had a reaction like i had when i first got here. it must be a big change after 10 years in the military.

...do i neeeed this? i think so. it's my color. $49 full price at j. crew. they've really gotten realistic with their prices this season (simple cotton dresses are starting around $70 rather than $100-130). i think i'll wait for a sale.

tess was asking about hotels in this area because her friend is coming in a few weeks and i discovered hotelscombined.com, it's kind of like kayak.com where it aggregates the info from a bunch of different travel websites to find the best deals. i was surprised to find out how many hotels there are in taoyuan. i like that they have lots of pictures.

p.s. look what came up on tastespotting
chocolate apple pie?!

happy birthday majjy

me: happy birthday majjayyy!
maj: happy birthday to meeee! yippee!!!

my parents birthdays are a week apart which makes for a good birthday extravaganza around my house. here's my mom in the pose she's in most often: talking on the cell phone.
hmm i have a few mom stories.
when we were little, she told us that we were so smart and capable and fun and that we should figure out what we like to do and find a way to make money doing it. i think those lessons have carried me through my life with confidence and a sense that things will work out.
actually my favorite mom story involves maj and me.
she had a tumor on her pituitary gland in her 20s so they told her she probably wouldn't be able to have kids. so a couple of months after my parents got married, they were on a wine tasting tour in napa valley and my mom got sick after she had a sip of wine at dinner, and she was in tears because she thought her body was rejecting it because she was an alcoholic. so my dad was all angry because they were on this wine tour and my mom wouldn't drink any wine. but my grandma said that all of her symptoms sounded like she might be pregnant.. and she was!
(who remembers the face transformer? you should be thankin' your lucky stars i chose anime mom and not monkey mom for this post.)
i think some of my favorite things about my mom are her use of the word 'minchy' which means crabby, more or less. and that we both see 11:11 (angel hour) on the clock all the time. and that she taught me that there are no accidents and instilled all sorts of good metaphysical beliefs in me as a little kid. and that we're really close and i know she loves me unconditionally.
when i was a freshman in high school, everyone else was really excited about homecoming and i found out about 'mum's' which are these giant white chrysanthemums with ribbons and all sorts of things hanging off of them and i was kind of sad that i wouldn't have one, but then on homecoming morning my mom surprised me with one she had made at a florist. it was giant and had my name on it and all of my activities and it was perfect.
and in elementary school she came to talk to my class about recycling and i was so proud that she was my mom. althoughhh, that same year, she forgot to pick me and our carpool buddy chadwick up from school and it was raining and we hid under the slide for a while and finally went in the school but i couldn't remember my phone number and it was horrific. but everyone makes mistakes.
so love you majtown. happy birthday! i hope someone makes you crepes. nutritious and delicious.

fajtown

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FAJJYYY!!
my dad is one of my favorite people. he has the quickest sense of humor of anyone i know and he's thoughtful, easy to be around and really fun. i'm always proud to have him with me when we're in public because he's good at putting people at ease and making little jokes.
it's funny how your outlook expands as you get older. when i was little i thought my dad was cool because he would take me to dairy queen after kindergarten and he pried some little boy's knee out of a rogue shopping cart at costco. one time we were at the grocery store and i was riding underneath the shopping cart where the dog food usually goes and got my finger sucked up into the wheel and was bleeding everywhere, and he carried me to the restaurant and wrapped it in napkins.
now we do things like watch the sunday morning show and take trips to the grocery store and stock up on old forest salami and parmesan goldfish. and we still take trips to costco. those hot dogs hit the spot sometimes.
and he has a nickname for everyone and everything. jeff and matt and i all have a million variations on our names that have all been thought up by faj [one of mine went from pooch head to pooch-heada to poochie to poocherella (which i think came from mom actually) to pooch and beyond]. almost everyone we know has some kind of code name.
so i'm lucky to have such a good dad. happy birthday faj!
time for bed. long day.

josh's birthday

well the dorm came out in full force for josh's birthday tonight. i think the last time we had everyone in one place like that was thanksgiving. josh is really a character though and i think we're all glad to have him around. it was really sweet.
lesley and danielle and i made a chocolate layer cake.. mostly lesley. i creamed the butter and the sugar.
his nickname is vosh because the school misspelled his name on a certificate they gave him once.
i reused the wrapping paper i had saved from my birthday presents in september. the jiffy pop fit perfectly in that polka dotted paper.

tess, our newest girl. although they just put up a name on the noe's old room: chrissy. we're not sure when she's due, but it's probably soon.
bobo surrounded by a bunch of her students. josh, mike and steve were there but i didn't get any pictures of josh and steve. they were mostly hanging out outside and i was too cold to venture into the elements.
JG and i. we decorated the living daylights out of that box with a set of crayons. i didn't get any pictures of the final product. jon and john both wrote him a song.
jon must have practiced his for us at least 10 times before josh came home from class. it was really cute how much thought he put into it.
new new john's song was kind of lacking substance since he's only known josh a week.. but the heart was there.
jon bought these knockoff adidas called jumps. he has lots of funny terms that he likes to throw around.. nugs (chicken nuggets), jumps, cruisin' the gut on my hog. he's hilarious. we have a lot of fun joking around.
nearly everyone.. minus alex, josh, steve, mike, martyn and dena.
the girls. lesley and i spent maybe an hour at starbucks this evening chatting. our families are surprisingly similar. i'm going to miss her when she's out of here.

the end of the night just devolved into silliness.
there's one of my only alex pictures, lily. he got there kind of late and most of the picture taking had ended.

other than that.. i ate some kelp at the kuos and a table of guys were listening to mr. kuo and i go through my chinese flash cards. i learned all of the makeup words, so mrs. chan and i were discussing why she never wears makeup. mr. kuo said 'no money!' and i said 'yin wei wo bu hui gei nimen qian, suoyi chan tai tai bu hui mai saihong han jie mao gao.' (because you don't let me give you money.. so mrs. chan can't buy blush or mascara). and they just whacked me with my book and laughed. the table next to us was laughing and mrs. chan told them all about me and how i come there all the time.

fun day. it's 4:30. time for bed.