this evening as i was reading under the tuscan sun at peace coffee, next door to the spa and latini's, i was pretty inspired by the author giving advice to a woman about taking a leap and doing what you really want to do. she said something to the effect that no matter how many obstacles you have to deal with, in the end, the joy you get from living the way you really want to makes all of it worth it.
i've always cared about and been interested in environmental conservation and protection and i've spent the better part of today researching environmental grad programs. in one of the books i'm reading, a short history of nearly everything, bill bryson writes a lot about how different species are going extinct all the time and how the world is becoming less and less sustainable. the global community definitely seems interested in what it can do to reverse some of the effects humans have had on the planet. and so am i.
for now though, i'm thinking about how i can make the most of being in taiwan. this weekend i'm going to try to find a new scooter, next week i'm going to yoga down the street since i was too ill to go this week, and i'm going to hit the chinese harder from here on out. it's kind of exciting thinking about coming back because nowww i can bring back cool things from taiwan instead of leaving everything i don't have room for here.
bobo requested that i bring underwear with cartoons on it and multicolored hair bows for the girls when i come back. it's funny how they have every plastic hair thingy in the world here, but she wants grosgrain bows that are apparently only in america.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
purple mountains majesty
i already updated about today but i have three bits of urgent news from later in the day:
1. bobo, jaime and i went to joyce's school for their open house day. we just stood outside her classroom and watched through the open window. when she saw me, pandemonium broke loose. she started screaming 'MEGANNNN!' and the whole class just stopped and looked at me for 30 seconds or so and then joyce would intermittently scream 'MEGANN!' for the rest of the class.
she goes to a catholic Montessori kindergarten. i recognized some of the stuff we had at my Montessori, like those beads that are on rows and they fit inside a clear box. lots of sensory stations.
2. i got ice cream at deli manjoo (keith and my faaavorite ice cream place) on my way out of carrefour today and i got what i thought was pistachio that was really.. corn and green bean. not joking, it had french cut, frozen green beans and little kernels of corn in it. it tasted pretty good until i got a better look at it and realized what i was eating. it kind of creeped me out once i knew what it was
3. when i got to mr. kuo's today, he got his trusty note pad off the top of the counter and wrote '338-163 ObaMa' and he, mr. wang, mr. whatever and i all toasted Obama.
1. bobo, jaime and i went to joyce's school for their open house day. we just stood outside her classroom and watched through the open window. when she saw me, pandemonium broke loose. she started screaming 'MEGANNNN!' and the whole class just stopped and looked at me for 30 seconds or so and then joyce would intermittently scream 'MEGANN!' for the rest of the class.
she goes to a catholic Montessori kindergarten. i recognized some of the stuff we had at my Montessori, like those beads that are on rows and they fit inside a clear box. lots of sensory stations.
2. i got ice cream at deli manjoo (keith and my faaavorite ice cream place) on my way out of carrefour today and i got what i thought was pistachio that was really.. corn and green bean. not joking, it had french cut, frozen green beans and little kernels of corn in it. it tasted pretty good until i got a better look at it and realized what i was eating. it kind of creeped me out once i knew what it was
3. when i got to mr. kuo's today, he got his trusty note pad off the top of the counter and wrote '338-163 ObaMa' and he, mr. wang, mr. whatever and i all toasted Obama.
heck yes, america!
i am so proud of obama! he's a truly intelligent man who will surround himself with capable people and make the best collective decisions possible. it's exciting to think about what this represents for minorities of all kinds in america. hopefully he can fix everything by the time i get back in july ;) that would be nice.
this morning a bunch of us went to john's apartment to watch the election unfold while we ate delicious chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, hash browns and eggs. it was pretty exciting to watch the electoral college's votes add up with people who care about what's happening. i guess we all had a good feeling he would win, but no one wanted to jinx it.
it's weird being in taiwan while all of this is going on though. it seems like the whole nation is celebrating at home right now and it's really quiet here. a handful of american teachers are pretty excited though. we were exchanging 'happy obama day' greetings this afternoon.
a comment posted on one of the blogs i read was pretty good:
this morning a bunch of us went to john's apartment to watch the election unfold while we ate delicious chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, hash browns and eggs. it was pretty exciting to watch the electoral college's votes add up with people who care about what's happening. i guess we all had a good feeling he would win, but no one wanted to jinx it.
it's weird being in taiwan while all of this is going on though. it seems like the whole nation is celebrating at home right now and it's really quiet here. a handful of american teachers are pretty excited though. we were exchanging 'happy obama day' greetings this afternoon.
a comment posted on one of the blogs i read was pretty good:
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Obama for president
ooh mann i am getting so exciteddd!!! can't wait for tomorrow morning to watch the polls close.well, i think i'm getting over my cold. i had a glass of lemon iced tea at lunch with a bowl of french onion soup, chamomile iced tea before dinner, chinese rice noodle soup for dinner before class, chicken noodle soup for dinner after class. i've been hitting the liquids pretty hard.
..i don't really have much to say today. when i was walking from one bus to another tonight, a group of taiwanese men eating soup looked up and one guy said 'welcome to taiwan! merry christmas!' to me.
Monday, November 3, 2008
it seems like only yesterday
i hate colds more than any illness. i've had this yellow baby blanket since i was born, i sleep with it, i like to smell it, it's just my thing. but when i have a cold, i can't smell it and it really makes me crazy. and i'm used to not taking in that much air when i'm sleeping and i wake up with a really dry throat. it's silly but i really hate it :P
i even got spanky on the covering your nose while you sleep train. he sleeps with a tissue over his nose now.
well i just got off the phone with aunt carol, then gram, then majjy. thank goodness for skype. there's something about hearing your mom's (or dad's) voice that just makes you feel collected. it would be nice to actually see them, but talking on the phone has been really comforting.
i think we all decided that staying to finish the rest of my contract is probably the best idea for me right now. i can learn a lot more chinese and save a bunch more money. and i'll still be back in time for the next football season and my birthday. who knows. it isn't official until i've bought my plane ticket.
today was low key. chinese class where we're learning pretty useful vocab. latini's for lunch with JG and then class. i've been dragging because of my cold, but it's running its course.
time for bed though. it's late
i even got spanky on the covering your nose while you sleep train. he sleeps with a tissue over his nose now.
well i just got off the phone with aunt carol, then gram, then majjy. thank goodness for skype. there's something about hearing your mom's (or dad's) voice that just makes you feel collected. it would be nice to actually see them, but talking on the phone has been really comforting.
i think we all decided that staying to finish the rest of my contract is probably the best idea for me right now. i can learn a lot more chinese and save a bunch more money. and i'll still be back in time for the next football season and my birthday. who knows. it isn't official until i've bought my plane ticket.
today was low key. chinese class where we're learning pretty useful vocab. latini's for lunch with JG and then class. i've been dragging because of my cold, but it's running its course.
time for bed though. it's late
Sunday, November 2, 2008
vaya con dios
現在我可以寫中文. (i can write in chinese now). it's been pretty exciting. i've had lots of partial conversations with everyone i can get my g-chatting hands on. i type the pinyin (the phonetic spelling) and it just pops up the characters. it's pretty easy and then i don't have to worry about missing a tiny line or a box. i'm always forgetting parts of characters.
it was a very quiet weekend. i'm still getting over my sore throat, now kind of cruddy throat and stuffy nose. i woke up at 830 to listen to the UT game. we were behind Tech the entire game until the 4th quarter with like a minute to go. we scored and were ahead by 1 point. but Tech had possession of the ball and they just marched down the field for something like 60 yards in 6 plays and scored, leaving us literally one second on the clock to try to score. but we didn't. we lost by 6 points =\ but our defense wasn't playing very well and neither was the offense, so we kind of deserved it.
other than thattt.. i attempted to make the indian pudding but the 'black syrup molasses' i bought from the baking store didn't have any sugar or something, and it tasted more like burnt vinegar than molasses.
hung around the dorm until 430 when i had my chinese lesson, but linda was still in taipei so i ended up just doing my homework in empty latini's and talked to bernice and dan. we're trying to find a new name for bernice since her name is kind of an old lady name. i'm going to make her a list of possibilities.
serena and i went to ali baba's for dinner and it was sooo tasty. i had the same thing i had last time, but this time we found out there was an ice cream station. we took turns nearly snapping our arms in half to dig out the rock solid ice cream, but it was totally worth it.
and that was my sunday. time for bed. this week will be full of early mornings.
it was a very quiet weekend. i'm still getting over my sore throat, now kind of cruddy throat and stuffy nose. i woke up at 830 to listen to the UT game. we were behind Tech the entire game until the 4th quarter with like a minute to go. we scored and were ahead by 1 point. but Tech had possession of the ball and they just marched down the field for something like 60 yards in 6 plays and scored, leaving us literally one second on the clock to try to score. but we didn't. we lost by 6 points =\ but our defense wasn't playing very well and neither was the offense, so we kind of deserved it.
other than thattt.. i attempted to make the indian pudding but the 'black syrup molasses' i bought from the baking store didn't have any sugar or something, and it tasted more like burnt vinegar than molasses.
hung around the dorm until 430 when i had my chinese lesson, but linda was still in taipei so i ended up just doing my homework in empty latini's and talked to bernice and dan. we're trying to find a new name for bernice since her name is kind of an old lady name. i'm going to make her a list of possibilities.
serena and i went to ali baba's for dinner and it was sooo tasty. i had the same thing i had last time, but this time we found out there was an ice cream station. we took turns nearly snapping our arms in half to dig out the rock solid ice cream, but it was totally worth it.
and that was my sunday. time for bed. this week will be full of early mornings.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
this is what dreams are made of
today was unreal. i taught my kindys this morning with almost no voice, but i made it through. the interesting part of the day was once i got home and attempted to make alex's mom's chocolate chip pumpkin cookies.
i made a trip to this baking store dena told me about on dayou road. i passed right by it the first time, called dena and got better directions, and found it. i missed it the first time because i had been picturing a little quaint store, when in reality, it was the size of the produce section of HEB. there were aisles and aisles of baking things and obscure ingredients. i bought molasses, brown sugar and ladyfingers, all for various projects.
then i went to carrefour to buy milk, ice cream, and butter. i figured that people around the dorm always have eggs, and i knew we had vanilla in the fridge. so i get home, i've creamed the butter and sugar, and i get an egg out of the fridge. but when i went to crack it, it was hard boiled. dena had boiled allll of her eggs for halloween games. aaand, my vanilla extract had been thrown out with the great fridge clean out of 2008. so i walked over to latini's to borrow an egg and vanilla. but i couldn't explain 'vanilla extract'. dan tried to give me a vanilla bean and vanilla syrup, but not extract. so i went to the coffee shop next door, but also had no luck. the woman from the coffee shop ended up walking with me to latini's, where after a few more minutes of pantomime, we finally figured it out.
then, i get back, mix in the egg and vanilla, steal some oatmeal from dena, add the flour (first i picked up the unlabeled bag of cornstarch, but noticed it was oddly bright white and put it down) and other dry stuff, but the can opener wasn't working so i couldn't get into the pumpkin. josh tried to stab it with this other can contraption, and jerry thought about stabbing it with a knife, but nothing worked. so i trekked back to the coffee shop, pumpkin in hand, and the coffee shop woman opened it for me.
at this point, i'm super sweaty from mixing everything in front of the preheating oven in a room without air conditioning, and from walking back and forth between the dorm and latini's twice.
anyway, the final news is that the cookies turned out very well and the dorm is raving about them. aside from the comedy show of making them, the cookies themselves have nothing wrong with them. they're super tasty and pretty healthy. i took a batch to latini's, the spa, and the coffee shop.
the boys went to some pub in nan kan tonight, but my throat is sore from screaming for 4 days and smoke would just bug it, so i stayed home and watched tv and chatted with everyone else for most of the night.
UT plays tech in the morning, 8 am my time! time for bed.
i made a trip to this baking store dena told me about on dayou road. i passed right by it the first time, called dena and got better directions, and found it. i missed it the first time because i had been picturing a little quaint store, when in reality, it was the size of the produce section of HEB. there were aisles and aisles of baking things and obscure ingredients. i bought molasses, brown sugar and ladyfingers, all for various projects.
then i went to carrefour to buy milk, ice cream, and butter. i figured that people around the dorm always have eggs, and i knew we had vanilla in the fridge. so i get home, i've creamed the butter and sugar, and i get an egg out of the fridge. but when i went to crack it, it was hard boiled. dena had boiled allll of her eggs for halloween games. aaand, my vanilla extract had been thrown out with the great fridge clean out of 2008. so i walked over to latini's to borrow an egg and vanilla. but i couldn't explain 'vanilla extract'. dan tried to give me a vanilla bean and vanilla syrup, but not extract. so i went to the coffee shop next door, but also had no luck. the woman from the coffee shop ended up walking with me to latini's, where after a few more minutes of pantomime, we finally figured it out.
then, i get back, mix in the egg and vanilla, steal some oatmeal from dena, add the flour (first i picked up the unlabeled bag of cornstarch, but noticed it was oddly bright white and put it down) and other dry stuff, but the can opener wasn't working so i couldn't get into the pumpkin. josh tried to stab it with this other can contraption, and jerry thought about stabbing it with a knife, but nothing worked. so i trekked back to the coffee shop, pumpkin in hand, and the coffee shop woman opened it for me.
at this point, i'm super sweaty from mixing everything in front of the preheating oven in a room without air conditioning, and from walking back and forth between the dorm and latini's twice.anyway, the final news is that the cookies turned out very well and the dorm is raving about them. aside from the comedy show of making them, the cookies themselves have nothing wrong with them. they're super tasty and pretty healthy. i took a batch to latini's, the spa, and the coffee shop.
the boys went to some pub in nan kan tonight, but my throat is sore from screaming for 4 days and smoke would just bug it, so i stayed home and watched tv and chatted with everyone else for most of the night.UT plays tech in the morning, 8 am my time! time for bed.
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I live in Ireland, a country relatively untouched by the outcome of this election (being as we are a tiny, tiny country on the outskirts of an increasingly irrelevant European bloc). Nonetheless, I've now been awake for 26+ hours because myself and ten other average Irish citizens drank our way through the night and the election. And I have one thing to say:
Congratulations, America. Hold your collective heads up high - you did the right thing.