What is an environmental message from children like?

Sunday and Monday could not have been more opposite of each other.

Sunday there was a birthday party at Bobo's house for herself and Joyce (her six-year-old daughter). My roomies and I arrived really late. It was fun though. We had a couple of drinks and sang karaoke.


Jamie, Joyce and a couple of their friends kept putting on these adorable shows.

It reminded me of how you were never really all that scared to perform when you were little — especially for your parents and even their friends.

This one was probably my favorite. Tess, Katie and I bought those flowers as Joyce's birthday present. They became props for all of their performances of the evening. In this case, they were crucial for the environmental message the girls were trying to send us.

If you weren't sure what Jamie was saying there at the end it was:

"Please don't take the flowers out or the Earth will be bad. Thank you."

They were just too adorable.

After the party, the roomies and I headed to Taipei for some shopping. It turned into shopping, drinking and eating.

Have a beer here, eat some street food there, buy something over there.

This place is called China Pizza. It's like tsong you bing with basil and amazing sauce.

Everything here is really different. Apparently it's perfectly OK to walk down the street with a beer in your hand. And so we did. Tess calls this phenomenon "drunk shopping."

Honestly, it was a lot of fun. We just kept buying food and beer and Christmas presents.

This is jianbao. It's a really big dumpling that's pan fried and steamed at the same time.

Luckily, I have great taste when I'm tipsy, so my Christmas shopping is much closer to done.

In the end, Katie, Graham (her friend who is visiting from America) and I ended up at this total dive bar close to the CKS Memorial.

I have to tell you, I love dive bars and I miss them so much.

Maybe they is one of the strangest things anyone has ever said, but I felt like I was back in America sitting in this little pub. Of course, I wasn't able to totally sink in and pretend we weren't in Taiwan.

Especially not after going to the bathroom.


Yes, my friends, there was no roof above the toilet in the bathroom. What do you do when there is no roof? You put an umbrella over the camode, naturally.

Now after that ridiculously long, productive and enjoyable Sunday, what was so bad about Monday?

Well, for starters, I slept forever. Then I forgot that I left my scooter at Bobo's. So I had to borrow one of my roommate's. Then I get to work just in time, as in the bell was ringing just in time.

Then I tried to go to 7-11 on break to get some tea and some chips, but I left my money in my purse which I don't take with me to school.

Luckily, it got a little better. I went to Carrefour after class and picked up my brand new contacts. Hopefully I'll be able to see again. I haven't even tried them on yet.

Also, I realized that I'm going home in TWELVE DAYS! (Ok, it was thirteen days yesterday, but yay!)

Now to just get everything in order before I head out. So much to do!

Does it have any meat in it?

I ate pigs blood last night.

I know that sounds disgusting and impossible all at the same time.

We went out in Taipei for another teacher's birthday last night and ended up at this club called Pasoul. (Pasoul sucks by the way. Stay far away.)

Afterward we're sitting out in front of the venue on some steps waiting around to make sure we didn't forget anyone. We're getting a lot better at this whole going out in groups and not leaving people behind thing.

There were two street food stands outside: one had the best smelling sausage in the world (maybe it was the slightly buzzed appetite) and one had other stuff... including pigs blood, but we didn't know that yet.

Essentially this is a Taiwanese delicacy (as I understand it at least). Ours was congealed and then mixed with rice. It was in a little block on a stick like you would see stinky tofu or pretty much anything else you buy at a street vendor.

The funny part is that my roommate, who is a vegetarian, was the one who ordered it. She went up to the stand and asked if there was any meat in it. The woman said no.

I guess that was technically true.

People here don't seem to understand the point of being a vegetarian. You just don't eat things that generally require you to kill the animal first. Somehow, I think blood falls into this category.

My roommate bought one and was talking about how it was so good and asked if I wanted a bite.

Me: Katie, does it have meat?
Katie: I don't think so. I asked the lady.
Me: Screw it. Why not?
Katie: It's really good.
Me: It's OK except for that weird gooey texture at the end. The rice really makes it edible.
Graham: Can I have some.

Katie and Graham ran off to buy another one and were halfway through it when Carson informed them that is was, in fact, congealed pigs blood on a stick. I kind of knew it was right after I ate it, but I didn't want to say anything that would freak her out.

She seemed to take it pretty well.

Today, we're going to Bobo's for her birthday (SO MANY DECEMBER BIRTHDAYS, OMG!) and then I think we're going to Taipei. I think the idea is to eat, drink and shop our way through the city. Pictures to come!

Isn't Taipei 101 magnificent?

I am proud of myself for holding out all day Sunday before I found out what the final score of the UT/OU game was. That's not to say it wasn't on the back of my mind the entire day, but I had enough cool stuff to keep myself occupied.

We had our big party Saturday night. It is three different teachers' birthdays this week and one of them rented this swank hotel room. We gathered in Taipei at the hotel and then went to this gigantic club called Luxy.

It was so much fun.

And since we already had the hotel room, most of us stayed in the city and just slept on the couch, floor, etc. I put two chairs opposite each other and used a bathrobe as a blanket.

It was kind of like being in college again.

As I was walking to the MRT from the hotel, I started to cross over Shin-Yi Road when I noticed that I could actually see the very top of Taipei 101. For those of you who don't know, 101 is currently the tallest building in the world.



I've been itching to go — I love heights and crazy cool engineering projects like this — but every Sunday I either already had plans to do something or it was cloudy/raining. Obviously it would be stupid to go to the top of a ridiculously tall building when it's cloudy.

The point is to see things.

I spent so much time just walking around the observatory. In general I feel like going to the top of a high building is pretty much always the same. I mean, I've been to the top of the Seattle Space Needle. My work building in Arlington, Virginia was pretty tall (I had a view straight down the National Mall).


It's not the fact that the building is tall that's all that interesting to me. Though Taipei 101 being the tallest is neat, I honestly believe there is a point at which you can't tell that you're much higher. Especially in Taipei because there aren't very many tall building to begin with. If it were towering over all the other sky scrapers, that would be cool.



But it is a different view than all the others and my isn't is beautiful. I love that it's this super dense urban environment, then a big green mountain and then more city. Taipei is a pretty unique city.

The other cool thing about tall buildings is the cool engineering stuff that goes into it. If you've been following along with me then you know that earthquakes and typhoons happen are a pretty regular occurrence here. That has got to be the first thing that pops into the mind of someone who says, "I'm going to build the tallest building in the world in Taipei."

The damper ball — the world's largest passive tuned mass wind damper (according to the 101 Web site) —weighs 660 metric tons and is 5.5 meters in diameter. It's huge. And the way it works is awesome.


It's essentially a big pendulum that sways back and forth — it has a clearance of 1.5 meters to do so — in order to level out the building during earthquakes or high winds. It's just a massive amount of steel strung up by even more steel (24 steel cables each 9cm in diameter) that keeps the gigantic bamboo-shaped steel from falling over.

The best things about the damper are the hilarious Damper Babies. In fact, this month they are celebrating the Damper Babies' sixth birthday.


See! The damper is the body and then you throw on some legs and arms and make the eyes and nose using "101."

They have four different Damper Baby personalities. Find out which one matches you best here.