What's the weather like in Fall?

It's gotten to the point where we keep the balcony windows open all of the time now. Yep, it feels that good outside.

Though it's pretty chilly at night. In fact, I'm officially calling it soup season!

I finally tried Taiwanese beef noodle soup (niou ro mien) and it was really good. The broth wasn't exactly what I was expecting (I think I was thinking more beef stew) but after a few bites, I decided I liked it. The noodles were the best.

And it was so filling. I got a little bowl and it was even too much for me to eat.

Then last night I got some guo tie (fried dumplings, or what many of us call "potstickers") and some hot and sour soup (which I have no idea what they call hear, I just pointed).

One of my co-teachers told me about this place by Dar-Nan school that has the potstickers and so I've been going there for a few week now. But she told me they also have great hot and sour soup there.

Since she told me, she has been asking me every week if I've tried it yet. So I decided that, since it's finally cool enough, I would try them finally. I never really liked hot and sour soup at home, but I find that I'm far less picky about food here and so I thought I would just go with it.

It tasted great, but I just couldn't bring myself to eat it.

Think of what egg whites feel like when you first crack open an egg, that was the consistency of this soup. It was almost gelatinous. I am very much a texture person when it comes to food, and that is one texture that I just cannot handle. I tried though. I definitely had a good ten spoonfuls before I just had to give up.

In other exciting, non-food-related news, next week we get to have Halloween celebrations in our classes.

I'm so exciting to see my kindie class dressed up for Halloween and playing all these fun games. In fact, last night, I taught them to sing my favorite Halloween rhyme ever (i.e. the only one I can remember because it's been like 13 years since I've been Trick-or-Treating).

Trick or Treat
Smell my feet
Give me something good to eat
If you don't, I don't care
I'll pull down your underwear!

It was the cutest thing in the world.

But this means I have to come up with a costume and a ton of games. Games for little kids and for big kids. The big kids are always the hardest ones though. If you have any fun Halloween game suggestions I would appreciate the help.

In return for the help, I'll post the most adorable pictures ever. I'm going to go camera crazy in my classes next week.

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.

What time is it?

My tendencies toward obsession have been preoccupied with college football for the past couple of days.

In fact, my Facebook status has something to do with OU still sucking at 8 p.m. Saturday night. What can I say, I like the idea of being "in the future."

I'm proud that although I'm 13 hours ahead and I can't even watch college ball, I still wear my orange every Saturday (even though the game generally doesn't even play until my Sunday) and I do everything I can to keep up with the stats.

I "watch" the game on the CBS College GameTracker. What can I say, I'm a Texas girl — not to mention I certainly have a team worth being proud of.

We're supposed to go out in Taipei tonight for a few of the teachers' birthdays (three people's birthdays in the next week!). I'm still trying to figure out how I can manage to keep up with the game while I'm out dancing with my friends. Maybe there will be a sports bar nearby playing ESPN or something.

I feel like I have a better chance in Taipei.

Other things that have happened recently:

Yesterday, the fire alarm went off in our building for something like an hour. They made some big announcement in Chinese and then it started going off. At first I thought it was the car dealership attached to our building because now and then I hear announcements coming from there.

Then I went out into the hallway and it was definitely the loudest thing ever.

I totally didn't get it until way later, but one of my friends' called in a Chinese Fire Drill.

If you don't know what a Chinese Fire Drill is, see below:



I'll just leave you with that.

Which season do you like best?

I know what you're thinking. "We did this one already, right?"

But it seems that Autumn is upon us and let me tell you how it is certainly my new favorite season.

I say new favorite because Autumn simply doesn't exist in Texas. There you go from blazing hot hell of a summer to iced roads and the biggest coats you can find (because everything is bigger in Texas).

Of course, I'm not really seeing evidence of leaves changing colors and falling — though my sister now lives in Seattle and she is. Jealous.

I wore a sweater and a scarf today — and I actually needed them. I think I'm probably going to have to buy a new helmet because the colder it gets the more my ears and face are going to freeze off — and apparently it will indeed get colder.

Right now, it's slightly chilly on the scooter, but nothing I can't handle (especially with the help of a cardigan and a light scarf).

I simply love the fact that I'm not sweating through my clothes before I even get to class and then sweating through my clothes all over again while I'm in class.

I know, gross/TMI.

Autumn just makes me feel young and energetic though. I know that I am young, but this is different. I guess I just don't feel like time is blurring by anymore. I don't understand how weather makes me feel that way, but it does.

Now I just have to figure out how to clothe myself for a couple of season that I wasn't really expecting. Apparently it actually gets pretty cold here (at least from a Texan's perspective).

Let the shopping spree begin?

Ni lei bulei?

Today I kept myself busy. Making a list of things to do today helped a lot.

I still woke up kind of late but it was still an acceptable hour.

I bought a ton of fruit and veggies today and concocted this crazy "everything" dish with black beans, eggs and various seasonings. It was interesting and pretty good. It would have been better with tortillas and salsa though.

I bought some okra and I'm trying to figure out what to do with that. I'm thinking I might try my hand at some curry, though I'm not real familiar with that area of cooking.

I finally went back to Chinese class with Linda tonight. We covered two chapters in the book. It helped that I had pre-read everything.

I'm actually doing surprisingly well at reading the characters. We actually went through both lessons reading only the characters and not the pinyin. I'm proud of myself.

Linda also taught me a bunch of new verbs and ways to describe people and I now know conjunctions. (Thank goodness. I love conjunctions!)

At the end of the lesson, she asked if I study at home and when I told her that I do she said she could tell. She also said that it makes her excited to teach me because I'm so in to learning and I'm trying to read and all.

Who doesn't love a little praise from their teacher?

What's the deal?

OK so here are the basics of my trip.

My college roommate came to visit me. It's the furthest she has ever been from home (of course) and the longest she has gone on a vacation that didn't involved her parents.

I already told you about our first couple of night so I'll skip to the rest.

Sunday is where the fun started.

Meghan and I grabbed some dan bing (geez, I can't get enough of that stuff) and we hopped on a plane to Manila. After a moment of confusion and stressing out over the fact that we didn't have pesos so we couldn't use a pay phone to call Meghan's cousin who was meeting us at the airport, he found us.

Thank goodness, because I get a little panicky.

Manila was relatively uneventful, which I guess is a good thing.

Honestly, it was just a little different than what I expected. We were staying with her cousin who is an American businessman living in The Philippines working for a company in Hong Kong. He has this fabulous house, amazing (and gracious) wife, two adorable sons, three maids/nannies and a driver.

That's living the high life. And thus, we lived the high life for a couple of days to.

When we arrived that afternoon, Troy and Loren (his wife) took us to Tagatay. It's an active volcano with a lake and an island in the middle.

Unfortunately, the clouds had set in by the time we made it up there, so this is what we saw.


If you squint really hard you can see the ripples in the water, but the island is pretty much impossible to see. It was still pretty and peaceful though, so we had snacks.

The next day we pretty much just hung around for the morning. We were woken up with a gigantic (Western) breakfast. Eventually Meghan and I decided we wanted to go to Intramuros.



Intramuros, inside the walls, is the oldest area in Manila, built by the Spanish, most of which was destroyed in WWII. You can still see parts of the wall, Fort Santiago and a couple of super old churches.



They have this amazing shrine to Dr. Jose Rizal. After his execution by the Japanese, the Filipinos rose into rebellion. I honestly couldn't repeat the whole story, but it's a very romantic story when you hear it told by a Filipino tour guide. Ours was actually quite excellent. He did the whole tour in a horse-drawn carriage for 250 Philippine Pesos per person. I recommend it.

After Intramuros we headed over the The Hobbit House. This is a bar staffed almost entirely by little people. Yep. Just think Hobbit. It opened in the '70s and is basically Lord of the Rings themed. It's owned by an Irishman and therefore sells hundreds of amazing beers. Unfortunately we chose to go on a Wednesday night in October, so it was dead.

We also went to a wet market (you know how much I love open-air markets) to buy tons of fresh-out-of-the-water seafood. A restaurant right next to the market cooked it all up for us. It was such a nice night.

Then it was off to Bohol for our beach time.

Now remember all that panicking I was doing? You know how I was obsessing over the weather?

Well, it all pretty much disappeared as far as The Philippines went (though Meghan didn't have one cloud-free day in Taiwan).


Alona Beach was gorgeous and everything I hoped it would be. We had a room at an awesome resort and it wasn't crowded at all. I highly recommend Alona (on Punglao Island) if you're going to The Philippines. It's so wonderful.

The only thing that bothered me is that people kept saying that we were rich because of the resort we were staying at. It baffled me because I'm anything but rich and honestly, I found a fabulous package deal.

We could have actually done stuff cheaper, but I didn't know that at the time considering I had never been there.

I found this package that got us three nights stay, breakfast everyday, a one-hour massage and a tour of the big Bohol tourist spots. All for about $600/each. I'm happy with that. Like I said though, we could have done it cheaper, but this was safe and easy. You pay for luxuries like that.

On the tour we went to the Blood Compact site, Baclayon Church (also known as Immaculate Conception Church), Loboc River (where we went on a lunch cruise through the rain forest on a bangka), the Chocolate Hills (which were beautiful) and the Tarsier Sanctuary.


Either way, at the beach it was pretty much nothing but watermelon margaritas and San Miguel Pale, a ($5) massage every day and beautiful views.

The Philippines were amazing. The people were so nice and it was kind of nice to take a break from thinking in two languages all of the time.

Is she back yet?

OK, I have been having some severe problems with the Blogger editor and since I was on vacation I didn't want to stress over them too much. But I promise you that I have been dying to tell you all about my trip and seeing my best friend!

Alas, I have class in an hour and a half, so for now I will leave you with some glorious pictures of all our fun. I'll actually write about everything after class. (I've had a few cups of coffee today so I'm nearly positive I'll have enough energy.)

I'm so excited to get back to work today to see my babies.

Oh and one last thing before the picture parade.

I am now officially a student correspondent for GlobalPost.com. My first story went up with the pre-launch copy and now the whole Study Abroad portion of the Web site it up and running. The Study Abroad site compiles stories, photos, video and other multimedia from students studying abroad and recent graduates (ahem) who are traveling over seas.

Check out my story. Then check out some from the other correspondents.

There are some very talented young people involved in this project and I am so excited to be a part of it.

Now for the picture parade:

Fort Santiago at Intramuros in Manila City.

Wet market in Manila where we bought the yummiest seafood and had a
nearby restaurant cook it up for us and make it even yummier.

Me at Baclayon Church. The tour guide told "You are dressed to sexy," as she
started to drape me with these little satin pieces of cloth.

Loboc River. We took a little lunch cruise and it was absolutely beautiful.


The Chocolate Hills. This place is gorgeous and it goes on and on forever.

How long will it rain?

This is going to be quick because I need to go to sleep.

Meghan got here Saturday night and we've been having tons of fun.

Saturday we went to the Taoyuan Night Market and then bowling. Then we proceeded to stay up until 7 a.m. talking and talking and talking.

I hadn't seen the girl in four months and we used to be roommates. We went from 60mph to 0mph real fast.

When we finally woke up Sunday it was a little late but we made it work.

We booked it to Beitou and took a dip in the hot springs.

Hot springs are a big thing in Taiwan. They're everywhere. It has something to do with the crazy geological activity in the region.

At the hot springs there was this funny little Taiwanese man. He immediately latched on to us ("Sit here! Sit here!") and we talked to him most of the time we were there. He told us about how he used to live in California for about a year and he asked about why I decided to teach in Taiwan and how long I plan to stay.

After the hot springs we headed over to the Shilin Night Market. If you'll remember I was there last week with the roomies so it was nice to know where I was going. That and this time the entire market was open because it was actually night time.

I think we ended up just walking around and eating. I bought a pair of black shoes that are rubber-ish (so they're great for rain) but they're actually really cute.

After a couple of hours at the night market we came home exhausted. But somehow we still ended up staying up until 3 a.m. Poor Meghan and all the jetlag.

Today we woke up late again. We both set our alarms but forgot to actually turn them on.

We still managed to go to WuFen Pu and shopped for almost three hours.

I bought a couple of shirts. Meghan bought a ton of stuff but she still didn't spend very much money. That's the great thing about shopping in Taiwan.

Then we headed to Sashi Miya. I've been dreaming of going to this place ever since I found it on this girl's blog. It was so good to have real sushi again.

Also, they were super nice. The guy was concerned about us not having umbrella's (we had been walking around the the rain all day with our hoodies on and just trying to stay under the awnings). He offered to give us umbrellas.

"You don't have to bring them back," he said.

He got distracted but it was for the best because I would have felt bad just taking these umbrellas.

Then we headed over to Longshan Temple. It was beautiful.

Honestly, I see temples all of the time, but I haven't actually gone inside one. I'm always nervous and I kind of felt like it's disrespectful. But we were welcomed in (via umbrella) and we just walked around and took pictures of everything.

I wish I had thought to take video of the people in the temple but all I could think about was wanting to take a picture and how that would definitely be disruptive with the flash and all.

It was absolutely gorgeous though. I love temples because despite the fact that many of them are super old, they still look shiny and new because they're so well taken care of.

After Longshan, we took a walk over to Snake Alley. It was anti-climactic though.

It was pretty empty because of the rain (actually one guy who gave us directions said that it would be because of the typhong, or typhoon) and so there weren't any snake handlers out. We hoping it will be clear out when we get back from The Philippines so we can go back.

Meghan will have one more night and a morning in Taiwan when we get back, so hopefully we can do Taipei 101 and the National Palace Museum then. 

Until then, we will be in The Philippines starting tomorrow until Sunday. I'm not sure how the Internet connection will be there. Hopefully we will have access so I can update now and then.

I'm considering doing an individual post about each place we went during this vacation so I can put up pictures and give historical background and suggestions on visiting. We will see how that works out.

Cross your fingers that we actually get some sun in The Philippines and stupid Tropical Storm Parma leave Bohol alone. My skin could definitely use some sun!

Aren't vacations supposed to be relaxing?

It's funny how stressful the last day before a 10-day vacation can be.

I was so excited I couldn't sleep last night (and can't sleep tonight for that matter considering it's 2 a.m.).

Not falling asleep until 6 a.m. translated into not waking up until 2 p.m. when I realized, "Crap I only have one hour until the bank closes!"

I still needed to wire transfer the money for my fancy schmancy resort. They were supposed to have e-mailed me the SWIFT code and routing number for their bank, but had apparently forgotten, so I had to call them. I am so glad I have Skype for international long-distance calls.

The woman gave me a horrendous code and I hauled butt from one bank to another only to make the most stressful and unorganized wire transfer of all time. I'm still not convinced it worked (the lady gave me the wrong SWIFT code and we looked it up...) especially since I got a phone call from a strange number while I was in class.

I will have to call the bank tomorrow to make sure it went through, otherwise I'm going to tell Amorita it's their fault and they'll have to take the $60 I already have in my bank account and just wait until I get there for the rest.

Otherwise, everything with Amorita has been pleasant. I can't completely fault them for this. I did wait until the last minute. They're even giving us an upgraded room without extra charge because they ran out of the regular rooms.

Hello third-floor room with its own little "living room" and an ocean view balcony.

I can put up with a little idiocy from a secretary in the reservation office as long as the service and accommodations are actually as glorious as all the reviews say they are.

Otherwise, I continue to stress out about weather and, honestly, Mother Nature in general. She seems to be a bit pissed off at Asia.

I'm only making an observation and don't mean for it to come off distastefully but wow. Four tsunami waves pummeled Samoa and American Samoa and then an earthquake in Indonesia flattened buildings. Then there's Typhoon Ketsana that flooded Manila last week and then slammed into the Vietnamese coast.

All of that inside of a week.

Then right this very moment Typhoon Parma — at a whopping Category 4 — is ravaging Luzon Island in the northern portion of The Philippines. Hopefully Manila doesn't suffer too badly from this one. It looks like Bohol Island is merely getting a light rain so that's good.

Then there's Typhoon Melor. It's hard to tell what that one is going to do. It's up to a Category 4 in Western Pacific right now. To me, it looks like Melor is headed straight for Taiwan, but the forecast says she's going to make a funky U-turn and wind up beating on Japan's southern (eastern?) coast.

Can you tell I've been obsessing over the weather?

In fact, since I couldn't sleep last night, I looked up videos of tsunamis. I wanted to know what they're like.

I always imagined a gigantic tidal wave that crashes onto beaches (You know, like The Day After Tomorrow Style) and those who were hanging out in the sand or playing in the water had no chance at getting away... Really, it seems that's not always the case. You could potentially be standing on the beach and manage to get far enough away or high enough up to be safe. Though I suppose the flooding afterward is a whole other thing.

In fact, as far as what I could see in the video, the real dangers seem to lie in all of the stuff that could get swept into you or the building you're in (i.e. cars, boats, glass breaking, furniture moving with the flood waters and trapping you into a wall).

Though I obviously have no idea and I certainly don't know what the recent tsunami in Samoa was like. I suppose it could have been like a tidal wave. I did see a picture of a rather large boat on the side of a highway. That's telling.

And frightening for that matter.

Point is someone needs to take my Wundermap away from me before my head explodes while trying to think of all the variables involved in our potential vacation ruin.

I'm supposed to be relaxing now that my vacation technically began five hours ago, right?

Ni jiao shenme mingzih?

One more day and then I'm on vacation!

One more day and then all the teachers have a two-day weekend!

One more day and I get to see my best friend again!

I spent all day catching up on America's Next Top Model Cycle 13. I know that's ridiculous but last night there was a bit of a "party" on the roof at the dorm. We just listened to music and drank and talked.

But staying out so late (not just staying up late in bed) made me feel like death today. I suppose the vodka probably didn't help.

Anyway, sometimes I forget just how crazy Tyra Banks is.  It's funny though, because sometimes my kids look at me the way the models on ANTM look at Tyra.

Not the I-want-to-be-you-and-I'm-hanging-on-every-last-word look (though I get that too), but the You-are-the-craziest-woman-who-has-ever-stood-before-me-why-don't-you-feel-like-a-complete-moron-when-you-do-that look.

Today I had my super quiet WOW class. They're all tweens and teenagers. Some of them can be really rude and others are just embarrassed because, honestly, who wasn't embarrassed to be anywhere between the ages of 11 to 14.

Anyway, I tend to act really goofy in my classes if for no other reason than it keeps me from getting bored. Usually it helps get the energy up in class and the kids participate more. I don't mind giving up a few cool points in front of some kids to get them to laugh and then play along.

There is this part in our book about folk music and how some is soft and gentle and some is really violent and loud. My kids didn't understand "violent" as an adjective describing music.

So I demonstrated.

I starting jump up and down and beating on the desk in front of me like I was playing a drum in some African tribal performance you would have seen in Ace Ventura.

You should have seen the look of bewilderment on their faces and then they burst into laughter.

Unfortunately, while I did get them to laugh and loosen up, they're still quiet as can be. I'm not sure I can win with those ones.

Oh and I found out my favorite favorite student isn't going to be in that class anymore. She went back to the other school she came from. That makes me so sad!

After class I went to Tina Coffee for some grub and to study Chinese. One of the waitresses speaks a little English and she was super sweet. She helped me with a couple of the words I didn't know how to pronounce and she and I talked off and on for the hour or so that I was there.

It was funny because we were going back and forth between Chinese and English because neither of us knows enough of the others language to just use one language.

It was also really cute because I asked her what her name is (in Chinese) and she told me just to call her Rabbit. Apparently that's the nickname her friends gave her. Isn't that adorable.

Anyway, I think I have a new friend. I'll be going to Tina Coffee a little more now that I have something to look forward to.

How many storms does it take to ruin a vacation?

The answer is "Somewhere between two and four."

I've been obsessing over the weather ever since Ketsana plowed through The Philippines and threatened my vacation. Apparently there are three more storms on its coat tails.

From left to right you will see the path Tropical Storm Ketsana took before it became a typhoon and slammed into Vietnam. Next is Typhoon Parma which is already forecast to hit a Category 3 and effect both the northern portion of The Philippines (i.e. Manila again) and possibly southern Taiwan as well.

Then there is Tropical Depression Eighteen. I have no idea what to think about that one.

Last but not least is Tropical Storm Melor which is forecast to become a Category 1 typhoon as we are all switching our calendars to October. Melor is also forecast to head toward Taiwan.

Of course, we all know how fickle these storms can be (in other words, how rarely meteorologists get it right this far out). We have days before we can be sure what will happen.

It looks as though two of them are headed for Taiwan. The Central Weather Bureau here is going nuts. They're watching and waiting on the edge of their seats. I think they're probably nervous that they'll mess up like they did with Morakot and people are going to get angry again.

Then again, Morakot was also a much slower storm than what Parma is forecast to be. It was barely a Category 1 storm when it made landfall.

My hope is that these things don't mess with Taiwan too much until after Meghan gets here. I don't want her to get stranded in Hong Kong or something like that. At least if she gets here we can hole up in the apartment together and weather the storm drinking wine, watching movies and talking about boys.

Then hopefully it will all have passed by the time we're ready to head out to The Philippines.

Darn storms going and messing up all my plans. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll just all dissipate into thin air.

Why did you hit me?

So the stress related to my trip to The Philippines is taken care of. Meghan's cousin said we're still good to go and it's safe to come to Manila. He will be picking us up from the airport on Tuesday!

One week!

Any suggestions for what to do in Manila? I spent a lot of time researching Bohol and beaches and such but I didn't think about Manila.

Back to Taiwan and my current life though.

One of my kids hit me today. It's kind of my fault and kind of his. We play a lot before class and during break. We always Paper Scissor Stone and the winner usually acts like we're hitting each other (though we never actually do).

At the end of class we were all up dancing and singing but he kept putting his jacket over his head. I pulled it off and took it from him and he just kind of smacked me in the top of my chest.

This is the same child who tried to kiss me before class.

I don't think he meant to hit me as hard as he did and he probably meant it to be more playful than it came off, but I still had to put my foot down. Putting my foot down means getting Angela to translate and tell him he can't do that because he's still too young to understand me in English.

I told my kids in my second class that I wouldn't be there next week and they thought they were getting a new teacher. You should have seen their faces. They were devastated.

It's good to know they like me that much.

I cleared it up pretty quickly too.

I had an awesome Tuesday. I love that this week is going so well.

Ni xi bu xihuan wode shin fa shin?

So I got my hair cut yesterday.

I've been itching to get it done for awhile but I was terrified to. I've heard horror stories from other foreigners about massive amounts of layering, helmet head and ultimately, "They don't know how to handle white people hair."

I showed the girl a couple of pictures and another stylist translated for me as I told her what I did and didn't like about the cuts. I like the way it turned out.

It was a pretty good Monday though. I really love my very first class of the week. It's huge btu they're so smart and active.

I know, I sound like a broken record.

But they even told me that they really like my haircut (and taught me how to say haircut in Chinese).

Otherwise, I am just counting this week down until I can go to the airport to pick up my Meghan! I'm so excited she's coming.

The only bad thing is Tropical Storm (now Typhoon) Ketsana just blew through The Philippines and flooded 80 percent of Manila. Even areas that never flood flooded. This could make our two days in Manila a little difficult.

We're waiting on news from her cousin to see if Manila is still an option. Otherwise we might just go straight to Bohol. For that matter though, I'm waiting to hear back from the hotel to find out if Bohol was affected by the storm.

If so, vacation Philippines may take a last minute change to turn into vacation Thailand (which would still be awesome) and my roommate Tess will be there. (Though Ketsana is also forecast to bring a ton of rain to Thailand as well...)

So much to worry about! This is what I get for traveling during monsoon season.

It's OK though, I get to see my sweet babies tonight! I'm pretty sure Tuesdays are my favorite days of all because I love both of my classes.

How many times can I go to Danshui in one month?

So Saturday turned out to be a ridiculously long day.

I went to bed pretty early (relatively) Friday night but I just could not sleep. At one point around 3 a.m. I decided that I would just pull an all-nighter and I spent the next two hours talking to friends back home and looking up information on internships and TEFL.

Around 5 a.m. I decided that maybe a little bit of sleep is better than none at all so I went back at for another attempt.

It failed.

Finally 7:30 a.m. rolled around and I hadn't slept a week.

Long day indeed.

My first class I was a bit groggy and found it a bit difficult to form sentences. This is generally not a great performance for an English teacher. I perked up a bit in my second class. I like the kids in there. They're a bit more enthusiastic than my first class.

During my break I made an appointment to go get my haircut and then I hung out at home. I debated a nap and decided that if I didn't keep going full-steam ahead that I would probably lose all my momentum

It's a good thing I made that decision.

My Saturday afternoon classes are pretty rambunctious and I only barely got through them with enough energy. Luckily, they have pretty good English and they're a pretty entertaining bunch. This put me in a pretty good mood.

After the third class I decided I wasn't going to let myself go to sleep before 9 p.m. because I need to regulate my sleep pattern. So instead of going straight home and passing out after class I went to Carrefour for some dinner and then Starbucks for some passion fruit tea.

I studied Chinese for a whole hour and a half.

But it worked. When I got home I was exhausted (brain and body). I took a super hot shower and passed out in my wonderful air-conditioned bedroom. I woke up quite easily at 9:30 a.m. today. After stretching and taking my time to actually get out of bed I quickly got ready and the roommates and I headed over to the dorm.

I grabbed some good ol' dan bing for breakfast (dan bing is probably my favorite thing ever) and then we and a couple others from the dorm headed to Taipei.

A few weeks ago the plan was that we were going to rent bicycles and ride around the city taking pictures. About 15 people were interested.

Somehow the plan evolved into going somewhere random in the city and breaking up and taking pictures. My camera battery turned out to be dead. (How does one own two camera batteries and BOTH are dead?)

The concept is cool but I personally don't think it worked out as well as we had imagined. I think that might have been because we were all still a little tired and maybe we didn't pick the best location. Research would go a long way in this department, but then I suppose it would also defeat the purpose.

After failing to find anything particularly interesting at Tian Mu (I did talk to a tattoo artist in Chinese) we went over to the Shilin Night Market. It's huge but it was still pretty early so it wasn't very crowded. I found a few things that I liked but I'm such a wuss that I didn't buy any of the dresses.

I did, however, buy two scarves that claim to be 100 percent Pashmina. I sort of doubt this considering I only paid $100NT for it (ahem, $3USD for Pashmina!?!?). They're still quite pretty, though, whether they're Pashmina or not.

After traipsing around Shilin, Katie, Tess and Deena decided they were ready to head back to Taoyuan but Dawn and I weren't quite ready yet so we headed up to Danshui.

I know what you're thinking, how many times can I go to Danshui in one month?

But it is a really nice place and I like it. And we were already halfway there as far as where we were on the MRT line. It only made sense.

Besides, the best Mexican restaurant in all of Taipei is there. How can you NOT go to Danshui?

I promise I will branch out and go somewhere else.

Now, only six days until Meghan arrives in Taiwan. I can't WAIT to see my Meghan again! I also can't wait to be on vacation. Yay!

But, with Meghan here, and only having a few days in Taiwan, I have to take her around and show her as many places as I can. I'm planning a day at the hot springs (probably Beitou, but maybe Xiao Wulai) and a whole Taipei day where we do the usual touristy things (101, Wu Fen Pu, etc).

Then it's off to The Philippines for five whole days! I can't wait.

Does social medicine work?

So yesterday I went to the doctor for a regular check-up. This is my first experience with social health care. Maybe I'm just lucky (or maybe I'm super liberal, who knows), but I'm pleased.

There were moments where it seemed really impersonal and considering your health is anything but impersonal I can see how this would turn some people off. But everyone was really nice and helpful (which is nice because this paperwork I had to fill out was in Chinese). I was in and out in less than one hour and I didn't even make an appointment ahead of time.

Normally I would guess that I got through in less time than most people because they tend to facilitate foreigners through things a little faster given the fact that only a few people are able to communicate with us effectively, but I don't think that was the case at all this time.

The doctor spoke perfect English and he was really nice and thorough. All in all, it wasn't a bad experience for my first time getting medical care outside the States.

Not much else to report though. Thursday and Friday's classes went on as usual and nothing out of the ordinary happened. Just lots of games and fun.

Now just to get my last four classes of the week over with tomorrow and it's on to my "weekend."

Ni shi neiguoren ma?

So I have a new plan.

I'm not entirely sure if it will really work, but I've thought it through and I think I can do it.

Plan: Be mostly fluent in Chinese by June.

I will have been in Taiwan for one year by then... and I found a journalism internship in Hong Kong that I want.

There are complications with getting the internship but if worse comes to worse, I'll know Chinese.

I started class with another Chinese teacher last night. She drilled me big time on tones. But I was ultimately really happy because I could actually read the Chinese in the first chapter of my book. There were a few characters I didn't know, but ultimately, I'm feeling really confident.

In fact, we went to KTV last night for Natalie and Allen's (next) to last night in Taiwan. They're moving to Hong Kong on Friday. We played a few Chinese songs and I could read some of the characters (not nearly enough to participate though). I didn't even consider if I could understand it.

But believe me when I say that singing and speaking Chinese are totally different ballgames.

KTV in Taiwan is similar to going to one of the Karaoke houses at home. In Austin my friends and I started going to Karaoke (almost weekly) when I was a sophomore in college.

The places were always a little shady and run-down. You get your own (brightly multi-colored) room (and bring your own booze) and just put in whatever songs you want. The videos almost never have anything to do with the song that's playing and often times is entirely ironic.

Here, you walk into this super nice place. There are chandeliers, gold trim, sparkles on the table and leather couches.

It was really fun. I think I'll be setting up another KTV night sometime soon.

Sidenote: Most bizarre thing in the world in a country song in Chinese. Thank you Jay Chou.

What grade are you in?

OK I know it's been like 80 years since I last posted.

Thursday I only had one class and I ended up having to teach it by myself. Some other teacher was sick so they had my co-teacher teacher her class for her. This is both good and bad.

Good: Because I get an extra $100/hour and I can do things the way I want to.
Bad: The kids can get a little crazy without a Taiwanese teacher there to whip them into shape.

At first I was kind of excited. My favorite student of all is in that class so I though it would be fine. Well, Doris didn't show up. I'm not sure why. Then on top of that, I ended up having like five new students. Two of them were prissy little teenage girls. We all know this means hell.

I got through the class OK though. I didn't go crying for help and since that kept dawdling we didn't get to the very last section of the unit we were doing. I assigned it as homework because it was something they could easily do on their own (and because they made me mad when all they would do was speak Chinese).

Oddly enough, the best kid in class that day was Ian. He was in my News Camp over the summer and saw me go crazy that one day when the kids wouldn't participate.

Friday was awesome. It was my second time with that new red book class and those kids really are as smart as I thought they were. And they're goofy.

They're kind of hard to keep control of but it all seems to work out. Some how we managed to get through everything each class even though it's only 1.5 hours and 15 kids.

Friday night I found it basically impossible to sleep. I went to be at 11 p.m. knowing I had class at 8:45 a.m. (New rule: No going out on Friday night. Maybe dinner or a movie now and then but absolutely NO BARS.)

I didn't fall asleep until 6 a.m. Of course, my alarm clock going off at 7:30 a.m. came all too soon.

Luckily, I was giving exams in both of my morning classes. This meant I need absolutely no energy at all. I just drank my coffee, ate my scone and listened to the kids talk and read.

I considered taking a nap during my break but decided it would probably be more detrimental to my performance then it would be helpful. Instead I crammed some pizza down my throat and tried to keep myself awake.

My other new class is still a little bit of strange territory. Those kids are wild and they're all on different levels of English knowledge. I don't really understand the purpose of "Junior Elite" classes.

Some kids come from classes that are 40 lessons behind the book we're in so for them it's like an advanced English class. Other kids come from well into Wow book so they're like 80 lessons ahead of where we are. For them it's like a remedial course.

I'm really not sure how to go about that and it makes for a really awkward teaching schedule. If I spend too much time one thing to make sure the younger kids don't get left behind, then the older kids go nuts and start talking a lot.

I think I'll get into a routine soon enough.

Saturday night I came home, ate some fried rice and passed out. I woke up a few hours later only to find out that I had a really bad headache. This headache quickly became a migraine and I have been in bed sleeping off-and-on ever since. Well, until 3 p.m. Monday.

Yes, I slept the entire day Sunday. First of all, my head hurt. Second of all, I really just needed the rest.

My body hates me right now.

I felt a little out of it at first but I managed to get through my classes today. My first class is really good at getting me pumped up about teaching. It's nice that my first class of the week is like that.

They take up a lot of energy though.

Today I taught them the QA: What grade are you in? I'm in the _____ grade.

After teaching this QA I realize just how difficult English is, especially in the pronunciation department — hell I know several adults who don't even say the word pronunciation correctly.

First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth. Those are the grades I taught the kids today and every one of them is hard as hell to say. All of my kids are in third, fourth and fifth grades. Those are probably the most difficult to say.

I spent a good 4 minutes just trying to teach this one little girl how to third.

Me: Th - ir-d.
Jenny: F-ir-th.
Me: Th. Th. Th.
Jenny: Fth. Fth. Fth.
Me: Th-ir-d.
Jenny: Third.
Me: Yes! Yes, that's perfect.
Jenny: Fthird.
Me: *sigh*

You win some; You lose some. I'll keep trying though.

Ni guixing?

I had an entire conversation in Chinese with a Taiwanese woman on Monday night.

I've been going to this same lady at the Night Market for dumplings a couple of times a week. I love dumplings and they're crazy cheap.

Last night I walked up and she handed me this random little fried dumpling (guo bian I think?) and told me to sit down while she was steaming the dumplings I ordered.

It took about ten seconds of eating for me to get up the nerve to try to talk to her. I asked her what the friend dumpling was called. Then I asked her what her name is: Mrs. Guo.

It was a fairly one-sided conversation limited by the six or seven things I can say about myself and the maybe eight verbs that I know in Chinese. But it was a conversation none the less.

It's amazing how much confidence you get just from one conversation.

What did I just put in my mouth?

I don't think I've had a more productive day since I've been here.

I stayed home Saturday night and put it to good use just chilling out and doing nothing that was in the least bit demanding. I watched Black Hawk Down and then proceeded to "watch" all the NCAA Football I could.

I watched most of the Florida game until the UT game started at 3:30 a.m. I am determined not to waver in my status as a dedicated Texas fan. So I went to bed wearing my burnt orange with my computer in bed next to me with the Internet radio stream of the game and the CBS GameTracker on.

I was in and out a little but I got through most of the game pretty easily.

I even woke up in and out for the USC vs. Ohio State game.

I love college football.

Despite the all-night football extravaganza (which will be pretty much every Saturday night/Sunday morning for the rest of the season) I got up at 10 this morning to go to Danshui.

I met a lovely couple from Georgia recently and they invited me to go on this day trip with them.

It was certainly the best idea ever. I forgot my camera so I have to wait until I can get Joslyn and David's pictures but for now I'll just tell you about our day.

Danshui used to be the primary fishing port in Taiwan (now Keelung is) and the place has a ton of history. It happens to be on the delta where one of the major rivers meets the ocean. It's also across the river from Bali another fishing town but I think that Bali is a little more modern.

First we walked around Danshui Old Street which is essentially a big board walk. There's a bunch of street food (and seafood, and street seafood for that matter) and tons of funny carnival games and arcades.

We walked all the way down Old Street up to Fort San Domingo which was built in the early 17th century when the Spanish came to Taiwan. Soon after the Dutch took over and rebuilt the fort and it has changed hands a couple of times since then. It was eventually used as the British consulate office.

Then we walked down some other insanely busy street until we got back to the riverfront where we took the ferry down river to the Danshui Fisherman's Wharf.

Now that fishing isn't the primary economy in Danshui the Wharf is essentially a big promenade/boardwalk.

We found "waffle trees" which are basically waffles in an elongated shape so you can put them on a stick. They were pretty good.

At the wharf we staked out a spot on the pier and watched the sun go down. The Wharf is situated on the sea wall (which totally makes sense) so it was literally riverfront on one side, ocean on the other side and the big blue horizon. It's kind of awesome to watch the sun go down on the ocean. Danshui faces west so there was nothing in the way.

Then we ferried back to Old Street and ended up at the Night Market.

The Danshui Night Market is much larger than the Taoyuan Night Market. But a night market is a night market. It's all food and cheap clothes.

Speaking of food, we tried so much new street food today.

I've already mentioned the waffle tree. We also had "shrimp" eggrolls, quail eggs, this super tall ice cream cone and this big dumpling turnover thing. I'm not sure what it's called exactly but it has rice noodles, leeks and eggs in it. It was really good.

I think it's a little easier to get up the nerve to try the street food when you either have someone with you. Even if they've never had it before and can't assure of how awesome it will be, at least it's a shared experience. Though none of us got up the nerve to try the squid on a stick or the squid balls. Maybe some other day.

Danshui was 12 hours very well spent and I feel so much more enthusiastic again about being in Taiwan. I think all of you commenters were right. I just have to force myself to get out there and do things. I feel so much better now.

Hooray, Taiwan!

What to do?

I have been extremely out of it the past couple of days.

I've taken to staying up all night (not for lack of trying) and then sleeping all day. Even if I do wake up before noon I just stay in my room until hunger or work forces me out.

I don't know why.

I just have zero motivation right now and that sucks for so many reason, the most important being that I should be exploring this strange country I put myself in.

I think I just feel a little out of place and that makes me anxious.

Up until about two weeks before I moved to Taiwan I had two jobs and I was in my last semester of college. I'm sure you can imagine this kept me busy.

Now, I only have to do something for about four or five hours a day (except Saturdays). This — not moving — has been the difficult transition for me.

I almost feel useless.

I think I just need to grow some nerve and just go and do things. I'm still too shy to try to have a conversation with complete strangers, although I feel like that would be a huge help for me.

Suggestions?

I think I might go hiking. I don't have class for another five hours.

Where can we swim?

Saturday night we went to Jhongli. It was pretty fun.

It's nice to explore the Taiwanese nightlife now and then. It's funny to me though because most well-recognized hip-hop is from the States. Also, given that trends start in one place and then work there way around, all the music they play at clubs is about four months old.

That's not to say I don't like it, but it's a switch. I'm used to going to a dance club and hearing a song for the first time.

We stayed out pretty late and I came home to find that my roommate and some friends built a couch fort in the living room. I couldn't help but laugh. I used to love making couch forts.

We hung out until extra early in the morning and I headed off to bed once I realized I needed to sleep before waking up at 7 a.m. to watch the Longhorn football game.

By watch I mean listen to it on the Internet radio and watch the play-by-play on the CSTV GameTracker. I drifted in and out, but I got to see most of the game.

After the game I came out of my room to find out that people were planning on going to the beach. I decided I wasn't going to let myself waste another Sunday because I partied to hard on Saturday night so I hurried to put on my swim suit, make myself look relatively decent and grab some dan bing for breakfast.

It was a two-hour drive to Baishawan which is on the northern coast. The drive was awesome.

Probably the thing I like the most about Taiwan (and I like this about Seattle as well) is that when you're driving along the coast, you can still see the mountains. Taiwan's geography is so peculiar because of the way the tectonic plates are converging and how "quickly" it's happening.

This results in mountains in the middle of the island and given the small size of the island you can see both at the same time. This makes for several scenic drives.

At the beach, we were slightly disappointed.

Foreigners always tell me that Taiwanese people can't swim. I never really thought anything of it, but I really think that there is easily a fear of water in this culture. They had an incredibly small area of the beach buoyed off. It's pretty normal to have a designated swimming area with lifeguards, but this was ridiculously small. You could walk all the way out to the farthest buoy and still only be waist deep in water.

There were easily 150 people playing in this shallow water and probably a good 30 lifeguards.

Every time we tried to go into the water somewhere outside the designated area the lifeguards would freak out and blow their whistles frantically at us.

We gave up for awhile letting our disappointment overtake us, but then we decided that maybe if we went further down the beach away from the lifeguards we could find a place where you actually have to swim.

Success.

There are two swimming areas at Baishawan. The first is the terrible shallow one with a thousand people. The second is far less crowded and has bigger waves. We played in the waves for awhile. It was glorious.

I love the beach.

I got some color while we were out. Unfortunately, it was red and not tan. My shoulders got really badly burned on the drive up to Baishawan because I forgot to put on sunscreen before we left. Whoops.

Also, while the days are still annoyingly hot, the nights are starting to get much cooler. I actually get a little chilly on the scooter after class when it's dark. It's probably something like 75 degrees, but I'm just so used to the heat and humidity that I don't expect it.

I can't wait for fall.

Where did you go (my lovely)?

I really hope the title to this post makes you think of that mid-'90s No Mercy song because it is definitely stuck in my head even though I haven't heard it in a good three years.

I am alive. This week has just been a blur.

I really don't even remember Wednesday. I just remember getting really angry with my new co-teacher. This is only the second week I've had this class but the kids are terrible. They're in early yellow book meaning they've been learning English for about four or five years. But their English is so bad in both pronunciation and comprehension.

That and they're obstinate.

They speak Chinese the entire class and the co-teacher doesn't do anything about it. Now and then she'll say something (after I already have) but then she just laughs whenever they speak Chinese again. That's not exactly what I would call formidable.

My chances at getting a whole-English environment in that class are slim. I wouldn't mind it so much if it weren't literally constant. Even when they're writing definitions or highlighting words they're talking across the room in Chinese.

It's awkward because I have no idea what they're saying. It's unlikely they're saying anything bad about me (they don't have the guts, honestly) but you never know.

I gave a test in my Thursday Wow class. This is the first of what will be at least one test every week until my vacation.

Tests are easily the easiest day ever for a teacher. I actually suffered from a migraine the entire day and just slept until my class. I would have called in if it had been anything else, but tests are so low-key. It's you in your own little classroom with one kid at a time speaking as quietly as they possibly can because they don't want to be heard.

I also have a new favorite student in that class.

I know you shouldn't have favorites, but it's so hard not to. She's smart. If she doesn't know the word she's looking for she'll try to explain it in English. She will talk to me about just about anything.

It's really nice when you can just have a conversation with a kid because then you know that someday most of these kids really will be able to speak English. I may not be around for that day with some of them but it's still helpful.

Thursday night after class some people came over. I intended to just sit around in my room but I would have felt bad for neglecting company instead I came out and hung out with everyone. Somehow this turned into six of us going to the beach in the middle of the night.

We went to JuWei (I think that's what it's called...) and we climbed on top of this old war bunker. At least we're pretty sure that's what it was. Then we danced around in the ocean. Sometimes I forget how much I love the ocean.

Even in the middle of the night (under a full moon I might add) it was incredible. The waves were rolling and crashing, the sand felt amazing under my feet and there were a ton of these super smooth rocks that had been shaped by the water erosion.

Of course there were also some not so smooth rocks and most of us ended up with cuts all over the bottom of our feet. I'm still kind of hobbling around but there's nothing to be worried about.

Friday was relatively uneventful. I got to teach a little kids class and we just played tons and tons of games. It's sickening how much energy you need for those classes but they're so cute that it's easy to just want to play games with them.

Today is my Daddy's birthday. Happy birthday, Dad!

It's also the first Saturday in September. In the states today would be the first University of Texas football game of the season. I'm super pumped but I realized that because the game is a night game in the states, my football day isn't until bright and early Sunday morning.

Looks like I'll be waking up at 7 a.m. tomorrow so I can listen to UT beat La. - Monroe to a pulp.

Hook 'em Horns.

Why couldn't I have been observed today?

My name is Jimmie and I am addicted to reading.

I woke up this morning and read the news for an hour not coming out of my room until I heard my roommates say something about how they didn't think I was home. At that point I decided it was probably time to show my face (not to mention eat "breakfast").

After I ate (an apple) I stuffed my nose back in the book I've been reading. I'm in the 400-pages now. It's so good.

I told myself I would only read until 3 p.m. Then I would do yoga, take a shower and do my lesson plans before going to class. Three o'clock rolled around and I wasn't ready to put the book aside so I told myself 30 more minutes. Then I opted for 30 more. It was like a snooze button for reading instead of sleeping.

Finally 4 p.m. struck and I realized if I didn't get ready and do my lesson plans quickly I was going to lose my attendance bonus for the month.

Going to work was totally work it though.

Alice came to school with her hair wet so Angela blow-dried and combed it before the bell.

My kids were being so goofy and fun today. We joked and played and we were super loud, so of course I got out the camera.

Glenn was probably the goofiest of them all today. His English is awesome for a 6-year-old.

I like when it's like that with my classes but especially with this class because we're in the very front classroom in Dar-Nan and it has big windows. We're basically always being watched through the big windows whether its by the front desk, other kids or parents. That's also the class that I got observed in and didn't have to best comments in the world.

This is Jim. He can be a brat but he can also be a lot of fun. Today was a fun day.

Today I felt like it went off without a hitch. Why couldn't I have been observed today?

I taught them all the material in the suggested lesson plan plus had time to review other stuff. They're so smart that they even knew how to answer today's new QA (What's your favorite number?) before I told them how.

Me: Everyone, new question! What's... your... favorite... number? (All the while miming my words.)
Kids: What's...your...favorite... number? My favorite number is one.

I was shocked and thoroughly impressed. It made me feel really good that they actually recognized the sentence pattern (from the previous questions: What's your favorite color and What's your favorite animal). Since they already knew what a number is it was easy for them.

I tried to get Tim to say his favorite number is 13 (superstitiously seen as a very unlucky number, especially in Asian culture) but he didn't fall for it.

Alvine was not excited about getting his picture taken at first. Then he gave me the cutest dog ears. :)

I'm getting to where I truly enjoy my Tuesday classes. The kids are so much fun and they're really smart.

I love that I can spend a lot of the class joking around and not using robot-speak. They're smart kids and they deserve to have a real conversation instead of being little drones.

Hopefully I will learn to like my Wednesday night class half as much. We will see.

After classes I headed over to the Night Market. I saw four other foreigners (one being one of my roommates) while I was at the Night Market. It occurred to me that we are pretty easy to spot in a crowd.

I wonder if Taiwanese people recognize as many people they know at the Night Market when they go or if it's just because we go all the time (I estimate that each night there are at least three foreigners there after work). There are always such large crowds that I'm amazed whenever I do see someone I know.

Don't I feel like a dinosaur?

I was right; yoga makes a world of difference.

Honestly, any sort of physical activity would have done it. I finally feel like I got up off my butt and did something good for myself. A quick 20-minute yoga workout is really all I needed, though tomorrow I think I'm going to add in a few extra poses to make it a good half-hour.

Today was pretty tame. I ate my omelet, did my yoga, and then I read forever before going to class. I've been reading a lot lately. I've decided that Catch-22 (and probably Joseph Heller's writing style in general) just isn't my kind of book and that's probably why I wasn't reading as much before.

But one of my roommates gave me this gigantic (700+ pages) book — The Persimmon Tree — three or four days ago and I'm already more than 300 pages in. I forgot how much I love leisurely reading.

I used to love books and words so much that I wrote a book when I was 10. I have no idea what happened to it. Now I write blogs. I suppose that's probably similar to whatever type of novel I was capable of writing as a 10-year-old country girl.

It's funny though because here I am with a gigantic novel reading in between classes and my kids tell me that they read books on the Internet. Don't I feel like a dinosaur?

It's funny how quickly and easily a kid can make you feel old. Sometimes I think about it and I'm like wow, I'm only like seven or eight years old that some of these kids. And then they come up with something that I don't even know — usually about the Internet or some crazy stationary thing I didn't know exist (kids here are obsessed with stationary).

In my head: "The Internet came out when I was like 10-years-old. Why don't I know this?"

Actually, I found this hilarious card a few days ago that said something like "When I was your age, we had to dial to get the Internet."

Do you remember how painful that was? Just think of how impatient children are in general and then sit them in front of a computer with dial-up Internet access. I space out way more quickly now that I'm in my twenties. I guess it was all so novel then that I was fascinated enough to have patience.

Of course, I'm not entirely behind the times. I'm just broke. Probably the one gadget I want more than anything else in the world is a Kindle. I want that more than a 12-year-old wants an iPod Touch (or an iPhone depending on the kid).

I would have a Kindle right now if it weren't for the fact that I decided to move to Taiwan. My parents were going to get me one for my graduation present. That money, instead, became my "Taiwan start-up fund."

Oh well, I suppose it was probably worth it.