that's how you know

jerry and i went to taipei this morning to apply for my resident visa and pick his up. he's a week ahead of me in the process. on the way back to the train station, we attempted to go to 'nice coffee' shop, but they didn't speak any english at all. so we started walking again in search of somewhere to eat. while walking, we were discussing The Secret which is a book about self actualization and how your thoughts create your reality. you've read enough of my blog by now to know that i'm a firm believer in it. jerry is completely opposed to it. the book talks about how the jews deserved the holocaust because of something they did in a past life and how starving african kids must have done something to get reborn into that environment, and jerry can't get past that part. i haven't read it and i don't know how i feel about people in extremely poor environments and whether or not they chose/deserve it for some reason, but it's making jerry completely discount the rest of the ideas and it makes me frustrated.
anyway as we were looking for somewhere to eat i was thinking about austin and how it has so many coffee shops all over the place and THEN what do we see but 'austin coffee' and i couldn't believe it. so take that for self actualization.

rode the bus to work with new guy steve today. the more i talk to him, the more i like him. stopped to buy some shoes on the way to the bus. they remind me of gladiators, i don't know why. anyway i love them and when i got to school today there was a memo about not wearing flipflops and i know it was directed at me, so i was really glad i had some closed-toed shoes in my bag.
my class was super fun tonight. i tried this weird game with a chopsticks relay that was way too hard for them. 2 kids were each supposed to hold a chopstick and then together, they hold on to it and run across to the other side of the room. it was impossible so we switched from a penny to a little piece of paper. still hard, but not impossible. they were joking with me because they kept trying to add a syllable to 'language' they wanted to call it 'language-e' and they kept doing it wrong just to spite me. and i tried to draw a grasshopper and they made fun of it for the rest of the class. so we're getting closer every week which is great.

on the way home i decided to go to this fruit lady's stand that i've been eying for a while. i asked for 2 bellfruits and she got them for me and she said 'you also want this' and was pointing to a giant peeled pear thing that i knowww are fancy because they come wrapped in tissue paper in carrefour, and i don't know why but i just said sure, whatever, i'll take the pear. so then she says ok it's $175 and i said honestly? and she asked if i wanted some salt and sugar stuff on them and then came back with, ok $135 and i rolled my eyes and said OK and then she ended with $130. it was delicious though it's very taiwanese how it comes in a plastic bag with these little pokers that you can skewer your food with and eat it as you walk. this is a piece of bell fruit. it tastes like.. the consistency of watermelon but with kind of a grassy, organic plant taste. it was really good with the salt/sugar stuff on it

then i came home and attempted to make spanish rice with the chicken/tomato bullion majjy sent. it was reaaally salty but still pretty good.

spent a couple of hours talking to keith. who knooows whats happening with that. he's like what you would picture if you think of a guy who does yoga. wears solid colored, loose cotton clothes. has kind of a relaxed, everything happens for a reason mentality. he loves where he's from and loves his family, is a vegetarian and thoughtful and good. he's the best match i've met so far and it freaks me out. i just don't know.