ding hao and all of that

is there anything better in life than hot brownies with vanilla ice cream? i don't think so. thank you, willbo for the brownie mix. i think i was the belle of the dorm tonight.

typhoon day #2. imagine it raining pretty hard for 48 hours, only stopping for maybe 3 hours altogether randomly throughout the 2 days. no sun, no blue sky. i can see how people in england and seattle get permanently gloomy.

but it was a pretty good day, all in all. around 2 i went to the spa to chat with nicky for a while. she gave me a pineapple and cranberry pastry thing for the moon festival, and i had a cup of tea and we chatted for a while about taiwan vs china. she said when you live somewhere where you're in constant danger from typhoons and earthquakes and the threat of war, you just get used to it and it isn't a big deal anymore. she also said lots of taiwanese people have two passports so they can evacuate to canada or the US if necessary.

after that, i went to latini's for lunch. i had mashed potatoes. they're baked with bacon folded in and then topped with cheese and broiled. so good on a rainy day. and i had a latte. i didn't used to be a coffee person because i thought it would be lame to rely on a substance for my mental wellbeing (one day at the office, we ran out of coffee, and we basically had to shut down because people couldn't function), but it's comforting to drink something hot from a mug when it's gross outside. and tea just doesn't have the same kind of depth to it. maybe it's my imagination.

anyway danny's son was there, also named danny, and his wife, linda, who i had never met. turns out that linda is studying to be a certified chinese teacher, so she was helpful today when i had a question about pronunciation. and since we were the only ones in there, danny sat with me for a while and asked about texas and my family and why i'm in taiwan, how long i'm going to stay. i think it was a big step for us.

came home, watched The Interpreter which was pretty good, made brownies that will sent me for my birthday, and i had tomatoes with salt, pepper, sugar and balsamic vinager for a snack. so tasty and it reminds me of fajtown. anddd i just got done chatting with gram and spanky on skype and keith and becca on gmail, so i'm pretty well set. this morning i talked to mom and dad. it's really not hard to stay connected since we have the internet. i love technology.
time for some Alice and then bed!