blonde in taiwan

deep in the heart of texas

2009-08-22T11:16:00.003+08:00

i'm home! matt picked me up at the airport wearing a t-shirt from high school, gray thai fisherman pants and loafers. i was so ill by the time i got to austin i could barely talk without coughing. i already had a cough in taiwan but it just got worse and worse breathing that dry air in the planes. anyway i'd prefer not to think about all of that traveling.

when i got home, my mom had piled up all of the stuff i've sent home over the last 9 months on my favorite chair in the living room. it really was christmas. dresses, necklaces, cookbooks, shoes, masking tape! i haven't opened the regular mail yet but i know my non-expired debit cards are in there somewhere, too.

ripley found a baby opossum. i don't think she killed it.. it looks like she just licked it. i guess we'll see if it's there in the morning or not.
matt bought me taiwanese lychees from HEB! i love matt. i love lychees. i love taiwan.

(by the way, my current blog is coincidenceless.blogspot.com)

很喜歡台灣

2009-08-20T13:11:00.008+08:00

12 hours ago..well, i managed not to cry in the car even as mr. kuo dabbed at his eyes without saying a word, but i haven't really stopped crying since i walked through security (and i haven't even read what the people in the dorm wrote to me in my goodbye book). it makes me think of the first time i was in this airport, crying my eyes out because i didn't know what anything said, everyone was staring at me, and i didn't know how to get to my house or have anyone there except those friendly taxi drivers, who didn't understand a word i was saying, to help me.
(bras on the sidewalk in front of carrefour).
now i can ask for help and talk to the people around me. sometimes i can figure out a sign even if it isn't in english. i've swum illegally in taroko gorge, gotten $3 massages in the philippines and learned to dive in thailand. i've eaten squid balls, pig intestine soup, sheets of seaweed and fried durian.
i'll miss the stares on the street and people who talk to me through giggles just because they think i'm pretty. i'll always remember all of the things i've done and seen, all of the people i've met and things i've eaten. it's been an awesome year and a couple of months.
(asian-fab post-its).
even though i have blonde hair in blue eyes, i'll always feel a little taiwanese on the inside. i already find myself wishing i wasn't hearing the english around me. i've gotten pretty used to everything in chinese and i always looked forward to seeing the little change in people's faces when i started speaking chinese to them.
(entrance of carrefour.. which isn't usually filled with shopping carts).
time to get on the plane! all i brought in my carryon is my laptop, a book i had all of my friends/kids sign, my blanket and some shorts. and my pillow. first stop: honolulu. i asked for an exit row seat. here's hoping whoever sits next to me isn't a germaphobe because i still have a pretty annoying cough.
(fruit market).

thank you for following along with me for however long you've been here. even if you've never commented, i know you by your city from my hits tracker. from dumfries to sunnyvale, grandville, rockville and denver, columbus and brampton, the netherlands, hong kong, finland, france, sweden and beyond.. it's been nice to have you along for the ride and i hope you come with me wherever i end up!

goodbye taiwan

2009-08-20T01:00:00.003+08:00

it's my last night in taiwan, in this bed, in the dorm, listening to clinking poker chips through my paperthin door (in a good way). most everyone hung out in the common room for a while and i got to see everyone who doesn't live at the dorm which was really nice. i can't imagine not seeing all of these teachers for several hours a day anymore! working/living/socializing with the same 30 people really brings you together in a unique way.
i've been going going going since i woke up this morning. jimmie and i changed the scooter into her name, i turned in my books, took pictures of everything/everyone in the whole country, saw the doctor for one last almost-free checkup, went to dinner with allen, showered, visited with the spa and coffee shop, chatted with everyone, raffled off my matress. it was busy.
(flashcards outside of the stationery store).
time for bed so i can get up tomorrow and finish everything. i have a looonnnggg travel day [and a half] tomorrow, so i'll post the rest of the pictures from various airport lounges. goodnight!

some people i want you to meet

2009-08-19T18:29:00.006+08:00

these are the people that i look forward to seeing every week. funny they're almost all food related. i guess when you don't cook, the people who make your meals become very important to you.

tsong dra bing lady who always sees it's me and then just nods and makes my food because she knows how i like it.
the people who make my stamps in guei shan
tea people in guei shan. there's one more woman but she works when the other 2 aren't there. i see them every monday and friday
linda, my chinese teacher
tina coffee ladies
ching xin tea shop people where i pick up green tea almost every day
ji dan gao woman in carrefour. we always smile and wave when i go to/leave carrefour, regardless of whether or not i buy ice cream or cakes from her.
..you've seen these three before. look how cute bobo's haircut is!
grandma of grandma's
fruit market ladies. the grandma gives me a new fruit to try every week.
time to go to dinner with allen but i have about a million more pictures to upload tonight if i can find a spare moment. halfway down the to-do list!

goodbye tuesday

2009-08-18T23:11:00.007+08:00

alex and i picked up the stuff we made at ying ge this morning and i just realized i never managed to get a picture of it! the glazing job they did was amaaaazing. they're blue and silvery with all different shades. i gave the mug to the kuo's even though they saw my blog from when i posted the pictures. they liked it a lot.
they also said they stayed up until 2am last night translating my blog into chinese with babelfish! i would kill to be a fly on the wall for that.
after ying ge, alex, dawn and i went to tina coffee for lunch. this is my favoriiite tina coffee woman. she always sneaks me little things and we chat about her daughter and our lives. she asked if my friends would still go there. i said yes but they really want an english menu!
my fav: a waffle, fruit, panna cotta, a pot of milk tea and a scoop of the most delicious strawberry gelato. $7.

tonight was my last night at school in taiwan! i love my tuesdays but today the vibe was a little bit off because i have the flu so i couldn't be really loud. they were all kind of calm since i was being so calm. not our usual crazy selves, but still fun.
we had a nice last day in my first class. i wrote them all messages in their QA books, which i've been doing for all of my classes, and helped them translate them. and they all got double stickers today which was a big deal for them.
so cute.

my second class was a little off tonight. we just lost our old native teacher and they don't quite know what to make of the new teacher. she doesn't have a mean bone in her body, so they're pushing her limits. i couldn't really do anything today since i was so ill, so i just gave them the disappointed mom speech. 'you guys are so fun, please leave me with good memories of you. i don't want to remember you misbehaving'. and it worked. i think it took them half the class to realize that they'd never see me again.one kid wrote 'megan you is a good teacher' at the top of the page in the book i've been asking them to sign, so a bazillion kids copied them and now it looks like all of my kids are dummies! ahhhh!!! it's kind of funny though. if you aren't their teacher.
right at the end of class when we were getting ready to leave, kevin 2 (below, front middle) blurted out 'megan you are pretty!' like it was his dying sentence. it was so sweet. it's funny how you can't help but get to know the kids who sit in the front a little better than the others.
the kids who smile biggest in all of my group pictures are the smartest ones in the class, and vice versa. jeffy and i were chatting earlier and he said next time i should just take a picture of my classes on the first day and i would know who's smart and who isn't. space cadet kids. in any language, if someone is taking a picture, don't you know you're supposed to smile?
goodbye front desk ladies!
mrs. chan gave me some chinese medicine stuff for runny noses and headaches and it worked like a charm. my kids were pretty amused when they saw it.
i am so busy tomorrow. i'll post a bazillion more pictures at the end of the day once i finish my million errands.

p.s. happy 25th anniversary, mom and dad!

goodbye monday

2009-08-17T23:21:00.006+08:00

goodbye secretaries..
goodbye jasmine's class! teddy and isabel moved to daxi so they were gone. we kept saying 'teddy!' and then pretending to cry. he was really a joy in our class. they said if anyone else leaves, they're just all going to go on strike.
i'm going to miss those girls! we were like a little group of girlfriends, gossiping and discussing fashion and boys. i always went to class 15 minutes early so we could chat.. half in chinese, half in english. kitty, the one hanging off of me, was louder than the entire class. she and eason would scream at the top of their lungs when we read.
we started off on kind of a rough note but we turned a corner when she entered the speech competition and i went to watch her. we would exchange nervous glances before it was finally her turn.
crazy boys. eason, in the middle, is so outspoken. his old teacher, jameson, called him 'poo poo man' so he would say it 10x a day in our class.
this is my view.
in my little kid class we did the shaving cream spelling game again. they went insaaane. i had shaving cream all over one hand, so i took these pictures with my left hand and my right arm, which is why the flash is kind of screwy.
bill and debby..
neil and becky
look how sweet those boys are! could they be any cuter? far left, jerry (formerly jellyfish), bill (formerly tiger) and scott were the three who would always run away from me and then let me hug them. the kid right in front of me is neil. he's been in our class a few months and he and i have become besties. the one on the far right is ethan, who would break into spontaneous dance.
happy girls. we never bonded like the boys, but they are so fun. so smart and giggly and fun.
week 2..
week 62. look how much jerry has grown! he used to not even come up to my shoulder and now he's past it.
i stood by the door and hugged everyone and they left, and jerry came back through the line 3 times. and neil stuck around to help erase the whiteboard and asked what i would be doing in america. i told him i'd work at the white house. he kept saying the real white house? and then he followed me downstairs to the secretaries to ask them if i was serious. he asked me to write them a letter from america. i think i will.

i've found my strength in you

2009-08-16T23:43:00.007+08:00

these are some random pictures from the last couple of days.
i have the creepin crud (scratchy/cruddy throat, achey body, chills, headache) so i went and got a 2 hour massage today at the spa one last time. margaret is 4 months pregnant now! her tummy is pretty big. we had a conversation half in chinese and half in english today! she didn't know i was leaving, but she's very excited. she's going to send me pictures of her baby (we're hoping for a girl) and i'm going to send her pictures of me in DC.

the massage was fantastic. i managed to keep my mind from wandering for the majority of the time, which is always a struggle. every time i go, they've added some more things you can customize. which kind of oil for your foot soak (orange), which kind of spray for your room (nameless chinese stuff), which music (anything without birds), which oil for your body (lemon), which kind of tea (rose).

text message from mr. wang. it says miss megan.. something something america.. something something. mr. wang.
benny drying himself off after he took a bath in the sink after daisy creamed him with tin foil full of shaving cream.
then tonight, a whole bunch of us went to taipei for indian food at this really authentic restaurant down some little side street off of the jungshan denhua stop (exit 3, take a right, take a left at family mart and then right at the next little road. it's on the left). it was kind of my going away dinner. we had a nice time.

the bus ride home was pretty strange. we were the first ones in line for the taoyuan bus and they let the 10 of us on the bus and then stopped the line, so we were the only ones on the bus, even though there were still 20 or so taiwanese people in line. then the bus driver stopped at a light to walk back and count us. then he stopped to ask if we had seen any glasses. then he stopped to show us he had found them, so we all clapped. he was laughing. it was odd. we thought for a minute we were being kidnapped.
that's emily in her taiwan-fab top. she bought me pants from the same store. they're cream colored with red, blue and green polka dots all over them aaaand bows.
i'm still mostly feeling bummed about leaving. i'm sure once i'm home i'll be excited, but for now i'm just sad i'm leaving. i'm proud of myself for getting to the point that i wasn't missing america or my family really since we talk so often. there's been a lot of reflecting on how far i've come this year. i'm just trying to feel my feelings while i'm here so i don't get home and then freak out. done that once already!

p.s. the kid who walked from florida to washington to raise awareness for childhood homelessness emailed me back. i'm going to help him get a letter to the president's desk. it should be easy enough, right? there can't be a bazillion 11 year olds walking up the coasts of america for a cause.

aand this is a video of corey from tongue in cheek on the back of a motorcycle with her husband. if you've never been on a scooter/motorcycle before, you should watch it. he has more guts than me taking those turns so tight. i'm always way in the middle of the road.

goodbye saturday

2009-08-15T15:55:00.009+08:00

i am getting so tired of this whole not ever seeing my kids again thing! enough already! i'm glad tomorrow is sunday so i can take a break. i was the first foreign teacher for both of these classes, so they've only known me so far. i'm not sure it really clicked with them that they're going to have a new teacher next week.. but we did have a lot of fun today.
i brought all of the stickers i have left and stuck them all over everyone. there were stickers on the floor, walls, kids, desks, lightswitch.. (this is neely).
daisy! her wish came true: their next teacher is going to be a guy. phil. he's new/awesome. they'll love him.
phina and kiki spelling words in shaving cream.
daisy nailed benny in the face with a whole sheet of shaving cream-covered tin foil as i was taking the picture of their messy hands!
he was not thrilled.we made a biiiig mess in the bathroom. dora's class was one of my favs because it was all little girls (and ian, in the middle). most days, every single kid was wearing something with some pink on it. and vivi always had her bear.
sammy and sandy. try saying their names 3 times fast. we also had vivi and vivian.

messy hands!
after that, i spent 3 hours at the kuo's hanging out with mr. kuo, mr. chen and mr. wang for the last time. i'll see the kuo's on tuesday, but not the trio. if anyone had told me that my best friends in taiwan would be 3 drunken taiwanese men, i'm not sure if i would have believed them. they're the best though.
mrs. chan is all business, but she's great. she's always walking around on a mission and jumping up to make people food and get business done while her husband is laughing and saying hello to everyone. today they kept wanting me to drink and i said no no no, but when she went and got a bottle of wine out of the fridge, i had to. i've never see her drink a sip!
and a saturday without cake is no saturday at all. we had spaghetti that mr. chen brought, green tea, beef stir fry, guava.. and just when i thought i couldn't eat one more bite, mr. chen disappeared for a bit and came back with a bunch of cake. there was no way i was getting out of there without eating the cake, so i just stuffed it into an already full stomach.
they boss me around and make fun of me and hit on me and spoil me. what am i going to do without them?
this is the official megan's favorite cake. cake around the outside and strawberry whipped cream on the inside. yummm!
it makes me teary just to think about not coming back here every weekend. we've had such a good time. (that's mr. kuo's little sister with the pool from the other week).

goodbye friday

2009-08-14T22:48:00.007+08:00

goodbye friday! "what happened last week? right, we had a typhoon. well, i was supposed to tell you last week, but i have a new job in america, so this is our last week together." not the ideal way to let my mostly-boys class i'm leaving them. but i don't think they cared tooo much.
cindy was the only one in there i really got close to. during break, she stands beside me and lets me listen to one earphone of her ipod and she plays her favorite songs for me. during class today, she made an improvised going away present.it's a pin, the best note a teacher can receive from a student, and some drawings she ripped out of her QA book. the bottom one is me.
cindy and shirley. shirley has TWO lazy eyes. that makes sticky ball games kind of difficult.

my second class had a demo tonight. we love our demo's in there. we've done 3 together. this is one of my faaavorite classes because the kids are super sweet, eager to learn, and elaine keeps them in line so i just get to be the fun one. don't tell anyone, but eunice, sally, vanessa, jessica, paul, ryan, joseph, kendrick and i used to speak chinese like crazy before class every day.sweet girls! every time they saw me they'd run up and say MEGANNN!! and we walked in a gaggle upstairs to discuss the previous week.
during our demo, they had to try not to blink. these are their 'non blinking' faces.
"wake up, billy! you are late for school!"
"there's no school today, mom! it's a holiday."
"LAAAAZYBONES!"
i couldn't pry them away from the snack table so i just hugged them from behind while they stuffed their faces with shrimp chips and cookies.
ryan, total teacher's pet (in the cutest possible way) made me a card :)
i subbed his brother's class literally a year ago in the first few weeks i was teaching, and he remembered me because we played spoons. they're really fluent in english so it was just like chatting with friends.. a welcome surprise when you're a new teacher.
i almost cried a million times during our demo, but i knew if i started, i probably wouldn't be able to stop. i'm going to miss that class so much. we would just laugh and play games and have fun the whole time. they always wanted to tell me about their lives and show me their new things and ask about my life at home. they're all super smart and just good-natured kids.

p.s. corey over at tongue in cheek wrote a really perfect description of what it's like to ride a scooter, or in her case, motorcycle. she and her french husband are currently on a tour of europe on their motorcycle. she lives in provence but she's an american. i love her writing and spirit.

ying ge with alex

2009-08-14T14:33:00.003+08:00

these are the pictures from when alex and i went ying ge and made some pots. his camera is the same as mine but he has some ridiculous zoom lens.

(are you singing aaaaabbaaaaa, aaaba pooottterrrr.. [how does it go, maj?]).
youuu are the pooottterrrr... and i am the claayyyyy.
oh, metaphysical church songs from my childhood.

goodbye thursday

2009-08-13T22:38:00.008+08:00

goodbye mr. wang! thank you for the cake, tea and company. "do you love me?"
goodbye thursday yellow book class! crazy pronunciation, following emily's rules, exchanging funny faces when no one was looking, voices that no one could hear, slow writers who became the fastest in the class, judy 1 and judy 2, unhappy moms.
left to right: outspoken mandy, strong wendy, inaudible elaine, funny face angela, sweet angel, clueless kelly, coming out of her shell judy, focused bella.
sweet, crazy boys. spaced out ryan, "i don't know" danny, slurred sean, ADD jason and quiet kevin.

goodbye GL2! it was a victory just to get everyone to sit down at the same time and stay seated. you can't read with your fingers on the words (or read at all, i think), but you're super sweet and you'll get better with time..
wendy during our reading/writing relay.
charlie and i paper scissor stoned before/during/after class and once i introduced jerry's "claw", he started coming up with his own variations. the bird, the double claw, the dog. wendy, sherry and charlie demonstrate:
cutest, tiniest boy in taiwan. i'm going to miss that sweet face (and the snail)!

pictures of da chu

2009-08-13T15:59:00.004+08:00

driving to da chu on wednesdays is my fav because the sunset is so pretty. ..nevermind that this pond smells like raw sewage. :)

amanda had a daaaate so she had jie mao gao (mascara).
the kuo's had fried dumplings yesterday with sauce his mom made andd i got to use the family chopsticks for the first time!! usually i get the disposable ones. another milestone reached.
random mom: did you make those dumplings?
mrs. chan: no, we bought them. i'm just frying them again so they're crispy
mom: the teacher is eating with you?
mrs. chan: she teaches across the street but she eats dinner with us four nights a week and she loves these dumplings. they're from blahblah, you should try them
mom: interesting

goodbye wednesday

2009-08-12T23:49:00.012+08:00

goodbye wednesday class. i'm going to miss how you spoke mostly chinese all year and then once you found out i understood some of what you were saying, you started speaking it just to test me. i'll miss how you're too cool for me because i'm all sunshiney and augusta is your favorite because she's strict and strong.
i'll miss that mindy and tina, the mean girls, actually started showing small signs of friendship with offers of chips and candy even if it was done by yelling across the room in chinese during the movie. i'll miss nicole and jane's sweet notes during QAs. i'll miss joyce 1 and joyce 2 even though i never learned which was which.
i'll miss how aaron even said 'i don't know' in chinese and how justin was a jerk in front of the class but really sweet one on one. i'll miss harrison's grandma who gave me a ride when i was new. i'll miss ben and how everyone picks on him just for being the smallest.
jane gave me a present! it was wrapped with shiny pink and silver wrapping paper that said 'i will miss you' all over it.
and hooray for sweet notes. they make the world go 'round and jane was my favorite so it really means something extra special.
p.s. wouldn't you try to marry a taiwanese person just for these wedding photos? the next 5 minutes will be the highlight of your day, seriously. look how lovely my coteacher is!

hei se de mian bao

2009-08-12T16:19:00.002+08:00

..megan walks into love cake wearing a drippy rain jacket, picks out some bacon garlic bread and some normal garlic bread. at the cash register, there's a sample with black bread under the glass cover.
megan: why is this bread black?
woman: ummm.. [hands megan a flier]
... this is why it's important to always ask. it didn't look like that picture though. it was like a jellyroll with cheese inside but i couldn't tell what the other bits were.
anyway i ate half of it and then decided that fishy bread just isn't my thing.

they do a bunch of birthday cakes. birthday cakes in asian bakeries are all this funny bubble shape. all the better for cutesy designs!
..and not so cutesy designs.
the flier itself has the censoring. oh, taiwan. i'm going to miss you.

which way home

2009-08-12T00:55:00.002+08:00

good news! the apartment i was crossing my fingers for emailed me back and they want to chat! they stood out as the kind of people i'm looking for, in a nice area, for the right price. so i'm hoping that works out. international apartment hunting is no fun. i guess all apartment hunting is no fun. i've emailed something like 30 places now. it will be nice to have it figured out. so here's hoping that the cool house picks me. they seem very my style though. i think it'll happen.

today was a whirlwind. i taught little tiny sweet babies this morning with zero planning. when i walked in.. they all told me their names/ages and then i had them stand up and i had no idea what i was going to have them do. we sang some songs until i thought of something. man they were cute though.

i had to tell my favorite kids that i'm leaving next week. kevin 2 didn't let me check his QA book because he was so upset. tonight was the coteacher's first class ever. she was kind of treating them like babies and she just repeated everything i said. they were all sneaking glances at me and i sign languaged for them to just be nice.

alan and natalie took me out for dinner tonight because they're leaving for thailand tomorrow afternoon. they are so fun, i'm going to miss them! i can't believe it's been a year already. it really feels like the end is near.
i'm way behind schedule. time for bed.

these vagabond shoes

2009-08-10T23:07:00.009+08:00

i feel like i've kind of failed at showing you pictures of what taiwan actually looks like. i have a bunch of pictures of food but hardly any of anything outside of the big park or this dorm. in the last week and a half, i'm reaaalllly going to try to suck up my foreigner-shyness and take my camera with me everywhere i go. i'm definitely going to get the fruit market, tea shops, guei shan and da chu areas, the train station, etc.
food is easy. it's right inside my house and it can't make me blush. this was dinner tonight. deeeelicious skewers of pork wrapped around mushrooms or scallions ($1 each), and some grilled bell peppers and green beans with a little bit of spicy sauce from a BBQ stand in guei shan. can't beat $4 dinners.
tonight i told my baby class i'm leaving. they were not thrilled at all. carol asked them if they wanted a guy or girl to replace me and they just said "MEGAN! MEGAN!". i'm going to misssss them. one more week though. and my older kid, favorite class ever, class was asking me animals in english and i'd say the chinese. they were super impressed that i knew hippo and crocodile.

p.s. do you think my mom had any influence on my sense of style?

like mother..
(this is her new office space for designmyyard).
like daughter..
(my room 2007).
though i think my yearlong obsession with design blogs has seriously influenced my sense of style. i guess we'll see what post-DC apartment looks like.
hopefully something like..

i've since lost all of those sources. no copyright issues intended.

but another to mean it from the heart

2009-08-09T21:19:00.006+08:00

i am so ready to go to school tomorrow. three days off is pushing the limits of free time in taoyuan. a bunch of us spent three hours at debbie's this evening, chatting and drinking coffee. it was fun to see jaime and joyce. joyce seems like she grows a few inches every time i see her. she sat with me for about 10 minutes and then she was done. maybe i can find some babies to hold in DC. (i was watching a set of new twins in austin once a week just to reach my baby holding quota).that's me and hayley. she is so big now! walking and sort of talking.

when i was leaving debbie's, i ran into a woman who moved to taoyuan a couple of months ago. turns out she's from houston. it was really nice to hear an honest-to-goodness texan accent, even though my family and i don't have it. it just felt like home. it was funny because she was at debbie's while we were and when she walked by, she set off the mom sensor in my brain. her hair and jewelry and shirt looked a lot like my mom. it made me jump.
i'm chatting with maj on her new iphone. she's sitting on the porch at the lake. fajjy sent me a picture of ripley all tired out from chasing deer, apparently. a week and a half until i see puptown!

p.s. check out the woohoo! report. it's a site with all good news. this commencement speech is the best.

"And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done."

p.s. no accidents moment of the day:
during the tru blood marathon of 2009, we were talking about food that comes from the south like po' boys and ho cakes, and everyone thought ho cakes had a funny name and not many people knew what they were, and we talked about them for probably 30 minutes on and off throughout the day. then i made it the title of my blog that night. so tonight i'm watching top chef masters episode 8 and what is art smith using as the buns for his burgers in this challenge? ho cakes.
it's a small thing but it's a big thing.

AAAND i was perusing the internet tonight and in the process of following a bunch of random links ended up on this kid's site and he walked from florida to DC to raise awareness about homeless children. now he's collected all of these letters and he wants to get them to president obama. and DUUHHH i'll be in the mail room for 4 months! so i messaged him to see if i could help.

i will never love you more

2009-08-09T02:39:00.005+08:00

the first couple of these are pictures from friday when we had typhoon day #1. this picture is my room at 3pm when it was sooo dark outside.
it was an odd weekend because we had our friday classes canceled on thursday night at around 10 because there was a huge typhoon headed right for us.
then we had the tru blood marathon, and no one wanted to go to work on saturday because we thought it was going to be crazy windy/rainy. so we got a call around midnight letting us know we wouldn't have class on saturday.
saturday was pretty long. i slept in late, went to lunch, tea and the stationery store with tess because she's going to canada today and i'm not going to see her again in taiwan. sad! tess is so much fun. she's girly and fun.
look what i found at the stationery store:
i've been dreaming about taiwan puzzles for a long time, i'm glad i found one. taoyuan county is that blue one at the top.

last night tess, katie, justin (katie's bf who's visiting) and jimmie made me delicious veggie dinner! mango salsa, black bean burgers, cabbage salad and chips. i brought cherries for dessert. it was so yummy. it makes me consider going veg if i could teach myself how to make food that tasted that good.
tess bought/made me some presents. this egg planner. it is so asian. the inside is even better.
and this picture frame! it's filled with stickers from school and 7-11, and funny asian things and a picture of our realtor, eddie. aaand it's bedazzled.
it says peng you which is 'friend'. i'm going to miss her! but her parents were both in the airline industry so she flies all around for cheap, so there will surely be a trip to texas in her future. love tess!
p.s. matt wore the thai fisherman pants to a play downtown and jeff wore them to a concert. i love my brothers.

ho cakes

2009-08-08T03:04:00.004+08:00

you can't judge me for what i'm about to write.
we had a typhoon day today so we spent TEN HOURSSS watching a tru blood marathon. it's an HBO show about vampires and humans coexisting. anyway we started watching it at 5pm and we just finished at three in the morning. i think i got off the couch for a total of 20 minutes in the last 10 hours. at least danielle, natalie, alan, martin and olenka were also there for most of it. only danielle and i made it to the very end.

look what made it to texas.. thai fisherman pants! awesome. that package went sooo fast. i think i mailed it last thursday.

we have another typhoon day tomorrow. we haven't gotten much rain today, it's supposed to hit in the next couple of hours. should be crazy. we're watching the first 7 episodes of season 2 tomorrow.

i could listen to that song all day.

granted

2009-08-07T01:50:00.003+08:00

we have a typhoon day friday! no school!
driving to school today was crazy. last year, i was still taking the bus, so this time around was a whole different thing. there was a weird layer of yellow stuff on the roads that i later figured out was sand from the ocean water? or something. anyway it was pelting me as i was trying to drive over this bridge on the way to school and i was in a mixture of giggles and screaming as water was really hurting my arms as it hit my thin little stupid north face rain jacket, and my helmet turned out to be completely useless. water was dripping right from the top and hitting my nose which was just making me laugh.
after successfully crossing under a bridge through 6 inches of water, i was just happy to have made it to school/the kuo's, where i knew i could seek refuge. my shirt was soaked right down the middle where it leaked at the zipper, so mr. kuo gave me a polyester baby blue zip up polo to wear. so funny.

anyway we found out we have no school tomorrow at like 9pm tonight so everyone ran to 7-11 to buy wine and then we started watching movies. it's 2am and i'm exhausted so i'm headed to bed. tomorrow we're watching a marathon of true blood, some vampire show. i love typhoon days.

typhoonin'

2009-08-06T10:49:00.003+08:00

dear typhoon morakot,
please live up to the hype that we've been feeding to the new teachers since october. i expect at least one typhoon day. preferably saturday.
sincerely,
megan

save me

2009-08-05T22:34:00.006+08:00

i've had a headache all day and it's making me minchy so this will be short.

..did some laundry and started to sort through what's staying in taiwan and what's coming home. i didn't get very far. i think i'm just going to see how much i can cram into my suitcases and then edit based on what won't fit. imagine packing your life for a year into two suitcases. clothes, shoes, decorations, a quilt, a duvet, a pillow, books.
beforeafter (yes, after.)
i brought the kuo's a custard apple, a bag of tangerines and one of the bags of tea i bought in ying ge. i learned that custard apples need to be refrigerated to taste good so we'll eat that tomorrow, you apparently only eat tangerines if you're sick, but we broke that rule today, and i shouldn't buy them tea because i get ripped off. i said meiguanxi to that and we just ate it.
before
after
mr. kuo made me tuna salad. ingredients: canned tuna packed in oil, coarsely chopped white onion. onion to fish ratio: 2:1. green onion. soy sauce. sugar.
i am a pro at forcing myself to swallow things that i wouldn't usually eat though. am i a soy sauce and sugar tuna salad convert? no. but did it taste kind of good by the 4th bite? yes.
before
after
i forgot about my chinese lesson with linda tonight which bums me out. i look forward to that all week. i think the aleve is kicking in!

iQ font - When driving becomes writing / Full making of from wireless on Vimeo. this is aaaamaaaazingggg. from katepruitt's blog.

she's got everything i need

2009-08-04T22:58:00.005+08:00

my mom got an iphone. i think this means she can't make fun of the faj for his blackberry ways. we'll have a contest for who can drive one handed the best in a few months.
(the story of this stamp is at the bottom of the page so just deng yi xia.)
today was super fun and super long, so here are the highlights..
alex and i went to yingge this morning. i really enjoy alex, and riding on the back of his scooter is so nice. we were having the funniest luck. he doesn't like to acknowledge mistakes, but our mistakes today were what made the day really interesting. we got on a train that neither of us realized wasn't the kind of local train that stops frequently, so we zoomed right by the yingge stop. then we were waiting on the wrong platform at banciao station and would have just kept going toward taipei if i wasn't so lovely and attentive.
thennn we walked through downtown where all of the little vendors were set up with their baskets of produce and fish swimming around. once we got to the top, nothing was open. it was sweltering hot and we just walked around in circles pouring sweat until we stopped for some emergency ice cream and then ended up making some ceramic cups at one of the shops. the whole town is famous for pottery, so a couple of the places offer informal classes or just the opportunity to use a potter's wheel to make your own stuff. the girl showed us how to do it (all in chinese, i'll add) and then left us to our own devices. my previous ceramics experience didn't really help much. alex did awesome though--the wheel can be really tricky.
our ying ge day ended with a tea shop where alex chatted like a pro with the tea shop woman and i did my best to catch anything i could. i think i understood about half. the most interesting part was learning the proper tea etiquette.(this is leila's picture of a tea farm (?) in the Ruili/Alishan area.)
1. put dry, shrunken tea leaves into small cup
2. steep in boiling water for 30 seconds
3. pour hot tea all over the tea pot and cups to wash them
4. refill cup with boiling water and dump out, this time to rinse tea leaves
5. refill cup with boiling water and this time you get to drink it!
6. pour from little cup to strainer to pot to little cup that your drinking cup goes upside down on top of so you can smell the tea and then taste itthe tea i bought is from alishan which is where dawn, leila and dena went for vacation not too long ago. i'll be thinking of those tea fields every time i sip that tea.

after that, i spent 10 minutes at home and headed to da chu to go swimming with mr. kuo, his sister and nephew. it's funny that we've spent hundreds of hours together but never outside of their restaurant. we picked up his [taiwanese only speaking] mom and the three of us went to his sisters. he told them i was an english teacher andd a swimming instructor which is a little more than a white lie. then they wanted me to teach the nephew how to improve his swimming strokes. luckily, my blonde-girl-in-a-ruffly-bikini trick worked well enough to distract them from the fact that i don't know how to do any fancy swimming strokes, and the afternoon was a success. we stopped at a fried dumpling place on the way home and i think i ate 14 dumplings in about 3 minutes.
after class (which was the last class with my coteacher, angel. she's going to canada for her masters. we did the QA 'what do you like about angel?' and the kids wrote their answers in a card for her. sad! fun!), after picking up dinner, i went to family mart to cash in these stickers that would get me a free stamp. this girl with blue hair was waiting to buy stuff so i said i like your hair and asked the family mart dude if 15 stickers was enough to get me a stamp. he said no, i need 20, but since i just told that girl i like her hair, and since he likes my hair, he'll just give me 5 stickers and not make me buy anything. love taiwan.
cucumber salad that tastes juuust like aunt carols.

p.s. this video is what inspired me to apply for the internship in the office of correspondence. it is awesome.

and the o'sullivans have arrived in taichung and their blog is soo fabulous. it'll probably make you cry and definitely make you laugh.

if you cut it down, then you'll never know

2009-08-03T22:18:00.003+08:00

these are some of jimmie's pictures of xiao wu lai that i stole from facebook :)
today was very quiet and slow but the funniest part was after our demo tonight during the parents meeting. i had to go around the room and give all of the parents my comments on their kid and after that, it was time for them to ask questions. the first thing one of the moms asked was 'is megan getting married?!' because a long time ago, i told carol the story of allen's girlfriend proposal with the little black box and my kids just saw me down on one knee and assumed i was getting married. the rumor never really died, and the moms wanted to know what the deal was.they brought a blow up dolphin. pretty fun.
balancing on a rock, which was much harder than it looks.the kids did so well though. their pronunciation was awesome, they remembered their stories, they were speaking loudly. when it was time for them to make sentences they could do it without any help. they were great. i have a special thing for this class because it's the first class i ever taught and they were little teeny babies then and they've grown up so much and done so well.

where this road i'm headed down might lead

2009-08-03T00:16:00.007+08:00

i'm going to join a motorcycle gang. from now on, i only want to drive in packs. it is so much more fun than driving alone. 9 of us drove to xiao wu lai (little waterfall) today to swim/hang out on some rocks. jimmie's pictures are on her blog.

the drive was easy, only a couple of turns. well. a couple of real turns where you change roads. a million actual turns. the whole thing was through this neighboring city, bade (pronounced bah duh) and then over a beautiful, giant (windy like you wouldn't believe) bridge and then up a winding mountain road. my 50cc scooter wasn't totally loving it, but we made it. everyone else drives way faster than my usual 50km/hr, andd my brakes are a liiittle iffy, so i wasn't so sure how it was going to do.
(from goteamjosh on flickr).

you forget how beautiful this country is when you spend all your time in industrial taoyuan. the mountains in the north are so pretty. i was all clinched up and my abs, arms and legs were sore driving up the mountain and then i peeked over the side and felt like a dummy for spending so much energy freaking out about the drive when we were in such a pretty place.
(from radio ado on flickr).
that's where we were swimming. can't beat cold water after a sweaty drive and then eating warm picnic lunch when you're really hungry. it was like the asian version of going to dairy queen after a schlitterbahn trip (they opened one in KANSAS?).

on the way home, there was some kind of parade that went for several miles and it had something to do with some kind of .. now i can't remember if we call them gods or not. well, something that people were praying to. there was music and lights and big ornate carriages and incense and general mayhem. i'll have to get the story on that tomorrow.

tess, jimmie and i went for leg massages this evening and it was a perfect end to a really good day. reflexology hurts. and my scooter was jammed between 2 others when we finished so my massage dude had to help me get it out (which has been the case all 4 times i've gone there, for one reason or another). in the process, i smashed my big toe into a neighboring scooters kick stand. ouch.

in my best dress

2009-08-02T00:39:00.002+08:00

there's a mosquito in my room! it's been months since i've seen one. the worst part is that i had him under my hand and when i took it away, he hobbled off. part of his little dusty self is imprinted on my wall.. so i know he can't last long. but i can't sleep until it's a confirmed kill, so.

today was really low-key. my big accomplishment was one load of laundry. our dryer takes 40NT to run, all 10NT pieces. i had 30 and 2 5's. justin only had a 50. but when i was taking my stuff out of the washer, there was a shiny 10 in the bottom that had just been in the wash cycle. magic.

tomorrow we're going to a little waterfall an hour away. i hope my scooter makes it. jeremiah and allison o'sullivan are on the island right nooowww! i think. they might still be in transit. so excited for them.

the best is yet to come

2009-07-31T23:07:00.005+08:00

people kept complaining about the heat but i knew we hadn't reached the worst of it when your booty leaves a pool of sweat on the black vinyl chairs in the living room.. and that day has finally come. it's texas hot in taiwan right now. the big difference is that in texas, common areas, businesses, elevators, classrooms and, most of all--your car--all have really cold AC.
driving a scooter is not the same. you've got hot, dirty exhaust pouring all over you. and thennn, you park in the sun somewhere so your seat is scalding when you get back on. it's crazy. even when you get inside a building, it's just as hot if not worse because of the lack of air flow. my first class tonight has one wall that's solid windows and we just bake in there. and there are 14 sweaty boys, all eating chips and cheeto's.

i told one of my favorite classes that i'm leaving and their reactions were..
"obama!?? cooooll!'
"will we have teacher katie?!"
katie subbed that class while i was in thailand. so i'm excited that they're excited for me and excited to have a new foreign teacher. the coteachers make it seem like your kids are going to freak out and think it's such a big deal, but they're used to having teachers change after a year. i'm going to miss those babies though!

p.s. oohmygoddd the daring bakers' challenge this month was milano cookies and homemade mallows. check this out. (this website continually updates so it may or may not be all cookies when you click. just search for 'milan' or 'milano.'

wisdom

2009-07-31T01:24:00.001+08:00

my american boy

2009-07-30T23:39:00.005+08:00

can you believe it's the end of july already? three weeks from today, i'll be on a plane to the US! to say that i'm thrilled is an understatement. it all feels so right.
(this weekend was the first/only time ripley has been in the back of the truck. you can see the happiness. she loves to go for rides, but i think this took it to a whole new level.
speaking of puppies, one of my favorite girls, angela, is getting a new puppy tonight and she offered me one. the "mom dog" has 3.)

for nowww though, i'm trying to enjoy the last few weeks in taiwan. my body freaked when i decided to limit myself to one cup of tea a day and i've been feeling sooo thirsty that i figured to heck with it. if i spend an extra $30 in tea this month, it'll be worth it.

tonight was the first time i've had to tell a class i'm leaving them. this class isn't one of my favs and i don't think they're super crazy about me, but they were pretty shocked. i told them about my job and they thought it was preeeettty cool. two more weeks with them.

the kuo's were funny tonight. i brought 3 cups of green tea; one for me and one for each of them. when i was at the tea shop, i thought 'should i get an extra just in case amanda is there? noo, she doesn't get off until 7 so i won't see her, and mr. wang and mr. chen haven't come on a weekday in months.' so i get there and mr. kuo and mr. wang are sitting there, drunk as skunks, and mr. wang is wondering where his tea is. whoops!
mr. kuo said i could marry his son if i was interested, and mrs. chan showed me her pumpkin plants, growing by the side of their house in a big pile of broken up concrete and glass, that have sprouted thumb-sized pumpkins.

best story of all!
we had a review day in my little kid class that can't read, can't remember any QA's, can't sound out words. i reviewed 'ae', 'ee', 'oa' and 'ow' words, got them reading, and then told them to look in their little story book for words with those phonics. these kids usually don't give a hoot about phonics, but today they were screaming 'megan! deer! tree! boat! road!' and running up to me with their books, pointing at words. i really could have cried, i was so proud of them. some of them would find a word with the right letters and point to it, but they forgot that they knew how to read it now. watching the lightbulb light up over their head as they sounded it out was aaaamazing.

start at the very beginning

2009-07-29T23:57:00.003+08:00

my head is swimming after my chinese lesson tonight. linda grilled me on DC (which i didn't know any of the vocab for.. which makes it hard to follow along/answer questions) and i was proud that she was proud. she's such a serious, no-nonsense teacher that it's the kind of thing where you study extra hard just so they'll think highly of you.
this was our "look sexy" pose, which i'm not very good at. natalie's got it down (far left). these are jimmie's pictures from wine and cheese girly night at RPM last week.

here's tonight's chinese lesson.. past tense.
i watched tv yesterday. zuo tian wo kan dian shi.
i watched tv. wo kan dian shi le.
i've watched 4 hours of tv (and i'm still watching it). wo yi jing kan le si ge xiao shi dian shi le.
i watched a movie. i watched it for 2 hours. wo kan dian ying. kan le liang ge xiao shi.
i watched a movie for 2 hours. wo kan le liang ge xiao shi de dian ying.

woo! i think all of those are right. i'm not going to cheat and go get my book, so here's hoping i understand.
we watched a movie in class tonight! it's fun to get paid for watching movies. every time you change books, you get to watch a movie in english. this week i have twoooo movie classes.
cross your fingers that i find the perfect apartment in DC. it's pretty rough going from paying $40/month to live in taiwan to paying $600 or more to live in DC. it will be worth it though. ballet! yoga! bai gong! culturally varied food that isn't taiwanese food masquerading as another kind of food!!

elmer the patchwork elephant

2009-07-28T23:14:00.008+08:00

from the same boy who brought us the cutest valentine in the history of mankind, i present: the elmer the patchwork elephant pencil case. jerry and i stopped going to chinese together a couple of months ago, so now we hardly ever see each other. but a month or two ago, i commented on how i loooved his pencil case.the english isn't weird, the drawings aren't crazy or particularly asian, but this pencil box is just screaming 'jerry'. it's endearing, it's random, it's baby pink on the bottom. so how thrilled was i when he showed up with one for me on saturday night? i know i'm not going to fill it with pencils, since that's what my purse is for, but i'm not sure what to put in such a shallow space. ideas?well today was the last day of big important errands with deadlines. now all i need to do is mail some packages, find housing in DC and start banking money to last me through december. i think that includes limiting myself to expensive indian food once a week, and restricting the tea consumption to one cup a day.three days until the o'sullivans hit taiwan! they're a couple from the US who are relocating to one of the cities in the middle of taiwan and i've been following their blog. they seem super sweet and i hope i get to meet them before i go home. i'm so excited for them!

p.s. this is so funny and asian. heck if i haven't seen it at carrefour :P

p.p.s. this is the song (sorry sorry by superjunior) that my new kid, ethan, spontaneously gets up and sings/dances in class. it is hilarious. his hair is like a shaggy bowl cut and he has moves like a little break dancer.

a drink with jam and bread

2009-07-28T10:50:00.003+08:00

you know you're a fried wreck when a spontaneous musical makes you tear up :P
thanks aunt carol for the video!

such a long road we've been walking on

2009-07-28T00:28:00.005+08:00

these are some pictures from the very end of the night. dane came over after everyone had left.
it's funny how time flies by so much faster when your schedule is full. it would be nice to be able to push pause. i've been doing a million things every day; getting ready to leave taiwan, tying up loose ends and filling out forms, and i haven't even really begun to look for housing yet. i did buy my plane ticket! sept 5, DC here i come!
a bunch of things that used to be annoying just seem like funny quirks of taiwan lately. the ladies pushing dollies full of trash and recycling across the street in the middle of traffic, wearing their flowered arm covers and big sun hats. getting lost in tiny little alleys. getting stuck behind the trash truck as everyone comes out with their bags in hand. going to tea stands and seeing all of the workers run to the back of the shop and force the one sort-of-english-speaker to the front.
bobo called me from the book store today to ask if i wanted her to buy a chinese children's book about obama for me. she read it to katie and i today at lunch and the story is sooo cool. i'm supposed to get it signed. we'll see about that.
time for bed, i'm behind schedule.
..let's look at the dress one more time before the window of time has closed that it's acceptable to keep bringing it up.
facebook album can be seen here

from around here

2009-07-26T18:40:00.006+08:00

some of my favorite pictures from last night:
my coteacher augusta and her fiance, jerry. last time i saw jerry, i couldn't say much chinese at all, so every time i would talk to him last night, he shook his head and said 'it's so weird to hear you speak chinese!'
jerry, katie, krissy, phil and george
augusta's taiwan fab shoes.

the couples were awesome.
alan and natalie
steph and carly in perfectly taiwanese matching couples shirts.
martin and olenka (in homemade shirts)
tess, danielle and i (look at that dressss!! i felt like a taiwanese princess)
evvvveryone playing bubblegum
dancin'
i bought balloons for minimal cost + maximum decor impact
katie, me, tess, phil

tonight i went over to the apartment to pick up some stuff i forgot and i asked the security guards what we should do about the cable and our lack of hot water. the security guard called the cable guy (at 11:30pm), woke him up, and scheduled an appointment for tomorrow.
megan: we don't have any hot water either
retired guy who hangs out behind the desk: you can say that in chinese
me: we don't have any hot water
guy: did you turn on the gas?
me: we can cook with it, but the water isn't hot
guy: did you try turning on the gas..?
me: we're a bunch of american girls who can't read the chinese. i don't know how to turn on the gas
guy: let's go try
me: now?
guy: yeah, why not?
..as we're walking to the elevator..
guy: you guys had a lot of people over for your party last night. was it fun?
me: yeah it was a lot of fun, i'm sorry we were loud, but we just wanted to show all of our friends the new apartment
guy: it's ok. it was saturday. i went to sleep at 2am
me: could you hear us?
guy: yep

so that was funny/productive. turns out the battery was missing from the hot water heater unit. we never would have figured that out on our own. we were also surprised to find out that the retired man lives on our floor, across the hall. he asked why i wasn't staying there that night and i told him i'm not going to live there since i'm going home. he told me to come over often. those guys are so nice.

double your fun

2009-07-25T21:54:00.002+08:00

tonight is romantic paris mansion's housewarming party and i think everyone's starting to get into the tacky taiwan theme. everyone wants to keep their outfit a surprise. i'm exciteddd. pictures tomorrow. i can't waitttt to show you my dress.

i went to the kuo's after class today and mr. kuo's entire family showed up! his mom, 2 sisters, 1 brother in law, 1 nephew. mrs. chan told them all about how i go there all the time and my life history. she's my taiwanese mom. they were speaking taiwanese the whole time, but i picked up a little bit of the chinese that was thrown in. the brother in law said my chinese isn't too bad but i'm too quiet. mr. kuo insisted that i drink some taiwanese red wine and i've had a headache ever since. mr. wang and mr. chen were there too.. and they were behaving themselves. no bai jiu and not very much smoking today.

it was fun to meet his family but i'm glad that mr. kuo's the one who i got to know. the sisters seem nice, but he's just so much more outgoing and friendly and smiling. i got an invite to go swimming with the younger sister tomorrow though (by younger, we're talkin' like, 54). she kept filling up my bowl with random food that i just scarfed without thinking about it too hard. it's growing on me now that i'm getting ready to leave.

time to tackle these false eyelashes.

had to run from you

2009-07-24T23:11:00.005+08:00

i've got nothin today, so i'm leaving you with the most awesome wedding-aisle walk in the woooorld.

and this conversation:
[ryan is reciting his spelling words to me, and as he's handing me the list, i rip it in half by accident. the whole class stops what they're doing and looks at me as ryan and i are looking at each other with our mouths open and hands on our face, home alone style, screaming.]
ryan: MEGAN!
class: what happened?!
[megan pretends to cry].
paul: megan, no cry! no cry!

..and this conversation
megan to tsong you bing lady: one day, can you teach me how to make these? i'm going home in 3 weeks and we don't have them in america
TYBL: sorry, i can't
megan: i can make the dough, i just want to learn how to do the fluff thing
TYBL: no, i really can't. you know how you go to the tea shop, and they can't teach you how to make their tea? i also can't teach you how to make tsong you bing because it's not my own recipe, it's the companys.
megan: oooh ok. ..but can't you teach me how to fluff them?
TYBL: no. are you an english teacher down the street?
megan: yep. but i'm going home soon
TYBL: many foreigners only stay one year. i didn't know you could speak so much chinese
..so that was kind of embarrassing but i'm glad that we had a chance to chat at all. i'm not sure why that woman and i haven't bonded before. i've gone there twice a week for a year now. she's always really hot from standing above the grill thing and listening to her ipod, so i just let her be.

i wore my pretty new bright aqua jersey dress today and i felt like a million dollars. i don't know why the taiwanese are so averse to color in general. the most popular colors are dishwater gray, black and purple.

but the vibe is wrong

2009-07-24T01:08:00.005+08:00

i feel like i haven't stopped moving since i got back from thailand, things have been so busy. i'm filling out this application in all of my free time and then doing lesson plans, going to lunch, getting tea, doing stuff with the paris mansion girls, etc.
this was lunch from the monarch hotel. they set up this little stand out in front of the hotel and you can buy a 'lunch box' for 80NT. today i got the last one they had and it's spareribs with tofu cubes and some fried cabbage. seaweed miso soup to go with it. i had such a headache from drinking so much wine last night that i just kept eating the seaweed soup even though it's not my fav. i know seafood is packed full of all kinds of nutrients.

tonight tess and katie and i went shopping for our taiwanese fab party outfits. i am dyyyying to show you my dress, but i'll wait til saturday. i am sooo excited!! hint: sequins, chiffon, tulle, AND organza

booked my ticket home! i'm flying the 20th of august, with a long layover in hawaii, to be in austin the morning of the 21st! yay

love the way you move

2009-07-23T14:37:00.003+08:00

i spent aaaaalllll of yesterday filling out this monstrous form for the internship. crazy. i'm still only halfway done.

well yesterday we threw a last minute girly wine and cheese party at romantic paris mansion. girls only. katie and tess had filled the apartment with tea lights and flowers and it was so pretty and clean and girly in there. 9 of us just ended up sitting around the dining room table, sharing 5 chairs, and eating our weight in cheese, crackers, chocolate and fruit. 9 bottles of wine.

i forgot how much fun it is to hang out with your girlfriends. it was interesting to hear that some of those girls never really had a group of girlfriends at home. so i think we're going to do that more often. it's probably a nice break for the boys, too.

at the end of the night, we pulled the twin bed mattress into tess' room and crammed it in the teeny space between her bed and the wall so 3 of us had a sleepover in her room. i'll post some of the pictures once jimmie and tess upload them.

yooooooohooooooooo

2009-07-21T22:54:00.002+08:00

today was kind of a funny contrast with the past few days where i've just been all excited and floaty. this afternoon i went to lunch with allen, who was really quiet and somber and kept mentioning how he's sad that i have to leave. he's understandably not excited at all about me leaving in a month.

after that, i went over to romantic paris mansion to help them set up the internet. while i was waiting for the internet guy, i hung out in the lobby at a table with 2 security guards and 3 men who live in the complex. they were chattering in chinese as i sat down and they quickly asked if i understood chinese. i said yes, we became fast friends, as they said we have no foreign friends, you can be our foreign friend. they were all smoking and drinking tea so one of them bought me a tea from the vending machine and money just started pouring out of the change slot. we laughed and they kept pointing at me and telling me i was so lucky. so i felt a little twinge of sadness about not becoming besties with those guys. they seem like a lot of fun.

thenn i sat with tess and katie while the internet guys did their thing and it was sad that i don't get to live in romantic paris mansion with them.

thennnn! i went to see the kuo's who were all excited to see me after thailand. mr. kuo just stood there for a long time and looked at me when i first walked in. mrs. chan made some kind of cold cucumber salad she's never made before, and she made golden curry just for me because it's my favorite (as she reminded me when i told her i wasn't super hungry.. so of course i ended up eating a giant bowl of it).
but then i told mr. kuo about the internship and he was sad. he kept saying one month! and we agreed that this year has flown by too quickly. he kept staring at me as i ate and said taiwanese people love you. we will miss you when you go to america.

and my classes tonight are so sweet. i had a gaggle of girls meet me at the door when i came in and we all walked in a big clump up to the classroom, where the other kids raced to show me who got hair cuts (i always make a big deal of it when they get one because i think you always feel kind of special with new hair and it's fun to be noticed).

my next class had changed their seats all around and we have a new set of twins, eddie and .. someone. i forget the other kids name. that class loves to pick on me and today whenever i would say 'ask a question' (instead of ask a QA), they'd say 'what is megan's phone number?' or 'who is megan's boyfriend?' and they thought they were sooo clever. even emily, the quietest girl in the whole world, said something like 50 words to me at break which is unprecidented.

so it was kind of a bittersweet day. i think i'm going home under the best possible circumstances, but i do have a life here that i'll be sad to leave behind.

koh tao pictures

2009-07-21T09:35:00.004+08:00

i added in pictures to the previous blogs about my vacation. just scroll down. there are also some on the previous page.
here's the link to the entire album of koh tao (with a bunch that aren't on my blog) on facebook.
and you can click here to see the album of the grand palace in bangkok. it is so pretty.

give it to someone special

2009-07-20T23:31:00.005+08:00

it is so hot in taiwan. uncomfortably hot. it's like when you have a sunburn and you feel heat radiating from your skin. only one more month though!

i'm just floating on a cloud now. a month seems like such a short time, so i'm just enjoying the everyday things. this afternoon i went over to bobo's for chinese and then stayed to play with the girls. jaime was singing 'last christmas' and joyce would sing, but all she knew was 'last christmas, i gave you my heart.. blah blah blah dah dah .. SPECIAL'. she sung it at the top of her lungs in the car with her own madeup words at least 6 times on the way to pick up lunch. and she was extra lovey dovey and wanted to be picked up every 2 seconds and taiwanese people on the street were giving us the funniest looks.

i was thrilled to see my babies tonight and they're two of my favorites so they were equally excited to see me. they wanted to know all about thailand and some of them got hair cuts that they wanted to show me, and we just got back into our groove. it was nice. my little boys let me hug them without even really pretending to run away and scott just came and leaned against me while we were reading without me even doing anything. working with kids really is so much fun on the good days.

tea lady, stamp man, grandpa (i haven't mentioned it in months and months, but there's this little corner store right across from the school and we call it grandma's because this old woman is always behind the counter, but in the morning, it's her husband with parkinsons who continually hits himself with a long rod) and the cleaning lady all said long time no see to me today, so it was sweet that they noticed that i was gone and came back.

tonight as i was walking back from dinner and ice cream with tess and katie, i saw alex inside the coffee shop, so i went to say hi to him.
alex: welcome back, did you have fun on your vacation?
me: yeah, i had a lot of fun
fanny: how strange that the foreigners are speaking chinese to each other

thailand adventures

2009-07-20T00:54:00.002+08:00

i haven't finished uploading/editing all of my photos from thailand yet and my eyes are fighting to stay open, so i'll go through and add them to posts on the right days tomorrow and put up a link to some facebook albums.

for nowww i'll leave you with these..
steve has lots of moves.
iced tea peach!
emil was being extra weird the last night. i think he needed some TLC.
emil, jane and jeff
jane, me, emil, dawn, leila, keith
steve, ashley and jeff

so much fun!

one night in bangkok

2009-07-19T02:36:00.004+08:00

this keyboard leaves something to be desired. maybe it's a ploy to get me to pay for more time on the internet. slow going.

well this morning we left koh tao in the rain on a giant boat. 2 hours later we got on a bus for 7 and a half hours. it was amazing how all of that sitting around exhausted us by the time we moseyed over to koh san road in bangkok. it's super busy here, i think a lot of people must be heading home tomorrow since it's sunday. i guess it's busy here all the time though.

dawn, keith and i spent the evening shopping and people watching. i found a few things for jeff and matt and a few things for myself. i lost the battle for a necklace because the vendor wasn't willing to come down 10 batt (30 cents). haggling is no fun when you're super tired.

i've spent most of the day in a haze of DC excitement. it feels like i'm dreaming. really it just feels like a huge weight has been lifted and i know that it will just be awesome. i'm really excited. we get to help out at random social functions and attend a weekly lecture series headed by various 'senior white house staff' members which will be awesome.

5 minutes left on my timer! taiwan tomorrow. i'm excited to sleep in my own bed and have my own computer and see everyone.

ecstatic, excited, thrilled

2009-07-18T02:13:00.004+08:00

i'm going to the white house in september!! i got the internship!
whew. i'm all trembly and excited. i just read the email, called my mom, dad and gram. my internet connection is too crap to actually talk to any of them for very long, but yayyyyy!!!

today was just perfect all along.
slept in late, had chili chicken soup for brunch, followed by some time on the beach with my favorite girls, then for an oil massage which made us all smell like macaroons, then a pedicure, then a brownie with ice cream on the beach, then delicious indian dinner with perfect company and lots of pictures, then drinks on the beach, then drinks off the beach, then white house internship email to come home to!it was sad to say goodbye to everyone though. we've had such a nice vacation. i can't think of a better way to have spent the last two weeks. we made new friends who were tons of fun. i got to see leila, derek and emil again when i thought i'd never see them. i got a chance to get to know steve, who is super sweet and lovely. it was great.
i am so excited about DC!!
now i need to work on finding [cheap] housing in DC. anyone with connections, feel free to start working on this right now.

peach tea

2009-07-16T23:45:00.003+08:00

a couple of random things.
- a dog walked off with my leather flip flop :( at least that's our best guess as to what happened to it. they weren't super easy to walk in anyway, so i hope whichever dog nabbed it is enjoying it.
- dawn and i are thinking about going to hong kong for our birthdays in september. one of the girls who's joined our group, jane, is living there and she has a pull-out couch that we're welcome/planning to use
- they have peach liptons iced tea here in cans at 7-11 and it is so yummy. it tastes like those peach candies that come in the white box. the jelly ones. and 7-11 has "toasties" which are white bread sandwiches, put into a sandwich maker and sealed shut and grilled on both sides. ham and cheese toasties are my fav.
time for bed. we had to swim 200 or so meters to the boat after chris slightly miscalculated where the boat was and my legs are talking to me. the silver sands resident dog just curled up under my legs. one more day in koh tao! ..maybe my classes won't notice if i just stay.

tropical island band

2009-07-16T15:52:00.004+08:00

i'm drinking out of a coconut while looking at the ocean. i think i've hit vacation nirvana. i've been dreaming about crispy duck on thin pancakes with plum sauce and we had some last night. then dawn and i had a candle-lit evening glass of wine on the beach, sitting in puffy bean bag chairs and looking at the ocean. it was heavenly.

this morning everyone but leila went diving and it was a bunch of fun. another early morning. keith, dawn, steve, jane and i were all in the same group when we went diving so it was nice. we saw a bazillion fish.. i bet if i look, i can find pictures.. first we were at red rock. it was a little tiny island and the bottom was all rocks covered in giiiiant coral.
next we went to japanese gardens. it was mostly one kind of coral and pretty flat, but there was a diving boat that sunk a few weeks ago that we got to swim around. it was covered in a thin layer of seaweedy stuff.

this website isn't affiliated with us at all, but that's what it looks like. it's on this island somewhere. i guess i'll be posting my own pictures soon enough.

i had a smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel for lunch that was super lovely. now it's time to check out on the beach for a few hours before massages. buy a ticket!

red roses, too

2009-07-15T13:05:00.004+08:00

ahhhh i wrote a whole post, saved it, and it disappeared. round 2..
i spent seven hourssss on the beach yesterday reading, napping, tanning, listening to music/the ocean. i think this beachy lifestyle is really starting to appeal to me. derek, leila, steve and emil all came here once their contracts were up and they're here for several months teaching or getting scuba certifications of various types. jealous. i don't really want to be a career diver or i'd follow suit.

while we've been here, we've met steve's friends ashley and jeff, who he knows from home. yesterday was ashley's birthday so we went to dinner at the italian place, farrango's, which i love. their pizza is better than all of the "pizza" in taiwan and rivals my favorite pizza at home. and they have peach iced tea. ymmm. ashley is super sweet.
after that we spent a little while on pillows on a deck overlooking the beach, sipping cocktails. steve tried my pina colada and said he thought it was disgusting. unbelievable.

today is another low key, beachy day. dawn and i are going to lunch in a few minutes. i'm thinking about a pedicure.
i'll hear about the internship in the next couple of days, so it's time to cross our fingers again.

forever young

2009-07-14T01:33:00.006+08:00

we're PADI certified open water divers now! yay. it means that we can set up our own equipment unassisted and go diving with a dive master who makes sure we go down/come up at the right speed and who will show us around in the water.
today we had to meet at 6:45am to go to the boat. we did one fun dive just to swim around and look at fish. we saw some angel fish munching on a coconut. i held a starfish the size of a rugby ball. i didn't turn upside down and twirl around in circles. happy about that. keith and i both used way less air than yesterday, so we're improving. he was noticeably calmer today.
(they drive on the other side of the road in thailand. who knew? this is the truck that would drop us off at the dock before dives. emil insisted on sitting inside the cab because there was like an 80degree incline at times.)

then we took a break and did a second dive at hin wong bay, where we practiced the last of our technical skills. taking the mask fully off under water (which still makes me a little paranoid because you're so afraid you'll forget that you can't breathe through your nose) and clearing it, blowing air rings, using a compass, stuff like that. glad all of that stuff is out of the way so from now on we can just look at stuff underwater. my ears are feeling the pain of being popped and filled with sea water for 2 days. i need a break.
aside from diving, our days have been perfect and tropical-island-paradise-y in koh tao. we had delicious curry and fruit smoothies for lunch with dawn and then got a thai massage. keith giggled like a schoolgirl the entire time. dawn, leila, keith and i had dinner at wind beach which faces the ocean and has pillow chairs on the deck. i had pad thai with a baileys, rum and banana shake (!!!!!!). at night, they dig holes in the sand and light kerosene lamps on fire so it's all beautiful and lit with the palm trees. there are men who stand on the beach twirling batons with fire on the ends and people playing soccer and dogs playing with coconuts. could it beeee any more fantastic?

today i made friends with a black community dog with one eye and who was missing part of a paw. i was scratching the lower part of her back while i was sitting on the porch and now we're best friends. good day.

favorite quote from yesterday:
keith: liden, do you feel like superman in your wet suit?
liden: not really
keith: spiderman? peter pan? nothing?
liden: i kind of feel like wendy.

liden is our dive master trainee who's been diving with us for the last 3 days. he's quiet, bashful, english and sooooooo attractive. i'll find a picture somewhere or be sure to take one before i leave.

techno has no words

2009-07-13T00:30:00.005+08:00

i'm posting pictures of allen and alex's day at the children's museum with bobo and katie and at a baseball game. allen has been begging me to go to a game with him, but it is sooo hot outside, so i tried to steer him toward someone who actually wanted to go. and allen loves alex. he's always asking me about him and every time we see a temple we say "alex would love this" because alex is the temple king. so i'm glad they did that together.well this scuba certification thing is kind of trial by fire. we did some of the same stuff as yesterday, but this time you're 30 feet down. it was all pretty nice and wonderful except one minute of panic where i thought i was skyrocketing toward the surface and my BCD wouldn't deflate.. but it turns out that i was really upside down, swimming toward the sand and turning around in circles. i have no idea how that happened. i really thought i was going up and up and up.

today was fun though because we got to see some real fish and remember why we were going through the whole tedious learning process at all. there were cute little fish in these holes in the sand in the bottom that would pop out and pop back in when they saw you. while we were doing some technical stuff, this orange and gray stripey fish was just swimming all around my knees and checkin' me out.
apparently it was a choppy day, so everything else should seem easy. i'm hoping we have some sun in the next couple of days so i can have a thailand tan when i get back to taiwan. the last couple of days have been a little gray and rainy.
tonight we went to dinner with dawn and leila at the beeeest indian place. we stuffed ourselves with platters of food and chai tea. ymmm. then we went to watch a ladyboy show down the street. it was hilaaaarious. some of them really look like women, but this one guy was built like a football player and he wasn't super convincing (see below). they were lip synching to tina turner, whitney houston, etc. songs but they didn't know the right words so it was like weird kung fu movie with not quite right lips. pretty entertaining though. the costumes were all sequined or tasseled with giant, piled-up wigs and the highest high heels with eyelashes a foot long. one of them had more cleavage than me which i find perplexing. plastic? lots of tape? special bra?
we have to get up to leave at 7 for our final 2 dives before we're open water certified, so i'm headed in early.

croaking geckos

2009-07-12T00:11:00.006+08:00

11 new skills:
1. enjoying coconut shakes on the beach and only getting a teeny bit sunburned
2. staying awake through 3 hours of dive videos starting at 8am
3. properly identifying the sound a giant gecko makes
4. hooking up a scuba tank/vest (BCD)/accoutrements while in and out of the water
5. getting water out of my mask while underwater
6. tackling the windblown, wavy vacation hair
7. getting to the surface without a scuba tank
8. getting to the surface with a broken respirator that's shooting out uncontrollable bubbles
9. getting to the surface with a buddy, using their air tank
10. learning how not to explode my lungs, fill my blood with nitrogen bubbles or get decompression sickness11. appreciating the serious, scuba instructor side of emil, who i had previously only seen only the silly, tigger suit wearing side of. he's awesome, direct, fun and comforting.

keith and i did scuba in the pool today and it was scary/fun. it took me a few minutes to stop thinking about how weird i felt to only breathe through my mouth, but it's ok now. it all makes me appreciate my kids and how we demo something once and then expect them to copy us without making any mistakes on their first try when they've never done it before. i had forgotten how hard it can be to do something you've never ever done before. but we did it.. in the pouring rain, too (not that it matters i guess, when you're already all wet).

we did 4 chapters in the book and 4 tests. 3 hours of pool stuff. it was a long, scuba-y day. tomorrow we're headed into the ocean for 2 dives. they don't mess around with the progression of things.
HEY i was just watching a show about mt. everest climbers and it was interviewing the men and what their next plan was and the man just said 'i'm headed to thailand to hang out in a hammock on the beach for three months.'

p.s. the internship emailed to say they still haven't decided and they're pushing the notification back one week. good thing i'm too busy to drive myself crazy wondering about that for another week. keep thinking good thoughts.
p.p.s. for those sappy romantic readers, tonight allen said i was his 'angel of the air and water, flying around me and with the fish in the ocean'. we go back and forth with being friends and being sparkley. i think long absences fuel the sparkle.

to get away from it all

2009-07-11T00:36:00.006+08:00

sairee beach in koh tao is everything you could imagine a beach to be. the water is blue, the sand is white, there are palm trees, the entire thing is lined with kitschy little restaurants and bars with low tables with cushions to lean up against. banana smoothies are 50 batt (less than $2), you can get a massage on the beach, you can do yoga, you can take a water taxi. there are resident beach dogs that will just walk up to you and lie down at your feet.

our hotel is right across from emil's dive shop and we're staying in a 'luxury room' with AC, a shower, TV, fridge and wireless for ~35US a night. the walls are deep gray and sea blue stained concrete. it's lovely.
anyway i'm getting ahead of myself. yesterday we spent the day exploring some of the sights of bangkok. we ended up in this open-aired (meaning a cart attached to a motorbike) taxi service that would take you to a few tourist spots and the deal was that you had to go to all of these handmade suit shops and just listen to the pitch. one guy actually talked keith into ordering a custom made dress shirt.
we saw the grand palace which was beautiful and dripping in gold leaf/paint. to be very honest, we didn't read much about it, so i'll let wikipedia tell you if you want to know. we spent a few hours there.. prayed to the jade buddha. no email from the white house yet.
the most exciting part of yesterday was showering in the train station for 10 batt, awesome, and then taking the overnight sleeper train south. we bought top bunk sleeper seats with AC for $30ish each and it was so worth it. i pulled the curtain closed, put in my ipod and slept from 9 until around 3. they gave you a heavy, white towel for a blanket and it had real white sheets and a real pillow. it was amazing.
then todayy we took a boat to the island, ate the best veggie platter of indian food right on the beach with a dog at our feet, and met up with emil, leila, dawn and derek this evening for dinner at an italian place. the spinach ravioli had real spinach leaves inside. it was deeelicious. i just got back from hanging out with leila on the front porch of her bungalow. seriously, is the awesomeness coming across? can you even imagine?
open water certification course part 1 with emil starts tomorrow morning. we're going to do it in our hotel room since it's freezing in here. life is good in thailand.

cabbages and kings

2009-07-09T02:58:00.006+08:00

keith's keyboard is missing the L key, so if you notice any insane typos, it's not me.

let's do bullet points. i'm tired.
- we had a self described "happy taxi driver" on the way to the airport. he was adorable. keith talked to him before they picked me up and by the time they got there, the guy was calling me 'beautiful teacher' and asking if i wanted to sing songs in chinese. that guy was so funny. he taught me mimihuhu which means 'i don't know, you don't know' because we were all guessing between terminals 1 and 2. it was 2.
- then we're in line waiting to get on the plane and this guy asks us what numbers they just called. we say we have no idea, but i asked him what instrument he was carrying. turns out he's a taiwanese guy who has a serious passion for death metal AND went to school at UT (same as me). i think he might have been partially autistic.
- the flight was OK except we had a dude who didn't request a veggie meal but who was very upset that they didn't have an extra for him. keith almost elbowed him about a million times.

-right when we got out of the taxi in thailand, we ran into a junkie of a man who pointed us toward koh san road, all bug-eyed and making long pauses.. we didn't stay where he suggested.
-it is bizarre to be in a place with so many foreigners from so many places. i've gotten so used to only seeing asian-looking people that it's a real shock that the demographic on this road is 60% blonde girls, 35% frat guys and 5% hippies. tonight we had a drink with two dutch people who had a long layover on the way to bali.
time for bed! it smells so much like cabbage in our $30 a night (which i guess counts as a 'luxury hotel') hotel room. but it's beautiful. pictures in a week and a half.

v-a-c-a-t-i-o-n.

2009-07-08T16:16:00.002+08:00

headed to thailand with keith this evening! we're going to be at the airport way early but it's ok.
we get into bangkok around 1030 and we're going to have late dinner somewhere on koh san road.
check in tonight!

stars shinin' right above you

2009-07-08T01:59:00.003+08:00

hands down, the worst part of this job is the inevitable goodbyes. you have to say goodbye to your friends, your kids, the taiwanese people you make friends with. steve is leaving next week but tonight is the last time i'll see him since i'm headed to thailand. he's the kind of guy you marry. dependable, super nice, easygoing, wants a lot of kids, fantastic bowler, blushes like a girl. if we had the sparkle, i would snatch him.

joycie and i said goodbye today too, but not forever. she and jaime are going to their grandma's house for 3 weeks. she's like a whole different kid than i remember. she must be a few inches taller. she can say things i didn't even know she knew how to say before. we spent the afternoon playing with her webkin and some korean kids game website that we can't read.

we're getting somewhere with the automatic please and thank you.
joyce: megan, you do this one
me: i'm sorry, i think you forgot a word
joyce: you do this one, please
..5 minutes later..
joyce: you finish this puzzle
joyce: you finish this puzzle please
..15 minutes later..
megan: joyce can you hand me that marker?
joyce: please?
megan: pleaseee can i have that marker? thank you

i went to tuesday night bowling tonight since i knew it was the last time i'd get to hang out with steve and it was a lot of fun. i did hoooorribly, but it was ok. the bowling guys (and julia) are all really awesome. now it's 2am though. time for bed. cross your fingers that sleeping on wet hair will result in beautiful waves and not crazy morning hair.

p.s. jimmie is way more ballsy than me and she took pictures of the market where we've been buying fruits and veggies. tell me you would be able to walk past all of that hanging meat to get to the fruit in the back!

when the lights go down in the city

2009-07-07T00:38:00.003+08:00

well it was another apartment-y day in taoyuan. i asked the owner about the water when we were touring it with him yesterday and he told me there was no filter but the water in taiwan just isn't good anyway and we would need to boil it. then the real estate company guy, eddie, called tess later in the evening and said the owner decided to install a water filter on the sink for us. so we spent the morning hanging out while they installed it.

the landlord is an interesting guy, mr. dong. he was in the air force for a long long time until he started flying for china airlines. he's retired now and lives in taipei. for the first 10 minutes of our lease meeting yesterday, his face was stone-cold serious. no smiling, no laughing, arms folded.

but tess, katie and i are all pretty smiley, bubbly north american girls and we were super excited about signing everything, so he loosened up over time. he said he has 2 daughters, 20 and 18. by the end of it, he was smiling and laughing and making little jokes. i think he's pretty good.

the beeest part of the contract signing was when we had to stamp 3 sets of contracts with our thumb prints. we had to stamp every folded over page.

we just got back from the friendship store, where everything is super cheap. we spent $100 on everything we need to get up and running. dishes, cleaning stuff, kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff. we opted for asian-fab whenever we had the option. the mop is barbie pink.

i find out about the internship sometime this week and i leave for thailand on wednesday! exciting week for me. at least all news is good news at this point. oh! speaking of good news, i was able to put my plane ticket on hold so i only have to change it once and i don't lose the $700 i have in it. good day all around.

parade of homes

2009-07-05T22:16:00.007+08:00

i could tell you about my day, but it's more exciting to just show you a million pictures of our new apartmenttt! let's go on a tour.
welcome to the Romantic Paris Mansion.. (the name of our apartment complex. seriously.)
you'll know you're in paris because the louvre is right inside the courtyard. ours is better than the original, in my opinion, because it's surrounded by a moat.
we're on the 15th floor but we're apartment number 21F which i'm not sure i understand. you'll notice the door has been outfitted with the necessary lucky paper. if anyone who actually knows what that says feels like pointing it out, that would be lovely.
inside is super '80s fantastic. we're going to replace the window treatments.
this is the view from katie's room. the dorm is where you can see all of those green lights in the bottom righthand corner. when we were there this afternoon, we could see josh on the balcony so we just started screaming his name. he heard us, but he couldn't see us.

this is the view when you're looking out from the kitchen. there's a little dining room.
the dining room chairs might be my favorite part of the whole thing.
the kitchen is pretty bare bones. it's like we're camping. there's a fridge (there was originally a mini fridge but we said that wasn't going to fly..) and a stovetop. i don't cook a thing now though so i don't see that being a problem.
i just went over with jimmie and i introduced myself to the security guards at the front desk.
me: i live here now. my name is Megan.
them: 15F?
me: yep.
them: you need a thingy to get on the elevator. write down your name on this post-it.

they seemed less than enthused, but i'm hoping we'll all be best friends by the end of the month. i need to find out what kind of tea they like.
the end!

p.s. glad you're caught up, cherry hill, NJ. that was amazing.

fireworksless fourth

2009-07-05T12:42:00.002+08:00

after christmas, i think the fourth of july is the best holiday. it's just a day of barbecues, flip flops and hanging out. even though we don't have fireworks here, it felt like the fourth of july hanging out with a bunch of americans at a bar last night. the owner, a canadian, had strung up american flag garland from the ceiling. margaritas were 100NT. that's why i'm posting 12 hours later than usual.

no kuo's yesterday. they were in kaohsiung visiting their son, steve, who just started his 2 years of mandatory military service. just as i was walking over to their house and saw the big garage door was down, mr. kuo called to tell me they weren't there. i don't know if what i've said about them gives you a clear enough sense of how much i love that family. i'd bet that if you could see how my brain chemically reacts to hanging out with them and hanging out with my own family, it'd be the same. we have the bestttt time.

and the more chinese i learn, the more we can talk about. the other day we had a big conversation about religion and the mormon church down the street and how it's not cool that they offer "free english lessons" to kids when they're really just talking to them about religion. and mrs. chan and i talked about our underwear color preference for a long time last week when i was learning clothing. (she prefers pink and purple, which you would never guess.)

oh! did i mention that tess, katie and i are signing an apartment lease today? it all happened kind of suddenly. they started looking at places and then we found one we liked that was unfurnished, but the woman offered to buy a tv, couch, fridge, 2 beds and a washer for no additional cost, so we said OK. if i get the internship, one of the other girls here will move in instead. i need to go wake them up actually, our appointment's in an hour. allen's coming to help with the chinese.

free and easy down the road i go

2009-07-03T23:00:00.005+08:00

i think i've finally reached a point that i don't feel homesick at all anymore. who ever thought that the girl who cried every day for the first week would say that! i do miss hanging out at the lake and seeing the fam, but hoooopefully i'll see them in another month and get to do all of that summery stuff. the lake is probably the biggest thing. the lake and my queen sized bed with millions of pillows.
well there's one girl in my second class, coco, who i don't know what to do about. her sister is older so all of her books are already written in. lots of times, she just won't participate. today she was supposed to ask a question and she knows if she just stands there long enough, we'll tell her to sit down. last time i held up the class until she did something, she just started bawling. it's times like those that a little training would come in handy.
that class was pretty cute tonight when i told them i was going to thailand for 2 weeks. at first they were kind of disappointed, but then we decided i could ride elephants, swim in the ocean, and eat lots of thai food (which ryan says is disgusting). they said they want to see lots of pictures of elephants when i get back. 5 days!
dawn left for thailand today. she was eating a mango and she noticed some little white things and we think they were maggots. OMGGG. dena, dawn and i inspected it for about 5 minutes before we decided they were definitely worms. then dawn got sick. it was gross. i made her some tea and disposed of the partially eaten, wormy mango for her.

p.s. rattlesnake in chinese - xiang wei she

pink and brown but not just pink

2009-07-02T23:19:00.003+08:00

i got sucked into the time vortex trying to find comforters for my cousins. martha wants solid pink and brown. emma wants blue and green. pbteen, pbkids, IKEA, pennies, overstock and 'outdoor kids' (or something) are all a no-go. taking a break to blog.

it rained today in what seems like the first time in a long time. i think the majority of us were in bed until early afternoon because it was so dark out. i went to the fruit market and the grandma was speaking about me in taiwanese to the guy next door. i feel like the use of taiwanese as a code language isn't fair. i'm finally just catching on to what people are saying in chinese. mrs. chan does that a lot. i think they speak mostly in taiwanese all the time though.

there were a couple of cute things in my little kid class tonight.
ben, jimmie and barry's new thing was 'ben loves teacher megan' or 'jimmy loves teacher megan'. after ben finished reading with me, he said i love you. boys!

and charlie, the tiniest, cutest boy in the whole country sits right next to where i stand so before class and during breaks, we do paper scissor stone or thumb wars and he squeals like a little pig. it is so cute. anyway lately we've been doing variations on paper scissor stone. i stole 'the claw' from jerry. the claw beats everything. so today he came up with 'the snail' which is just a peace sign with one hand and a fist on top. i think snail even beats the claw. we haven't quite worked out the rules yet.

o canada

2009-07-02T00:32:00.004+08:00

jaime and joyce are the cutest kids in the world. this is a picture joyce ordered the other day. she has a flashcard book and she picked out a picture and i drew it. including principal howe. i think it's hilarious how you can't tell the difference between the ones she drew and the ones i drew.
they're extra lucky because my grandma sent them stickers andd wrote them letters because jaime and i drew a picture and mailed it to her. bobo said they're going to be sooo excited tomorrow morning when they see them and she couldn't believe my grandma would do that just because she liked jaime's picture so much.
it was a team effort from the sewing group. i think norma found the webkinz ones. norma, deedee, fran, joyce and gram meet once a week for 'sewing group' where they all bring a bag of sewing or knitting which they leave at their feet as they all chat, drink tea and eat cake.
i forgot to tell you about frank and the big test yesterday. frank has a giiiant smile and big, flashy eyes and he's cute as can be, but he never ever pays attention in class. the rest of the class will be reading and he's looking up at me or looking around or causing mayhem. he never ever knows the answer to anything.

but yesterday we had a big test and he was awesome. he could recite the lesson, ask me questions, read another book and everything like a pro. i gave him 48/50. i was so proud of him. we always announce who got 100 and i announced frank's 96 and the class was in awe. good for him.
today was low-key. we sat by the pool at jon and chris' apartment for an hour or so to celebrate canada day. i went to tea with keith, who wiped his sweat all over me. gross. tonight i had fun in my jerk-kids class in spite of their unwillingness to smile. linda complimented me on my improvement with chinese over the last 6 months which made me feel good.
there were even some stickers for me! and a cool plastic sticker map of america with all of the states that you can stick to the window and peel off. thanks guys!

open up your eyes

2009-06-30T23:18:00.006+08:00

happy anniversary, gram and spanky! i think we're up to 64 years now? is that right? you two are the best.

you know how some of those fake drinks like Sobe have a 'dragon fruit' flavor? until i got to taiwan, i had no idea there was a thing called a dragon fruit. i think the name is perfect, given what it looks like:
i was trying to ask mrs. chan and mr. kuo how i know if it's good by looking at it since the one i bought the other day was all shriveled. i guess the answer was obvious. it shouldn't be shriveled. it should be shiny and firm, but not hard.
the inside feels like a kiwi and tastes unlike anything else i've had. kiwi consistency but less flavorful. it's kind of tangy and not overly sweet. the seeds are bigger and they pop between your teeth the same way weevils pop when you squish them.
allen and i had japanese for lunch today. there was a baby who would stare at him until he looked at it, and then it would turn and look at me. as soon as allen looked away, it would stare at him again. i was giggling so much that i felt like the entire restaurant was looking at me.
i think it might have also been the bright yellow dress. this is a big generalization but it seems like black, purple and neon are the big colors in asia. you never ever see a taiwanese person wearing yellow, orange or red. i live in brights so i always feel like i stick out a lot.
i found pink croc-esque flats at the little japanese store in carrefour for 99NT ($3US) that i couldn't live without. they are sooo comfy. jimmie and i were matching today.

p.s. taiwan and megan vs will and america on gchat
1:00 AM
William: i got a jooobbb interview

woooo

15 an hooourr

thank jeeessuuus

me: yahooooo

i make 20 tax freeeee

1:02 AM William: SO JEALOUS

and you enjoy life.

me: i work four hours a dayyyy

William: i read files filled with human misery.

gonna vooooommmimte

me: and i save $1000 a monthhhh

William: the E is for emphasis

oh MAN

you have a sweet deal

seriously

1:03 AM i am in the hoollle

me: i know dude

it is awesome.

William: you need to keep that

there are no jobs here

not like that

you come back home

youll be making 15 at an entry level place

with taxes

and rent

and the american way.

drew talks to me

2009-06-29T23:38:00.006+08:00

well, we've reached that part of summer where you can't sit in the living room without there being a pool of sweat under you when you get out of the silly black pleather chairs we have. being at a stoplight on the scooter is like sitting in hell. you're breathing in exhaust. it is so hot. the only solution is frequent lemon ice drinks and cups and cups of green tea.

today phil had a sip of my green tea from coco and he said 'that doesn't taste like any green tea i've had' and i said exactly. tea at tea stands is the beeeeest. it tastes fresh and full of oxygen and flowery. the bottle of 'pomelo green tea' i found at subber today (that was labeled like it's sold in the US) was disgusting. it makes me seriously consider opening a tea shop in austin so i can guarantee fresh tea in my american life.
wunderground has a satellite view and i wondered if i could find my house. i found the palmer events center down by town lake and had to cheat and use the street map view because i was lost somewhere in harris ridge.

it's funny how you can tell maj is a landscaper when you look at the street from a bird's eye view.
one story today. this sweet boy neil, who was added to my 10-yr-olds class about 2 months ago, has been really shy the whole time. his mom told my coteacher that she didn't really even want a kid and that he would be spending a lot of time at school. she has a permafrown.

in the last 2 weeks he's kind of found his place in our class and he's actually been talking to me without me initiating conversation. today we high-fived when he finished reading this section and he backed away and said 'ouchhh' but he was kind of smiling so i assumed he was just playing a game, pretending like i hurt him, so i whacked his hand with my book and he yelped. turns out that his pinkie finger really was hurt! whoops! i offered to kiss it, but we just don't do that here.

after class, i asked him if he had really hurt his finger (in chinese because he doesn't know some of those english words). he said yes, playing dodgeball (duo bi qui - which i understood because i learned all the sports last week!)

and today at bobo's after chinese, i met one of jaime's friends, also named megan, who's half taiwanese, half american. she lives in houson during the school year and her family spends the summer in taiwan. she's probably 11 years old and she speaks english like any normal american kid and speaks chinese like any normal taiwanese kid. so jealous!

it was interesting because she was wearing crocs and so was jaime. it got me thinking how we've become so global with the internet that kids everywhere are playing with the same toys, wearing the same things, collecting webkins. though megan has 26 and jaime has 2. that seems to be a major difference. taiwan hasn't been swooped up in the ridiculous excessiveness.. it's nice.

i am thailand

2009-06-28T23:10:00.004+08:00

this is one of jimmie's pictures from last night of tess, steph and carly. cute!
well today we woke up laaate, late. i went to the fruit market in search of mango and tea. i asked a random woman with fire engine red lipstick if she knew where i could buy cong dra bing. she told me to walk around the corner.. i did.. no one was there. so she went with me, and the stand was running late or something. i think she counts as a fruit stand friend though.
then this afternoon jimmie, allen and i headed to songshan to find cute dresses at wu fen pu. you can't appreciate the full ugliness of that dress in the picture. the top was gold and sparkely.
we walked and walked and walked through lanes of clothes. it had rained this morning so everything felt sticky and gross. but jimmie and i both found a couple of dresses we couldn't live without.we ate at the top of taipei main station and met some guys from holland who are traveling. they've been all over the place and they're going to be in thailand in july so i gave them emil and my contact info. they want to do a dive course. they haven't even looked into teaching english. they thought you needed to be able to speak the native language.
we played the closed-eyes maze game on the train home. allen won both times. ..i found these little patterned business cards at carrefour. they have the most random things on them but they're all really cute.

best picture in a long time:
allen and my new dress. i need to lengthen the straps a little but it's totally taiwan fab. and it was six dollars.

i was chatting with josh's girlfriend, elva, tonight and she told me that when she first met me, my chinese wasn't very good, but now it's better than josh's! she's learning a liiiiiittle english and right now all she can say is hello, goodbye, 'how much for one night?' [which josh shouldn't have taught her], and apple.
she had fake nails that were about an inch long, half blue sparkles, half natural, with painted on flowers anddd jewels. she said they cost $40US or so and they'll last for a month.

just live your life

2009-06-28T11:20:00.002+08:00

long long lonngggg day yesterday. mrs. chan has found her voice now that mr. kuo is sick. she was chatting up a storm. not that she doesn't usually talk, but she doesn't usually sit and talk to me. she's usually cooking or just talking to him. anyway it was nice.

at one point, they were discussing how my stomach is fatter than it was when i got here. i triedd to make the case that it was just how i was sitting, but they weren't having that. then we got into this whole thing about how she thinks she's so skinny and then they asked for my measurements and then she went in the house and came back with measuring tape. i couldn't stop laughing when they were making the hourglass shape with their hands in reference to myy body because i'm pretty much as straight up and down as they come.
in the afternoon, jimmie, ray, allen and i went to see transformers 2. i didn't realize it was opening weekend, so we waited in line for an hour or something just to get tickets. by the end of it, we had spent something like 6 hours at the mall.
i never saw the first one, so it was kind of lost on me, but it was cool to watch the machines transform. there's a scene where all of the kitchen appliances turn into little robots.
then in the evening a whole bunch of us went to a club in jeng li.. i know that's not how you spell it but i can't think of the right way.. anyway it was interesting. the effect of taiwanese people speaking english to me and then me saying one line in chinese to them and seeing the look on their face just never gets old.

when we were at the movies, this 5 or 6 year old kid said mom, americans! and i said that guy is from canada and his mind was completely blown.
the club was fun but i have a quiet voice and i don't like dancing so being in really loud places like that where everyone you know is dancing isn't my favorite thing. but we had a good time. i'm headed toward shower #2 to try to wash some more smoke out of my hair.

3:23

2009-06-28T03:23:00.001+08:00

just letting you know i'm here. blog tomorrow.

heal the world

2009-06-27T00:19:00.004+08:00

only a few things today.
flannery sent jimmie and me letters! look how cute.
i cut open a dragon fruit i bought the other day.. the outside looked a little rough but i thought it might still be OK.
it tasted kind of funny, though i've never had the purple dragon fruit (sometimes they're white with black seeds), so i'm not sure what it was supposed to taste like. i decided to just try again another day.
it pouuuuured in my first class and there was a giant, beautiful rainbow oustside. i was thinking about how unfortunate it was that i wouldn't be able to document it, but then i get home and i have pictures of the rainbow from allen in my inbox. so sweet. we went to latini's for lunch today and he kept singing a 'megan melts my heart' song and then he would pretend to throw up because he knows i don't like overly lovey dovey things like that. it's been an interesting progression.

the entire town of guei shan went outside to look at the rainbow.
goodnight!

typhoon nangka

2009-06-26T15:07:00.002+08:00

though it looks like it's headed our way, it's really just headed for southern china. we're getting lots of thunder right now though.

splishy splashy

2009-06-25T23:55:00.004+08:00

after not drinking for a looong time, 2 glasses of wine has a greater effect on me than i remember. is it affect or effect in that sentence? i think effect.

anyway.. the highlights:
lunch at tina coffee
ice cream with keith
watermelon at the kuo's
mr. kuo has a ganmao, cold, so he can't talk
2 classes
one with an overachieving coteacher
one with an underperforming coteacher
dinner with keith
jerry's friend phil got here
learning new things about new-ish guy, dane, who i don't know anything about
making up the rules of pretend-marriage with alex guppy
going to go read blogs and go to sleep.

p.s. internship emailed me to say they'll let us know the week of july 6th now. that takes a liiiittle relaxation out of thailand vacation :P hopefully that will mean the 6th or 7th.

here is what i know now, goes like this

2009-06-24T23:29:00.007+08:00

living with 20 people is an exercise in patience and understanding. nothing divides people like cleanliness habits. my own reaction to the filthy kitchen has been to just stop using it. i haven't cooked anything since december. at the most, i'll cut up some fruit or veggies.

if i don't get the internship, i'm moving into an apartment with tess and katie! it makes me excited about staying here, if that's what ends up happening.
love this note.
well wednesdays are wonderful again now that i've resumed chinese class with linda. i hate the class i teach, but now i can look forward to chinese for an hour after class. it's at the coffee shop, with mellow music and coffee (the golden retreiver) asleep at our feet. i can't say enough good things about linda. she doesn't let you move on until you fully understand. she makes you practice a lot. she talks really fast and corrects your tones.

now i'm very clear on when/how to use 'dao' 'le' 'cong' and 'hai mei'
wo cong mei guo zuo fei ji dao taipei qu. i came from america and went to taipei by plane
wo cong jia li lai. i came from the house
wo hai mei chi fan. i haven't eaten yet
wo jin tian mei chi fan. i didn't eat today
jerry lai le. jerry is coming
jerry yi jing lai le. jerry already came
wo zhen zai lai le. i'm coming now
wo zuo huo che qu. i'll go by train
wo zuotian zai tu shu guan kan le shu le. yesterday i read books at the library
ni dao na li qu? where do you want to go?
wo yao qu taipei 101 ke shi wo hai mei qu. i want to go to taipei 101 but i haven't yet

AAAND, the ever confusing 'how you got there'
kai che - drive a car
zuo qi che - ride in a car
zuo huo che - take a train
zuo fei ji - take a plane
zuo chuan - take a boat
zuo ji che - ride on a scooter but not drive
qi ji che - drive a scooter
qi moto che - drive a motorcycle
qi che - car (noun)

if i leave before you, darlin'

2009-06-24T01:29:00.005+08:00

these are bobo's pictures of the water gun extravaganza.
well i had my interview tonight. they asked questions that i wasn't really prepared for.
who inspired you to go into public service?
if someone was writing a memoir about your life right now, what would your legacy be?
(is it just me or does joyce look noticeably taller?)
if you were running for office, what would your campaign slogan be?
[note the onlookers.]
i feel like i answered as well as i could given the 2 seconds i had to think about my answers. fingers still crossed. she said something about another department making the final decision, so i think how i look on paper is the most important part. they'll let me know the first week in july.
tonight we went bowling for steve's birthday. there must have been 20 or so people there. i finally met mike's much-talked-about girlfriend. she seems nice. she looks eerily like him. mike was wearing socks that she knitted for him.

cook like your grandmother?

2009-06-23T11:08:00.003+08:00

click to enlarge that picture and see if the description of the blog + picture/recipe makes you say 'PSH' or not.

do you think we're fallin' in love?

2009-06-23T01:08:00.005+08:00

i just booked my vacation to thailand! yay! july 8-19th. should be good. keith is going to fly there with me so i'm not afraid. we know a million people who are hanging out in koh tao right now. i'm going to get open water dive certified, drink cocktails on the beach, hang out in my own bungalow, buy thai fisherman pants for jeff and matt.that water doesn't look too shabby, does it? emil, on the left, is going to teach me. look at leila's braids! they've both been there for a couple months or so now. this is what they've been up to..
emil doesn't even drink.

i still have a return flight to the US on july 8th. i guess i need to do something about that. my interview is tomorrow night and i'm hoping i'll have a good idea of whether or not i'm getting the internship since i have to guess at when i should change my flight to. august or december?!

think of me on tuesday morning from 9-1!

p.s. in class related news.. my babies were learning 'taiwan, japan, the USA, canada, england' and 'france' and every time they said taiwan, carol would have them chant 'taiwan! taiwan!' it was cute. and debby kept patting my tummy and screaming BABY. she's a rolly polly little girl and i was having all i could do not to pick on her. but i didn't.

smooth jazz has no lyrics

2009-06-21T23:33:00.007+08:00

squirt gun fight 2009 was soooo fun. allen and i went to carrefour and bought 6 big squirt guns. we came home and filled them up in the kitchen sink and then i passed them out to chris, danielle, tess and dane while we were all sitting around in the living room, half an hour before we were supposed to go to the park..
it started with one little squirt.. and then an all out war broke out. we just couldn't sit there with loaded water guns without shooting each other. thank goodness we have vinyl couches and tile floor. everything was soaking wet. it was sooo fun.
i'm going to steal jimmie's pictures because she has a waterproof camera.

around 6, we relocated to the big big park where we met bobo's family and jerry. we decided to use 'banana' as our code word and shoot jerry when he walked over.. he was about to go fill up his squirt gun and tess randomly said 'jerry.. do you have a banana in your back pack?' and then we attacked.
jaime and joyce came armed with these silly little bamboo 'squirt guns', if you can call them that. it was a piece of bamboo with a little hole in one end and a plunger. they had a range of about 3 feet. they also had water balloons that refused to pop and just got covered in grass and bounced away when thrown. i think eventually they comandeered some of our squirt guns.
joyce was adorable. she would come up to you and say 'i'm for your team!' if you pointed your gun at her, but she attacked indiscriminately. 6 yr olds.
i didn't see allen for most of it. jimmie said he was just running around in circles shooting from the outside.
the big park was pretty mobbed since it was 6pm on a sunday, and a crowd gathered around us to watch. some people were laughing and vicariously enjoying the whole thing, while some people were just staring blankly like they didn't know what to think. looking back on it later tonight, we decided that a group of 20somethings and some kids having a giant water fight in the middle of any public place would probably attract a lot of attention.
what a fun day! after about an hour, all of our guns broke. the pump thing would break or it would just spray mist even after you pumped it up. bobo brought a big bucket and it was dumped, gatorade cooler style, on me one time and on tess one time.

no typhoon. i'm hoping the rain will come in about an hour just when i'm ready to go to bed.

the hidden pine trails of the forest

2009-06-21T00:49:00.008+08:00

well, potentially bad news for the water gun fight tomorrow evening: typhoon linfa is headed our way. wunderground is only giving us a 30% chance of rain though, so who knows. it would be nice to have a little break from this insane humidity.
i fell asleep after my alarm went off this morning and woke up at 8:08 to be out the door by 8:15. that's never a good feeling.

the rest of the day was a blur of trains and flashcards. i started off with a whole pile and now i know all but 5 of them! white water rafting, skiing,.. now i don't even remember the english for the ones i can't remember. tess has the cuuutest new haircut so today i went to the salon she found in taipei, mix and match. eddie, the hairdresser, is from hong kong and he trained in london so he speaks english/has experience cutting 'foreign hair'. apparently asian hair grows straight out from their head and ours grows down.
well eddie was awesome. i told him i wanted it to have more movement, and he just did his thing. he asked if i was learning chinese and i told him i'm learning the animals now.. so he quizzed me. he was trying to stump me and i knew sea cucumber, but i got stuck on 'moose' (si bu xiang.. which literally means 4 animals not the same.. it's not like a deer, a horse, a something or a something). it was stick-straight when i left, but as soon as i stepped outside into the 90% humidity, it sprang into curls. it's so much lighter now though. love summer hair.allen is conflicted about the internship thing. when he doesn't know what to say, he puffs his cheeks out. he wants me to meet his parents next week. ...
i told him i'm nervous because i don't know how far my chinese will take me. 'i like watermelon, i'm an english teacher, i've been here for a year. comforter. tennis. moose.'

josh's girlfriend, elva (who's taiwanese, if the name didn't give it away), came over tonight and she had a big bag of clothes for me to try! i always compliment her dresses and she says they're only 100NT, so she brought me some to try tonight. one shirt is purple and it has a giant white M on it for Megan! she is so sweet. i picked out a few things. one dress was soooo taiwanese, it was yellow and red hawaiian flowers with a thick band of black satin trim at the top and along the waist. passed on that one.

hey guess who's been here a year and 2 days?!

just dance

2009-06-19T23:28:00.004+08:00

allen and i went for japanese at carrefour this afternoon. if i had a penny for all of the breaded pork steaks i've eaten in this country.. but i do love them and i'll never eat this quantity of japanese food at any other point in my life.

anyway we're going downstairs and he pulls this numbered key out of his pocket and mumbles something about how he doesn't know what this random key opens. i assumed it was some key from the hospital and passed it off, but he handed it to me. eventually it clicked that it probably went with one of the lockers in carrefour where you can leave a backpack or something.
i really wanted to see what was in it, and he was getting oddly shy about it and trying to get me not to look, so this crowd of people was forming around us, watching us go back and forth. after a minute he let me open it, and there was a bouquet of roses and a card inside! totally sweet. when i went into the living room with the bouquet in hand, dena just started laughing. he definitely has a certain style.
so my internship phone interview is set up for tuesday night, taiwan time, and i started driving myself insane reading some message boards and researching, but i've decided to just let it go until tuesday and trust that it's going to work out. or that's the plan.

steve showed up at the dorm tonight so i ran for my camera so i could capture his [ridiculous] mustache. he's been rockin' that thing for several weeks now.
we went to paspi the other night for dinner and the owner took one look at him and he just couldn't stop smiling and chuckling to himself.

the list must be honored

2009-06-18T23:12:00.003+08:00

there was a cockroach in my shower bucket. i was hootin' like a girl but what are you supposed to do. it was INCHES away from my hand when i reached for my conditioner. i'm just hoping it crawled in there while i was in the shower and it didn't come from my room. sick. i swept just now but there are about a million places for nasty things to hide in this room.

tonight only one thing of note happened and it was during my second class with my 8 year olds who don't know very much english at all. i've had them for 3 months or something at this point. there's a kid in there, alex, who literally can't sit still. he definitely has ADD/ADHD.
anyway tonight he was jumping all around the room as usual and he just stopped in his tracks and asked sarah a question in chinese. he said 'why does megan have blonde hair and blue eyes when all of us have black hair and brown eyes?' it was hilarious. i'm not sure if it never occured to him or if he just hasn't stood still long enough to notice until tonight.

a whole bunch of people have mentioned how they just have a feeling i'm going to get the internship. if we could all just visualize me in DC, i would appreciate it. tonight my favorite administrator was at my school and i told her about it and she got all excited. she hugged me twice and this woman isn't a hugger. she was wearing a dress tonight because she wanted to 'soften her image'.. if that gives you any idea. but she agreed that it would be a once in a lifetime thing and she thinks obama is the coolest.

find of the day: youtube videos from improv everywhere like this no pants in the subway day. they do things like spontaneous musicals and flash mobs. that stuff is so entertaining.

three things that belong to you

2009-06-17T23:11:00.003+08:00

alan and natalie gave me this plant in september and i'm happy to report it's survived and dare i say thrived under my sporadic care. i can't take total credit though, it lives on the table outside my room and i think dena waters it a couple times a week too.
i'm organizing a water gun fight on sunday evening. earlier this week josh brought home a water gun and invited us all to shoot him, and it was a lot more fun than i remembered. i bought one today and i think we can get at least 30 foreign teachers in on it. should be fun to storm the big park with a bunch of water guns. i can't waiiiit to see the taiwanese people's faces.
class was actually fun tonight. i decided to just let the chinese speaking go. they know they shouldn't do it and there's nothing i can do. we played a bunch of games and at the end i had them get out a piece of paper, make a snowball and we threw them all around the room for 10 seconds and whichever side had the most had to stand up and ask a question.

first they banned together and threw them at ben, then they stuffed them all in my purse so i just attacked them and then they threw them at me while my coteacher defended me. it was pretty fun.
our QA in there tonight was 'what are three things that belong to you' and they mostly said things like my money, my clothes, my pencil.. but i also got 'my virginity'. i guess we've turned that corner. they wanted to hear all about my first kiss. they also asked what kind of student i was in high school. i think they were kind of disappointed to hear i was a good student. so uncool.
i looove folded toilet paper. it can't roll anywhere. it's convenient.

internship news

2009-06-17T13:11:00.004+08:00

i got an email from the white house saying they need my info for a background check so we can do a phone interview!!! cross your fingers!

p.s. this you know you've been in taiwan too long when... list is soo funny. i think about half of them apply to me

jon: you're really sitting in your room with no AC right now?
me: yoyo and jason came to fix my internet so i had to just sit here while they fixed it
jon: your face is all red and greasy looking.
me: yeah this heat is insane
jon: the white people are dying.

117, 98

2009-06-17T01:15:00.004+08:00

many exciting things today.
i woke up to a soft knock on my door, and when i opened it, keith was out in the hall! in my sleepy state, i just waved him into my room and we chatted up as i woke up. we spent the day at carrefour, the bank, tina coffee and a coffee shop (where we asked the owner to please keep keith's chocolate ice cream in the freezer while we sipped rose milk tea). it was super, super nice to see him.

it's funny because in some ways it felt like it was september again and nothing had changed, but now i know my way around and i can ask for things in chinese and i've got the sparkles with allen.. so really, a bunch of things have changed. it was good to catch up though.

almost as exciting as seeing him.. they have ivory lavender body wash again at carrefour!! i've been in there every week for mooonths and it's been gone, but it's back.

what else today. our QA in my first class was 'do you like to exercise? what kind of exercise do you like to do?' so i was hopping all around the room alternating between running, jump roping, doing ballet, push ups, pull ups, sit ups, etc. and the kids kept saying 'megannnn! you are crazy'. the class after that thought it was even weirder since they didn't even have the exercise QA. tuesdays are so awesome though. i love those kids.
today we did the complimenting section in side by side so they had to stand up and compliment me or someone in the class and it was awesomeee. it was painful for some of them.

a bunch of us went bowling tonight and i didn't do very well but we did have a lot of fun. it is way too hot in this living room to stay out here. they BETTER fix it tomorrow!

micronesia

2009-06-16T15:28:00.002+08:00

keith wants to go here:

baby of mine

2009-06-16T00:08:00.004+08:00

my internet isn't working in my room right now so i'm in the living room which just isn't the same. today seemed like it was nonstop. i went to bobo's for chinese.. this week i'm learning sports and some other random thing that i can't remember right now.. i learned how to say pleaaaasseeee (bai tuooo, bai tuo).

then this afternoon i ate quick lunch before jimmie and i headed to the hospital for our health checks. the woman couldn't find my vein when she was taking blood and she could tell i was freaking out so she said 'oh, good, good!' when she tried the other arm. it was nice because she was being really abrupt through the whole thing but she knew when i needed some reassurance.

right after that, i had time to do my lesson plan and then it was time for class. busy day. class was pretty funny. jasmine asked me if i was still going to go home and i told her i'm waiting to hear from the white house to see if they'll take me for this internship. the kids just heard me say 'obama' and they asked if he was my boyfriend. i said yep and their mouths dropped and they said 'reaalllly megan?! obama is your boyfriend?!!!'

the most exciting part of the day is that jon came back from america! wooo! i've been missing him. i thought he was coming back yesterday. he adds such good energy to the dorm. he's always saying funny things and he's positive and friendly. i've missed our friday dinner dates too.

pumpkin thing recipe:
1 smaller-than-a-volleyball, bigger-than-a-baby's-head sized pumpkin.. hollowed out, cut into chunks (not necessarily peeled) and shredded with a large cheese grater
(it would probably also be really good if you subbed zucchini or some other kind of squash)
3 eggs
a generous pinch of salt
keep adding flour and water until it looks like thick pancake batter
drop generous spoonfuls into hot oil and cook for about a minute and a half, turning once, until theyre golden brown around the edges (they'll keep cooking for a little bit after you take them out)
ours had no other seasoning and it was tasty but you could add anything

rest your head close to my heart

2009-06-14T23:48:00.003+08:00

it's really interesting to have all sorts of new people everywhere around here because it gives me a lot of perspective. it's interesting to be reminded of how much i've learned, in many areas, in the last year.. about myself, dealing with people, other cultures, chinese.
these are the fried pumpkin things mrs. chan and i made on saturday.

this afternoon after lunch at carrefour, jimmie, allen and i headed to ximending to eat the boat ice. i couldn't think of anything that sounded more appealing at the time. i'm really proud of how jimmie is so open to new experiences and she's been trying things and doing things and it's really cool. whenever i get frustrated with how new people react to taiwan, i try to remember how i reacted to new things when i first got here.
blondes in ximending! i don't know if people's faces are funnier when they see jimmie and i or when they see allen and i. it's hard to say whether two blondes or one and one taiwanese guy draws more attention from strangers.

this evening 10 of us walked over to this restaurant, mama's kitchen, that we've been eyeing for a while but never actually been to. it was awesome. we sat at a giant table with a huuuge, hoola-hoop or bigger sized 'twirly bird' as we call it in my fam (lazy susan).
i was the one who knew the most chinese so i was put in charge of communicating with the server woman. at one point, we just looked at each other after muddling through a combination of chinese and english and she hugged me and and shook my shoulders. we were so proud of ourselves.

the food was really yummy. a bunch of us split 6 or 7 things.. kung pao chicken, garlic pork, some tofu thing, sauteed cabbage, eggplant stuff that was deeeelicious. i was trying my hardest not to jump across the table and feed ray with my chopsticks. he was just stabbing some noodles, rolling them over and over like a wheel or something and then eating the little lollipop he created. it was so difficult to watch. he'll learn though.

can you grill a turkey?

2009-06-14T01:48:00.004+08:00

spent an hour or so at the kuo's this afternoon because mr. chen and mr. wang were there. mrs. chan made fried pumpkin thingies and she taught me how to make them. i took a picture that i'll upload in the morning. she made enough for me to bring some of the extras to the dorm, and they were a big hit.

jimmie and i explored the fruit and veggie market and we did the little night market down the street. now she has a fruit lady and she knows where the tea shop is. i need to teach her the numbers soon so she understands the prices. as we were waiting for my cong dra bing to fry, this woman who was also waiting was asking me a bunch of questions. jimmie looked at me and said 'i can't believe you're speaking chinese.'

things i forgot were weird in taiwan..
long green bell peppers
long, skinny eggplant
the millions of food stands with all sorts of brown animal parts
many varieties of tofu
jelly consistency
old people riding those little 4 wheel chairs down the street
fructose syrup instead of granular sugar
tomatoes being included with other cut up fruit
sidewalks with loose tiles instead of concrete slabs
the lack of 'american style chinese' food

we went to tina coffee for "dinner" if you can call a waffle, fruit, gelato and tea dinner. the super nice woman from the first time i went was there. she told me she gave me a special deal on the gelato but not to tell anyone :X i'm not the best secret keeper there ever was.

i still haven't seen/spoken to keith. hopefully i can meet up with him some time tomorrow or early in the week. time for bed, it is laaate.

our eyes will be on coraline

2009-06-12T22:57:00.007+08:00

some more pictures from yesterday. these are our 'serious faces'. mrs. lin had to tell me to stop smiling. i'm just not good at that.
i think i want my next job to be "professional hostess". this morning i just bareeely missed jimmie's arrival because her plane was an hourrr early, but we caught up over fruit and tea. i'm checking things off my jimmie list and so far we've experienced bell fruit, guava and the green tea from ching xin (it's either ching xin or xin ching..).
we also went to carrefour, which i think was total sensory overload, 7-11 and IKEA. she had her anita meeting and she observed jerry's class and after 42 or something hours of not sleeping, she went to bed. i think it was a good day. seeing taoyuan through new eyes was an interesting experience for me.
ray and i went to dinner during our long break. he's been here for something like 2 or 3 weeks now and he hasn't done anything! i guess we've all kind of overlooked him because he knows julia, but i forget that she's pretty new too. i gave him the map i made jimmie and hopefully he'll be eating somewhere other than mc donalds and KFC by the end of the week.
he doesn't like rice though. i don't know how that's going to work. he had mango and passionfruit smoothies for the first time though and we went to the stamp place, so he's on his way.

keith should be here by now and i'm super excited to see him! i hope we can hang out tomorrow at some point.

p.s. guess who's headed to thailand in the middle of july to take a diving class taught by emil?! dawn's going to be hanging around there the same time as me, as are about 10 other teachers. we're all staying in the same compound of bungalows. it should be a really nice vacation.

she's a peach, she's a doll, she's a pal of mine

2009-06-11T23:13:00.010+08:00

table 6, robbie, mousa, i thinkkk one of the joyces and heck if i can remember that other girl's name even though she was so good. it was the last day with my jr. high class. it was weird knowing it's the last time i'll see them. their english was so fantastic that it's one of the only classes i feel like i reaaaally got to know because we could talk about more things than our favorite color/food.this is what bleaching cream will do to you. mrs. lin is a bird of a different feather. really sweet but really weird.
the classroom was so awesome. painted walls! open windows! round tables.
allen and andy were my favorite boys. allen played the part of the princess in their 8th grade play. he wore a baby pink ballgown with a gold tiara. andy is just really down to earth and sweet. last week he sliced open his finger while working on his little table out of popsicle sticks during break time so he was out all class.
table 4. willie, andy, jim, allen and sherry.
table 2. meg, amy and jason. jason is the one they call turkey because he laughs like a turkey. he is soo funny and has zero inhibitions. today whenever anyone talked to him he would go stiff like a board and say 'ZZZZZZZZZ' and shake all around.
table 5, stuart, joyce, shelly and i think one more of the joyces.. wellll mrs. kuo boiled some delicious squash today. they agreed that my dress is very watermelon-y. i really love them. they are soo fun and they can read me like a book.
whenever mr. kuo sees my eyes start to get teary he always switches the topic immediately. not like i'm constantly on the verge of tears. but if i'm being quiet or something he always asks if i miss my mom and dad and there's something about saying it out loud that really makes you feel it.
larry, the biggest ham in taiwan. he's awesome. his english is better than ALL of my coteachers. he talks incessantly.
allen and i went to tina coffee tonight. i ordered a waffle and it ended up being a waffle, a pile of guava, tomatoes, apples, grapefruit and oranges all cut up anddd a tea anddd a scoop of gelato. i think that's my new thing. yum.
allen has made a note of every single one of my idiocyncracies. we both copy each other and it's pretty amusing. this involves him saying 'psh, ssss, hmph' or making big dramatic overtures and weird faces.. and me saying things like 'your eyes are in my heart' and 'allen.. i just want to say.. i very like you'.

jimmie will be here in 6 hours!

p.s. how cute is this mug?!

dr. snodgrass

2009-06-11T00:06:00.006+08:00

when i went to turn on my scooter to drive to chinese, i was just getting this awful screeching without my engine actually doing anything. luckily, we have a scooter shop right down the road so i just wheeled it over there and the guys there fixed it.

first they told me to come back after an hour, then 2 hours, so finally i just gave them my phone number and they called me 6 hours later, just in time for class. at one point when i went over, my scooter was literally in at least 50 pieces. you could see right through the entire thing to the ground. but $40 later, we're back up and running.

so i didn't make it to chinese, but i've been hitting my new flash cards pretty hard. this week i'm learning flowers, clothing and one moreee topic.. oh, traditional chinese (taiwanese?) symbols. my name in chinese is mei gan. the mei part is the mei from plum blossom (mei hua) which is the flower on the taiwanese flag, and also has a symbolic meaning.[editor's note: this is not the flag with the plum blossom. apparently there's a proposed flag symbolizing taiwanese independence.. but this it the 'republic of china's' flag. see the comment some very helpful anonymous person left.]

my chinese book says.. 'Plum blossoms make their appearance in winter. They are representative of people who can withstand severe conditions.'
and the other half of my name, gan, means 'roots'. pretty solid.

i'm behind schedule because i was trying to install josh's copy of the rosetta stone for chinese. i'm half way there but i'm stumped, so i'm going to go try to figure that out. jimmie and keith in 2 days!

vancouver's best music mix

2009-06-09T23:40:00.003+08:00

i'm back in business in the land of technology today. allen and i went to lunch and we had some extra time so we went to get ice cream at carrefour and he helped me pick out an external hard drive while we had time to kill. i bought a 350GB drive for ~$45. now all of my music/movies/pictures are protected incase i get a crazy virus or have to wipe the harddrive for any reason.

as i was backing up files, bobo called to let me know the new AC adaptor had arrived at her house. the generic one from the computer store would give me an error message saying it wasn't exactly right and the computer would be slower and the battery wouldn't charge. so now i'm lightning fast again.

mr. kuo was funny tonight.
him: long time no see!
me: i know! how are you? i brought you tea
him: friday, saturday, sunday, monday, tuesday. five days no see you
me: but here i am now
him: did you miss me?
me: yep
him: you missed me?
me: yes!
him: yesterday i dream you are here
me: i was in your dream?!
him: yes. we very miss you. 5 days.
me: my grandparents say they miss me very much because they haven't seen me for one yearrr and you see me every week.
him: wrong! they saw you at christmas
me: wrong! i didn't see them then
him: well we very miss you this weekend

one of his classmates was there tonight. she brought them dumplings and mrs. chan was trying really hard to get me to let her make some, but i was stuffed with the stir fry she already made. his classmate was talking to me in chinese and she said i was very good for one year. makes it all worth it.

ny magazine had a beautifully designed graphic with the results from a poll of the class of 2009 grads and how they feel about the economy/world right now. it takes a little bit to load but it's interesting.

p-p-p-p-poker face

2009-06-08T23:07:00.004+08:00

some more random zoo/ximending pictures.
low key day. tess got her hair cut in taipei today and it is sooo cuuuute. i think i'm going to make an appointment for next week.
i wrote up a section about taiwan travel for jerry's website. that guide is becoming reaaally wonderful. i wish we had that when we first got here.
did i tell you about our new guy, ray? he's from canada and he is the chattiest boy i've ever met. if he's in the same room as you, he's definitely going to talk your ear off. in a good way though. yesterday he was singing the theme song to duck tales and rescue rangers. he knew every single word. it was amusing. he's a nice addition to the dorm.
jimmie AND keith get here on friday! i'm getting so excited.

tao yen

2009-06-08T00:24:00.006+08:00

went to the zoo today! it was just cool enough to be bearable walking around outside from 3-5. guess what it costs to go to the zoo. [that's one of the dresses i bought in song shan yesterday. it's watermelon chic and it was $10.. who needs dresses?]
SIXTY NT. that's two dollars. do you know how much it is to go to the san diego zoo these days? $35. although, we grew up in san diego so we went to the zoo/wild animal park quite a few times, and it's a much better zoo. the animals are in giant enclosures or on this big rolling savannah. at the taipei zoo, they're in teeny little cages that are just painted concrete with some rocks.
but look how close they let you get to the pandas!
allen took all of these pictures with his camera phone so i'm not going to barrage you with lots of slightly blurry animal photos, but this was our favorite. a llama that had just passed out in the full sun while all of the others cowered in the shade.

after the zoo, we went back to our fav shaved ice place in ximending to conquer the boat ice.
that thing is not messing around. it's mango and strawberry ice cream on top of a bazillion cut up strawberries, kiwi and mango, on top of shaved ice, on top of [what else but] pearls.
this is the halfway point. doing well.
this is when i realized there were pearls in the bottom. kind of creepy digging around for strawberries and coming up with little black circles.

success! i don't know if you can see how blue my lips were at that point.. but i was freezing.

this evening when i came home, there was a passionfruit green tea hanging on my doorknob. i can't figure out who it was. mystery..

p.s. i added a link to jerry's new brainchild, taiwan english. it's on its way to becoming the most comprehensive taiwan teachers guide out there. i'm writing a bunch of stuff for it in the next couple of days, in time for jimmie's arrival on friday! getting excited.

watch the speech.

2009-06-06T23:35:00.006+08:00

man it was nice not to wake up at 7:15 this morning for class! what a nice saturday.
this afternoon tess, bobo and i went to song shan to hit up the cheap clothing shops. we found a lot of brightly colored stuff this time thanks to bobo. apparently last time tess and i went, the street we went down was mostly clothes from korea which are all cream, dusty pink and gray.
i found a couple of dresses and a top i couldn't live without. i'll show you pictures after i've washed them in our newww washer. our old one was dying a slow death, so now we have a new one with chinese buttons. one of the secretaries labeled it in english this evening.
after shopping, i went over to bobo's because i haven't seen the girls in weeks and weeks. joyce's hair is longer every time i see her. we colored up a storm and played about 20 rounds of hide and seek.
when we couldn't take any more hide and seek, we headed for the big park. now every time we go, the first thing they want to do is cartwheel. people always watch us play.

this evening i went to this place called tina coffee. all of the teachers have been going there lately because they have a sandwich/coffee or tea deal for $150. i brought my chinese homework/flashcards and camped out at the counter for 2 hours tonight.
[you have to click to enlarge that pic to fully appreciate how adorable joyce is. i would leave all of my possessions here in order to fit her in my suit case if i didn't think she'd get all banged up in the cargo area.]
one of the women working there helped me order something, since the menu was all in chinese, and we chatted for a long time. i think i might become a regular there in my last month.
tomorrow i'm headed to the zoo with allen and i'm all excited because i get to practice the zoo animals.

the sun-sweet berries of the earth

2009-06-06T01:27:00.005+08:00

i haven't done so well with pictures this week. alex guppy invited me to be a part of a group he's forming where we have a new photo assignment every 2 weeks. this weeks theme is 'an object out of its element'. i guess right now there are only 3 of us. two in taiwan and one in paris.
it's just for fun but if you want to submit something, just email (this means you, david chu).

well tonight i went to bobo's movie night because my early morning classes were canceled! and serena goes back to america on sunday so it's likely the last time i'll see her.
it always makes me feel a little heartsick when people leave. i can't believe we've already been here for a year! it's bizarre to think back to this time last year and how the dynamics in the dorm have changed since then. but being an english teacher abroad reminds you, more often than most situations would, that things are always changing and you can't live in the past.

things to love about taiwan today..
-a bundle of lychees, 2 mangoes and a bag of gingery plums for $5 and the continuation of my new fruit women friendship. i swear every time i go there, there are more butchering stands along the path to the fruit way at the back
-my 3rd favorite tea shop lady was wearing her work polo with a gold sequined, multi-tiered skirt, leggings and boots
-bobo's nighttime security guard, michael, who i haven't seen in months and his unabashed hitting on every foreign girl in sight

p.s. anthropologie did its fashion shoot for the catalog in austin this time and they wrote about it on design crisis. love that blog.

come again some other day

2009-06-04T23:22:00.003+08:00

the rain woke me up last night because it was banging so hard on the air conditioner sticking halfway out my window, and it hasn't stopped raining since then. there's something really relaxing and cozy about a good rainy day though. and teaching my jr. high class with all of those open windows was pretty nice. larry had a bag of chocolate with pop rocks in the middle and i probably ate 10 of them while i was teaching today.

this week is playdough week in all of my classes and we've been spelling, shaping and throwing it. it's amazing how i've given each table two colors to work with and they've resisted the urge to swirl the colors because they have such respect for teachers and other people's belongings.

i'm excited tonight because frank, one of my biggest trouble makers, was doing really really well in class. he was answering questions and he was actually making the right things out of playdough. we're making progress. maybe it was because alex was stealing the troublemakers spotlight. he was cackling like a crazed witch the entire class. boys.

speaking of troublemakin boys, allen and i were saying goodnight outside of the dorm after we had tea tonight at the coffee shop, and josh was on the balcony with his guitar and started to serenade us.. it went something like megan and her boyfriendddd saying goodnightttt in the rain under some umbrellas, i love youuuu, i love youuuu.

candy consumption

2009-06-03T23:17:00.005+08:00

taking a break from the blog tonight to watch brian williams' report on life inside the white house from last night. they're processing applications to the internships this month, so keep your fingers crossed for me! office of presidential correspondence.. here i come?

p.s. here are my pictures of the philippines

the black hand

2009-06-02T23:55:00.007+08:00

a crazy thing happened on the way home tonight. my scooter was acting funny and stalling at lights and it even stalled while i was driving once, which it's never done before. then i was about a mile from home and i hear this really loud POP and at first i thought it was someone around me, but i tried to throttle my scooter and nothing was happening and my lights were off on my dash.

so i pulled over at a 7-11 where i knew i wouldn't get towed if i left it overnight and started to walk home. 100 feet or so down the road, i notice that some guy is trying to ask me a question. i assumed he wanted to learn english or something, but when i looked closely, he was wearing a mechanic jumpsuit. i tell him what happened and he asks me if he can take a look.

he checks it out and hands me his card and i say thanks, maybe i'll give you a call. but thenn he just starts wheeling it down the street and we stop in front of his own scooter and he hands me the keys and his helmet and tells me to follow him. next, he starts running with my scooter down the street. he ran all the way to his shop, which was 5 or 6 blocks away, while i followed him on his own scooter.

4 minutes after we get to his shop, my scooter is up and running! he even fixed it so that it doesn't shut off when i idle too long. i was thrilled, to say the least. he showed me some scooter part that i guess had fallen out of my scooter? i tried to pay for it and he told me that it was mine.
i asked him if he had kids and he said no, he wasn't married. did i mention that he spoke zero english? not even one word. so i'm fumbling with my post-teaching brain, trying to muster up all the chinese i could while he's speaking a mile a minute. i think i caught a pretty good deal of it but there were a lot of times that he'd ask me a question and i just didn't know how to answer.

anyway we talk for 10 minutes or so and then he invites me to watch tv and have a cup of water or something inside the shop and i said ok i can sit for a minute. he asked me a millionnn questions and i think we did a surprisingly good job of communicating given the language limitations. he's 31 and the youngest of 4. i forget his name though =\

finally i find a way to gracefully get up and leave and he hopped on his scooter and followed me. i didn't know what he was saying to me but i knew i shouldn't go home, so i went to tapenyaki to pick up dinner and hoped he'd just leave after that. he waited with me and then i made sure he knew i couldn't teach him english right that moment, and he said yeah i know, i'm just making sure you make it home. even though his creepy factor was low, i just parked outside the coffee shop and pretended like i lived near there, so we said goodnight and he left. i think he was genuinely just making sure everything was fine.

so that was my adventure of the day.

p.s. 'black hand' or hei shou is the chinese word for mechanic. it was a pub quiz question several months ago.

philippines days 4 and 5

2009-06-02T00:37:00.007+08:00

pictures! this is all from day 4 when we went to this place called treetop adventure and ziplined through the rain forest while sitting in chairs. it was awesome. this platform was up 50 or so feet in the trees and from there, you go on a whole zipline course.
the wait for the zipline was 2 hours so we did a 'jungle survival' course first with this nice man who taught us lots of useful things like..
how to make a fire using bamboo and a sharp knife:

how to be manly men in the rain forest:
how to glow like an angel due to a foggy lens in front of a giiiiant tree:
the trees can do it too.
i couldn't figure out a good way to photograph the torrential rain. it rained like we were in the middle of a typhoon for an hour or so, including the time we were on the zip line.
josh and steve have all of the pictures from when we were actually doing it since my camera isn't waterproof enough or small enough to take with me on stuff like that. hopefully i can get those pictures in the next couple of weeks.. but both of them are notorious for not ever uploading stuff.

steve did really well for being afraid of heights. it was creepy because you had a clip on your harness that they'd clip onto the fence somewhere.. but before you sat in your chair, you weren't clipped to anything while standing on a wet, metal, downsloping platform with a hundred-foot or more drop off.
we took a 4 hour bus back to manila and i was sitting next to this really fantastic philipino girl, ivy, who spoke fluent english. she told the bus driver where we wanted to get off the bus and then she somehow arranged it so there was a taxi to pick us up right when we got off. it was nice to chat with her during the ride and we both learned a little about the other's country.

we had heard that manila could be pretty sketchy and i read a million horrific hotel reviews (mice! cockroaches! worms coming out of shower drains! bedbugs.), but the imperial palace suites hotel was wonderful. for $100US or so, we had 2 beds, a real bath room and little living room area. the neighborhood wasn't scary at all and we had french food for dinner.

this early afternoon we hopped on a plane to come home. the guy sitting ahead of josh on our flight had the flu so they more or less made us put on face masks and they took our contact info so they can let us know if the guy turns out to have swine flu.
the man sitting next to me was flying to hawaii with his family and he wasn't happy at all about the mask situation. he felt weird and he didn't want to put it on his baby but the flight attendant was really adamant. i tried to explain that it's just an asian thing.. but he couldn't get over it.

i wish i had a picture of the look on my kids' faces when i told them i was in the philippines this morning. i think it blew their minds. i was so happy to see them. i chased everyone around in my little kid class to hug them, which has become our tradition in there, and scott and jerry kept lingering around me so i'd catch them.

tonight we went to dinner with tess' parents at the thai place. they were super friendly and tess-y. they both work in the airline industry so their family has traveled all around the world. i was surprised when tess didn't go stay with them in the hotel for their last night in town and she isn't going to go with them to the airport tomorrow. it would be nice to be so independent. i know i'd be at the airport until they went to the gate at the very least.