and everywhere in between

driving in a pack is awesome. i can see why there are motorcycle gangs. tonight, 8 or 10 of us drove to a thai place in nan kan for carly's birthday dinner and it was so much fun to drive with people you know around you. they all drive faster than i usually do, so maybe part of the excitement was flying around turns and zipping past other people?

when we got back home, we went down into the garage one after another like a little mototcycle/scooter parade. it sounds lame now that i'm typing this, but you'll just have to imagine the awesomeness. for 3 minutes, we were our own little biker gang of english teachers.
dinner was reaalllly good. pad thai made by people who are truly from thailand. it came with an elegant little presentation of crushed peanuts on a lettuce leaf and a wedge of lime and then 4 white ceramic sugar bowls with sugar, chili oil, chili flakes and fish sauce to add according to your tastes. for $5.
carly is from england and she's here with her boyfriend, steph. they're so caring and sweet toward each other even though their style is kind of unconventional. love carly's eggplant colored hair.. she reminds me of my favorite parts of studying abroad in brighton.
that cake was chocolate with a layer of blueberry jam. it alllmost tasted like cake from home. i don't know how to describe taiwanese cake except to say that it's just full of air and doesn't have much of a taste. if your eyes were closed, you wouldn't be able to tell what flavor it is.
the best part of desserts are the teeny little utensils they come with. i know people will think i'm one of those weirdo's who's obsessed with the country she briefly lived in, but i'm definitely going to serve desserts with miniature spoons and forks from now on.

so goode

one of my favorite girls in the whole wide world, ashley, is smart and beautiful and outgoing, throws killer tacky sweater parties, is an amazing group member for linguistics projects... and now she's applying for a really cool job at a winery, but she needs a bazillion people to watch her video.
you just put in your email to vote and they'll never email you again unless you check the box that asks them to.

hey boy won't you take me out tonight

there are about 4 pictures in my 'taiwan' folder that haven't been posted on this blog at one point or another.
taipei 101 really is a very cool building, inside and out. the kids just call it 101.
two conversations to share today. chinese in italics, as always.
gary: does megan work at da chu on mondays?
me: no, i work in guei shan on mondays
class: you understood him?!
coteacher: you can ask her! you should speak english, but she can understand chinese.
gary: when will you go home?
me: july
gary: will you come back?
me: no
gary: oh.

i figured i should be honest since they're old enough not to freak out. they tell us not to tell the younger kids until we're 2 weeks away from our last class. i'm sure that class will be glad to have a new teacher, to be honest. i smile and bounce around when all they want to do is be dark and teen-y.
i played a game in there today where all they do is throw the sticky ball at various targets, and they'd throw it way over to the side and not even try. lame.
this is near allen's grandpa's house in mao li

i went to paspi for dinner and i haven't been there in a few weeks.. the owner had a bazillion questions for me in chinese that i could only grasp about half of.
as i was getting on my scooter to leave, this guy came out of family mart with 2 containers of juice and i told myself if it was papaya milk, i'd talk to him. sure enough, it was.
me: do you like papaya milk?
the guy: yep
me: it tastes good?
guy: yeah it's really good
me: my friends say i need to give it a try, but i don't think i'd like it
guy: it's really sweet
me: maybe i'll try it

i was all excited because i just learned how to say 'give it a try' and i remembered how to say 'papaya milk' 木瓜奶茶 ! without even thinking about it.
clean clothes. is there anything better?
allen's brother at a temple.
today on my way back from my 3rd rose milk tea of the week at the coffee shop, i just stood in front of the incense at the temple on the corner for a minute. i love how taiwanese temples smell.
coffee, the dog at the coffee shop, has his first lion cut of '09. he laid down beside me when i read today because he knows i'll scratch his back while i read. he smelled like johnson's baby shampoo.

it's a long road we've been walking on

man i love rose milk tea. i like how it comes out of your pores all day after you drink it. it's just black tea with a whole bunch of milk and some rose syrup. yesterday i had a pot of it with a side of waffles for lunch at 'harwana cafe'.

allen and i went to lunch today at a place pretty close to where he works, so the whole time we were there, there was a steady parade of his 'work partners' walking past the plate glass window. i guess i've done that to people i've dated in the past. karma. the delicious dumplings were worth it. $2 lunches are amazing.
this is sherry and i. my beginners class had a demo tonight. ..they aren't dumb, but they aren't good. they're little parrots where they can repeat but they really can't think on their own. it's disappointing. even the ones who you think get it really don't get it when you try to talk to them before or after class.
they all memorized these 17 sentences. my first name is ____, my last name is ____. i want to visit ____. the taiwanese flag is red, white and blue. my favorite holiday is ______. every tuesday and friday i come here to learn english. there are 17 students in my english class. i study english for 30 minutes every day. every day i have to ____. i ____ to do it. i like to ____. i get ___ dollars pocket money each week. i am good at _____. thank you for listening.
at the end of the demo, one of the school administrators asked if any of the parents could do their kids self intro and she'd give their kid 150 stickers. nick's mom actually got up and did it. we were all amazed. she was so cute and nick just hid his face in his hands. good for her though. it's hard to get up in front of people and talk by yourself like that. especially in your second language (or third or whatever).
links of the day
courtesy of keith: greenissexy.org with simple ideas for being green.
and if you didn't watch Gio on OnBeing yesterday, go do it. seriously. it's so cute. archives (all the way to the right), page 3, the kid in the white and red stripes.
and sycamore street press is so cute.
[sycamore street press].

ok ONEEEE more link..
if you love craft projects or handmade anything, check out happy tape. it's the prettiest masking tape in the world. they have a 20 pack for $40 (with shipping) and you can use it for a miiiiillion things. last time i saw it on etsy i thought that was a liiiittle too much, but when it sold out i was kicking myself. add it to the pile of things that will be waiting on my bed when i get home.

losing my cooling

this week in chinese i'm learning all of the bugs and birds.
hummingbird is fengniao (wind bird)
bee is mifeng and honey is fengmi
owl is maotouying (fur head eagle)
peacock is kongque (keyhole freckle)
..i don't think i know the individual meanings of any of the other ones.
pork with niubang (burdock) and marinated bamboo shoots from the japanese restaurant in guei shan. i eat that once a week or so.

monday continues to be awesome. teddy and lin are at 50/50 with 'thank' you vs 'sank' you. at least now they're aware of when they say it wrong. and we're starting to conquer the 'do does + verb without ing' ..they always want to say 'she does running to the store'. so that's exciting. jasmine is awesome though. it's all because of her.

in my baby class, i reinacted the down on one knee story of yesterday for my coteacher while the kids were writing down chinese definitions, but they saw me and started singing the marriage song. jerry, scott and bill looked at each other and then looked at me and asked if i really had a boyfriend. scott held my hand while i was reading with jerry.
that whole thing was funny enough, but then after class when i went down to the front desk, carol told me that debbie, one of the kids, had told the secretaries that i was getting married. !

patrick told me about OnBeing from the washington post today. they're little mini interviews with normal, interesting people. go to the far right on the menu and go to archives, the 3rd page, and watch the kid. he is awesome.

the touch of your hand

loooordy lordy i do not know how to begin this story. we'll begin with a coincidence while i think about how i want to word the rest. twbf and i were chatting on skype this morning and he said 'be careful' when we said goodbye and i said 'be careful of what? i'm just going to lunch'.

..but when i was parking my scooter and moving it over a little bit so it fit better in the spot, my foot slipped up underneath it and i burnt the top of my ankle. so today when he met me in the train station and i was holding a giant bag of ice on my foot, he said 'are you the girl who said "i don't need to be careful?"'
so then we made our way into taipei via a train, 2 MRT lines and a bus and we got to a giant mall/movie complex. we shared a rose milk tea, i taught him a fun pen and paper game, and we people-watched for 2 hours until it was time to watch angels & demons.

when we went upstairs to the movie theater part of the mall, there was a big open deck area with a bubble machine blowing a cloud of bubbles everywhere and cheesy love songs (think backstreet boys) blasting over the speakers. i turned around and there was a giiiiant, multicolored ferris wheel. it was really beautiful up there. i felt right at home when 'when you say nothing at all' by kenny rogers (?) came on.
(this is the shirt i bought yesterday. the sleeves are the cutest part, i'll show you some other time).

so we get out of the movie and get in a little glassed-in car on the ferris wheel, we're about half way up and i'm getting crazy butterflies watching taipei 101 get smaller and smaller in the distance. then he asks me to close my eyes for a minute..

when i open them, a card is in my lap and he's literally down on one knee with a little black box in hand. inside was a sparkly necklace, and he asked me to be his girlfriend and said he loved me.. i explained that i wouldn't exactly call it 'love' just yet, and i'd happily be his girlfriend for a month.. but not when i go home.
he said really, you don't think you'll ever come back? and i said no.. i really don't think so. so i guess now i'm a twgf.

when we were sitting on the train going home, we were spelling words in the palm of our hands and this old couple across from us was whispering about us.
i was hoping i could just add his necklace charm onto the one i wear every day.. but i don't think the styles really mesh. it's hard to tell in this picture, but the one he bought seems a lot fancier than my little silver seasons charm.

so that was my day.

hotel california is a wedding song now?

busy day today. 2 classes in the morning and then right when i got home, tess and i left for wu fen pu road in taipei which is famous for being the place where the night market vendors buy their clothes from. it's interesting because they have samples hung up all along the walls and then in the middle it's just rows and rows of clothes wrapped in plastic. so you bring them the sample and they go get you one in the plastic wrap.
i bought a shirt for $3 and a dress for $10. love taiwan.

dena goes to this bakery called love cake and she always brings back delicious garlic bread, so today i set off to find it. turns out they have two locations. i brought home ham and cheese bread..
and deliiiicious garlic bread.
dan and i went to justin's wedding reception tonight. justin was a chef at latini's for a long long time. he is so sweet and fun and friendly, i was so happy to be invited. the reception was really interesting.

highlights..
before you walk in the door to the ballroom, they took your red envelope, opened it, counted and recorded how much money you gave the couple in this giant weddingy ledger. there are no wedding gifts, everyone just gives cash.
they put as at the table with justin's friends from canada, where he went to school for 10 years. they were all taiwanese but spoke english fluently. i sat beside a really nice couple who live in taipei. the girl was a merchandise buyer for a clothing company in taipei for a long time. she helped me figure out how to eat the food and explained the ins and outs of the reception.
when i sat down, one of the servers came over with a knife and fork and asked if i needed them. i said no thank you, chop sticks will be fine. then i flung the million-course dinner all over myself and others and dropped at least half of what i tried to pick up. i was so embarrassed because i've really mastered wooden chopsticks, but those slippery plastic ones are a whole different thing.

we had..
a tray of various meats
the most ridiculously difficult prawns ever. two people had to help me with those.
shrimp noodle soup
pork ribs
an unidentifiable animal-innard dish
sticky rice
a whole fish, who spent most of the evening staring at me
black chicken soup, which i now love. look how far i've come.
almond milk soup, totally yummy.
some kind of sweet potato pastry things
fresh fruit
the best part of the entire night was the light saber interlude. the lights went off, blacklights came on, and the female servers processed in with tealights in white gloved hands and stopped intermittently in the aisle. then, two male servers came in with blue light sabers and walked around the tables a few times.
meanwhile, a whole orchestral overture is booming in surround sound. thennn, two more guys with red light sabers came in and walked around. then they all left and the lights came back on and we went back to eating dinner. no explanation given.
coolest taiwan wedding factoid:
the couple takes these elaborate wedding pictures and the bride gets to wear all sorts of pretty outfits in them. none of them are her actual wedding dress, they're just costumes. but what i learned tonight was that the 4 dresses she wore tonight were also borrowed from the photographer. they cut them down to fit her and then when she's done with them, they rip the seams and make them fit the next girl.

at first i thought it was kind of sad not to have your own wedding dress.. but after seeing her in a beautiful sparkely white dress, then a beautiful silver sequined dress, then a pretty purple organza dress, i think i'm on board with the bazillion dresses thing. no one ever wears their wedding dress again. why not wear 10 for the price of 1?
time for bed.