rest your head close to my heart

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.