November, where have you gone?

It seems November has come and gone without making an appearance on my blog. So here's what has happened since last I left you:

• I went to the Harvard Band 90th Reunion and got to see some old friends; Jonathan even flew in from Poland for the weekend, in part because...
• I turned 24;
  
• The Phillies were once again in the World Series, but thanks to uncapped salaries in the MLB, did not reach the same conclusion as last year;
• I got Windows 7 as a birthday gift from my brother John, and so far it is as awesome as all the commercials make it sound;
• Milo has started sleeping a million hours a day, so I no longer have a puppy's urgent bladder waking me up in the early morning;
• I bowled over 100 twice in one evening;
• Thanksgiving happened and I ate my weight in turkey and pumpkin pie;
• I attended my 5-year high school reunion, which was not as awkward or uncomfortable as anticipated;
• I finally ordered a monitor (TV) for my computer from TigerDirect's Pink Friday sale, so I can stop borrowing my Dad's.

I have a handful of half-written blog entries in my head about various unrecorded Taiwan experiences, but I'm finding it increasingly hard to write them out. Wrapping up those few last entries will really conclude my year in Taiwan, and as I still tell acquaintances that "I just got back from being abroad," it seems weird to let go of the experience entirely. There has been a real lack of continuity in my life since graduation. I spent a year in another country with another language and a new routine and a whole set of new people, then I abruptly returned to suburban Pennsylvania with a year of holidays and birthdays gone by, finding my friends with jobs and apartments instead of classes and dorm rooms.

Enough of that. I just wanted to say, I haven't forgotten about this blog or about the things I plan to write in it. I thought all I needed was to find the time to create (of which I have plenty), but as it turns out I still haven't found all the right words.

Milo has fallen for an older woman

I knew it would be an adjustment bringing Milo from our 4-bedroom, 4-person apartment in Taiwan to my 2-to-3-person, multi-level house with my mom's 12 year old dachshund Daphne in the Philadelphia suburbs. Daphne and Milo started off curious about each other. Despite the fact that he is at least four times her size, Daphne calls the shots in this house. Still, though, he occasionally baits her into playing, and has influenced her to stay frolicking outside just a little bit longer than she had before.

Lately, though, instead of claiming spots at opposite corners of the kitchen (their domain during the day-- at night Milo stays with me and Daphne with my mom), they've been sharing the bigger bed and cuddling. While I'm pretty sure Daphne is in it for the comfort and warmth as the temperatures grow colder, Milo seems to have drawn bigger conclusions.

A few mornings ago, I woke up earlier than usual and brought Milo downstairs. As usual, he eagerly went outside to release his bladder's nightly accrual. When I let him in and filled his dog bowl with breakfast, though, he just looked up at me confused. He kept looking from the bowl to the door and back to the bowl. In Taiwan, Milo always downed his food almost before it hit the bowl, eating it more quickly than we thought caninely possible. But here he was, eating a few pieces and then looking nervously to the door.

When Daphne came down just a few minutes later, and I gave her her breakfast, Milo began eating as quickly and enthusiastically as ever. Apparently, he didn't want to get in trouble for starting to eat without his date.

This morning, Milo and I slept in. When we came downstairs, Daphne was already here and (I'm pretty sure) successfully breakfasted. So I let Milo out and filled his bowl. He just looked at it. No eating, not even picking at it. I figured the late wake-up time had thrown off his hunger, so I figured he'd eat it when he wanted. After 20 minutes, he started throwing up. To avoid grossing you out, I'll just say that this kind of throw-up comes from the dog not having any food in his stomach. So here Milo was, getting sick in front of a very indifferent Daphne, with a full bowl of food only a few feet away. So I poured Daphne a second breakfast and coaxed her into eating it, and Milo began gulping his food with gusto.

The poor little guy, hopelessly attached to this older woman who only occasionally cares about him in return. Unfortunately for me, Daphne's biggest manifestation of love for Milo is in the way she often runs to my door to wake him before heading to the kitchen. Thanks, Daphne.

Let's hope he can shake this affection when we finally move out of the house!



Note: This kind of material is all I have to write about while my life is restricted to the Main Line. What can I say, I'm giving it a shot.

Not dead, just sleeping.

For the few of you who read my blog but do not read my emails, here is the official word that I'm safe back home in the good old U.S.A.

What have I been up to since I got back? Sleeping. Honestly. I don't have the energy for anything these days. Maybe it's the jet lag, maybe it's the recovery period from teaching three hundred and fifty small children, maybe it's the first soft bed I've slept on in a year. Either way, you haven't missed anything exciting. I haven't even checked off everything on my "to-eat" list. Though I have had hot dogs, hamburgers, Yuengling beer, the family brown rice, a frosty from Wendy's, a turkey club from Minella's, a black and white milkshake, a Wawa hoagie, a Tastykake, and lots of Mountain Dew. Of course right now, I'm craving fresh salmon sashimi more than ever.

Milo, my puppy, is also happy in his new home. He likes running in the yard, smelling everything, following my parents around, and bugging our 12-year-old dachshund Daphne. Every bird, bunny, squirrel, and barbecuing neighbor is cause for curiosity. Overall, though I'm sure that a trans-continental flight in a cage in the belly of an airplane is not fun for any dog, the move has been a very good one for Milo.

Once I find myself awake and creative, I'll get back to the blog in earnest. I have some great pictures and stories from my last days in Taiwan, as well as all the ones I forgot to share along the way.

Until then, if you need me, I'll probably be asleep.

My Big Break: A weekend to remember

At home, it is Memorial Day weekend. At home, people will get tomorrow off. At home, my high school friends are having their annual week(end) in Strathmere, New Jersey, and this is the first time in six years that I'm not there. It would be an easy time to feel homesick. But I haven't really had the time to think about it.

In Taiwan, we get next weekend as a long weekend (four days, in fact-- though does it really count, if you have to make one day up the following Saturday?). This weekend, the Fulbrighters and I were busy working from 9am-7pm on our Fulbright Kaohsiung project. The concept of our project changed (thanks to external forces) from an educational website to an educational DVD a few weeks ago. Since then, we've been scrambling to think of content, write scripts, and hire a film crew. So both days this weekend, we were at the Tai-Ping English Village filming our video (a great bonus of English Village is having your own private restaurant/airport/subway car for filming things).

It was pretty professionally done. The cameramen were concerned enough about noise that they wouldn't allow us to turn on fans or air conditioning in the small, windowless rooms where filming took place, and in late May in Kaohsiung (90+ degrees mid-day with high humidity), you can imagine how fun this was. But we pushed through it, we recorded all twelve scenes + vocabulary/grammar segments + self-introductions. Now it is in the hands of the film crew, until they give us back a version we can subtitle and approve.

So, it's not how I've normally spent my Memorial Day weekend, but it is certainly a weekend I'll remember. And if I ever forget, I can just watch the DVD. Someday, you might be lucky enough to see yours truly dancing the Hokey Pokey or playing the role of ambiguously-aged teacher Miss Cooper (the easiest to pronounce of my family names, and a tribute to the other [former] teacher in my family).

I only took a few photos, and they were all during the elaborate birthday party scene where I played 'girl who gave birthday boy a T-shirt and is also holding a camera.' I think it will give you an idea of what my weekend was like, though.

The camera crew:

Setting up our scene in the English Village restaurant:

Voila, a real-looking birthday party:

My head is still spinning from the craziness that has been the last few weeks, but I have a feeling things will stay rolling until I leave. Now, I should get to bed... our first dragon boat race is tomorrow!

Christmas in Kaohsiung

Now that I've gone over my classroom activities, I can tell you about the "traditional" Christmas I managed to pull together in this land without any apparent Christmas tradition.

Every Christmas since I can remember, I have been in Berwyn with my family. We go to church on Christmas Eve at 11pm, where we sing Silent Night in candlelight. Christmas day, we wake up in the morning (or afternoon, in recent years) and open presents and stockings together under the tree. "We" of course is my mom, dad, brothers, usually grandmother, and more recently, Cressy, our high-school-days' foreign exchange student from China. Then we have an extended family Christmas dinner, either at my family's house, my grandmother's house, or my cousins' house nearby. We call family further away, and then occasionally my brothers will run off to a movie and maybe invite me along, too. Or we'll all fall into turkey-and-sugar coma and fall asleep.

I was more than a little bummed about being away from home for Christmas. Right after Thanksgiving, my roommates and I decorated our apartment with a small (fake-- duh) tree, lights, and even some stockings. We found all the Christmas movies we could get our hands on, but that's all we could do.

As Christmas came closer, though, it started to seem a little more real. I was angry about having to be here, I tried to pretend it wasn't Christmas, I got sad about it, and finally, I got over it. I managed to find an English-speaking (in fact, foreigner-run) candlelight service on Christmas Eve, with Silent Night and readings from Luke and everything. We ordered a turkey from a hotel nearby, and some Fulbrighters even made some homemade mashed potatoes. So those Fulbrighters around brought a dish, came to our apartment, had a Christmas dinner, and watched Christmas movies. After our guests left, my roommates and I exchanged presents under the tree. It wasn't home, but it was something.

My roommate Dan, carving the turkey:

Decorating gingerbread cookies, care of Nicki:

Christmas revelry. You can see our decorations in the background:

After the gift exchange. Vicky is "that kid" who has to wear every gift she receives...

After watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" over a dozen times last week, I finally had to learn my lesson...

Christmas Day is in our grasp,
So long as we have hands to clasp.

A little slice of home

So, you know how those fake-vintage shirts have become really popular lately? "Iowa City 4-H State Finalists 2003," "Chippewa Little League All Stars," "San Jose High Varsity Soccer," etc. Well, they are particularly popular in Taiwan. I get the feeling they're mostly made in Asian countries, from the bizarre diction and spelling used.

Anyway, yesterday in class, one of my fourth grade students was wearing one of these shirts. I almost didn't notice, but when she came up to do the speaking part of her midterm, my jaw almost dropped. Later, after the test, I just had to get a picture.

Why?


I mean, it's not spelled perfectly, but Tredyffrin-Easttown was the only word I ever got wrong in 5th grade spelling. Bizarre, eh?

Go Phillies!

As many of you know, baseball is the sport I've more than half-cared about throughout my life. So imagine my excitement when I got off the bus to Kenting today, signed online, and found that finally, the Phillies are in the World Series.

I remember back in '93 when my parents were fortunate enough to get four tickets to see them play the Blue Jays (of course, I was 8 and there were four family members older than me...), but I remember it was a very exciting time. And now, here I am in Taiwan, tuning into the beginning of games as I get ready for work, or catching the highlights on a Chinese-dubbed ESPN later that day.

What a disappointing time to not be in Philly... then again, I did name the majority of my 5th grade baseball class after Phillies players(I definitely have a Cole, Chase, and Shane), and I'm planning to do some class activities with the World Series... maybe having a bunch of enthusiastic 11 year olds will be adequate replacement for not being home during such an exciting time. Too bad the Yankees have the only Taiwanese baseball player in the MLB, and thus dominate the Taiwanese baseball merchandise market.

Unrelatedly, I'm writing from a hotel in Kenting, a beach town on the southern tip of Taiwan. It's raining a lot. We're going to an aquarium tomorrow. I'm laying off the blogging until Jon leaves (Wednesday), but don't worry, there will be blog posts and pictures aplenty soon after.

Goodbye to friends, clothes, and stuff

I've spent today doing more packing and packing-list-writing than I've ever had to do before. Let's review my serious packing experience via the three times I've ever left the country. (In reverse chronological order, of course!)

1. March 2008, I went to South Korea for spring break with HCAP. All I had to bring was clothes. Ewha University had everything down to the bedsheets and toothpaste provided for us.
2. March 2007, I went to Jiangyin, China, for spring break with HCAP. All I remember bringing was clothes, a deck of cards, and malaria medication.
3. Summer 1994, I traveled through Europe with my mom, brothers, and cousins. Needless to say, I don't remember much. Odds are that my mom did my packing for me anyway.

So now I'm packing. Not only because I'm leaving home Sunday, but also to get my mind off other, more miserable things. I said goodbye to two of the most important people in my life this weekend. Shilpa, one of my best friends since the 10th grade, began her job working for a hunger coalition in New York. And Jonathan, also known as "cute boyfriend," returned to Boston to finish his summer at a Harvard physics lab. The rest of the week will only bring more goodbyes.

Hence the packing. What do I bring? What do I leave behind? What can't I live without? So far I've come up with: ibuprofen, contact lenses, t-shirts, and a Chinese dictionary. And cable TV, but my Slingbox deserves a post all for itself later.

What's your "must-bring"? Former Fulbrightees have been most unhelpful in answering this question, so I pose it to you.

Now I leave you with a picture. First, to show off my magenta-on-the-outside, orange-on-the-inside luggage; second, to show off my new haircut; and third, to show off the fact that I really have no idea how to pack.

First Post!

朋友,

Twelve days until I leave with all my earthly belongings (that fit in two suitcases and one carry-on) for a long flight to... Seattle. Right. Visiting my brother John for a few days before I really leave. But in fifteen days, off I go from Seattle to Taipei 台北, and Taipei 台北 to Kaohsiung 高雄, all in just fourteen hours spent on a few planes. Technology these days, huh?

I'll be trying to keep up this blog throughout my year in Taiwan, and maybe beyond. Just as I have no idea what to expect once I arrive at 9am August 1st (that's 9pm July 31st to you in the Eastern Time Zone), I have no idea what this blog will become. Your suggestions are welcome.

For now, that's all I have. I just bought some very magenta luggage (intensity of magenta inversely corresponds to price, apparently), so I should probably get back to filling that instead of posting on this blog. What's there to say about Berwyn, anyway?

再見!

Author's Note: I will be occasionally writing some Chinese on this blog. I realize that most of you won't have a clue what it says. Try hovering over the characters with your mouse... hope it works!