Sorry Mom, but I officially hate fireworks....

Don't get me wrong, I look forward the the 4th of July and the pretty lights in the sky. Mom likes to say all the fireworks on that day are for her, and I tend to agree since it is her birthday. Plus it's the only time she spends money (probably too much :P) and doesn't care about the most likely negative reaction from Dad. All's well and good, except that for the past two days, I've been able to sit in my room and hear: boom bang bang blast pop pop pop bang boom....etc. It's very loud and very annoying...especially since I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING. I look out my window to see the building across from me, whoopee, let's celebrate (*insert sarcastic tone here). Now, I see nothing wrong with fireworks, I actually like how fireworks can be used year round here, for any sort of celebration. If it was like that in the US I'd have a huge firework display on my birthday every year, and for any other tiny celebration I throw. But seriously? Do they have to do them at midnight, that's the time they started last night. At least tonight it's only 7pm so far.

I recorded the sound...and put it into a quick random video...which is much more entertaining than what's really going on :) At least now I'm not so cranky anymore hehe.

Camera Happy!!

 

I purchased a new camera on Friday night.  I've been needing a new one and I am thoroughly pleased.  My old camera had horrible horrible quality because it was cheap.  My new one has really good quality, plus it's easy to use and cute!

Because we shopped at an electronic store with membership benefits, it was better for us to get a membership card so I could get my camera at a cheaper price.  And for signing up for a card you had to pay 400NT ($13US) you got to choose a free gift out of 8 things (blender, fan, rice cooker, waffle iron, radio...)  Gretchen was ecstatic when she saw this waffle iron, her face turned red she was so happy, she'd been wanting one forever, so we got it of course.  After further examination we noticed that the bottom part wasn't the normal waffle squares but we're dog related shapes.

Anyway, it was a very successful evening for both of us, plus I've been in the mood to buy something for a long time, so it was either a better quality camera or a game system :) I think I made a good choice...and now I'm taking pictures of so many random things!

I love milk a lot, and this shows the huge zoom my camera has (I was on the couch and this was on the kitchen counter across the room).  Monday I feel on the walk to school and got a huge scar...it's healing but it was painful and looked horrible :D Bye!

Posting blogs

So I wrote 3 blogs on Saturday as you can see below...but didn't post them till today...not by my choosing.  I got a new program that lets me write blogs in more of a word document, and I don't have to be connected to the internet.  Then when I am connected to the internet I can post them, which I thought I did.  Checked my blog online today...nothing.  I guess "posting" is not the same as "publishing", but we seem to have everything figured out now :)  Enjoy! 

I am being evaluated today in my morning classes, so wish me luck.  I'm not worried about getting a raise or anything, I just get nervous that they're going to tell me everything I do wrong.  I don't mind constructive criticism, as long as it is constructive (which with these people it isn't always).  I just know that they'll say "don't take it personal" but I always will and I'm harder on myself than anyone could ever be (even my parents lol).  So I'll be stressing till noon, then I'll be fine.  Mom, remember how nervous I'd get at piano competitions??  It's like that in a way :P

What's going on?

So, it's been exactly a week since my family has visited and gone back home, and I haven't had any time to be online because the day after they were gone I was thrown back into work and wasn't as prepared as I should have been.  But it went all right although I had to make up some missed hours from my week's vacation so I ended up pretty tired by the end of every day. 

There's nothing going on this weekend.  Gretchen is in the city all weekend because she's training for a conference she's going to in Australia in April (and yes I'm insanely jealous!)  I finished the book my mom brought me yesterday so I will have to spend some time picking out a new one to begin out of the 15+ I have on my shelves (it is a tough decision!). 

Tonight from 7-8 is Earth Hour so I will be sitting in the dark, or at least by candlelight with no electricity or any other power going.  I'm tempted to see how well I can do the dishes, otherwise I might just nap lol. 

This week at work will be a short one because we get Friday off for Tomb Sweeping Day, Megan and I thought of comparing it to Memorial Day back home.  Gretchen has invited me to hang out with her and friends in Taipei City for that day and I haven't decided yet on my plans.  The school's monthly birthday party is on Wednesday, pajama party theme and there will be an Easter egg hunt, so I'm excited, but it also cuts into my teaching time even more. 

Seemingly uneventful but always fun and exciting.

The Rose's are welcomed in Taiwan!

Rather than writing a whole bunch about a WONDERFUL weekend, I'll give a few pictures just to show the awesomeness!!!

Monday March 17th: Megan got really good at taking pictures on airplanes.  The flew from Omaha to Denver, Denver to San Francisco, San Fran to Taipei, Taiwan.

     

Spending the day in Sanxia, the famous temple in the area.  It's near the Old Street, which is a long road full of old architecture.

Hot pot for lunch and practicing chopstick skills

Meeting my kids at Uncle Sam, Mom brought chocolate for them :)

Tuesday, March 18th: Fun times.  I was camera silly in front of Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall because we had time to waste.

89th floor observatory of Taipei 101, too bad it was a cloudy day

Dinner at a Japanese buffet with Angela's family

Wednesday, March 19th: National Palace Museum, a huge tourist spot and a place I have been to about 8 or 9 times because it's always changing.

Thursday, March 20th: I have a small fear of heights ok, back off!  The Maokong Gondola that takes you up into the mountain.  Basically a little glass box that flies.

After the gondola we went to the zoo and yes, this is a wall of colorful styrofoam poop near the bathrooms.

I told Megan she had to have her picture taken in front of the golden giraffe!

Dinner with Vickie and Ping Jia, high school classmates of mine.

Friday, March 21st: In Dansui I found a 7/11 with Slurpees.  Megan was excited because 7/11s aren't very common in the US anymore and Nick like's Slurpees I think.

My parents...at least two sets of them :)  Eric and Stacey, my Taiwan parents and Kyle and Dan, my USA (and real) parents!

How many people can say they've gone to a popular night club with their parents....and had an AWESOME time!?!?!  We went with my co-workers who all loved partying with them.

Bamboo Juice

I know it's been way to long since I've blogged and I'm promise there will be many many blogs going up because I have many things to talk about.  But this particular moment I will take to talk about food.

Yesterday I had to take the school bus to Joy and it was with the Uncle (that's what we call all the drivers) who likes to buy food and stuff for me and T. Yvonne.  Yesterday during the drive, he pulled over, rolled down the passenger window and yelled out to a guy at his cart to buy bottles of ugly yellowish green liquid.  He bought three and then gave one to me, one to Yvonne and one for himself.  I was pretty sure right away that it was bamboo juice, I'd seen it before but never tried it.  I don't like to eat bamboo and drinking it wasn't much better, but Yvonne said it's good for the throat and mine's been hurting so I drank it anyways, although it was more tolerable than I had expected. 

I remember when I was thinking about mom, dad, and Megan coming I thought a lot about what foods they would have to try: milk bubble tea, dumplings, stinky tofu, squid on a stick, numerous teas, sushi, fish balls, fruit ice, etc.  And now that my year here is coming close to it's end I think about the foods I love that will be difficult to make or purchase when I get home.  Today my lunch consisted of chicken nuggets cooked in my toaster oven and frozen dumplings I fried in a pan on the stove (and received many oil burns in the process as usual).  I will miss my dumplings, but I'm hoping to find a way to get some of my Taiwan comfort foods in America, just like I have found ways to get USA comfort foods here (I have become pretty good at making my own mashed potatoes)!

Ringa dem bells

Last weekend, Gretchen and I checked out the lantern festival stuff going on in Taipei. That was actually the last day for stuff (Feb. 24). There were a lot of displays and things and a lot of mice since it's the year of the mouse. She took like all of these pictures but they're still cool and I was actually there for most of them, except the evening ones because I was tired and needed to do laundry (mom I miss you!! haha).

They have performances all afternoon/evening, these were some Mongolian dancers, dancing to English music, in a Chinese speaking country.
Taiwan would not be right without a few hot springs.
Dragon boat races!
Drums for the Gods, each one is for a specific God I think.
My Lantern Festival would just be incomplete without a visit to the Rice Turtle (don't ask the significance of this because I don't know, it's just awesome!)
"E-mouse" - totally awesome in a nerdy way!
These are so detailed it's insane, and some of them are from high schools.

Marilyn Mouse

The Mouse Orchestra.


This is the big main lantern in the courtyard of Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall.

Ringing a bell on the lantern path. Not sure of the significance, but it was fun. Sorry for it being sideways, not sure if you can flip it on the computer and not enough time to get into the details of figuring it out :D