Your mom

I suck at New Year's Resolutions. But if you read this post, then you already knew that.


I will say that although I'm still kind of sucking with money, I'm living within my means. And I'm totally knocking my book goal out of the park. I have read 15 books out of my goal of 24 for the year putting me 25% ahead of schedule. Which means I'll probably be taking up more substantial books for awhile. On to Guns, Germs and Steel!


As far as blogging twice a month, well, to be honest not much has been going on until recently and even that is only moderately blog worthy. So instead I'll leave you with this little window into the life of teaching English to children:

Quarter Centenarian

I'm not so great at posting in a timely fashion these days, but we'll just chalk it up to the fact that I'm busy... and that the sun decided to come out and play. I mean, how can you resist its bright and shiny personality. It makes me feel so warm all over. That's what she said.


Anyhow, my birthday was a couple of weeks ago and I made a big deal of it pretty much like I always do. I turned 25 and to me that's got an "I'm a quarter centenarian, bitches!" attitude written all over it. It was a weekend-long celebration of epic proportions.


Actually, scratch that, it was a Friday night celebration of epic proportions followed by two wonderful sunny days and two half-assed nights of celebration. What can I say, I started off at a sprint and it sure as hell caught up with me.

Doesn't matter though, I looked so thin and hot.
I kid... but no really...

Why are these people paying so much attention to me just because it's my birthday?

This week has been one heck of a roller coaster ride.

I've been happy and the sad and angry and depressed and excited. I've experienced a plethora of emotions and I'm not even sure where all of them came from.

Though I think I have decided that I would suck at living alone. It's nice to have a little alone time, but I don't like having too much alone time. Honestly, that's kind of what I thought would happen.

This week had some rough patches, partly due to being alone all week and partly due to the fact that my birthday is tomorrow.

Believe me, I know that doesn't make any sense.

I never really thought I was that much of a birthday person. I mean, I enjoy birthdays, but I didn't think it meant all that much to me. (Granted there was that time I didn't talk to my best friend/prom date from my birthday until prom day because he forgot my birthday...) I like getting presents and it's fun having people say happy birthday and all, but honestly, most of the time when people wish me a happy birthday, I feel ridiculous.

"Why are these people paying so much attention to me just because it's my birthday?" is all that I can think.

Honestly, at first I wasn't even telling people it was my birthday because I felt like an attention whore. That lasted until I realized that if I didn't tell at least someone that I would be spending my birthday alone or doing something I had no interest doing. Let's face it, I haven't known these people very long so I can't just expect them to know when my birthday is.

Truth is, it's just nice to have a day where people really pay attention to you. Even if it is just because it's your birthday.

Anyhow, I was sad about my birthday coming up because it's the only birthday that I can ever remember not spending with my family. And I miss my friends so much. All I could think about it how I would have gone to dinner with my family. My mom and my sister would probably have made me cupcakes or something or we would have all baked something together since it's also Mother's Day.

Then I would have met up with my friends at one of my favorite watering holes where we would dominate the jukebox chit-chatting and singing along all night. 

I don't even know of a place in Taiwan that has a jukebox (even one of those digital ones would suffice).

But despite all the homesick blues I've been having this week things are looking up.

My kids all sang "Happy Birthday" to me today and my last class even got together and ordered a bunch of pizzas to celebrate. That was seriously the nicest thing (and totally solved the dilemma in my mind about what I should eat for dinner tonight).

Some friends and I are going to go to brunch and then JiuFen during the day tomorrow. Then we're going to try to have dinner at Chili's so I can have American-Mexican food (specifically fajitas and queso) and so I can get my margarita on. I definitely haven't had a margarita since I was home in December. I plan on teaching the bartender how to make a Mexican Martini (also known as a Texas Martini at some establishments). 

Then, I found out that I got approved to take a Monday off in June so that I can have another Taiwan adventure with Leila. 

In case you need a reminder, Leila is basically my Taiwan travel buddy. She's Brazilian-Canadian, loves scuba diving and has lived in Taiwan twice as long as me (maybe more?). Her Chinese rocks and she's super laid back which makes her super fun to travel with. You may remember her from trips such as Chinese New Year in Hualien, Taroko Gorge and Kenting, or from Tomb Sweeping Weekend at Sun Moon Lake.

Well, ladies and gents, it is officially time for me to ditch the elevator and start taking the stairs up to my fifteenth floor apartment because Leila and I are climbing Jade Mountain in about a month.

Jade Mountain (玉山, YuShan) is pretty much in the middle of Taiwan in the southern portion of Nantou county. It is the tallest mountain in Taiwan (and East Asia) and the fourth tallest mountain on an island. It rises to 3952 meters (or 12,996 feet).  (Ahem, thank you Wikipedia.)

We will begin the hike on a Sunday morning and stop for lodging a little more than half-way up. Then at 3 a.m. Monday morning we'll be waking up, chowing down some grub, and grabbing our flashlights to guide us to the peak to witness what will ultimately be the most gorgeous sunrise I've ever seen. (Not that I've seen many sunrises. I'm the kind of girl that cooperates more with sunsets, honestly). 

Believe me — I know I'm asking to get my butt kicked with this one, but I couldn't turn down the opportunity.

So that leads to the next new thing in my life. Starting this week, I plan to hike Tiger Head or run twice a week, as well as hike Yangmingshan once a week and then yoga twice a week. This will be a pretty good prep for Jade Mountain as well as make me feel less guilty and self conscious when I finally step into a swim suit this season. 

I'm also going to get a little more serious about cutting down the meat in my diet. I just don't feel like meats here are as high quality as they are at home and often I feel gross after eating meat these days. I'll hike up the fruits and veggies count.

I have two months until Thailand when I seriously need to be camera ready.

Now I'm going to go to TaiMall to watch Iron Man 2 with some of the ladies. That'll be a nice way to cruise into my birthday.

When are you absent-minded?

The past week has been insane.

Saturday night we went out for Angela's birthday. Of course we went to our usual club — Search — but this time Angela reserved tables. That put a nice twist on things and we all had a blast. (Except for when that super creepy Taiwanese guy kept following me around the dance floor and literally tried to kiss me at one point...)

Every time we go to this beach we go all the way down to this old war bunker to set up camp.

What is an environmental message from children like?

Sunday and Monday could not have been more opposite of each other.

Sunday there was a birthday party at Bobo's house for herself and Joyce (her six-year-old daughter). My roomies and I arrived really late. It was fun though. We had a couple of drinks and sang karaoke.


Jamie, Joyce and a couple of their friends kept putting on these adorable shows.

It reminded me of how you were never really all that scared to perform when you were little — especially for your parents and even their friends.

This one was probably my favorite. Tess, Katie and I bought those flowers as Joyce's birthday present. They became props for all of their performances of the evening. In this case, they were crucial for the environmental message the girls were trying to send us.

If you weren't sure what Jamie was saying there at the end it was:

"Please don't take the flowers out or the Earth will be bad. Thank you."

They were just too adorable.

After the party, the roomies and I headed to Taipei for some shopping. It turned into shopping, drinking and eating.

Have a beer here, eat some street food there, buy something over there.

This place is called China Pizza. It's like tsong you bing with basil and amazing sauce.

Everything here is really different. Apparently it's perfectly OK to walk down the street with a beer in your hand. And so we did. Tess calls this phenomenon "drunk shopping."

Honestly, it was a lot of fun. We just kept buying food and beer and Christmas presents.

This is jianbao. It's a really big dumpling that's pan fried and steamed at the same time.

Luckily, I have great taste when I'm tipsy, so my Christmas shopping is much closer to done.

In the end, Katie, Graham (her friend who is visiting from America) and I ended up at this total dive bar close to the CKS Memorial.

I have to tell you, I love dive bars and I miss them so much.

Maybe they is one of the strangest things anyone has ever said, but I felt like I was back in America sitting in this little pub. Of course, I wasn't able to totally sink in and pretend we weren't in Taiwan.

Especially not after going to the bathroom.


Yes, my friends, there was no roof above the toilet in the bathroom. What do you do when there is no roof? You put an umbrella over the camode, naturally.

Now after that ridiculously long, productive and enjoyable Sunday, what was so bad about Monday?

Well, for starters, I slept forever. Then I forgot that I left my scooter at Bobo's. So I had to borrow one of my roommate's. Then I get to work just in time, as in the bell was ringing just in time.

Then I tried to go to 7-11 on break to get some tea and some chips, but I left my money in my purse which I don't take with me to school.

Luckily, it got a little better. I went to Carrefour after class and picked up my brand new contacts. Hopefully I'll be able to see again. I haven't even tried them on yet.

Also, I realized that I'm going home in TWELVE DAYS! (Ok, it was thirteen days yesterday, but yay!)

Now to just get everything in order before I head out. So much to do!

Was that a mini-earthquake or am I having a seizure?

Saturday night was a lot of fun. We went to this club in Jeng Li, called Search, for Jeremy's birthday. You basically pay one big cover to get in (I paid $400 NT — $12 USD) and that gets you all you can drink all night.

The catch, you stand in line a lot.


There were a lot of scarcely dressed women and this DJ from Malaysia. I think everyone had fun though and that's the important part.

I got left behind though. That was certainly not fun. We had such a large group and everyone else was pretty drunk. I went to the bathroom and came back and realized everyone was gone.

Gave me a chance to fend for myself in Chinese though. I went to three different cabs before I found one that was willing to drive me back to Taoyuan and then I had to try to explain where I live in Chinese.

Me: Taoyuan. Do you know Jengjen Lu? Do you know Tong An Jie?
Cabbie: What????

I had hoped that if I could get him into Taoyuan and to at least ONE of the streets I actually knew then I could just give him directions back to my place.

We finally combined efforts and he got me back to the dorm at about the same time as everyone else. Cabbies here drive super fast.

I ended up staying up to watch the sun come up Sunday morning, so I, of course, took some pictures from the balcony.


That's the LDS church right down the street from us. That's also what the sunrise looks like at 5:30 in the morning.

Bright, I know.

Sunday, Megan, Allen and I went shopping in Taipei. It was a lot of fun, but SO tiring. We walked so much!

I found three dresses I liked though and a bag.


There's Allen modeling my bag for me.

Unfortunately, staying up really late (early?) and then going to Taipei and walking all day took all the energy out of me. I ended up not cleaning the refrigerator last night. We'll see how I feel after school tonight.

Probably not great. I think I have a cold. My head hurts and my throat is a little swollen. How do you get a cold in this weather?

Last night Megan messaged me on Skype at about 1 a.m. asking me if I felt that shaking?

I didn't feel anything, but then today I was sleeping off my sickness and suddenly my bed started shaking back and forth.

I jumped up out of bed and immediately got on my computer to see what the deal was.

Apparently there were about 15-18 earthquakes in Haulien county yesterday. People have been feeling aftershocks all over the northern part of the island ever since.

Being from Texas, I am running into a whole different set of mother nature's wonders. At home it was tornadoes and hail, sometimes a really large hurricane hitting the coast would make its way far enough inland.

Here, we have earthquakes, typhoons and I suppose the possibility of tsunamis?