hydroxy's Xanga

Photos from the Other Night

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:56:43 GMT

Mario, Dom, Lali, & Fransisco before the bar--they look so nice!

Tatiana and I. She's so pretty. :)

Dom, Times, and Fransisco--they look rich.

Me, Tatiana, Dom. Aw.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 01:32:08 GMT

I think I've pretty much phased this xanga out. We've had some good times, though. Maybe I'll update it occasionally, but for the most part, I'm sick of the colors and the look of it all. So now you can find me at:

http://taiwacky.wordpress.com/

It's a new look and a new attitude. Probably will have more poems and stories and thoughts and "blogs" instead of just updates on what I'm doing. So come visit me there and say hello! I think you can leave comments without being a member, so that's good!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 07:07:48 GMT

It's summer. It's hot. The UV index is off the charts and it's the prime season for sunburns and serious skin damage. However, here in Taichung, the sun isn't the only thing that's heating me up. Take the back of my leg for example. It used to be a smooth monument to my muscular legs, but now, after an encounter with a certain someone's scooter muffler, it exists as only a scar of what it once was.

Ouch. Don't mind the prickly leg hair. This puppy of a blister stuck out about 1/4 inch. and Was about the size of the first digit on my right thumb. Yea--it was really pleasent.

We recently went to a mountain that is paralell with the sea. From the top of this moutain we could see the ocean on one side and the vast expanse of Taichung and environs on the other. Here is the city-side view:

You can see the City and behind that the mountains that stretch through the middle of the island. Lots of nice mountains to climb on.

While along the top of this mountain, we met a very, very small dog. Luna was quite afraid of this dog.

As you can see, this dog is not much bigger than one of our hands. But Luna has insisted on curling up on Nick's lap in order to fend off the little freak. He was quiet and sweet. Oh tiny little dog. Oh cowardly Luna.

Next, here is a picture of Nick and I at yet another seafood wedding. This time we didn't know anyone at our table and were therefore not obligated to eat anything we didn;t want to. Also, our table mates were not exceedingly friendly, or friendly at all, so we mostly stayed to ourselver and entertained each other. It was the best Taiwanese wedding ever.

Yes, I am wearing a shirt.

I love you all. Hope you are well and happy and good. And having fun. Please send me an email or say hello!

Love

jen

speedos, words, and frangelico

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 04:27:11 GMT

So it's been a little while since I've updated my xanga. I'd like to say that I've been to busy or that hordes of amazing things have been happening to me, but, as it goes, I've just been lazy and living the day to day. But I guess that is why you, dear reader, come here---to read about the day to day.

The beginning of June left me with one less class to teach and a little more free time, so that was nice. But last week I added two new classes--one of the classes i made up of about 1-2nd graders. It's something else. It's their first English class. I've taught it once and wow. I don't even really know what to say about it, except that I am not really a teacher. And I don't like annoying Chinese moms. I am glad to see my other kids, though. We've been together for a few months now and they've been pretty swell--even the bad ones.

Editing is going swimmingly enough. I basically do all of my work from home. At the beginning of the month, it doesn't put too much strain on my schedule. However, late writers and sometimes slow translation leaves me with stacks of articles at the end of the month to edit in about a day. Now that I've graduated college, I no longer stay up all night writing papers--I stay up all night editing articles that someone else wrote and someone else besides her translated.

I also stayed up way late last night finishing writing an article for another magazine--The Voice. This is the small publication, mostly aimed at foreigners and foreigner lovers that my poems were published in about a month ago. I volunteered to help the editors out, but ended up getting a 2,000 word assignemnt about airports in Taiwan--that was due in a week. So I did it, as college taught me, the night before. And it was fun. It should be online soon, so i'll post a link.

Next, Nick and I got pool memberships. I love it. There is a pretty nice pool a few blocks away from our building. They have a lap pool, big hot tub, saunas, a frigid pool, and a large warm pool full of different sprayers, spa beds, and massagers. It's kinda fun. To save a little money, we only got the morning pass--so we have to get there before 8:30. I love swimming, so it's great for me. Nick has gone a few times and likes it, but he is not as much as a swimming freak. He also has summer class and work, so he can't spend all day at the pool like I can. Nice.

Swimming isn't huge in Taiwan and it's a little silly. In the lap lanes, EVERYONE does breaststroke pretty much exclusively. No one does flip turns or backstroke or fly. And EVERYONE has to wear a swimcap all of the time. 1: even if you're sitting in the hot tub. 2: even if you don't have hair. Nick got yelled at for refusing to wear a swim cap--with good reason. They say it's not "sanitary" but half the people with swim caps have more than 1/3 of their hair hanging out and you're not allowed to wear shoes/sandals/flip flops even in the locker room. And the floor is slimy. I'm going to end up with some Asian foot fungus. Nasty. On the great side, I do get to ride by bike to and from the pool everyday and swim a lot. And i'm still belly dancing. So I am getting into pretty nice shape.

Here are some things you can't find in Taiwan: Speedo swimsuits. Frangelico. Ok, specialty hazlenut liquer is a little understandable, but SPEEDOS? My suits are wearing thin and there is nothing really acceptable here. No speedo, no TYR. It's weird. They have a brand "Arena" that is pretty terrible--twice the cost of a nice speedo with about 1/2 the quality. Merf. I'll figure something out, though.

That's about it from here. I have to get to work and teach my little dudes. Then I get to come home and edit. It's a really glamarous life I lead. Sorry about the gap. And all of the misspellings. I'm too lazy to spell check--that's a real editor for you.

Love!
Jen

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Thu, 31 May 2007 00:17:20 GMT

I'm here. and alive. Here and alive.

I've just been lazy abut updating, because I haven't taken very many pictures lately. And I know people like to see pictures better than reading my 'epistles,' as my grandpa so endearingly calls them

I'll real update soon-ish. Until then, happy June!

Monday, May 07, 2007

Mon, 07 May 2007 05:24:31 GMT

Hey everyone!

For those of you who don't have a facebook, here are some links to my Taiwan facebook albums. These are the rest of the pictures, the ones I don't have room for on xanga. Hope you enjoy them!

This weekend with the Daoist Parade and Taike festival

The Wedding with the bad food

Kenting--The beach, cliffs, beautiful Taiwan, etc.

Flaura, Fauna, Hiking, and Waterfalls

and

The First Luna Album

Love!

Jen

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Tue, 01 May 2007 04:17:57 GMT

Let's see where to begin... Ah yes, something I forgot about the Kenting trip. We went to Taiwan's own 'eternal flame'. This is a geologicalnaturalgasatron thing that causes gas to come up from the ground aaaaand it's on fire. It is a semi-hoppin' tourist sot--especially by night (when we went). It is a large circle of stones with about five or six small piles of stones inside and each pile is "on" fire. Vendors (of course...my stories always involve vendors) were selling all sorts of strange things, including fireworks, sweet potatoes, and jiffy pop.

Being the cultural explorers we are, we decided to buy some jiffy pop and proceeded to cook it on said eternal flame. Yes, in Taiwan everything has a purpose, even geological wonders. In the States, this would be the equivalent of washing a watermelon with Old Faithful. It was landmark-alicious.

However, on Sunday I experienced something that was NOT landmark-alicious. Not any kind of -alicious. Well, maybe gross-alicious. We went to a Taiwanese wedding. It was the marriage of Nick's old private student's mom's good friend. So we didn't exactly know the people, but we were invited so we went. It was...a Taiwanese wedding. First, however, there was a floor show:

Think the opening of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but crappier. It actually wasn't bad, just weird. They all had very creepy smiles. However, I did hear that some not-so-classy weddings here--as in like wedding receptions--have strippers for entertainment.

We also enjoyed eight or nine courses of seafood. *vomits* not like good stuff. Well, the best thing was salmon sashimi--but that's not really a "dish." I mean, I could go swim in the ocean without any arms and make myself sashimi by taking a bite out of a fish. It was the nasty stuff like mussels, scallops (?), something with tentacles, congealed fish egg loaf, etc. We also had crab, but we only had chopsticks, so everyone was breaking the legs with the teeth. Gross.

Oh no no no, that's how it looked BEFORE I ate it. You see...

PHENOMENA:
Culinary specialties in Taiwan tend to be gross, rare bits of things--eggs, eyes, hearts, brains, etc. As a guest, you are always given the special foods. So, if you are a foreign guest, you always have to eat the slaggy bits in front of everyone. Which is both fun and gross.

The above picture is crab. I had to eat the grainy, bitter orange crab eggs inside because they will make me beautiful. Or this wonderful thing that was in the soup:

Now. I don't exactly "know" what these are. But I was told that it is a "bug in the winter and grass in the summer." That is not a metaphor. After some discussion, Nick thinks that they were cocoons. Either way, they had a potato consistency. And we ate them.

Yesterday and today I've felt pretty icky--most likely because of the disgusting amount of sea critters I was obligated to eat. Seriously, it was like someone dragged a tuna net along the entire Pacific and just cooked up whatever ended up in there.

Anyway, I have to go teach my children. Maybe one day one of their moms will invite me to some obscure persons wedding--I hope so! And if they do, I'll be sure to sneak in some Jiffy Pop on the sly.

in many ways, i'll miss the good 'ole days

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 23:54:34 GMT

Back from an action-backed beach weekend in Kenting, I'm nursing a crazily-shaped sunburn and wishing I was back in the Pacific. If you think about what I just said, then you will realize that we were boppin' around the east side of the island. It was my first time to the East, but it was more like we were all around the tip of our little island, below the tropic of cancer where the climate is truly tropical, the water is blue, and the sun is vengeful.

After a 3.5 hour, Saturday morning drive, we arrived in Kenting a little after four and checked into our hotel. The drive down started industrial and ended with nice moon-like rock formations, bigger mountains, clearer skies, and of course, an ocean view. We went with our friends Eric (nick's boss) and Carrie (his taiwanese girlfriend), as well as their Schnauser, Benjamin, and Luna. As we approached Kenting with all the windows and the sun roof open, listening to Violent Femmes, with the dogs sticking their heads out the window, I was kind of reminded of driving down the PCH in southern california. It was nice and exciting. We wanted to keep the weekend cheap, so we went with one step above camping or a hostel--a cheap hotel. Our hotel room could accomdate up to six people. Here's how:

Ah yes. The part of the room that wasn't dominated by beds was about twenty square feet. Nice. It was cheap though--but you would really need to be close to your travel companions to get six in here. After checking in, we hit up the beach and romped around with the dogs in the "waves." Luna did not enjoy her time in the ocean, but Ben taught her how to dig in the sand and she had a grand time tunneling. At one point, she was even laying on her side and digging with all fours. That Luna.

The beaches aren't the nicest beachest in the world--the lack the purity of Thailand, the length of California, the aquatic life of Mexico, but after being cooped up in the city for months, the beach is more than worth it. After de-sanding, we walked around town, shopping, and dinner-ing. I bought sunglasses, flip-flops, and a sarng--all for under 15 USD. On a sad note, at one point during our walking around town, we were tailed by three mewing, TINY kittens who just needed someone to take care of them and love them. Smaller than by palm, the walked and tried to run after us screaming. All of them had very goopy, very sad eyes.

At night we drove to the east side of the island for star gazing and night beach-walking. It was deserted, dark, and quiet (except for the waves). Lovely.

The next morning, Nick and I got up early and took the dogs for a walk. We ended up taking a hidden entrace around the the back beach access area and walking through a long, manicured walkway, which led to a nice resort, in which we walked around a bit, realized we were trapped, and returned to beach. After meeting Eric and Carrie for breakfast, the four of us set-off, back to the East and the bluffs where we were the night before. Here was the view from the first place we stopped:

We did some minor rock climbing, of course, and tried to get the highest vantage point possible. Here I am at said vantage point.

Nice.

After walking around for a bit, we went down the bluffs a bit to a slightly secluded, not too busy beach with REAL waves. Because a lot of Taiwanese people are afraid of water and don't like getting in the ocean, there was no one in the water except for three Western surfers. Everyone else was wading, or just looking at the ocean. We swan and it was great.

After coming back up from the beach to the parking area, we found some vendor trucks selling fresh coconuts and sweet potatoes, etc. The woman running the truck was a 5'1'', leathery aboriginal woman, who had trouble speaking due to the excessive amount of Betel Nut she gnawed on. She had the crimson juice running down her chin, under her nose, and where her lips met on the sides of her rotting-teeth smile. 'Bloody Mary' Eric dubbed her, as an allusion to Captain Cook's travels in the South Pacific. Bloody Mary indeed. After she chopped the top off my coconut and plopped a straw in there, I drank the slightly sour fruit for a bit. That is, until the ghastly lady grabbed my arm, removed the coconut from her hand as she held it against her chest, pointed at my chest and started cackling. "Wo meiyou da!" She said--basically like, "I don't have big!" This made me uncomfortable. Then she grabbed a hose and started spraying my legs and feet--"I think she likes you, Eric said." Yea--thanks Bloody Mary.

After leaving the beach, we went to the "go-kart district" and played on dune buggies on a rutted, muddy course. It was fun! Though, I did get the crappy, slow one and finished a lap behind everyone. Oh well. After doing a bit more shopping and eating lunch at a pan-asian cafe, it was time to return home. During the sleepy drive, we tried to play the alphabet game with Romanized road signs and simple characters, but it was too difficult. By the time we had returned home, we were exhausted, full of sand, and red from sunburn. We were only gone for about 36 hours, but it felt like so much longer--those are the best vacations. Now it is back to school and classes. Back to work, bleh. However, it is nice to know, if a beach vacation is every an absolute necessity, Kenting is not that far away.

love.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:49:28 GMT

Exciting Things:

1: I'm now in a Chinese Calligraphy class--it is hard because i do not have the most steady hand, but it still looks cool.

2: Giants are made in Taiwan, so as soon as I get a little bit of freed up money, I'm going to buy a nice bike! For a hundred or so dollars less than in the states. We live on the edge of the city..so...biking fun!

3: After watching a recital yesterday, I am going to join my friends' bellydancing class, having previously denied it for lack of money. I have been kind of anti-social lately, so this will be a good way to meet new people.

4: Might go surfing in Kenting this weekend! Yea!

5: Donghai's outdoor pool is now open--everyday at 6:30!

6: Luna can run with me pretty well now.

Class is still okay--it is a bit of a drag. I don't really have the motivation to study--I would rather be out and enoying the life, but since my grades matter for naught, it doesn't matter if I only get 80s! Woooo!

Spring is here, Summer is coming.

Then I will be a Calligraphy writin', English editin', Chinese speakin', belly dancin', poorly surfin', mountain bikin', Luna runnin' fool. With an occasional studying.

I. Love. Tai.Wan.

Jen

Monday, April 02, 2007

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 04:45:36 GMT

The saddest puppy in the world.

She chews.

Sans my enormous arm--i generally like this picture, with Luna's little eye sticking out.

Aaaaang guns. Replicas from ili's client. Shoot plastic BBs.

That's about it. It's tomb sweeping time, so I might have some pictures up about that soon--you can learn all about the tradition. Merg. See you!