Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in etolix's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Friday, July 21st, 2006
2:04 pm	Wow, it's been awhile. A lot has happened and I don't have the time, patience or desire to go into details, so I'll just say that I'm currently residing in Taiwan, and on very little sleep. I'm scared to ride my bike in the mess of traffic here, and I sweat more volumes than I drink. I'm 12 hours ahead of Ohio time, so it's bedtime. (Comment on this)
Friday, January 27th, 2006
11:48 am	For your amusement A great blonde joke. (Comment on this)
Friday, December 30th, 2005
12:27 pm	multiple pastes Friday, December 30, 2005 Poop on you for making me spill my secret! But hey, it's a fair exchange for those movie tickets. I'm so glad Gateway built Drexel Theater so I can watch all those indie films, esp at the student discount price! =D Thursday, December 29, 2005 Went to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes on Dec 27. It was a really good show and believe it or not, Ah-Mah had a blast, too! I really enjoyed the toy soldiers and the precision of the Rockettes, but probably the more unique dance was that adapted from the Nutcracker. The little girl danced with huge bears that had different costumes on, depending on the song. For example, the Sugar Plum Fairy was this bear in a tutu with heavy pink mascara on who carried a wand. The Chinese dance featured pandas with triangular straw hats who bowed at the beginning and the end of the sequence. Overall it was a cute show and Santa was a blast! Today I went with the Kwoks+cousin Emily to see "Narnia." It had some good CG effects, but I thought the battle was too much like that in LOTR. The kids were cute and performed well, but I didn't like the Witch. It seemed like she was trying too hard to be more regal than she actually is in person. I guess what I'm saying is that some of these movies are better in the old form, with human size badgers and beavers and Aslan played by 2 people in costume. I know I haven't been in the best of moods lately. I think it's for lack of sleep. Mom's also told me that I can be less demanding and commanding of others. My apologies to all of you who had to suffer. I don't blame you for becoming distant. Regarding the WI06 schedule and Dan, I guess I was just shocked that it was so packed and that you guys went ahead and scheduled without consulting me. I know you're probably not happy with me for staying home for so long, but it would be nice to be considered every once in awhile. Maybe I'm asking too much. Afterall, you two are the ones taking over for me this holiday. I shouldn't be complaining. I'll get over it. Things have seemed hazy these days. Maybe it's the lack of sleep. Perhaps too many movies. I've always had a theory that the electrical box by the lamp post out front sends out waves that mess with my head. I swear the silence sounds different in my room. It's somehow oppressing and heavy. Call me crazy. My tummy is complaining. I'm going for some cookies. 5'4", 117-130lbs. I'm still good. Tuesday, December 27, 2005 I was going to update, but she commanded that I go have some fun in the tub. And since I'm an obedient little girl, that's exactly what I'm going to do. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 27th, 2005
11:30 am	dentists suck although i did wear your "dog gone" shirt today.. so you could be with me in spirit as i got my mouth tortured. we're going to switch dentists because these people are just a scam. seriously, they always manage to find a problem every time we go for a checkup. told my bro he had 6 cavities. last time they told him that, mom took him to another dentist (at vandy, therefore accredited) and the dude found absolutely nothing wrong with his teeth. they took 4 x-rays of my teeth. i asked the lady why 4, she said one of molars, one of pre-molars. i looked at the x-rays (and i showed my dad.. he agreed with me) and they were totally of the same like 8 teeth. in the past, they've been known to switch up patient xrays and even look at them upside down for several minutes before noticing the error. it's ridiculous. i'm about to go out to lunch with emily.. you know, the one with the crappy free car. apparently she got back on 24 dec instead of sometime in jan as i had previously thought. oh, they have coat racks at walmart here.. i asked. it wasn't the style you wanted, though, so i didn't get it. it's in a really small box. ^^ mmm... remember we agreed no christmas presents? yeah, so don't feel bad about not getting me one. so there. i win. i gotta go get ready.. emily should be here fairly soon. (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 25th, 2005
4:48 pm	Christmas time is upon us I'd have to say this is probably one of the better Christmases I've had. First of all, I got to sleep in (until Susan called and woke me up at 10:30, then Kalina called and we talked till almost 1pm), then we had a wonderful lunch of noodles and soup, which kept me quite warm for the rest of the time. Also, Ah-Mah was here to spend it with us, which made opening presents and all that an even more exciting time. I got a pair of white ankle-length shoes, dark blue stretchy gloves, cherry flavored lip gloss, a shirt I picked out at TJMaxx, TSO's Christmas Attic, a mug, and a pack of goldfish crackers. Just enough stuff to make opening presents fun, and stuff that I'll mostly use. I would rather not get presents than get a bunch of stuff I have no use for. I'm slightly disappointed that I didn't get a new computer, but then, I wasn't really expecting one, either. I figure I can always go and buy one for myself. Last night in an attempt to be funny, and to prolong my parents' belief that we still believe in Santa, Jon and I wrote a funny letter to Santa, telling him how we're good kids because we used scrap paper to write our letter, and that we didn't want any gifts from him because we have money to buy what we want. Then, I said we only wish for mom and dad to not be so stressed and for them and Ah-mah to have a happy new year. We left some pineapple cake and chocolate out for him and got Ah-Mah to write him a short note, too. Since our stockings got misplaced somewhere, I took some red wrapping paper and wrapped a pencil holder, labeling it "Ah-Mah's red stocking." At least the adults got a kick out of it. Santa wrote back in simplified Chinese, of all things. Said we were good kids for using scrap paper.. lol.. and then berated us for not leaving him a pencil to write with. Anyway, I made a corn casserole for the dinner at Amy's house that we're going to later. It's going to be Amy's family, Ben, Tina, Theresa, Paula, Jeff, and us. That's like 24 kids and a bunch of adults. I don't know if I want to be around that many people.. So, it's a little early but I've already got some ideas for new years resolutions: 1. do some sort of exercise every day, no matter if it's just taking a walk around the Oval or playing ping pong or badminton at the RPAC. 2. hang out more with friends. I feel like I've been spending too much time with the same people lately. I don't want to only be close to very few people over the next couple of years. I made a lot of good friends in college and just because they live on the other side of campus or are in another Ohio city, that's not a good excuse to become estranged. I should also stay in better contact with my friends around the globe. I'm sure I can come up with some other goals, but well, I still have about a week to think about it. Wish you all a merry time and a good transition into the new year! (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 1st, 2005
1:54 am	What?! December already?? Where did the time go? I can't believe it's December already. I heard from one of my friends that the GRE format is changing starting next year. I am totally not ready to take it. I doubt I'll be ready before the year's up. And I don't want to take the longer, newer version of the GRE. Poop. If things go positively, I'll move to Taiwan where it's warm and work on some linguistics projects. The interview is on Monday. They were impressed with my language and linguistics knowledge and training. I hope I won't disappoint them. My fish is still a runt but he's finally just as orange as the rest of them. I still keep him in his separate container, though, in case they bully him until he turns suicidal. Call me paranoid; at least my fish will stay alive. Mark Pi's still sucks though I get my second pay check on Friday. It will be more than the $30 I got last time since I actually worked through the whole billing cycle this time around. I'm so sick of the food yet I eat it every day for lunch because it's free. Dan was upset today because his nurse of 3 years left for another job and the new hire doesn't look like she'll be very reliable. I feel sorry for him because it's getting to be the end of the quarter, which means the majority of his student helpers (me included) will be going home. Since Kelly will be around, though, I'm sure she'll be making some decent money this holiday season. I've got a plane ticket to go home on 13 Dec. K and I got tickets to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra at Nationwide on 7 Dec. She's got a dental appt I have to accompany her to on 9 Dec, and we're going to see the Nutcracker on 10 Dec. Hopefully everything will be patched up in time for all those events to be enjoyable. That's about all that's been going on. I'm slowly learning to divide up my time so I actually do a couple of meaningful things each day. I like the sense of accomplishment. And I like sleep, too. Good night and sweet dreams. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 18th, 2005
1:55 am	Jennifer Finney Boylan Transgender is an umbrella term. Transsexual is someone who identifies with the gender opposite of what s/he was born as. These people usually elect for surgery. Other people included in the Transgender category: Crossdressers Drag Queens/Kings Intersexuals These people usually don't want surgery. ============= Having spied Jennifer Finney Boylan's book "She's Not All There" on the library shelf this summer and having found it a very interesting read, I decided that since she was coming to campus tonight, I might as well go listen to her. She's a very funny woman and very lucky to have a wife and 2 kids (9 and 11) who support and love her. She also got to keep her job at Colby college teaching English and fiction writing despite a long hiatus during her surgery. ============== What I found most interesting at her talk: Someone asked her about marriage laws and such. Apparently in some states if you undergo a sex change you are required to change your name, sex, etc on all documents, whereas in other states it's impossible to get some documents changed. So, in Maine, Jenny simply went to the office and asked to get her name changed on her birth certificate from James to Jennifer, as well as the M to F. The lady, with a swift couple of keyboard taps, made the update with no problem, no questions asked. Armed with the new edition of her b.c. she went on to get her SSN card, driver's license, and passport information changed. I found out tonight that it's illegal to change your birth certificate name in Ohio. Ok, so what does this mean, you wonder. Well, here's the background story. When Jennifer was still James, he met, fell in love, and married a woman. They then proceeded to have 2 kids. Later, when James became Jennifer, she was still married to the same woman, legally, because in the US, you're not allowed to get a divorce unless both parties give signed permission. Couple the above with what you know about birth certificates and all those anti-same-sex marriage laws, you end up with: In Maine, if Jenny divorced her wife, she would only be allowed to marry a man. However, in Ohio (a red state), Jenny would only be allowed to marry a woman and would be, in fact, prohibited, BY LAW, to marry a man. So much for all those homophobes and their same-sex marriage preventitive measures! ------------------------------- On an extreme side note, since basically only QKE reads this, I watched "Be Cool" tonight and the girl who works at TNL records totally reminds me of you... which leads me to conclude that you could totally make it in the movie industry-- and rock at it. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 15th, 2005
10:42 pm	fish update Yay! I think my fiishie is getting better! At least he's been pooping a lot, and it's all dark colored, so maybe he's slowly recovering his health!! I hope so, I hope so! I've been changing his water every day and syringing up his poop so I think it's helping. As for the other fish, I'm still mad at them for possibly driving my poor white fishie to becoming suicidal so they can wallow in their own poop and muck for a long time to come. Hmph. Good news: I only have Dan tomorrow, so I'm done by noon! Yes! Finally a day where I won't smell like Mark Pi's! Just got Ellen's DVD in the mail so I'm off to watch that. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 14th, 2005
11:34 pm	work, work, work Man, working at Mark Pi's sucks even though his daughter is cool. Not that I see her all that often. It's becoming very mindless and routine. And the smell stays with you forever. It gets so bad that I don't even want to shower between days because as soon as I go back to that place, the resturant smell permeates everything. When I get home at night, I put everything in a plastic bag and tie it up to keep the smell in. At least I get free food every time I work so I get to bring home food for friends and roomies. I even got a portion to go for Dan this afternoon. I think he was really happy that I got him Szechuan Tofu, General Tso's chicken and Kung Pao Chicken. He dug right in. Anyway, this entry is really boring because I'm really tired. Hopefully Paul will go through on his promise to find some guys to work the night shifts so I only have to work the busy noon shifts. At least I have Dan so I'm making money worth counting. I took Kelly with me to Dan's this past Saturday (so I missed the game completely since we ran errands afterwards, such as the mandatory background check that cost $67) so she could see how everything works. She seemed rather bored, even as I showed her how to clean off Dan's ass, but she said she was still interested. I guess I didn't really expect her to be fazed since she has to wipe old people's butts at Alzheimer's. What else... It's mostly been working at Mark Pi's, so I really have no entertaining stories. Maybe next time.. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 10th, 2005
6:33 pm	One of two Awhile ago my fishies weren't doing well in the little bowl I had so I transferred them over to Kelly's place. She already has 5 goldfish thta started out small but have gotten decently big (2 inches each). My smaller one started to turn black-- probably stress or something-- but I put him in a bucket by himself and he's getting a lot better. The other one I left in the tank with the other fish. Granted he's only about 1 in long, but he was getting food and didn't seem like he was getting bullied too much by the other fish. Well, today I came to make sure everything was alright when I only counted 5 big fish. Impossible. Kelly even checked the mouth of her alligator to make sure the fish didn't swim into it and get stuck. There's a glass plate over the top of the tank with about 1.5 inches either side to allow the automatic food feeder and the tube for the pump to come out. After much searching inside the tank and around her desk, we finally located a very stiff, shriveled and dusty white fish under her desk on top of some manila folders. The fish is white so you could see its dark colored insides. The eye was shriveled in and the tail was clamped together and stiff. I wonder if it was curiosity that killed the fish, suicide, or homicide. I now look at the remaining 5 fish suspicionsly. The biggest was named Bully for a reason. Hmmm... My poor fishie.. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, November 7th, 2005
9:34 pm	Dan and Mark Pi's I guess I'm working for Mark Pi's. It's a low paying job, but money is money. It's an easy job, really, just the time passes by oh so slowly.. I did get to spend a whole evening with Mark Pi's daughter, Ko-Rely (pronounced "Koray"). She's a cool person and seems like a tomboy, kinda like me, so we got along well. She actually reminds me of Marsha, with whom I grew up. Anyway, she graduated in '02 with a degree in Media Relations or something along those lines. Now she mainly works in the MP corporate office, except when they're short-staffed, then she goes and helps out with serving customers. She says that the express line is a new concept for Mark Pi's. Instead of "Cooked to Order", the food is out there for the customers to see, and what you see is what you get. It's located in the Medical Center parking garage food court, so I guess it's perfect for all those doctors and nurses who have no time to eat. I've also basically got the Dan job, which pays about double what MP pays. It's also much more satisfying and more enjoyable. Not that I get off on seeing Dan's privates.. just that it's one-on-one interaction, something that I prefer to inordinate amounts of faces I'll never see again passing in front of me, on the other side of a glass wall. Besides, Dan is a nice guy. His other helpers complain that he's too picky, but hey, we're there to take care of him. That automatically means he's boss. If he thinks his pants zipper needs to be moved 2 inches to the left, then that's what I'm going to do-- until he's satisfied. He might not be able to feel his legs, but at least he cares about his appearance. I got called in today, on short notice, because he was running a fever and wanted to get in bed. I guess he doesn't really trust his other helpers because someone's been swiping his Vikiden and other pain meds. So not cool. And Holly, instead of picking up his pills from the pharmacy like she said she's do after class, took her dog out to some dog park in Worthington so he could get some exercise. Kelly met Dan today and he seems to like her, so maybe she'll get a good paying job over Winter Break. Anyway, I've got newly burned DVDs of "Kinsey" and "Sin City", so I'm off to watch those! (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 30th, 2005
9:55 am	Halloween weekend-ish Denise and Susan and I went on a liquor run three nights ago. When we got home, Denise pulled out her nifty Mickey Mouse smoothie maker and we drank something along the lines of homemade Strawberry Daquiris. Two nights ago, Kelly came over and the four of us made jello shots, played DDR, had some Amaretto Sours, carved a pumpkin, and watched "Boondock Saints". Not necessarily in that order. I was really impressed with the pumpkin. First of all, we didn't carve it all the way through. Second of all, we put a Playboy Bunny on one side, a bottle on the other and "ABSOLUT PLAYBOY" in between. It was the best idea I've had in the long time. I'd have to say it's better than the OSU "O" that the guys next door carved. Last night, I went and checked out Club 226's party. Nick had the best costume, dressed up like Courtney Love. Then, we headed back to Kelly's for the OTZ/SEASO party. There were jello shots, a beer bong (some guy did it in 3 seconds) and apple bobbing. Most of the guests ended up outside playing beer pong, so I guess it was like pay back for all those times the neighbors blasted their music and trashed the sidewalks. UV raised utility costs. Boo. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 24th, 2005
10:02 pm	Guess I should update Well, it's been nice being back in Columbus, despite the rainy and shitty weather. What I really mean is, it's nice to be back in the same city as Kelly. She has class every morning at 9:30, though, and is a security guard at the libraries, via work study, from 6pm-midnight. I live off campus, about 10 minutes away. Anyway, I have a job interview tomorrow morning. It's nothing, really. Just a front desk job at the OSU Child Care Center. It's really close to where I live, so if I get the job, it'll be just a 10 minute walk. Hopefully I'll get my bike up and running and figure out a way to bike to work.. Another prospective job is helping a parapalegic. When he called me back on the phone, he told me he was a quadrapalegic. I went there today and well, he can definitely move his arms. He's wanting someone to help bathe and dress him in the mornings. It's a well paying job and for $24/hr I think I can handle male genitals. And the good thing is, if he decides to keep me, I can work both jobs since one's in the morning and the other's at night. I have to go back to Dan's place on Thursday and shadow his current student helper and learn how to manipulate his sling and stuff. I talked to Vi today about grad school. She's in full support of me going into special ed. Since she's the president of Kelly's Asian interest sorority, she says as an special ed teacher, I can help minorities. And she also said I could probably combine ASL and special ed together, which would be cool. I know Mark's job with autistic kids utilizes ASL every once in awhile. I guess for now it's concentration on jobs. Once I get that settled, I can look into grad schools and stuff. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, October 10th, 2005
11:42 pm	Ohio The parents helped me move back to good ol' C-bus over the weekend. Even though the heater clanks like crazy, Mom agreed that everything is comfortable and that the location (UV) is good. The carpet is a definite plus for me. Anyway, I put in 2 apps at the library in hopes that they will take pity on me and offer me a job. It would be most convenient because UV has buses that go straight to campus and the library is right next to campus. I wouldn't even have to freeze too much in the winter, walking to work. Anyway, my computer is fried and my Japan, part I pictures are indefinitely stuck in there. My bro spent about 4 hours trying to access the files but no such luck. He got to the point where a certain program was going to transfer the files onto his computer so he could burn them onto CD for me, but then the files wouldn't transfer. Then it was getting to be too late and we didn't want to run into Purdue football traffic so we bought a pizza to eat on the road and headed up to OSU. My new apartment is cosy though still messy. My two roommates keep going home on the weekends and bringing back more stuff. Mostly clothes. I got a fish as a welcome present from Kelly!! I named him "Little One" (unofficially) because he's so tiny compared to the other fish that Kelly has. Anyway, we moved my bed today.. well, we tried. Since Kelly's van is ghetto and we couldn't find a screwdriver at her place to use to open the trunk, we could only transport the frame. So it's almost midnight and all I have is a bed frame in my room. Good thing Kelly has a sleeping bag that she lets me borrow! But then, she always takes care of me like that. I'm mostly unpacked and settled in. I just need a drawer for my clothes as all the furniture that I have right now are: the bed (frame), a folding table, and a small bookshelf. I don't even have a chair for my table. So my clothes are sitting in tubs and everything else is kind of strewn across the floor. Tomorrow I'm supposed to meet with Fred to sign over the German Club account to him so he can actually write checks, then meet with Jack who promises to help me with my Chinese conversation skills. I also have meetings lined up with people every day for the rest of the week. It almost feels like a bunch of blind dates. But what else can I do? Kelly has class and rush events during the day and work-study (library security guard!) at night.. she doesn't have time for me... She knows that nothing can replace her. Oh, and on Thurs I want to check out Pistol Club. Of course I wait until I'm not a student anymore to do extra-curricular activities. Of course. When else would I have time? Oh yeah. I need to find a job. Right. But now it's bedtime. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, October 3rd, 2005
9:02 am	Post for Saturday I was totally beat after having to wake up at 8am (gasp!) in order to help my dad teach his Tse-Ling class at Nashville Chinese School. Then, I went with Jenny's dad to the insurance company of the guy who hit her car to collect money. For a couple of scratches, he got a decent amount of money.. almost $600USD. In the afternoon, I went to the mall to pick up my new glasses. Keeping in style with the present, the frames are smaller, but other than that, no one really noticed much difference.. not even my dad, who knew that I was getting new glasses today. Heh. On the verge of falling asleep, I persuaded my grandmother to play some ping pong with me. She's pretty good for an 81 year old. She's got reflexes like she's 30. Anyway, I was really beat so by 21.00 I was already in bed, fast asleep. To keep you up to date: My cell phone has been revived so feel free to call me. In fact, after Oct 9, my cell number will be the only way to contact me directly (unless you like to wait for e-mail replies). And if you are curious about my travels, check out my newly uploaded 500+ pictures. If you have any questions or comments about pictures, kindly direct your e-mails to blurred_existence@yahoo.com. Or post them here. I'm currently addicted to a word game called (naturally!) Wild Wild Words. I got to level 10 before meeting my demise. But.. I was playing the bonus version which is not timed and therefore not as likely to induce heart attacks. (There's a word for this kind of feeling, but alas, I can only think of the Chinese phrase.. ah, the problems of being multi-lingual..) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 27th, 2005
12:33 am	Conclusion to my Taiwan trip Sunday, September 25, 2005 I guess it's been awhile since I've updated.. well, I got a haircut today. It's shorter again.. and the girl recommended a side part. I guess it's a different look but it'll take some getting used to. Damn these fucking mosquitos!! The other night I got SIX bites WHILE I WAS SLEEPING. And I think I just got like 5 more, just sitting here. Yup. Definitely just found at least 4. Argh. I was going to do a lengthy update, but I'm really starting to itch. Basically, I'll most likely be living in Ohio this coming year afterall.. have some passport issues that most likely won't be resolved. I've also personally decided that I'd rather be in Ohio anyway. Ok. I'm getting outta this room. This is getting unbearable. Damn mosquitos! ============================================= Monday, September 26, 2005 It's late and I'm mostly packed. I might have to leave some stuff here because of weight issues. My grandmother wants to take her stuff back to the US so we each gave her one of our check-in luggage places. Thing is, we went out to eat and left her at home to pack.. she went to bed and hasn't gotten up yet. So we don't know how much stuff she's planning on taking with her. If she takes up all 4 boxes, then we'll each have 3 carry-on items. That's how overpacked we are. I didn't know I was going back to the States, or else I wouldn't have brought half the stuff I brought with me. I didn't even wear half the clothes I brought. Oh well. Can't do anything about that now. I guess I have less to say than I thought. I'm going to miss all the cheap food and the milk tea. I love milk tea. 700cc for 19NT. Can't beat that! I'm going to miss riding the scooters and weaving in and out of crazy traffic and almost falling off that one time I was trying to take a video. And seeing all those little carts on the side of the road selling coconut milk and roasted squid and roasted little birds. And visiting relatives that I only vagely remember and listening to Taiwanese, thinking that I finally got the hang of it, only to find out that if the conversation went anything deeper than greetings and normal everyday gossip, I get so lost and confused. And winding through all those little alleyways and having to squeeze between parked cars if a car is headed our way because that's how narrow the roads are, and getting lost and thinking we turn left at the next intersection and instead we have to go straight to the intersection after that then make a right. And my favorite memory of all: those precious 30 minutes on the skijet in Kending. I feel like now that I'm older, I am more aware of my surroundings and I have gotten way more out of this trip than I had in earlier years. I've tried new foods (most notably, jellyfish.. it was really delicious) and taken the train by myself, met new people, made new friends, and discovered a lot more about myself. My only regret is not having spent more time in Kaohsiung with my friends there, but I do believe that the true friendships will last, that they will endure through anything that might come between now and the next time we meet again. -=Taiwan Trip 2005, FIN=- (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 20th, 2005
9:51 pm	Taichung, Taiwan I'm in Taichung, at my boss's house for the second night in a row. Went to see the university today and finally got to meet Venus, who was just as nice in person as she was on the phone, MSN, and e-mail. Everything still seems a little overwhelming at the moment, but I'm sure that once I get into the groove of things it'll all fall into place. Good thing this campus only has 2 buildings. The next thing to do is, find a place to live. I have offers from a lady who has a place about a 15-minute scooter ride away from the university, and from Kelly's grandmother.. but I found out today that she lives even farther away than the lady co-worker's place. Had a 6-course lunch with my boss and a couple of professor friends of my dad's and they suggested getting a place even closer to the uni.. one said he had some connections, so hopefully it'll all work out. In the meantime, it looks like I'll have to make a trip back to the States because of visa and passport issues. This means I'll be able to see my Ohio friends again before I live in Taiwan for good. So.. you Columbus people better be around the first couple of weeks of October!! As for long-awaited pics.. well, I'm afraid you'll have to wait some more. My computer's down and I gotta see if I can get it fixed.. if not, then you'll never get to see my pics from Japan. Um.. I'm tired and I'm getting offered a taro popscicle. I think I'm going to take it. (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 17th, 2005
11:14 pm	Zhanghua, Kaohsiung, Tainan Mmm.. the Taiwanese keyboard seems to have an extra key to the left of the enter key.. so when I type in something and hit enter, I always end up hitting some random not-enter button. Anyway, the past couple of days have been excitingly weird. And very all-over-the-place. First, I attempted to ride the night bus to Zhanghua, but because the bus driver sped like crazy and my dad failed to inform me that the bus was going to stop at more than just the ZH station, I over-rode and ended up in Yuanling. Fortunately some really nice guy rescued me from the oddly frightening taxi driver and gave me a ride back to ZH.. 30 min in the opposite direction of his house. And this was like at midnight. I attempted to give him some money and some candy Buckeyes but he wouldn't take either. So after another hour or so and many phone calls later, a very frazzled, frustrated, and tired Kelly+mom found me at the station and picked me up. The next day we drove 6 in a car to Kending for some ocean fun. We got a 8-person room (4 double beds) for 1300TWD, which is really really cheap since the 4-person rooms were going for about 1200. What I remember most about the trip is the "water motorcycle" (Sea Doo, but Yamaha brand). That was the most awesome thing ever. We also went snorkeling the next day, but I kept getting water up in my mask and I started getting seasick after a while cuz the waves were so freakin' big. I held everything in, but Kelly's mom threw up. What a nice little snack for all those colorful fishies! After we got back to ZH, I left the next evening for Kaohsiung. Since it's almost the Mid-Autumn Festival and the time everyone gets off work/school on a Friday night, the trains were crowded as anything. Like sardines in a can, except with people. The ride was 2 hours to KS and I stood in the space between two cars for the whole trip. Thankfully, though, right before every stop there was a blast of cool air.. I really think it was to wake everyone up and alert them that the train was about to make a stop. Made it to Lilian's stop in one piece.. and she told me we were going to go bowling with some friends. So we did. She got me this tea+soy milk drink.. was interesting.. anyway, I bowled really crappy.. like 67 and 84 or something. Then, today we met up with Martina and Iris and went to KS City as well as one of the islands off the coast of KS City. It rained for a bit, but we stopped to eat the best ice cream in KS, so it was all good. Mmm.. I love condensed milk!! Later, after M and I went home, Lilian and I met up with Sofia, Jason, Emma, and Gillian. It was really cool to see them all again. But then I had to ride the train to Tainan tonight because of some family stuff tomorrow morning. We're going back to KS tomorrow afternoon, though, and I might meet up with some more people to BBQ Mid-Autumn Festival away! It's been a good time though I wish Kelly could've met all my KS friends. Anyway, no A/C in this room, so I'm going to end this and go back downstairs and get cool again. Stay tuned for more adventures! (Comment on this)
Monday, September 12th, 2005
9:42 am	If you happen to run into an anaconda... From Christine, who's going to Paraguay for 2 years with The Peace Corps: The following excerpt is from the US Government Peace Corps Manual for volunteers working in the Amazon Jungle. It details what to do if an anaconda attacks you: Related to the boa constrictor, the anaconda is the largest snake species in the world. It grows to thirty-five feet in length and weighs 300 to 400 pounds. 1. If you are attacked by an anaconda, do not run. The snake is faster than you are. 2. Lie flat on the ground. Put your arms tight against your sides, your legs tight against one another. 3. Tuck your chin in. 4. The snake will begin to nudge and climb over your body. 5. Do not panic. 6. After the snake has examined you, it will begin to swallow you from the feet end - always from the feet end. Permit the snake to swallow your feet and ankles. Do not panic! 7. The snake will now begin to suck your legs into its body. You must lie perfectly still. This will take a long time. 8. When the snake has reached your knees slowly and with as little movement as possible, reach down, take your knife and very gently slide it into the side of the snake's mouth between the edge of its mouth and your leg, then suddenly rip upwards, severing the snake's head. 9. Be sure you have your knife. 10. Be sure your knife is sharp. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 8th, 2005
11:45 am	numerous posts in one Thursday, September 01, 2005 If someone still needs a place to stay in Columbus, Ohio, I need to sublet my place at University Village.. move-in date is Sept 15. I've already paid Sept's rent, so after that, it's around $350 for rent and bills per month. Lease runs until Aug 31, 2006. I have two roommates, really nice girls. If you're interested, leave me a message and I'll give you their contact info and see if they like you and you like them. ======================== Friday, September 02, 2005 820 days into my xanga life and I've finally got a job. Kelly called to say she's safely in Taiwan at her grandparent's place. Jason's on his way to Taiwan on Sept 8 (my brother's birthday!), and I'll be there on Sept 10. In the meantime, I'll be around Japan for about a week. It'll be nice to finally get some sleep on the plane. I also hope that I can watch "The Translator" on the plane. Kelly initially told me it was a horror flick.. haha.. but yeah. It's good and I want to watch it. In the meantime, I stopped the packing process and essentially wasted the day by watching "The Art of War" and "Hitman" and "Iron Monkey." Good movies. I have to say that my brother has a good taste in movies. Well, hopefully I'll have internet in Japan and later in Taiwan. More updates when I can make it. And one last thing before I go... any takers for my University Housing spot? Please?!! Let me know.. ======================== Tuesday, September 06, 2005 It's my second day in Japan and I haven't had sushi yet. Go me! Anyway, we didn't go anywhere yesterday because of rain and the fact that we were all somewhat disoriented and tired. The Marriott hotel we're staying at is really nice.. lots of free soap and razors as well as a full size bed for me! We've got a shower and a tub in the bathroom, so that's really awesome. Today we went to the Expo in Aichi, Japan, about an hour's train ride away. Well, more like subway, but above ground. Kinda like the S-bahn in Germany, but on it's own tracks, and not in the middle of the road. I went to bed last night at around 2:30 or 3 for various unexplainable reasons and had to get up at 6am to get ready. Since the expo has a lot of really nice exhibits that you need tickets for, it's imperative that we get there as early as possible in order to secure seats and showtimes. Anyway, most of the tickets we managed to get were for shows that were rather disappointing. I had expected more from the Japanese, really. I did, however, the most awesomest sunburn. It starts from about an inch above the elbow and extends to halfway across the back of my hand. Of course since my cell phone has no use here, I started carrying around my watch again. Per my mother's request to not wear too boyish clothes in Japan and Taiwan, I had on a pair of pants that I bought in Germany. Naturally without sufficiently deep pockets. So I wore the watch on my wrist. Result: A nice "control" area of skin to compare with the acquired sunburn. There's a nice outline of my glasses' nosepads, and also an imprint of the back of my t-shirt on my neck. I took some pics, but I don't know how well they'll turn out. I'm too pooped to attempt to post any pictures; I can hardly hardly see straight. Maybe tomorrow. Here's a question for you (google) researchers out there: What is the intensity of the sun's rays (on skin) in the US compared with those in Japan? Since we're at 12 hours difference (approx), I'm going to bed while you find the answer for me. Thanks! =) ============================ Wednesday, September 07, 2005 Today we went to Osaka and did a half day city tour. It turned out to be alright, considering I didn't understand anything that the tour guide said. It was all in Japanese, but hey, most important is that my grandmother understood. I finally understand how it feels to be Jason in Germany during all those guied tours we went on in Bonn. I was content just taking pictures, though. We visited this temple and the Osaka Castle Museum and the Hitachi Tower. It was all pretty cool cuz we could see the city from both the castle museum and the tower. Only thing I disliked was how they rushed us through everything, giving us like 15 min per place to look around. Of course they had guided tours, but the tours were rather vague (considering I couldn't understand anything) and didn't allow us to see a lot of the exhibits. Afterwards, we went shopping for fruits and dinner at the Osaka train station. Ate a non-traditional dinner with all these little plates of stuff that they put on a tray. It was cute, just like most Japanese things tend to be. We also enjoyed these octopus balls which we thought were balls made of ground-up octopus or something (saw our tour guide buy a portion and figured it would be tasty), but they turned out to be balls of some sort of meal-like substance with a little sliver of octopus inside. It was still good, though. I don't really like the taste of seafood anyway. While I was having seafood, Kelly was up on a mountain in Taiwan eating bees. No typo. Honest-to-goodness bees. Said they weren't very good, though. I'm just curious as to how they made it. Stir-fry? Haha. Anyway, last night I thought I could get a full night's sleep. Alas, even though yesterday was sunny and so was today's afternoon, it rained and blew all through the night. There's something either next door or outside that is loose and whenever the wind blew a little stronger, that thing kept banging against the wall. Very annoying. Caused my grandmother to awaken after 3 hours of sleep, which caused me to wake up because she was up and flipping through some book of hers. So once again, I'm short on sleep. Does anyone know the protocol of bowing? Everyone bows to us, most likely because we're the guests and we're living in a pretty decently high-class hotel (exchanged with time-share points), but when do I bow back? And to whom? To the elder men? To the younger server ladies? I dunno. I've just been bowing to whomever bows at me. I'm sure I've broken more than one rule, though. [edit] Looking through my pics, I realized that I have an odd fascination with toilets, odd-looking buildings, and hordes of uniformed school children. I'll post pics later, when I've caught up on sleep and have some private time to myself. Cheers. ========================== Thursday, September 08, 2005 My grandmother woke up at 5am and puttered around until 6:30. Then when we finally almost fell back asleep again, my mom called and said it was time to get up and get ready to catch the train to Hiroshima. We basically rode the train for 2 hours to spend 3 hours at the Peace Park near Ground Zero, where the US A-bomb ("Little Boy") detonated 500m above the ground. Each main exhibit in Japan seems to have a stamp station for souvenir purposes.. I totally forgot my camera at the station in the excitement of getting a huge, really awesome stamp on my brochure. When I realized, about 5 minutes later, I rushed back up the stairs to get it, hoping that no one had walked away with it. Because there were guards there like every 30 feet, they stopped me soon enough. Thankfully the universal sign for "camera" (hands in front of face, in the shape of a rectangle, clicking motion with right hand) worked and they directed me back to the admissions desk (way the hell on the other side of the building). It was really impressive how fast they found it and how all the guards knew exactly what it looked like (asked me color of the case and everything), and how efficiently they delivered it to the main desk. Anyway, after the park, my grandmother wanted to ride the train that purportedly goes through an underwater tunnel (not that you can see or feel it.. the tunnels all look the same from inside), so we rode to the end of the JR Line (Japanese Rail, kinda like the EuroRail Pass, except for all ages) and had dinner in Hakata. I also bought a couple of t-shirts that didn't have too much crazy English on it. On the 4 hour train ride back home, we all pretty much conked out and slept the whole way. It was the super-express train, though, so at one point we were zooming along (quite possibly under the sea) at a nice 284km/h (190mph). I guess we're going to Tokyo tomorrow.. already bought 9am tickets, so I should go get some shut-eye. Happy Birthday, Jon!! Sorry we're in Japan, but I'll get the 'rents to bring you back a nifty Japanese present. =) Btw, seems like I'm going to have some problems getting proper documentation for my job. This sucks. (3 Comments |Comment on this)