Category Archives: Daily BS

Why Taiwan?

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When I tell my co-workers and friends that I’m going to Taiwan for vacation. A lot of them reply with, “Again? Didn’t you JUST go?” I find Taiwan extremely relaxing. I can hang out with my family and one Taiwanese friend. It’s somewhat comforting to be the majority instead of a minority. Although, almost everyone knows just by seeing me that I’m not really “Taiwanese” and that I’m a foreigner. I guess my American accented Mandarin/Taiwanese gives myself away as well as my big stature (I’m HUGE in Taiwanese terms). The past two visits to Taiwan hasn’t been purely for pleasure (carb bingeing), but to see my grandparents. They seem to be aging so much more quickly. In fact, when I saw my grandpa this year, I was shocked to see that he was bedridden and unable to walk independently. It broke my heart to remember how he used to have at least one daily walk a day. I guess this is what happens when you’re 90+ years old. It makes me happy that he can recognize me and smile even for a brief moment. Meanwhile, my grandma is going strong still. She is always thinking and ready to talk. She has an extremely good memory and knows all the foods I like or dislike. It’s pretty amazing.

Besides seeing my family, I introduced my boyfriend to Taiwan. Hopefully, I did not scare him off! I definitely understand if our next vacation is NOT in an Asian country. ) He will get to pick our next vacation spot. I do hope he enjoyed all the temples we visited. Who knew Taiwan/Taipei had so many temples? Also, he finally got to experience the Taiwanese buffet. It is just SO MUCH BETTER! Yum. I definitely will miss all the delightful food. There’s always a bubble tea shop within a few steps away. It’s just so convenient. I’ll live it up for my last few days. I will be sure to have a mango icy for the boy!

Summer’s over

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It’s the first full week of September and it already feels like Fall. It’s kind of depressing to think that just a week ago I was wearing sleeveless tops and skirts without a jacket. Today I’m wearing a half length sleeved top along with a jacket! I want my summer back. Before I know it it’ll be winter yet again and I’ll be back to my boring winter clothes where everything is gray, black or brown.

I do have something to look forward to in the midst of all this sadness. My boyfriend will be arriving in NYC in less than a week. We will go to ALL his favorite places to celebrate his birthday! There will be sushi, pizza, cupcakes, shabu shabu, falafel, etc. Of course we will watch at least one movie, specifically “The Town” starring Ben Affleck, Jon Hamm (from “Mad Men”) and Jeremy Renner (from “The Hurt Locker”). I’m really excited to see it! Ben has been picking much better movies to direct or act in. Also, in less than a month, we’ll be traveling to Taiwan together for the first time. I’ll be going on a diet before my trip so I can eat all my favorite foods without feeling too guilty. Plus, maybe this will prevent my family friends from commenting on how “fat” I am. I’ve learned to accept that I’m considered obese in Taipei. I do love coming back to America (Land of the Fatties) after a trip to Asia. I feel tiny next to these mammoth Americans. ) I guess it helps with my self-confidence after being told I’m a XL or even XXL in Taiwan. -)

Summer 2010

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I can’t believe it’s already July. I can’t believe my birthday is in 2 weeks! Eek. Where does the time go? Also, I’m so weirded out that my high school’s supposedly 10 year reunion was supposed to be this summer. Perhaps I didn’t get the invite? I still look like I’m 18, but I supposedly have 10 more years of knowledge. I definitely don’t feel accomplished with my current career/life. It scares me that I still have about 38 years of working before I can retire. How do people do this?

In geek news, I decided to purchase the iPhone 4. I am a slave to Apple. I’m not proud of it. When they first announced the new design, I was in love. I however was not qualified for the $299 upgrade so I’d have to fork over $499 if I wanted an “early” upgrade. To my luck, my good friend was willing to purchase my 3GS for $195 (friend discount). With this money, my early upgrade would be essentially the same price as the regular upgrade price. I decided that I would try to get the phone on June 29th at my local AT&T store. I confirmed with an employee that they would be selling the iPhone 4 on Tuesday starting at 7am. This employee warned me that people would be sleeping over night to wait for the phone. I set my alarm the night before for 4:30am. I ended up waking up by myself at 4am (maybe it was my excitement). I left the apartment around 4:45am to check out how long the line would be. I guess there wasn’t much marketing about the AT&T launch because I was #9 in line. Not bad! I also seemed to be an amateur with waiting in line at 5am. Most people in line had brought chairs, food, blankets, etc. All I had was my purse. I guess next time I wait for an iPhone I’ll be more prepared? The store opened a few minutes after 7am. By this time, there were at least 50 people behind me. They let us in groups. I was in the first group.

My sales person was an older man and I automatically assumed he would take a long time to ring me up. I was the last one to leave in my “group”. That’s okay because he was very polite even though he was slow. He tried to sell me accessories and the only thing I was interested in was the Speck Candyshell. I love this case because it’s both hard and soft. Because of this, it protects the phone very well from accidental drops. My sales person said they did not have them in stock, but he could order it for me. They only had two colors: black or purple. I picked purple since it would stand out more in my bag. He told me that they would ship it to my apartment. By Tuesday afternoon, I received and e-mail from AT&T letting me know it had shipped out via UPS 2nd Day Air. Wow, not bad for free shipping! I also got suckered into buying a mirrored screen protector. For all you iPhone owners, do NOT waste your money with the mirrored screen protector. When it’s really sunny outside, I can barely see my screen. Also, it’s pretty difficult to take pictures of things when all you see is your reflection. All in all, the iPhone 4 purchase went pretty smoothly. I have no complaints. I guess it’s good I wasn’t interested in the secretive white iPhone 4. I asked the AT&T employees when this phone would come out and one answered, “Is there even a white iPhone?” Haha.

Anyway, this was an early birthday gift to myself. I won’t be “shopping” until next week since I received all these birthday coupons from Banana Republic, DSW, Loehmann’s, Filene’s Basement, etc. So much temptation! I can’t resist a good deal.

My boyfriend, Jeff, will be returning from his deployment to Afghanistan in less than a week. I can’t believe it’s already been two months. I can’t wait to celebrate my birthday with him! )