!)#@*!_%&!_@$*!!!!!!!
April 1, 2010 3:30 AM: official start of mosquito season in Taipei.



My anti-itch cream collection is officially out of the drawer and within convenient reach.
:(

I really want to go to a wedding in Taipei.
It's tradition for the girls to get wedding cookies--although I'm not 100% clear if it's all the girls who go to the wedding, or just the ones in the wedding party... Hm, will have to get that clarified...

The wedding cookies come in this box that basically looks like a big jewelry box, with lots of drawers and compartments for all the cookies, which are all individually wrapped in plastic so they don't go stale. (yeah, not very environmentally friendly, i know.. but nobody likes stale cookies, come on)
They're not just any cookies: they have lemon ones with almond slices, ones with chocolate and almonds, ones with just chocolate, plain vanilla ones, shortbread ones, wafer-looking ones, i mean they really go all out with their cookies.

Have I mentioned I sit right in front of the snack table at work?

Oh, and also that I'm on a "diet" before Kenting this weekend?

Maybe that's why I can't stop thinking about cookies...

"So you and dad have had your talk and I hope you have pissed him off on his birthday if he had chosen to be a mule.

You should follow your heart."



reason #2,639 why i love my mom

福隆 (FuLong)／大溪 (DaXi) HIKE

Another day trip outta the city, this time for a day-long hike with this hiking group I joined when I first came to Taipei... except this was my first hike with them... 7 months later.

Anyway, dragged Leslie with me on this one, since I was too chicken to go by myself :)

FuLong: famous for its lunch boxes, though now after having one, I'm not really sure why...

DaXi: hike up to Eagle Rock (yeah, so original) for a view of Honeymoon Bay. Great view but the hike up and back down--around 5 hours total--was painful to say the least.

Me & Les @ Eagle Rock (see the beak??)

I've come to realize I like hiking, but like hiking for toddlers: no steep climbs and lots of snack breaks in between. And preferably someone to carry me when I get tired.

**Mulberries**
Taste like cherries but about 1/4 of the size. Yummy, but ultimately not worth it.

陽明山 (YangMing Mtn.)

Went to the nearest mountain to look for flowers.

Haha well supposedly it's "flower season" up on YangMing Mtn. so the girls and I decided to go on a hunt for some cherry blossoms--only to find out cherry blossom season is just about over...

So no cherry blossoms. But calalillies instead?

It's cala-lilly season here I guess, even have fields of cala-lillies, and you can pick your own :)
Fun day out of the smoggy city.

平溪 (PingXi) Lantern Festival

Truthfully, still don't really know what the Lantern Festival's all about.. I think it should be re-named Eating Extravaganza for us though, because that's pretty much all we did.

Just a 40-minute bus ride from the last stop on the Subway out of the city, and the girls and I ended up in PingXi, the site for the lantern festival. The lanterns were really cool, obviously (see picture), but equally fantastic was the display of street food, oh my god you would not believe it!

It took us around 2 hours to walk all the way down the one very, very, very long street (alley? road?) with stands and tents of street food (on both sides, of course), since we tried practically everything we saw! There were like asian burritos, fried chicken, fried shrimp with eggs, fried shrimp balls, pork skewers, fried veggie dumplings, strawberries with condensed milk and chocolate sauce, unripe green mangos with sugar, salted and spicy chicken with cucumbers, i think i'm still missing something... haha it was literally a food tour.

We got to the end of the road (quite literally) and found a stand to decorate (de-face) our lantern. With English, Italian, and Chinese written all over it (words and wishes of luck, happiness, and love), our multi-cultural lantern was definitely unique to say the least, and when as it floated up into the sky joining all the other hundreds, maybe thousands of lanterns, we all cheered with delight (partly out of sheer relief that it didn't get caught in any telephone wires or catch on fire).

Oh, did I mention I almost spelled 幸福 (happiness) wrong? (In Chinese, jeez, my English isn't that bad--yet) A Taiwanese guy definitely corrected me and then laughed--so much for all those Chinese lessons, sorry Mom & Dad...

Adventures of a Single Gal

*DELETED*

I just felt too mean.
Too bad, because single gals really do have a lot of funny adventures...