My Taiwan Adventure

Lately, I've been reading this really great book by Stephanie Cowell about Claude Monet and the love of his life Camille. I've always enjoyed looking at Impressionist paintings but I've never really felt a deep connection to them before this book. It's a novel based on a lot of research so I think it's historically accurate (with some gaps filled in by the author's imagination). So right now I can't get enough of Monet's paintings and the rest of the Impressionists as well (Bazille, Pisarro, Degas, Manet, etc). Learning about Monet's life and his friendships with these artists has been really interesting and inspiring. In fact, there is an exhibition of Monet's waterlily paintings in Taipei right now... As soon as I finish the book I want to go see them! I also want to get back into painting again, since I have a brand new empty apartment to decorate. :) I think I'll start making a replica Monet's La Promenade (below). It's of Ca...

Hey y'all! Still unpacking things and getting our place comfortable! Busy busy busy, work work work, study study study. That's all I got time for right now. We have a four day weekend next week (FINALLY) so maybe something worth writing about will happen then! love, Rachel

I wanted to give another (short) update because I know people in general (my mom included) are worried about what's happening in Japan and how it might affect things in Taiwan. As of right now I am very safe and plan to continue working here. I'm not an expert in where the radiation will go- (I kinda don't have much time now that I'm a part-time student), but I do know that it will be very unlikely to come here...and if it does it won't be dangerous. It's really horrible what Japan is going through right now and I can't bear to watch the news, but I'm going to do whatever I can to help from afar. (We might do a bake sale at our school) On a lighter note, we've moved! Nothing is unpacked and it's a mess right now, but I really like the new place and I can't wait to make some paintings and decorate it. We got a Wii!!!!! So if I can figure out how to game online, maybe you can battle me (ahem, Jeff ;) ). I got Glee Karaoke, MarioKart, the orig...

Hey y'all. I'm spending my Ash Wednesday (and few free nights) packing to move into our new place on Sunday. Chinese class is going well! I can read some simple sentences now! I aced my first quiz but I know I missed some on the last one. More later, when I'm in my new home. :) (just across the street)

Halloo everybody! Sorry I'm behind with my blog. I just started a new intensive Chinese class after work so I'm completely booked 3 days a week. And I have a feeling, I'll be busy studying the rest of the days. This is the first week and already I can see how much work I'll be doing... AND HOW MUCH I'LL BE LEARNING!!! I'm excited!!!! So here's the dealio: It's the second semester of a reading,writing, speaking, listening course. Which means I'm behind- can't read or write. So I needs to catch up reaaaal bad. Speaking-wise, it's the right fit for me at least. But here's the catch.... I'm taking class with high school students.... 16... 17 year olds. AAAAAAAGH!!!! But it's all good. They're from all over the world- France (yuppee), Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Columbia... another Latin American country, USA... So it's fun to hear all those languages. And they're young so they got energy and like entertaining everybody. T...

Jhongli Chinese New Year's eve you eat a special dinner with your family. Here are some of the dishes A's mom made for us! :) Unidentifiable meat platter. I know there's stomach in there... Prawns- yummy but messy! Vegetables with squid (I didn't eat the squid) Some kind of ribs- they were the best!!!! Chicken! (Do you see the head?) They cook the skin here too but somehow it always comes out super rubbery and hard to chew. The bowl on the left had shark fin soup. Luckily it had no shark in it because I was tricked into eating it. (Killing sharks just for their fins is just as bad as whaling!!!!) And on the right is a special vegetable you only eat at the new year. Whole fish! :) Yum! More vegetables! Yay! Year of the rabbit! (@ the nightmarket) This is a special kind of dessert. It's like soup with random things inside (beans, tofu). It's actually pretty good! FuGang Here's a temple! More chicken! This was ...

Here's a video about the cure-all ointment in Taiwan. To be fair, I've only talked to a couple TW people about it so if my facts are not straight, don't sue me! ........Sorry the video's having problems. Wait till tomorrow, okay? PS- Found out I actually have 5 bites total ON MY FACE!