A Few Firsts

The first first to which the title refers is my delaying a day and then actually following through on my promise to recount events from the day before. I'm well aware that I am horrible about this--my posts are riddled with promises for "more later," only to be followed with nothing, or perhaps a sentence or so summarizing the day before.

Not today! Today, due in part to the fact that I spent the first three quarters of the day doing absolutely nothing and in part to the fact that yesterday was absolutely amazing, I will actually give details where I promised details. So, there's that.

And now, firsts from yesterday and today!

As I mentioned yesterday, in the morning, I met up with my co-worker Fiona and co-teacher Maggie for a trip to the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Art, where we attended the Alphonse Mucha exhibit. Now I'll be honest, before Maggie and Fiona invited me to go see the exhibit with them, I had never heard of Alphonse Mucha. After a bit of online researching, though, I discovered that I had seen his work--and loved it.


One of my favorites of the pieces we saw yesterday

 Alphonse Mucha was a Czech artist in the Art Nouveau movement, and his works feature plenty of rich colors and patterns. They were often commissioned for advertising, either for plays or for products. Yet today, all these posters and ad placements are considered art--and with good reason. Many of his commissioned works (like the one above, which is technically an ad for a railway which ran to Monaco) stand alongside his bonafide art in beauty and craftsmanship.

I loved Alphonse Mucha; his work is beautiful and oddly intuitive. When I saw his precious stones series, for instance, I knew from looking at the first, unlabeled work that it was topaz, and that the next was ruby, then sapphire, then emerald. The placard came at the end, but it seemed redundant at that point--Mucha had so thoroughly and subtly  revealed his subject (without depicting the actual stones, I might add) that any further explanation was unnecesary. I was also deeply gratified by the fact that, in each of his series, I was instantly drawn to the painting which most closely reflected myself in title--emerald (my birth stone) in the above series, for instance, and poetry (ie, writing) in his series on the four art forms.

Where is the first in all this, you may be asking? Well, my first time seeing many of Alphonse Mucha's works. Also my first time doing something outside of school with Maggie and Fiona, my first time scootering as far as Zuoying, my first time at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (which was GORGEOUS!) and, afterwards, my first time trying the lemon-and-sugar gel-and-bubble beverage Fiona bought me on the way home. Lots of great firsts!

Then, last night, my host family picked me up to take me to Japanese food. And it was fabulous! Lots of firsts there, too.

First time I ate sashimi (aka raw fish), and I greatly enjoyed the raw bits of tuna and salmon, dipped in soy sauce and wasabi. First time trying plum juice, which was interesting, slightly salty and anice-y, unlike any juice I'd ever had. Another first, but not for me: first time my host sister, Emily, tried sake. (She was not a fan.)

You can see the sashimi here, ready to be tasted, center stage!

After dinner, my host family took me to their house for the first time--its a very pretty, five story townhouse not far from my daily commute, and we had a nice chat there, and discovered that Margaret, Emily and I all love Pride & Prejudice. :)

And then more firsts: we went to the Young Peoples' Shopping Center, where Emily showed me the photobooth phenomenon, which I participated in for the first time ever. It's great, by the way, and really brought me back a few years: you go into a photo booth, then have a time limit to choose different backgrounds and pose for pictures with a friend. Then, you go around the corner to another booth, this one with a touch screen and editing software, where you are once again timed as you and your friend add nice little finishing touches to your pictures. The end result is a bunch of little photo stickers, which I promptly attached to the front cover of my teaching notebook. Here are the (admittedly poor quality) pictures-of-pictures I took to show the world:

So that was my Saturday. What about the remaining one quarter of my day today which did not consist in doing nothing, you ask? That would be dedicated to the Halloween party thrown by Samia, Emily, and Lydia over in Apartment C. We had a nice little night of chili, bruschetta, green salad (my belated contribution, as I was unable to get the ingredients for my planned pasta salad due to my scooter's sudden decision that it needs oil NOW), and tamarind juice.

Plus, you know, another time to wear my pirate costume, bringing my tally thus far to five days; tomorrow, which actually IS Halloween, will make six out of the past seven days in which I was dressed as a pirate. I have to say, though, I think Lydia took the cake tonight for best costume: she came as "culture shock":

Her shirt reads "文化," (culture), and she's wearing an American flag sweater, Taiwanese acid-wash jeans, a bandana, and a cloth surgical mask...and lightning bolts. You know, for the "shock" part. :) Fonda's costume was fantastic too; you can't see the NY symbol on her shirt, though, since it's behind her cup...appropriate pair!

Now, in the spirit of this being a post of "firsts," I should notice that I am writing it in an Internet Explorer window, since my Firefox is currently moving at the speed of slime, due likely to the amount of videos I've watched on it lately. But now, IE is starting to slow down, too. So that's all the firsts for today!

Which is a good thing anyway, since tomorrow brings yet another first: the first time in over a month I'll be taking the MRT to work, thanks to my scooter issues. So hopefully, tomorrow will also bring my first Taiwanese oil change.