Flurry

To look at today, you wouldn't exactly describe it as a "flurry." I didn't leave the house until almost 7pm; until then, I was mostly sitting at my computer or cleaning.

But that's just it! All day, I was sitting at my computer or cleaning! I guess I should clarify at this point that my computer-sitting today was, in fact, productive; I finished editing a chapter of a thesis I'm working on (just under deadline, I might add), I cleaned the apartment, and I posted the month-and-a-half's worth of photos that I'd fallen behind on (links here and here). And I made a three-year plan for myself. And I washed my sheets. AND I got to talk to my Mom for a while. It was great!

I've determined that, for me, Sundays have become a last-ditch productivity day. Every weekend, I have X amount of stuff I need to get done. Every Friday, I take a weak stab at it and then give myself the rest of the day off--after all, it's the weekend! Every Saturday, I tell myself I'm going to get a lot done--and that lasts right about until my alarm goes off in the morning. I get a good-ish sized chunk done, but inevitably leave myself with more to do than I should have--and that's where Sunday comes in. I must thrive on tight deadlines or something, because Sunday is, pretty much without fail, my single most productive day of the week in any given week. So, hooray!

I could have posted a "hooray"-like picture here...But how much cooler is a picture of my Buzz Lightyear band-aid???

From Karina's camera: hands-down my favorite photo from our last weekend in Taipei. :)

Pictures at last

It's odd how quickly photos can pile up. Even with my diligent posting of most of my March pictures a few weeks ago, I had several hundred still un-posted as of today, just halfway through April. But no longer.

They are now all up: pictures from various outings with my host family, pictures from Alex and Melanie's visit, pictures from dying Easter eggs with my kids, pictures from making Eggs Benedict. And I realized an odd thing about posting pictures today: I'm less likely to do it if I've already blogged about it. See, whenever I post on here, and use select pictures from the day, two things happen:

1.) I upload the pictures from my camera to my computer, thus getting rid of half the work involved. I usually even edit the few I end up using.
2.) I put the best pictures up for all to see.

These two things are unquestionably the least productive things I could do for general photo-posting. See, they make me feel like I've already done it; that all (the important) photos are up and that doing more would be a bonus/extra work for nothing. But, of course, that's not true. I post maybe 15 pictures on here, if I'm feeling indecisive; I post several hundred to my Facebook, even when I'm being picky.

Today, I was being somewhat picky. So here, for your viewing pleasure, are links to the fruits of my uploading labors, in the form of albums named:

"What will you do in March?" "I will wear green in March" (new additions);
April showers... (,,,or sun, or clouds, as the case may be);
Easter! (Dying eggs at 漢民 and 青山, then making Eggs Benedict with friends--not bad for a holiday away from home.)

Well...

My plan for today's post was simple: upload all my photos and pull the (admittedly cheap) "I didn't have time to blog today, but here's a link to my newest album" trick.

But then I failed to upload my pictures.

What I did succeed in doing today was book plane tickets and obtain a visitors visa for my trip to Australia this summer! It's official, I will spend a week this summer in (or on my way to and from) Cairns, Australia, basking on the beaches, learning to SCUBA dive the Great Barrier Reef, and hopefully taking a day trip into the Outback. I've been putting off buying the tickets out of a mixture of fear and apprehension--afraid my money situation would change and apprehensive that ticket prices would go down later if I bought now (Murphy's Law and all that)--but it feels ever-so-nice to have that no longer weighing me down, but rather as a carrot leading me toward the end of June and a lovely little vacation. Now to book the hostel, etc...

The other thing the day taught me, though, is that I may be coming down with something. Which is why I'm writing this post now, at 11pm, and then shutting out the light and going to sleep for as long as my schedule will permit. Plans for tomorrow: a better post, perhaps?

Bullet points

Some days, my life warrants paragraphs. Today, it warrants bullet points.

• The most exciting moment of the day came the second I walked into our teachers' office at Hanmin--and discovered that we have a new foreign teacher! Ingrid, who's from the Netherlands, will be here for 2 months teaching English, and is currently teaching with Fiona. She just graduated college, and is filling the time between her degree and her Master's in what I think is the best way possible--teaching English in Taiwan!
• I spent much of the day figuring out travel plans, because MY BROTHER AND SISTER-IN-LAW come next week!
• I still like the gym, even after a week-long hiatus and when I forget my headphones at home. Woo!
• I put pictures up for the first time in about a month. If you're my friend on Facebook and missed them, here are the links:
• Teaching 'n stuff: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2163914024684.2105389.1451610020&type=1&l=6718d387c3
• Kaitlin's visit!: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2948540759862.2120425.1451610020&type=1&l=dd996d3d21

And that's it for tonight, folks. Later!

Little Things

When Karina and her mom asked me, this evening, what I did today, I couldn't easily give them an answer. In truth, what I did today is almost identical to what I did yesterday; here, for those interested, is the link to the third and final installment of my pictures from Thailand:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2658116619440.2114778.1451610020&type=1&l=a33c460429

Apart from that, the highlight of my day came at dinner, which gave way to a series of small one new things, so here it is:

Thing 11:
Very, very small new things. I ate at Chialing's, where I've eaten many times because her cooking is just so fabulously good, but even so, I sought out new things where I could. I took a different route, and discovered along the way any number of little shops that I still need to try sometime.

Once there, Chialing was beyond busy, but she was still able to recommend for me something new to eat, a simply scrumptious noodle dish with meat and some sort of pickled cabbage on top, together with an egg, which I cooked for myself, as the Taiwanese patrons looked on. Quite shocked them, I believe. In any case, the resulting meal was easily the best I've had since being back in Taiwan, and I think it has permanently supplanted my previous standbys at Chialing's. And it's a new thing!

The other very small new things of the evening were a oh-so-creamy honeydew melon ice cream/yogurt that I had for dessert, and nonfat milk, of all things--I've rarely seen it here in Taiwan, and never purchased it, until tonight. Quite tasty, these two things, and quite small, but new!

Mundane Living

I hate days like these when I sit down to blog. I don't, however, hate them while I'm living them; they're necessary on many levels.

Today was mundane. I mostly sat around the apartment doing various things, and running various errands as necessary.

I finished re-reading Persuasion (LOVE that book, by the way; go read it if you haven't! That link's to a free digital version, too, so you really have no excuse not to read it.). I watched Vanilla Sky for the first time (Weird movie...still debating how I feel about it.). I chatted with Rachel and her parents.

I chatted with Fonda about our respective vacations and my apartment's bills. I vacuumed my rug; washed my sheets; flipped my mattress (SUCH a difference! I don't think anyone has used this side, ever...it's like new!).

I grabbed a coffee from Donutes, accidentally mispronouncing the word for hazelnut in the process. The green onion pancake place I was craving was closed, so I had dumplings for dinner, to the usual effect (delicious at the time, tasting it less pleasantly for hours afterward).

I drove to Karina's to drop off her camera and umbrella--and somehow left both her camera and her umbrella at home. I chatted with Karina and her mom. I drove home and commenced a huge (and ultimately successful) search for my missing watch.

But mostly, what I did was edit and upload photos, 165 so far today, and I'm currently debating adding ferry pictures to my current album or leaving them for my Koh Phi Phi album. Anyway, here's my link to our explorations of Krabi: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2649873373364.2114663.1451610020&type=3&l=21c1bc4493

So, really, not a lot going on today. But sometimes these days are absolutely necessary, and absolutely wonderful to live through. I'm feeling both relaxed and somewhat accomplished (clean bed, pictures posted, etc), even though I didn't manage to fit in a one new thing today. Sometimes, it's best to stick to the ordinary, tried-and-true, mundane old things for a day.

Pictures, videos, and more pictures

That's been my day: uploading, editing, and sharing. Honestly, it's somewhat exhausting sorting through vacation pictures, if you also want to edit them, upload them to Facebook, comment on them, tag people, and mark where they were taken. This is especially true if, as today, Facebook tells you with some regularity that you don't have permission to edit your own albums, for some bizarre reason.

Anyway, here's the fruits of my labor, in the form of my first Thailand album and the link to my Youtube page, where you can find my videos chronicling dancing elephants and elephant ridie in Chiang Mai, and hundreds of thousands of terrified crabs and a gorgeous sunset with the sound of a muezzin call at Krabi.

Pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2644331434819.2114580.1451610020&type=1&l=04c4bfe453

and video:
http://www.youtube.com/user/grahamcrackersarecoo?blend=1&ob=0

More pictures are forthcoming.

But also, today's one new thing!

Thing 10:
I ventured outside my restaurant comfort zone today and began my exploration of the streets behind my apartment. Today, that meant a nice stroll along the backside of the street reading menus until I got to the oven-baked pizza place which throws its garlic-and-cheese smell out into the street for all to covet. Once there, I was able to ask in Chinese whether or not they could do take-out (they could) and then used my standard point-and-say method to order myself a Margherita pizza, one of my all-time favorites, before sitting down to await it. I was the only person in the shop when I went in, but I seem to have brought the customers with me, as two or three people trickled in as I sat there. Interesting phenomenon...going to have to keep an eye on it.

Armed with my pizza, I walked back by way of a busy little restaurant I've been eying for a while now, for its juice stand section. (My favorite juice stand went out of business a few months ago.) So I stopped in and ordered a watermelon juice, only to discover that the staff is all but surly, and there is absolutely nowhere to stand in that restaurant without being in someone's way, especially while holding a pizza box. Maybe I'll try again--it is the only juice stand I know of nearby--but it was supremely awkward. At least the juice was tasty.

When I got home, I discovered that my pizza was not, in fact, Margherita, but something else altogether, with shredded cheese, sliced cherry tomatoes, and not a basil leaf in sight. Very sad, and odd since I heard the waitress repeat my order twice, both to me and to the pizza maker, yet he somehow still made it wrong. Oh well, it was still decent, just not terribly awe- or trust-inspiring for this particular shop.

Anyway, here's what I got for my adventures in dinnertime. You win some, you lose some.

Pastime

I don't really feel like writing today. This is in part because I finally just finished uploading the 170 or so photos my mom and I took while she was here visiting me; if you're interested, you can see those here.

But mostly I'm just languishing in the wonderfulness that was the holiday special episode of Downton Abbey, a masterful British TV drama that I follow. And since that's mainly on my mind right now, know that if you're interested, you can watch it here. Because perhaps the only thing better than great character development and superb acting is great character development and superb acting coupled with a British accent.

Which is appropriate, I guess, seeing as how it's Boxing Day today: perfect time to watch British TV!

So that's it for tonight. Enjoy. :)