The Chocolatecysterhood

2011-11-18T22:59:00.000-08:00

November 16, 2011

I reached my 5-year post-cancer diagnosis today. I'm now among the 84.2% ovarian cancer survivors who have lived 5 years after the initial diagnosis. What a milestone it is! I felt all conflicted when thinking about how I was going to celebrate this milestone because of my pregnancy. On the one hand, it was such a bummer 'cause I wanted to drink. On the other, the (second, I might add) pregnancy itself is worth celebrating considering what we've been through. So cheers to a non-drink to my reaching the 5-year mark and another non-drink to my second pregnancy. Here's to many many more cancer-free years to come!

2009-01-27T21:09:00.000-08:00

On the Third Day of Chinese New Year

It's finally sunny out, so I decided to take my camera out with me on my morning walk.

This is a neighbor's dog.
She's a Japanese breed called "shibainu" (柴犬). Naturally, she's wearing a kimono in celebration of the Chinese New Year.

The entire town is deserted during the CNY holidays.
This is one of the major streets in the downtown core.

This is the entrance of Da-an Forest Park in the heart of Taipei City. An ox is guarding the entrance... with its tongue out.

Happy Year of the Ox.

Inside Da-an Forest Park

Glittering flowers

Happy birdie playing in water

Happy kitties under the sun.

When I first saw them, the one with a white belly jumped up trying to catch a butterfly. Unfortunately, my stupid camera was too slow to capture it.

Bare naked trees and a bare naked cow

At first, I thought it was "Super Cow".
However, one may wonder why "Super Cow" would be flying on a broom.
The answer was about 10 steps backward.
It ain't "Super Cow". It's a Witch Cow!

I first noticed the kid because of a warning sign on the left side of the slides.
The wooden part of the structure was waiting to be repaired, and the park had put out a warning sign asking parents not to let their kids go up there.
When I got there, the kid was already up there by himself and his parents were nowhere to be found.
"Come on down," I said to the kid. He didn't answer. His parents probably taught him not to talk to strangers.
"It's dangerous. You should come down here." I tried again. The kid was still silent.
"How old is he? He can obviously walk very well, but can he talk?"
The sun was burning my neck. I contemplated going up to get him, but I didn't want to be mistaken as a kidnapper.
"Be a good boy and come down here," I pleaded. He just stared at me from up high.
A big dude came around me with his eyes on the kid. "Come to daddy," he said, never acknowledged my existence. "Come over here," he raised his voice. "Get down here or the police are coming to get you," he threatened.
I can't stand it when Taiwanese parents use threats to get kids to behave, so I walked away.
The kid never said a word, and I never found out if (and how) he eventually came back down.

2009-01-05T17:33:00.000-08:00

Milk

As Dr. Motormouth ordered, I started a diet journal. She wants me to do it for a couple of weeks first so she could help me adjust my diet before we start the actual fertility treatment. It's only been 5 days, but I've already become a more conscientious eater.

One thing I've noticed since I started the diet journal is that I now drink a lot more milk (granted it's only been 5 days so it hardly qualifies as a permanent change in diet). However, I was never a big milk drinker. No. Let me rephrase that. I didn't drink milk at all.

I had ulcer when I was 16 (all that stress and burning the midnight oil studying for the National Senior High School Entrance Exam). After a stomach endoscopy, the doctor put me on a strict "soft food" diet and told me not to drink milk as it turns into clogs once mixed with stomach acid. Whether it was a load of crap or it actually had some scientific reasoning behind it, I was more than happy to oblige since I, like most people in Asia, grew up on soy milk or milk tea. Drinking milk by itself was just not a part of my diet back then. The only reason I buy milk is... okay, there are actually two reasons. One, Bill quite often has some cookies and milk before he goes to bed. Two, I put milk in my coffee.

So as you can understand, I've never felt the desire to have some milk.

For about 2 days now, however, I actually want milk. As extreme as it seemed, the desire to have some milk drove me to drinking two glasses of milk last night, and I just finished two coffee mugs of milk in the last hour. While it may not seem much for some regular milk drinkers, it's quite a lot for someone who didn't use to drink milk at all.

I have two cartons of milk in the fridge: one at work and one at home.

At 36, I wouldn't be surprised if my body starts to need more calcium. We'll have to wait and see how long this milk-drinking behavior lasts.

2009-01-01T17:51:00.000-08:00

Nuage Chillin' Out

The last few days have been cold and wet, and Nuage has been avoiding walking on the cold tiles. He spent most of the time on a blanket or my lap.

This morning, however, after playing tag with me up and down the stairs and batting a paper ball around, Nuage needed to cool down a bit.

First the belly.

Then the back.

One more shot just 'cause his mom adores him.

2009-01-01T00:54:00.000-08:00

Happy 2009

Dorion invited a bunch of friends to spend New Year's Eve at his place because of the great view of Taipei 101 from his rooftop.

Around 9pm, almost everyone was there, and Kyle suggested a game of Catan.

Harry has never played Catan, so he was studying the rules.

Meanwhile, everyone else was getting the board and all the cards ready for the game.

Shannon and Sam were also new to this game, so Trevor explained the rules to them.

By this point, Harry had thrown the rules away. He decided to team up with Kyle.

Bill is a veteran Catan player, and he's all about "following the rules".

I was feeling under the weather and hardly had any voice, so I "benched" myself in this game.

While the game was going on, Dorion and Sharon brought plates of yummy barbecued food to the table. We had steaks, miranated chicken, and mushrooms. All of them were really good.

The game was paused at 11:40pm, when everyone got ready to go to the rooftop for the fireworks.

We brought everything but a clock (or a radio), so we actually missed the countdown. All we saw was fireworks going up Taipei 101 and all of the sudden, it exploded.

According to the news today, the firework display this year lasted 188 seconds, longer than previous years.

However, it seemed shorter and lamer to us.

Have a fan-fabulous 2009!!!

2008-12-31T01:57:00.001-08:00

Looking Back Looking Forward

2008 was a fantastic year. It was a year of transition: ridding the old and venturing into the new.

Travel
One of the things that is very important to both of us and we really enjoy together. We certainly did A LOT of (and spent a lot on) traveling in 2008.

We went to Malapascua in the spring, the Pacific Northwest in the summer, and Macao in the fall. Bill took a solo trip to Hong Kong just a month ago. No wonder we never feel like we're saving a large amount of money. It's all worth it though 'cause we may never have the chance to travel like this again, especially once the little ones come along.

Bill never made it to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Maybe we'll make it to the one in 2010 in Vancouver.

Health
Though the tension is still there every time I go back to my gyno-oncologist, Dr. Liu, for routine checkups, we spend the majority of our time and energy on moving toward our plan to have a family.

My latest visit to Dr. Liu was just yesterday. My CA-125 is still wobbling between 60 and 90, but the fact that it goes up and down indicates that it is not tumor growth (otherwise it'd only keep going up). Dr. Liu only schedules me to see him during his teaching clinic hours now. One reason is that there are fewer patients, and it's also because he wants the young interns to study my case. Yesterday, for example, Dr. Liu got the intern to interview me for an hour. The nervous intern was so amazed at how detailed my descriptions of my surgeries were that he burst, "How do you know what happened during your surgeries? Weren't you supposed to be under?" Dr. Liu turned around and said, "Because she wouldn't stop asking about it after she came around. She made me promise to take pictures of her insides before her first surgery."

I'm convinced that Dr. Liu secretly wishes all patients and their families are like me and Bill. He just can't admit it.

My fertility doctor, Dr. Motormouth, has got me hooked on routine exercise and healthy eating (though this holiday season has thrown me off the course a bit). She has been getting increasingly satisfied with the positive changes she sees in my shape and attitude (so has Bill and so am I). We'll continue to chart my basal temperature to track hormonal activities, and the next step is to be on birth control pills to completely shut down the left ovary. If all goes well, we'll start the injection and egg harvesting process in February. If we're successful, we'll become new parents in winter 2009.

Family
Speaking of parenthood, I certainly got a few "training sessions to new parenthood" during the trip back to North America. The one in which I was most frightened was when I got to hold Isaac in my arms at Diane's house simply because he was so soft and tiny (thank you again, Laura, for trusting me and letting me hold him). In the Redden's household where I made the couch my bed, Scott made sure that then-7-month-old Jordy was the first person I saw first thing in the morning. Lisa and Scott seemed determined to burst my bubbles of having my own kids. From the day I arrived, they threw me right into the whole shebang, including seeing and smelling infant poop.

At the end of my training, Lisa and Scott gave me the ultimate test: have me babysit 7-month-old Jordy all alone while they go on a date. Jordy and I had a great time babbling and bouncing up and down (well, he did most of it). Though I could hardly lift the coffee mug to my mouth the next morning, I thought that was quite an achievement for someone who was (notice I used past tense?) totally inexperienced with babies.

Oh, and we got married! It's only been... not even a full month, so we still feel a bit weird calling each other husband and wife. It's weird because we're not yet used to it.

You've also gotta understand that we're constantly dealing with at least 2 languages here. What has been happening is that, just when we thought we were used to saying "This is my husband" or "My wife would like to know..." in English, all of a sudden we'd be in a situation where we had to do it in Mandarin. Then the whole unfamiliarity occurred again. The other day I was in a cab with a very friendly and chatty Taiwanese-speaking driver. Like my cousin Karen, the driver could name every car on the street, the year they came out, and the pros and cons of all of them. Seeing that I was quiet, the driver looked from the rear view mirror and said, "You're not interested in cars, huh?!" I answered, "I don't know cars very well, but my husband does." There! Again! Saying the word "husband" in Taiwanese made me giggly.

Another thing I'm getting used to is the fact that, all of a sudden, I'm an aunt to many kids and a great aunt to a couple of them. A few days ago, I saw a picture of Laura, Daniel, Joey, and Genevieve on Diane's (Bill's older sister's) blog, and I thought, "How are Daniel and Joey related again? Diane is Bill's sister, which makes Daniel Bill's nephew, which makes Joey Daniel's uncle, which makes Joey a great uncle like Bill to Ben and Isaac." I stared at that picture, flabbergasted at the fact that Bill's little brother is a great uncle too (Joey, I'm sure you're a great [as in quality] great [as in relation] uncle too).

My Husband
It doesn't matter what year it is, I'm thankful to have Bill in my life. He constantly reminds me the importance of approaching life full-heartedly and positively. We recently went through a few rough days helping a friend out, and I couldn't have done it without him. I'm proud that my husband's got a heart of gold, and he is so loving and giving. Bill may seem aloof most of the time, but he's rock solid when he's needed the most.

Here's to a fabulous 2009.

Happy New Year, Everybody!!!

2008-12-30T05:31:00.000-08:00

Attention Friends and Family in the Pacific Northwest

A friend in Seattle just told us that he had received the Christmas card we sent him. Perhaps yours are already sitting in your mail boxes too?!?!

How exciting!! Looking forward to hearing what you have to say about the cards (wink wink).

2008-12-29T06:00:00.001-08:00

... and we're BACK!

I'm terribly sorry if you had to sign up for a gmail account in order to read this blog. I had to take down the blog for reasons I cannot discuss here... Don't worry. Everything was and is fine.

Last night I thought I'd try out this "permit invited readers only" thing, but very quickly I realized it wouldn't work 'cause I don't have everyone's email address. Long story short, I've changed the permission setting back to "public". Everything's back to the way it has always been.

2008-12-18T19:35:00.000-08:00

X'mas Mad

I'm determined to celebrate Christmas properly this year for two reasons. One, Bill and I are celebrating our first Christmas as a couple this year. The second reasons is that I didn't get to celebrate Christmas in the past two years 'cause I was in the hospital.

The problem is, I only have a vague idea of what is involved in Christmas preparation. The last time I did any preparation for Christmas was almost 6 years ago in Vancouver. Even then, all it means is that I got a tree from Home Depot, decorated it, and put empty boxes of fake gifts on the bottom. I can't do the same thing this year. I've got to do it properly.

Desperate, I did what I usually do whenever I'm lost on the path to becoming a real home-maker: check out Martha's website.

The school term ended on Thursday, December 11th. I checked out Martha's website the day after. However, I felt defeated as soon as the front page appeared. It said "100 Days to Christmas -- your holiday planning guide". ONE HUNDRED days?!?! Martha sure knows how to be organized.

Since it was way too late for me to follow Martha's planning guide, I sought out alternatives. I went to the bookstore and quickly scanned the covers of all the home-making magazines. A few minutes later, I found the perfect one: "Simply Joyful: 249 Easy Ideas for the Holidays". Easy is good. Easy is all I can do at this point. Not to mention there are two hundred and forty-nine of these ideas.

When in a bookstore, one must read a few lines of the newest books and test-write the latest pens. Yes, pens. That's another thing that is really good in Asia. Pens in Asia are cheap (less than a buck) and they are silky smooooooooth. While I was enjoying the 4-color ball point pen and trying to justify paying NT$160 (US$5) for it, I experienced flashing images of Shellee's "Krissmas card" before my eyes. Of course! A light bulb moment (In Jack Nicholson's voice please): How could we forget Christmas cards and how could one write many many many X'mas cards without a pen one truly enjoys?

With MY new pen in hand, I headed to the card section of the bookstore. There was a large table with all kinds of X'mas stuff on it: apple cinnamon candles, incense, and soap mixed with red, green, gold, and silver bows, balls, and stars. A-Ha! Among those shiny knick-knacks lay boxes of Christmas cards. I picked one up and put it down. Then I picked another one up and put it down. They were all Hallmark cards imported from the States, and they cost an arm and a leg! Not that I don't want to spend money on our family and friends, it just didn't make sense to me. Why would anyone spend money on X'mas cards that were imported from the States in the first place and send them to friends and family in the States? If I wanted to do that, I could just ask you to pick up a Hallmark card for yourself at Safeway.

Anyway, I didn't buy them. I can't tell you what I ended up buying here because it's more fun for you to find out when you receive yours.

Back to the 249 easy ideas for the holidays... most of them require more preparation that we don't seem to have time for. Last weekend, Bill and I tended to the house and the patio, getting them organized (see the previous post below). When Monday rolled along, Bill went back to his 8-hour working schedule, and I started writing X'mas cards. I didn't know how time-consuming it was to write these little cards! It also took a bit of time for us to get addresses from people. Aside from writing cards, I also had marking to do 'cause I had to finish teaching an academic writing class at another university last Tuesday and Thursday. In other words, the only X'mas-related thing I did in the first 3 weekdays of this week was that I put up little X'mas bows here and there, which was entirely my own idea and not from the magazine.

After the writing class on Thursday, I stopped by the "Taipei Pot Plant Auction" (It's not a typo. It is exactly what it says on the front of that building in Taipei) and picked up a few pots of Poinsettia. Bill and I had planned to shop for X'mas decoration that night, but we ended up going to IKEA and picked up a few more things for the apartment... non-X'mas things.

It is exactly one week to X'mas, and I'd just finished all the X'mas cards. I'm not sure if you will all get yours in time for Christmas, but this is our first time doing X'mas as a couple and we tried. We still have to decorate the apartment, and I really need to start baking cookies. Oh, did I mention that we still don't know what we're going to make for the X'mas dinner that is going to take place in our apartment this coming Thursday? Aaahhhh~ I'm. not. freaking. out.

I'm sure next week Martha's front page will change to "Last Minute X'mas Ideas: what to do when you're out of time". Maybe she'll have a recipe for instant turkey.

2008-12-14T20:51:00.000-08:00

It ain't home, but it's close enough

We live in a rooftop apartment on the 7th floor of a 6-story building in the heart of Taipei. From the apartment, it's a 20-minute walk to where we work. It takes about half the time for me to get to the gym. There is an elementary school and a high school on two sides of the apartment complex, so we hear kids playing and the occasional echo of school announcements. Our apartment building is on the left of a one way lane, and there is a security booth at the entrance way a hundred meters from our front door. I've chatted with Mr. Yo the most because he's on duty in the evenings when I come home from work.

Ready for the tour? Please keep in mind that we're still in the process of putting the place together, so some areas may still look somewhat raw and bare.

As you walk up the flight of stairs from the elevator, this is the foyer leading to our apartment. The Chinese characters on the red paper on the bamboo sieve literally mean "Rats bring fortune". My mom bought it for us for Chinese New Year in the beginning of the year because Bill and I were both born in the year of the rat. The set of stone lantern belongs to the landlady. Originally there were some floaty water plants in the basin but they were all infested with some disease that formed this layer of white foam on top of the leaves. I replaced them over the weekend, and I'm quite happy with the result.

The character on the door is double happiness. It's a Chinese custom for newly weds to display the character on the door.
As you come inside the apartment, the first thing you'll see is "the coat room". There is a rack on the right (not shown in the picture) for coats.

Now if you take a right from the coat room, you'll see the bathroom ahead of you. Yes, we took the fuzzy ducky with us every time we moved. A bathroom door is not a bathroom door without him.

If you're facing the bathroom, the den/study is on your right. This is the darkest room in the house. Bill and I have our work desks and computers here.
Outside of the Japanese windows is a small and well ventilated area where we can hang our clothes. As you can see, Mr. Octopus takes his job very seriously. He'd salute if he had a free arm.

Come on back in. Let me take you to the areas that make this apartment unique.

*************************************************************************************

A fireplace in the living room of an apartment in Taipei!!!
Okay, it's more for decoration than practical use, but it certainly changes the feeling in the livingroom. Oh yes... it's dark marble on the mental piece.
To the right, there's a flight of stairs leading to the second level of the apartment. Our bedroom is up there.

The picture on the right is opposite the fireplace where a leather love seat sits. I took this picture right above the love seat because of the Christmas window stencils. We're getting ready to host this year's Christmas potluck dinner, so I've been coming up with ways to make the place more Christmasy.

Let's head up to the bedroom real quick.

Ta-da~~~

The mosquito net makes us feel as if we're camping.

Okay... let's go back downstairs and let me show you the kitchen.

Looking at this picture, you would never think this is an apartment in Taipei.

This is the kitchen/dining room area. Pardon the mess. We haven't found a place for everything yet.

Let's head out to my playground: the patio.

Isn't it cute? Forget about the fireplace and the fact that we don't have to climb the stairs anymore, I wanted the apartment as soon as I saw the patio. I cleaned it up and trimmed the plants on the weekend, but it still needs more work and more plants. I'm happy with what we've got so far though. Bill and I are going to the flower market this coming weekend, and we plan to put some patio furniture and maybe buy a barbecue before summer comes.

Nuage woke up from his morning nap just in time for a recent photo. Isn't Mr. Sleepyhead the cutest cat ever?!

2008-12-09T17:37:00.000-08:00

Bill y Kate' Banquete de Boda
6:30pm
Saturday, December 6th, 2008
La Casita, Taipei, Taiwan

When we arrived, the beautiful lineup of Margarita was already on the bar.

Amy and Roland, the owners of La Casita, surprised us with the beautiful bouquet of flowers.
Elisabeth, the owners' daughter, took a picture with me and the best man Ben.

Here are the US representatives of happily married couples.
Mr. and Mrs. Kyle Craig (L) also got married in Taiwan.
Mr. and Mrs. Shannon McClendon (R) had two weddings: one in Taiwan and one in the States.

Followed by happily-married couples from Canada.
Suzanne and Hugo (L) also had two weddings: one in Taipei and one in Vancouver.
Darrell and Judy (R) got married right before they came to Taiwan 5 or 6 years ago.

Next to Darrell is a good friend, Mr. Ryan O'Malley. I thought about photoshopping him out of the picture, but it just wouldn't be the same without him.

Of course, weddings are mostly for the singles.
(L to R) My cousin Karen, Will, Brook, and Ben.

(L) Here's Suzanne with Jacky, Katie, Maddy, and Alice.
(R) Harry, Jacky, and I are "the Chang"s (we share the same last name).

After a few rounds of margarita, the food finally arrived.

When everyone was almost done eating, Bill spoke a few words:

"Myself and my beautiful wife can not be happier..."

He was interrupted because the crowd went nuts as soon as they heard Bill referred to me as "wife".
Then Bill asked if he should say "Me and my beautiful wife" or "My beautiful wife and I". In a room full of English teachers, you can imagine the discussion that went on.

So he continued: "Okay. So... you all know how difficult and how wonderful it can be to live in a place where your family may not be here and your friends may not be here, but how important it is to have a fantastic group of friends that you make into your family. And I can not ask for a better group of people to celebrate my wedding with."

The crowd wept... or they pretended to, and we kissed.

After Bill's great speech, I felt it'd be too much if I said anymore. So when he asked me to say something, I simply replied, "Nothing more needs to be said here. I just wanna drink."

Trust me. I want to dig a hole and climb in every time I think of this moment. It could be added to the list of "Kate's most embarrassing lines". Luckily, however, so far nothing beats what I said at the Canadian citizenship ceremony.

Back to the wedding.

In this picture, the finger that was pointing at me belongs to Mr. Simon Pereira.
Simon says, "Look! Your wife is an alcoholic."
Bill says, "Hey, I'm proud that my wife can hold her own liquor."
Simon says, "Cheers to that."

... and we drank more.

We finished all 7 pitchers of margarita and were working on the 5 pitchers of sangria.
People started talking louder and cameras... okay, Ben's hands, started shaking a bit more.

I love these pictures because they really captured how much fun we were having... or how drunk we were getting.

Then it was 10, and it was time to move on to the club. Before we left, the girls asked to take a picture with the groom. Bill looked a bit uneasy here....

We were very happy.

2008-12-08T04:43:00.000-08:00

Bill & Kate's Wedding
Part One -- Trip to the Household Registration Office

Okay, some of you know that, when I was talking to Juli on the phone, Bill cracked open a can of beer. We shared and finished that can of Asahi before heading out the door.

We headed to the Household Registration Office in a cab. Ben and my mom were already there. They were 15 minutes early. Maybe they were more excited than the two that were actually getting married?!

We arrived at the Wenshan District Household Registration Office right on time.
For good luck, my mom insisted that I change out of the black-n-white and into something that was orangy-red.

And... we were inside.
First we took a number like everyone else.
Then we went through a whole of of paperwork... writing names and addresses... and defending one's gender....

Whilst all that paperwork was being processed, we had some time to chat about other marriage-related stuff.

(There's a video clip, but we gotta figure out how to upload it efficiently)

Just when we thought we were done with all the paperwork, there was more paperwork.
Then came the moment when Bill referred to Kate as his wife for the first time.....

(There's a video clip, but we gotta figure out how to upload it efficiently)

Viola! The marriage certificate. All signed and stuff....

Then the girl at the Household Registration Office gave us a wedding gift from the government.

(There's a video clip, but we gotta figure out how to upload it efficiently)

Though it wasn't a Taiwanese custom to exchange vows and rings, Bill and I insisted on having a moment of our own. We moved to the more festive part of the Household Registration Office....

(There's a video clip, but we gotta figure out how to upload it efficiently)

(There's a video clip, but we gotta figure out how to upload it efficiently)

Afterward, my mom gave each of us a red envelope as a symbol of good fortune.

This is the first picture of Bill and Kate as husband and wife.

p.s. I'm sorry that the video clips are not here. I kept my computer on all night last night for one to load, but it never happened. Gotta sit down and figure out how to do it properly when we have more time tonight.

2008-12-03T18:59:00.000-08:00

24 Hours

Okay... I think we're almost ready to wed.

We got matching Titanium rings (as shown in the picture above) because (a) we both wanted Titanium and (b) the design of jewery in Taiwan is simply hideous. We figured if, and when, we see something we really like later, we can always get them then.

We're going to be doing some last-minute stuff today. I'm getting my hair trimmed and colored in the afternoon. I also need to get assorted candies for the dinner at La Casita on Saturday and cat food for Nuenue, who's been feeling a bit left-out. My mom is ordering 5 boxes of wedding cookies to send to our offices. My cousin Karen's shopping for an outfit for Saturday, and Bill has to go shopping for a tie, a belt, and some cuff links.

We're going to the Housing Registration Office at 10:30 Friday morning (6:30pm Thursday evening Pacific Time) with my mom and Ben. We'll sign the paper and exchange vows and rings. Then we'll have to wait for my new ID card to be made. The name of my spouse will be added on the back of my ID card. Instead of changing their own last names to their husbands' last names, married women in Taiwan can choose to put the husband's last name on top of their own. For instance, my Chinese name is Zhang, Xin-hua with Zhang as my last name. Bill's Chinese name is Ma, Ting-wei with Ma as his Chinese last name. If I chose to carry his last name, my name would be changed to Ma Zhang Xin-hua. Sounds a bit funny in Chinese, so I'm keeping my name.

My mom's place will be our permanent address in Taiwan, so Bill's name will also be added into my mom's Housing Registration Form. He then officially becomes a member of the family.

After the Housing Registration Office, I have to go straight to work to receive the "Teacher of the Year" award. The school also wants a copy of the Marriage License so that Bill and I can receive a NT$2,000 (about US$66) red envelope from Dr. Kao (the Director) as a wedding gift.
At 6pm, we're going to dinner with my mom, my cousin Karen, and Ben at a restaurant called Shanghai Shanghai (see review).

Gotta run or I'll be late for the hair appointment.

2008-11-26T05:27:00.000-08:00

Tired but Happy

I haven't been "around" (in a blogger kinda sense) 'cause we've been unbelievably busy at work and with all the moving and wedding planning stuff. The wedding invitations are out, and I just completed a list of things to give to Amy. Oh, we finally decided to have the wedding at the restaurant because we're only inviting about 26 people to the dinner anyway. More people (like all 107 of them) will join us at the dance club we're going to after the dinner later that night. I'm really excited. We're totally gonna rock out!!!! What's a wedding celebration without dancing, eh?!

Bill and I planned more than enough food for our 26 guests. Lots and lots of nachos, burritos, enchiladas, tacos, rice, beans, and veggies. Naturally, our alcohol bill is significantly larger than the food bill. We'll have pitchers of Margaritas and Sangria, plus close to two dozens of Corona for those beer lovers.

The new apartment is very slowly coming together, looking more like our home now than two days ago. The three of us are still getting used to the unfamiliar noises at night, but we slept better last night than the night before. This morning the telephone company guy came over and hooked us up to the Internet, so I decided to write a few words for those of you who might have been wondering what's going on.

We still need to go back to the old apartment to wrap things up later this week. We plan to make Sunday the big moving day. Once we have all our stuff in the new apartment, we can do some serious rearranging and decorating to make it really homey. Can't wait to get some more plants for our beautiful and spacious patio.

Okay, I gotta go upstairs and go to bed. Just wanted to check in. We'll take pictures of the new place once we've completely moved in. Those of you who are on Facebook, check your Facebook account 'cause we've sent you the invitations as well.

2008-11-18T06:34:00.000-08:00

"You know how you can make me really happy?" Bill asked

Bill finally came home from Hong Kong around 9:30pm. After he ate, he went on the computer to catch up on what he had missed in the last 4 days. Then came the question in the title. Confused, I turned to look at him, and all I saw was the Martha Stewart's buttermilk pancake recipe Julie had posted on her blog. Next to it was Bill's big smile.

Now we have to figure out where we can buy buttermilk in Taipei. People have posted substitutes, but Bill insisted that they wouldn't work in buttermilk pancakes. Apparently you can make your own buttermilk too. However, when they say you can add vinegar to whole milk, do they mean the vinegar we find in Asia or other kinds of vinegar?

2008-11-17T17:24:00.000-08:00

Wedding Ideas

Bill and I had planned to sit down and go over details for the wedding after he came back from Hong Kong. However, due to some visa mix-up, he had to stay there for two more days, so I started calling around yesterday to find a place for our dinner party.

There's no way we could do our wedding the Taiwanese style (check out Ang Lee's early movie "The Wedding Banquet" to see why). We really want the venue to be intimate and meaningful. The first place that came to mind was our favorite Mexican restaurant in Taipei. Though some may think it's a bit unconventional, we thought it'd be fun and relaxed. The restaurant is a mom-n-pop operation. While Amy cooks, her husband is in charge of the bar, and Elisabeth (their 12-year-old daughter) brings food and chitchats with hungry customers. The family has known us for a couple of years, and they absolutely adore Bill. Besides, if he had his way, Bill would have Mexican food almost every night of the week.... okay... maybe not EVERY night. Some nights he'd have a pizza.

Ben the Best Man is excited, and he thinks it's very fitting.

So I called Amy yesterday evening. When she heard that we're getting married, she jokingly said, "I thought this day would never come". She was thrilled that we wanted to do it at her place. She gave me some suggestions as for what kind of food we could have and told me that her restaurant can seat 26 people comfortably. However, I came up with close to 20 of my friends on the list, and I was being very selective. Bill has a longer list for sure... (this is when suspense music comes on, and the camera freezes on my "what do we do" look).

We could ask Amy to remove the tables in her restaurant and have it cocktail party style. Then I had a wonderful idea: Why not have Amy cater the food and have the party in our new apartment? I know... we'd have to come up with a way to keep the food warm, and our oven is not big enough for those stainless steel containers they use in school cafeterias. On the other hand, we do have an oven and a microwave oven. People could put food on their plate and heat it up in the microwave oven if necessary. We could put candles on the patio, so people can go in and out. Let's hope it doesn't rain, and we'll deal with it if it does.

I'm brilliant.

2008-11-15T18:20:00.000-08:00

Home Alone

I remember those afternoons when I was home alone after school when I was 9 or 10. I'd heat up the food my mom had prepared for me in the morning. Then I climbed onto the shelf to get a volume of my favorite picture books, lay them all out on the floor, and read while I ate. I drew, I painted, and I wrote. I made up stories, tried on my mom's clothes, and sometimes I'd go to the living room and bang around the piano for a while, imagining myself performing in a big concert hall in a foreign country. Most of the time, though, I wrapped myself in the center of a world the size of an arm-length radius made of all my favorite things. I spent a lot of time in my head when I was young.

When Bill left for Hong Kong for the weekend, I went into my own world and I was gone for 24 hours. I can't remember exactly what I did. What I found after I came to my senses this morning was that it was evident I tried to establish a life on the couch. The coffee table is jammed with "stuff": an empty sports drink bottle, an empty water glass, my medicine, a bottle of Folic Acid, 3 DVDs that I rented yesterday, all the remote controls and Wii controllers, Nuenue's brush, my cell phone. and my Nintendo DS. One sock that I took off during my sleep was receovered under the couch (I woke up in bed with the other one on my foot this morning), and my glasses were dangerously lying on the floor by a leg of the couch.

Even Nuenue was fed up with the mess. He spent half an hour in front of the window this morning, weighing his options for a better home.

2008-11-12T16:49:00.000-08:00

(music in the background)

Welcome to BKTW News with Nuenue Fluffypants.
Breaking News tonight: a 2-bedroom apartment with a patio and a fireplace in Taipei. Is it a myth or reality? In other news, who are the Top 100 Doctors in Taiwan, the Next Step in Kate's In-Vitro Treatment, and Can You Hear the Wedding Bell?
Here's Nuenue Fluffypants.

(music fade out)

Good evening.
After months and months of searching, Bill and Kate have finally found their ideal apartment in the jungle of Taipei. Last weekend, Bill saw a picture of a fireplace in an apartment online. Curious, the couple went to check it out. The loft-style rooftop suite is located in a quiet apartment complex across the street from NTU campus, really close to Bill's and Kate's work. The elevator took them to the 6th floor, and once they got to the 7th floor, the first thing they saw was a stone lantern and a matching plant holder at the door to the apartment. Above the stone lantern hung a bamboo sieve on the wall. There was also a 5-foot tall bamboo shelf and a Chinese-style dark wood cabinet for shoes and coats. Kate went straight for the patio once she got inside the apartment. There are 2 glass sliding doors, one in the living room and one in the kitchen, leading out to the patio. This makes the first level of the apartment bright and open. There is a fireplace in the living room, but the landlord said it was built mostly as decoration. The kitchen has a white wooden bench on one side and a heavy wood dining table on the other side. There is not much counter space, but the breakfast bar opposite to the sink could be used as a work table for food preparation. The bathroom and a second room are also on this level. Bill thinks the second room would be perfect as a movie room. The bedroom and a dressing room are up in the attic. There are some jigsaw play mats on the floor, which suggests that the previous tangents might have used the dressing room as children's play room.

The apartment is almost fully furnished, and the landlord is having the air-conditioners checked out and cleaned. Bill and Kate are currently working out some details, and they plan to move in some time next week. Our news team will also be there to update you on the latest progress.

Up next, how do you know where to find good doctors? Also, what does she have to do in the next step of the preparation for In-Vitro? Our medical reporter Kate Chang has the answer.

One of the common fears that most patients face is having a doctor who strives for mediocrity or has bad bedside manners. Most patients in Taiwan either take their chance or rely on word-of-mouth when it comes to looking for a doctor they can trust. Now, patients can find what you're looking for in this month's Business Weekly Magazine. The magazine company asked the public to go on their website to vote for their own best doctor(s). Each person could only vote for the same doctor once and up to three doctors. Kate went to Eslite Bookstore last week and was ecstatic to find that her doctor, Dr. Liu at TriService Hospital, is among the Top 100 Doctors in Taiwan.

Gotta send him a card.

In addition, after 2 months of healthy diet and regular exercise, Kate is ready to receive medication as a part of the preparation process for In-Vitro, which is tentatively scheduled for February 2009. Dr. Motormouth prescribed Actos, an insulin sensitizer, for a month and asked Kate to go back for an ultrasound on the 13th day of her cycle to monitor ovulation. The doctor also requested that Kate replace her gym-and-the-pool combo with a more efficient workout method such as a combination of spinning and yoga. Kate's going to try out her first spinning class this Sunday.

If everything goes well, Kate's left ovary will be on a month-long vacation in December with the help of birth control pills. Injections to stimulate egg production will start in January.

Back to you Nuenue.

Thank you, Kate. Before we wrap up the news program tonight, BKTW News team has an announcement to make. Bill and Kate have set the date to tie the knot on Friday, December 5th. Bill's best friend in Taiwan, Mr. Benjamin Andrews, and Kate's mom are going to be the witnesses at the civil ceremony in the morning, followed by an intimate dinner party in the evening. Bill and Kate will send out invitations with details via email.

Thank you for joining us. I'm Nuenue Fluffypants. Good night.

(music starts)

2008-11-08T17:17:00.000-08:00

The Land of Superstition

Personally, I could care less about what people think of Geminis 'cause I think horoscope is largely generalization and contributes nothing more than to encourage stereotyping. It's, however, an effective ice-breaker at parties or an excuse (i.e., "Sorry I'm late again. What can I say? I'm a Gemini." ) if you have very tolerant and understanding friends. My "personality" as depicted by some "fortune tellers" based on the star sign under which my mother happened to go into labor is not something I firmly believe, nor would I let it bother me when other people react unfavorably.

However, I hesitate every time someone asks what my horoscope sign is. It's because I've come to realize how influential horoscope signs are in Asia. Aside from the numerous TV shows analyzing and predicting the characteristics and future prospects of every single sign, horoscope signs are also used in the selection process in the work force even before you have the chance to make a personal impression. The manager of a prestigious company in Taiwan openly admitted on TV that she would not hire people under certain horoscope signs because those signs conflict with her own. After all, why would you hire highly capable individuals who may not get along with you? In Taiwan, one's date of birth, along with a recent photograph of oneself, is one of the essential pieces of information one must include in one's resume so that hiring managers of either gender can objectively select the most capable and qualified candidate for the job.

The good thing about the school I work at is that the management doesn't give a rat's ass about these things. Otherwise, I might not have gotten the job in the first place. I, as I discovered, have got a pretty bad astrological combination as far as the Taiwanese are concerned. Apparently us Geminis have got a bad rap in this part of the world. We're unpredictable, flirtatious, unfaithful, and cunning. However, we're also slim-figured, physically attractive, smart, and charismatic. In other words, Geminis have got everything everyone hates. Gemini males are believed to be cheaters; Gemini women are often the reason your husband is cheating on you. Lucky for me, there are always a few students who try and throw me a rope to salvation in every class by asking what my Chinese horoscope sign is. Well, that's when the dark spiral takes hold and sucks me into eternal doomage. I'm a rat.

2008-11-01T04:29:00.000-07:00

Halloween in Taipei 2008

We left the house at 10 pm and headed to Jack's place.

Jack was a friendly Taiwanese cop who loves beetle nuts & Red Bull

Dorion was the Housing Bubbles... though he lost his bubble maker at the onset of the evening.

Noah, as you can see, was a cowboy.

Chen and her boyfriend. Chen called herself "the Revenge of the Obasans", and her boyfriend was a hippie.

From Jack's, we headed out to Paris Night Club. People stared and pointed at us along the way. Brian, the only "normally-dressed" person in the bunch, nodded at the observers and explained in Chinese, "Happy Halloween".

These are some of the famous people we partied with:

Here are some creative ones:

Clown on Vacation
Sean, founder of the Urban Nomad Film Festival, deserves a vacation too.

We weren't quite sure what they were. I think they were angel and devil in disguise. That's why the angel girl was in black, where as the devil girl was in white.
Others thought they were the evil swans.
Regardless, the two girls were really cute together.

Dorion, as mentioned earlier, was the housing bubbles.
Sharon was the piggy bank lady. She also works in a bank in real life.

Your Mama, featured by Mr. Ryan O'Malley.

Ryan O'Malley as himself & a friend (I forgot to ask his name... Then again, it was 5 in the morning... I probably wouldn't have remembered it even if he'd told me).

Elaine & Drew
Drew's original costume was a "Tai-ke", working class cigarette-smoking, beetle-nut-chewing Taiwanese man who often dresses in a white wife beater, an obnoxiously colorful shirt, pants, and flip-flops.

This was Drew's second look - an otaku

The happiest and proudest person that night was, of course, no one else but...

The Devil

This Taiwanese kid immediately dropped to his knees and started bowing as soon as he saw The Devil. He was ecstatically happy when we asked him to take a picture with The Devil.

This Halloween Taipei 2008 report is brought to you by

Charles Lee Ray, aka Chucky the Good Guy Doll

and his Bride, Tiffany

We were gonna be the Chess King and Queen. We even got the costumes reserved until we changed our minds in the late afternoon of October 30th. Bill and I finally got everything for our costumes in the morning of the 31st.

Though not 100% perfect, we were very happy and had a lot of fun as psychotic serial killers.

2008-10-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

Hell-O'-Ween

Thank you, Shellee, for your suggestion. I think if I were to be Nuage, I'd have to rent out a very fury costume, which may make me look more like Chewbacca, which won't be good because I don't want to look like him.

In fact, Bill considered being Chewbacca for Halloween, but he quickly got that thought out of his head because, at the end of October, it is still high of 31 degrees Celsius and low of 24 in Taiwan. This short and sudden surge of high temperature after the Moon Festival is locally known as the "Autumn Tiger". By the beginning of November, the temperature will drop significantly, and we'll officially enter the cold and damp winter season.

This "Autumn Tiger" weather is why, while Bill was petting the Chewbacca costume lovingly at the costume shop last night, we came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be much fun if he passed out from dehydration on Halloween night.

It has been particularly difficult for us to decide on a costume this Halloween because we're trying to dress up in "couple" costumes. Our original idea was Chucky and Bride of Chucky (see, she's got green eyes). Unfortunately, Bill couldn't find a wig that would work nor did we see any overalls. After browsing in 5 different costume shops, I couldn't find a white dress that didn't make me look like a Ballerina or a dirty anime character.

In the end, we had to abandon the Chucky idea, and these are some of the ideas we had:

Barney & Betty from the Flintstones.
The Sultan & His Lady
Hit 'n Missed (the knife thrower & his unfortunate victim)
E-male & Attachment
Jack & Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas

Problem was... none of these excited us.

We reserved 2 costumes before the shop closed last night, but we weren't all giggly on the way home. This Halloween hasn't been the same because a lot of the people we did Halloween with before are no longer in Taiwan. Bill hasn't admitted it, but it has been especially hard on Bill because Ben's in China at the moment and won't return until Saturday.

After the costume shop, we ran into Lindsay (the girl pirate in a red-and-white-striped shirt with Waldo, aka Matt, in the 2007 pictures) at City Super. While catching up, she told us that she also felt the same way because most of her friends are gone as well. Then the three of us looked at each other and our eyes and mouths opened up. We quickly exchanged information on the Halloween parties around town and promised to run into each other.

This morning Bill asked, "Do you think our costumes are lame?"
Still waking up, I muttered, "It's all in the attitude, baby. We'll make it work."

I feel better already.

A Little Side note:

I went to the convenience store at the entrance of the lane way to our apartment this afternoon to pay the phone bill. While I was getting money out, the girl behind the counter suddenly shouted, "Halloween's tomorrow..." We both froze in the moment for a bit because of the sheer volume of her voice (I was startled by it and I think she just didn't think it'd come out like that). Embarrassed, she stared at her shoes and mumbled, "I was just wondering what you are going to be this year 'cause you know... when you and your boyfriend came out on Halloween, it was always fun and everyone stared at you and you looked very scary... remember when you were a princess and your throat was slit... "

"When you and your boyfriend came out on Halloween..." She really made us sound like some kind of ghouls or monsters, didn't she?!

"We're probably not going to be very scary this year..." I suddenly felt bad for disappointing her. On the way to work, I kept thinking about the question Bill asked this morning. The costumes we got last night were lame, but I couldn't think of other ways we could've done differently.

Bill called at 4pm. He was on his way to the costume shop. "I'm going to try to find us some other things for our costumes. If I could find them, we'll cancel the reservation and get the deposit back."

I got all excited again.

You'll have to wait for the pics to see what we decide to be this year. Whatever we are, we're gonna be (sing it) A.W.E.S.O.M.E. ~~~~

2008-10-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

HELP~~~

We went to look for a costume last night, and we couldn't find any!! I'm starting to freak out here. Which scary character has green eyes (other than the Hulk)?!?!

2008-10-27T18:15:00.000-07:00

Gittyup

We're going to get our Halloween costumes after work this evening. I've been excited and giggly ever since I got my green contact lenses. There are numerous parties around town on Friday, and I'm sure we'll have tons of fun as we did in previous years.

Here are some of the pictures from previous years.

2004 Pre-Bill period

My former colleague, Christienne, held a party at her apartment. That was the first party I went to with my co-workers. "Halloween at Christienne's" is known as the Halloween party in the office mainly because it was the only one that got us all together in costumes.
I was Betty Boop... Well, I tried, but my head just wasn't big enough.

2005 Apparently Bill and I didn't spend Halloween together, and neither of us dressed up that year.

2006
The Mad Doc and Marie Antoinette

2007
Geisha & Elvis

It's gonna be awesome~~ this year too.

2008-10-26T18:21:00.000-07:00

Early Bird

My appointment was around 8 this morning. The lights in the hospital lobby were still dim, and the administrative staff was just settling in their work stations when I arrived at 8:09. On the 5th floor, however, all the light were on and 4 nurses were already weaving in and out of curtained rooms transporting charts in the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility. Dr. Motormouth has "special clinic hours" for the busy commuters/office workers from 7:30 to 9:00 every Monday morning. They were expecting 6 patients this morning. I was #2.

From the outside, the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility looks almost like a spa. It's got yellow lighting soft as the color of baby chicks, wood floors and boards on the walls are all in smooth, curvy shapes, and the Latte-colored curtains are soft to the touch. It's got cushy chairs and sofas all around for the patients and husbands. On the magazine rack among the usual Vogue and Baby & Mommy mags, there are other reading materials on automobile and financial management to keep the prospective dads entertained while their wives are in the examine room. I can't remember if it's got instrumental music playing in the background. I wouldn't be surprised if it did. If it did, it must be very effective because I didn't even notice it.

All it needed was scented candles and potpourri.

Everything looks good and is in working condition. My next appointment is at the end of the month, and we'll kick start the insulin treatment then. If everything goes well, I'll be on birth control pills in December to completely shut down my ovary. Then injection starts in January. Egg retrieval and implantation in February.

In the meantime, I continue eating lots of fiber and keep exercising.

2008-10-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

Nuage the Terror

We threw out Nuenue's scratch post about a month ago because it was all moldy on the bottom. That scratch post was one of the things I brought home with the then 3-month-old Nuage almost 3 years ago. It was the second thing Nuage loved the most. It was more than a scratch post: it was Nuenue's safe spot whenever he got spooked.

We threw out the scratch post while Nuenue was staying at my mom's, hoping that he wouldn't notice that it was gone. Well, he did. He was so upset that he took it out on Bill's computer chair (Whenever Nuage gets upset, he always chooses Bill's stuff to wreck). At first, Nuage did it only occasionally and for a short while each time. In other words, though he wasn't content with the substitute, he coped. As time went on, however, Nuage learned that playing nice kitty wouldn't get him anywhere and decided to take more drastic action. He'd even time it so both of us could see him in action.

One calm evening last week while Bill and I were watching a show, Nuage went to work on the computer chair. He dug his claws so deep into the fabric that it popped as he pulled out his claws. It also made the back of the computer chair sound like a sheet of plastic wrap. What made it even creepier was the fact that Nuenue's head was turned to the side facing us as he demonstrated what he was capable of. What we knew as the fluff ball who loved nothing more than taking his morning nap in one of the cubicles on the bookshelf suddenly turned into Nuage-the-Terror. He was looking at us with this psycho maniac shine in his eyes while the computer chair groaned in pain. When it was over (and Bill rushed over to examine the damage on the chair), Nuage glided across the living room with the grace and lightness only cats possess and went to the kitchen to munch on some of his kitty cookies as if nothing had happened.

We got the message. The search of a scratch post was on.

It wasn't easy finding a perfect scratch post. First it has to be stable so it doesn't tip over and knock the kitty out cold. Next, it has to be in a size reasonable for apartment living. None of those monstrosities that look like fuzzy refrigerators with big holes. Ideally, it'd have a pad on top so Nuage could pretend he's looking down at his kingdom. Finally, and this is more for the human than the kitty, is that it has to be in the right colors. Oh~~ trust me. In Asia, the colors (and combination) used on products can be very... um... "creative". The only guideline seems to be "as long as it's cute", especially when it comes to products for pets -- a word many people mistaken as a synonym for kids. Bill and I went to 5 different pet stores, picked up and put down countless scratch posts, but we came home empty-handed. Nuage-the-Terror continued expressing his discontent with increased frequency and aggression. More threads were coming out of the back of the computer chair.

We found the perfect one last night -- one that looks like the top of a tree with a hammock, which is made to look like a giant leaf, on the side. However, it is currently out of stock, so we have to wait until the end of the month to get it. We didn't want to disappoint him again, so we got Nuage a temporary replacement. Though it doesn't have a pad on the top like his own one, it's got a fuzzy ball that provides hours of entertainment. He had a great time with it last night.

I know Nuenue doesn't look very excited here, but it's because I made him stand beside it just seconds after he had woken up from his morning nap.

Nuage is his happy fluffy self again... for now.

P.S. Bill just told me that the Martins are doing a "Fruit Loop". I wish we could be there. I love fruit, and Bill needs more fruit. In fact, Bill crowned me Queen of the Fruits just last night. Wait-a-second... that doesn't sound much like a compliment at all.

2008-10-19T19:09:00.000-07:00

Apartment Hunting

Yup! We're looking for a new place to live AGAIN.

This is what we're looking for:
1. it must have a balcony (def: a balcony is a place where we can at least put a chair/table out),
2. there must be at least 2 rooms,
3. it's no higher than the 4th floor if no elevator,
4. it has to be on the red/green MRT line because our jobs are both on that line,
5. it has to have the view of either the mountains or the water, and
6. it has to have a decent-sized kitchen.

At first, it seemed almost impossible to find a place that fits all these criteria, but it was actually easier than I'd anticipated. We searched on the Internet for apartments in suburbs on the north and south ends of the city, and in a couple of hours we were able to put together a list of 6 places. One in the north in Hongshulin, one station before Danshui, and all the other ones were in the south in Xindian.

We timed the commute as well. To get to where we work (in Gongguang and Guting), it takes around 40 minutes from the north and 30 minutes from the south on the MRT. It's really not that bad. When I worked in Vancouver, I had to spend half an hour on the bus. Bill used to drive 40 minutes to work in Seattle. If we live outside of the city, we can always read, listen to music, or play Nintendo during the commute.

The apartment in Hongshulin was absolutely AMAZING. It's brand new. It's fully furnished. It has a standing shower and a big bathtub. In the study, there's a big window looking out to the mountains. It's got marble tiles and wood plank floors. It's on the 14th floor, so it's very quiet. It's walking distance from the MRT station. The landlady speaks fluent English and her husband is an actuary from California. In other words, she's not like the typical Taiwanese landlords who often doesn't care about anything else but money.

Bill and I thought about it all day long but we had to make the painful decision because the place is just too small for us.

A couple of the apartments we went to look at in Xindian were also very nice. One of them has a huge window in the kitchen looking out to Bitan (The Green Lake), but the bedroom is a dark Tatami (Japanese straw mat) room the landlord has sectioned off in the corner of the living room.

Bitan suspension bridge

We spent 6 hours going from apartment to apartment yesterday and went home exhausted and defeated. One good thing from all this is that we know there are places out there that have the potential to fit in with what we're looking for.

The search continues...

2008-10-12T02:35:00.000-07:00

Journey to a Whole Lot of Flicks – Part 1

It was what everyone was talking about. For the past week or so, the common greeting was replaced with "Have you gotten the tickets yet for the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival?" Two weeks of movies from all over the world at three major theaters in Taipei. There are only 4,000 ticket packages for sale at US$90. Each package contains 14 vouchers which viewers can exchange for real tickets at designated locations once they've decided which movie they'd like to watch.

Bill and I knew from the beginning that we'd want to watch more than 7 movies, so we asked a colleague of mine to get two packages for us. The idea of watching 14 movies in 2 weeks seems crazy and exciting. We went out with friends Friday night and, as I said earlier, EVERYBODY was talking about what movie they wanted to see and dreading the long wait in line that awaits for us the following day.

Saturday, Oct 11th was the day viewers could exchange vouchers into real tickets. Because of all the hype about the long queue for tickets we heard so much about the night before, Bill and I were ready for what we might have to deal with. Contrary to what our friends told us, we found out online that there were 365 ticket-exchanging locations in the Greater Taipei Area and that we could exchange tickets at FarEastern Mall, which is less than 10 minutes (on the motorcycle) from our house. We were relieved. We decided to go for brunch at Carnegies, select all the movies we wanted to see during brunch, and walk over to the mall to get the tickets.

When we got to the Information Counter at FarEastern Mall, there was a line of... oh... maybe 6 people in front of us. Bill and I happily got in line and took turns making bathroom trips or simply walk around the mall for a bit. 10 minutes passed, we hadn't moved an inch. 20 minutes passed, we hadn't moved an inch. Then we found out that all that waiting was nothing more than a waste of time because we were supposed to go up to the counter and get a number. We got #59, and they were processing #6. The young girls behind the counter asked for my cell phone number and promised to call me when they got to 10 numbers before mine.

Bill had planned to head to the music festival in the mountains in southern Taipei, so he started getting ready as soon as we got home. We thought about rushing out to other ticket-selling locations, but I decided to stay put and wait for the call. What a mistake! I, of all people, should know that the Taiwanese are not known for efficiency and logical thinking skills. What made me believe that the girl at the Information Counter was going to call me, I will never know.

3 hours later, I woke up from a nap and decided to call the Mall and ask them what was going on. The girl on the phone told me that they were processing #43 at the moment and I should get there as soon as I could. I was still kind of spaced out from the nap, I offered my understanding lazily, "I guess it had taken this long because everyone is choosing at least 14 movies, huh?!" The girl replied in an innocent voice, "Agh.... No, not really. There was a long while when none of the number holders came to exchange tickets, so we've opened it to whoever that was on sight at the time. Now a lot of number holders are coming, so I think you should get here a.s.a.p. because you may have to wait in line for a long time."

Her innocent voice became nails on chalkboard and rage rose from the center of my torso. I jumped off the couch, grabbed my bag, and hopped into a cab. When the cab driver asked me which road I'd like him to take, I replied impatiently, "Whichever way that's the fastest." I text-messaged Bill and told him how angry I was. Bill phoned back and suggested that I should talk about this with their manager and see if they'd compensate us in any way. However, we both knew it was nearly impossible because it is not the Taiwanese way to admit their own mistake and take responsibility for it.

I stormed into the Mall, leaving the revolving doors spinning behind me. Déjà vu! There was a line of about 6 or 7 people, just like earlier in the afternoon. "Not as bad as I imagined," I felt myself calming down and snickered at myself for freaking out so quickly. I even considered dropping the whole thing and just wait in line on the way to the counter.

From their name tags, I saw the girl with the innocent voice, so I reported my arrival to her. Without lifting her eyes, she pointed to her left and said, "Please go to the end of the line and wait like everybody else here." Her nonchalant attitude triggered my muscles to tighten and my lips started shaking. "Excuse me?" I tried very hard to be polite, "do all these people all have numbers before mine?" She looked up and said it matter-of-factly, "Everyone has to wait in line now," and went back to what she was doing.

2008-10-11T18:18:00.000-07:00

Journey to a Whole Lot of Flicks – Part 2

That was it. My heart started pounding in my chest, and I was ready to bite her head off (figuratively speaking). I decided then that I would not drop it until she gave me a satisfactory answer.

"If that's the case, what puzzles me is why we were asked to get a number and sent away when we were here in line more than 3 hours ago?" I managed to make it sound like a humble question. A woman in line quietly said, "It's all messed up now. They have no idea what they're doing. I'm #45, and these people in front of me are #52," her eyes met mine as if trying to persuade me, "there's no point arguing with them." I directed my attention back to the girl with the annoyingly innocent voice, "Correct me if I’m wrong. Does this mean that the numbers you gave out earlier today are completely meaningless now?" Then she did it. The girl lowered her eyes and stood in silence.

Her reaction just put m in a situation where I was the one who had “crossed the line” in the Taiwanese way of social conduct. By asking her a question that she could not answer (and her job at the Information Counter is to provide answers to customers), I had embarrassed her in public. Her silence was her way of showing shame to the others, and I was, by not doing what everyone else was doing, was the trouble maker. No one likes trouble makers. I learned that in school long time ago.

Since everyone in line had already accepted their fate and got in line before I showed up and because I just publicly embarrassed a poor girl behind the counter by asking a question, no one was going to back me up even though they all had their rights violated. An uncomfortable awkwardness clouded over us like a wet blanket, and everybody was fidgeting around avoiding eye contact with other people. The girl stood there like a statue with her head bowed to her chest. She knew that, if I had pushed the matter any further, I’d be viewed as a cold-blooded bully and nothing I said would matter anymore.

I, too, knew the rules of the game, so I offered a friendly smile to “the victim” and put on the soothing teacher’s voice I use whenever I have to fail a student, “I understand how difficult it must be for you girls to do your jobs while keeping everyone happy. Perhaps you should suggest to your superiors the reevaluation of the number system for next year.” Then I turned away and walked to the end of the line. With that, I put her right back into the ring.

30 seconds later, the girl came to apologize and offer to help solve my problem (she was trying to do her job now). She said she would ask the people in front of me if they’d mind letting me cut in line. In other words, her way of solving the problem is to create more problems. I watched as she carefully selected her targets –the shortest young couple in line. I turned away so she wouldn’t see me laughing. When I turned back around, I was shocked to learn that the short couple had agreed to let me go in front of them because they were #77. I moved from being the 9^th to the 5^th in line. I thanked the girl and everyone who were now behind me. Armed with the initial success, the girl made sure that the four people in front of me were also standing in order.

Almost immediately, the #77 couple regretted their decision. It just now occurred to them that they might have to give up their spot in line for everyone who came with a smaller number. Just when the couple was arguing about what to do, the girl brought over a woman who was fanning herself with a “62”. #77 was visibly displeased now. The girl begged them to let #62 cut in front of them and promised not to bring anyone else over.

People with numbers who arrived later all had to get to the end of the line. They didn’t question, and everyone in line had an agreement never to let anyone cut in front of them again.

22 tickets to 9 different movies at the 2008 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival.

We kept 4 vouchers just in case if there are any last-minute movies we want to watch.

2008-10-09T03:55:00.000-07:00

Feeling Fabulous

This is how I spend my day.
I get up at 6. Shower and head out the door by 7. Catch either the #72 or the #211 bus to Zhangxiao Xinshen intersection, which is about a 15-minute walk away from the school. During the 15-minute walk, I pick up a large iced coffee (bad, I know) and 2 breakfast items. I usually get to the office at 8. I take my time finishing breakfast and prepping for classes, and I head into the classroom at 9.
When I finish the last class at 1pm, I avoid eye contact with my colleagues in order to leave the office as quickly as I can (It's very easy to get sucked into a conversation/discussion with my fellow teachers at work). I bus to NTU Rec Center and try to start exercising by 2. I alternate gym time and pool time throughout the week. I work out for a solid hour and am out of the Rec Center by 3:30. It takes about 10 minutes to walk from the Rec Center to the Language Center, but it takes me a bit longer 'cause I make a detour to get some boiled veggies for dinner at the student restaurant by the girls dormitory.
I've been doing this for a week now, and I feel absolutely fabulous!

2008-10-04T17:03:00.000-07:00

One Long Weekend Coming Up

The National Day falls on a Friday this year, and it's the only long weekend we're going to have in the next 2 or 3 months.
The air is filled with excitement. Where to go? What to do?
Some colleagues want to organize a hot spring day trip up in the mountains. A few friends are talking about a social night of music, barbecuing, and beer. Bill mentioned last night that he was thinking about spending a few nights at the beach in the south.
Me? I want to do them ALL. We should go to a beach somewhere and barbecue. We can make it a BYOBMI (booze, meat, and instrument) party.
It'd also be fun to camp at the beach...
Ah~~~ we must decide soon so we can get started on the planning.
So many options, so little time!!

2008-09-29T23:43:00.000-07:00

I Know What You Did Last Summer

It's official. Summer's over, and it's time to go back to school.
Aunt Bonnie's question about where the pictures were made me realize that, some of you have not seen any of these pictures because I don't have your email addresses to send you the link to my Flickr albums.

Here are the pictures, and I want to thank you all again for making our trip a truly unforgettable one.

June 21 - July 10, 2008
Trip to North America (aka "the trip back home")

Vancouver, British Columbia
Jordy, Lisa, and Scott

Jacqueline & Carlos

Seattle, Washington

Erik & Ya-chun

Rachel & Lyle

The Landas Sisters & Steve

Portland, Oregon

Newport

Eric & Jenny (& Oscar) in Corvalis

The Martin Family

Sept 19 - 21, 2008
Trip to Macau

2008-09-28T18:48:00.000-07:00

Rain Rain Go Away

Jangmi, also known as typhoon No. 15, finally left Taiwan at 4:20 this morning. Jangmi was the third typhoon that arrived on a weekend in the past 3 weeks.

The first one came on the Mid-Autumn Festival. Some teachers at my school had their flights out of Taiwan cancelled, so a few decided to cancel their travel plans. The second one formed when Bill and I were in Macau. We "dodged the bullet" 'cause, instead of heading for Taiwan, the typhoon hit Hong Kong and Macau the day after we got home.

And there was Jangmi, the strongest typhoon of all 3, that kept us awake at night clearing out the drain on the patio and changing towels by the front door. Jangmi was like a toddler throwing a tendrum. It roared and squeeched and splashed the heavy rainfall against every possible surface from all sides. The wind and rain was so strong that it practically "car-washed" all of our windows and screens (thank you, typhoon?). Luckily, our plants all survived... well, some look a bit bare 'cause they've lost a few leaves and branches. The good thing is all the dead leaves are now gone, so they all look very green and clean.

Taipei City Government cancelled work and school today. It also means that I can't go swimming at the rec center on campus. I guess we can do some cleaning (blah~). We'll definitely need to wash and dry the towels.

2008-09-26T02:52:00.000-07:00

Freedom~~~~

Bill and I went back to North America during my last term break in June, and my fellow coordinators had to do the scheduling and subsequent substitution for two week into the term. Fortunately I had a chance to return the favor at the end of the summer term by substituting for them and putting in office hours to work on the schedule during the term break. Since I knew I was going to work during the break, I signed up for two short-term classes as well. What I didn't know was that the short term classes ran from 8am to 12pm. That's what I've been doing in the last two weeks: getting up at 6, teach for 4 hours, and work in the office for a few more hours in the afternoon.

It's all finished now. The classes are done, and the schedule is set. I'm officially on my break now, and the first thing i did was to reactivate my membership at the NTU sports center. CDN$30 a month with unlimited access to the pool and the weight room. Not too shabby if you ask me.

I think I purposely kept a hectic work schedule to avoid hearing the conversation I have with myself. We pretty much spent the last 3 months since we got back from North America going to numerous doctor appointments and undergoing various tests. Throughout the entire process, I've been struggling with the stress and pessimism brought on by the anticipation of various test results. I've had a few consequent emotional break-downs during which I sank straight into immense hopelessness. My medical history hangs over us like a dark storm cloud, and every less-than-perfect test result adds another layer to it. Bill and I try to take our minds off of it, but it hasn’t been easy for me.

Health wise, it looks like we’re in the clear. The results of the CT scan indicates that there is a pseudocyst on my left ovary blocking the passage to the fallopian tube. That pseudocyst may also be the reason for the recently elevated CA-125 values. However, statistically nothing indicates cancer recurrence, so Dr. Liu gave us copies of all the surgery and pathology reports for the fertility doctor to use as reference.

Even though we've talked to 3 fertility doctors (and acoording to Dr. Liu, they're the best 3 on the island), Bill and I have been working almost exclusively with Dr. Motormouth, the female doctor at Adventist Hospital. She is the most proactive and agressive, and she seems to be the only with a go-getter attitude toward our quest to having a child. Following her instructions, Bill and I have gathered a lot of data on my health conditions, and we've made a few life style changes so that we can be in our best shape when it comes time for the En-Vitro process.

I like Dr. Motormouth enough to keep going back to her, but I also made an appointment to go back to Dr. Legendary at NTU Hospital next Tuesday. Dr. Legendary is a living legend, and I’m curious to see what he says simply because of his reputation and expertise. However, so far Dr. Legendary has been put off by my elevated CA-125 value. He has tried, in different occasions, to convince me to have my left ovary removed and explore the possibility of egg donation. We're bringing the latest results and all the reports back to him on Tuesday. If he still has reservations about it, we’re definitely going with Dr. Motormouth.

I may have doubts and I may feel all hopes are gone from time to time, but it just doesn't feel right to throw in the towel without putting up a good fight first.

By the way, Macau pictures coming up soon. I'm still in the process of setting up the programs on my brand new computer (only 2 days old with all the plastic protection sheets still in place). I'll put up the pictures soon. Stay tuned.

2008-09-18T08:06:00.000-07:00

Hello, Vegas in Asia

It's official!
We're going to Macau for the weekend. Yee-Haw~~~~

Bill and I have been working our butts off since we got back from the Pacific Northwest, and we've been running around visiting doctors and getting tests done (yes, I feel like a needle cushion sometimes). I want a weekend getaway. We deserve it.

Here's the official website of the Macau Government Tourist Office. We'll be there just in time for the 20th Wynn Macau International Fireworks Display Contest. And guess what?! The teams participating this weekend are from Portugal and "Chinese Taiwan". How perfect is that? Apparently Taiwan was second place last year, and the last time Portugal got into the top three was back in 2003. Each team has an entire hour to perform! It should be a spectacular show.

There's lots to see and do in Macau. I'm fascinated by the history and architecture. I spent an hour reading all the travel brochures Bill brought back. Macau sounds like a place where a photographer may be able to capture a Taoist temple right next to a cathedral. Macau also has many museums. What's even better is that, with as little as $25 Pataca (about US$3), tourists can visit all the museums within a 5-day period. We only have 2 full days, so I've already made a list of the ones I wanna hit: the Grand Prix Museum, Wine Museum, and Traditional Pawnshop Business. Of course, we'll have to visit the churches and temples, as well as all the fabulous specialty food stands and restaurants.

Have a great weekend, you all! We'll be back on Sunday.

2008-09-15T06:11:00.000-07:00

Names Names Names

I don't know why, but I've been thinking of different names all day today.
Don't get too excited. I'm not pregnant. At least I don't think I am.
As I was saying, I've been thinking about different first names to go with Martin. By 9pm, while Bill was busy programming on the computer and me busy catching up on "Buffy" episodes, the name Christopher Martin occurred in my head. For some reason, I really really liked that name (in hindsight, it might have something to do with Christopher Robin in Winnie the Pooh or Christopher Walkin on one of Bill's T-shirts). Out of the blue, I threw that name at Bill by the computer. He replied matter-of-factly without even turning away from the computer screen, "I don't like it. It's got no meaning for me." So I asked him to come up with names that have meanings for him. He didn't, so my game of names continued.
Anthony Martin. Benjamin Martin... we even played around with Rudolph Martin (Rudy for short). I asked Bill which letter in the alphabet he liked best, and we went along with all the names starting with the letter J. Joey's got Joseph already, so I joked about the name Jean. However, with a first name like Jean, there seems to always be a middle name. Bill completed the name, Jean Philippe Martin, in a fake French accent. As we laughed about Jean Philippe Martin, the name Jeffery came along and kicked all the other names out the window.
Jeffery Martin.
Compare to Jeffery, Christopher Martin seems a mouthful.

Bill didn't have enough patience to play the name game with me any longer. He heard his Nintendo DS calling while I was on the real telephone with a colleague. By the time I was done, he was deep in a battle in space.

Jeffery, defined as "divinely peaceful". I like that.

Nope. I'm not pregnant. Though I know for a fact that it's around the time of swirling hormones.

2008-09-05T18:51:00.000-07:00

Patience

My test results of insulin and Bill's semen analysis came out normal. Dr. Motormouth was surprised at the fact that my left ovary still ovulates from the ultrasound image. She scheduled another blood test on the 21st day of my menstrual cycle to test Progesterone. Meanwhile, Bill and I have to adopt a healthier life style: better sleep, healthier diet, and regular exercise.

On Friday I went to have the CT Scan done. After the first test run through the scanner, the technician rushed out and told me to take off my trousers, which were already pulled to my ankles. She then chuckled at the realization that the vertical line on my tummy she saw on the monitor was not the zippers.

Now we wait.

Next Wednesday is the blood test for Progesterone at Adventist Hospital.
September 16 is the day for the CA-125 and CT Scan results at TriService Hospital with Dr. Liu.

Meanwhile, life goes on. I gotta finish marking all the essays from all 3 of the writing classes and finish the summer term.

2008-09-02T07:17:00.000-07:00

Egg

I think I'm going completely insane.
Lying on the exam table at the hospital with a camera aiming at my left ovary, I stared at the black round object on the monitor and felt a rush of warmth pouring out from the pit of my stomach when Dr. Liu said, "Here's an egg ready for ovulation. There are two follicles here and here." My eyes followed the cursor to two smaller dots on the monitor. I was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion.
"That's good, isn't it?" I wondered why I said that.
He turned his face toward me. In the dark, I couldn't see his eyes. "What?"
"I mean, the ultrasound images look okay, right?" my voice cracked in the middle of 'right'.

Never name anything.
Unlike amputees who often report how they could still feel the lost limb, I've never missed or felt the ghost of my right ovary. It went bad. We got rid of it. End of story.
I have, however, developed this strong attachment to my leftover left ovary. Sort of like a comradeship and, to a certain extent, this is totally justifiable. After all, I've got all my eggs in one basket, literally. No wonder I'm protective of the basket.
I think my affection, or very strong possessiveness, toward my leftover left ovary started the day I named it, which was also the day I lost my right ovary.

I don't know where I'm going with this.

After the ultrasound, I went back to the doctor's office. Right next to the many pictures of my left ovary was a measurement of my uterus (mm): 70.5 x 41 x 41.5.

On the bus ride back from the hospital, a little girl (she can't be more than 2 or 3) was counting for her own amusement. "One, two, four, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! One, two, four, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!" Her young mother corrected her each time, but 3 and 5 never made it.
After a while, a couple of random middle-aged women tried to help, and in no time, almost every adult in the back section of the bus was teaching the kid how to count to ten... correctly.
The little girl was still only counting those eight numbers when we got off the bus.
I don't know what the big fuss was about. I never liked odd numbers when I was young, and I used to think 1, 4, and 7 shouldn't belong to the sequence 'cause all the other numbers have curves.

I still do.

2008-09-01T12:04:00.000-07:00

Priorities Reshuffled

7 pm Monday -- blood drawn
2 pm Tuesday -- Ultrasound
7 pm Wednesday -- insulin & semenanalysis reports
3 pm Friday -- CT scan

The desire to start the IVF process will have to be put on hold until we get the results.
I guess there's no point trying to conceive naturally now that an abdominal CT scan has been scheduled. Which is just as well 'cause it's not like Bill and I were feeling all hot and steamy after the visit to Dr. Liu's office last night.

Call me vane, but I blushed when Dr. Liu told me that Dr. Legendary filled him in on what was happening with me. The two big heads in gynecology, each with countless patients, chatted about me at an annual conference over the weekend.

2008-08-31T07:36:00.000-07:00

Easy Buddy

Bill and I had an easy Sunday. We went to G'day Cafe, read the Sunday paper, and had a nice brunch. Then we walked over to Asiaworld department store and browsed in an electronic store. We spent most of the afternoon at Starbucks - I was marking students' papers, and Bill was reading about a computer application program. In the early evening, we went to CitySuper (a supermarket) and spent about US$100 on Western food. We had miso-scallion salmon with asparagus for dinner. We watched "Starter for 10" during dinner and, if you enjoyed the 80s, we totally recommend the movie (Thank you, Ben, for giving the movie to Bill).

No stress. No worries. No thinking. We spent a quiet day together, and it was very nice.

2008-08-28T21:25:00.000-07:00

My next appointment with Dr. Liu is in the evening of Monday, September 1st. I dread going to see him 'cause he told me that he looked forward to being my obstetrician the last time I went to his office. I don't want to disappoint him. I know, I know... it's silly.

2008-08-28T04:41:00.000-07:00

One Foul Day

I realized that my USB was missing as soon as I got to the office today. Everything was in it: all my teaching plans and handouts, my tax files, and confidential correspondence between the Coordinators. I emptied out my backpack, but it wasn't there. I searched all over the office and every classroom I teach in... nope. I called Bill to look for it at home, but he didn't see it. My last hope was to the teacher who used the classroom my last class was in last night, but I also feared that, if he was the one who found it, he might have read some of the documents that he wasn't, and is never, supposed to read.

Turned out, my USB was not seen or found by anyone in the school. I could feel myself getting increasingly irritated but I had no time to freak out. I had to head to the hospital for the blood test results. Bill met me at the front gate of the hospital at shortly after 4, and we didn't get to see the doctor until 6pm. During those two hours, there was a family of monkeys behind us, and the grandparents repeatedly told the boy that the police was coming to take naughty boys like him away. Scared, the boy whined more. It annoyed the shit out of me.

The three tests for ovarian function looked normal, which indicates that my left ovary is doing fine. Just when the corners of my mouth were rising upward, Dr. Legendary pointed at the number on the top of the result sheet: CA-125= 102.

I felt as if someone had just lifted me up so s/he could slammed me down HARD! I let out a gasp and my stomach immediately knotted up. The last time I saw a CA-125 value that high was in the winter of 2006, before my initial surgery. My heart rate increased and there was a throbbing sensation where my left ovary is. Dr. Legendary advised that I get back to Dr. Liu to have it checked out. His exact words were, "Maybe have an endoscopy surgery to see if cancer returned in your left ovary." I thought I was going to black out, but I remained composed and rational. Staring blankly at Bill, I translated what the doctor said. The throbbing intensified. My mind went blank.

Defeated, I sleepwalked out of Dr. Legendary's office. It cost me NT$377 (CDN$12) just to talk to him today. When we got into the subway station, rage rose inside me, and I felt like punching people out of my way. Everyone looked ugly and they smelt rotten. I actually barked at a few people who were completely oblivion of what was going on around them in a crowded station during rush hours. I told a coupled of airhead chicks to take their time walking at suck slow speed that eventually we might just get to the platform tomorrow morning. I hated myself immediately after those words came out of my mouth, but what difference does it make anyway? Being a good person doesn't make everything in life okay.

To top my one foul day off, the dinner we had was just horrible. My appletini was more apple-y than Martini. The onion rings were greasy, and the chicken satay was the worst we've ever had. In fact, because of the chicken satay, Bill said I should title this posting "One Fowl Day" instead. Gotta love Bill for his amazing ability to stay optimistic and for his quirky sense of humor.

I found my USB though. Somehow I stuffed it inside one of the tiny pockets of my jean jacket.

Back to square one we go. Gotta make an appointment to see Dr. Liu now.

2008-08-27T04:28:00.000-07:00

Dr. Legendary

Rumor has it that the doctor lost his daughter to a rare disease after she had just entered puberty. He and his wife tried hard to make peace with the loss, but they desperately wanted another child. By then, the couple were approaching their 50s. Though all the statistics were against their desire to have a child again, he successfully extracted eggs from his wife's ovaries, and she gave birth to a healthy baby at the age of 47.

Outside his office was a list of appointments. On Tuesday, August 26th, he had 73 patients during his clinic hours (1:30 - 4:30pm). I was #40. While waiting, I got to catch most of the story of an orphan sea lion on the Discovery Channel in the waiting area. The researchers were introducing the baby sea lion to snow for the first time when a big red #40 showed up on the door.

Dr. Legendary is a bit chubby. He sat with his left arm hanging over the back of his chair and his belly nudged against the desk. It was a big room, and there was a restless energy in it. Everyone was fuzzing about, occupied. There were a total of three nurses in the room: one greets patients, another leads patients to the exam room, and one prints out the doctor's orders. There was also a young intern sitting next to Dr. Legendary. I couldn't tell if the intern was male or female at first. After studying her for a while, She's one of those people that would look good as either gender.

"Ms. Chang," the doctor sounded nice, "What can I do for you?" he was mindlessly leafing through my medical record while I settled next to him.

"You've been here before," he noticed, "from April to October 2006."
"And the doctor then was Dr. xxx" (Dr. xxx was the one who didn't take my soaring CA-125 value seriously enough before I went to find a second opinion and had the subsequent surgery. He is also the Golden Boy, the Hot Shot, and Dr. Legendary's favorite protege).
"If I may," I interjected, "can I just tell you what happened after my last visit with Dr. xxx in Oct, 2006?"
"Your CA-125 was really high here, and something was growing in your right ovary," Dr. Legendary pointed at the number 178.9.
"Yes, but Dr. xxx told me to come back when the growth in my right ovary exceeded 3 centimeters. I went to TriService Hospital and it turned out to be ovarian cancer. I had a surgery to remove the right ovary...." I started telling Dr. Legendary what happened. "... Since it was Stage 1C, I went through a course of chemotherapy..."
"Why did you go to TriService Hospital again?" the doctor interrupted.
"Because Dr. xxx didn't give me a definite answer of what the growth might have been and I wanted a second opinion."
"Who was your doctor at TriService?" I told him my doctor's name.
"Your CA-125 value was really high back in Oct 2006...." Dr. Legendary was probably pondering why Dr. xxx didn't pick up on it.
"Anyway, there's more." I told him everything, from the first surgery to the latest appointment I had with the two fertility doctors. I gave him their names too.

While I was telling the story, I noticed how the room became really quiet. The three nurses stopped moving about and were all staring at me. The young intern was frantically taking notes at first, but she looked up from her notes when I was talking about the second surgery. Oh, the next patient was clutching her purse close to her tummy. That poor woman. She probably didn't need to hear all that. They really shouldn't let the next patient wait in the same room.

"Anyway, the purpose of my visit with you today is to seek you expert advice. I just want to know what you think." I brought my story to a wrap.
"What did those two fertility doctors say?" he asked with a smile. He looked mischievous.
"They didn't sound very optimistic because of how much my left ovary has gone through. I understand where they're coming from though."

Dr. Legendary propped himself up. However, since his belly is so big, it looked as if he just extended his belly and pushed himself away from the desk.
"I'm going to order some blood tests. While we're at it, we might as well check your CA-125." He scribbled a series of acronyms on my medical record. "Come back on Thursday, and we'll take a look at your blood test results."
"Thursday of next week?" I took out my cell phone and noticed that I have 3 appointments next week, but I'm free next Thursday.
"No. In two days. Come back in two days."
Blood test results in two days? That's unheard of.
"In two days?" I felt stupid repeating but I did in disbelief.
"We'll rush it." Dr. Legendary said it with such authority and confidence I thought I heard angels sing and saw white beams of light shining down from above.

Then I asked a bunch of other questions and answered a bunch of his questions. As I was leaving, Dr. Legendary said, "Don't worry. We'll talk more after the blood test results. You're extremely fortunate, and you beat cancer. Don't get discouraged. Keep the spirit up."The handsome female intern nodded repeatedly. Then the printer started, and the buzz returned to the room.

I got teary-eyed when I walked out of his office. It was nice to know he had faith in my damaged left ovary. On the other hand, I'm still skeptical especially after my bad experience with Dr. xxx. I'm also aware of the fact that, to Dr. Legendary, I probably mean nothing more than a perfect candidate for his next publication or research journal.

We'll see what happens on Thursday.

2008-08-21T02:53:00.000-07:00

One Month Since North America

This is what happened in the month I've been back in Taipei:

Worked 23 days

Marked 60 writing assignments

Substituted 3 times

Experienced 1 typhoon (and got a day off from work because of it)

Latest CA-125: 54 U/ml (blood taken on Aug 6)

Saw 2 fertility doctors

Paid NT$3645 (CDN$120) on tests for ovarian function

Spent 2 Saturday nights at parties

Saw 2 movies at the theater (The Dark Knight & Wall E.)

Uploaded 3 batches of pictures (Vancouver, Seattle, & Oregon) on flickr

Wished I was back in North America: countless times

2008-08-13T08:25:00.000-07:00

Dr. Motormouth

As the title suggests, the second fertility doctor talks very fast. She, too, switched to English as soon as Bill walked into the office. All the nurses watched in amazement as the doctor discussed my medical treatment and the fertility treatment with us.

Different from Dr. Magichands, Dr. Motormouth wanted more information from us: family medical history, BMI, details about my menstrual cycle, and all the details regarding my cancer treatment. I was trying to get a sense of what she was like by observing her body language, and she came across as a very straightforward and thorough physician. Her feminine side slipped out when she was typing in my family medical record though. After I told her that my maternal grandfather had high blood pressure diabetes, she typed, "mom's daddy" into the computer. I thought it was cute.

Dr. Motormouth wanted more from us. She wanted me to do a blood test for FSH, LH, E2, and PRL, all of which are tests for ovarian function. The blood test is also for insulin levels. Bill has to have semen analysis & morphology done. All this has to be done during the first 3 days of my next menstrual cycle. That means we have to wait another week and a half until we can go for the blood test. After that, we have to wait for another week for the results. Meanwhile, she asked us to record body temperature first thing in the morning. We walked out of her office with a pile of paper (for all the different tests), a transparent plastic cup with a lid (for little Billys), and a bill of NT$2,445 (about $80 Canadian).

The quest continues. I just made an appointment with a "legendary" doctor at National Taiwan University Hospital. His legend is that, through IVF, his wife got pregnant at the age of 47. I'll tell you more about him later. It's quite a story.

2008-08-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

My MOS Lady

I go to the MOS Burger stand adjacent to the school to buy a large iced coffee every morning.

A little side note:
MOS Burger is a Japanese franchise that specializes in rice burgers. MOS stands for Mountain, Ocean, Sea. A large iced coffee from MOS Burger is the same size of a Vinti at Starbucks, but it only costs less than one Canadian dollar.

I saw that I had just missed that extra long traffic light when the nice man at the purple rice ball stand handed me my change. I had two choices: I could stand on the sidewalk and breathe in car exhaust under the blazing sun for exactly 2 minutes and 30 seconds, or I could go into 7-11 where they blast the AC with no consideration for the thinning ozone layer. It wasn't difficult.

It took a couple of minutes at 7-11 to pay for a box of already-cut fruit and a bottle of water. Then it took precisely 12 seconds to walk to the intersection. While standing in the blotchy shadow of a free, I thought it was best to take out the exact change for my daily iced coffee. Crossing the 6-lane street took exactly 45 seconds. I know because, in Taipei, the pedestrian traffic light tells you exactly how many seconds you have. In case you're not good with the relation between time and distance, there is even a little green man underneath the time indicator to show you what to do. You walk leisurely when he walks leisurely; you run when he starts to run.

So I got to the other side safe and sound. When I stood in front of the MOS Burger stand, surprisingly no one was paying attention to me. I couldn't see my usual MOS lady.

A second side note:
Since MOS Burger is a Japanese franchise, quality service is EVERYTHING. What I'm used to is everyone is that stand loudly and proudly shouting in unison: "Huan Ying Guang Lin!" (the Chinese equivalence of "irrashiaimasu." as you walk into a Japanese restaurant)

But today was different. No usual MOS lady and no one greeted me. Puzzled, I poked my head in a bit and let out an uncertain, "Hello?" BAM! My usual MOS lady jumped out from underneath the cash register (okay, she didn't, but it appeared as if she did). "Your large iced coffee," she said cheerfully while stuffing a paper bag in my face. "How did you..." my mouth couldn't quite catch up with the string of questions racing in my head. "I spotted you from afar. In fact, I saw you getting out your change wallet when you were on the other side of the street."

My usual MOS lady's got the eyesight of a hawk.

2008-08-09T18:09:00.000-07:00

The Roller Coaster... Again

I fell asleep on the couch after we got home from Dr. Magichands office. When I woke up around 4pm, all hell broke loose.

I was so angry.
I never did anything to harm others, yet I feel like bad things keep happening to me. Okay, even with unfortunate things knocking down my door, I've always tried to keep a positive outlook on life. I've also overcome all the obstacles along the way with determination and hard work. I always believed "whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stranger". If we go with the analogy in Chinese culture, that "difficulties are the tests of life", I've passed a good number of tests so far and my reward is another obstacle waiting straight ahead.

That was the past, and now I can look back at it with my middle finger pointing upward and go, "HA!"

Since the diagnosis of ovarian cancer, I feel like someone is on a mission to destroy me. Whatever "problems" I encountered before, I was always able to "fix" them. Though there were a few bumps on the road, I was able to get what I wanted at the end. But the possibility of not being able to have my own children really hits the core, and the thought of it is simply unbearable. I've always wanted to go through the whole pregnancy thing and become a mother. I started having a recurring dream in which I was waiting for my kids to come home from school with cookies baking in the oven in a little white kitchen at 13, when I became fertile. It's a part of my identity, the purpose of my existence. Then I got cancer in the ovary, the source of fertility. Not only did I lose one ovary, my only good one may not be fully functional. As Dr. Magichands said yesterday, "The AMH result will tell us if it's even worthwhile to go through IVF." He was preparing me for the worst: my only hope may not be worth the effort. And I can't fix it. There's nothing I can do that will change the outcome.

I so desparately want to come out of the other end of this dark road laughing with my middle finger pointing straight up.

p.s. In case you're wondering why I haven't sought support or help, I have.
The Chinese ones are only successful cases. After all, can you imagine a woman advertising her infertility on the Internet in a Chinese society? The only responses she'll get are messages to her husband to dump her and get a younger one.
The English ones are a bit too girly for my liking. Just go to any infertility support forum and see for yourself. Those women speak in codes and the little flashy animated emocons made me wanna throw up. Also, I couldn't find anyone I could relate to. They're either younger than me, or they're my age already with 2 kids but wanting more.

2008-08-09T02:12:00.000-07:00

Dr. Magichands

Dr. Liu, my surgeon, recommended this fertility doctor, also a Dr. Liu, to us. After checking out this second Dr. Liu on the Internet and was pleased with what I read in the testimonials, I made an appointment for 10 o'clock this morning.

The doctor's office is on the 10th floor of a business building. The first thing I noticed was that there was no big signs downstairs, which suggested that he gets patients mainly through referrals. "It could be a good thing. That means he probably doesn't accept many appointments a day." When we walked into the office, however, there were at least 15 woman and their spouses in the waiting area. The receptionist gave us a form to fill out, so we went to the back where there was a table to write on. In that room, there were another 5 couples waiting. The sheer number of patients in the waiting area made both of us uneasy. Bill said he felt like he was in a factory. I started imagining eggs and sperms being mixed up or contaminated.

The form asks about the woman's medical history, allergies, cigarette/alcohol/drug use, family medical history, and everything there is to know about her menstrual cycle. On the flip side, it asks questions about the man's health condition and the purpose of this visit.

I could feel that my confidence level in the ability to get pregnant declining as I filled out my medical history. I wondered if the doctor would tell us that I'm a hopeless case. I tried to push negative thoughts out of my head and remind myself that we were there to find out about the procedure and check out this fertility doctor. If we don't like him, we have an appointment with another doctor on Monday. We won't do it unless we feel 100 % comfortable and confident in the doctor.

This doctor is obviously very successful. In the 1.5 hours we were waiting, there was a steady stream of patients coming in and out. The women coming in all looked nervous, and the ones leaving the office were all smiling with a blue bag of medication and some empty needles. On the wall, there was a custom-made wood carving with stylish Chinese brush writing, which roughly translates as: "Magic Hands that Bring Life". It was a gift from a patient and her husband. I could see the doctor in his office whenever a patient came out of it. He's bald, heavy-build, and he's got himself a very comfortable-looking, high-back chair. A sign of power. The impression of a money-sucking doctor who wouldn't give his patients the time of his day started to form.

As soon as we walked in to his big bright office, the doctor stood up and reached out his one of his magic hands to greet us. He is personable and very easy to talk to. The beginning of the visit was all in Chinese. He told us that he knows my surgeon and that he could assure us that had many years of experience. He also told me not to worry too much because he had dealt with women with my kind of medical history and succeeded. Then he effortlessly switched to English and started explaining the science behind the procedure. He asked about the details of the surgeries and jotted down relevant numbers and dates. His realistic and honest opinion, in a nutshell, is that it's gonna be tough considering how much my leftover left ovary has been through, but we won't know until we check out my ovarian function through a blood test for AMH.

We also did an ultrasound, and the doc examined my breasts and thyroid. When he squeezed my nipple, a droplet of milk emerged from the center. I was fascinated beyond belief and started wondering if the same thing would happen if I squeezed it. Dr. Magichands quickly ripped off his latex gloves and calmly said, "Ummm.. just as I suspected. It's a sign of irregular hormone function." If my life were a Japanese manga (comics), that was the square in which a huge piece of rock fell from the sky and squashed me underneath it.

Our next appointment with Dr. Magichands is at 2pm on August 30th to see the result of AMH.

2008-08-05T06:49:00.000-07:00

But they said...

I had been so excited about going to and having seen the Dark Knight that my students have started to take a bit of interest in the movie. Coincidentally, the major theme for this week is movies and using more colorful adjectives to describe movie stars (after all, they're not all only beautiful, good, or funny).

As soon as I began the lesson this morning, however, one of my students looked at me and said, "Kate, have you heard about Morgan Freeman?"

*pause*

Okay, you need a bit more background information here. Before talking about movies and books, we spent about 3 days on the theme "The News". I put the links to English news programs on our class site and encouraged them to spend 5 or 10 minutes to check out the news in "real" English. In class, the students listened to news reports and tried to get the gist of the stories. They learned expressions like "The investigation is due to start tomorrow" and "Two workers were fatally injured."

*resume*

So back to the classroom when a student asked me if I heard about Morgan Freeman. As soon as he mentioned the name, more students jumped in trying to tell me what they heard on the news. After a brief moment of indistinguishable noise of students talking on top of one another, one voice came through, "and he was fatally injured." While fighting back the urge to give him a hug for using what he had just learned a few days ago, we got on the Internet to check out what exactly went on. After reading a few links and got the impression that Mr. Freeman is doing fine, the student seemed almost disappointed.

"Okay. I'm sure there will be more report on Mr. Freeman's condition tonight. Now let's get back to our discussion from yesterday..."
"But Kate," the student interrupted, "they said he was fatally injured when I saw it on the news yesterday."
"I'm sure you heard it right," I praised him.

Can you imagine how excited he was the night before when he understood "fatally injured" on an English news program?

2008-08-02T18:05:00.000-07:00

A Knight to Remember

We couldn't have asked for better seats.
It was so awesome that when Batman jumped off a building, chills ran down my spine and my knees got weak.

Heath Ledger was the Joker.

2008-07-30T03:59:00.000-07:00

Getting Tickets to the Dark Knight at the IMAX Theater has been an unpleasantly exciting experience.
We first heard that, for the weekend shows, tickets would be on sale on Thursday.
Today at work, however, Shannon and I got on the website to check out the seating map. As we were chatting about where we'd prefer to sit, I thought I'd call the theater and double check on the time tickets would go on sale. The girl on the other end of the line (she sounded like she's 13 years old) calmly told me that tickets would be available online at 6pm TODAY! Boy, was I happy that I called!

I got on the wensite on both laptops as soon as I got home at 5pm. I spent an hour browsing the net: emailing, checking out the courses other university-affiliated language centers offer, and reading the news. At 6 o'clock sharp, I start clicking the "booking" icons on both computers. It took a few tries to get the show times for Saturday. Once I got past the "ticket selection" part, it became the race between the two computers. It all boiled down to which computer can load faster. I was so pumped with adrenalin that my eyes darted back and forth between the two computer screens like pinballs. I rolled the chair between two desks and I got one hand on each computer like a mission comtrol specialist. When Nuage jumped up on the desk looking for attention, I barked, "GET DOWN, NUAGE!" so loudly that he scrambled down to the floor and went hiding under the couch.

When it was time to select seats, Bill's Asus took the lead 'cause I realized I had to download Java on my Sony. While the seating map was loading at the speed of one little green bar every few minutes on Asus, Sony completed downloading Java in a flash. A sense of triumph washed over me and gave me goose bumps. I watched as the "loading" bar got filled at a satisfying speed. Then *black*

SONY CRASHED!!!

I quickly restarted and abandoned Sony and devoted all my attention to Asus. Unfortunately, the loading of the seating map was stuck at one and a half green bar short from completion. I watched the small dots circled around and around on the upper tool bar... around and around... aroudn and around... but nothing happened. At the same time, Sony came back alive again and exhaled that "what-sounded-beautifl-at-the-time" jingle, I pushed myself off away from Bill's desk. My fingers were ready to go, but Firefox had automatically started performing system upgrade. As I read the small print on the top of the pop-up box, "This might take a few minutes," I realized I was pulling my hair out, literally.

With Asus stuck on a page that wouldn't finish loading and Sony buzzing away while Firefox updated the system, I retreated to a less high-tech device -- the telephone. To my surprise, I got through on the first try on the ticket-order line. I followed the pre-recorded instructions and pressed in every number required carefully. I even waited for a few more seconds after the robotic female voice said, "Thank you for using the ticket-order line at the IMAX Theater. Please remeber to pick up your tickets fourty minutes before show time. Good-bye." just to make sure that I had completed the process. Pleased with my quick-thinking ability, I closed all the windows on both computers, removed my bum checks (now sore) from the chair, and rang up Dorion (with pride) to tip him on my easy success using the phone.

D: "You've been trying to get tickets?"
K: "Yeah... you know what? Forget the computer. Just use the phone. They've got an automated voice-messaging system to guide you through the steps. And they've got English too if you need it."
D: "Were you able to get tickets?"
K: "Oh yeah! Easily."
D: "Were you able to select seats?"
K: (oh, crap) "..."
D: "Remember that time we went to see Tranformer? We were stuck in the front at Warner Village and the music was so loud and our necks were sore afterwards..."

Maybe, just maybe, it was so easy for me to get the tickets over the phone because NO ONE wanted to be stuck in the front the IMAX screen, which is like... what? 8-storeys-high?

2008-07-28T02:07:00.000-07:00

Typhoon Day Off

The entire island stayed home today as Typhoon Fung Shen passed through Taiwan. Other than short periods of strong wind and rain, it really wasn't all that stormy up here in Taipei. Bill and I spent the day catching up on some work. Once in a while, I noticed sore spots on the back of my head and my back. We reckoned these were from hitting the tables as I went down at Underworld.

I still can't wrap my head around the fact that we were involved in a fight. I was 15 the last time someone shoved me. The thought of being shoved at 36 is really embarrassing.

2008-07-27T00:55:00.000-07:00

ACTION PACKED

It was nearly impossible to get tickets to The Dark Knight at the IMAX theater, so we went to a vintage party at Paris Night Club instead (http://campolive.blogspot.com).

A lot of people got all dolled up for the party: Go-Go girls, guys dressed like Sherlock Holmes, and lots of hippies. It was like a scene from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, minus the big hair. My favorite was a young Taiwanese dude dressed like a Japanese farmer clunking away on the dance floor with a pair of "geta" slippers.

We danced and chatted with a bunch of good friends till 2 in the morning.

At the end of the party, we took the party to "Underworld". As its name suggests, "Underworld" is a dark drinking hole in the basement on the bottom of a narrow, slippery-looking staircase. When we got down there, it was packed and the music rattled every bone in my body. I waited in line for the only washroom while Bill went outside looking for an alternative. When I came out of the washroom, I saw Bill standing a few feet away. I also saw a Taiwanese guy and a black dude talking trash at each other. As soon as I got to Bill's side, I said, "I think those two guys are gonna start a figh...". Then we were shoved backward and fell onto the ground.

I remember sitting on the floor between two tables with cake all over me wondering what had happened. There were sounds of shrieking, growling, and thumping coming from above. With the bright white light flashing on the ceiling, all I could see was silhouettes cutting in and out of the light beam. Then I heard Bill's angry voice, "You -----. That was my girlfriend you pushed." I reached out and realized he had stood up. Then I saw a lot of legs closing in on where Bill was standing.

I quickly got up and my eyes finally adjusted to the light. Bill had his back to the wall and he was surrounded by a group of Taiwanese guys with their arms extended toward him. He was fending off shoving and grabbing hands, even removing one guy's hand from his throat, and saying "it's ok, it's ok, stop, stop." Some people tried to pull those guys away while a few people came and stood by Bill. I went between Bill and those guys from the side, putting my arms on top of all of theirs, yelling, "You're picking on the wrong guy. The guy you want is over there." (the black dude was in a fight of his own near the washroom) No one heard me (well, they were necessarily listening). I was scared and frustrated. All I wanted was for this to be over so we could go home. But Bill and those guys were still engaged in a lot of shoving and fighting action.

Then some guy grabbed my shoulders and turned me around. I saw where I went down and there were shattered beer bottles everywhere. Glass! A scary thought flashed through my mind and I was about to freak. I frantically turned around, determined to get Bill out of here. As I turned, I was greeted by Bill's arms. "Babe," he looked me in the eye, "I just gotta get my glasses and we'll go, okay?" he said. I looked around and the crowd had dispersed. What happened? I stood there alone while all the other people moving about around me. A few random people came and asked if I was okay and if he was okay. "His glasses," I said to them, "We gotta find his glasses."

Eventually the black dude was pulled and pushed out of the pub, and the Taiwanese guy disappeared in the crowd. We found Bill's glasses, went to the back far away from the crime scene, and shook it off over 2 bottles of Heineken.

2008-07-26T04:34:00.000-07:00

Please Be Patient

Many of you asked why I haven't been blogging; some of you guessed perhaps I've lost interest.
It was hard to blog when I was crashing on people's couches during the trip to the west coast. After I got back to Taiwan, however, my laptop crashed.

Bill returned to Taipei last Friday, so we can share his computer for a while. I'll do the pictures first and upload them onto my Flickr account (I'll send out an email invitation when the pics are ready).

2008-07-02T14:57:00.000-07:00

Out of Touch

To those who don't know Vancouver well, there are three places to go skiing in Vancouver: Whistler Mountains (where the 2010 Winter Olympics are going to be held), Mt. Seymour, and Cypress Mounatins. The latter two are also street names in the Greater Vancouver area.

Sunday, June 29th
On my way to meet Lisa and Claire at WhineO.
#17 bus Downtown
K: "Excuse me, sir. Do you go to Granville and Nelson?"
Driver: "Not that many buses go down Granville anymore because of the construction, but I go to Cypress and Nelson..."
K: "Isn't Cypress in Kits?'
Driver: "Well, Cypress is one block parallel to Granville. I can drop you off at the corner at Nelson."
K: "I've been away for 4 years, and there have been so many changes here."

While I was admiring the gorgeous sunset over Granville Bridge and feeling a bit sad about how out of touch I was, a voice came up on the Intercom, "The lady in blue, please approach to the front?" I was the only one on the bus in blue.
Driver: "I'm sorry. I got my mountains mixed up. I go to Seymour and Nelson, not Cypress. Maybe I've been away for a few years but don't know it.

Tuesday, Canada Day
#9 Alma (from Broadway Station to Arbutus)
I wanted to find a pair of comfy flipflops that I can actually walk in, so I went down to 4th Ave. When I got on the bus, the driver had a yellow and orange hazard vest over the ticket machine which, logically, meant that we didn't have to pay. He greeted everyone with, "Happy Canada Day." Going shopping on 4th was a mistake 'cause everything was expensive. After a couple of hours, I finally decided to abort my original plan and agreed to meet up with Lisa and Jordy on Main Street.

#9 Broadway Station (From Arbutus to Main)
Because of the previous bus ride, I didn't even bother taking out a bus ticket when the bus arrived. I said hi to the driver and happily sat down in the seat by the window. I noticed the bus driver was looking at me from the rearview mirror, and other passengers were putting their tickets into the machine. I realized the mistake I'd made, so I quickly took out a ticket and went to the front.

K: "I thought it was free to ride the bus today."
Driver: "And why did you think that?"
K: "'Cause it's Cananda Day." (Don't ask me why. I know I should've told him about my previous bus ride instead.)
Driver: "I've never heard of that, and I've been working here for 20 years."
Some other passengers agreed with the driver, talking about the fact that free transit only happens on New Year's Day).
Driver: "You should run for office of the BC Premiere. Then you can implement this law of free transit on national holidays. I'm sure you'll be elected."
A passenger: "I'd vote for ya."

2008-06-30T01:07:00.000-07:00

Workout Sessions with Trainer Jordy

1:03AM, Monday, June 30, 2008
The Redden's Residence

My entire body is sore…
I don't think I walked as much in Taiwan as I have in the past few days in Vancouver. Spent the entire afternoon on Jericho Beach with Jacqueline last Friday. Jac, look how gorgeous you are, girl!

Yesterday after the Jazz Fest, Lisa made me walk from Science World back to her place on the Drive along shadeless Terminal Drive. That walk was borderline unbearable, especially with all the cars zooming by right next to us. Jordy wasn't really "walking", but even he got exhausted from being under the sun for so long. I will never let you forget the agony you put me through, Lisa Martin!

Aside from walking, I've been working on my arms as well through lifting Jordy up and down. At 7 months, the biggest frustration in life is that he's not entirely mobile yet. Consequently, he just LOVES being vertical, and he LOVES bouncing around when he's vertical. That's when aunt Katie comes in. She's part Jordy supporter part funny noise maker. Jordy always cracks up when he's being tossed around, so my arms get a wicked workout whenever I'm holding Jordy upright.
To all the moms our there, you have my deepest respect. Holding a child is tiring; playing with a squirmy child is real hard work.

2008-06-30T01:00:00.000-07:00

6:00am June 23th, 2008
The Redden's residence, Vancouver, Canada

I was deep into the Lego Indiana Jones game when Scott brought Jordy into the living room this morning. He was only half-dressed (Jordy was) and he was all happy and bouncy (Jordy was). Scott practically dumped his son in my arms before I had time to react. Next thing I knew, I had Jordy in my arms drooling like a leaking faucet and studying my face like I was a creature from Mars. "It's the glasses," Scott offered an explanation for the mixture of horror and fascination on his son's face, "He's never seen anyone with glasses on." I felt this sudden rush of affection and my mouth moved, "And da straight hair 'n it'sth BLaaACK! Bet you've never seen a lady with black hair. Different eyez 'n nosth 'n a different faceth 'n…." Oh my! I Came to my senses and heard myself speaking with a put-on lisp in a high-pitched voice. I was dooin' da baaby talk.
Lisa and I spent the whole day catching up. That girl was so devoted to the baby and so sleep-deprived that she fell off her train of thoughts every couple of minutes. Jordy was fast asleep in the carrier. Everything was perfect. It was sunny and breezy. Lots of kids were playing in and around the lake, and people were sunbathing or jogging.
I took a nap in the afternoon and had very adventurous dreams (the NDS game of Lego Indy I've been playing definitely had some influence). After Scott got home, we had dinner and headed out to a beach. It's their family tradition to read Dr. Seuss on the beach on the longest day of the summer. We had wine and cheese, and Scott read "You're Only Old Once, A Book for Obsolete Children". On the way home, I asked how they started this tradition. They only remembered that it started in 2002.

At 7 months, Jordy is already an adrenaline junky. He loves height, speed, and rough play.

12:00pm June 24th
Kitslano, Vancouver, Canada

The owner of the corner store near Lisa's place is an older East Indian dude who moves and talks very slowly. From behind the counter, he answered, "No, we don't sell bus tickets here." (silence) I prompted, "Can you tell me where I can get a book of tickets around here, sir?" (silence) "Shoppers on Broadway," he replied lazily.
I couldn't remember if I was supposed to put the ticket into the machine when I got on the bus or if I should wait till I got off. It was a #99 B-line to UBC, which only stops at major intersections along Broadway. I waited to see what other passengers did and ended up taking a free ride. Oh well, I spent 12 bucks on the book of tickets, so technically I paid.
On my walk down to the beach, various passersby smiled and greeted me. It reminded me of how I felt during the first few days after my very first arrival in Vancouver in 1994. I remember being impressed with how friendly people were here. Some things never change and, as far as I'm concerned, it's good that they stay the same. Got a grande iced hazelnut latte from the Starbucks at Kits Beach, and it tasted different from the ones in Taiwan -- I could actually taste the coffee in it.

The Kits area has and will always have a great significance in my Vancouver for many reasons. The foremost and most important reason is that it was the first area I lived in, which in turn shaped my first impressions of this wonderful city. It is also one of my favorite spots in the city because it's absolutely beautiful and always has a positive vibe. People in Kits are healthy and happy. Over the years, it has attracted a lot of organic food lovers and young buffed university kids. What I noticed on this visit was that there seemed to be a lot more couples jogging or taking a walk while pushing a stroller. Nonetheless, the fact that people in Kits were beautiful and fit totally inspired me to get off my butt and start working on my body.

2008-06-23T23:21:00.000-07:00

Midnight Sunday, June 22nd
Taoyuan Airport, Taiwan

We're still not movin'.

The itinerary clearly states that the flight was scheduled to take off at precisely 11:55pm. It's now almost ten minutes past midnight, yet we haven't even taxied out to the runway. I requested for a seat at the bulkhead when I checked in, thinking I'd have more leg room, Unfortunately, the seats on EVA Air are so narrow and small that it really doesn't make a difference where you sit. Not to worry, however, I had a Good look-around and got a couple of things figured out during the 10-hour flight. I'm gonna request a seat at the emergency exit on the way back. Those guys at the Exits got to put their legs up on the bulging lower part of the emergency exits, and they got their own little movable TV screens that came right above their fold-away dinner trays. Those of us at the bulkhead, on the other hand, had to stare at the big TV screen that showed only the weather condition and flight info the whole time. We didn't get to see any of the in-flight movies.

I passed out soon after take-off and pretty much slept the entire way through. The flight attendant woke me up to fill out the declaration card to enter Canada. With foggy eyes (from dried out contact lenses in my eyes) and a foggy brain, I managed to scribble in the correct information in the right boxes. The older Taiwanese couple (around 70 years old) sitting next to me, however, looked puzzled. I eavesdropped on their argument and found out: (1) the husband is an old soldier from Mainland China that came with the KMT government during the war, (2) he's literate but he only speaks Mandarin, (3) the wife is illiterate and she only speaks Taiwanese, and (4) this is their very first time on a plane, and at this moment they had no idea what the card was for or how to fill it out.
By the time I finished filling out the declaration card, I was wide awake. I offered the Taiwanese couple my help. While I was filling out the card for them, the wife filled me in on their family history. I got to know how many children they have and how many grandchildren each child had. I learned about the only 3 years of primary education she received during the war, and how she picked it up again and went to night school from the age of 48 to 51. When I asked her to sign on the bottom of the declaration card, she carved each stroke slowly and carefully but it still came outside of the signature box. She looked up at me apologetically and said, "I haven't practiced writing much since my first grandson was born, which was also the time I graduated from night school."

7:20pm Sunday, June 22nd
YVR Vancouver International Airport, BC Canada

I choked up and got watery-eyed as soon as I got a whiff of the carpet cleaning detergent. Not because it was pungent but because it smelled exactly the same as the one I used in my first apartment in Vancouver. In mental-association terms, it was the smell of a clean home.

As a visitor, I noticed a few refreshingly interesting things. What astonished me first was the very first living thing that greets visitors at YVR is a blue tank of jellyfish. I thought it was a bit odd when I walked by the tank of jellyfish the first time. I was about 6 steps away from the tank when I decided to turn back and get a picture of it because it seemed so out of place. It was like this totally random thing that the airport designers threw in last minute just to fill a big hole in the wall.

Generally speaking, the whole concept of the interior design was built around the First Nations art and the lush wilderness that Vancouverites take pride in. It was no surprise to see a few totem poles or wood carvings of whales. There is even a manmade stream with a few fake logs over it inside the atrium of the departure terminal, so travelers can enjoy the soothing sound of running water while they wait for their flights

The second pleasant reminder was how nice Canadians really are. When everyone was inching forward in the huge line-up at the Customs, neighboring strangers initiated and picked up conversations here and there to kill time. As soon as a handful of travelers shared their anxiety and/or fear of missing a connected flight to the next destination, people at different points of the long snake-like line offered to let those travelers cut in so they'd get to the Customs officers faster. What was so nice and refreshing was the fact that people acknowledged my existence and they looked me in the eye when they talked. Though it was a pain in the butt to be waiting in line for an hour to get out of the airport, everyone managed to remain civilized and patient. Even the Customs Officers were nice and polite.

The conversation with the Customs Officer

CO: "Good evening, Ma'am."
K: "Hi there. Busy night you've got here."
CO: "A lot of international flights all came in at once. That's why we've got a bit of a congestion here. Nah~ I wouldn't say it's particularly busier than other nights. It's…uh…"
K: "Kinda like rush-hour traffic."
CO: "Exactly, and it will disappear before you know it. Are you traveling by yourself, Ma'am?"
K: "Yes, I am."
CO: "And when was the last time you were in Canada?"
K: "3 years ago."
CO: "You're a Canadian citizen. And what took you so long to come home, Ma'am?"
K: "Cancer and a whole lot of things."
CO: "I'm sorry, Ma'am. What do you do in Taiwan besides battling cancer?"
K: "I teach."
CO: "How long are you staying this time, Ma'am?"
K: "About 18 days."
CO: "And what will you be dong while you're in Canada?"
K: "Visiting friends and simply relaxing."
CO: "Good plan. Did you by any chance purchase any alcohol or tobacco as gifts, Ma'am?"
K: "Nope. Would you like me to show you what I got?"
CO: "That won't be necessary. You have yourself a relaxing trip, Ma'am (wink)."

2008-06-20T01:02:00.000-07:00

Two Sleeps Away

"I'll see you on Sunday," I said to Lisa at the end of the international phone call I made this morning. It felt surreal. The last time I was back in Vancouver was summer '06, right before all the medical stuff took place. A lot has happened during these two years, and I've longed to be back .

Finally, I'm heading home.

After the phone call thing morning, I made a list of the things I want to do: I wanna take walks on the Drive, along Kits Beach, and perhaps around UBC campus. I'm gonna spend the afternoon at Douglas Park, at the Water Front, and on 4th Ave. Of course, Lisa and I won't miss the Vancouver Jazz Fest. Also, I started thinking about all the people I want to see, but I quickly realized I may only have a handful of friends in Vancouver left.

It's always been easy for me to meet people and make friends. However, I've also been selective and kept a small social circle since I was a kid. In high school, my mom told me that one should consider oneself lucky with one or two life-long friends. I didn't quite understand what she meant then, but I learned to draw a clear distinction between acquaintances and friends after a few melodramatic adolescent falling-outs I experienced. I learned the number of friends one has is meaningless. In fact, I find it hard to completely trust a person who boasts how many friends s/he's got.

Coincidentally, just as I was reminiscing, I received a text message from work about a colleague's resignation. It wasn't a surprise 'cause she told me about it in private last night at a friend's farewell party. It's been like the Domino Effect since Christienne went back to the States to do a Master's degree. One after another, three of the good friends I've made in the past four years I've been in Taiwan are back in the U.S., and now another one is heading back to Ireland in a week. My social circle in Taiwan is now so small that, if I think about it seriously, it's already diminished to a single dot.

I guess it's normal for people our age.

2008-05-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

My CA-125 value has gone up again to 63.15. Anywhere above 35 is considered high.
My doctor thinks my endometriosis might be the cause of the rising of CA-125, and he's suggesting a hormone-alteration drug called Danazol. I looked it up online and it's a drug that contains a small amount of testosterone. As you can imagine, one of the side effects is a deepened voice.

How fun! Other than losing an ovary and running the risk of never being able to get pregnant, the next thing I need is something to make me even less feminine.

2008-05-15T06:56:00.000-07:00

Creeeeeeep

I was on my way to an MRT station when someone tapped me on the shoulder from behind.
"Who could it be?" I wondered as I turned around. Standing in front of me was a Taiwanese guy with a very large and shiny forehead. He looked about... anywhere between 28 and 35 years old. "Can I be friends with you?" he actually uttered this typical Taiwanese pickup line with confidence. I was dumbfounded, struggling to find the right thing to say.
"Huh?" was all I could manage.
"Can I be friends with you? I mean, you're beautiful and you give out this very nice vibe..."
OMG! What kind of a creep picks up chicks on the street? Unprepared, my mind went blank.
Next thing I knew, I slurred a string of mixed sounds of English and Chinese. It took me exactly six seconds to realize that I was pretending I didn't speak much Chinese (how pathetic). I gave him the usual: I don't give out my telephone number to strangers, and I have a boyfriend. He responded, "I won't call you" (well then, what do you want my number for?) and "Is your boyfriend Taiwanese?" (What difference does that make?) "I just want to be friends with you," he insisted.

Fast-forward to the end of the story. He followed me onto the train, wanting to carry on our conversation. I called my friend Brian and stayed on the phone with him the whole time, yapping about absolutely nothing just to appear busy. He finally stopped following me when I exited the MRT station.

I came home with his name and cell phone number on the last page of a writing textbook.

Later that night when we were both on the couch, I told Bill what had happened. As I acted out the story, Bill looked increasingly agitated and uncomfortable. His brows knotted and he was looking around as if he had lost something. "Looking at the bright side," I said cheerfully, "at 36, I should be flattered that some random guy on the street tried to pick me up."

"Babe," Bill said sternly and slowly, "your feet stink."
Ka-boom! Slam face down to the ground!
"Who cares?" I asserted. "I'm attractive. Some guy on the street found me hot." I put my feet on the coffee table. They did smell a bit.
"E-hem," Bill cleared his throat, "it's pretty bad. Would you please go wash your feet?"
Unwillingly, I jumped off the couch and headed for the bathroom.
As I made stinky footprints all over the house, I said (loudly) to Bill, "Instead of staying on the phone with Brian, I should've shove one of my stinky feet under the creep's nose. That would've shown him."

"You sure showed me." I think that's what Bill replied... as if his own feet smell like peaches and cream.

2008-04-19T22:55:00.000-07:00

Pictures from the Trip

I am so sorry that it took me this long to finally get back to the blog.
I simply don't have time to blog when I'm working. On weekends, the last thing I wanna do is to sit in front of the computer for hours.
*Sigh* So much to do and so little time.
Even though I still have a lot of stories to tell, I've come to realize that I would not be able to type them all up today. Since many of you have been asking the same question, here they are.
I'll type up the stories when... when I type up the stories.

Malapascua, Cebu, Philippines

Chilling out in the afternoon

Is that water beautiful or what?

Calm Before the Storm

Kate's Virgin Dive

Star Fish

Defensive Clown Fish

Billy Boy Going on a Wreck Dive

Early Morning Visit to the Thresher Sharks

Bill only saw the tail of a thresher shark, but this Devil Ray came check him out and did a little fly-by.

Right before leaving the island, we had to have a picture together.

2008-04-08T01:41:00.001-07:00

What A Day
Sunday, March 30^th, 2008

8:30am – 2:00pm

We knew there was still a bit of traveling to do before reaching our final destination, but we didn’t want to rush it. Had we known what laid ahead, we would’ve done it differently.

After breakfast, we headed out on foot to a mall nearby to get some toiletry stuff. It was just shortly before 10, but the sun was already blazing hot. My back was completely soaked when we walked to Alaya Mall. The mall wasn’t open yet but there was a big group of people waiting outside the door. As soon as the door opened, the group of people transformed into two single-filed lines. Every bag had to be inspected and each individual was patted down by the security guards. At the entrance, a sign with big bold letters in cop blue: “No Hand Guns or Other Firearms Allowed.” Security at the mall was almost as tight as that at any international airport.

It was almost noon when we got back to Kukus Nest. We thought we’d spend the $2,000p and hire a cab to drive us to Maya Pier, but we couldn’t find a cab. Our only option was to take the jeepney to the bus station, take a 3-hour bus to Maya Pier, and get on a boat to Malapascua.

Bill and I are no spring chickens when it comes to long and uncomfortable means of transportation. In Thailand, we traveled on a bus for 22 hours, and in Cambodia, we zipped between cars on bumpy roads on the back of a motorcycle. Little did we know, the 3-hour bus ride turned out to be a ride from hell. It was the worst of Thailand and Cambodia combined, plus a whole lot more.

Kate’s Secret Though #1: “Why can’t you say it right?”

Our first task was to catch the jeepney to SM Mall. While standing at a random street corner under the unforgiving sun, Bill explained to me that the stops were written on the sides of the jeepney and the number was usually on the roof. I had my eyes open for one that had SM Mall on its side. Out of the blue, one pulled up in front of us and the driver was yelling, “Same! Same!” Bill almost immediately started heading toward the back of the car. Uncertain, I asked again (as slowly and clearly as I could), “S.M. Mall?” “Same! Same!” the driver replied.

At SM Mall, we had to catch another jeepney to go to the Northern Bus Terminal (written as NBT on some jeepneys). When we got on, Bill asked the driver to tell us when we got to NBT. The driver gave him a barely audible “Yeh.” Bill reconfirmed, “You tell us when we get there, okay?” The driver looked at him from the rearview mirror without making a sound.

After weaving half way across town, we arrived at a bus terminal. We were getting ready to get off when Bill asked again, “Northern Bus Terminal?” The driver didn’t say anything but a passenger answered, “No. This is Southern Bus Terminal.” Bill and I both started at the driver, who looked at us innocently and quietly. The passenger pointed us to a jeepney that was about to take off, so we scrambled out of this one and into the other jeepney, which would take us all the way back to SM Mall and further up north.

Kate’s Secret Though #2: “Why on earth are you making that sound?!”

The roof of a jeepney is really low. It was so low that Bill and I practically had to crawl in. Though it was no air-conditioned family sedan, it was nevertheless bearable. I could deal with being packed with 10 other sweaty individuals in a tin box under the mid-day sun. What I found agitating was that loud sucking teeth sound the Filipinos were making all along the ride. Everyone was doing it: men and women of all ages and from all walks of life. A young lady in a nice white blouse and black tight skirt who squinted her eyes and covered her mouth because of the dusty air would remove her dainty handkerchief in a gipsy just to make that awful sound with her mouth. Even the little girl who had been curiously looking at Bill and me and whom I thought was quite cute and pretty also made that sucking sound just when I turned and smiled at her. I heard the descending tune of a video game as her cuteness meter dropped.

Kate’s Secret Thought #3: “We’re gonna get killed and no one will know about it.”

The Northern Bus Terminal is a real hustling-bustling place. It was packed with locals going to different places. People were talking, vendors were shouting, and the TV was on full volume. As soon as we stepped off the jeepney, everyone’s eyes were on us. We were the only foreigners there. Different people pointed us to all directions for a bus to Maya Pier and they were quoting different prices for the bus fare. It took us a while to finally get some straight answers from a chubby dude in a yellow busline uniform. He told us the bus would arrive in 10 minutes and asked us not to go anywhere. The bus wasn’t there in 10 minutes. Bill and I decided to find somewhere to sit. As soon as we wandered away from Mr. Chubby, some random guy came to us and told us to go with him. We were pretty good about fending a couple of those off for a while. However, after 40 minutes of waiting in the noisy chaotic Bus Terminal, we started to lose our patience.

One guy came and told us that he could get us to Maya in 2 hours in an air-con’d van for $2,000p. The deal was particularly tempting because (1) that was how much we were prepared to pay the cab driver in the first place, and (2) we were tired, hot, and confused. We followed the man to a white van. I got into the van first and noticed the driver and another man in the passenger’s seat were there already. They both had reflective fake Rayban sunglasses on so I couldn’t see their eyes. I didn’t like that.

A man asked if Bill would like some rice crackers for the road. It was around 1:30pm. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast and we still had a couple of hours of traveling to do, so we bought a bag. When Bill got out his wallet, I saw the handful of men standing way too close around him all had their eyes fixed on the content of the wallet. Even the driver and the other dude were looking from the mirrors. After Bill put the rice crackers in the van, the guy who brought us to the van started asking us to pay him $200p in advance. Bill didn’t understand him and proceeded into the van. One of Bill’s butt cheeks had just touched the seat when I freaked out. “I don’t trust them,” I said, “Let’s get out.” The guys outside had already started shutting the door. Bill put his right hand on the door, turned to me, and asked, “You wanna get out?” The driver started slowly moving the van. I started pushing Bill out. “Stop! Stop the car!” Bill shouted as we hopped out of the van.

(to be continued)

2008-04-08T01:41:00.000-07:00

What A Day
Sunday, March 30^th, 2008
2:00pm – 9:00pm

When we walked back into the bus terminal, everyone was looking at us. There were concerns and pity in their eyes, but the corner of their mouths also gave away a tint of pride.

Mr. Chubby rushed over to lead us back to the waiting area. On the way he tapped Bill’s arm, pointed at the van with his chin and said, “Swindle.” Swindle or not, I felt better knowing that our next ride to Maya would be on a public bus.

It felt like as if a war had broken out as soon as the bus slowly backed into the station. A big crowd rushed toward it, pushing and elbowing others out of the way at the door. Mr. Chubby and his buddy were among the bus chasers and, in no time, our bags occupied two seats on the bus. Bill also hopped on the moving bus and reached out at the door for my hand. Focused on his hand, I misjudged the height of the first step and almost fell flat on my face. Luckily, Mr. Chubby caught me and pulled me up.

The seats were hard and small. My knees were against the back of the seat in front of me and Bill had to keep his knees apart the whole time. While Bill and I felt uncomfortably cramped in the two seats, the Filipinos somehow managed to squeeze 3 adults and a couple of kids in the same space. Those who came on board too late stood or squatted in the aisle and by the doors. What was really nerve-wrecking was that the doors were open while the bus was racing down bumpy winding roads.

I felt relieved when the bus was on its way. He locals told us it’d take about 3 hours to Maya, so we reckoned we could be in Malapascua in time for sunset and dinner. After the bus made the first right turn our of the bus terminal, it stopped to pick up some random people at the corner. I figured those people must be friends of the driver or the conductor. The bus continued on for another 15 minutes or so, and it stopped at another random street corner again. Some got off; some got on. “Okay,” I thought, “This bus probably gives people rides here and there in the city. It will be a smooth ride once we get out of the city.” Well, it didn’t. It didn’t take us long to realize that pick-ups and drop-offs were part of the ride. I started to worry. At this rate, how were we gonna get there in 4 hours? “Stay positive,” I cheered myself up, “When the locals said 3 hours, it must mean 3 hours including the pick-ups and drop-offs.”

The bus took us up and around the grassy mountains on Cebu. With my eyes fixed on the world outside the windows, I saw how rough the living condition is for some of the poorest people in the Philippines. They live in small shads in the woods and pump underground water for laundry. Children and adults all wear faded hand-me-down clothes from the West. Filipino parents receive tax exemption when they have more than 5 kids, so it’s common to see a 5^th-grader walking with an infant on her back while holding a toddler’s hand. The favorite pass time is to find a shady spot on the side of a road and watch the world go by. Kids excitedly giggled and ran alongside the bus when they spotted Bill, the only Caucasian on the bus. For most of them, I’d imagine, the bus symbolized the unknown – it’s a big metal box that comes from and goes to places they may never have a chance to see, carrying strange-looking people they may never have a chance to meet.

It was 5:30pm. The sun had started to set and we were only in Bogo – another 1.5 hours away from Maya. Though it was never verbalized, Bill and I both started to worry. We had no idea if there would be boats going to Malapascua from Maya, and we didn’t know if there were places to stay in Maya if we needed to spend the night. At 7:30pm, while the bus slowly cruised through the town of Maya, Bill asked the bus conductor if there were hotels. “No,” the bus conductor answered promptly, “but special boat to Malapascua.”

The sea was pitch dark when we got off the bus at the Pier. We hired a “special boat” for 1,000p, which also took two Filipinas (of course they got a free ride because of us). On the half-hour ride on the sea, I saw the most stars I’d ever seen in my life. Also for the first time, I saw the Big Dipper big and clear in front of me. Not a bad welcome, I’d say.

At 9:00pm, we finally set foot on the soft sand on Malapascua. We were stiff, hungry, and exhausted. It's too dark now to see anything, but this island's better be mind-blowingly beautiful to make all that traveling worthwhile.

2008-04-04T01:24:00.000-07:00

Flying Over the Kukus Nest

Saturday, March 29^th, 2008

Our travel plan for today was plain and simple:

Taipei - Manila; Manila - Cebu.

We chatted with the woman sitting next to us on the plane from Taipei to Manila. She’s an overseas Taiwanese who’s now a permanent resident in the Philippines. She went back to Taiwan a week earlier to take part in the Presidential Election. After we told her where we were heading, she offered us a ride to the domestic airport and gave us her cell phone number “in case you run into any problems in Cebu”. We were grateful for her generosity, but we wanted to see what happened with our flight transfer.

We ended up taking the shuttle bus from the international airport to the domestic one. The bus was cramped and dark. After a bumpy ride in a stuffy bus, some of the passengers were getting a bit short-tempered and annoyed at the driver for not announcing the stops. Bill and I got off the bus feeling proud that we remained cool and relaxed. Our daily commute in Taipei was proven useful in dealing with stressful situations.

The flight from Manila to Cebu wasn’t as short and sweet as we expected. First of all, the girl at the check-in counter printed two tickets under my name, so we had to go back to have one changed. Then the flight was delayed for half an hour, so we hung out in the boarding lounge watching cheesy Filipino soap opera about a woman who was determined to win a beauty pageant.

We were tired and hungry when we finally got to our hotel around 9:30pm. Though our room wasn’t new and modern, it had a colonial feel to it and it had an AC (a very loud one). After dropping our backpacks off, we went to the bar to get some dinner. There was no seat outside in the yard, so we ended up sharing a heavy solid wooden table in the living room with a middle-aged European dude and his “companion”. He looked about 50 something, and she looked about 12… okay, maybe 16. They didn’t have much to talk about with each other (surprise, surprise). The man did most of the talking, which was pretty much lame jokes followed by some nervous chuckle. At the end of their meal, she asked if she could doggy-bag her curry chicken and he replied, “You’re gonna bring this home to your mom? I hope this isn’t her dinner ‘cause it’s kinda late. (chuckle)” She didn’t laugh. In fact, I don’t think she understood everything he had said. She reconfirmed, “May I?” when the waitress put the packed food on the table. “Oh sure. Go ahead,” he said, “It’s not like I’m bringing it home to my family, you know?! (chuckle)” Once again, he was the only one laughing.

After the grody man and the girl left, a young blond Swiss guy came in to pick up his bags from behind the bamboo dividers next to our table. When he was struggling to squeeze those two duffel bags through the narrow space between the bar and the bamboo dividers, he stopped for a brief second but still decided to force them through. Sure enough, the bamboo dividers came falling down right above my head. In an instant, my Chinese ancestry kicked in and I caught a corner of the bamboo dividers in mid air with only my right hand. It was like in those kung fu movies: the moment we heard the smack in my hand, the Swiss guy and I both froze in our moves. In that seemingly prolonged second, I indulged in pride and self-love whereas he was overcome with shame and embarrassment. He apologized and helped lift the bamboo dividers out of my hand. I decided to spare his life as oppose to sticking chopsticks up his nostrils. As soon as he tumbled over the threshold, we heard a loud grunt of frustration. Bill and I burst out laughing.

Like all kung fu masters, I took a swig out of my yummy mango rum after the commotion. As soon as the liquid touched my upper lip, I paused and carefully tilted the glass upright. There was a tiny green bug floating on the yellow pool. I spooned it out and put it on a napkin. “Look,” I said to Bill, “this little guy got drunk in my drink.”

5 minutes later, I detected in my peripheral vision small movements on the napkin. That little bugger woke up and was trying to stand on its shaky feet. For the following half an hour, I watched in fascination and amazement as my little green alchy friend wobbled around the napkin and tried to open its wings. It was like my own Animal Planet. I laughed as it waved only one leg at a time in front of its face as if to make sure that it was his. I cheered it on when it was trying to walk a straight line across the napkin. Though it felt a bit ridiculous to keep an eye on a tiny bus on the napkin, I waited patiently for it to fly away on its own terms. He never left on its own terms. He was blown away when a waitress turned on the fan next to us. I was a bit sad but I wasn’t worried. I think he was sober enough to stay out of harm's way.

2008-03-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

Destination:
Malapascua Island.

The day before a trip is always hectic.

Bill needed to take a test to get a Motorcycle Driver's License.
I had to go to the bank to pay the bills and ask about my credit card.
We wanted to get new swim gear and shoes.
We wanted to see some of our friends before we leave.
We also didn't want to be too stressed-out while accomplishing all our goals of the day.

Things went smoothly in the beginning. We had lunch with Ben and Dorion at Mary Jane's Pizza. Then we took the MRT uptown to the DMV. I went in with Bill to do the health exam just in case he needed a translator. Turned out, he understood everything and everyone was blown away by how accurate his pronunciation was. Before the real test, Bill did the practice test a couple of times. I was a bit nervous for him after he actually went into the exam room.

The driving test was also nerve-racking. The examinees have to balance the motorcycle while driving down a very narrow path. Along the way, there are different tasks they have to perform. If you drive or step on the sensor, a loud buzzer rings continuously for 5 seconds to announce your failure. Then you have a second go at the test. If the buzzer rings again, you've failed the test this time and have to come back again in a week.

At the test, Bill and another guy were the only non-Taiwanese there. As you can imagine, all the Taiwanese were curious to see how these two foreigners would perform. Bill went first. I watched ringside when Bill passed the test with flying colors. The other dude, unfortunately, sent the buzzer ringing twice and they sent him packing, sort of speak.

We went our separate ways for a few hours and went to a night market to get some cheap T-shirts and shorts. Then we went to Brook's 33rd birthday party till after midnight. In other words, we didn't start packing until 2 in the morning.

**************************************************************************************

The day of the trip is usually exciting, but we're exhausted.
Both of us only had about 5-hour sleep and we still have to do some last-minute packing and cleaning. Nuage knows something's up and he doesn't look very happy about it.

Instead of writing, I should really finish packing and get Nuage ready to go to my mom's though.

We'll make sure to take lots of pictures, record funny travel stories, and bring back some white sand and shells.

2008-03-23T03:05:00.000-07:00

Here I Am

I know... It's been a long while. I have two excuses.
1. I've been busy: working full time, teaching a night class, going out on weekends...
2. My laptop at home couldn't connect to the Internet.

What's new? What's New?

I'm on a 17-day holiday now (Yup! It's term break time). Though I still have to work a for a few days during the break, there will not be any long working days for sure.

Bill and I are going to Malapascua for a week on Saturday. He's going to get his advanced diving certificate. I'm simply looking forward to lying on a white sand beach sipping coconut juice.

Oh hey, we have a new President in Taiwan. President Ma. Fresh out the oven. I think he's the first and only President that held a bilingual press conference. He'll take office on May 20th.

No babies yet. I'm going back for a check-up later this week.

I'll write more when I'm in the mood to write.

2008-02-20T03:27:00.000-08:00

Attention Dear Neighbors

Taipei City is divided into twelve districts, and each district is further divided into numerous neighborhoods. In each neighborhood, there’s an elected “neighborhood elder” who settles disputes and family affairs. Residents in some neighborhoods may live in the neighborhood their whole life without ever knowing who their neighborhood elder is. We, residents in the Lizhong neighborhood, hear from our elder all the time.

Though I’ve never met him in person, I know our neighborhood elder is a very sociable person. There are always people with a buzz cut and dressed in black hanging around his office. Though their appearance shares striking similarities with Taiwanese gangsters, I still take comfort in knowing that, though seedy-looking, these people are around in the laneway even when you come home late at night. Our neighborhood elder is also frugal. He doesn't let anything go to waste. Along with the surveillance cameras, there are loud speakers installed at every intersection and our neighborhood elder takes full advantage of them. He keeps the residents informed at all time. He makes announcements about everything -- from the collection of large furniture items, changes to garbage collection times during Chinese New Year, the arrival of blood donation vans, to karaoke parties at the community center. In addition, he’s very considerate and detail-oriented. There’s a little jingle in the beginning and at the end of every announcement so you will never mistaken his announcements with something else (say, a prank announcement about China attacking Taiwan). The downfall of the jingles is that at times it does make some of us feel as if we lived in a giant department store. Finally, our neighborhood elder has a linguistic talent and he fully utilizes it. Each announcement is broadcast 3 times – once in Mandarin, then in Taiwanese, the last one is a mixture of Mandarin and Taiwanese.

I arrived home around 5pm this evening and was taking my contact lenses out when I heard the little jingle. I dropped the one contact lens I had taken out in the pool of solution and hurried to the windows. His voice sounded firm and serious:

Attention dear neighbors,
There was a fire from gas leak at #34-4, lane 459 just now. Don't worry! It has been put out. Will the residents in #34-2, 34-3, 34-4, and 34-5 in lane 459 please turn off the gas gauge in your home until further notice from the gas company. I repeat. Turn off the gas gauge in your home until you hear from the gas company. There has been a fire due to gas leak but it’s been put out. Please turn off the gas until you receive notice from the gas company.

As usual, the announcement was done three times.

Relieved from knowing that it wasn't our apartment building, I started heading back to the bathroom when the jingle started again. With semi-blurry vision, I stumbled back to the windows:

Attention dear neighbors,
This is a second announcement from your neighborhood elder. Will the owner of a dark blue Honda Civic, license plate number 845JC, please remove your car from the entrance of the elder’s office? You’re blocking the entrance of the neighborhood elder's office and your car is going to be towed. (brief silence) Your car is going to be towed if you don’t remove it right away because you're also parked on a red line. (brief silence) Thank you.

Now everyone in the neighborhood knows never to park in front of the neighborhood elder's office. Also, don't park on a red line, especially when it happens to be in front of the neighborhood elder's office.

The second announcement was only done once.

2008-02-08T22:24:00.000-08:00

New Year's Eve -- Dinner with the Family

We went out to Mom's for the big Chinese New Year Eve dinner. As a tradition, you must have leftovers from the New Year's Eve dinner so that you won't starve in the following year. Mom made more than we could eat: deep-fried sweet rice cake as appetizer, chicken, sweet n sour yellow fish, ginger garlic prawns, stir-fried Chinese broccoli, Chinese sausages with leek, stir-fried rice cake with spinach, dried fish roe with daikon radish, and stir-fried garlic shoots.

The First Day of CNY -- Get up Early and Go to the Temple

We were up early and planned to go to a temple. We ended up staying home all day because "the visitor" arrived and I was thus forbidden to go to the temple. Dorion came over later in the afternoon and made yummy burritos for dinner. He and Bill played Wii for 6 hours afterward (yes, SIX hours of Wii).

The Second Day of CNY -- Married Daughters Return Home

The only family my mom has left is my great uncle's family. My great uncle is 75 years old and his three children are 4, 6, and 10 years older than me. When I was growing up, we went to my great uncle's house every year. There were 11 people there this year: great uncle and great aunt, their three children and a grandson, my mom and uncle, Bill and me, and my mom's younger cousin. That is probably the greatest number of family members of mine to have been gathered in one place as far as I can remember. Bill wondered how I'd feel if I spent X'mas with his family. He said it could easily be 35 people in one house.

The Third Day of CNY -- Sleep in

We did.
Did a load of laundry, got 2 movies, and just chilling now.
We're going out for dinner later. Apparently at Citizen Cain, everyone born in the Year of the Rat can get a dinner special for FREE! Can't say no to a free meal.

2008-02-05T17:53:00.000-08:00

Gong Xi Fa Tsai

This year is the Year of the Rat, and Bill and I are both rats. According to Chinese mythology, this is our "opposite year", which is supposed to bring ill luck for us.

Many people ask me why it's bad luck for rats in the Year of Rats? Logically, it should be a good year 'cause it's your year. This is how I look at it:

You all know about "The Race", in which all animals from heaven and earth competed against one another for the 12 spots on the Chinese zodiac. These 12 animals are: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, chicken, dog, and pig.

Wait a second! We must sidetrack a bit. Some of you fellow cat lovers out there might be wondering why the cat never made it. Well, there are two versions of what happened. The first one is about The Race:

The cat and the rat were the worst swimmers in the animal kingdom. Although bad swimmers, they were both intelligent. They decided that the best and fastest way to cross the river was to hop on the back of the ox. The ox, being a naïve and good-natured animal, agreed to carry them across. However, overcome with a fierce competitiveness, the rat decided that in order to win, it must do something and promptly pushed the cat into the river. Because of this, the cat has never forgiven the rat, and hates the water as well. After the ox had crossed the river, the rat jumped ahead and reached the shore first, and it claimed first place in the competition. (wikipedia)

Another legend goes like this:

The rat was given the task of inviting the animals to report to the Jade Emperor for a banquet to be selected for the zodiac signs. The cat was a good friend of the rat, but the rat tricked him into believing that the banquet was the next day. The cat slept through the banquet, thinking that it was the next day. When he found out, the cat vowed to be the rat's natural enemy for ages to come. (wikipedia)

Whether it's because each of the 12 animals in Chinese Zodiac worked their butts off to earn a spot or because they were the only prestige ones invited by the Jade Emperor, each of them only gets to be the center of attention once every 12 years. Naturally they want to milk it for what it's worth when it comes to their own year. Imagine the anticipation and excitement the rat experienced in the first Year of the Rat. After all, it was he who beat everyone in the race. It was he who should be be celebrated for the duration of a year. However, the rat soon realized people were distracted every time there was a newborn. The rat got jealous and all the babies born in the Year of the Rat got ill luck for the entire year.

Bill and I were both born in 1972, the year of the water rat to be exact (2008 is the year of the earth rat). Nonetheless, we've got to go to a temple to pay our respect to (for the lack of words) the king rat.

Check out http://www.chinesezodiac.com/rat.php#personality for details about us rat people.

2008-01-14T05:58:00.000-08:00

Farewell Brunch at Sharon & Dorion's

It seems as though they all made a deal to leave Taiwan around the same time. Roberto's leaving on the 15th; Tash and Patrick are leaving on the 21st. Dorion and Sharon threw a "brunch & game" day for them. Who could say "No" to free food and fun games?

Dorion's super Belgium waffle

with assorted fruit, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and cherries.

Pre-game Warm-up

Roberto: "I have no problem leaving Taiwan, but I don't ever wanna leave this guy."
Bill: "I'm special and I know it."

Ben: "That's pretty disturbing if you ask me."

Brook: "I thought the bond between these two was quite touching, actually."

Jingjing: "Yeah, Ben. Look! There's nothing wrong with getting physically close to a friend."
Sharon: "I second that."

Ben: "Let me take a picture of you two. Get closer."
Bill: "Let's make funny faces. Bleh~~~~"
Kate: "Make WHAT?" *click*

Ben: "Take the camera. Let me show you how it's done."

(from left to right)

1. Kate: "Oops! I think my hands shook. One more time."
2. Jingjing: "You're not making funny faces, are you?"
Ben: "Who says I am?"
3. Kate: "How is this one different from the first one?"
4. Ben: "Hey, I'm trying to teach you something, alright? So show some respect!"

Kate: "Fine! Let's take another shot. This time's for real."
Ben: "Deal!"

Kate: "You're hopeless, Benjamin!"
Ben: "This is how it's done, Katherine!"

Game Time
Ben brought the bilingual Pictionary. Bill and Ben were explaining the rules to everyone.

Ben: "... and then you do this."
Bill: "Wait! And then you do THAT, not this."

Patrick: "When will these two ever agree with one another?"
Brook: "Never. Get yourself another coffee, man. This is gonna take a while."

Gabriela: "I don't know if we should listen to them."
Tash: "I wouldn't trust them. No."

Ben: "What? I understand why you wouldn't trust Bill, but how could you not trust me? Just look at this face!"

Bill: "Wait, wait, wait!The rules say that when you do this, you blah blah blah..."
Ben: "Which is exactly what I just said. You should've just listened to me in the first place."

Ben first drew a fly. The he quickly drew a lot of them in one corner of the paper.
Bill: "Flies! Bugs! Insects!"
Ben circled all the flies together and kept pointing at the circle.
Bill: "Lots of flies! Bugs! Did I say that already? A group of insects! A group of flies!"
This is when Ben gave up and rested his head in his hand.
The word was "swarm".

At the end, it was a game between Bill, Ben, Sharon and Gabriela, Tash, Dorion.

Gabriela was confident.

Bill was nervous... so nervous, in fact, he had to stand up.

Unfortunately... I mean, finally, Bill's team won the game!

Bill could not be more proud.

2008-01-05T18:44:00.000-08:00

Type A Personality

I’ve wanted to post something since I came home on Thursday. The last line of Bill’s post haunted me like a broken record. I felt obligated to post something. The problem was (and it didn’t really show as much when I stare at the TV with my mouth open), it was when I sat in front of the computer I really noticed how foggy and empty my mind was.

I didn’t want to report what I’ve been doing since I got home ‘cause that would just bore me and you to death. However, I didn’t have anything exciting to tell you about ‘cause the road to recovery is often repetitive and uneventful (well, most “events” involved bodily functions and I didn’t want to abuse or assume the bond we've established).

Though Lisa Martin caught me red-handed for sweeping stuff under the carpet last time, I seriously considered putting another picture of a cute cat to indicate that I am here without actually writing anything. I thought maybe Lisa wouldn’t notice this time ‘cause she’s busy with Jordy. Well, that was until I saw her comment! Did you tug Jordy under one arm when you typed?

How about dropping a one-liner: “Hey everyone, I’m back and I’m doing well”? I could never. I’m a story teller, not a Hallmark card writer.

So I retraced my steps and started thinking what made this surgery different from the last one. Well for starters, I wanted to check out of the hospital the morning after the surgery.

I didn’t know why they wanted to keep me in the hospital… Okay, I knew why, but I really didn’t want to stay in the hospital. I kept trying to prove to them I was fit to be discharged.

7 hours after I woke up from anesthesia, I told them to go ahead and pull the pee tube out ‘cause I wanted to be on my feet and go to the bathroom on my own. A veteran’s hunch told me I needed to fart if I wanted to eat. Ha! Let me tell ya! Not only did I pass gas, I was farting up a storm, loudly and proudly. I tried to joke around with the doctors and nurses too. I asked if I could have some food instead after they denied me a swig of water (the nurse didn’t get that I was joking). I told them I had a New Year’s Party to go to when my blood pressure was something like 86/42 at that time.

When we wanted to leave the room for a longer period of time, Bill put me in a wheelchair. We raced down the creepy hospital corridors. We sat out in the courtyard until someone drove us away by blowing smoke our way. Bill also slammed me (or let me slam) into walls a few times, but of course, he “didn’t mean it.” (Sure, babe.)

On New Year’s Eve, a senior resident told us to find him in the Delivery Room. He would open the Fire Exit so we could see the fireworks at Taipei 101 on the balcony. Bill even bought a small bottle of red wine (he was gonna wet my lips with it and drink the whole bottle himself). We got all bundled up and went to the Delivery Room… no sight of the Resident! We told the nurse why we were there, all of a sudden a handful of doctors and nurses showed up from nowhere, and they were all running around looking for the ever-so-mysterious place to see the fireworks. We ended up counting down with a couple of interns in front of the TV in the Waiting Lounge. The senior resident never showed.

………………………………………………………………………………………….....................................................

We were in the cab coming home. I was talking to Simon about when to meet up to get the textbooks so I could prepare for classes this weekend. After I hung up the phone, Bill said, “You’re the typical case of a person who can seriously injure herself again because she wants to do too much too soon and too quickly.”

I wonder if I'm Type A Personality.

A Wiki Moment:
Type A personality, also known as the Type A Behavior Pattern, is a set of characteristics that includes being impatient, excessively time-conscious, insecure about one's status, highly competitive, hostile and aggressive, and incapable of relaxation.

Type A individuals are often high-achieving workaholics who multi-task, drive themselves with deadlines, and are unhappy about the smallest of delays. Although they may exhibit some or all of these characteristics, it does not mean that people with the type A personality are incapable of showing love, affection or other types of non-pessimistic behavior. Many are also capable of "coaching" some of these behavior attributes with proper treatment and medication. Those who do not seek treatment have been described as stress junkies, and often display some of the following characteristics:

An intrinsic insecurity or insufficient level of self-esteem, which is considered to be the root cause of the syndrome. This is believed to be covert and therefore less observable.
Time urgency and impatience, which causes irritation and exasperation.
Free floating hostility, which can be triggered even over little incidents.