Vacation

I am finally on vacation and it feels great. Friday was the last day of school and we all went to a Foresight dinner. They gave away prizes and I won 5,000NT cash for drinking three glasses of wine (I hate wine) and 2,000NT gift certificates for balancing a book on my head the longest. Good times.

Kathleen across the table
My boss, Tony, in the tie at the dinner
Me
I have no idea why I am making that face
Me with the money I won for drinking those three glasses of wine

Paul left for America on Saturday and KN left for Canada on Sunday. It is just KB, Louise, and I left. The girls leave for Thailand next Wednesday and I leave for Hawaii in exactly two weeks. Hopefully good times.

Today is the first day that I have come into work and I am proud of myself for that. I am just going to relax and clean my room.

I got my hair done again. It is red for right now, but it will calm down by the time I leave for Hawaii. I got it trimmed since I am growing it out a bit.
My new hair

Thats all I can think of now.

Keeping Busy

Over the past week we have been quite busy (as always).

Friday was spent in a meeting that was entirely in Chinese and at the Jurassic, a dinosaur themed restaurant. We even got a co-worker to go with us. Good times. There was also a little bit of KTV thrown in which is never good (since I can't sing worth a lick), but was fun.
Inside the dinosaur restaurant
Our table above everyone else
Me at dinner
Everyone smiling at dinner
The girls posing on the bone bridge
Our co-worker David singing at KTV
Paul hogging the chair at KTV

Louise belting it out at KTV

Saturday and Sunday: I relaxed since I knew this week would be insane. Sunday I went to the jade market with Louise to look at some new paintings. I ended up with three paintings and one necklace.
One of my new paintings
The second of my paintings
The front of my necklace

The back of my necklace
My third painting which I bought because it reminded me of home

Since Monday I have been busy counting books, flashcards, and making questions for novels. I am almost done, yes!!!, but I still have to come in next week to organize for next semester.

I also booked one of my hotels for Hawaii. I am trying to decided where to spend my last night and I have narrowed it down to three now. I am quite excited, I think I will rent a car for two days and take a circle trip around the island.

Yahoo vs. Julia

Ok, so my yahoo email account is not working. I can receive messages, but can not send them. I am going to start making the shift over to msn hotmail. My address is jsterling0@hotmail.com

Just thought I let everyone know in case I did not email you back right away. I am trying, but yahoo is kicking my butt.

Round One: Yahoo (since I had to write a blog about it)

KN's Birthday

This weekend was spent getting ready and celebrating KN's 25th birthday, the big two-five. Good times, good times.
The big two-five

I spent three days making a movie about her since we met in June. The saved title on my computer was at the beginning KN's Birthday. By the end it was called Save Me. It turned out well though.

On Saturday we all got dressed up and went to KTV and did some karaoke. After that we went to a club called Luxy. We danced and saw a girl with a lit up hula-hoop, bartenders spit and throw fire, and dancers that needed to gain weight since I could see their hearts beating.

The birthday girl
KB's hungry eyes (the song we were singing)
Louise celebrating the birthday
KN and Westlife singing Flying Without Wings

The next morning was spent lounging and then off to the rink, skating rink that is. Since I have never set a foot in a skating rink before I was quite nervous. It looked like it hurt falling down. Lucky and by some miracle I did not fall down once, but came close two times. Overall I had a good time and new respect for skaters.
KN on her birthday at the skating rink

KN in front of the rink
I called this a Zambeenie by accident, I know now it is a Zamboni
The four of us celebrating KN's birthday at NY Bagels, I was freezing
For KN's birthday dinner we all went to NY Bagels. It was delicious. She opened her presents there and then we went home and watched one of the cheesiest movies ever: The Cutting Edge 2. I recommend it.

The Zoo

On Sunday KN, Louise, and I went to the Taipei Zoo. It was great. Monkeys everywhere. I loved seeing the African animals and the penguins. The best was seeing a raccoon in a the nocturnal section. Good times.


A family running in front of the camera on our way to the zoo

My feet with my favorite animal's feet

Louise in the dome

On the trolley heading up the mountain to the penguins

Penguins chilling

A penguin swimming

Louise's new body

In Africa with dancing elephants

Louise, me, and some giraffes

On the way home, KN and I decided to go to see Night at the Museum with Ben Stiller. It was so funny, but some of the British jokes did not translate well in Chinese. I say this because KN and I were the only ones laughing.
The movie poster for a funny movie

Small Update

I really have no updates. I just thought I put something on here. I did go to the movies and the zoo on Sunday. I will put up pictures since I took a million. I have been busy at work. This week is Section Test week so I must grade performances. Insanity. Only two more weeks until school is out. You notice I did not say vacation because I still have to work during the break. I hope I still get to go to Hawaii.

Oh, I changed my hair color again. Its darker, but I think it looks better. The students are weirded out since they are not use to their teachers changing their hair all the time.

Being the bear

Living in a Chinese World

The Movie Poster

On Saturday, I went to the movies to see Curse of the Golden Flower with KN, KB, and Louise. It is an awesome movie and I recommend it to everyone. It is rated PG here, but R at home which I think is hilarious since it is quite violent. The movie is also beautiful. There are so many colors and fabrics. We all were excited to see it since the newspaper said it had English subtitles. We got to the theater and sat down. The movie started and in English said where the movie was taking place and what time period it was. Then we saw Gong Li, the Empress, and saw Chinese subtitles but no English. We looked at each other and waited, but no subtitles came. I cracked up, I thought it was hilarious and so did the other girls. We then tried to guess what was happening in the story which we got almost all right. When Jay Chou, a Taiwanese pop singer, came on screen everyone in the movie theater laughed. Most people here like his singing, not his acting. I thought he did great and I am sure that he will be quite popular in America.

Jay Chou as the Prince

I have to say that watching a movie that color intense without understanding the language is amazing. You feel the movie more, it means more to you. The director's use of color was intentional and you actually felt it. The movie made me sick to my stomach because so many agitating colors were used on film. I can't wait to see it again, only this time I hope there is English subtitles. By the way, the credits had English names and the theme song at the end had English subtitles. I guess they forgot to fill in the rest.

Scene from the movie

New Years Taipei Style

Close up of Taipei 101 from the roof

Ah, the promise that a new year brings. The promise that you must run in high heels for about 3 miles. The promise that there will be no taxi to help you. The promise that you will continue to walk all over Taipei until 3 in the morning. The promise that you will not get to where you planned to go. The promise that your feet will be forever scarred. This is New Years, city style. After spending two hours getting ready (which is a long time since I usually get dressed for a night out in about an hour) KB, Mia, Candy, and I set out for a rooftop that we all thought was just a few streets down. That rooftop ended up being 3 miles away next to the mountains. The view was beautiful, if only we made it in time. The four of us spent our New Years on the street with the rest of the city, lol. We finally made it to roof later that night when they sent out a search party.

Me in front of the Taipei 101 after midnight. I am very sweaty from running
In actuality, from the time that we left the house to the time we got to the roof was an adventure. Mia kept saying "It's the next street" and all four of us were running in our outfits past confused looking Taiwanese people. Crowd Control
It was hilarious and needed to be on TV. From the time we left the roof to the time where I gave up and went home was not. Mia, KB, and Candy walking through the crowds on our way to the club, we never made it
I took a video of those hours, but it will be deleted. It is too horrific to show. There was blood, sweat, and tears. When I asked one of the girls if this is how New Years is spent in a city at 2am, she replied yes. I don't know which one I asked because I think I blacked out from the pain. In total I walked about 10 miles in my gold high heels (the one you bought my mom for graduation). I have seen the city from almost every angle. That night will go down in history and forever influence my decision making when picking shoes for the night. The only thing that makes it a little better is that all of Taipei saw my outfit, so not all was wasted, haha. What a night.

Closer view of the world's tallest building


Back by popular demand (meaning to make KB happy when she is sad). Please still mute the video, no one wants to hear the talking.