just in - no internet leads to productive lifestyle

well, as some may have learned over the past three weeks, amanda's internet was "down" and not in that good way when you're "down with hanging with friends" but more like "something was up". --with english changing as much as it seems to do, such as the meaning of simple words like down and up, how is one expected to teach it, or even have the brain power to learn it when your exposure to it, is only 6 hours a week? ... the mind baffles.

without internet for a total of 18 days, i was unable to write emails, blog, chat online, check the news and weather online, listen to the radio online or just plain and simple - surf.... BUT, it was probably the most peace i've had in a long time, and i was constantly on-time. so what did i do with my time? I STARTED READING AGAIN!! wow, books are gooood, when they're good (and unfortunately bad when they're bad, but luckily that wasn't the case here). I read some great stuff.
started off with Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner (awesome b'day pressie from ma). I felt like i'd shrunk into the pages of the book and was running through someone else's life. Could not put in down. Amazing style and Very Powerful. I also read David Pelzer's My Story. Non-fiction - a child abuse victim. But not just the kind of slapped-around-when-bad abuse. It was so violent it was sometimes difficult to read. Finally, Yann Martel's Life of Pi.

WOW! Brilliantly brilliant. Faith and animals. Nature. Botany. Comedy and pain. I was hooked as soon as he mentioned he swam. I know there's a big conflict of opinions about the finale, but i was blown away. Blown out of the Pacific!

Let me know what you think, and please please please send me a booklist, or at least a TITLE you think i need to read. Currently reading The Story of Mankind, and am in Greece and the Roman Empire at the moment, and am getting excited about going to Greece...

-- to be continued --

Kenting

went to kenting last weekend. brilliant. got there friday morning and basked in the sun all day, cristen got a bit burnt but she's golden now. i got quite black. it rained saturday but we hired a scooter and explored the nearby mountains. beaut. did some shopping, tho tried not to spend too much money, ate really budget but ultra delish. let off fireworks with some "tai-ke" saturday night. what a rush, respect to all those dare-devils who do it around foreigners all the time. drank japanese beer, the jet-ski-boys were strict about their pocari-sweat (sports drink, tho doesn't sound so apetising) and they couldn't believe how we could drink that-unhealthy-stuff, meanwhile we were lighting firework after firework with their cigarettes. came back sunday afternoon after more beach and swimming. still with sand between my toes.

Kenting Street

a matching family

the south coast

tombs

dunes

thinking the weather needed to improve

pretending we understood what they were talking about

OUR fireworks!!!!

the pink of taipei

Living in Taipei, there are many things that i take for granted as just normal everyday sights that people all over the world experience. I've been here so long that i forget that we don't have some of these "things" back home, so today's topic is - PINK.

It's everywhere and everything here. Looking at my wardrobe i can see a lot of it and i never EVER wore pink before. Pink tops, pink sweaters, socks, and sadly a pair of shoes. Can you imagine?? Men wear pink with more confidence here than i've ever seen before in my life (perhaps that's a global thing these days though, i can't be sure)

In the shopping districts it's unavoidable. Check out these snapshots from the weekend.

the toy dispensers

the photobooths

the shoestores

I've just realised that these things - other than the shoe stores - are pretty alien too..

I am walking evidence that society can brainwash us into believing certain behaviour is acceptable - prejudices, racism, machoism, domestic abuse, war so-long-as-it's-not-local, and wearing pink.

I'm going to have to train myself to wear other colours and it's probably best that i get rid of most of the pink before i return home, or leave asia as i will be doing before returning home..