i'm on your line like vonage

been kind of in a funk all today... probably has to do with the lack of sleep last night, the absolutely nothing i did at work today while everyone was stressing about the hospital inspection, some more bug bites that popped up over night (and on my face too! grrr, it's really sexy), and some other stuff...

anyways, once i got home this evening, after a dramatic cab ride, i decided i really needed to snap out of it.

coffee? no, not really conducive to me catching up on sleep tonight.
ice cream? hm... well for one thing, it's expensive(ish) here and ice cream is never really a good pick-me-up (the idea of ice cream is, but actually eating a bunch of it is usually more of a drag-me-down). so maybe i'll just googleimage search ice cream. haha! (p.s. that's what my friend used to do when we'd lock ourselves in main stacks during midterm season and she was hungry... googleimage food cuz she was too lazy to leave and get some)

so i settled on endorphines and forced myself to go out of a jog... (i am so not this disciplined or healthy usually). snapped some photos while out...

i love this groups of old ladies boogying and old men tai chi-ing in the parks late at night/early in the morning. they're so cute. and i really love that even though i am kind of living in the suburbs of Taipei, there are always so many people out on walks and jogs, with their children, grandparents and mini puppies. it's not like california where everyone you see jogging on the street are all incredibly fit and decked out in lululemon. here they weave it into the routine of the family.

i am heading off with my friends tomorrow and spending the weekend in Kenting (this beach town in the southern tip of Taiwan). we're all calling in sick/ taking the day off work tomorrow and bussing down. should be fun! i am looking forward to it -- gotta kick some energy into me by tomorrow noon. =)

oh and also, i'll be bringing the nikon along so hopefully i'll take some legitttt photos to post up here instead of the usual ones from my crappy point and shoot cam.

p.s. sorry this sounds way more like a diary entry than a blog post. wasn't really my intention when i started this blog. but you know... whatever, just roll with it

p.p.s. random title. it's an e-40 lyric that came on my ipod when i was jogging. i do this thing sometimes... where i title stuff after some random song from whatever i'm listening to at the moment (true story. just check out my facebook albums)

2F White // Three Drives Cosmic Gate

it was amazing. we danced till 4. i was soooo happy LOL

what i wore: F21 tank, purple AA foil skirt. I toyed with the idea of wearing my pink studded H&M heels... but the idea of dancing for 6 hours in heels didn't really appeal to me.

dip-dyed

tie-dye nails for fall? hell yes, this is hot.
how the heck do you do that though??

monica rose stylist

dim sum soon

I've been kind of busy lately... reminiscent of my first week of work when my mom and sisters were still around. This week my dad's been in Taipei, on business/meetings meetings meetings. So after work almost every day I've been running around town to meet up with him/ grab dinner/ meet other family. I finally saw my uncle and cousin yesterday. It's crazy... it's been 5 years, and it's either because we're on his turf now, or my Chinese is better, or we're both older, but I guess we've both changed... anyways, I feel like we connect better now.

But besides that, I love having my dad here. And it means better food =) Here is a glimpse at one of our manyyy mango shua bing's

it's freshly cut ripe mangos, really finely shaved ice (a la sno balls of NOLA), some condensed milk, a little syrup, and a scoop of mango ice cream. Delicious.

On another note, I spent a day this week at the Psychiatric Dept. in the hospital. It was interesting and somber on some notes, uplifting on others. 70% of the psych pt's there all have schizophrenia. wow... I never realized how prevalent it is.

The good points were the encouraging and friendly staff (they must have such stamina to work there everyday), and the way the system is set up -I think it really benefits the pt's there. For example, the "day care" ward has a full on kitchen and teacher, and they teach pt's how to cook various foods that they go down and sell in the hospital lobby during lunch to make a little income. The department also has a mini-career center; once they think a pt has attained certain skills and is capable of working outside of the "day-care" walls, they set them up and try to find them some work.

It was an interesting day... esp. with the language barrier. I keep wondering what the experience (and being able to talk to the pt's) would have been like in English.

Hualien - Farglory // Taroko

after 2 hours of sleep and a 3 hour train ride... welcome to hualien!

Farglory Water Park. weird to see all these cheesy, fake park decorations in the middle of all this beautiful nature.

the cutest.

being silly.

views from the top.

new photographer hard at work.


at the park's aquarium.





later... fireworks at some water dance park


cornfields


free mochi samples in every flavor possible... chaos ensues




Taroko!! isn't it so beautiful??


splishsplash








bye bye!

Great trip. Fun times, good people, and we got lucky with the weather too!

On another note, I'm loving this Nikon =)

my feet are sore

back from Hualien! had a great time... exhausted and sleep deprived as per usual. and what do you know.... it's already Monday tomorrow.
every time I feel like the weekdays are finally going by quicker, the weekends just have to speed up as well

@ Taroko National Park, candid taken by my friend Clemence aka Germany, haha

I'll put up more photos in another post... need to hit the sack now. bye!!

all things asian

Tina and I went to the "Modern Toilet" last week for dinner, this trendy new restaurant chain that has been popping up all over Taiwan. The concept is cute/gross/Japanese - you sit on toilets, eat over bathtubs, get your napkins from the tp dispenser, and eat out of toilet bowl/urinal -shaped bowls.

I was gonna get just chocolate ice cream... nom nom, poop in a bowl

Some chicken curry..

Hung out at Ximen this afternoon -- where Taipei's hip young hipsters hang. Found these --

Condoms! It says "love me well"

At a little bakery in Tienmu, by where I'm staying

Little bunny buns at an asian bakery...

And then outside we found a little kid pagent/ fashion show... I think he is supposed to be a unicorn lol.

Sister princesses.

Little girl dressed up as a witch, who walked to the end of the runway and then proceeded to do magic tricks with her well lol. She was in tears later since she only got 3rd place.

This boy was supposed to be the Statue of Liberty.
Harry Potter!! This boy won first place -check it out... his costume is 100% home-made and legitt

Sensory Overload

Seriously.

Because I keep finding more and more blogs, and reading through more and more fashion, and saving more and more great images and inspirations.

I need to keep this obsession in check... especially when I have other things I need to do too, like study for my GRE, go to work, explore Taiwan, sleep??

Anyways, here are a few of my recent favorite outfit photos -mostly stolen from streetstyle blogs, lookbook, personal blogs, editorials, etc.

Even if it weren't this hot, I don't think guys in Taiwan dress like this... sad

I don't know who this is, but she is absolutely GORGEOUS

Cuuute... navajo without being too aboriginal

Hmm... I usually don't like Kate Spade

I still need to find my fedora
What? Since when did F21 do cute statement jewelry? (although this piece definitely has cheap tacky potential) It's still really cute - reminds me of the DIY bibs the glamourai makes...

Speaking of which... how cute is she??

YSL Fall 09, great proportions.. and of course those famous cage heels