Longshan and no snakes

I guess this is sort of a tourist spot in Taipei because of all the culture and religion. The architecture of the temple was stunning though, with the flowers, incense, and (later) rain, it was completely gorgeous. I totally felt like I was intruding the whole time though as I watched people go through their routines, praying and making offerings. I don't know if I could worship in a temple... I feel like it is such a private thing.

This is my last week of the internship, with Friday being a long tedious day of academic presentations, ugh. Anyways, I had one last "sick" day to take advantage of, and today was the best day to skip this week =) What I did instead of sitting at a library desk/ listening to Taiwanese that I don't understand:

• woke up early and went for a jog
• clocked in some serious 2 hours of GRE study time
• read some more of the library books I checked out over the weekend. Right now, Fat Land by Greg Critser (because I can never read too many of these -America is fat, why? let me elaborate on the kajillion reasons why- books)
• got my butt up to go see Longshan Temple, in addition to the nearby Herbal Medicine St. and Huaxi Night Market (aka Snake Alley). by the way, I was totally ready to try eating snake, but, well for one thing it was still late afternoon, so not much was open. But those snakes are HUUUUUGEEE, and they even have to display all the rats they feed it too! ...I chickened out.
• almost ALMOST bought these two gorgeous necklaces. decided against it, partly because my haggling skills suck and I didn't want to make a fool out of myself. but now I really want them again... maybe I'll go back? haha, oh indecision...
• finished that pain in the butt powerpoint presentation for TTT
• uploaded photos on facebook (haha, no but seriously, that's an accomplishment)

In conclusion, I had a waayyy more productive day skipping work than I've ever had at work. Lesson: always skip work when you can. =)

eyeglasses to get your party on

i bought this skirt a couple months back and have been meaning to wear it out, but everytime i contemplate throwing it on... it always strikes me as wayyy too colorful and girly to actually have to wear and look at for several hours.
i finally wore it out this weekend when we went out one night as a good-bye-you-are-leaving-taiwan-before-the-rest-of-us-because-your-university-is-lame-and-ends-summer-early celebration. ...with the perfect accessory -- my dork frames! =) i've been looking for pair of completely unnecessary frames to wear for fun and found a decent pair a couple weeks back at ximending. they're a combination of sexy secretary and harry potter (if that's even possible)

p.s. sorry for the crappy lighting in this bedroom and horribly yellow-ish photos

top and skirt: H&M, really old (wet seal?) chain necklace worn as a bracelet, eyeglasses from street vendor in Taiwan

some eyeglasses inspiration ---

garance dore, cupcakes and cashmere, yayeveryday

craving autumn

fall fashion is the best. drapey fabrics, layers and layers, leggings or tights, some ankle boots, cinch is all together with a belt and throw a scarf over it all. mmmyeaaa

garance dore, sartorialist, face hunter, olsens anonymous, lookbook, other blogs

it's probably because of the typhoon right now and my limited Taiwan wardrobe of shorts, skirts, and tanks, but i'm really ready for fall. you always want what you can't have, huh?

wind in my face (pt2)

some more photos from a great weekend down south in Kenting... most of the ones i posted last time were taken with the crappy point-and-shoot. fancier, expensiver cameras + wind and sand and salt and speeding mopeds just don't logically go together... but i tried to include some better quality shots in this post. enjoy! =)

7-11 squatters bums loyal customers


you can't really tell here... but it's raining hard and the wind kept kicking up pebbles in our faces... what we woke up at 7am on sunday for


din din?




leave your mark


check out our ballin' gang sign

oh yea, and i finally just saw Up. (it didn't release here in Taiwan until July 31st... and between packing and NOLA I never got a chance to see it in the States before I left) it was great! very cute and touching, but definitely not as crazy as all the surrounding hype suggested.

not quite a ginger

but i'm a redhead now. it's what happens when you're bored and have a 2.5 hour lunch break one day and there just happens to be a little hair salon at the basement floor of the hospital where you work and it also just happens to have the cheapest dye job in taipei ($800NT vs. $2,000). i've recently been meaning to dye my hair anyways.

gotta run, bye!

sand between my toes (pt1)

back from Kenting and it was sooo much fun!!
a solid 3 day beach weekend complete with cheap meals at 711, shady companies that will rent out mopeds to 12 kids without licenses or experience, rain and wind during our surf, matching henna tatoos, and a couple cases of Taiwan beer as we watch the sunset.










on another (sort of?) related note... i never realized how essential a floppy wide brimmed hat or a straw fedora is for the beach and summer in general. let's be honest, the "beach hair" in magazines never actually happens at the beach. there's too much sand and windy and salt --- hair, at least mine, just ends up being a huge tangled knot. soooo beach hat to the rescue! =) the ones we 'acquired' this weekend were totally cheap and lost their shape in 5 minutes... just as well though, we rode around on our mopeds so often that we just kept stuffing them back into that tiny seat compartment and would have ruined any quality hat anyways.



more pics in a later post! there are so many good ones =)