nonstop

the rain never stops. it's getting to be oppressive. a dog has been howling since i got home from work last night. i need sleep.

vacation

so i got this entire week off. i did most of the things i had planned, but it rained every day and in general it was a pretty boring week. my job didn't pay us before the break and didn't give us a bonus (traditional on chinese new year) so i have no money to do anything particularly involved. although it is nice in southern taiwan, everyone goes there now so things are very expensive and booked up regardless. i'm pretty much trapped. i've watched several movies and cleaned the house. i've organized some work stuff. i've read a book. i've even studied a little chinese. i've cooked a little, but for some reason taiwan doesn't have any lemons, an essential ingredient in what i want to cook and a staple food in most countries i've been to. very strange. anyway, back to work on monday. i would have preferred 3 days off now and 2 days off in the summer, but that is not to be.

chinese new years

it was chinese new year on wednesday. on thursday night i went over to my language exchange partner's house (her name is Karen) and had a very nice meal, drank some monstrous liquor, and played cards until after midnight. it was nice to see what taiwanese people do to celebrate. several of the meals had symbolic meanings - fish (very fresh, prepared with ginger and green onions, very tender) represents wealth, boy choy (with garlic, i like it very much) represents long life, and i believe that the pigs feet stew (cooked for 3 days - very tender! and better than it sounds) represented god knows what. another dish, a vegetable and pork stew, could be literally translated as "buddhist monk jumps over the monestary wall because it smells so good," so named because the vegetarian chinese buddhist monks couldn't eat the meat dish. we also had chicken with the head still on, which represented the health of the home, important for karen's two recently married brothers. karen told me that if the head of the chicken points at you (and it inevitably pointed at everyone being as it was on a big lazy susan) it means that you will be fired from your job in the next year. nice to know i have something to look forward to. we drank plum wine that karen's aunt made -very nice- and i had what i believe was sorghum liquor - very strong and a little bit foul. we watched some crappy taiwanese variety shows (think donnie and marie) and some crappy harry potter movie while we played cards (seven star) until it passed midnight. anyway, it was all very interesting and i appreciated the invitation.

haircut

i took my language exchange partner and got a haircut recently. it was very nice - long shoulder, neck, and scalp massage along with shampoo and a cut for around $10 us. my barber was kind of pushy - she wanted to give me a cesar, and she insisted it would make me look younger. having a dumb and dumber haircut may make me look younger, but i don't want to look like a young mentally retarded boy.