ode to lovely

as the year winds down

Just took some time to make a list of my favorite moments. Today I'm spending a lazy day at home. I'm watching America's Next Top Model as I escape from reality for a few hours. My only plans for today? To go to Gongguan and pick up sparkly nail polish for tomorrow night. Happy New Years Eve Eve.

the story of the iPod Touch

Ever since I heard about the new 4th generation iPod touch, I've wanted one oh-so-much. So I told my tech-geek dad this past summer to break the "this is what I want for xmas ice." Then, out of nowhere, I received an email that said "a receipt of your recent purchase!"...

I opened up the email to find a receipt for an iPod touch. I was SO excited! It was purchased by my dad and I figured he accidentally had the Apple store send ME the receipt instead of HIMSELF. So, I didn't bring it up with him. I didn't want to ask him about it (thinking it would upset him knowing that he made a mistake and ruined the surprise).

So since receiving the email 3 weeks ago I've been ANXIOUSLY awaiting my parent's Christmas package. I waited and waited, and when Christmas Day arrived, there was still no sign of the package. I was sad, but I also figured it was worth the wait.

Then, yesterday, I woke up to find my christmas package outside my door. I was sooooooo excited I squealed when I saw it. However, the excitement slowly died as I started realizing how light it felt, almost as if nothing was inside the package. As I opened the package, my hopes for an iPod continued to fade as I realized underneath the tank tops, were indeed, more tank tops, and then BAM...I hit the bottom of the box and found NOTHING.

There are no words for how upset I felt at that very moment. I started crying like a 5 year old spoiled brat who didn't get the Barbie she wanted for Christmas. Looking back, it was quite pathetic to cry. But I also think I needed that cry. I needed to release some frustrations, some fears, some complaints, and some realizations that life is sometimes different than your expecations.

last hump day of 2010

• I'm wearing my hair all crazy and frizzy and curly
• I put on mascara for the first time in a week
• Wearing one of my new christmas shirts
• I'm having lunch with some lovely lady friends
• Applying to a VERY important job
• Thinking about this time last year
• Loving my new knee-high black boots
• Scared about the next steps of my life
• Thankful for friendships far and wide
• Happy there are only 2.5 more days left in 2010

sundays on tuesdays

I wish cooking at home wasn't so expensive here. It makes no sense to make stuff when you can have a complete meal on the street for less than $3. However, it's starting to become a weekly tradition to make some home-cooked deliciousness on Sunday evenings. And today, I'm  having a potpourri of delicious leftovers (salmon, asian veggies, sweet potato casserole and rice). I dream of the day where I can make enough money, and have a big enough apartment, to cook on a regular basis like I used to. Until then, I have my mini-Sunday tradition...that sometimes spill over on tuesdays too.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, from the currently damp, rainy, and cold city of Taipei Taiwan! Wishing I could be with my family, but so lucky to have such amazing people here to celebrate with. It's never the same, but you always have to make the best of what you've got. Feliz Navidad, 聖誕節快樂, Merry Christmas from me to you!

creative packaging

If you live in a country where Christmas is not really celebrated, then you may understand my frustrations with wrapping presents. I ended up re-using some red celophane (and the only tape I had in my house, which happened to be blue) to wrap up a small present into a shape of a (kinda creepy, yet somehow cute) girl wearing pigtails. I can't wait to see my friend's face when I give it to him.

 

making the best of what i've got

I woke up a little grumpy today. But then I remembered that last night I had purchased these fun Christmas stickers from Shida night market. I took them out and like magic, a funny Christmas card idea popped into my head. Since I'm incredibly low on money this year...no one is really getting a present from me (sorry friends and family!). However, that doesn't mean that I can't make them smile with my dorky craftiness. It looks like an 8year old made the card, but I think that's why I love it so much. This is what the front looks like:

The inside will also have some more cute stickers, but will mostly be filled with sweet words and funny anecdotes. Now, I'm off to buy two small presents for a gift exchange, and maybe find a nice (and cheap) dress for Christmas day. Happy Christmas Eve Eve.

on the 22nd

• running around looking for apartments
• practicing my chinese with all sorts of random people
• still don't have a single Christmas present purchased
• eating DanBing and DouJiang
• wishing I had time to be crafty
• loving chuck taylors all over again
• watching Rabbit Without Ears..highly recommend this movie
• feeling touched after reading my dad's encouraging email
• wanting to paint my nails a fun shade of Christmas red
• enjoying a crisp winter-ish day in Taipei

small things that make me super happy

I live next door to a small Catholic school. And this morning I woke up to a live band playing Chritmas songs with small children singing along in adorable voices. I swear it was magical.

Happiness is also the dinner I made last night: Best Recipe Ever!

A few more random happy thoughts:

• Walking around a temple yesterday
• Eating leftovers for breakfast
• Studying Chinese from the comfort of my bed
• My incredibly comfortable and amazing bed
• Manny not working on Saturday, first time in 7 weeks
• Seeing my scrapbooking supplies all over my table
• Vacation planning and Christmas shopping
• That I'm free to schedule my days how I please

us five

We had an MBA Christmas Ball on Friday night, filled with delicious food and bottomless drinks. I am so happy that I forked up the money and decided to splurge on this event because I was able to be with my four best friends in Taipei. Now that I've pretty much graduated, and Tania (on right) has also finished her thesis and is just waiting for her defense, I'm starting to realize that we only have 2-3 months left together. Honestly, I want to cry when I think about not having them in my daily life. We've made promises that we'll get together in the years to come, but these kinds of promises are hard to keep as our lives will get busier and busier. However, in the meantime, I'm trying really hard to just enjoy them while I have them. I'm so lucky to have made such amazing friends here.

Scrapped HERE

thursdaydec16

Today:

• was the coldest day I've ever experienced in Taiwan
• Received a surprise phone call from my Aunt Sandra
• I nearly froze my hands off scooting around Gongguan
• I made two scrapbook pages that I loved
• I taught my ICLP teacher Spanish
• Got a serious rash all over my legs for no apparent reason
• Ate lunch at home, and dinner out at a SiChuan Restaurant
• Wrote an email to a contact in Shanghai
• My back hurt from scrapbooking on an uncomfortable couch
• Was asked at least 3 times about my future career plans
• Was thankful for the number of congratulation emails I've received
• Realized Christmas is in 9 days and I haven't bought a single present
• Then realized I can't afford to buy a single present, sigh.
• I'm really thankful for this week and all my alone (stress-free) time.

ABCs

I just one of those awesome/funny/thought-provoking lunches that I will probably remember for a lifetime. It started out as a random grouping of girls and ended with just Karolina and me. We talked about dating, clubs, love, taiwan, christmas plans, new years plans, and of course BOYS. We're both about the same age, have had similar boy experiences, and occasionally complain about our love lives in Taiwan. Foreign girls have the rough end of the stick...ugh.

Anyway, she told me she believes that boys have to have THREE different characteristics about them in order for the relationship to work (in the long term). The problem is, that most boys are lacking one or two of the 3 characteristics. After some serious analysis and discussion, we have named them the ABCs of *OUR dating world.

*I emphasize on OUR because what we want and what most people want are most likely different on some levels. Once you live a crazy, adventurous and overseas life like us, finding boys just keeps getting harder and harder.

Ok, moving on to the ABCs.

A stands for Attraction. This one is self-explanatory.

B stands for Bi-Lingual. This one is the tricky one that actually represents a lot more than just Bi-Lingual. It represents a man who understands us on a CULTURAL level, and for both of us, this means being able to speak multiple languages. Someone who understands my original cultures (for me this is both Hispanic and American) but also the culture that one adapts to by living overseas.  There is just something so refreshing about meeting someone who just gets you on a cultural level, who understands why you live the life you do, why you act the way you do, why you say the things you say, understands your humor, why you use 2 or 3 languages in one sentence, etc. So, B stands for Bi-Lingual but really represents being culturally diverse and understanding of cultural differences. 

C stands for Connection. Someone who just gets you. Who understands you. Who makes you laugh. Who makes you feel giddy inside. Undeniable connnection...a total must.

There are obviously a million other qualifications, but Karolina and I believe these are the fundamentals in our dating world. Other characteristics I find important are: kind, ambitious, sense of humor, thoughtful, good family, generous, spontaneous, adventurous, and good hair (haha!). But let's face it..it's impossible to find everything, but I'll settle for 90% of them. :)

ps. Maggi...happy birthday my love! Miss you dearly.

ladies and gentlement, I am done!

What a weekend!!

Friday night, I stayed up until 3:30am putting the finishing touches on my PPT thesis presentation. But then when it came time to sleep before the 9am  defense, I simply just couldn't. I was like that boy in the Disney commercials..."too excited to sleep!" Well, more like super anxious and scared that my alarm woudln't go off. The good news is....I PASSED my oral defense!!!

It was actually quite easier than I had expected. Or maybe I just really prepared for it. But it was a breeze. I got one tough question and the rest were opinion based and easy to answer. When it was all done, I was in serious shock. And frankly, I still am. I woke up today and realized I have NOTHING (school related) to do. That's bananas. And so liberating. And kinda scary too.

I spent the weekend celebrating with friends. But it was acutaly quite low key since I was pretty exhausted from not sleeping on Friday night. All and all, it was a great weekeend.

I need to thank the following people...I couldhn't have done it without them: My famlily, Manuel, Michelle, Tania, Lauren, Toby, Sarah, Karolina, and the friendly staff of Masa Cafe.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am done! Officially an MBA grad...WOOOOO!

the swiffer is an excellent mosquito matador

This morning I realized that my posts are probably so boring to most people. There are so many funny/interesting/cool/weird/out-of-the-ordinary Taiwan related things that happen and I never ever write about the intricacies of living in Taipei. For example, I really should talk about how there are millions of mosquitos that love to disturb our daily sleep. Here in Taiwan, we use an electric tennis racket to kill them (yes, sounds as weird as it is). But last night, in a mosquito killing frenzy (I think we killed 25, no joke!), we discovered that the Swiffer is perfect for killing the mosquitos on the ceiling. That, my friends, is what I call: thinking outside the taiwanese box. Now if only I had pictures to show of our mosquito killing frenzy last night, then that would make this post 100x better.

chilly with no chance of snow

It's been so chilly the last two nights here. So cold that I actually took the big comfy blanket out from hibernation (ie. the storage from underneath my bed). I forgot how wonderful it is to sleep under a super plush comforter. It's always the little things that make me so happy. However, did you know that it never snows in Taiwan? That's the sad part about the winters here. Cold and humid, with no heat, and no snow. I can't believe this is already my 3rd winter in Taiwan. Crazy how time flies.

oh christmas tree

Clare's mini Christmas tree = instant happiness.

Christmas 2010 wishlist:

• iPod touch
• money for traveling
• black boots
• money for clothes
• e-hugs from my family

the 7th day

hello december 7th.

i should be working on my powerpoint slides for saturday but i'm taking a personal day instead. i watched princess dairies. made my hair all pretty after my workout. and now i'm printing some pictures cause i feel like being artsy. sometimes, no matter how long the to-do list is, it's good to take a day off from the regularly scheduled program. tomorrow, it's back to work.

chinese-filled-monday

so i failed miserably on my blog-everyday-in-december goal, but that doesn't mean I can't improve going forward. let's just say it was a nice relaxing weekend and the last thing I wanted to do was pollute the internet with my mundane thoughts. i spent friday night celebrating and dancing with my favorites. saturday was kind of a blur of laziness. and sunday was spent scooting around town enjoying the great weather. it was a lovely weekend indeed.

today, was a chinese-filled-day. And I loved it. Chinese class in the morning. Chinese language exchange in the afternoon. Followed by dinner with my teacher, which also was all in Chinese. Oh man I love Chinese.

However, I haven't been feeling so good today. So instead of working on some to-do items I'm gonna attempt to bed before midnight. Haven't done that in ages...but i'm sure it will help me feel refreshed in the morning!

ps. thank you to all who congratulated me on my thesis. i am beyond words excited and i hope that i can post some great news on saturday after I (hopefully) SUCCESSFULLY pass the oral defense.

ladies and gentlemen, the first copy

I ran around town today, frantically doing some last minute thesis things. On the top of the list was making final edits and getting it bound into 3 soft-cover books to send to the 3 professors who will be grading me at the oral defense. Now that they are printed and sent, I can rest for a few days while I soak in the excitement that I am so close to graduating. So, this weekend I plan to relax, have a few celebratory drinks, and sleep sleep sleep.

In a funny side note: I just got pooped on (by what seemed to be a large bird) while riding on the back of Luis' new motorcycle. It was so disgusting, as it literally felt all moist and wet on my cheek, but it made us laugh so hard we had to pull over to enjoy the moment. Someone once told me that getting pooped on is actually a sign of good luck, so that is what I will make of this funny moment. Plus, a piegoen pooped on my head on my 2nd day in Sevilla and it was the best 6 months of my life. So here's hoping this random bird poop will be the start of great things ahead. Happy Friday!

wooooooo!

I did it! I got my teacher's approval a few hours ago...I am defending my thesis December 11!! WOOOOOOOO! Words cannot express how excited I am. And how tired I feel. All the stressing, all the times spent in cafes writing,  all the sleepless nights were all worth it.

A few more final edits, some minor changes, and then BAM, I'll send it to print tomorrow. I am on the road to graduation...I can't believe it!!

hello december

Oh my, I'm so excited to welcome December! I have big, no, HUGE plans for this month. I want to end the year with a bang, in style, and with a smile on my face. If all goes as planned, this is what I hope to accomplish in December:

• blog daily, to write, to remember, to document
• finish my thesis and successfully defend on december 11
• 100 squats every 3 days. I want nice legs again.
• plan a vacation for the month of january
• make a budget and a list of daily expenditures
• dress up a lot, wear high heels, stay festive
• put up christmas lights in my apartment
• enjoy the last 31 days of 2010 with a positive outlook