the sound of music

just booked my tickets for Vienna in mid april!!! I’ll be attending EASL’s (European Association for the Study of the Liver) International Liver Congress 2010 in Vienna with my awesome coworkers from Academia Sinica 中央研究院 in taipei. i would say what i’m presenting on but i’m pretty sure no one wants to hear it so i’ll spare you.

But of course… a perfect opportunity to do some sightseeing as well! I’m planning on starting in Salzburg… where i’ll be skipping down the cobblestone streets singing “doe a deer” at the top of my lungs, i’m sure. Can’t wait to check out mozart’s birthplace!

On repeat at the moment: 許哲珮’s new album… it’s actually really good.

:)

i love receiving surprise phone calls from dear friends far far away in taiwan

for ddaaaayysss now, this is all i’ve wanted to eat.  mmmmmm.  crispy, fried, stinky tofu from the Shilin night market 士林夜市. but instead i’ve made do with one too many bowls of cinnamon toast crunch. yes. i still eat cinnamon toast crunch. i don’t care how old i am! and i’m going to keep eating tons of it because there won’t be any when i move to taiwan.

i’ve also wanted to eat this super badly too… so much so that i even dreamt about it. what is it with me and food these days?? and why is it all taiwan food? why don’t i dream about tacos, or cheese fries or something… weird.

movie time.

seeing as school hasn’t started killing me yet, i have had a bit of time to watch some movies. I just saw this 2 nights ago… 不能沒有你，No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti… taiwan’s official entry into the 2010 academy awards’ foreign film category.

i have to say it was really quite good. not amazing, but the beautiful cinematography from Leon Dai really made up for whatever the storyline was lacking. It is based on a true story, but I really am curious what happened after all this. although it’s gotten pretty mixed reviews, i personally liked it. who’s seen it?

somewhere over the rainbow

somewhere in the sky between california and arizona. the only advantages… if any… to extremely harmful amounts of air pollution are the resulting beautiful sunsets.

Where’s the beef?!

Taiwan Bans Some US Beef Imports – NYTIMES

noooo whyyyyyyyy?! i want my American beef in my 麻辣火鍋！ Australian beef just doesn’t taste the same. The flavor’s just not there!! Gimme back my hormone-filled American beef!

Gilt’s Final sale is today!

Gilt Groupe is having it’s final sale today… go and get stuff!

Just scored a Marc by Marc Jacobs t-shirt for $14 buckaroos. woohoo!

new york, new york

spent thanksgiving in boston and new york city!
it was so nice to see some family and family friends, and actually speak some chinese.

these diagonal friends floated by as i flew over the east coast on the way to boston…

and of course, the best part of the trip was getting to see my dear friend, 小齊.
we pondered life together in grand central station, and it was lovely.

i’ve always loved train stations… especially old ones like this one, philadelphia and london’s victoria station.. where are your favorite train stations?

i want to travel!

today, i found a fortune cookie in our kitchen.
i ate it.
it wasn’t as good as i had imagined it to be.
fortune cookies aren’t really chinese, anyway.

inside, it said:

You will travel far and wide, both pleasure and business.

nevermind that the fortune wasn’t grammatically correct. but i want to travel!
does anyone want to go to 北海道 Hokkaido with me next year?
So close to Taiwan, and yet I’ve never been to Japan???

going back to old haunts.

last week, had the chance to go back to philadelphia for the 137th annual American Public Health Association conference. The conference was exhausting, but at least I had time for some of my favorite philly spots! Of course, I had to go back to Eastern State Penitentiary — the prison that set the precedent for the majority of prisons around the world. It was abandoned in 1970, but is now a museum, preserved in the same state that it was in when it was abandoned. The inside also has a ton of installation art, although I unfortunately didn’t get any pictures of those. Also happens to be one of the most “haunted” places in the country, so i hear…

cell block 1

i really loved all of the shadows and highlights that came in through the old rusting skylights.

a creepy cell that doubled as the barbershop. the chair looks more like an electric chair than a barber chair. I got a really weird vibe from this chair.

amanda down one of the cell blocks

fall fall fall

it’s finally fall – almost winter.   i have added a new friend to my car… 小叮噹吃銅鑼燒… doraemon!

 

it’s a reminder of where i’ve been, and where i am going.

i have also found myself to be completely uninspired by school and it makes me depressed — so i have taken to sewing sewing sewing… sewing food friends to send far far away to my dear friends overseas.

right now i’m pretty sure the only thing that could make me happy is a beer and a hot bowl of 關東煮