The pasts four months have flown by. Almost immediately after I wrote my last post I decided that I was, in fact, going to fly to Japan to take the GRE so that I could apply to graduate school for the 2010 year. I crammed all my prep into the month of November, and flew to Japan in the second weekend of December hoping that the last minute $300 purchase (plus a $180 registration fee) would be worthwhile.
I was lucky enough to stay in Tokyo with Rie, a good friend from college, and her family. I hadn't seen her since my trip to Japan in 2009, and it was a really cool feeling to be gong back to Japan for the second time. I flew in on a Saturday evening and Rie picked me up at the airport. Her birthday was that Monday, so we had a wonderful dinner with her family and her fiance at the Tokyo Disney Resort. The meal was traditional Japanese and very delicious (there were about 7 perfectly portioned courses), and at the end the waitress brought out a beautiful strawberry and cream cake that had two pieces of white chocolate with "Happy Birthday Rie!" and "Welcome to Tokyo Nicki" on it.
After dinner we snuggled in their very comfy car and drove home to settle in for the night. I had to be at the testing center by 8am and Rie's mom suggested that we leave the house around 6:30, which meant having a feast of a breakfast which she prepared at 6am. Rie's dad drove us to the center and we arrived so early that we had to wait for them to unlock the doors. I appreciated the extra caution used in planning the morning--it would have been horrible if after all that I missed the test. I took the advice in the prep book and wore layers and it turned out to be a good decision; it was freezing outside but the testing room felt like a furnace. I put on my game face and started plugging away. Just when I thought I was going to have to ask for a bathroom break I realized I was done. I was so relieved when I saw my score and realized that it would be enough to get me through. One of the happiest moments of my life so far. Huh...guess I hadn't really thought about that. I suppose it seems a little silly now, but at that moment I was ecstatic.
Rie was wedding planning, but her mom (who looks like a Japanese version of Angelica Huston) had the afternoon free, so she picked me up from the test center and we went for a nice lunch and an afternoon of shopping around Tokyo. I saw that there were tons of boots on sale and decided it would be a good time to buy a pair should I happen across some. Unfortunately, it's probably even more difficult for me to find my size in Japan than in Taiwan, and we tried dozens of stores. After the first batch of tries, I told Rie's mom that it was okay, it probably wasn't meant to be, but the woman was on a mission. Of course the ones that fit the best were about 20,000 yen, which is $200 and it was just out of the question. Soon after Rie and her fiance came to join us at the mall, and we just wandered around browsing the shops. As I was looking at an accessory stand (I had clearly given up the search), Rie's mom called me over, excited that she had found black AND brown boots in my size. She even insisted on buying them as an early birthday present/souvenir of the trip, and Rie got a pair too.
After we left the mall we walked down some of the alleys, all decorated with Christmas lights. It was quite cold and it was the perfect holiday atmosphere. When I saw a GAP, I just had to enter, and I asked if it would be okay, promising that it would be the last stop. I found a great sweater that I thought would be a perfect Christmas gift for Noah, and it was even cooler that I got to buy it in Japan! Having made the purchase, we took the subway/train for about an hour or so until we reached a district near Rie's house that had a good sushi restaurant. Rie's mom ordered enough food for an army, and I tried to eat as much as I could, but Rie's fiance was a good sport and took what I couldn't eat. With my test out of the way I could enjoy all the plum wine I wanted, and we all had cocktails with dinner (the family had encouraged me to drink the night before--beer is a favorite for both men and women--but I opted for a celebratory Sprite instead given my big test).
Back at home we got into our warm PJs and huddled around the couches to watch T.V. In the living room there was a short table that had blankets attached to it. The table itself has a heater under it, so you can put your feet/legs under the blankets and get toasty warm. It seems that most homes don't have central heating, so as soon as you come home you turn on the heater for the room you want to occupy and then close the door to let it warm. They put me in my own room in one of the most comfortable beds I have ever slept in. It looked to be an air mattress or something of the sort, but it was really a wonderfully padded mattress of sorts with layers and layers of blankets. In the evening you turn off the heater before you go to bed, so each morning I woke feeling incredibly warm and snuggly. I dressed very quickly since the air outside of the nest of blankets was quite cold. It was really nice to warm up inside the house instead of walking into a temperate room. And although I was a little afraid of the icy chill each morning when I left the covers, I also felt very refreshed and awake.
Rie had to work on Monday, the day I left, but her mom made me a HUGE traditional Japanese breakfast. It was traditional in the sense that everything was common Japanese food, but no one would ever have such a spread for an ordinary breakfast. She made fish, chilled tofu with soy sauce, spinach, salad with a sesame dressing, rice with dried seaweed (a common everyday breakfast), sweet black beans, miso soup, and nato. Rie's mom asked me if I'd be daring enough to try nato, warning me that many Japanese do not like it. It's fermented beans that are incredibly smelly, slimy, and sticky. When you take a bite, silk-like threads form strings from the nato to the chopsticks, making it hard to swallow quickly, unfortunately. I made a face, Rie's mom laughed, and said she'd have it for breakfast. She ate it quite gracefully, moving her chopsticks in a quick whisking motion to break the stringy threads. We watched T.V. for a bit and drank tea, and then she packed me a bag of Japanese snacks and sent me to the bus station.
I had such a wonderful time in Japan with Rie's family. I've never been treated so well and yet felt entirely comfortable with my host. I had not been thrilled at the idea of leaving for a weekend just to take a test in a place I was unfamiliar with, but it turned out to be a wonderful trip and a really relaxing mini vacation, especially after the test was over! It was also nice to have people wishing me luck before and congratulating me after.
The weeks leading up to my trip to Japan were a bit stressful just because I was studying Chinese, working, applying to grad schools, and using whatever spare time to prep for the test, but there were also a lot of great times, too.
Noah and I had been planning a "Thanksgiving dinner" since January, and we never actually got around do doing it until it was actually Thanksgiving, which made it a huge deal. Thanksgiving came on a Thursday and we both had to work late, so we decided to celebrate on Saturday. We got up and spent the morning shopping for fresh bread, cheese, and Ikea meatballs (to serve as the main course). My aunt had sent me a casserole dish along with the ingredients for green been casserole (which I tried last year for the first time and absolutely loved!), and I had picked up a pumpkin pie and a bottle of wine from Costco. We got back around 4 in the afternoon and immediately started dinner prep. I've discovered that once Noah gets cooking he likes to do things a certain way, so I was on bread/cheese and green bean casserole duty and he made the sour cream mashed potatoes. It was a feast fit for a king and a queen. We seemed to achieve food comas even without the help of turkey, and took a walk down to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial.
A few weeks after Thanksgiving Noah's dad came to visit. There were things in Taipei that he had to see, so I got to spend some time with them on their Taipei part of the trip. The first day we went for lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant near National Taiwan University, not too far from my house, and eventually ended up at the biggest night market in Taiwan. We pointed out some foods and snacks that we thought were worth trying, but our favorite was the almond milk shaved ice right across the street from the market. On our second trip around Taipei we had dinner at Din Tai Fung, a famous soup dumpling restaurant, and tried to make it to Taipei 101. They had already closed the observatory deck and it had started to rain, so we walked around for a bit and headed back to my apartment. We turned in early; I left for Japan the next morning and Noah and his dad headed to Hualien.
In the following weeks of December we celebrated my birthday, Christmas and New Years. Noah had a week off for Christmas break, so he stayed with me for the week. On the 22nd my gifts from home arrived, and I unpacked all THREE boxes and placed them under my little Christmas tree. Noah and I were both working on our computers, but we stopped at 12:00 am sharp to exchange gifts. My main gift was a hot pink cashmere scarf/wrap, which I love and wore all through the winter, but I was really impressed by the bouquet of dried lavender that he gave me. We were at a coffee shop in Kaoshiung once and saw lavender milk tea on the menu. We both like the scent, so we decided to give it a try. Just a few months before my birthday we were walking around a department store on a rainy day and came across a really cute shop with dried flowers and tea. We saw a barrel of dried lavender, and it reminded me of our lavender tea. I was so surprised that he had remembered the store and went back especially for that. Noah loved the sweater I had gotten in Japan, and I was so happy that it was a successful gift (the first thing that I ever gave him was a shirt that I bought so that he would have something clean to wear when he came to visit me...it's only made 2 or 3 appearances).
My birthday was even better than I expected. My Chinese professor from Lawrence had contacted me a few days before to say that she had arrived in Taiwan and wanted to have tea. It happened that the 23rd worked best for both of us, so we met at a nice little German bakery/coffee house near National Taiwan University. It was so good to see her again--I hadn't seen her since graduation. Coincidentally, a few days before I had run into her on the street, and I couldn't have been happier to actually run into someone from back home. We said a quick hello--I was off to class and she to another part of the island--and agreed on a proper meeting. I filled her in on what life had been like for me since I moved to Taipei, and we talked about grad school applications and programs since she had been writing recommendations for me. We talked about Lawrence and the changes that have happened since I left. After a while her daughter came to join us with her friend who is studying at National Taiwan Normal University's M.A. program for teaching Chinese as a foreign language. It was so nice to chat with people who are interested in exactly the same things I are and from whom I can learn a lot, so I stayed as long as I could, not wanting to leave, and rushed off just in time to get to work.
When I got to work everyone complemented me on my outfit and wished me happy birthday right away. I was very touched when two of my students gave me hand-wrapped gifts with cards they wrote. In the middle of my first class, the director of our program and the other staff and teachers rushed in with a small birthday cake lit with sparklers and sang "Happy Birthday." I split the cake with my students and we read a great Christmas story to end the class.
After work we all headed to Gordon Biersch, a popular restaurant/brewery from the States, for a late dinner and drinks. Emily bought a bottle of wine to celebrate, and we sat out on the heated porch overlooking the tremendously large Christmas tree and the rest of the shopping complex. Noah joined us a little later, and we all sat around talking and laughing. Back at home I opened the birthday gifts my family sent me. It was a great birthday.
The next day I went to class and then came home to get a little more rest. I had only one class to teach that night, and Noah and I met at the department store with the best supermarket in it to buy ingredients for a birthday/Christmas Eve dinner. We had planned on making chicken marsala, my absolute favorite, but when we couldn't find the proper wine, we decided to head out for dinner that night and bought groceries to make Christmas bruschetta. We ended up at New York Pizza kitchen, a restaurant that we had just discovered a few days before as we happened to walk by. Many other people must have had the same idea to go out for Christmas Eve, because there was a group of 6 Taiwanese girls doing a gift exchange on our left, and a table of 4 Japanese/Taiwanese/American friends on our right. It was very cozy and cheery inside, and it just felt like a special night. We had the meal for 2, which included a really good Caesar salad and cream of crab soup, followed by a pizza with chicken, beef, and seafood (not so good), and a chocolate lava cake a la mode (super good) for dessert. Back at home I played Christmas music and got ready for the holiday.
On Christmas morning I refused to go to class, choosing to wake up the way I wanted instead. I Skyped my family around 9:30 am to open all my presents. I had a lot of great gifts, but I have to say that the grey suede slouchy boots that I got took the cake! They fit perfectly! I had talked with my aunt about different kinds of boots I liked this year, but knew from reviews that the sizes differ drastically depending on cut and brand. She happened to get just the right size and the style was exactly what I wanted. I also got a great smoky grey sweater that is an excellent match for the boots.
There was a minor mishap, however. When I thanked my family for all of the presents I got, my aunt was confused as to why I hadn't finished opening all of them. I didn't have any left and then I looked around the room to double check. There was nothing left under my little tree and all of the boxes had been unpacked and broken down, so there was nowhere else for me to look. We came to the conclusion that when she was packing them at the post office (she had a big box packed just to fit but it was just a bit over the size requirements and she ended up having to buy three separate boxes and repack everything at the post office) a few of them had been swiped. After I had looked everywhere I could think of we accepted the loss and she told me what had been in them, which made me even sadder. I felt bad for her having bought them in vain, and I just felt sad that someone would do that. After I hung up with her I told Noah that someone had stolen my Christmas (I guess I was being a bit dramatic). As I leaned over to his side of the bed I saw that a few packages had fallen between the bed and the wall. I then realized that I had piled all of my presents on the bed, some on top of Noah as he was still reading under the covers. He must have kicked them off at some point and neither of us took notice. I called my aunt back and opened up the last two gifts or so. I hadn't known the specifics of them, so there was even a surprise element to it. I felt kind of bad for assuming that they had been stolen after that....
There was a minor mishap, however. When I thanked my family for all of the presents I got, my aunt was confused as to why I hadn't finished opening all of them. I didn't have any left and then I looked around the room to double check. There was nothing left under my little tree and all of the boxes had been unpacked and broken down, so there was nowhere else for me to look. We came to the conclusion that when she was packing them at the post office (she had a big box packed just to fit but it was just a bit over the size requirements and she ended up having to buy three separate boxes and repack everything at the post office) a few of them had been swiped. After I had looked everywhere I could think of we accepted the loss and she told me what had been in them, which made me even sadder. I felt bad for her having bought them in vain, and I just felt sad that someone would do that. After I hung up with her I told Noah that someone had stolen my Christmas (I guess I was being a bit dramatic). As I leaned over to his side of the bed I saw that a few packages had fallen between the bed and the wall. I then realized that I had piled all of my presents on the bed, some on top of Noah as he was still reading under the covers. He must have kicked them off at some point and neither of us took notice. I called my aunt back and opened up the last two gifts or so. I hadn't known the specifics of them, so there was even a surprise element to it. I felt kind of bad for assuming that they had been stolen after that....
Noah and I made the bruschetta soon after and had kind of a lazy Christmas afternoon together. He had to fly out that night to Thailand for his visa run, so I took him to the main station, and then decided that I should make sure that the rest of my Christmas was special. I went for dinner at one of my favorite Thai restaurants (not a traditional Christmas dinner, but I found it fitting given the circumstances), and ordered three of my favorite dishes, knowing I'd have plenty of leftovers for the weekend. I then browsed the area which is full of side alleys with tons of cute shops, and went into my favorite store. In the store a beautiful dress just caught my eye and I decided I had to at least try it on. I wasn't sure that it would actually work on me, but when I got it on I fell in love with it. I decided it would be my Christmas gift to myself. I took the MRT back home and stopped at the Dunkin Donuts in the station for a little dessert. I came home and realized it my family would just be opening their presents back in Maryland, so I Skyped them and this time my video chat worked quite well. They took a little break in the middle as always to take out the cinnamon rolls and coffee, and it was only fitting that I make a cup of the spiced hot chocolate that my aunt sent in my stocking and have my donuts. I called Peiwen and Julianna and their families to let them know I was thinking of them and chatted with some friends. I went to bed with the feeling that I couldn't have had a better Christmas.
Noah came back from Thailand that Sunday, and we had that week together too. Peiwen called me early that week to say that she and Shenrong had decide to rent a room at the Grand Hyatt right across from Taipei 101 and invited us over to watch the fireworks. I was so excited that I'd get to see them in Taipei, and even more excited that we would be spending the new year together.
On New Year's Eve Noah and I met at main station after I got off work. We were both craving ice cream and I happened to have a buy 1 get 1 free coupon at Coldstone, so we decided we'd have ice cream first and a proper dinner after. We decided to head over to the hotel right away to avoid a mad rush as the hour got closer. As we came out of the station we saw a quaint little restaurant on the corner called Soup & Bread. It seemed like the perfect light dinner to follow our ice cream appetizer. The yummy new find got us even more excited, and we rushed over to the hotel around 10 to meet Peiwen, Shenrong, and Yuki.
When I rang the doorbell Yuki and Peiwen had just washed up and were in their comfy clothes. Yuki was SO excited and started dancing around the room. I pulled out my camera and she took a lot of pictures--I've always been amazed at how well she handles the camera, especially given its size and the fact that she's 4 years old. Shenrong was out getting snacks and a new outfit for Yuki, which she put on immediately after he got back. It was really cute to see how good he was at picking out an outfit for her. It was absolutely 100% Yuki. He also happened to buy a brand of crackers called Yuki as well, which made her even more excited.
The five of us stayed in the hotel room, watching the various celebrations around Taiwan on the T.V. and moving to the hotel window every now and then to check out the action below. Taipei has the biggest celebration in Taiwan--I think they reported that about 1 million people would attend--and it was really cool to be right next to everything as it was all unfolding on T.V. It was quite a chilly night, but we wanted to be right up front for the fireworks, so at a quarter to midnight we hurried downstairs and found a spot right underneath the building.
We counted down in Chinese (I'm glad I practiced last year) and then the fireworks began. It was one of the most stunning things I've ever seen. They lasted for a good 2 or 3 minutes and then the side of the building lit up with the words "Taiwan Up." The phrase is endearingly Taiwanese English, up here being a verb and the whole phrase sort of meaning "Let's go, Taiwan!" It was an amazing thing to see, and we were still talking about it as we huddled back inside the lobby and took pictures in front of one of the biggest Christmas trees I've ever seen.
Back at the room we said our goodnights and then Noah and I headed down to the hotel restaurant as we tried to wait out the crowd of people heading back on the MRT. We stayed for an hour or so, listening to mellow live music and drinking our tea.
When we finally left the hotel, the streets were pretty clear, but there was a pileup of people at the MRT station. The train was so full from the stops before our's that we finally just decided to take the train in the opposite direction, away from the center of the city, all the way to where I work (a good 30 minutes away), and then take a taxi back. The cold I had had over my birthday returned with a vengeance that night, so I used Noah and his jacket for a bed and pillow, and slept all the way home. By the time we got back and washed up for bed it was just before 4 am.
January is mostly a blur. I had most of the month off from work, but I spent all of my time working on graduate school applications. I was also getting ready for Jenni, one of my best friends from Lawrence, to visit me at the beginning of February.
At the end of January on a random Thursday, Noah surprised me by working extra earlier in the week so that he could have that night and all day Friday off. When I got back from class on Friday, the sun was out and the weather was beautiful. We were both in the mood to get out, and we started playing around with the idea of going on a short trip. We considered Kaohsiung, but the tickets alone would be quite expensive, and I knew that we'd be going with Jenni just a few weeks later. Noah took his dad to Taroko Gorge when he was visiting and had mentioned that it was a place he'd like for us to go together. I had been asking him about it since I had never been and wanted to take Jenni for sure. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to have a little vacation for the two of us and get myself familiar with the area. We searched online and called a few hotels/B&Bs to see if anything was available. I was really impressed by how polite and friendly one woman had been when I called, and so we decided to take that room. We hurriedly packed our things, hardly believing that we were taking a last-minute trip, and stopped at one our favorite restaurants for dinner before we left town.
We were lucky enough to catch a fast train, so the ride was only 2 hours. When we got there we rented a scooter and drove to the B&B. It turned out to be even cuter than we imagined and the staff was ridiculously nice. Right away it was a sort of make-yourself-at-home feel--we were given our key and no one said a word about paying for the room.
We actually ended up in the room I had seen online that made me want to stay there in the first place. It was the first time I had ever stayed in a canopy bed and I was so excited! We went out for a late night snack and then turned in.
When we woke up we had missed the normal breakfast hour by just a bit, but when we got downstairs the owner was there to greet us and asked if we'd like some breakfast. I asked her if that would be okay and she acted like it was silly for me to think that she'd let us go without being fed. She fixed delicious Taiwanese-style hamburgers for breakfast (and they think Americans eat hamburgers all the time) with some sort of potato/corn salad and some mixed fruit, and then packed a bag of wax apples and dates for us to take to the gorge. We met Niu-niu, the pet parrot and Money, the pet sugar glider. Niu-niu is a sweetie (and a talker) who loves attention and licks fingers with his tongue (it's a very odd sensation)! She gave us a map and told us about some extra trails we could take in the park and on our way back. They suggested we leave all our heavy bags and come back to pick them up before we headed to the train station.
On our way to Taroko we came across a big field of giant flowers. I got so excited that Noah made a u-turn and we stopped to check out the field. It seemed to be quite a photo opp. for many, and I couldn't resist either--when do you ever come across a field full of 4-foot tall wild flowers?! I thought that if I was already this delighted with the drive on the way to the gorge, then the gorge itself must be totally surreal.
It was breathtaking. It is Taiwan's equivalent of The Great Wall. The weather was perfect and we arrived ahead of all the large tour buses. Driving a scooter we were able to park on any leg of the road with even a small bit of a shoulder and do a little bit of hiking. I became quite good at snapping shots from the back of the scooter while in motion, anxious to capture everything I saw.
Our timing was perfect and we made it out of the park just as the sky turned a strange grey tinged with green. We stopped at the 7-11 for a snack to hold us over until we got back in the city for dinner and decided that we should by rain gear. It hadn't actually started raining so we were thinking about waiting to put it on, but as we were putting on our helmets, a truck coming from the direction parked in front of us; it was covered with rain. We put our rain gear on and started the drive back. At first it was just a sprinkle and then 10 minutes or so in it was pouring. Since I was sitting on the back of the scooter, the poncho wouldn't cover my lower legs, and my jeans were soaked. It was perfect then that we drove past a Japanese barbecue restaurant and decided to stop for dinner. The fire from the barbecue had us mostly dry by the end of the meal. Warm, full, and happy, we headed back to the hotel to chat for a bit with the owner and her staff before we caught the train back. It was a perfect day.
