Always an Adventure...

Here is a song (click if embedded video doesn't work) that I love by a band called Gungor that I've recently started listening to. It's a great band and a great song! In talking about "beautiful things" or maybe colorful things, I went to the hairdresser today to get highlights. It's always a bit of an adventure to see what I'll come out with, with the communication gap and all, but this is one of the craziest outcomes yet. I decided to get blond and dark red highlights...but after the final rinse, the blond highlights turned bright pink! It's definitely a dramatic change...but I'm told it will fade after a few washes. Here's the result from today.....

Maybe this post should be entitled "You know you've become a Taiwanese driver when..." I made a couple of observations last night about my driving that may interest or alarm you. Scooters are the vehicle of choice in Taiwan, and as you know, I have my little 125cc "old faithful" that gets me around Yilan. I remember thinking my first year in Taiwan that the main goal when driving here seems to avoid using your breaks if at all possible, which sometimes involves coasting to a stop, or more often, running red lights. There are two main inconveniences when driving a scooter. The first is parking. You know those square puzzles with only one piece missing where you have to shuffle all the pieces around without removing them until you get the correct picture? Yeah, I've always hated those, but that's what parking my scooter reminds me of. Sometimes it takes quite a lot of maneuvering before you can get your scooter into a very small space, and other time...

Spring in Taiwan is really nice, and I'm glad it is finally here. This past winter was one of the coldest I've had here, and it seemed to last a long time. My grandma was here visiting at the end of March/beginning of April and she didn't get to wear most of the summery clothes she brought! But anyways, spring is here, and on Easter, I went out and bought some lilies to make my house a little brighter. 3 weeks on, and there is still one that hasn't dropped its petals yet, ah perseverance. It reminds me to keep working on my papers (the next of which is due on Saturday). There are also some beautiful white lilies at my church right now, and my pastor cut two for me to take home last week. I love the dramatic flowers like lilies and orchids. And since I was too busy to blog about it at the time, here is a picture of me and my grandma at an orchid farm here in Yilan! We had a great time when she was here, and hopefully I can share a few more of the highlights as they co...