Hm, so that was a typhoon.....

I'm sure if I was living on the eastern coast or in central Taiwan, where they really got pounded, I'd feel differently, but this typhoon in my area was (thankfully) rather ho-hum. Nothing of any note happened in Zhuwei last night, and today it just rained all day, not even hard, more like a good, steady sprinkle. I hear the south is still going to be having heavy rain through tomorrow, but we're scheduled for just light rain. Nice to have it cooler, though, that's a huge bonus. It's about 78F (25.7C) now, and I'm sure feeling sorry for the folks back in Chico who are sweltering in 106F (41C) heat!

"Haitang, the worst typhoon to approach Taiwan in five years"

That's what the Taipei Times calls it. The TEALIT typhoon alert site says, "From around 6am Monday July 18th the storm stalled over its position and began making a looping motion. This process went on for some 6 hours. Weather officials have not seen this stall/loop behavior since 1992."

Last night the wind started howling, and it was raining pretty good at times, and I closed up all my windows. Went to bed around 1:00 a.m. with the fan blowing on me because it was so hot. Not sure what time I woke up, drenched with sweat because the power had gone out and I no longer had the fan. Tried to go back to sleep, was miserable, so I opened my bedroom windows, which helped a little. Sometime later I was awakened by the feel of cool air from the fan. Ah, power for morning coffee! I made sure I ground enough beans this morning to last a couple days. I can always boil water on the gas stove if we lose power again.

Right now the sun is shining a bit, but that's because my little area of Taiwan just happens to be underneath an open spot in the typhoon that is completely obliterating the tiny island on the satellite picture. I think the center is heading directly for me, and I have no idea what sort of weather that will bring. "Currently winds are 114 miles per hour at the center." Sounds like fun, huh?

Today has actually been pretty mild, with some periods of heavy rain and some wind gusts, but really nothing any worse than the winter storms in northern California. People have been outside, some of them riding their scooters, and while the street outside is littered with some plants and other things (someone is missing a bra), it's not total devastation, and there haven't been any floods here (and since I'm on the fourth floor, even if it floods, I'm OK). The cicadas are in full swing in the little forest, and the temperature is steadily rising (dang it). I have all the windows open, and when I'm lucky enough to catch a good breeze, I'm happy for it.

Not sure what tomorrow will bring, don't know if school will be closed again or not. The train service was suspended nationwide today, and if it's not running tomorrow, I can't get to Taipei anyway.

Keeping fingers crossed for continued power for playing online and watching movies ;)

Argh, just lost everything I typed!

I had a nice little post going here, detailing my adventures (such as they were) last week, and then I hit the wrong button and lost it. Damn it anyway!

Here's a picture of mango xue hua bing (frozen snow flower), a delightfully icy treat that Hiyoshi and I like to indulge in when we've been walking all over Taipei for an afternoon and are loaded with sweat. A new shop called Red Coffee opened in Taipei Main Station, so we've gone there twice to cool off before saying goodbye for the evening. Last night we found an even better shop in Ximen Ding, one that has tons of flavors and cheaper prices, so I'm sure we'll be going there frequently.


On Friday afternoon we made a return trip to Ying Ge so Hiyoshi could pick up the cup he'd made on the first trip (Betty was a driving force in the adornment of the cup - left to his own devices, I'm sure Hiyoshi's plain and simple Japanese character would have produced a cup with a lot less decoration!). We didn't spend too much time wandering around the town this time, because we'd gotten a late start. We first walked from school to Shida Road for lunch and to pick up Hiyoshi's plane ticket from his friend's office, so we didn't get to Ying Ge until around 4:00 or so. Once again I successfully avoided buying the $68,000NT vase ($2,131 US) that the shopkeeper graciously offered to let me have for only $20,000NT ($627 US). Whew! Maybe I can just talk Hiyoshi into giving me his work of art, huh?


Yesterday we went to the weekend jade market so Hiyoshi could shop for some gifts for his family and wandered through the flower market ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the gorgeous orchids. Then we went to Da'An Forest Park and stretched out on the grass in the shade for awhile. It wasn't too bad being in the shade, and the clouds were rolling by quietly in a blue, blue sky. We walked around the park and Hiyoshi made a new friend.


I think we spent most of the day walking yesterday, starting at 12:15 and ending around 7:30 p.m. Hiyoshi stuck around with me in Ximen Ding until Charlene and Shun showed up, then he headed home to Wan Li and the rest of us went to my place to drink some beer and wait for Natari. Around 10:30 p.m. the four of us headed to San Zhi to our favorite beach cafe and sat out on the deck talking and drinking coffee/tea, enjoying the sea breeze. It was about 2:00 a.m. when I finally got to sleep.

All in all, it was a great week, lots of fun, and I'm not looking forward to the next two weeks without Hiyoshi :( It's not as easy to force myself to walk alone, but maybe I can get Kieko to go here and there with me - after the typhoon has gone, that is!

Typhoon coming

http://www.tealit.com/typhoon.php Typhoon Haitang is due to hit Taiwan early Monday morning. This one is a Category 3, pretty big, but Charlene tells me that it will just be more wind and more rain, and that the weather gets a little cooler. I certainly won't complain about that! I know it's not as hot as it is in Chico right now, but this humidity makes it feel hotter. Likely I will not have to go to school Monday, maybe not Tuesday, either. Oh darn!

China cuisine

Reading this article http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Weekend/GG09Jp08.html made me very glad to be living in Taiwan, where the oddest food I've seen is probably "ya xie" - congealed ducks' blood mixed with rice. The Mainland definitely has us beat for food oddities.

Oh, and another thing or two

Can you believe this? I'm forgetting my English! I had to buy a dictionary just so I could find the words that have been pushed out of my head by all the Chinese (and a little Japanese) that I'm forcing in there.

And a note on the weirdness of Taiwan: yesterday Hiyoshi and I went to Ikari Coffee to kick back out of the heat and chat. My ears were treated to the sounds of good old American classic rock & roll. The first song I noticed was "Love Potion No. 9" which, of course, I remember the lyrics to. I lamented to Hiyoshi that if only I could purge my memory of the things I *don't* need, I'd have room for the things I *do* need! Where's the delete button anyway? As we were getting ready to leave, the song in the air was, "Davy, Daaavy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier!" And let me tell ya, it's flat-out weird to be hearing that in a coffee shop in Taiwan....

Blonde no more

For years my hair was either purple or red. I mean, years. I can't even remember when I started coloring it those colors, but if it wasn't Plum it was Black Cherry, or Dark Auburn, even Bright Copper. Then I got the wild idea to live the life of a blonde and see if they really did have more fun, so I started highlighting my hair, with just a few streaks of red. Surprisingly, I liked the look (even though my level of fun did not noticeably increase), so I kept it.

Well, I've been hesitant to try to find a hairdresser here in Taiwan who is used to working with non-Asian hair and could duplicate the great effect my stylist (Terri, I miss you!) in California could do. So today I reverted back to the old days of do-it-yourself hair color, and I am now a vivacious redhead ;) Since I went from mostly-blonde to red this time, it's really red! And dang, I forgot how friggin' stinky Revlon hair color is, phew. I guess now I'll blend in a little more, since red seems to be a favorite color with the Asian crowd, so maybe Wu Bai will have to try a little harder to spot me in the audience at the next concert.

If I can get someone to take a decent picture of me, I'll post it. However, we all know the chances of getting a decent photo of yours truly, now don't we?

Antiques and Fish

Yesterday Hiyoshi's Japanese student canceled, so he was free to make the trip to The National Palace Museum that we weren't able to make on Thursday. After class we hopped on the MRT to Shilin Station and then caught a little bus to the museum. As usual, it started to rain on us. Everytime we go somewhere it rains on us. We're getting used to it by now. No matter, the museum would keep us dry!

Although I've been to the museum three times before, each trip is just as awe-inspiring as the first. Sadly, the museum is currently undergoing extensive renovation, and many of the items are not on display. I'll be looking forward to the end of all this construction so I can see some of the things I remember from my first visit in 2002. The items they currently show are some of the most exquisite things I've ever seen, and I just want to touch them, to feel each tiny detail. I have a lot of photos of my Sept. 2004 visit posted, if you haven't seen them: http://www.pbase.com/500fan/treasures

After finishing up at the museum, we decided to take a stroll through Chishan Gardens, which is right next to the museum. Even though it was raining, it was just a light sprinkle, so we headed into the almost-deserted garden, stopping to rest a bit at a covered pavilion, sitting on small stools carved from some beautiful wood. One could almost believe one had travelled back to ancient China - until the pounding and sawing from the construction shattered that illusion :) We walked a bit more (and I somehow managed to convince Hiyoshi to sing me a Japanese children's song, that was fun - and no, he can't really sing), stopping again at another pavilion on the lake to watch the fish. They were swarming at the top of the water, thinking the raindrops were bugs landing. The fish range from tiny black ones that can barely be seen under the water to huge koi carp in all sorts of glittering colors. Hiyoshi must have been quite hungry, because he kept talking about fishing, saying the black ones were the tastiest ones. We watched some girls feeding the fish from the bridge, and when we continued our walk, we discovered the fish food dispenser! Oh, what fun. We each bought a packet of food and headed to the bridge. I laughed myself silly watching the fish swimming on top of each other, right out of the water, trying to get the little nuggets of food. Some of the tiny fish would even swim into the mouths of the bigger fish trying to grab it! I would have happily spent a lot more money buying food and feeding them, but we had other plans. If you'd like to see my prior photos of Chishan Gardens, here they are: http://www.pbase.com/500fan/chihshan_garden

As we were leaving the museum, I heard a woman calling, "Excuse me! Excuse me!" Turned around, and the group of people we'd seen inside, filming some of the exhibits with a movie camera (and managing to block my way so I couldn't see some of the best porcelain) were coming our way. One woman asked me if I could speak Chinese, and I said I could speak a little. She asked if they could interview me for a TV program they were filming. Yeah, just what I wanted. I'm wet, my hair is a frizzy mess, I'm wearing a huge black t-shirt over biking shorts, and my face is a greasy blob from all the humidity. I said no. They didn't listen to me. Next thing I knew, I have a TV camera in my face and I'm giving an interview, in Chinese. Why does this always happen to me? I had the same experience last September when Romita and I were walking by a temple! Do I have a sign on my back that reads "Media persons please accost me!"? At least I don't have to suffer through seeing myself on TV, since I don't have cable. Hopefully no one I know will watch that program.

Thursday night Hiyoshi had watched a TV show which featured a night market called Tong Hua Night Market, close to Liuzhangli Station. He wanted to go check it out, and since I hadn't any other plans, I agreed to go with him. And yes, it was still raining. We were soooo hungry by the time we got back to Taipei Main Station, but we wanted to find something good at the night market, so we made ourselves wait. It turned out that the market was quite a long walk from the station, but we finally found it and started cruising for food. The rain was keeping away a lot of people, so it was very easy to navigate the narrow street. It was around 7:00 p.m. before we found a spot that had seats inside out of the rain, cheap prices, and an interesting menu. I got mixed seafood fried rice, and Hiyoshi got some noodle soup with seafood. We shared that plus a little plate of huang gua (tiny cucumbers marinated in sesame oil, vinegar, and red peppers). Afterwards, we really wanted to get something icy for desert, but those places didn't have seats, and it would have been too hard to walk and eat while holding our umbrellas.

We got Hiyoshi back to the station in time to catch his bus to Wan Li, and I actually managed to find a seat on the train home (yay!). I got home around 10:30 p.m., and I was exhausted! DZ was very happy to see me, so I stayed up and played with her, read for awhile, finally crashed around 12:30.

Today was a rather lost day, because I woke up with a killer headache and an upset stomach. I felt so sick that I went back to bed and just kinda dozed until almost 4:00. DZ stayed in bed with me most of the time, actually behaving herself and just sleeping. Ugh, I hate feeling like that, and I hate throwing up, but I knew if I didn't, I'd never feel better. Maybe it was the seafood fried rice.... At least I'm feeling fine now, and I did manage to get laundry done and even some studying! Go me.

Babies are cute when....

they aren't mine and they aren't crying ;) Today I went with Laoshi, Kieko, Nico, and Hiyoshi to visit Keiko (don't be confused - there are two girls with almost the same name) and see her new (one-month old) baby. Keiko was our classmate until she had the baby, and we're hoping she'll be able to come back when the baby is a little older. He's a cute little bugger, but Keiko's cat doesn't seem too fond of the new arrival. He hid under the bed for most of our visit, but finally ventured out to sniff us all before retreating to a safer location. After Nico left, Keiko took a photo of all of us, with Hiyoshi holding the baby. We joked with him, said he could send the picture to his mother in Japan and tell her it was a pic of his four girlfriends and the new baby. Laoshi, Kieko, Hiyoshi and I grabbed some lunch afterwards, and I had one of those great egg-oyster-veggie omelets called "e ah jian" (that's Taiwanese, not Mandarin). Very good, with a reddish, rather sweet sauce on it.

Hiyoshi and I had wanted to go to Gu Gong Museum today, but there wasn't enough time after the visit to Keiko's, so we went in search of something icy to eat instead. We thought maybe we'd find tso bing (like a snowcone in a bowl with fruit) or xue hua bing (ice with milk added and then shaved thinly and piled ribbon-like into the bowl, covered with fruit), but it was too hot to walk around much looking, so we opted for our usual fare, iced coffee. We ended up at Ikari Coffee this time since Dante Coffee was packed full. We sat there until 6:30 p.m., having our usual strange chat, half in English, half in Chinese, with me correcting grammar and pronunciation as we go along. It's always a kick to try to figure out Hiyoshi's body language. When he can't think of the word in English, he uses his hands, but most of the time I have no clue what he's thinking! Talking with him is always loads of fun, with a lot of laughter. Today he told me the story of Doraemon, the Gadget Cat from the Future. It's a Japanese cartoon that's very popular here in Taiwan, as well as in Hong Kong.

Anyway, I got home late again tonight, and DZ was very happy to see me. I guess she gets pretty bored here alone all day. Now I'm going to go watch Treasure Hunters, a new (old) movie that I bought yesterday.

Shabu Shabu

One of the delights of Taiwan cuisine is shabu shabu hot pot. One orders a meal that one cooks oneself in a little pot of boiling broth set into the table. There are many choices for the type of meal you can order, ranging from beef, pork, chicken, fish, shellfish, etc. The meal comes with a plate of your chosen meat, plus another plate that has a variety of things to cook, and you can order extra meat or other things on the side, if you wish.

Last night I went with Li Hua and Tony to the restaurant close to my house, and the three of us ate until stuffed for only $20 US (and that included a large bottle of Taiwan Gold Medal beer). I ordered the chicken, and with it I got some cabbage, some sort of green that was similar to bok choy, a shrimp, some taro, winter melon, a couple kinds of tofu, small piece of corn on the cob, fish balls, enoki and shitake mushrooms, crab meat, rice, and a few other things I can't really explain because I don't know what they're called, just that they're tasty! It's a little warm to eat like this in the summer, since you have the boiling liquid right in front of you, but it's sure fun. I prefer the type of hot pot that has hot & spicy liquid to cook in, where you pick out what you want from a buffet-type setup, but this one was very good, and I'm sure I'll be going back to that place frequently!

Wu Bai press conference

When I got to class this morning, I got an SMS from Charlene telling me that Wu Bai would be having a press conference at 2:00 p.m. at Ximen and that Shun (one of the guys in our fan group) was here in Taipei and would show me where. So, of course I decided to go! (Note added 7/2/05: The press conference was basically just an advertisement for a show coming up in August that includes Wu Bai & China Blue, Bobby Chen, Baboo, and some others. I'm not going because the ticket is $80 US and WB&CB will only perform for about 20-30 minutes, so not worth it to me. Here's a link, but it's in Chinese: http://tw.news.yahoo.com/050701/4/20k81.html

I invited Kieko and Hiyoshi to go along with me, since I've been trying to convert both of them, ha. We went to grab some food at the Yamazaki Bakery in the basement of the Far East department store, enjoying being out of the very, very, very hot sun. I tried something they called a "Japanese pizza" and it was darned tasty - and only cost $1.00 US. At 1:30 we headed over to where Shun was waiting for us, and he took us to the place where the press conference would be.

After waiting for a short while, along with other fans who showed up, Shun grabbed me and said, "Wu Bai's here!" We could see that Wu Bai and his entourage (headed by his wife, as usual) had entered the back door, but in the center of the building was a cafe area with a curved glass wall, which made it difficult to see through. We expected the group would just go up the back stairs, but all of a sudden, they were headed toward us. Wu Bai was wearing a very bright yellow shirt and (of course) his sunglasses. He followed closely behind his wife and passed so close to me that I think he actually brushed against me! My first thought was, "That hair is dyed!" and I found out later from an un-named source that Wu Bai does indeed dye his hair ;) Anyway, they went by so quickly that there wasn't time for more than a fleeting glimpse of the man. Darn.

I had expected that this press conference would be a public event, but it turned out that it really wasn't, so mostly we were just hanging around downstairs with nothing to do. I kept apologizing to Kieko and Hiyoshi for dragging them along for nothing. Finally, some of the fans went up the stairs, so I followed and was able to see just a little of what was going on. Wasn't much, they had Wu Bai and some other guys poking their heads through a big cardboard cut-out with cartoon bodies drawn on it. What a surprise to see the funny guy from the Tuesday night show at The Wall there, too! I didn't have a very good view, because a camera was set up right where it was blocking Wu Bai's face.

When the press conference broke up, the fans waited around outside for Wu Bai to leave. Did I mention it was hot? It was hot. Too hot for me to be willing to stand around just to see Wu Bai come out a door and get into a car. So, after waiting for about 20 minutes, I left. I mean, what's the point, huh? It's not as if he's going to stop and chat with us or anything. I hope the die-hards who stayed and waited got a worthwhile glimpse of him!

Now I really need to make it up to Kieko and Hiyoshi for being such good friends and patiently waiting along with me. I know it's always kind of fun to see a star, even if one is not a huge fan of that star, but I still think it must have been pretty boring for them. Hell, it was boring for me, and I love the guy!

Taiwan music

Doing a little catching up on the journal & dating the entries the days they should have been written.

Tuesday evening my classmate, Kieko, and I went to The Wall to see Guoxi's band perform. There were other bands also performing, and Mojo was scheduled to be the last. When we got into the pub, the band that was onstage was in full swing, belting out numbers in Taiwanese. It took me a few minutes to realize that they were all blind! I don't know the name of the band, but they were very good and obviously a great favorite with the crowd.

The next band to perform featured a lead vocal/guitar player who is locally famous (I believe his name is Zhu Tou Pi - which translates to something like Pighead or Pig Dandruff, not sure which, neither one sounds good!), and the guy was just funnier than all get out. He kept switching from Taiwanese to a very exaggerated Beijing accented Mandarin, making us laugh so hard. Guoxi is going to let me borrow his CD one of these days when he remembers to bring it with him. They had a couple of guests play along with them, one guy with hair almost down to his waist, so small and delicate that I thought at first he was a girl. I need to find out who the second guest was, because he had a fabulous voice.

Mojo hit the stage very late, almost 11:30 p.m. Guoxi was happily playing his newest guitar from Japan, a spiffy Gibson, and while I enjoyed the music very much, I thought their singer wasn't all that good. His voice was very harsh and he didn't seem to be able to carry a tune. I had to be honest with Guoxi later and tell him that, and he said their band isn't meant to be so serious, that they are more like an "opera" and that the singer is an actor. Not really sure what that means......but I still don't like his singing! Guoxi rips on the guitar, though, excellent player.

So, by the time Mojo was done and had gotten their equipment packed, it was after 1:00 a.m. Guoxi, bless his heart, played chauffer, first taking two younger fans (who both had to be at school at 7:00 a.m. for a test!) home, then Kieko, then me. It was 2:19 a.m. when I hit the sack, and boy was I hating life in class on Wednesday morning! Kieko hadn't gotten to bed until almost 3:00 a.m., and Hiyoshi said he'd also stayed up until 2:00 a.m. because he had visitors from Japan, so the three of us weren't really at our best that day :)

Teacher, Teacher, I declare.....

And how many of you know the followup line to that one? hehe

Wanted to tell you all about my student. Well, OK, so he's more of a guinea pig than a student, but I'm still teaching him! Started like this.....

I went to the stadium in Xinzhuang on June 10 with one of the other fans, Tona from Singapore, the day before the Li Hai concert to check out the venue and to see if maybe we might see the guys and hear them practicing. We ended up meeting the stage manager, Cooper, and as we were outside talking with him, a friendly guy bounced over and said to me, "Hi! You can speak English to me, I need to practice!" I looked him over and said, "What a coincidence - I'm looking for a student!" He protested that he was just a poor boy and couldn't pay for lessons. I told him I'd teach him for free if he'd help me out with practicing my Chinese. He agreed, and we exchanged names and phone numbers. He told me his name was Kuoshi and that he'd give me a call sometime after the concert stuff was finished (he was one of the roadies).

After the show, when we'd all finished eating and were heading to the car, I heard someone call my name. I turned around, and there was Kuoshi, pulling his car into the lot at the stadium. I went over and talked to him, agreed that we'd get together sometime the next week after he called to confirm a time, and went back to my friends. Natari was looking at me very strangely. "You know Kuoshi? How do you know Kuoshi???" she asked. "Ah," I thought to myself, "he must be one of the fans who occasionally gets hired to work the shows." I explained to Nat how I'd met him and that I was going to give him some help with English. She just kept staring at me. "He's a famous guitar player!" she said. "What?! I thought he was just a roadie!" Nope, turns out that Kuoshi is very well known in Taiwan, his former band being Trucku and the current band being Mojo. And I'd actually seen them perform, because they opened the Wu Bai concert in Xinzhu last year when I attended that. Boy, was I surprised.

So, I didn't really know what to expect from the guy, because I know sometimes the "famous" folks can be a bit arrogant, but I have to say that this fella is one of the nicest, sweetest guys I've ever met. I am totally enjoying our three-hour sessions, whether we're working on English or just chatting to get him used to conversation. He has a heart of gold and is so very down-to-earth and not full of himself. Another big plus is that he's a HUGE Wu Bai fan, just like me =) I'm happy to have the opportunity to test my teaching skills to see whether I feel comfortable charging someone to study with me.

Here's a photo of Kuoshi at Spring Scream


I do have another student, too, sort of.....because whenever possible I try to help my friend Hiyoshi with his English. However, we seem to end up having giggle sessions more often than not, because my attempts to explain in English sometimes just go right over his head! It's still fun, and it's helping me learn what sort of difficulties a Japanese speaker has with English. I'm finding that Chinese people have an entirely different set of problems with the language than Japanese. English has quite a few sounds that Japanese does not have, ditto for Chinese, but not as many. Let me tell you, if you never made a certain sound throughout your entire life, it is NOT easy to learn how to make it!

A big "xie xie" to Weiwei for being such a wonderful example as my teacher and for showing me effective ways to teach another language! I owe ya ;)

The Li Hai concert story has been penned and posted

A work of sheer poetry, with some photo links added on June 24. Click here: http://s7.invisionfree.com/WuBai_and_China_Blue/index.php?showtopic=64&st=0

Things I never knew

Well, this reconnection with my father's side of the family is certainly providing interesting information. For instance, I just found out that my great-grandfather on my father's side was a full-blooded Mohawk Indian from Canada! I had no idea that I had Native American heritage, and it just tickles me to death. Every since I was a child, I've been drawn to stories about Native Americans and have felt some sort of affinity with them.

Way cool, huh?

Lame excuse #405

Sorry for the lack of recent updates and also for not replying to soooo many e-mails (the inbox currently has 57 e-mails). I know it's difficult to believe that a person with no job could be too busy to write, but it's true! Some days I leave the house at 9:00 a.m. and don't return until 9:00 p.m. Between hanging out with friends, tutoring English (yeah, I have a couple of students and maybe more on the way!), trying to do my own homework, and also fitting in time to relax quietly, not much writing is getting done. It doesn't help that it's been horribly hot and humid lately, which seems to sap a lot of my energy and make we want to just sit on the couch in front of the fan when I'm home.

The hike I had planned for Saturday is off because of the rain, so maybe I can do some catch-up then. I'm alive and well and enjoying myself, hope you're content with knowing that ;)

This is a test, this is only a test

Somehow I get the feeling that many of my friends aren't bothering to read my journal to find out what's going on in my life. This is because only a couple of people have mentioned things written here, and there are some momentous occasions on this page!

So, this test is simple. If you're one of my friends, and you've read my news, let me know. Those faithful visitors I already know, and I appreciate that you care enough to check in :)

Shake it up, baby

Last night I followed my usual routine of falling asleep on the couch. I can't go into my bedroom to sleep until after 1:00 a.m., because the family upstairs is always banging around in the room right above my bedroom. So, I start on the couch, and I wake up later and move into my room.

At 12:22 a.m. I woke up. I woke up because I was shaking. I mean, my apartment was shaking. Back and forth, back and forth. I laid there, sleepily thinking to myself, "Huh, earthquake." Looked at the clock, wondered if the Noisy Nasties were asleep yet, heard them drop something, and went back to sleep. Sometime later I got up and went to my bed.

So hey, I've been through my first Taiwan earthquake (that I noticed). It was 22 km east of Ilan City. Ilan is on the east coast, so I guess that means the epicenter was in the ocean, and the depth was at 57.7 km. Ilan felt it at 6.0, and Taipei County felt it as 4.0.

Gee, now I'm waiting for my first typhoon.....

Lost and found

When I was about six years old, my father deserted my mother, running off with a younger girl and leaving Mom with me and my brother, who was four years younger than me. We didn't get any financial support from my father, who basically vanished off the face of the earth, and my mother couldn't afford to take care of both of the children. My father's mother contacted Mom, said that her son wanted to take my brother, and Mom agreed, because she didn't know what else to do. We never saw my brother, Johnny, again.

When I was 18, after graduating from high school, against my mother's wishes I contacted my paternal grandmother. She wouldn't tell me anything about where my father and brother were, and when she started trash talking about my Mom, I cut off all contact with her.

A few years ago, when I got my first home PC, I started to look up family back in New York and managed to locate my father's brother's ex-wife. She told me that no one knew where my brother was. I did some Internet searches for the last name, because it's a rare one, but never had any luck. I gave up.

Well, on Monday I had an e-mail from one of my relatives, who had tracked me down because Uncle Pete's ex-wife still had my old phone number in the US, and my ex-husband gave Janet my e-mail address. Seems that my Aunt Jean (I have the honor of having Jean as my middle name) passed away a couple of weeks ago, and the estate lawyer wanted the family to locate my brother and me. And Janet has found my brother, too! She said she'll give him my e-mail address - he never knew he had a sister, because my father never told him. So, I'm waiting anxiously to hear from him. I got a baby brother! This time I promise not to try to kill him, as Mom told me I tried when he was small. Me, jealous? Nah.....

What's in a name?

OK, it's official. The kitten has a name: DZ (just say "dizzy). After watching her running around like mad, it seemed to be the most fitting name for her. For your viewing pleasure, photos can be found at http://www.pbase.com/500fan/dz