April Instagrams

First of all, Happy Mother's Day, Mommy! <3 

You're a wonderful mom, I love you and hope you have a great day today. :)

So, the other day I had a brilliant idea for an insta-blog-post. (Because I suck at actually sorting and processing my photos for a proper post.) Now that I have an iPhone, I actually remember to take photos with it once in a while, and with Instagram that means they're all processed and ready to go, just sitting on my phone waiting for me to make a blog post out of it! (Ok fine, I guess it's not all that original of an idea, but whatever.)

Anyway, here's a peek at how I spent the month of April in Instagrams:

My first Instagram photo ever! I'd had my iPhone for a few days but kept forgetting to take it out and use it. Only remembered in this instance because of a couple of Korean tourist taking photos of Taipei 101. :P

So because my iPhone was new and I didn't really know how to use it, I accidentally took a picture of the ground when I meant to take a picture of something else. But, uh, people seemed to like it? Hahaha.

All-you-can-eat, cook-your-own Japanese BBQ with my high school friend Annie! :) It's so much fun when my friends visit Taipei.

Hey there, Hello Kitty, what are you doing in our hot pot?? (We ended up not eating her, haha. Too full!)

Miramar Ferris wheel with Annie! It was fun, I've never been up there at night!

Hill of tombs on my way to 基隆 (Keelung). So when I took this picture, I had no idea the Taiwanese consider it a bad idea to take pictures of tombs! Apparently they think you might accidentally capture a ghost with your camera, or you might anger the dead and become haunted. When my coworkers found out about my photo they were mildly freaked out, lol. But I don't see any ghost in my photo. Do you? (Maybe I should blame my recent cold on the wrath of ghosts! But it's still worth it because I really like this photo.)

These bottles are from Rebirth Cafe, where I went for lunch with my childhood friend Phoebe, who was in Taipei for an internship. It was fun and we had a long and very intellectual conversation, haha. Also, there were cats walking around at the cafe, including this tiny adorable kitten! I didn't get too close since I'm allergic (sometimes that doesn't stop me, though) and luckily I didn't start getting itchy eyes or a runny nose.

View from 彩虹橋 (Rainbow Bridge) on our way to 饒河夜市 (Raohe Night Market) one evening after playing badminton.

地熱谷 (Thermal Valley) in 北投 (Beitou). There was a lot of steam! Went there with high school friends Annie and Isabella, who both happened to be visiting Taiwan. After walking checking out a few sights around Beitou, we soaked in the outdoor hot springs. Very relaxing, but some of those pools were super hot! My favorite was the one with the massaging jets. :)

Mossy wall and steps from what used to be a fortress around... somewhere. Sorry, forgot the name since my friend took me. It looked cool though so I snapped a photo.

Wow, that was fast and painless. Got to take more photos with my iPhone! You'd think I'd have abandoned my DLSR in favor of my phone camera by now (as it seems a lot of people have), but no, I'm still lugging my camera with me everywhere. And usually I forget to snap photos with my phone for instant sharing, but I'm trying to remember to do that more. I have to say I still like taking pictures with my camera better, though.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed your Mother's Day, especially the moms out there! :)

with love,

linda

July Outing with Phoebe and Brandon

{In which Phoebe and Brandon act like old people and little kids}

So this was one of the items in my October poll, and it did get enough votes that I chose some photos and processed them. But then I never got around to actually posting them... oops. But here are the photos, at last! (Sorry you had to wait so long, Phoebe!)

(Also, let me know if there's anything in particular you want to see, either from my April Fools update post or the October post. I'm trying to get back into blogging and it'd be nice to have a few starting points. Otherwise it's kind of overwhelming.)

Anyway, way back in July, I went to the National Museum of History with Phoebe and Brandon to see the Picasso exhibit. It was fun; with my laughter and Brandon's voice, we got shushed like 3 times within the first 5 minutes (it was fine once we moved to a different room).

We made fun of a lot of paintings. I love that Picasso's art is so inherently mockable. (Kidding. Sort of. Ok fine, I'm really just not a fan of his style.)

Finally! An Update!

{In which I catch up on on five-and-a-half months of not blogging}

April Fools! There's actually no update.

Just kidding. (Though I'm sure you wouldn't have been surprised if that were the case.)

So... I have kind of been failing at this blogging thing. I'm always super conflicted when it comes to my blog because I have TONS of gorgeous photos to share, but then because there are so many I get overwhelmed and I fall behind and the guilt is too much and then I go LA LA LA I'M IGNORING MY BLOG.

But here I am attempting to give you a peek of what I've been doing when I haven't been blogging. It almost killed me to choose just ONE photo per month, but I knew I'd never get anything posted otherwise. In the future, I'd like to share more photos if possible, but considering my record... yeah. Don't hold your breath.

How I Survived My Weekend

{In which I lock myself out of the apartment for 20+ hours but managed to get back, with minimal hysterics and plenty of good luck}

(Oops, I didn't expect typing this out to take so long. Sorry about the lateness on email and blog comments and general MIA-ness.  This post explains why on two fronts: 1) I got locked out and 2) I was writing this beast of a post. So yes, this account is kind of wordy. If you want, feel free to skip to the TL;DR version.)

I was planning to have a nice, quiet, relaxing weekend. Work had been more burdensome than usual lately — I stayed past 9pm several nights last week — so I was very much looking forward to recuperating with some alone time during the weekend.

I wouldn't be entirely anti-social for the weekend, though, since Mom's friend had planned a get-together dinner on Sunday night. I checked with Grandpa on Thursday to make sure he was free, since he'd mentioned that he'd be gone on a business trip from Friday to Sunday. Grandpa decided to return to Taipei earlier than planned on Sunday night so he could talk business with Auntie Wenny's husband, and I told him we were meeting at the department store across from Taipei Main Station, sixth floor, the restaurant named Shin Yeh. 5:30pm.

Links! Photos! Stuff!

{In which there is much randomness}

Ugh, I suck at updating now. Sorry. :( I can't believe I once posted every weekday! *is full of nostalgia for those long-ago happy days*

Anyway, I still have thousands of photos to sort through and process and upload, and you'd think that given how much time I've been holing up in my room lately I'd have more to show. But no, I've been taking advantage of my recent bout of anti-socialness to work on other projects. Like Camp NaNoWriMo, except I got stalled because I have this terrible habit of needing to have everything planned and outlined before I can write (left over from my days of writing one-draft English papers the night before they're due). Soooo I've been plotting (and reading about plotting) instead of writing, which is good for my sanity but not so great for my word count.

Since I'm here, I thought I'd share some random photos as well as awesome links I've come across lately and would love to discuss with someone. So go read these articles and tell me what you think!

Christine

{In which I make you all insanely jealous because my friend is THAT gorgeous}

So, way back in May (yes I know how behind I am with photos), Christine came to Taiwan for a family friend's wedding. And I was SOOOO EXCITED to get to see her! :D We bought a ton of Taiwanese snacks at 7-11 and had a fabulous sleepover filled with lots and lots of girl talk. And then the next day we spent the morning primping and then had photo shoots around Taipei. :P This is one of my favorites:

I love having Christine around — not only is she fun and free-spirited and adorable and kind, she's also a wonderful friend and lovely model (her eyes are beautiful).

Mid-July Update

Yay, I finally have all of June's food photos selected and processed! They'll be posted soon. Gah, I'm getting later and later with the food posts. And here I'd thought they were the one thing I did consistently on this blog. Maybe I should try posting a photo every weekday again? Diane seemed to like that, and one photo wouldn't be too hard, I think. Maybe. We'll see.

And I totally meant to do something special for the six-month anniversary of my blog (and one year in Taiwan!) in the beginning of July. Oh well, it can be late. But I'm not sure what to do. Q&A? Giveaway? I'm hoping for something that involves participation from YOU. :)

Oh and while I'm here, some updates:

• I went to see the Picasso exhibit with Brandon and Phoebe! I'm not a fan of the art but had a blast hanging out with them and catching up (we got shushed three times in the first five minutes, haha). And we totally made fun of the paintings when we weren't chatting about other stuff. And then Phoebe's uncle took us to the Youth Park and I took tons of photos of the two of them with my new lens! Definitely a happy weekend.
• I went to 師大夜市 (Shida Night Market) and bought so many new clothes. Being in Taiwan is making me like shopping a lot more, because things are actually affordable! Except there aren't many vendors that let you try on clothes before you buy, so there's a bit of a risk involved. But still, I'm excited about my haul as a whole, and I would totally be tempted to post my outfits or start a style blog or something if I thought I knew anything about fashion. (Which I clearly don't, as evidenced by that time I asked this salesgirl at Sogo about an item she informed me was so last season.)
• More hangouts planned for the weekend! People I met at last year's Ecamp are back in Taiwan so I'm excited about seeing them, as well as mentors from the camp. But I'm a bit wary about the weather since I heard a typhoon will hit this weekend. =\ (And I totally got caught in the rain without an umbrella today. AGAIN.) Still, the rain isn't so bad. Preferable to the heat, in my opinion.

That's it for now. I just felt like posting something, since I haven't posted much lately. (Need to fix that!) 

Here, a random photo for you:

More posts to come!

with love,

linda

Flying Fish

How can it be a week into July already?! Craziness! I've been terrible with blogging lately. Still in the process of collecting all the food photos from June for the monthly food post; hopefully I'll get that done over the weekend (but then I say that about every weekend). It's starting to get hotter and hotter here, but a lot of friends from the states are visiting, so I've been meeting up with people and planning get-togethers and basically enjoying summer despite not having an official summer vacation for the first time in my life. Plus I didn't even get July 4th off!

And of course I take tons of photos at each hangout, and since I haven't done much photo-processing lately, that means I'm super behind. But then what else is new?

Anyway, here are a couple shots from when I visited Keelung with relatives way back in April.

Hope you had a good Fourth of July!


with love,
linda

SYS Memorial with Victoria

{In which we have way too much fun with an umbrella}

So after brunch at Omelet to Go, Victoria bought an umbrella and we strolled through the grounds of Sun Yat-Sen Memorial to talk and take pictures.

Windshield Wipers

Saw this in a parking lot near the office and asked my coworker why all the windshield wipers were up. "So they won't melt onto the windshield," he told me. 

Yup, Taiwan summers are sweltering. I'm starting to love rain; I used to hate how inconvenient it made everything, but now I'd be grateful for a respite from the heat.

Hope that, unlike me, you're enjoying summer weather!

with love,

linda

Omelet to Go

{In which you get to see my Chinese handwriting, which looks worse than that of Taiwanese kindergartners)

Way back in April, my high school friend Victoria and I went to Omelet to Go for brunch (except we didn't get it to go, haha). It was a really cute place near my uncle's apartment and the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall.

Swallow

I know posts were sparse this week, but don't worry, there will be a more substantial post on Monday. Also, I've decided to start another blog in addition to this one. I really enjoy blogging here about whatever comes to mind, but I also want to try blogging with a focus. So you can visit my new writing blog, but don't feel obligated to follow if it doesn't sound interesting to you (it's kind of boring now, but I'm sure it'll be awesome in the future :P).

Hope you have a great weekend!

with love,

linda

April Food Post

{In which there is more Taiwanese food than usual, and I rave about salad}

I know you guys tend to be more interested in seeing photos of uniquely Taiwanese food, which makes sense considering that I'm in Taiwan and most of you are not. But when I do eat Taiwanese food, I like to go for the same staples. Either that or the food isn't particularly photogenic. Which means not many of those photos make it into these posts, as this series isn't so much a record of what I eat as a collection of photos I like that happen to have food as their subject (and I wouldn't have had all these photos of food lying around had Diane not requested them). But this week, you're in luck, as more of the photos are of  Taiwanese food.

Doggies in Taipei

Even when I was a kid, I loved pointing the camera at cute, furry animals. My mom preferred the standard Asian tourist photos with everyone lined up in front of the point of interest. She didn't understand my obsession with photographing every squirrel, duck, or chipmunk that came into view, especially since I usually showed little interest in the photographs once they were developed (yes, this was way back in the days of film).

Anyway, I seem to have retained that compulsion to photograph animals, as evidenced by my swan, cat, and parrot photos. This post features dogs I've seen on the streets of Taipei.

I love this shot. The dog's eyes seem so expressive. 

Do dogs have eyebrows? This dog seems to be lifting one.

The wall was not particularly high, which probably explains the sign. It reads: "Will suffer diarrhea. Do not feed. Thanks. Sincerely, the Nutritionist."

Have a great weekend!

with love,

linda

Wanhua and Monga

{In which I visit Wanhua District with John and Mavis}

After going to the Flora Expo with John, his friend Mavis arrived and took us to historical 萬華區 (Wanhua District), the oldest district in Taipei.

Taipei Flora Expo Part II

{In which John and I are interviewed by a Taiwanese reporter}

Continued from Taipei Flora Expo Part I.

The photos above are from the Korean pavilion. For some reason the Taiwanese seem to hold some prejudice against Koreans. While we were there, a reporter and cameraman from Taiwanese TV station 民視 approached us (well, John, actually). Probably because there was no one else in the area.

Taipei Flora Expo Part I

{In which John and I go to the Flora Expo, inadvertently annoy a volunteer, and learn to pose like Taiwanese students}

So like, I was actually not planning on going to the Taipei International Flora Exposition.

I'd seen the ads everywhere since I arrived, but it didn't sound all that interesting to me. I don't like flowers enough to want to stand in lines to look at them (although I wouldn't mind if you want to buy me some! :P). My parents went to the Expo when they were in Taiwan over Thanksgiving break and weren't exactly impressed, so I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. Plus, I already got a photo with the entrance sign — good enough for me!

Lunch with the Newlyweds

{In which Brandon and Phoebe wear super sweet matching shirts}

Since I didn't have work and Dawson wasn't schedule to fly out until that night, we had lunch with Brandon and Phoebe on 2/28. Due to some miscommunication, we ended up waiting at the original 鼎泰豐 (Din Tai Fung) for Brandon's parents when they'd gone to one of the other branches. While we waited, Phoebe looked through all the photos I took at the wedding, and then we took some more new ones.

Dawson in Taipei

{In which I explore Taipei with Dawson}

I woke up super late the day after the wedding, then went over to the hotel where everyone was staying and found Dawson. We ate lunch and then somehow stumbled into the 2/28 Memorial Peace garden (I thought CKS Memorial was one stop from Taipei Main, but it turned out to be two. Oops). But it was really pretty so we took a few photos before we left.

Phoebe and Brandon's Wedding

{In which I finally post the photos from Brandon and Phoebe's beautiful wedding!}

Phoebe and Brandon got married in Taiwan on February 26, and I was so honored to be able to participate in their big day! Dawson flew in from China and together with Sungil we repped Berkeley ICA. I was super excited to get to hang out with all of them (I miss Berkeley ICA so much!) and take lots of pictures of everyone looking gorgeous for the wedding.

A big part of me couldn't believe that Brandon was getting married. Still hard to get it through my head now. But I have lots of pictures as proof! And yes, you finally get to see them. Well, a handful, at least.

This was my first time photographing a wedding so I was a little nervous — despite the fact I was just photographing as a guest. But I really wanted to take lots of beautiful photographs for Brandon and Phoebe as well as for those of you who couldn't attend. I know I still have a lot of room for improvement — my inadequacies as a photographer as evidenced by these photos bug me a lot, actually — but I hope you can look past the flaws to experience the moment I tried to capture. Brandon and Phoebe's love for each other really shines through, and that's what's important. Be sure to send your blessings and congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Jue! :)