Wow. I realized that I am easily accessible on the web through a simple Google search, but until I did one recently, I didn't realize that a Miss Sabine Chen had liberally taken many elements of my blog (as well as some photography from Tom's website. At least she did properly credit one of my writings.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but goodness, I put a lot of thought into creating the titles of the different sections of my blog. I would expect one would try to make their own blog as personal as possible, instead of so blatantly imitating another.

I've had a very good eating week. Saturday, on my way to the nursery, I stopped off at a Yunnanese food stall by the MRT for chicken curry with jasmine rice and a green papaya salad. Leaving the nursery, Ginny took me to the best chicken nugget food stand in Taipei, just around the corner from the Wellcome Supermarket in Tienmu. These aren't processed bits with essence of chicken flavor, but real chicken chunks, fried till crispy. You can get spicy powder sprinkled on them. That evening, I met up Joaquin, Mate, Jen, and Angela at Kunming, an Indian restaurant. This was my first time eating Indian food in Taipei, yum! By Sunday, I was in the mood to eat Chinese food again, and I had dinner at a small, unassuming restaurant just down the block from my acupressurist. The place was completely full, with others waiting to dine, at 6:30 p.m.

Yesterday, I treated my colleagues to afternoon tea. I wanted to expand their cultural taste buds, so I prepared hummous, roasted eggplant dip, and sun-dired tomato and pesto goat cheese dip, served with whole-wheat tortillas and french bread (I didn't know where to find pita bread, so I improvised with the tortillas, which my colleague Jenny had brought back for me on her last trip to the States). My colleagues were quite fascinated by the tortillas and the dips. Most of the ingredients were actually not that hard to find, once I knew where to go. But the composition of flavors was new to them.

I didn't realize how lucky I was to have lived in major cities in the U.S. There, it's easy to sample a variety of cuisines in the course of a week: burritos one night, falafel the next...Thai, Chinese, Indian, Italian, Mexican, French, nouvelle American, fusion...of course, there's a greater depth of Chinese and Taiwanese available here, but as an American, I suppose I'm spoiled for choice.

Wayne sent me this funny quote by Chris Rock:

"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the US of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the 3 most powerful men in America are named 'Bush', 'Dick', and 'Colon'."

I haven't made a plug for either CAPT or ORIENTED on this blog so far, so here it is. I must admit that I have met most of my friends here in Taipei in some fashion through one of these fine community organizations. I have also found my current and future jobs through these two groups. So, to "give back to the community," as Angela says, I've become an organizer for both groups. Last Saturday, the CAPT Executive Committee met to plan for the rest of the year. We met at Patty's grandparent's home in lovely Peitou. And now, faithful readers, you all can check out my new haircut.

Here are more photos of my first climb of the day at LongDong. The route was supposed to be a 5.9, but I hadn't warmed up, so I had a lot of trouble seeing the foot and handholds, as the distressed expression on my face reveals. My lame attempts at smearing weren't particularly effective, either. Eventually, called it a day and later finished some other routes, including one that was supposed to be an easy 5.10. Who knows?

Finally, a "sun-kissed" trio of James, Melissa, and me. Yes, I realize my new haircut is still not visible. That will come later.

I went climbing in LongDong again on Sunday, this time to a different section of the park. The view was again spectacular. This was a trip organized by EcoPower, a new club that meets "all your leisure needs." Other adventures on the agenda include kayaking, hiking, and other fun outdoor activities. EcoPower is run by the inimitable Duck, and this particular outing was organized by Cherry.

I startle myself everytime I see a reflection of me--on Saturday, I had my hair cut. Originally, I wanted something along the lines of what Renee Zellweger sported at the 2003 Oscars. However, I also mentioned to my stylist that I have had basically the same hairstyle for the past two years. After hearing about my lifestyle, she suggested that a short cut might be more appropriate. I was a little unsure--what she described seemed to be a little out there for me. Eventually, we agreed that she would cut my hair as I originally intended, and then we could go from there. Well, it was a nice cut, but again, the same old. So I told her to go for it, and when she was finally done...eek! Responses have ranged from "you look older" to "you look like a little boy" (gotta love the refreshing directness of the Taiwanese). Overall, though, most people agree that it has more character. Whether that character is really me, well, I'll have to think some more about that. I suspect it's not. But at least I tried something different.