oh hi!

earlier today when I was waking up, Josh came in and sat down and we proceeded to have a snuggle party. he had a little spaz attack and squeezed me tightly and said "I thank the God for let me loving you!! let me love this cutie!!"
at the time I was too sleepy to really react, but now when I think about it I start crying! ahhhh so touching~ just~ cry~~~

"Taiwantime" sounds pretty good, though probably still not as good as "Chinatime", because the number of syllables AND the stress placement are exactly the same as "Hammertime".
I've thought about a lot of things here! (Sorry this paragraph is going to be lame, I know, you can tell already.) Things like, you should never go out of the house looking crappy, even if you feel crappy, because it seems that if you dress better than you feel, you will end up feeling a little better (and vice versa o_O I need clothes that fit better...no more Tshirts for outside). And how people's demeanour can so strongly affect how you act around them (eg Josh's friends::my confidence in speaking Chinese). And how despite being together 24/7 for three weeks, Josh and I have not gotten sick of each other! And how his family/friends are like "here's some wine for your future marriage lol" XD
ANYWAY yeah! I have gotten lax about keeping a daily diary (written; I'll probably put it here laterz), because we just were doing so much stuff every day in Taipei, so I pretty much forget what we did and when, but now that we're back to Kaohsiung we're not really super busy; in fact, it's pretty chill. (I feel like a douchebag when I use semicolons in my blog. SORRY if it seems douchey D: I know~ blah~) But here are some random things I thought were funny recently.
Today I went to Donutes (will be explained in my transcribed daily diary when I write it down LATERZ) and found that no, they have no donuts, as I expected. But they do have really fancy birthday cakes that look delicious. I went there to get coffee (一杯冰拿鐵, "one cup cold "na tie""...an iced latte. yeah I know, LOL tee hee) and the waitress was SO EXCITED that I could speak Chinese! I asked for the na tie (lolz) and then she was like (obviously all of the following is translated) "HAHA OKAY GREAT! For here or to take away!??!" so I was like "Takeaway~" and she was like "TEE HEE YEAHHH hold on one sec :D" I giggled a lil. Anyway, the verdict on Donutes coffee is...a decent balance between sweet and bitter. (Yes, Taiwanese cafes usually sweeten lattes.)
Oh another random thing I thought was great was, a couple nights ago when we came back from Taipei, we went with Josh's parents, 二哥 (brother) & sister-in-law, and some family friends to dinner at a Chinese-style (obbbbbviously...pretty much, older people involved --> Chinese-style food) seafood resto. I went to use the 化妝室 ("makeup room"...powder room/restroom). When I was leaving, a man was on his way in, and he was staring at me so hardcore that he ran into a wall/pile of stuff. I was like "o_O" I didn't know if I should laugh, run away, help him, or what--like, maybe he'd be embarrassed if I helped him, or whatever, idk bye.
While we were here, Josh sort of "invented" fish kisses, which can be hilarious.
Speaking of Josh and being hilarious! Yesterday...no wait. What? Yeah yesterday, we went to 旗津 (Qi Jin) with Josh's two college classmates/friendels. It was fucking hottttttt there, fuck. (If my cuss-abominating dad is reading this: seriously, it was so hot, it deserves the f-bomb. F!!!!!!) I'm surprised I didn't get sunburned. While we were there, my sunglasses randomly broke--one of the stems fell off. Sad panda. Anyway fast forward through me and my feeling crampy and going home while they went to a baseball game. Today, Josh was waiting for me to put clothes on to go outside for a walk/宵夜 ("xiao ye", midnight snack) when he picked up a hair claw thing I use when at-home-and-feeling-too-warm and started playing with it. He tried to clamp it onto his hair but since his hair was too short and it was broken already (apparently he didn't know that), it fell down on the tile floor and one of the "claws" broke off. He looked at me with the SADDEST SURPRISED FACE EVAR and was like "I'm sorry!!!!!!!!!! D: !!!!!!!!!!" I promptly assured him that I didn't mind, it was fine, but was so touched by his sad face--omfg it was so cute!!!--that I also started laughing. Then I told him that we could put it next to my sunglasses, and designate the bedside table the "things that I have that are broken" table! I don't know, I thought that was hilarious. I was crying. I laughed just now thinking about it. XD
Aw while Josh & friends were at the baseball game and I was home being crampy/uncomfortable, Josh's mom was so cute, for dinner, she got a vegetarian pizza for me (she's vegetarian; I'm not really; she didn't eat any pizza anyway; yeah I'm a lil confused too but oh well), then dished out some 仙草 ("xian cao"...like, this jello-textured, really light-tasting drink/pudding), then also gave me one of those tiny super-sweet drinks that I always forget the real name of but I just call it "多多" ("duo duo") because I'm five years old or whatever bye. Keep in mind, the whole time she was arranging things and asking if I wanted stuff--we don't really fully have a common language; she speaks some Chinese and I speak some Chinese, and surely our accents sound TOTALLY WEIRD to one another. (Thankfully, I've learned some rules about Taiwanese pronunciation, so I can understand her accent a little better than I would otherwise. -_-) Then after dinner, she went and got some bubble tea for me. OMG she's so cute!!!! I really hope she likes me. I really like her. I want to make a good impression so badly, but it seems hard to make any impression at all when we can't really talk to each other.
Oh Josh's dad was so cute too, when he walked over and saw that ma put the 多多 sweet drink thing out for me, he asked her (yeah idk how I understood this in Taiwanese, but I did), "is this cold?" and then touched it, and then was like "oh okay good." and walked away. I was like aw lol cute, thanks for caring!
I'm gonna go to bed soon, but first I'm going to try to start using PTT. If I'm gonna study here and/or live in Taiwan, I'm gonna need to learn things from Young Taiwanese People On The Message Boards Of The Internets.

today at work I was so fucking bored. soooooo I was reading articles and stumbled across one purporting to "advise young women about money". there were sections with tips from different "experts"; pretty much all the sections said the same thing. (way to go, editors!)
the only things I really found useful/interesting (since I don't have a 401k matching option or whatever to deal with) were:
- have at least three months' worth all your monthly expenses combined in an account you can access if you lose your job or are otherwise fucked;
- save for retirement and whatnot really early so you're not fucked when you're old;
- put 10%+ of your income in savings; 60% or less for monthly expenses (eg rent); and 30% for living expenses (eg fun stuff).
this stuff would be a lot easier to plan and implement if I had a salaried position. as it is, I have an hourly job with inconsistent hours, so it's really tough to make long-term plans like this.
I use "fucked" up there a couple times. I think that reflects my feelings about money. I'm kind of ambivalent and passive about it and don't value it super highly; I just care enough to try to make sure I don't get fucked. I'm not the kind of person who has a fucking conniption about having spent $5 more than they needed to; I don't spend tons of time and energy thinking about money. I'm not the kind of person who would give a fuck about someone just because they had money. I find talking about money too much unseemly and unnecessary (that trait was probably partly instilled by my family) and I think it's really sad that so many couples marry and/or separate because of money. people who spend their lives toiling to become millionaires--also sad. what a waste of brain power, worrying about money so much. you can't take it with you.
however. I should probably give a little more attention to it, because I seem to be constantly on the edge of money-nervous recently. I guess it's understandable, since attending weddings and taking trips and "moving" (I mean, we didn't actually move, but we had to replace some things that got moved by the movers-out) always put a dent in the moneys (err....when you're young??). I also guess I like to make plans, and it makes me a little nervous that I have no idea how much money I might spend in Taiwan (although people keep telling me that's a hilarious worry, cuz like...no), plus it's (obviously) not a paid vacation. I'm also kind of freaked out at spending any of my savings on the trip, which I will most likely have to do. djkslafjdksalfjalskf
then, too, soooort of related to the love-of-making-plans, would be the fact that I am pretty OCD and want my account balances to be my favoured numbers, which is kind of retarded. examples of favoured numbers: 500, 1000, 3000, 5000. LOL @ that last one. I can only wish for that soon.
if I had a job I really liked, I would probably work more (and get paid more) and then I wouldn't be as nervous. but ummm. yeah. hopefully that will happen soon...!!!

words I suck at (hand)writing in Chinese:

• 能
• 爱 (and also 愛) - the proportions end up strange
  
• 要
  
• actually, basically anything with 女 in it. I just suck at that one D:
  
• 内 (I know, it's so easy, I don't even know)
  
• 五 (yup I'm retarded)
  
• 事
  
• anything with 几, eg 亮 (I get the proportions wrong and it looks skinny/bizarre) 
• things with 酒 or 西 often end up looking awkward
  
• 车 and 车-involving characters
  
• 来
  
• 蛋 - it always ends up HUGE! 
• things with the ”walking" radical, like 过 or 道
  
• 多, sometimes
  

my only cute one is 衣， which I learned from the cover of a Hong Kong chick flick (少女内衣？ I think?）. I sort of do a lil' loop that encompasses the last three strokes. other than that, my Chinese handwriting is fucked! ha -_-

in other news, yay buh buei wa ai li yayayayayay 'kbye