我的聖誕節過得好不好? 這個聖誕節我不會忘記. 我想一下, 昨天早上普通, 起床后整理房間了, 然後自己剪頭髮了. 剪頭髮的時候我父母打電話給我. 我中午打電話給朋友, May, 因爲是她的生日. 他中午有事請所以說下午再打電話給我…下午我才離開家, 打算去圖書館念書再請朋友吃飯. 去圖書館以前我決定了去騎大台機車因爲一個禮拜多沒騎. 昨天好天气, 不冷還有太陽…在環河北路騎車的時候我被傳紅燈的車撞了! 這個…我從來沒有經驗過. 我很幸運的沒受傷. 然後我把車留在宗庭的店那邊. May來接我然後我們去永和吃太貴的泰國飯了, 吃飯后去逛樂華夜市了. 我們走很遠的路所以她想腳低按摩了, 按摩后回家了, 回家的時候機車熄火了因爲沒有汽油. 太過分了! 我把車推到加油站, 半夜十二點半才回到傢了. 一個晚上我沒有生氣但是覺得很疲勞.

我覺得台灣比美國安全. 晚上時在美國的大城市的外面要小心一點因爲美國有槍和很多壞人. 但是台灣有瘋狂的交通, 還是要小心一點要不然你會被車撞死了.

白板上有幾個句子是我的學生寫的. 這是從上個學年的春學期. Sammi, 你不應該說那關於你的母親.

This was written by one of my students during spring 2006. Sammi, you shouldn’t say that about your mother.

I didn’t take these first two photos of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國父紀念館) but I took the others with my cell phone and edited them in photoshop. I was surprised some of them came out pretty well. My cellphone shoots at 640 x 480 pixels. I like the one of the plaza with Taipei 101 in the background.

Yesterday was a beautiful winter day in Taipei. It’s actually cold now. It rained all day Saturday but Sunday was nice and sunny. I woke up around 9:45am and rushed to Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. Chang Hong Wushu School’s 17th annual exposition (第十七屆長洪盃武術觀摩會) was happening and I wanted to see it. It turns out there was a collegiate wushu competition last Friday at Chinese Culture University. I would’ve liked to see that but it was during the daytime while I was working. Most of the participants yesterday were beginners. It was fun to watch the coaches’ performance. One of them did an umbrella form (雨傘套路). I want to be like the 53 year old coach one day, he was moving around like he was 30.

I was tired because the night before I was up really late. Our company’s Christmas party (聖誕聚餐) was on Saturday. It was held at the Grand Formosa Regent (晶華酒店), which is a really nice hotel. The dinner was buffet and it was great. The teachers were a little disappointed when there were no alcoholic drinks. The invitation did say “free flowing drinks,” which usually refers to alocohol and not coca-cola. I’m happy, I won a raffle for a 1,000NT ($30) gift certificate at Eslite bookstore (誠品). I was also given free movie passes as an award for being a frequent user on the new employee system. Yeah! I uploaded 3 or 4 files. Guess, nobody else has been using it. After dinner, a few of us went out for drinks. I walked home from Pub 45 (Roosevelt & Heping E. Rd to Yanping S. Rd, near Xiaonanmen). My feet are sore today.

Before that, I visited the National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院) for the second time. They’re doing renovations now, so if you buy a ticket you get another admission free. You can take Red 30 (紅30) from Shilin MRT to get there. After the museum, I went to SPOT-Taipei Film House (SPOT台北之家) for the second time too. I bought two of Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s (侯孝賢) DVDs for 198NT ($6). Then I went to dinner at the hotel.

The sight on the Sun Yat-sen plaza was golden. Families were out playing, high school kids were out practicing their dance routines, you get the picture. I did the cobblestone walk that goes along the north side of the fence. It runs parallel with Zhongxiao Rd. and is longer than the width of the the memorial hall. There’s a photo of the path below and a close-up of the cobblestones. Erica, wanna try that when you come to Taipei? Reflexology is good stuff.

這是現實嗎? 我記得這個時候但是一看這張相片就笑起來了. 我覺得越來越習慣中國文化因爲我以前不會這樣子, 透光下棋. 這是上個星期五晚上跟朋友們去陽明山泡溫泉了. 這件溫泉的名字是馬祖窟溫泉, 是免費的. 我覺得去那裏很有意思. 宗庭的介紹比較好. 過了很悠閒的一個晚上.

Is this real? When I first saw this picture I laughed a lot. I didn’t think it was so funny at the time. I was enjoying a game a chess. I think I’m getting more and more used to Chinese culture. I would never have done this before in the States, playing chess after bathing in a hot spring. This was last Friday night with friends. We went to Shilin night market for a late dinner. Then went to a hot spring at YangMing mountain. It’s called Mazu Cave Hot Spring and it’s free. It’s mostly locals that go there every day. After they bathe they hang around and drink tea and play cards. There is a cool exercise area too. That’s where we were playing chess. After we left the hot spring we had an early breakfast or night snack (宵夜), whatever you want to call it, at a Chinese style breakfast joint (豆漿店). Didn’t sleep until early in the morning but it was fun.