I thought this was supposed to be a break.

So we got back from Taiwan this afternoon. Lucy's having her sleepover birthday party tomorrow, and then we're having this afternoon tea kind of thing on Saturday with some old friends I haven't seen in forever so I can set out after dinner for Pasadena so my dad can get back in time to go folk-dancing Sunday afternoon. I'm not quite sure which one of us is going to drive, considering I have no time to sleep after tonight before then, and he won't get much sleep between driving down and back up. (Then again, the Saturday before we left for Taiwan, my parents did this crazy thing where they drove to LA in the morning, danced all afternoon and night, and were back by 4am. Apparently my endurance for driving long distances is very crappy in comparison to everyone else I know.)

Taiwan was fun, though. I remembered my older cousins, on my dad's side, but my cousins on my mom's side are all "brand new", so to speak. The only one I remembered was a lot different this time. I wonder what it is that makes my two 6th grade cousins so much more mature than my 5th grade brother. Is it that Asian educational systems are stricter, in various ways? Is it Taiwanese society in general? Is it because they're shy, quiet girls? Or is it because their parents don't spoil them so much? Maybe I'm just too much of an authoritarian when it comes to my brother.

In addition to visiting lots of relatives, we'd never gone sightseeing in Taiwan before, so we took a train tour to a couple places on the eastern side of the island. (Although this meant we didn't go to Kaoshiung nor Tainan, which are on the western side, and one of my aunts lives in the latter.) We took a bus tour through Taroko National Park in Hua Lian, where there were lots of pretty waterfalls. Then we went to Taidong -- I am still amused by the fact that Taiwan has cities named after the four compass points -- which involved biking through a tiny, boring park and visiting a bunch of random places. But we stayed at supposedly the largest hot spring in Taiwan. We couldn't stand the hottest pool, though, which was 41.8C according to the digital display, but I swear it was far less bearable than the one that was 41.4. I'd think the one we went to in Japan was hotter than that. Hm. The last two days we went all the way down to Kenting and visited the two little "tails" at the southern end of Taiwan. Lots of salty air and really strong winds and gorgeous clouds. We also went to the "National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium", which I still think is a syllepsis. I enjoyed it, of course, being obsessed with aquariums and marine biology as I am. Apparently I have now seen both of the whale sharks in captivity, since the other one was at the Kaiyuukan in Japan. I still don't think they're all that big, though. Too lazy to go figure out whether the two are just young and/or small.

I finally went to a photo studio, which I've wanted to do ever since one of my friends, back in junior high I think, came back and showed us all her pictures. I think it was slightly more overblown -- heavier make-up and fancier hair, as opposed to the school portrait kind of look -- but it was fun. We managed to schedule an appointment on our last day (technically still "today") to go in and choose pictures, and I'm glad we did because originally we were just going to have our cousins pick for us, and I have no idea what their aesthetic sense would have been compared to mine. The album, which they actually photoshop and design, with lots of fancy compositions and flavor Engrish, won't be ready until February, and my dad's going to pick it up on the way of one of his business trips. But I won't get to see them until spring break, boo.

My sister wanted to get a stamp, so I ended up with one, too. It's kind of neat. I'll scan it in when I'm feeling less lazy and more with access to a scanner. I also conducted a persistent, mostly fruitless search for non-plastic go stones. In Hua Lian, which is famous for its jade, rose quartz, and cat's eye, we finally found one place that had a set made of what appeared to be marble, but for about $150US, which wasn't worth it given I didn't find them all that attractive anyway. In the end, I have a set of plastic stones that are slightly larger than most plastic sets, and also have a more distinct texture. They're kind of neat, actually, although I'd like to have nicer bowls for them. But I should probably work on being a better player first, anyway. I still don't get how all the go books I read say that glass stones are fairly common, though. I've never seen anywhere that sells them, even online.

So the trip was fun, but it sure took up my entire break, and now I don't even know when I'm supposed to pack to get back to Tech. @_@

Kill, kill! Hahahahaha... *ahem*

Jacked from ibarahime. Quite timely, considering I just started rewatching Hunter x Hunter with my siblings, thus rekindling my obsession with Killua. <3

Your Career as a Deadly Assassin (LJ) by maxgallagher
Username
Gender	MaleFemale
You first killed at age	8
Your victim was	A random stranger
Reason	Money
Your trademark weapon	Garrote
Your reputation	Vicious and blood-thirsty
You work with	dksph
You kill for	Political reasons
In the end, you are defeated by	suuri6
Your death	Bullet to the head
Your career body-count	249
Quiz created with MemeGen!

Not sure how dksph could possibly be my partner, though. Maybe he restrains my "vicious and blood-thirsty" nature and keeps me from recklessly killing too many people and getting caught. Or something. ._.;

I used to think garroting was cool because it's silent. (If nothing else, it's a cool word.) Robert Ludlum's characters tend to use it at least once per book.

It's definitely all about choosing your career at a young age. I've often thought about all of the options I no longer have, as farfetched as they might be to begin with, like figure skater or professional go player.