Blame it

I went into Biology at 7:30am dreading the lab that was to come. Little did I know that it was probably the best lab ever. Normally people hate labs because they're time consuming, boring, and you never seem to learn anything, you go there for the grade and try to get it done as fast as possible. Today in Bio, I had the best lab group on Earth. I'm not sure if it was because we were all going insane because it was so early in the morning or if it was because they were cool people. Perhaps it was a combination of the two. None of us could stop laughing and joking around. It was awesome. Anyway, I had fun and lab went by really fast even though we stayed for the full three hours. Oh, by the way, my TA is pretty cool as well. Once again, I love Bio. I have always loved Bio, and I will probably continue to love Bio until I die.

After Bio I had my doctor's appointment. It was kind of awkward because the lady there kept asking me questions. She asked me if I smoked, did drugs, etc. Then she got to the alcohol question. She asked me if I have consumed alcohol and I said no. She looked at me awkwardly and said-- "No, seriously..." and again I said no, never. She then responded, "Wow, okay good." It's just sad that she would assume that everyone drinks. I just feel that if you drink you're giving in to something. It's kind of like you have lost control of your body. I like to be in control. I like to force discipline onto myself. I feel that those kinds of tests make you stronger. Not to mention that people that drink end up looking like idiots (also alcohol has so many calories in it, it's ridiculous, I have thus concluded that the Freshman 15 is not because of dorm food, it's because of the partying and alcohol; if you do not believe me look at all of your high school friends, if they have gained weight ask yourself if they drink... then you will understand what I mean).

I got sidetracked again. Well, what I've been wanting to say is that they have finally fixed the internet! I'm so happy. We all can do whatever we want now, it's amazing. What a concept we're getting what we payed for. Stupid Comcast idiots. No complaints anymore though, it's really fast and working well.

I just made a version of a grilled chicken and now I'm so full I could die, so I'm going to go watch a few episodes of my variety show and then do some homework after that. Hope you all are well.

vitamin c & calcium <3

Omg! shoes

Let me list a few things that I cannot stand. You guys probably think that the list is endless for me (in which case you are right...), but today I encountered a bunch of things that nearly drove me to insanity.

First, when I went to my Com class I was early, so I sat down on one of the empty chairs lined up outside the room. I got out my iPod and started playing Sky Burger (it's really addicting... leave me alone). Then out of nowhere some guy walks towards me, noisily drops his backpack on the floor, and plops down in the seat right next to me. I ignore him and continue to catch the tomato and cheese that are falling from the sky. I thought I would be able to ignore him, but that task was much harder that I had initially anticipated. That was because he started to shake his feet/legs and I could feel my chair shaking as well. I really don't care if people have foot a.d.d. and they need to move around; however, if I can feel you moving, that's a different matter all together. I kept glaring at him hoping that he would get the message. Nope. In fact, he started shaking his feet/legs even harder. I could feel myself slowly being driven to insanity, so I left my seat and went outside. Only to find something else that bothers me right next to the door.

This didn't make me mad it just made me slightly annoyed. Right outside the door was a guy wearing daddy sandals. I don't understand why people even bother wearing these. They're so unattractive they should be banned from all shoe stores. If you don't know what daddy sandals are here is a picture...

http://www.planetshoes.com/mmplanet/Images/588/588_157_detail.jpg

Why do we call these daddy sandals? That is because these sandals are for middle aged fathers that have no time to put on socks because they have screaming kids running out into the street trying to avoid going to the dentist. In that case, slip on the daddy sandals and chase them down before they get hit by a bus. However, if you are a 19 year old college Sophomore, can you please put on some tennis shoes? My gosh. You would think guys have a better sense of what they're wearing. But then again some guys believe that walking around in those moccasin-looking shoes are attractive as well. Once again if you haven't seen these shoes, here's a picture.

http://www.trusnow.com/images/products/en_us/detail/dt_van109_m_era_blkscu.jpg

What I think is even more shocking is the fact that Vans makes moccasins, yet they advertise as "skate shoe" makers. I wonder if you can skate in moccasins. I don't know... I wouldn't advise doing so.

stop the a/c & drink water <3

Pluck pluck

There has been such big hype for Taylor Swift lately. Especially from those crazy fan girls ranging from ages 4 to 14. It's getting a bit ridiculous. I used to be obsessed with Taylor Swift. Her songs were pretty catchy. I guess I should say her songs are pretty catchy. It's just I find that I've lost all respect for her. It's not because of the fact that she did anything wrong like the usual Hollywood drinking and driving, crazy partying and whatnot. No, Taylor Swift is model citizen #1 (the press has done a good job trying to emphasize this). Then why have I lost respect for her? Because of Valentines Day (the movie). I cannot stand it when singers try to act. Music videos are one thing, but acting in a movie is another. Starring in a movie takes much more talent than is needed to be a singer. If you make music videos all you need to do is stare off into the distance, pretend to play guitar, run around on a beach with the opposite sex, and mouth the lyrics to your recorded song. So singers that think that they can turn into actors/actresses? They end up like Taylor Swift on Valentines Day. Epic Fail. I still love Taylor's songs, but I don't like her in general. I hope she can forgive me. On the other hand, I think that it's okay for actors/actresses to turn into singers. I don't know why they would do that because it's like a downgrade. Maybe they're tired of seeing their faces on screen. Oh well. Movie stars are talented people. Most of them are able to sing well it's just no one realizes that (i.e. Jennifer Aniston and her new musical; I didn't know she could sing well before I saw the preview).

Enough of me ranting, now let's get to the stuff that you guys may (or may not) be interested in (sorry to the guys out there). Tweezers! I've had this strange tweezer obsession for a while now. Every time I see tweezers in the cosmetic aisle I always feel a magnetic force that pushes me to buy them. Thus, I now have a collection of roughly 10 tweezers. Probably more. Do not be alarmed. My eyebrows are not that hairy. Anyway, I always thought that buying these sorts of things were trial and error. Only crazy people go around buying ten pairs of tweezers so that they can pluck their eyebrows whenever: in the car, on the toilet, you name it. Sorry, okay I'll try to be serious for a while. How are you supposed to know if your tweezers are good if you've never tried any other pair? Well, that's what I'm here for. After trying out most of the tweezers in convenience stores and Sephora I can tell you all that the one that works the best has to be Tweezerman. It's a bit more expensive (actually it's about double the cost, $22) than other brands, but it's well worth the money. It even gets out those hairs. You know, the ones that really don't want to come out no matter how many hours you spend picking at them. If you want a less expensive alternative then I suggest you use Revlon Expert or Revlon diamond grip. At six to seven dollars they do a good job of cleaning everything up. Of course those hairs will still be there to taunt you. Just make sure, if you're going to buy Revlon, do not buy their True Precision Tweezers. I thought that because they were more expensive than the Expert it would be amazing. I thought it had the ability to turn me into a chola (Mexican girl gangsters that pluck off all their eyebrow hairs and draw them in... what happens if it rains?) in three plucks. Unfortunately, this was not so. I ended up trying to pluck my eyebrows for an hour before I finally gave up. When I looked into the mirror I realized that I still looked like an Amazon woman. So unless bushy eyebrows are your thing, avoid at all costs.

Anyway, just a piece of advice. I spend the money so you guys don't have to. I figure if I'm going to be an idiot I might as well bring some benefit to this world. I'll do another one of these for earphones and headphones in the near future. Goodness knows I have over 30 of those.

hit things & wash clothes <3

Horrid

Stupid Mondays. I am exhausted beyond the depths of exhaustion. So for some reason all of my discussions and one of my labs decided to land on this day. I really had no choice in the matter. Thus, Mondays are indeed my worst day. Unfortunately, it's 13 hours straight of just classes and discussion. No-- I lied I actually have a one hour break in between, but during that hour (so 12 hours) , my classes are so far apart that it really doesn't make much of a difference because I still don't have enough time to eat. I had a fist full of nuts and a piece of toast today (and water of course). Yum, yum. Delicious. Trust me it's not that I don't want to eat because I do. Once again we'll use my stomach as prime evidence.

The only class that was relatively decent today was Biology. It might be because I'm a self-proclaimed bio nerd, but I really like my teacher, which makes my life a little bit better. Chemistry was ridiculous because I really cannot understand what the heck my teacher is saying. He has a really strong Japanese accent and it's just hard to figure out. Same with my math teacher. Actually, my math teacher is M.I.A. and I have a sub that I can't understand. I don't really care because it's only math... but I'm just saying. My Com discussion sucked. I was really looking forward to it, but unfortunately it's full of people that think that they're clever, funny, and extremely smart. It made me want to keel over and die. I already have a bad feeling about this. Also we need to participate. If there's anything I hate more than participating it's Miley Cyrus wearing Crocs driving a Prius. I can't stand it because I think it's unnecessary. Well let's skip all of the other boring stuff and skip to my Chemistry lab shall we? Wonderful. I end up getting some fool as my lab partner. Why am I always so unlucky-- oh except for with Diamond last year she was so cool. This guy feels the inclination to comment on everything and anything the T.A. says. You know the type of people I'm talking about right? It's annoying. To top it all off he didn't go to Davis last year so he doesn't know how Chemistry works around here. Great. So I had to teach him everything and do the whole lab. At least he's a fast learner. It's not that I hate him or anything, I was just frustrated that I had to do all of that. In the end it turned out alright. We ended up finishing early. As long as I can finish early I won't be an angry child.

So that was my crappy day. I got back to the apartment and my roommate made pasta for me. I thought that was really sweet of her. It made my day a little better. Unfortunately at that point in time I couldn't decide if I was hungry or if I was tired. The exhaustion overwhelmed the hunger. I realized that if I started eating I probably would have fallen asleep in the pasta. I think I'll eat it for lunch tomorrow. At least now I have something to look forward to. Well after all of this happened, I called my aunt and now I am all better. Still tired, but much better. 13 hours. I don't know how many more Mondays I'll be able to live through. Can we have another Labor Day?

hug yo mama & grate cheese <3

Support

You know what I was surprised to find out a few days ago? 1 in 5 Americans believe that Obama is Muslim. What's even worse is the fact that people only believe that he is Muslim because politicians use this as a tactic to link him to the religion of the terrorist groups. I don't know if anyone remembered what happened on the poll ballots in one of the states in which Obama was miswritten as Osama, but I don't feel as if this was a mistake, I think it was intentional. It's extremely easy to use spell check nowadays. In addition, it should be common sense to read through the ballot before printing out thousands of copies.

Politics have always been deemed as "dirty" and I feel what is happening at the moment enhances this fact. It's unfortunate that people would stoop so low harming both people of the Muslim religion (because seriously, just because you're Muslim it doesn't mean you're a terrorist, I find that ridiculous) and the president simultaneously.

I just think that because he's our president it should give us even more reason to support him. Will it really benefit anyone if we lower the morale of the American people? It's unfair that he has to deal with questions pertaining to race and religion and constantly validate himself. He has enough to deal with. By the way, Obama is Christian. (and did anyone know that Nixon was a quaker? I laughed out loud when I found this out)

eat mushrooms & skip rocks <3

Where they play

The first weekend. What did I do? Not much. My definition of fun is going grocery shopping. I cut up a melon. Honeydew, actually. It was quite delicious. By the way, I'm really loving Target's produce section. It's so much cheaper than Safeway. I'm really glad that so many other Targets are remodeling and adding a new produce section in their stores.

Okay so my life isn't that pathetic (although I must say it's almost there). Today after I ran at the "gym" (I say that in quotes because the gym at my apartment is a bit pathetic... one treadmill, one cross trainer, a few bike machines and a few weights) I went with my roommates to go watch Easy A because we had nothing better to do and we were all dying because the air conditioning in our apartment was failing at life. The filter was on, but the rooms were almost as hot as your mom (come on, I haven't done that in a while let me be). Only after that movie did I realize that I am a complete nerd. There were so many literary references in the movie and there were several moments in which I was cracking up while no one else in the theater was laughing. So I thought to myself, okay then-- I guess no one reads mid-nineteenth century literature. Humph. Well either way, I embrace being the nerd I am. Power to the people 8)

My Com (comparative literature) teacher wanted us to buy 4x6 index cards. At first I thought that those were the normal sized ones. After I went to target I realized that 4x6 is significantly larger than the default even though they're only 3x5. Now the majority of you are probably saying 'no shi-' right now but come on, if you don't see it in person it's hard to imagine. I was trying to measure with my hands and fingers. Which ended up in failure (as my life often does).

The other day I went to get a chest x-ray (I needed it for my internship, I forgot to tell you guys that I did indeed get the one that I wanted at the medical-surgical wing) and the last time I got one was in 2007 when I was starting to volunteer at SUMC (Stanford University Medical Center). I completely forgot how awkward it could be. First, the lady asked me if there was any possibility that I was pregnant. I really don't think that was necessary, I mean come on, just look at me. Next she handed me these two little stickers that she told me to put on my err chest... I really don't know why they would do that. I'm assuming that they do that so they know the orientation of your boobs. I'm wondering if guys have to do it as well. I mean, some guys do have boobs... I'm just sayin... well either way, my left boob is so lopsided I'm pretty sure they won't be able to tell that it's my boob. Alright you guys don't really need to know this information I am going to shut up now.

Facial mask time. Hey, what can I say, I have to go attract a few guys right? (by the way there are several good looking guys in my Biology class... we'll see where this leads) And if I don't attract them I should take care of my face so that at the very least I don't scare anyone away, I mean I already scared the cat that's living with us.

read & grow old <3

The usual

Today I helped a freshman. What was that one saying? Help a freshman get 10 years of good luck? I'm kidding, but I think there's some saying that's like that I'm just not sure what it is. Anyway, the girl looked so confused I just couldn't ignore her. She approached me asking, "Umm, sorry I don't mean to bother you, but I don't really know where I am and I don't know if I'm at the right building" the poor thing looked like she was about to pee her pants so I directed her to the right place and she said thanks. I remember having that feeling. It's scary being in a new place.

After not biking for three months I realize that I am completely out of biking shape. I biked a grand total of one forth of a mile and I was extremely tired. It was just ridiculous. I thought that I was going to suffocate from lack of air. It didn't help that it happened to be a hundred degrees over here and I forgot to bring my sunglasses. Oh and I forgot to mention that my bike fail was not only because of the fact that I haven't biked in ages, it was also because there was this really good looking guy in my Biology class and I was staring at him and biking at the same time. That probably wasn't the smartest thing to do because I ended up biking off of a curb like an idiot.

I got bitten by a mysterious bug today. I felt this pain on my right calve and I noticed that it stung. I looked down and there was the bug biting me. I shook my leg to make it go away and it did. Then I felt pain on my left calve. I dismissed it because I thought that it must have been my imagination. Turns out it wasn't. I looked down again and it was the same bug biting me on my other calve. I'm not too sure why I didn't swat it away. Probably because I'm too stupid to do so. However, I did successfully swat a moth, kill it, and scoop it into a trashcan today without touching it. That's the last time I open my window.

The internet hasn't been working recently. I wonder if I'll be able to post this anytime soon. Comcast people are supposed to come and fix it, but I'm not too sure how that's going to turn out. Andy better not come.

My head got attacked by backpacks today. I hate it when people walk by and don't way attention to what's behind them. They don't even say sorry. Stupid idiots.

run & do homework <3

Barney

Who doesn't love hugs? It would seem weird to me if people genuinely did not like hugs (not wanting to hug or receive hugs is only understandable if it's for sanitation purposes, then I would understand). I think hugs are the perfect way to convey messages. Obviously I'm not talking about hugging in Morse code... I wonder if anyone has tried that, but anyway what I mean is that a hug can mean a lot of things. It can vary from 'Hey, I haven't seen you in a while' to 'I love you, you're amazing.' And the best thing about a hug is that you can show someone that you care without going over the top and mistakenly get into the 'Hey baby let's get it on' zone.

There are so many types of hugs that they're good for all occasions. First of all there's the bear hug. I don't really appreciate this one because 1. it hurts my rib cage and 2. it hurts my semi-existent boobs. I imagine the people that give bear hugs as those crazy soccer dads after their child scores the winning goal they lift their kid up as they hug them. Then I guess there's the bare hug. Haha, I'm kidding. If anyone ever tries to give me one of these they're going to get an unpleasant surprise shoved up their--.

Of course there's the attack hug. I think this is my favorite. Not receiving, but giving. That's because the only people that I attack hug (or hug more than I normally would) are the ones that really don't want to be hugged. I don't know why I find this so amusing... maybe it's because they're always squirming and yelling at me to get off. Maybe I take pleasure in watching people suffer (no, I am not a sadist). But hey, they asked for it. I only choose to attack them because they never smile. People should smile more often, it's good for the soul. Last hug that I think is pretty common is the ever famous awkward car hug. You know, when you drop someone off or you're being dropped off and one of you still has the seatbelt on when you lean over and hug sideways. Hence, awkward car hug. Logically speaking, it's much more conventional than getting up out of the car and around to the other person's seat to give someone a hug (although I did have some guy do that for me before... sweet but, unnecessary I would have preferred an awkward car hug).

The thing about hugging is if you're hugging someone you never know what to do with your arms. At least it took me a while to figure out what to do. The most common thing to do is to put your right arm over their right shoulder and your left arm under (but not too close to) their left armpit. Now here comes the confusing part: what do you do while you stand there. At first I thought it was weird to stand there and do nothing so I would pat peoples' backs in a 'there there, good child' way. Eventually I realized that it was weird that I did that. The proper way to hug someone is actually rather counterintuitive. You're really supposed to hold the pose until it becomes a bit too intimate/awkward. I have the hugging system down, but every once in a while there comes some weirdo that screws the whole thing up. Someone that hugs with their left arm up instead of their right arm up, someone that puts both arms around your neck/on your waist (woah woah woah, too intimate for my taste unless you happen to be ridiculously charming... then we can negotiate) or someone that rubs your back. In the first case you have to react fast and switch the direction of your arms before you reach them. The unfortunate situation arises if they realize and switch as well, now that's awkward. In the second situation you just hug whatever they're not hugging i.e. if they hug up then you hug down (but not too down...). Now, in the last instance if the subject is not a kind old lady that's 80 years old+, my best advice for you would be to run away and get the heck out of there. Back rubbers are creepy.

Do as the big purple dinosaur says :)

hug & smile <3

Unlucky charms

As of late, life has been a bunch of failures. Some of them were my fault and some of them were consequences of my bad luck. The other day I kept misplacing my wallet everywhere and my roommate had to go back and forth with me to retrieve it. This would have been acceptable if it only happened once; however, it happened three times.

The bad luck continued when I went to 76 to get gas. I stopped at the first gas pump and thought, "why is there a cup where the fuel pump should be, dang it now I have to take it out." I looked up from the cup and there was a sign that said out of order. Go figure. Why else would there be a random cup. I got back into my car and moved forward to the next gas pump. I got out and I realized that it was only meant for people that intended to pay with cash. Oh well, I guess third time is the charm right? I got back into my car and headed to a new gas pump. I got out of my car and looked at the little note on the side of the screen. "Keypad is broken, please pay at the window." Now this was getting a bit ridiculous. I moved forward to the gas pump in front of me and it worked. Only someone like me would be unlucky enough to hit all four of the gas pumps that didn't work. By the way, those were the only four that weren't working, every other one was fine.

Also, I was called back to my doctor's office four times because the nurse kept forgetting to tell me to do things. The first time was for a shot, the second time was for paperwork, and so on.

Then the most disgusting thing on Earth happened today. One of my roommates has a cat in the house and as you all know, I hate cats more than I hate Apple, Prius, and Crocs. Well the cat decided to wonder around and no one could find where it was hidden. I had this sickly fear that it was in my room. I checked, but it wasn't there. Then we looked around in my bathroom, under their beds-- it was nowhere to be found. Then my roommate walked into my room and opened the closet all the way. Low and behold, the nasty old cat had hid its nasty old self in my closet. What a wonderful surprise-- not.

Well I guess I should be used to this seeing as how my life is pretty much the series of unfortunate events. I'm pretty sure when I popped out of my mum's stomach she said something like, "Aw damn, I didn't think my baby would be this hideous." And here I am, too poor for Botox and not qualified for lyposuction.

My roommate's shampoo bottle fell on my foot three times. I'm not sure if it's because I'm unlucky or if it's because I'm too stupid to move the shampoo bottle on the ground. Probably a combination of both.

I got a parking ticket today. They said they couldn't see my permit; yet, it was right there hanging on the rear-view mirror. There goes 40 dollars.

My eyebrows are naturally very hairy...

fly like a G6 & jump <3

Mirror mirror

Have you guys ever noticed how some people seriously look alike? I guess that's what spurred the whole "doppelganger" movement in which people started putting up photos of celebrities or well known figures that resembled them on Facebook. I don't really think I look like anyone famous. Actually, I don't even look like my own parents (thank God). I'm pretty sure I'm a dumpster baby, but that story is for another day.

Have you guys ever noticed how much Jennifer Garner and Hilary Swank look alike?

http://totallylookslike.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/129117731512572465.jpg

I used to get them confused until I temporarily became a Hilary Swank fanatic after I watched Million Dollar Baby (if you haven't seen this film shame on you go watch it now; I cried). I was reading InStyle and there was a quote from Hilary she said that she went to a store and one of the employees was extremely excited and shouted out "Oh my gosh you'll never believe who's here, Jennifer Garner!" Regardless, they're both great actresses (by the way, I used to call her Jennifer Gardener-- fail). You know come to think of it Mrs. Stebbins kind of looks like Jennifer Garner as well. Go stalk her on Facebook, you'll agree with me. (ahem, in no way am I condoning stalking...)

In addition to the Hilary, Jennifer combo there's also Katy Perry and Zooey Deschanel.

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.spinner.com/media/2008/10/katy-zooey-doppelganger-b400lvg102108.jpg

Crazy right? They look even more alike than Jennifer and Hilary (and Stebbins).

All this talk about celebrities makes me want to watch 500 Days of Summer and Baby Mama or Date Night again. I know Baby Mama and Date night aren't related to any of this, but Tina Fey is just so amazing. Which reminds me 30 Rock (and Grey's Anatomy) season premiere is on September 23! I'm so excited. However, that's also the day I start school. Yahoo...

kill bugs & take showers <3

Day after

Today was just ridiculous. I kept forgetting things and walking around like a fool. I blame this partly on the fact that I haven't slept in the longest time. I'm trying to adjust my jet-lag before school starts, so I forced myself to stay awake for over 48 hours. Anyway, I went to run a few errands with my roommate and I kept leaving my wallet everywhere, so we had to go back and get it around three times. We pretty much laughed ourselves to death because I was so stupid. Other than that I think my room is almost complete. I just need to get a few more items and it'll be perfect.

Anyway, I really need to sleep... after I update that dumb ipod of mine.

laugh & run <3

Back

Joanna is tired.

So my flight got delayed at Taoyuan International Airport by 5 and a half hours. Everyone was sleeping on the chairs and on the ground. It was kind of funny. A bunch of homeless people. I was cooler than that. I scrunched up into a ball near the outlet next to the pay phone and played chess on my computer. Yep. That's how you do it. After what seemed like eternity, the airplane was ready and it was 3:40am in Taiwan. The airplane was pretty empty. There were only people sitting in the aisle seats and occasionally near the window. I hate crowded places, so this was prefect for me. As I was putting up my books and a Lemon cake into the overhead compartment someone tapped the side of my arm, "hey." In my mind I thought, oh what now for goodness sake. Well it happened to be my friend that had gone back as well. We talked for hours later and it was pretty nice to catch up.

Tomorrow is going to be busy, but as of right now I'm about to keel over and die. This means that I should probably go and sleep.

Unpack & eat lots <3

To death

I can't believe I'm leaving tomorrow. What the heck? I suppose time flies when you're sweating like a pig. And what the heck again, school is going to start in four days? What? So strange. I guess I'm happy that I got my room setup and took care of everything beforehand or else I would be in a panic right now. The one thing that I'm looking forward to at the airport is the crazy delicious beef noodle soup. I know that it's strange that I like airport food, but let me explain. In America, airport food tastes like plastic and it's overpriced. In Taiwan, however, airport food is overpriced, but amazing. The beef noodle soup at Taoyuan airport is acclaimed to be the best in Taiwan. I think this is pretty smart, showcasing the best foods at the airport. If you fly internationally you have to land/depart from this airport. That way, if people are hungry they experience the best of Taiwan. I don't know I just thought it was a pretty smart marketing tactic.

I'm getting a headache just thinking about the airplane. Ouch Charlie. Also, I need to relieve my bladder, so I'm going to end this here.

run & try to fly <3

That's hot

Today was another day... of amazing shopping that is. Well before I talk about today let me finish talking about yesterday. Yesterday I decided to make sushi for my grandma. I tried to make it while she was sleeping, but like me, she's a light sleeper so she woke up when I was slicing the carrots. My grandma likes to take charge when in the kitchen; meaning she doesn't allow people to cook for her, so she came in and tried to advise me in how to make sushi. Wonderful. Watermelon incident again? I frustrated me again and refused to watch t.v., but she also made more rice, added ingredients, and told me to finish rolling all of them. We made an agreement. If I finish making all of the sushi and use up all of the ingredients she had to leave me alone in the kitchen and stop bothering me. I started preparing the sushi at 9:00am. I finished prepping at 10:30am. Then I rolled sushi until 1:00pm, stopped, studied for MCAT's, fell asleep out of exhaustion, started rolling sushi again a 3:00pm and stopped rolling sushi at 4:00pm. In all I made 41 rolls of sushi. This was enough to feed an army. My grandma had plans of her own and she sent the housekeeper out around town sending sushi to all of her friends as she called them saying "My granddaughter made these!!" Of the 41 rolls of sushi she sent out 40 of them. Sigh. All my hard work sent out to all my grandma's friends (wth she has too many friends, I need to be more like her).

Well I was done for the day, so I thought I would relax and drink some water when someone came to the door. The pastor's wife had come by with her two daughters to say thanks for the sushi. She said that it was really good, but I told her it was no big deal. She said that they all enjoyed it, so she bought me three cakes (no, not full size) from a bakery that she thinks is better than 85 degree C (is that possible?). I thought that was really nice of her and it made me happy. Cakes for sushi? Heck yes. Then her older daughter (around 8 I think) shyly tapped my arm and without speaking held out a bracelet signifying that she wanted me to have it. She made it herself. I was pretty impressed. I know I don't usually like kids, but the ones that don't speak or speak minimally are surprisingly cute. The bracelet is pretty pro though. I'll take a picture eventually and post it up. Anyway, the rest of the night was kind of like that as well, people came by to say thanks and whatnot. Taiwanese communities are so... hmm what's the word? Heart-warming I guess. It's kind of a nice change from the whole American I don't care about you, you don't care about me, let's go on living our lives like we've never seen each other. I think I would feel more comfortable asking for directions here, people are more willing to help.

That was yesterday. Today I went on a shopping extravaganza. It was excellent. I bought so much that I have to get another suitcase. My aunt is thrilled. Psych. I told her that she would live with me when she's old and wrinkly, so she said bah fine.

Oh my gosh. Hello Baby is so funny. I watched an episode in Chinese subs on t.v. here. SNSD is ridiculous, they're more like a comedy group. Now I have to add Jessica to my favorites list.

I'm exhausted and sticky. Time to get naked. :)

hydrate & pluck hairs <3

One republic

I had a nightmare yesterday. I kept on dropping my itouch. It didn't matter where I was I just kept dropping it and dropping it. However, (and surprisingly) whenever I dropped it, it never broke. I would always pick it up and breathe a sigh of relief. Then for some reason I was paddle boating with a random guy and I dropped my itouch into the lake. I quickly grabbed it from the water and I furiously tried to wipe all of the water away and get it all out of my ipod, but it still wouldn't turn on. I woke up with a sinking feeling in my stomach. I grabbed for my ipod, turned it on, and was relieved.

Yeah, that's my idea of a nightmare. Like I've stated previously, my ipod has my life in it. I would be totally lost without it. Another nightmare that occurred two days ago was one in which school started on 9/20 I woke up thinking, oh my gosh is this real life? I started panicking because I didn't know if I would have enough time to adjust my jet lag, get a parking permit, blah blah blah. I went on to the school website and I realized that while the quarter starts on the 20th instruction begins on the 23rd. Huge sigh of relief. Of course, who could possibly go back to sleep after something like that. Yeah, that's my idea of a nightmare. Death of an ipod and school starting on three days earlier. I think I realize that the things I fear the most are quite pathetic.

You know I don't understand people that refuse to apologize. I don't understand why it's such a big deal. Do people feel like they've "lost" if they apologize? I think an apology is the most basic thing anyone can do if they have wronged someone. This should be very intuitive. Why are people too stubborn and proud to admit that they're wrong? I have this thing. I believe that if someone does something wrong they should apologize for it. If it is done to me specifically, depending on how much you irritate me, I will talk to you minimally or not at all until you apologize (obviously, you have to mean it as well, an "oh I guess I'm sorry" isn't going to cut it). That's all I ask for. If you apologize then everything will return to how it was before. I just need you to admit that you were wrong. Then of course there are people that don't think that they do anything wrong or never admit to doing anything wrong because they put blame on everyone else. Though, that's pretty immature. At our age I believe that the majority of us are capable of realizing when we have done something that has offended someone else. We just need to realize how to handle what happens after. The art of perfecting the apology.

Of course this doesn't apply to everyone. I mean there are people that get upset over ridiculous things (if you haven't heard stories I'll tell you a few if we meet in person). If that's the case then I think that you should minimize the amount of time you spend with those kinds of people. It'll make your life a lot easier. Talk to someone of the same caliber. Trust me, you'll feel better if you don't deal with such trivial things. I don't think that you necessarily have to apologize for doing something that normally wouldn't make people mad because sometimes it really is ridiculous (of course, the right thing to do is often the hard thing, my suggestion in this case would be to swallow your pride, apologize [do not BS this, at least sound genuine], and move on to find better friends).

It's never too late.

apologize & forgive <3

Wishy washy

Is there a difference if you use shampoo to wash your body or if you use actual soap to wash your body? I'm sure I'm not the only one that has done this before, but I used up all of the soap upstairs and I was too lazy to go down to grab some. I feel the same, so I don't think it really matters. You know technically speaking because shampoo is used for washing hair and because we have hair all over our bodies (except between our fingers and toes... actually some people have hair there too) it should be okay to use shampoo to wash everything right? Right.

There's something that has been bothering me for a while now, so I guess I'll write it down here and solve my own problems as I'm writing. Facebook. Actually Facebook isn't the problem, it's the content that shows up on my news feed. I don't go on Facebook much unless someone messages me or leaves me a comment on my wall because I get an email. I'm not one of those people that refresh their page every five seconds, but I do see the news feed (it is the first thing that shows up, after all). I scroll down and I see pictures of summer, people, and what they've been doing with their lives, etc. Then I'll see pictures of my friends at some random places and I'll think haha they're ridiculous-- wait... was I invited to that? I scroll down some more and I think woahh awesome they went there-- wait hold up no one told me about that either. So there's a trend here, you see?

A long time ago my friend told me a story. Her and her friends were all really close in High School and they were always around each other. Then the first year of college came and went. She was still in the bay, but they had all come back from their respective schools. She was wondering when they would all hang out again like old times when one of them called her and told her that they had all (minus her) previously been at a restaurant. They told her not to be mad. When she told me this I thought it was pretty messed up of them. At the time, she told me that she wasn't mad, just hurt. I thought, wow that sucks, but I'm sure it won't happen to me. What can I say? I was wrong. I am wrong. I think I understand how she feels now (oh, except I didn't get a phone call I got Facebook news feed; oh the joy). I'm not mad either, it's just kind of ouch because I don't really know if I did anything to upset them or not. I'm speechless... Shrug. Essentially this just means that I'm a fool for caring about people. I shouldn't let these things affect me too much. Maybe I need to disconnect from everything and start over. New phone number, new fb account, new blogspot, new life, basically. However, one thing is certain. Joanna Lo, you really need to make some friends, fool. I'm going to need to think about this later, for now I'm going back into robot-goal driven-studious-hair pinned up-mode. It seems that studying is the only way to get away from everything... maybe that's why my grades yeah. I'm such a wimp I need to stop running. Oh, by the way, I'm going to sign up for an internship at 9:20am today (12:20am here). I really hope I get it. I want either ER, Surgery, or Cardiology. Wish me luck! I'll let you guys know what happens. (but knowing my luck I'll probably get stuck with pregnant woman and vaginal diseases at the gyno department)

What was my point again? I kind of got off track (I know, what else is new, you guys must be sick of me you come here to laugh at my life and all you get is paragraphs drenched in the internal problems that will never be spoken out loud). Oh, yes. Showering here is pointless. The only time you're not sweating is when you're in the shower. You get out and guess what? You're covered in sweat again. Fantastic. I could use a giant bowl of shaved ice right now. I think that's what I'm going to do. Street vendors for the win! Go Taiwan!

skip & do push-ups <3

The feed

What the heck, man. So many FML moments here that it's getting ridiculous.

I drink a lot of water, so I need to refill my water bottle several times throughout the day. However, being the sanitation crazy person that I am I always rinse out the bottle with drinking water first even if what was originally in the bottle was drinking water. I'm not too sure where my logic is in this, but we can argue my sanity some other day. Well, I walked up to the filtered water nozzle which is next to the sink and I hum and twist open the cap. I put the bottle under the nozzle and scream. What the freaking!!!???!?!!!! Holy-- Frick! Low and behold lying in the sink...

Freaking. Surprise! Nice, grandma, real nice. Leave the chicken in the sink while you go and socialize with the other elderly people in the village. Oh and hey, what do you know double-- no triple the fun! Chicken heart, liver, and kidneys on the side. Nasty arse chicken. I refused to eat any. For a while I forgot the reason for me not eating chicken in Taiwan. Clearly someone wanted to remind me. After I shrieked in horror my grandma came back in and asked me what happened. I pointed at the sink. She responded, "Chickens in America don't taste good" Well you know what I think? I think that I prefer American chicken. They come without the head. Freaking nasty.

cut nails & throw pebbles <3

Stop that

I'm so annoyed right now. People need to stop trying to tell me what to do. I'm not an idiot, okay. I know how to work a computer. What the fork.

So I'm borrowing a netbook from some guy and he was trying to show me how to use it. His tutorial was taking forever. It started from pressing the on button, using a mouse, to clicking on a web browser, and finally shutting down the computer. Are you kidding me? He took one whole hour trying to explain this. Old man, this is the twenty first century, okay? If anything I should be teaching you about computers. Freaking monkey. Take me for an idiot. Obviously since he was letting me borrow the computer I couldn't yell at him, but I really wanted to. I just kept nodding and saying "uh huh" as he told me to double click on the icon. Wow. So annoying. Then when I was going to check my email he was still hovering over me. I really wanted to push him away. Give me some privacy, geez. I ended up closing the computer and telling him that I would look at it later in my own time. He was satisfied with that answer and proceeded to watch me and nod as I closed the browser and shut down the computer.

After I cooled down a bit I started studying again (unfortunately) and I suddenly got hungry and thirsty at the same time so I went downstairs to refill my water bottle. When I was down my grandmother told me to cut the watermelon if I wanted to eat it. I grabbed the watermelon and brought it under the sink and started to rinse it. My grandmother marched in and started washing the watermelon. I told her it was fine for her to go back to watching television. I know how to cut a watermelon. She refuses. She stood next to me watching me cut it. I was about to slice the watermelon when she told me not to cut it vertically and to cut it horizontally. Does it freaking matter? I was getting irritated. I told her that it didn't matter which way you cut the watermelon because when you eat it it's all the same. She insisted that I cut it horizontally. I cut it the way I like to cut it. Once again I told her to go watch t.v. She refused again. She was prolonging my hunger and my studying. Now for those of you that don't know, if you bother me when I'm studying for something important I will become very irritated. Don't get me wrong, I love my grandma, I just hate it when she tries to tell me how to or when to do things that I already know that I need to do or that I know how to do. Freaking don't tell me how to cut a watermelon.

If it doesn't affect you in any way just let people do what they want to. Damn.

eat mochi & don't give a <3

Down

I hate it when people talk down to you. This doesn't happen often to me, but when it does it makes me angry. I'm sure we all understand the feeling of being spoken to like you're an idiot. This only happens when people assume that you're not intellectually adequate enough to sustain a conversation with them. If I'm ever spoken to in this manner, I feel like it's a direct challenge. You're on. The way I speak in my brain and the way I speak out loud are rather different. I think that there's no point in talking like a prick on a daily basis because that only makes you sound like you have something stuck up your arse. However, if I feel that someone believes that I am some idiot, I take away the filter and bombard them with vocabulary words and leave them with their mouth hanging open.

That is exactly what happened today. This guy at a store assumed I was some dumb foreigner because I was speaking in English with someone on the telephone. When I went to pay for my goods (why does this sound so shady when I was only in a convenience store) he started speaking to me very slowly almost as if I was retarded. I'm pretty sure I gave him an angry expression as I spoke sentences using complex phrases and scholarly vocabulary. He seemed shocked and I smiled, grabbed my bag, and left through the automatic doors. That'll show him. Such a satisfying feeling. Humph.

Anyway, I feel as if I'm becoming exceedingly ridiculous as the days go by. I've been watching a lot of MTV and channel V (both music channels) online and listening to so many new songs makes me happy. For those of you that don't know, music is my life (okay so that's a lie my life is school, but other than that it's music). Well it turns out that today I watched a video of SNSD (Girl's Generation) online in which they sang Genie in Japanese. I thought it was better than the Korean version. If you haven't seen it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWVBicAvsNs

I love how it's in such good quality. Well I've been addicted to this song and I have no idea why. It reminds me of when I was addicted to Supergirl (the Mandarin version) by Super Junior M. It's just so catchy right? For all I know they could be singing endorsing serial killers and rapists and I would still be humming to the song and telling people to listen to it. My obsession for this song had me clicking on the "recommended videos" on the Youtube sidebar and I started watching interviews (subbed of course, I'm not pro) and I realize they're actually pretty funny. My favorite one has got to be Taeyeon. Look at her and you'll understand why.

http://i34.tinypic.com/2zf99n9.jpg

I saw this picture and I thought to myself, "Dude, I make that face all the time" seriously I think I should join SNSD. Yeah right. Like they would want me. Their legs are as thick as my arms; it's ridiculous. Maybe we should all enjoy eating Tiramisu cakes as we watch them perform and laugh at them. Then again I would probably feel bad about myself, put down the cake, and head to the gym.

My grandma would rather watch television than talk to me. Fml.

eat pudding & mocha cakes <3

Humid

Okay, I've been a good girl and I haven't been complaining, but I think now is the time... It's so gosh dang humid here I think I'm going to melt and die. What's worse is the fact that I have to keep all of my clothes on. Noo! Why can't I just run around naked? I kid. What I mean is, Asian societies are more conservative, so if go outside and walk around in a tank top people will most likely point at me, gasp, and faint in horror. What am I saying? Even if I wear tank tops in the U.S. people have the same reaction. Anyway, you know what I mean. So I've been going outside in sweatshirts and pants because 1. I don't want to tan and 2. I don't want any more mosquito bites (although if I cover up they just end up biting my face anyway).

Another thing. I totally forgot about the cultural difference and I packed a white dress shirt at the last minute. The white shirt has just been sitting in my suitcase because I obviously cannot wear it here. Why? Well because white represents death. Sometimes they wear black to funerals as well, but for the majority of the time white is worn. I just thought it was funny that in the U.S. it's customary to wear white to weddings (that is, if you are the bride). If anyone in Asia went to an American wedding they would probably become confused if they see the happy faces. Red is supposed to be the desired color; however, they change outfits so many times that they probably go through the colors of the rainbow.

My grandma is hilarious. I woke up at 6:00am to go grocery shopping with her today (wth old people wake up too early) and of course she wanted to haggle for cheaper/better prices. I always feel embarrassed so I look away or start inching away slowly as she exclaims, "Oh my gosh that's SOOOOOO expensive." Though I must say, she's pretty good at it. She haggled her way into five cent vegetables. Super pro. But then she tried to convince me to buy clothing from the roadside vendors. I mean even though the clothing is cheap (1-3 dollars for a shirt) I don't buy things that I know I'm never going to wear. She was waving around a blue shirt that said "Happy Red!" with a picture of a little boy on a tricycle saying that it was cute and that it was my size. It didn't even make sense. What a paradox. I can't decide if the people that make these shirts are secret geniuses or clueless morons. I swear more often than not you see a bunch of random English spewed across a shirt (they probably draw random words out of a hat and sew it on). It's just sad that no one knows that they're wearing... in fact, I was sitting inside 7/11 (yes they have a nice place to let you eat tea eggs and socialize) enjoying the air conditioning when a middle aged woman walked by wearing an olive green shirt with four huge letters F U C-- you know the rest. I nearly spat out my water. It was obvious that she had no idea what she was advertising. The poor lady. Anyway, I ended up spending five minutes trying to convince my grandma that it wouldn't fit me, but she bought it for me regardless. Stubborn old grandma. Now I don't know what to do with this shirt.

By the way, I'm loving the MTV here. It's so much better than the useless "Flavor Flav" shows back home. Then again watching Spongebob dubbed in Mandarin is a bit ridiculous.

drink tea & water plants <3

Taxi anyone?

You know, I think the most frustrating thing about being in Taiwan is not being able to drive. Actually scratch that, even if I were able to drive I don't think I would ever drive in Taiwan or any other Asian country at that. The roads here are like some all out war. First come first serve. Granny crossing the street? Who cares? Vroom! Actually the grannies don't even look before crossing (at least this holds true with my grandma as she grabs my hand and says okay let's go while I scream "It's red! It's red!!). It's ridiculous. And because everyone equally refuses to follow rules, the policemen are useless because there are way too many people breaking the law.

I went out again with my grandmother and she decided to cross the street. Ah, but there's a twist. She didn't cross the street vertically or horizontally. No, that wouldn't be adventurous enough, she crossed the gosh dang street diagonally. I thought I was going to develop an aneurysm and have it burst right on the spot. The vehicles and bikes moving however they pleased were already bad enough, then you add my crazy grandmother into the equation. I thought we were going to die. She was dragging me across the street saying that it was okay to go while I attempted to stand there and wait for the red hand to turn into the little walking man. I couldn't look. My grandmother dragged me across the street and I closed my eyes and quickly followed along.

At least this dangerous adventure was well worth it. Delicious noodles followed soon after. The thing I love most about Taiwan is the fact that there's food everywhere. You walk along the streets: food. You go into a shopping center: food. In front of a hair salon: food. Of course this is my ideal place. The best part is the fact that you sweat so much that it doesn't matter how much you eat, you won't gain weight. I always lose weight if I come back to Taiwan even though I eat twice as much. Man, maybe that's why America is such an overweight country. It's not hot enough. Maybe if everyone wore Eskimo suits all the time the obesity rate would decrease...

I went back into my room (actually my aunt's room that I invaded) to check my email and listen to music and I realized that my bug collection that I previously told you guys about disappeared! I was so disappointed. I had a collection of at least eight. I was so excited and ready to take a picture and show you guys. I asked my grandma if she saw my bug collection and she said, "What? You were collecting those? I threw them away... who collects dead mosquitoes?! What's wrong with you?" I suppose a better question would be 'what's right with me'.

Anyway it's time to end this blog. I'm going to go get shaved ice and then a butt load of desserts to go from the one and only... 85 degrees C (they really need to make one in the bay, lucky Irvine)!!! Drool. Later~

eat & eat some more <3

A bug's life

Oh my goodness. These stupid ridiculous mosquitoes will not leave me alone. They don't bite anyone else. They only bite me. Why?! The injustices of the world... and you know they bite in the weirdest places too. Weird places so far? Eyelid, toe, finger, under my foot, elbow, eyebrow... and there are probably more to come.

Well I suppose I'm doomed to be a mosquito magnet for the rest of my life because apparently my "sweat" or lack thereof smells good to them. For some ridiculous reason mosquitoes easily recognize people that have a particular scent (which is made up of a compound of carbon dioxide and uric acid). I happen to be one of them. Great. Good thing I happen to be in the glorious land of mosquitoes. I think I've become more of a mosquito exterminator than a person. Everyday I sit against a wall with my legs and arms outstretched. In order to kill them, I must bait them first. I see the tiny black speck moving around before me. It lands thinking that it's safe. Before it even has time to stick its nasty old proboscis into my skin I whack the living heck out of it and throw it into a cup. Yes, I've started a collection. I know it's gross, but I've always had this feeling that if you leave dead bugs around the live ones will see and they won't want to bother you (at least it worked with the ants).

Let's recap from junior year biology class shall we? Why do mosquito bites itch. While this wasn't written directly in the book you could infer what happens (ahem... allergens section. I'm such a nerd). So after the beezy mosquito (only females bite because they need blood to lay eggs; weird but true) lands on you and you happen to not be paying attention, it sticks its nasty long proboscis into your skin (the straw-like thing). If you're like me, you're still too stupid to notice, so the mosquito moves its proboscis around looking for a blood vessel. When it finds one it pierces the vessel while releasing a type of anti-coagulant to keep your blood from clotting. It then sucks out your blood happily until full and then leaves you. Then you look down and you get what I call the "OMG WTF" reaction. It doesn't start itching until later because your body finally realizes that there's something wrong (a bit late there eh? body fail) and releases a chemical to fight the mosquito bite. The area then exhibits an inflammatory response i.e. the big red circle that follows and there you go itchy itchy.

And you know, it doesn't help that the mosquitoes in Taiwan are super fast and super pro. All the bugs in America are retarded and easy to swat. How do you know this? Well because you can actually hit the flies. They're probably obese like the majority of American society.

count bugs & drink water <3

How to...

Due to the frequent staring at my hand as I furiously pump out MCAT essays I have now come to realize that the veins on my left hand spell out "HI." Weird because I never noticed this before. Just like I've never noticed that I have a mole on my left boob. Sorry, you guys didn't need to know that. I'll stop.

How to seduce a guy.

1. Ask him about himself, guys love to talk about themselves so let them.

2. Take interest in what they're interested in, but don't stalk them.

3. Never tell a guy he's skinny (they find this offensive, I've learned the hard way).

4. Don't purposely act dumb, they'll just think you're idiotic.

5. Smile. :)

How to seduce a girl.

1. Every girl loves creative presents or thoughtful gifts.

2. Be a good listener. Guys that remember small details are my favorite.

-I remember telling this guy about how I like my coffee. The next day he brought me a coffee exactly the way I had described it. I was pretty impressed to say the least.

3. Compliment! A lot of girls are self-conscious. (but don't lie)

4. Play an instrument or a sport.

5. Be romantic. No girl can resist this (we're all looking for our prince).

This was just for fun. How to seduce a guy is based on (for the most part) personal experience, but I'm single so you probably shouldn't take any advice from me. And how to seduce a girl is based on what the majority of girls like to see in a guy (myself included) so this one should be more accurate. Last words of wisdom, don't go around seducing people that you aren't interested in. Playing with emotions is terrible and someone is bound to get hurt. Also, if guys are overly romantic they may end up with a female stalker. Just a word of warning.

seduce & steal fruit <3

Getting stuck

Freaking... I just got my finger caught in the refrigerator. I really wanted to scream, but my granny mama and grandpa were taking their respective naps, so I held it in. Doh! I think the refrigerators here must have some kind of manufacturing problem because it closed all the way. How come this never happens in America?

You know, when I was younger I had the tendency of getting stuck in random household appliances and furniture. The things that I got stuck in were pretty uncommon and only dumb children would think about performing the same tasks that I did.

Let's see... the first thing I got stuck in was the freezer (yes as surprising as this may seem, I used to be very skinny). Well, it happened to be very hot so I decided to stand in front of the refrigerator. Of course it wasn't cool enough so I decided to kick it up a notch and step into the freezer. I nearly closed the whole door and it felt amazing-- for the first 3 minutes at least. I accidentally closed the door and there I was standing in the dark. It was significantly cooler; however, it was quite traumatic at the time. I banged on the door trying to get it open, but it wouldn't budge. Luckily, a few seconds later someone came to my rescue.

The second instance was when I was fooling around on the staircase and I decided to see if I could fit through the spaces in the railing. Apparently not. I was stuck there for a while because no one was home. To ease my pain and boredom I ended up trying to find shapes within the oddly textured wall. Similarly the third instance I wanted to see if I could get from one side of a folding chair to the other by crawling through the space between the backrest and the seat. I ended up getting stuck and someone had to take apart the whole chair to get me out of it. The ironic thing was the fact that I did this so that I could prolong the time in which I did not have to play piano. Nowadays, I would gladly get stuck in a chair in order to play piano. Lord help me if I ever have children as dumb as I was.

reminisce & buy popsicles <3

Wisdom

Old people love to give advice. Unfortunately, I don't really like to listen to it (does anyone really?). Yet, this time as the whole group of them were discussing my future some of what they said actually made sense.

At first I was tuning them out like I usually do because they were telling me how to study and what to do in school. I don't really pay attention to any of that stuff because I think that studying isn't something someone can tell you how to do. Not the same strategies work for everyone and it's up to each individual to figure out what works for them. Of course if you're getting B's, C's, D's, or F's your strategy probably isn't the greatest one and you might want to reconsider the way you're studying because it's clearly not working. I think learning how to study is one of the most difficult challenges that school presents. It's difficult because if you've been studying one way all your life you don't want to change your tactic because you fear that it will bring you negative results. Then again if you're consistently barely passing, don't you think it's time for a change anyway? Sorry, I don't mean to lecture, I'm just saying as usual.

Anyway this is what I learned from the old people. They were dissecting my life and they were talking about friendships and relationships. I was rolling my eyes in my mind and I was preparing to tune them out while nodding and smiling when one of them brought up a good point. They said that I shouldn't worry about any of that right now because everything will eventually fall into place in the future. Things like this will come naturally. She said that I should focus on school and my future for now instead of chasing things that are negligible in comparison. She told me that when (or if...) I'm successful, friendships and relationships will follow. She said that one of her mistakes in life was wasting time trying to secure her previous friendships and relationships when everyone, including herself, had changed. This was a total "Aha!" moment for me. Maybe that's why everything is so different. Maybe it's because everything has changed it's just that none of us have noticed it (or care maybe). If that's the case then I should take the advice right? I feel so robotic. The only thing I'm driven by is my ultimate goal. While the old people admire my drive I still think it feels lonely on my goal driven island. Perhaps someday I'll run into someone else also on a goal driven island and everything will fall into place. At least this is what I think she meant.

be lazy & countdown <3

Connected

So it turns out my aunt decided to buy some wireless whatevermajig it's called from a cellular phone service here which means I have internet which means I can still blog to my heart's content. You know now that I think about it, it doesn't really matter where you travel to because as long as you have internet your life will be relatively the same. Other than blogging and checking school mail I've been trying really hard not to be such an internet addict. Surprisingly enough that's not such a difficult a task given the fact that the food here is way too delicious. So instead of watching shows all of the time I'm eating all of the time. Hey, if you had the opportunity to eat a mango three times the size of those in America you would grasp that too. Monster mangoes.

After I finished that paragraph I got bitten by three mosquitoes. Welcome to Taiwan! On the plane the other day I got the very last aisle seat. It was kind of nice because there weren't people trying to crawl over me the whole trip. I sat next to a middle aged lady that only went to use the restroom if I happened to get up as well. I thought that was nice of her, so I got up more than I needed to in order for her to have the opportunity to use the restroom as well.

I can't believe I ate so much today. My grandma just kept telling me to eat and eat. It's very hard to refuse old people's desires. It's also very hard to work out here. Hopefully I'm losing double the calories. That way it can cancel out all of the calories that I happen to be consuming.

Freaking mosquitoes. I'm going to go rub lemon juice on myself. That'll show them-- but then knowing my luck a myriad of other bugs will fly towards me and try to eat me.

swat bugs & eat fish <3

Oh mirah

I can't get myself to stop looking at dresses even though they're so impractical and unconventional. I only say this because I don't party. Heck, I hardly ever leave the house to socialize. When will I ever get the opportunity to wear a dress and go to a club? No one knows, probably never. Yet, here I am looking at these amazing dresses. I don't know how many of you watch Project Runway. It's definitely my dirty pleasure. That and America's Next Top Model of course. Anyway, the recent season has been pretty decent. I'm hoping either Valerie or Gretchen wins because I like their work the most. However, none of their designs can compare to Leanne Marshall, winner of Project Runway Season 5 (it's Season 8 now if anyone was wondering).

Leanne is probably one of my favorite fashion designers. I really like crisp, clean-cut, structural clothing and that's exactly what she makes. Not to mention everything she makes is ridiculously gorgeous. This dress that she handmade called the "Mirah-Dress" is so beautiful that it makes me want to cry.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/47970955/mirah-dress

Would I spend $435 on a dress? I think not. Besides, I would probably ruin it with my hideous figure anyway. However, if I do eventually get married, I want her to design my wedding dress and I would gladly pay a ridiculous amount of money for it given that it looks amazing on me (hey, if you can make all of this look good you must be a miracle worker; hence, deserving of a large sum of money).

As a side note, Josh Duhamel is strangely good looking. He is very... manly. I don't usually go for those types of guys, but something about him is intriguing (I don't know why I'm attracted to skinny shy boys what the heck I'm so weird).

eat food & pick roses <3

Peace out

I sold my soul to the Comcast man (Andy). He started flirting with me and trying to get me to eat lunch with him (I know this is hard to believe, I was shocked as well). I told him I had to unpack and that I had to catch my flight. He said he gave Asians special offers. He asked me if I would go to his birthday party next Wednesday. I told him I was going to be in Taiwan (thank goodness). He asked me if he could call me if he was around. I said okay (hey, I never said I would pick up). He then said that if I ever needed cable hookup for the TV he would do it for free if I call him (usually $25). I said okay (geez, I didn't even show any leg).

Sigh. So, that's what I did. I feel like a filthy prostitute. He also set up the router for me. Then when he was leaving he told me to call him when I get back. I mean although that was creepy at least he's direct. Heck, 80% of the guys out there are too scared to ask girls out because they fear rejection. Little do they know 80% of those girls are desperate. It fits perfectly! Man, the things I do for these people. I hope they're grateful. But there was a positive side to the move in. I met some pretty nice people that carried my things for me. I really don't mean to do this, but whenever I look hopeless someone always comes to my rescue. With the bike chain thing and now the carrying things on more than one account. I must be more seductive than I think I am. Psych. I shouldn't flatter myself. I'm pretty satisfied though. After hours of moving things around the room I finally got it to look clean and spacious. I ended up blocking the window, but whatever at least everything fit. Even my keyboard and guitar (no amp, too loud).

Unfortunately, I thought I would have a couple of cute guys living in the apartment under me. Nope, no such luck. When am I ever lucky? Give me a break here. Instead, under my apartment lives a middle aged white male with a son that scooters. He smiled at me creepily and somehow I feel as if he would be one of those types that would knock at your door if he heard a peep out of you after the city's quiet hours.

Well, I'm leaving today (to be more accurate in a few hours, but not like anyone cares [oh but thanks for the call ev and Marvin too... Haha]). I really hope I get an aisle seat. As of now I'm stuck in the middle. I'm going to go a bit earlier to SFO so that I can ask for a better seat. I hate being in the middle. The thought of crawling over some fat, hairy, middle-aged, sweaty man is really not too enticing.

Every time I go somewhere I always feel like I'm forgetting something. More often than not I do forget things, but they're very minor. This time because the whole Taiwan trip was so spontaneous and random, I'm not too sure I packed everything that I needed to pack. I only know that I have all of my MCAT books ready so that I can study on the plane. How exciting. Not really. I hope I don't throw up. Well if I did forget underwear or anything like that I can just go to 7/11 and buy some disposable products (they really do make disposable underwear). 7/11's in Taiwan have everything.

I suppose it's kind of a good thing that I'm leaving. I can never concentrate here because there are too many distractions, so isolating myself in my grandma's ballin house in the mountains to study is going to be a simpler task (mostly because there's nothing better to do there). Oh, did I mention that there's no internet? Old people don't use that stuff. I'm trying to teach them, but they refuse. What am I going to do? I'll probably try to find a cafe somewhere that I can steal internet from so I can update you guys on what's happening, if I'm getting bitten to death by mosquitoes... you know, the usual. So I'll see you all during Spring break if I decide to come back if not then August/September after Summer Session 2 (that is... unless you want to visit me; did I mention that I'm going to Taiwan during Winter break again due to my grandfather's 80th birthday? this one was planned a while ago though).

ride escalators & ask questions <3

Upgrade ya

Day two of this madness. First of all thank you for helping me move, unpack, carry, and clean everything. You're awesome and I couldn't have done it without you. That being said. Wow is it hot. I went up today wearing a sweatshirt and pants, but I couldn't stay in that getup for long. Turns out it was 103 degrees. Goodness gracious.

Initially, I wasn't too excited about the whole moving into the new house thing, but I think I'm pretty happy now. Relatively that is. It's not that I don't like school because I've actually been waiting for it to start (I feel like I'm brain dead if I'm not constantly learning), there are other factors that come into play when school is in session.

Did anyone see the apple updates by the way? It made me want to shoot myself in the eye. Webcam-ing on the go? That's like my life right there. Webcam all the time. Why didn't I just wait one year? Why? See? This is what Apple does. It takes simple things and adds them on one at a time. I don't understand why they couldn't have just made this version of the touch during the year they released the first generation. Steve Jobs is killing me here. I suppose I'll need an update after next year.

Anyway, traffic was pretty bad today and I now have a large headache, so I'm going to try to sleep it off. Hopefully it'll be gone by the time I have to drive back up again tomorrow.

kill bed bugs & pick scabs <3

Billionaire

I ended up not getting my Physics class. There were several classes open, it's just they all conflicted with my Biology and Chemistry classes or their respective labs (and we all know these are more important than stupid Physics). Anyway, this means that no one is going to be seeing me anytime soon. That includes next summer as well. How disappointing. Stupid public schools and their budget cuts. If only I were rich my life would be so much different (how many times have we all wished that?). Because I didn't get into Physics I didn't know what to do, so I decided to take an English class and Statistics just to get those over with. For those of you that know that I took Stats over summer. Guess what? Stupid Joanna forgot to check with the Registrar's Office to make sure that the credits were transferable before she decided to waste $125 at De Anza (registrar said because it was major required I couldn't transfer it, only GE's can be transfered-- the heck man, that doesn't make sense). So even if stupid Joanna got an A it doesn't matter because it doesn't count. Stupid Joanna should go throw herself off a cliff because she's so deng useless. Yippee! Seriously though, how many times do you have to prove to these people that you know what you're doing? And how many times are they going to reject your proof? Grades, AP testing, subject tests... such a waste of time, money, and brain cells. Bah humbug.

Anyway, today I went up to my apartment to play rock, paper, scissors with PG&E. I kid. They were actually pretty nice. I went into the room and there was no electricity (this is around 4pm), so I called them up and they said oh, okay. Five seconds later I plug in my desk lamp... and then there was light. And I saw that it was good (haha if anyone understood that... I'm so lame). Well I'm going to have to go back up tomorrow. I'll let you all know how it goes as well.

unpack & clean everything <3