Thursday, December 22, 2011

If your everyday life seems poor, 

don't blame it; 

blame yourself; 

admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet 

to call forth its riches; 

because for the creator 

there is no poverty 

and no indifferent place.”  

Rilke


yess.

yesss.






in bed wrapping emilys presents to a swirling mind. goodnight taiwanese moon.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011


 "Walk with me, hand in hand through the neon and styrofoam. Walk the razor blades and the broken hearts. Walk the fortune and the fortune hunted. Walk the chop suey bars and the tract of stars. I know I am a fool, hoping dirt and glory are both a kind of luminous paint; the humiliations and exaltations that light us up. I see like a bug, everything too large, the pressure of infinity hammering at my head. But how else to live, vertical that I am, pressed down and pressing up simultaneously? I cannot assume you will understand me. It is just as likely that as I invent what I want to say, you will invent what you want to hear. Some story we must have. Stray words on crumpled paper. A weak signal into the outer space of each other. The probability of separate worlds meeting is very small. The lure of it is immense. We send star-ships. We fall in love."  –Jeanette Winterson

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

the problem with letting yourself sleep in as long as you want is that im too good at it.

now before five oclock i must:
find the necessary tools to build a winter wonderland for the children. complete with our christmas tree which im bringing on my scooter on friday.
jay asked me if i could get him a psp game for christmas...its like he actually thinks im a lady santa..

book thailand. time to get exciiiiiiiiiiited

christmas loves red lipstick


christmas party snapshot. kelly won an ipad. i got to play with betty claire. it all evens out somehow.

Friday, December 16, 2011

a friday morning muse

realising over a peanut butter and banana sandwhich and coffee that a lot of the things i used to be afraid of im just not anymore. and that the ability to let yourself be genuinely vulnerable is something to be revered not feared.

the end.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

oh thursday, im happy to see you

sleeping in after waking up early all week is so lovely.
finished 29 report cards that are due tomorrow and so happy to be done. work and then dinner tonight with em and wade at a new indian restaurant in town. should be delicious and hilarious.

also, got to work on tuesday to find a huge package from the wonderful fisherssssssssssss
so exciting. it is officially the biggest present under our charlie brown christmas tree.

this weekend is full of christmas festivities. a party at a friends tomorrow eve, em and i are bringing a cheese plate and im wearing red lipstick. im far too excited to listen to christmas music. could go for some egg nog and rum though hmm...
saturday is our work christmas party. all us girls are going for a hair wash and head massage [for $6] and getting ready together. im excited to spin around in a dress and heels and drink free wine and food. fantastic. hard work does pay off.

happy happy holidays
woke up early again to sip hot chocolate, coffee, n baileys and wrap presents and write letters to my loves across the sea. it was such a beautiful way to start the day. my hand was killing and i had to rush breakfast to get to work on time but it was well worth it. thinking of people i love getting surprises in the mail makes me smile real big and long.

i loooove christmastime.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

woke up early to finish wrapping presents and writing report cards.
the little charlie brown christmas tree emily and i bought and decorated is making me VERY happy. so is the hot chocolate and baileys. ahh christmas. on a tropical island.
<3

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Kenting Photos

finally posting photos from a weekend away about a month ago in Kenting. 12km coastline hike up a mountain and into the jungle and then back down. sorry these photos are in the most ridiculous order. it will force you to use your imagination. the first bunch are of the resort we stayed at. so ridiculously cheap and sweet. we dropped our bags off and walked down to the beach the first afternoon and swam in the Taiwan Strait (or East China Sea) depending whose side youre on. it was magnificient. Then we came back and changed and attended the biggest craziest taiwan bbq in the land. people just want you to eat. they dont care if youre hungry. just keep eating and drinking and cheersing them. kelly, emily, and i ate so much that we were asleep by 830pm. literally. woke up at 7am to drive out to the hike. it was about an hour drive driving in swirls around a mountain with kelly, em, myself, a little boy, and 4 grown asian men who blasted slow jams the entire time. very peculiar. the photo with all the cars parked on the rocky beach is where we started. its the most southern tip of taiwan. from there we walked east along the pacific ocean collecting rocks, there were so many lovely ones to choose from! after quite a while we reached a spot where we needed to go up. its too dangerous and steep and rocky to climb up on your own so you have to use a rope to hoist yourself up. it was amazing. we stagger going up but theres still only a few feet between all of us and so some parts are quite uneven and awkward and some people were pretty scared which would cause the whole line to have to stall. so youre holding yourself in some crazy position, clutching this rope for dearlife and when you look behind you and down, its a line of people and then the pacific ocean for as far as you can see. it was crazy unbelievable. it didnt scare me at all, i was actually relishing in the thrill of it. i could have stayed perched up there all day. 
once you get up to the top its jungle and beyond the lush, green, leaves you realise you are high above the coast of the ocean. we kept hiking through a big meadow and then up a really steep narrow hill until we got to the highest point. and from there you can basically see the coast of taiwan go on and on and on. an absolutely amazing weekend away. oh, and the cost for the two hour drive there (five of us took a taxi ha), then back, the resort, all the food both days, the beer and wine, and the cost to get into the national park was $60.


























trying to resolve in my mind that canada is on the other side of this water...

abandoned building in the jungle. so cool so cool.





jungle homes










Justin and Flora. Lovely newlyweds that we work with. Flora is my secretary and Justin is an amazing teacher. Very cool people.

those people in the field were hiking with us. so once you climb that rope up to the top you hike through some jungle and then across this field and up another steep hill to the top where you can see the coastline.

kelly snapping a photo of us taking it all in



view from the top. hello taiwan
the side of the mountain that we climbed. too steep to do on your own, so you have to hold on to this rope and hoist yourself up. and then of course back down at the end, which is even more interesting.





i see hearts everywhere