Apology and Anecdote

I realize that I have theoretically fallen off the face of the earth for most of you, especially since I haven't been blogging of late. Rest assured that it is simply because I've been well enough to fulfill the expected work load. I'm still not 100%, but I'm sure most people have allergies worse then what I'm dealing with now. Even so, I want to apologize to my friends and readers for leaving you hanging.

Though...I did post 3 times last month, albeit at short intervals, and that constitutes only missing one week! :P

There has been a bit of fun in my life too, though work truly does consume the bulk of my time and energy. I went to a choral festival at the National Concert Hall in Taipei (3 phenomenal choirs, one incredible conductor, 2.5 hours of heavenly music).

I also found swing dancing! Met up with some local lindy hoppers at an Italian restaurant's salsa night (talk about converging western civ). There's plans for an exchange in August, which is when I'd also have some vacation time coming (hint, hint). Details to come, and I'll also try to link to the organizer's blog.

And now a bit of daily life...

You will always attract attention when speaking to someone while flipping furiously through a small book and pointing to various pages. It is very helpful to have a Pinyin dictionary when trying to buy candles though. My candles were to serve the purpose of shabbat candles, but the store clerk had brought me to the buddhist section, that was stocked with incense and those fat candles in jars.

I decided to forego trying to use "long" and "tapered" as descriptors, and went with "dinner" and "banquet" instead. It seemed to be to no avail until another shopper with his daughter noticed my lack of Chinese and offered to help. He rattled off the same words I had just pointed to and trid to say, and got a very lengthy reply. He then turned to me and asked if I wanted red or white, or if I needed some other color. I said color didn't really matter. There was another lengthy exchange between him and the clerk, after which he said that the store has never carried that type of candle.

Later, my housemates had a good laugh and said "That's typical Taiwan."