Wednesday Night: Watched Terminator Salvation. Action was great, Christian Bale was manly, not enough plot. I give it a B-.

Thursday: Jen, Michael, and I went to my grandmother’s house and watched my aunts make zhonzi, which are rice triangles wrapped in bamboo leaves.

We ate a giant lunch and played lots of Blokus and Big 2. Finally, we headed back to our place for a group nap, then ordered pizza and mahjong-ed the night away.

Friday: We got brunch at The Diner, which is the best thing since sliced bread. Seriously, they took it and made toast, added bacon, eggs, and a yogurt fruit cup.

They serve breakfast all day and, man, is it really good breakfast foods among other delicious entrees.

Then, we went to see the Dragon Boat Races under the DaZhi Bridge. I think next year, I will sign up to do the race. It looked like it was lots of fun! And I miss being on a team.

Later, we had dinner at Chili’s (Mmm.. it was an all American food day.) and watched Night at the Museum 2, which I give a B for its funny parts and ridiculous cheesiness.

Saturday: Jen & I decided that we were going to go to the zoo to see the pandas, so we take the MRT all the way out there only to find out that the panda tickets were all given out. Since we’ve already been to the zoo, we decided there was no point in paying for admission, so we turned around and went walking around Zhongxiao Fushing instead. Then, dinner with Michael’s grandparents, then night out on the town to meet up with some of Michael’s friends at Champagne 2 and Room 18. Champagne 2 was a really nice lounge bar, and we sat around chatting and ended up playing teams of Blow Cow. Room 18 was so crowded to the point that it hurt to breathe.

Sunday: We went to Jioufen 九份 , and on the way, Michael took us to this beautiful overlook on top of the mountain.

Jioufen was high up in the mountains, and so we climbed about 3000 flights of stairs today. Legs are now toned for the rest of summer.

Jioufen was beautiful, filled with tea shops and was very touristy, and definitely had some good eats. Apparently, all the good places had lines so of course I had to stand in them to find out what the big deal was. These fried shrimp balls were totally worth the wait!

Before we left, we stopped and had tea at this cute little tea house with an amazing view.

There is one thing though.. I’m not sure what the JB stands for, but there’s a sign outside of the restaurant with a quote from the bible. So I’m guessing it stands for.. “Jesus Bread”?

This was the #3 Beef Hamburger. So good!

Address: 仁愛路四段345巷15弄2號 (Ren Ai Road, Sect. 4, Lane 345, Alley 15, No. 2)
Phone No: 02-2775-3027

Fun Fact: They have guava flavored slurpies at 7-11. Totally made my day!

It was English Activity Day for the fifth graders, and his team didn’t make the required points to participate, so they had to write me a paper first. He hastily wrote one according to my prompt, and expected me to accept it. The paper didn’t make sense, so I told him I wasn’t going to take it. I told him to write another one, and if he had questions on how to do it, I would explain it to him. He just sat there, clutching his book, with tears running down his face. I knew they were tears of frustration because he is not the best student in class and has trouble with comprehension at times, but the fact that he didn’t try nor asked me to explain made me feel unsympathetic. I felt terrible that he was upset, but at the same time, determined that he would learn something out of this be it learning how to write a decent paper or how to ask questions when lost, whether he liked it or not.

On another note, I totally saw Star Trek last night, and it was fricking amazing. Sylar made an amazing Spock. I even understood the whole alternate reality, black holes, time travel, etc. I am totally a nerd, but now I kinda want to watch some Star Trek episodes just to see what happened. I even think Star Trek may be better than Star Wars. Eek!

With all this free time on my hands, I’ve seen lots of movies. I can’t believe I’ve never seen Remember the Titans. It’s one of those movies where everyone used to talk about it all the time and referenced the soundtrack that I could’ve sworn up and down that I’ve seen it before this week. Anyways, it was a great movie. He’s Just Not That Into You was cheesy but appropriate for the book it was playing. And of course, goodies like Pan’s Labyrinth and Bella helped pass the time too.

Although I do miss watching movies in a theater. I was supposed to go see Fast and the Furious 4 this past week. I also miss wearing clothes that aren’t sweats and a t-shirt. I miss being able to shower with two hands and doing it daily. I miss putting on makeup and getting pretty. I miss riding the bus and being able to buy things. I miss sharing the bathroom with only one other person and not ten others. I even miss my students. This “vacation” has gone on too long. Wish me luck for Tuesday!

For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.

Just saw the movie tonight. It was a wonderful movie because Brad Pitt was so amazingly good-looking, even at his age. I still marvel at the miracle that is him, and as much as I love his open-mindedness at adoption, I hope he will leave some more legacies of him behind before he’s gone. In other words, have more babies with equally good-looking Angelina Jolie.

The movie was deep and profound, just as it should be. It was a bit long, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Speaking of movies, I also saw Slumdog Millionaire and that was mind-blowingly good. I think the love story here was a bit more convincing than Benjamin Button, and I loved the cultural aspects of it. I hope this will win the Oscar.