Flew back to town yesterday....SO glad we had yesterday night and today to rest and recooperate before starting work tomorrow.  Italy was fabulous!~ trekked through Rome, Florence, Sienna, San Gimignano, Venice, Murano, and Milan in 13 days.  Throughly gave ourselves a physical & mental workout visiting all the museums, monuments, churches, ruins, piazzas, bridges...you name it, we did it! Phew!  Lounging on the couch for a whole afternoon never felt so luxurious.

I've got TONS of pics to share...still need to download them all and rearrange.  We bought a 20G portable storage device before we left, thinking it would save us the hassle of buying and carting around tons of itty-bitty memory cards.  The device worked beautifully, and we gave ourselves a pat on the back...only, the damned thing suddenly went on strike (in the middle of our Florence stay) and stubbornly refused to turn on!  (Ha~ thinking back, it's funny how sad and devastated we were that night...then again, we thought we'd lost our Rome and Florence pics...)  We ended up buying a 1G card in Florence and rationed the pics for the remainder of our trip.  Lo and behold...the stupid machine sprang to life again (on our last night in Milan) and acted as it nothing had happened.  GRRRrrrrr~ technology drives me nuts! 

That aside, the only other mishap on our trip was when I stupidly sprained my left ankle on a cobblestone in Venice.  One minute I was trodding along in the cold, thinking about what I wanted to drink at the cafe (about 50 yards from where we were)...the next I was bent over in pain, trying to regain my balance and keep from bawling in the middle of this beautiful square.  It was awful...I felt like I had to concentrate all my energy on the pain in order to make it go away, if that even makes any sense!  Luckily, it was just a bad sprain and over the course of the next few days, a ripe, colorful bruise rose to the surface.  Still, there was the rest of Venice and Milan to see, so I buried my foot in 2 layers of socks (to give it some semblance of support!) and plodded onwards. 

We saw some really wonderful architecture and artwork...I had a blast poring over the little description cards (when available in English) and snapping tons of pics (when allowed).  We also had tons of fun getting "lost" in the backstreets and discovering what the less touristy areas were like.  Jeff's a great navigator, so I had the luxury of soaking it all in and trying to capture some of the feeling on film...err, digital media. 

Anyhow, it was an inspiring trip...pics to follow another time, 'k! 

Btw, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! 

Currently Reading Status Anxiety By Alain de Botton see related

I've been sitting here the past few minutes trying to gather my thoughts for my first entry in a long time.  Surprisingly, I'm finding that it's kind of hard getting back into this blogging mindset after having "slacked off" for so long.  It's almost as if I've forgotten, in a way, how to blab on about nothing in particular in this funny monologue-esque format.  Or maybe it's deciding where to start on my updating, as so much has happened in the past two months.  Hmm...well, throwing any attempts of cohesiveness aside, I'm going to jump right back into my handy-dandy bullet point mode...

*Mei's going to start attending Sacred Heart boarding school this coming fall!  She's starting 8th grade there, which means the 2nd of 3 years of middle school in Taiwan's educational system.  The plan is to continue on in their high school, but we'll see how it goes...  At the moment, she's gleefully high on the fact that she got in on her own steam (long, grueling exam + interview...way to go, mei!! ) and is looking forward to spending free time away from the watchful eyes (and often nagging reminders) of mum.  I'm crossing my fingers that her enthusiasm for her new school will last, though I know better than anyone how hard it is initially to live away from home after being brought up w/ mum's sheltered mothering.  OOooo...I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her...

*Mum and mei are currently on their first of two vacations to Japan this summer.  They left early Sunday morning and will be back on Thursday.  Although I enjoy the extra space around the house, not to mention the convenience of having the bathroom wholly to myself, I have to say the house is almost TOO quiet and empty in the mornings when I wake up or when I'm getting ready for bed late at night.  Which makes me think how odd it'll be to have mei off in boarding school this coming year.  Sure, she'll be able to come home during weekends, but still, not having her around day-to-day is gonna be a big change.  Hmmm...my little sis is all grown up!  *sniff*

*I'm off to Bali tomorrow morn!  5 days, 4 nights~ I'm excited at the thought of sleeping in, walks on the beach, exploring the towns, and of course, hotel breakfasts!!  One of the best parts of travelling is def. waking up to a grand breakfast array...cold cuts w/ cucumber/tomato slices, scrambled eggs w/ bacon and sausages, rice porridge w/ meat and a dash of seasoned seaweed, apple danishes, a fruit platter, and a nice pot of hot peppermint tea....MMmmm~!  Yummy thoughts of breakfast aside, I can't help but think how this will be my last break for a long time, because starting September, I will be...

*Teaching!  Yes, I will be teaching preschool full-time this next school year.  I'll also be handling my coordinator duties in the head office part-time, so it'll be a busy busy schedule.  I'm really looking forward to stepping into the classroom and gaining hands-on experience w/ working w/ little kids though.  3~6 is def. a major blossoming time in terms of growth and development...and it'll be fun to witness all the changes they go through~! 

*Sandra and Jason had a beautiful wedding ceremony at the Grand Hyatt on June 25th.  Sandra decked us bridesmaids out in matching lavender gowns and white pearls   It was exciting participating in all the wedding festivities...rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, day-of preparations (manicures, hair-do's), walking down the aisle, helping the bride get dressed, etc.  All 3 of Sandra's gowns were GORGEOUS!!  I'll post pictures after I get them...

*Movie recommendations: War of the Worlds, Batman Begins, Mr. and Mrs. Smith (though not everyone agrees on this...), Kingdom of Heaven.  (btw, as expected, Liam Neeson was awesome in both BB and KoH )

*Christine and I have recently discovered our shared passion for shabu-shabu.  Our timing couldn't be worse though, as we're in the midst of a record scorching summer heat + humidity wave...not that it fazes us shabu-fanatics though!  We still manage to schedule in 2~3 times of shabu a week...sweet!

*Gooey Ethan has a new baby brother!  Logan will reach his 1 month birthday soon...OOooo, I can't wait to visit!!!

'k, time to go...haha, so much for not knowing what to blog!   This turned out to be 'nother rambling one~

It occurred to me this morning that I haven't blogged in a while, so I logged onto my site where I was greeted by...
The cover for one of Celine Dion's albums!!!  GAH!  I totally forgot I posted that.  How embarrassing!  (Embarrassing because I've always regarded CD (w/ a hint of disdain) as an ultra-cheesy, over-the-top mega-diva...)

I'm happy to report I've gotten over my mild case of obsessive listening to Celine belt out "Because You Loved Me" and "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" on repeat (yes, OMG, I KNOW...don't know what I was thinking...).  Now I am obsessing over more (uh-hem!) CULTURED tunes, such as Caetano Veloso gurgling like a sparrow... haha

(Sarcasm aside, the soundtrack for "Talk to Her" (Hable con Ella) is really very gorgeously fluid and soothing.  Def. strongly recommend the album if you're looking for something to relax to on a lazy Sunday afternoon.)

Anyhoo, on to more random notes...
*I've been taking GRE prep classes at Princeton Review for the past month...*sob* I'm thinking about taking the test in Oct., so I still have quite a lot of time to putter about in my "studying".  At the risk of sounding overly-geeky, I'm actually enjoying studying for the verbal section.  Something about immersing myself in vocabulary-intensive word play is stimulating in a "brain-fodder" sort of way.  (Although, as you've probably ascertained, I haven't quite err...mastered how to incorporate my spanky new words in my everyday speech yet...But, come September! Then, you'll see!!).  On the other hand, any false pretenses I once had about my competency in math is being slowly trodden to a pulp.  I can't believe how hard it is to factor an equation or find the area of a triangle lodged within a circle.  How can middle-school math be so mind-boggling?!  I have to say though, a lot of the math section is purely obnoxious...who needs to know how to do impossibly long division problems or multiply infinitesimal decimal amounts BY HAND when, in the "real-world", we have calculators to figure out these sums?  Just how is this an accurate reflection of how well I'll do in grad school...hmm?  I should send my complaints to ETS...well, after they finish scoring my test, of course...

*After a month and a half long delay, I finally got my new frames!  I ended up getting dark purple plastic ones...though, they're not just purple since the inside is lined w/ a layer of lime green and another layer of pink.  Quite juicy-looking in a gummy bear sort of way...but it's hard to tell unless I take the frames off and hold them just so under the light.  Oh well, it'll be like wearing cute undergarments that nobody knows about but me...

*Movies: BJ2 (finally!), The Company (amazing dance compositions), The Matrix 3 (Keanu in a suit!!), My Cousin Vinny ("...the 2 yootes..."...heehee), and The Interpreter (spur of the moment decision, which turned out to be a v. suspenseful, enjoyable "thriller"...can this be called a thriller?  It had me clutching my arms, on the edge of my seat at times, but then again, I steer clear from scary movies.)   Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn were both really amazing in this film.  There was also a really good supporting cast...Sean Penn's partner comes to mind.  That character was played by the actress who played the other (not Cameron Diaz) lead female role in "Being John Malcovich".  I've decided that Sean Penn has that type of "security" aura about him that Liam Neeson has...although, with a more volatile and explosive edge.  He just seems like someone who you would feel safe around.  Nehoo...entertaining movie, don't understand why there's so much negative buzz surrounding it. 

*Books: Blink (v. interesting read), still finishing up DL's Ethics ('bout 1/2way through), and just started ploughing through a whole slew of museum studies, grad school books...bleah~  Have a whole pile of Ursula Hegi, Toni Morrison, Milan Kundera, and Thomas Friedman books piled on my desk that I really want to get around to.  I'm finding Toni Morrison's books kind of hard to get into...well, ok, that's a gross overstatement since I've only started ONE of them (Love).  Maybe it's just this one...or maybe I wasn't in the right mood...or maybe her writing's just too deep for me!  Also want to get Sue Monk Kidd's "The Mermaid Chair" and "Dance of the Dissident Daughter" sometime. 

*Am happy to report that the National Museum of History has finally cleaned up their act and are now exhibiting pieces protected under acrylic cubbies.  Although the boxes are a bit on the shoddy side, at least they do their job of barring curious museum-goers from picking up and handling the priceless artifacts (yes, can you believe that?!)!  I wish they'd figure out how to properly adhere those big sticky-backed posters though.  I'm always bothered by the air-bubbles that stick out, distorting the text. 

*Today I saw EIGHT women wearing fitted jean jackets on the subway (just in the little space surrounding me).  It was rather comical...like they were wearing uniforms for some cool, rebel school or something.  I bet jean jackets are gonna be the next fad...ones in that blue-faded wash.  Speaking of fads, I should take advantage of the current flats craze and stock up since they're all I ever wear.  Think I need a new black dress too...hmm...

*Christine, my cubbie-mate, introduced this movie spoiler site to me last week.  I ended up reading all the scary movie spoilers (and being extremely unproductive at work) that I've been too chicken to watch, and scared myself silly.  My unhealthy curiosity cost me a weeks worth of restful sleep as I kept on having nightmares of being chased by rabid dogs and psychotic mute killers hiding out on my balcony.  YIKES!!  Help, help!

*I found my long-lost "Thangka" (cloth wall hanging that depicts a Buddhist picture) that I was given to me in Tibet by the Gamaba...YAY-YAY-YAY!! I feel like a void has been closed.  Now, if only my 2 boxes filled w/ treasured keepsakes from my high school move from SoCal to Taipei would suddenly show up on my doorstep....Damn U.S. Postal Service!!

*I rearranged the few pieces of furniture in our bedroom that are mine.  It's refreshing having a new setup, although I wish I could do more w/ the space.  I can't wait to live in my OWN apartment someday...

*Flowers are blooming, birds are singing, the air is thick with rain...life is suh-weet!  ...but, I need to get back to work!