fiNIshED anOTheR ReaDIng

In the parcel that my family sent me, there was a book written by a Japanese girl who is living in Taiwan. She uses her aspect to describe things that are different between Taiwanese and Japanese culture. It was pretty funny; however, funny books are always too short. I feel bad for finishing it so fast.

But anyway, I think it's a book that is worth reading. Just for fun.

NOTE: It has both Chinese and Japanese in one book. Although it might not be suitable for language learning, but people who can understand at least one of those languages should read this book!

prESenTS frOM hoME

Today I got an express parcel from my family. It contains very exciting contents like food, gifts that they bought me from their Korea trip including a picture CD they created for me, book and magazine, and most important of all, their love. See the polar bear in the picture above? You must be wondering what it's for. Following answers your question:

This is me wearing the polar bear wearing the hat. When should I wear it?!

Bon VOyaGE my FRieND

I had a friend who finished her master's study and left for home yesterday. She's going back to Japan, and she will continue her teaching at the same school soon.

The koi fish decoration is one of the gifts she left me before leaving.

A postcard of her hometown was another present she gave me. So long for now, I will try my best to make it to visit you.

tHE enD Of TESOL cONfeREncE

It took me one morning to get back to Terre Haute. My first flight was 1:00 in the morning. No kidding, and it was packed! The flight attendants even asked people to give up their airplane ticket coz it was overbooked. If I didn't have to work in the afternoon, I would have given mine up for 300 dollars or a free airplane ticket.

Luckily, the second airplane that I supposed to take at Minneapolis was kind of empty, and I had a large space to lie down and stretch my legs.

The morning sky above Indiana, before we were going to land.

LAst DAy oF TESOL ConFEreNCe

Pleas forgive me for not being able to record the academic part of the conference. The last day went pretty fast.

Before I noticed, I was already having Indian food for dinner.

My choice of meat for this dinner was LAMB! Something we can't get much in Indiana either. Yum-O!

2nd DAy oF TESOL ConFEreNCe

Looking outside toward waterfront from the center of the convention center.

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I woke up early this day to attend a couple of speaks that I found might be interesting last night. Today's schedule was pretty much the same as yesterday, except for the Indiana tradition party after dinner time.

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Every year ISU students attending TESOL will gather at Dr. Barratt's hotel and have a little party together. Finger food provided there were delicious!

TESOL/Linguistics Class 05'

1st DAy oF TESOL ConFEreNCe

After registration, I started my busy hassle day at the Seattle convention trade center. There were a lot of people flooding into the center from all over the world, what a very cool experience.

From 7:30 in the morning until 7 or 8 o'clock at night, there were more than plenty of speaks going on in not only the convention, but also in severl five-star hotels around the convention center. I don't think we're allowed to take pictures or to record any of the presentions, so the only thing I recorded today was my meal-- lunch and dinner.

I found a asian cafeteria near the convention. Whenever you hear asian or chinese food in the states, you know it won't cost as much as any other type of food. I remembered it was 5 dollar something per pound, so it only took me 6 dollar for lunch. Much better than eating at the Sleepless in Seattle restaurat hah? Look! I even got myself two peices of Salmon nigiri! I actually ate at that restaurant for three days in a row til the last day of my stay in Seattle.

This was the place I had my lunch. Looks beautiful, but it was freaking cold.

Dinner with my classmate at a local Mexican fast food restaurant.

Dinner! My choice of meat was shrimp! I lived too long in Terre Haute without fresh seafood. :(

ArrIVal IN seATtlE

This was the first day of my Seattle trip. Me and my classmates all arrived one day earlier than the conference so that we can have some time experiencing the city all on its own.

This is something you don't see everyday. In the air above America.

Me and my classmates met at the Sea-Tac airport, rent a car and drove our way to Seattle downtown.

After arriving at the hotel, every thing's pretty much within walking distance, so we walked to the Pike Market Place.

We had lunch at a restaurant where "Sleepless in Seattle" was shot. See Tom Hank's picture?

Crab cake was my lunch. (A little too expensive)

One of the most exciting part of this trip--visiting the very first Starbucks in the world!

Continue to explore this city by walking along the harbor.

To my surprise, there were a lot of cherry blossom in this city. They actually smell pretty good!


Just a normal picture on the way. See how their traffic lights are different from ours? No pool.

On the way to Space Needle, the landmark of Seattle, I found out that the trees match with the apartments' color! B-e-a-utiful!


At the bottom of the Space Needle.

Looking up at it.

On the way to the top. (Yeah, we walked all the way up!)

(Na, just kidding, there was an elevator)

After 41 seconds, this is what you can see!

See some more.

And some more in detail. Guess how I saw this?!

Haha... with a telescope that charged no fee. <-Best part of the Space Needle.

And I ended my day with a dinner at China town. China town was smaller than I expected, though.

TESOL coNFerENce AT seATtlE, WasHIngTOn

Finally it's my turn to the international TESOL conference. I will be leaving tomorrow Mar. 20 in the morning at 5 A.M., and end the trip on Mar. 24.

Bon voyage, and wish me luck at the job market place where I can get chances to be interviewed.

sIEriES of GReeTIngS FroM jpN

Following the postcard from Osaka, I then received a postcard from Nagasaki,

a postcard from Fujiyoshida City in Yamanashi Preficture,

and a postcard from Tokyo with a Ginza postmark.

How cool is that? I wanna go, too!!

LUncH WitH CowORkeRS on ST. paTRic'S Day

I had a lunch with two other coworkers right before work today. We went to the Chinese buffet restaurant in town. The food is pretty nice, and there's a variety of asian food there. To my surprise, we only had 30 minutes to finish eating, coz the chief and the bus boy had to start working 30 minutes later. I couldn't believe that we were going to pay almost 6 dollars just to eat 30 minutes, but I had no choice, since I asked the bus boy to give me a ride for lunch.

The salad and fruit section's on the left. Seafood section, Chinese food section, deep-fried food section and soup and demshin section from the right front to the right back. Left to the salad and fruit section, there's dessert and a ice-cream machine. The right side of the food area is the sushi and "food request" section. You may ask for freshly cooked food like mongolian grill.

We were so in a hurry that I didn't have time to take a picture of the food I was actually eating.

Right before the time was up, the chief picked up our bill and said that he had to leave, because he is the person who had the restaurant key other than the manager.

He paid for all three of us, so I think I have to leave a little space for him on my blog.

I ate so fast today, I had a little stomachache at the beginning of work .

P.S. This is a picture of me helping folding the napkins in the office at work. (The necklace was for St. Patric's Day.)

tAX rePOrt WOrkSHop

I attended the tax workshop held by the International Affair Center this afternoon for my annual tax report. This was my very first time to do a tax report in my life. I actually don't have any idea what we were doing, I mean all the numbers they asked me to fill in the boxes, I had no idea where they came from or what they meant. However, I do know that I will be saving $120 dollars for the federal tax report, and another don't-know-actually-how-many for the state report.

We used a website called CINTAX (http://www.cintax.us/) to do our tax report. We got the passcode for free; however, if you buy the license/passcode indivisually, it will cost you $39 dollars a time. "ISU's students are blessed" is my conclusion.

How come I think all the other international students are making way more than I am? The two other students next to me were making double and triple of mine!! By the way, they seem to be from Saudi Arabia. Come on! Your country is already rich, stop earning the money I was supposed to get!!

Anyway, hopefully I will get a bunch for the refund, and get rich over night. Hahaha....

a cHAngE

I had my hair cut coz it was too long, and I thought it's about time to have a change. It looks funny now to me though. Hahaha...

I usually change my hair style once a year, of course it doesn't include cutting the bang. But I only trust Taiwanese hair dressers, cheap and professional. I'm wondering how I am going to survive until the next time I go back home....

a sONg tO ShaRE

I started my day with a song that I herd when I was working at the Japanese restaurant. We always turn on the radio when we're doing the preparations before the restaurant opens.

It's Goo Goo Dolls' new song "Let Love In".



I think I do love the song.

GReeTIngS FroM OsaKA

How come everyone gets to go to Japan to travel? I got a postcard from a great friend in college. Last time I got a postcard from Kyoto, it was sent by my family. Oh, well, I will work hard and save my own money to get there. We'll see.

Nothing to show off you people. Haha....

By the way, I hope you're having a great time there Johnny boy!

AmeRIcaN JunK FooD MeaL

Before I went to work, and before I took my nap, I had some delicious but gunky food. I saw the ads on the TV that is selling 99 cents sandwich at KFC, and I'm pretty much bankrupt recently, so I ended up buying a fish sampler because I really want to have KFC. It's actually my favorite fried chicken fast food restaurant back in Taiwan. The sampler was really a sampler, not big, but just medium size. It's OK, I'm poor, I just wanted to taste.





The sandwich was not enough to make me full, so I baked a little party pizza that I bought at a great price. It was on sale for about 1 dollar each, good bargain, isn't it?! I topped it with some peppers to make it look more healthier, and I added more cheese to it, too.

Haven't eaten like this for a while, so I think I'm OK.