where are the songs of spring? ay, where are they? think not of them. thou hast thy music too -

that's keats, people.  we're classing it up.  (pinky up and waving in classy salutation.)

it's currently sunday morning here, so we have the memorial in just a few hours!  i'm excited to see how many people will be there!  we've had a small share in the campaign and most people we've talked to have been curious and grateful.  anna's hoping a man she talked to a few weeks ago will come tonight.  she had started a study with him on the first visit out of the watchtower.  she's only had the one call with him, but he's already come to 2 meetings on his own since then!  wild.   so she asked one of the brothers to talk to him after the meeting on friday about the memorial.  we'll see......

the last week has been semi-quiet.  we went in service, did some shopping, moved into the hostel and picked up lalay at the airport.  probably one of my favorite things here so far, besides the sights outside the city, has been the shopping.  oh man.......  everything's so cheap!  but so cute, too.  i love it.  i'm in real danger here.  i'm starting to wish that i hadn't packed anything and just bought all new stuff here.  we especially love the notebooks, planners, and t-shirts with incomprehensible english written on them.  anna has a sweatshirt that says "being with makes me so happy that i love you.  ever sisce we met, things have been pretty good."  and i bought a planner that says "scheduler for you work efficiently."  they're this close.......

since lalay was coming friday night, ashley and i moved from anna's apartment to the hostel in ximen on thursday evening.  it's owned by a lady who's given herself the english name "cindy crawford".  that's not a joke.  she owns 3 hostels and she practically built the insides herself.  she watches american home improvement shows and uses what she learns to decorate and build the hostels.  each hostel is named after a different animal and decorated accordingly.  the one we're staying in is called "leopard garden", so there's leopard wallpaper and bedding as far as the eye can see.  it's pretty ghetto fab.  it's brand new though and clean and comfortable and in a really convenient neighborhood.  (the insanity of ximen is just a block or so away.)

leopard garden

our room in the hostel

ashley and i spent most of friday getting our bearings and doing some shopping.  while we were shopping, a young guy came up to us and asked if we were from america.  then he started talking in chinese and we didn't understand what he was saying.  but pretty soon, 5 other young guys (his buddies) came up and one of them spoke okay english.  he explained that they were selling things to make money for school.  they were selling pens.  and these pens don't cost $500.  they don't cost $400.  they only cost $199.  (this is taiwan money, so that's like $6 or something.)  and ashley's like "you want to sell me pens for $6?  do you think i'm a sucker or something?"  but the guy just ignored her and told her she was beautiful.  yeah.  we're beautiful because we're white and from america and you're not fooling us with that line.  we were annoyed, but we're also not very good at being mean to people's faces, so we obviously bought the $6 pens.  then the original kid wanted to know if he could have a hug.  so we gave him a hug.  but then he wanted to know if he could have a kiss.  we drew the line there.  and then the other kid wanted to know if we have boyfriends, to which we said yes because we weren't born yesterday.  it was..............annoying.  after that, we ate lunch at friday's because we were feeling a bit melancholy and exhausted at being different and standing out and we were feeling homesick.  so a lame food choice, but necessary for our emotional health.  

we saw this on friday in ximen.  there was a crew working in the street, and they put these dummies in the road with their arms up.  it's super creepy.

lalay got here friday night without any problems, and we were waiting for her at the airport.  she looked so like fresh and well-rested and fabulous.  i was so mad cuz ashley and i looked like undercooked fish when we got here.  we do not travel well.  lalay, however, does, and i'm jealous. 

lalay's ready for her first day in service!

lalay's first day was crammed with activity.  it was a really weird day for some reason.  we met up with anna and brett for lunch in ximen at this dumpling/noodle place.  it was SO good.  we had kimchi, curry, vegetable, and pork fried dumplings.  and we each had a bowl of noodles, too.  definitely one of my favorite meals so far.  (besides the vietnamese noodles we had after service on tuesday.  they were worth the fight with the chopsticks.  and the subsequent stomach issues.)  after lunch, we worked in brett's territory for a couple hours.  we talked to quite a few people and most took an invitation. 

we made brett sit over there.

taking a break out in service

after service, ashley and i finally got our hair cut.  mine was getting too shaggy.  i couldn't take it anymore.  but i was really nervous about having a stranger cut my hair, so ashley offered to get hers done too.  the salon was amazing!  (and so trendy - i felt like an idiot.)  first, the girl washed my hair for like 20 minutes.  then, while it was wet, she kind of put it in place to see the shape of it.  then she blew it dry.  i've never had a dry cut before, so that made me nervous too.  but she was meticulous.  i mean, she went like hair by hair.  she basically followed the shape that i already had, but when she styled it, she sort of made it look more taiwanese.  especially with the bangs in front.  it's taking some getting used to, but everyone else really likes it.......  the guy who cut ashley's hair was wild.  he had her and anna and lalay squealing.  and he loved cutting ashley's hair.  he cut it shorter on the sides and left it longer on the top.  i guess he started out wanting to give her a full-on mohawk and anna had to talk him down.  when he was styling it, you could really see the grays in her hair.  and i said something to ashley about it, so anna mentioned it to him.  so he started searching for each one and cutting them out!  ashley was dying.  all in all, we're pretty pleased; we think the hair cuts were a good idea.....  and the stylists we had seemed proud cuz they both wanted pictures of the cuts.

ashley making her most hardcore face.  her stylist was supposed to be making a face, too, but those directions got lost in translation somehow.

don't laugh.  she's trying her best.

afterward, lalay and i got our nails done and ashley and anna did some shopping.  then we met up with brett and a young girl from their congregation, zoe, to play ping pong.  it was so much fun!  even though we're horrible.....  zoe and her friend, jack, were super good, so they wiped the floors with us. 









oh -  i almost forgot!  on the way to play ping pong, we stopped at anna's so she could get changed.  and we got to see this parade!  we heard one one morning while we were staying with anna, but last night we got to see it.  they put off fireworks and there's a dragon and they play music.  it's pretty cool.  anna lives in wanhua and she said they're very traditional there - you won't see stuff like that everywhere.  i was able to get some video too.............

   

ashley's back post-cupping!!!!!

ashley's been hounding us about getting cupping while she's here, so we went late last night to snake alley and found a really nice massage place that also does cupping.  cupping is when they take a glass and light a flame inside of it and suction the opening of the glass onto your back.  they cover your back with the glasses and let them sit like that for awhile.  the suction is intense - it pulls your skin into the glass and leaves these welt marks all over your back.  after that ridiculous massage i had, there was no way i was getting cupping.  but ashley and brett did it.  allegedly, it's supposed to help with circulation and getting rid of toxins.  stuff like that.  lalay got a half-body massage and anna and i got foot massages.  it was so perfect.  of course, the guy who did my feet didn't have any teeth, burped loudly whenever he felt the need, and took a cellphone call - but it doesn't seem like you'd be in taiwan without those things.  the only thing missing was him hocking and hocking and then spitting freely.  i've decided that that's got to be the sound of taiwan.  but regardless, he did an awesome job.  plus this place was luxury!  the chairs reclined and you get your own personal tv and remote.  so anna and i found national geographic and watched "secret shark pits".  so good.  as you can see, ashley's back is a disaster.  brett's is a little better, but that's relative.  when she came downstairs and showed it to us at first, i almost croaked.  this morning she says it hurts like it's bruised and she feels achey-sick-like.  but she's not regretting it yet, so that's a good sign.

oh - and we had some super good danbings last night for dinner before our massages.  this lady has a cart in snake alley and she makes them fresh.  they're like a bready crepe with green onions cooked in the crepe and she fries them up and fluffs them.  then she cracks an egg and puts the crepe right on top, so the egg fries to the crepe.  she flips them and rubs on some soy sauce.  and you can get cheese if you want.  then she folds them up and puts them in a little paper wrapper.  last night, it was a little rainy and the danbing was so hot and comforting.  perfect.

it's actually raining pretty hard today.  i think this is the first we've seen heavy rain since we got here.  it feels a little chilly out too.  ashley and lalay walked into ximen with their umbrellas and rainboots to get some coffee and food.  we'll probably stay in this afternoon and then meet up with anna for dinner before the memorial.

i'm looking forward to the next week and a half.  we're gonna try to go to danshui, maokong, jiufen, fulong beach, and kenting.  danshui is just an mrt (subway) ride away.  it's on the water and you can take a ferry from there to this little island called bali (probably not the bali you're thinking of).  danshui has a good street for shopping, old forts, and allegedly good seafood.  maokong is where the tea houses are.  it's supposed to be pretty beautiful.  i'm super excited about that.  the spaniards have been talking up fulong beach, so we're gonna try to go there with them next weekend maybe.  plus, we'd like to go back to shilin night market and to the market in shida before we leave.  oh - and the jade market!  charlie's gonna take us there.


well, we hope everyone has an encouraging and well-attended memorial!  we miss you.