I wrote a rap

and it is being used in a small chorus competition, bitches. I am including the words here:

"I come here everyday and I don't know why but I come as a rainbow
I come for you, yeah, I shine for you, and I don't why as a rainbow
I come when the rain is gone and I'll stay for you, 'cause you'll smile for me
Cause you love me so, yeah, you love me so
I know
If I don't open my eyes, then this won't be a dream and I won't have to go
But I'll come again when the rain is gone and I'll light up the whole sky
Just give me time, just give me space and I'll stay with you one more day
Cause you love me so, yeah, you love me so
I know"

And, before you make any snide remarks, the song this rap goes to is about rainbows. I'm not , nor will I ever be, some sentimental, dolphin-loving, rainbow worshiping sap. So, shush up!

Oh and here's a link to the original song, "Rainbow":
http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~b94303002/sing/ranbow(p).mp3

Apparently, Taiwanese people think I'm badass. Don't tell them the truth, cool status is all I've ever wanted.

I love Taiwan because...

I saw a girl spill her Starbucks drink on the subway and immediately pull out a package of tissues to clean up the whole mess,

One of the baseball teams is 7/11 sponsored,

I got my second Hello Kitty figurine from 7/11 today,

And the Moscow Ballet is here.

Another Choir Concert, Another Illness

Okay, first of all, THANK YOU to everyone who sent me a lovely birthday message/e-mail. You are all wonderful. Second of all, even though you did not send me a lovely birthday message, Andrew Roth, you are still ONE of my one true loves (I have many, and they do include the beautiful Ms. Sarah K. Schillaci).

The choir concert, if a little off key at times, was a huge success!!! I did get deliriously sick again, but that's okay! I have learned that a person with a penchant for becoming insanely stressed out is almost always also rewarded with illnesses of insane proportion. Whatever.

So, now, after this run of concerts I am officially one of the leaders of the alto section of the NTU Chorus and, after the choir party, there are about 40 billion pictures of me with various, cute Taiwanese choir boys (ooohhh, they are cute) out in the world. And, I am proud to say that all of the photos were not taken not at my request but at the requests of said cute Taiwanese choir boys. I also have been asked to take over for my friend Kehua in a choral competition in October (she's immigrating to Canada?) which I am very, very, very excited about. Yay for moving to an Asian country and immediately becoming a choral super star. Woo!

My mom and brother and i just returned from Kending, the southern beach resort area of beautiful-ness (well, it definitely beats the Jersey shore) which explains why this post is so very long, but I am finally caught up on sleep and back online.

Oh, Canada.

I celebrated Canada Day yesterday. Now I have a "semi-permanent" tattoo of a Canadian Maple Leaf on my arm. However, since the maple leaf has out-lasted two showers I am getting a little nervous about the true meaning of the word "semi-permanent." Oh well, if it doesn't come off, I'm going to have to start telling people I am Canadian.

I, also, in huge news think I know what I might be writing my Masters Thesis about. AMAZING. There is this Taiwanese author, Zhang Xiguo, who wrote a book entitled "Chauvinist Stories,"... and I'm in love. I wish I could explain the full hilarity of his work, but suffice it to say one of the stories involves handcuffs and, thusly, I am convinced that this guy is my soul mate/one true love.

Welcome to HA-noi Main STA-tion

So, I don't know how the popularity of this blog is going to hold up, what with everyone on summer vacation (unless you're working, and, well, I'm sorry if you are) and the heat and my inability to write anything of value anymore, but I am going to keep trying and hopefully hit my crazy blog writing stride again soon.

Jeremy Gordon, Adam Mishler, and I just returned from Hanoi (Vietnam), Bangkok (The Oriental City), and Ko Samet (the place the Beach Boys dream of when they go to sleep at night) and, while extremely hot (we were sweaty beasts for two whole weeks), we had an authentically Southeast Asian experience (whatever that means).

Now I am preparing to go straight into insane amounts of rehearsal for next week's choir concert. Wooooo. Hopefully, we will collectively avoid being beaten to death by our insane/sadistic conductor (she makes all of her clothes out of tablecloths...how is that possible?) But...it's all worth it because our performance is going to be at the (now emasculated...basically they closed the doors on the statue of our favorite dictator...so...not really a memorial to him anymore...) Chiang Kai-shek Memorial.

Oh, and...I got to see the dead body of Ho Chi Minh which brings my viewing of dead Communist dictators count up to 2. I just have to see Stalin now and I will have a completely set. It's always good to have life goals.

And the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down, and the rain, rain, rain came down.

I think the title says it all.

Semi-tropical island, I shake my fist at thee!!!!!

Grad School Part II (The Journey Continues?)

So, today in the middle of a huge and immensely long thunder/rainstorm, I dragged jetlagged Adam and Jeremy down to Zhengzhi University where I had an interview at the Labor Research Department (Jeremy and Adam were very good sports about it and very well behaved).

During the course of the interview (which lasted five minutes although I had to wait about forty to finally see the head of the department) I was informed that, if the University itself had no problems with my application, the Labor Research Institute would be happy to accept me as a member of their cheerfully anti-capitalist family. Now the question of the hour: Can I complete two grad school programs simultaneously??

I know you probably think I am crazy, but the Labor Research Institute is badass in a socialist kind of way and the Literature program is badass in a crazy, ancestoral Chinese, 5,000 years of history kind of way. How can I pass up either one?? Maybe I'll stop sleeping.