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Sat, Dec. 13th, 2003 01:13 amThe boy has just taught me about the art of burning candles. Apparently one cannot simply burn candles haphazardly. Instead, the first burning is very important because it gives the candle the diameter of the well it'll burn down later. So if you just burn it a little in the beginning so the pool of wax doesn't get out to the edges, that's the widest it'll ever be. Did anyone else know this?! I feel this is much more complex than candles should really be.
I continue to be all excited about Christmas -- I listen to carols in the car on the way to work and stuff. And then me and the boy went to Target (where all the good ornaments are, hee hee) and I was very happy because I saw these gingerbread house making kits! I really wanted one, but then the boy told me they were kind of sad and pathetic. Apparently his family bakes out giant sheets of gingerbread and then cuts out special shapes and make everything themselves! It's quite amazing! I really want to do that ^_^. But I don't think I or my small oven/kitchen are up to the task.
It's just all so new and nifty! Everytime the holiday season really got kicking around college, it'd be break, and I'd go home to Taiwan. And here there's carolling! People from the community came into the bookstore yesterday and starting carolling at the register! So cool! I really wanted to join them and parade around downtown and sing carols, but I was really hungry and the boy was at home waiting for me to have dinner. And people actually do things like turkey dinners and gingerbread and candy canes! In Taiwan, it used to be impossible to get candy canes. We'd have dads going to America on business trips buy stuff for us and lucky kids would pass them around in school. We had school all of December except Christmas Day, because that was Taiwan's Constitution Day. Now I don't think anyone gets it off anymore. But you can buy candy canes now! Still impossible to find glass ornaments though.
The only thing that's really missing here is the snow, but I don't really mind that because I already did my "wow first snow seen in eight years" dance back in college (technically I saw some the year before when we visited Hokkaido, but it wasn't the first snowfall of the year. That always has a very different feel).
Oh! And maybe I will watch It's a Wonderful Life for the very first time! Wow! It'll be so traditional and American!
I have lots of fun doing American things (despite having some problems with the country's foreign policy), like eating meatloaf for the first time ever and going to Rockefeller center. It's fun because even though I was raised here, I never did those things because my parents were trying to keep with Taiwan/Chinese traditions. And that's great too because I get to celebrate Chinese New Year's and the Dragon Boat Festival and eat tang yuan (sticky rice balls filled with peanut paste or sesame paste, sweetened, and boiled, very good) for winter solstice. I like local customs. They are quite fun. So looking forward to my first real American Christmas!
I just realized I've started thinking of myself as belonging to this place. Not sure if it's home yet, because while I definitely belonged to my college, it wasn't the same in my heart as Taiwan. But I was shelving this book on the culture of the Silicon Valley and found myself thinking, "Hey! It's about me!" Except it's not, because I just moved here! Funny.
The boy still has to make s'mores with me because I've never done that either.
I continue to be all excited about Christmas -- I listen to carols in the car on the way to work and stuff. And then me and the boy went to Target (where all the good ornaments are, hee hee) and I was very happy because I saw these gingerbread house making kits! I really wanted one, but then the boy told me they were kind of sad and pathetic. Apparently his family bakes out giant sheets of gingerbread and then cuts out special shapes and make everything themselves! It's quite amazing! I really want to do that ^_^. But I don't think I or my small oven/kitchen are up to the task.
It's just all so new and nifty! Everytime the holiday season really got kicking around college, it'd be break, and I'd go home to Taiwan. And here there's carolling! People from the community came into the bookstore yesterday and starting carolling at the register! So cool! I really wanted to join them and parade around downtown and sing carols, but I was really hungry and the boy was at home waiting for me to have dinner. And people actually do things like turkey dinners and gingerbread and candy canes! In Taiwan, it used to be impossible to get candy canes. We'd have dads going to America on business trips buy stuff for us and lucky kids would pass them around in school. We had school all of December except Christmas Day, because that was Taiwan's Constitution Day. Now I don't think anyone gets it off anymore. But you can buy candy canes now! Still impossible to find glass ornaments though.
The only thing that's really missing here is the snow, but I don't really mind that because I already did my "wow first snow seen in eight years" dance back in college (technically I saw some the year before when we visited Hokkaido, but it wasn't the first snowfall of the year. That always has a very different feel).
Oh! And maybe I will watch It's a Wonderful Life for the very first time! Wow! It'll be so traditional and American!
I have lots of fun doing American things (despite having some problems with the country's foreign policy), like eating meatloaf for the first time ever and going to Rockefeller center. It's fun because even though I was raised here, I never did those things because my parents were trying to keep with Taiwan/Chinese traditions. And that's great too because I get to celebrate Chinese New Year's and the Dragon Boat Festival and eat tang yuan (sticky rice balls filled with peanut paste or sesame paste, sweetened, and boiled, very good) for winter solstice. I like local customs. They are quite fun. So looking forward to my first real American Christmas!
I just realized I've started thinking of myself as belonging to this place. Not sure if it's home yet, because while I definitely belonged to my college, it wasn't the same in my heart as Taiwan. But I was shelving this book on the culture of the Silicon Valley and found myself thinking, "Hey! It's about me!" Except it's not, because I just moved here! Funny.
The boy still has to make s'mores with me because I've never done that either.