life's adventures lately

it's pouring rain today in Taipei, and so I find myself inside the apartment and sitting in front of my computer. I've been pretty absent from the internet lately. no particular earth-shattering reason why: I just wanted a break and realized I could take one.

so here's what's been happening...

Taiwan elected its first female president

America isn't the only country with a potentially course-changing election happening in 2016. last weekend, Taiwan elected Tsai Ing-wen as their next president. she is a highly educated, multi-lingual cat lover who was highly supported by Taiwan's youth. this article gives you a brief idea of what she's about, while the New Yorker discusses more about how this could effect the country's future. I can't claim to be the most informed about the political situation here, but I'm interested to see how this turns out.

editing my book manuscript

remember way back in fall of 2013 when I decided to write a book? it took about 8 months of writing to get me to a very rough rough draft. I took a break before printing and reading it through for edits in summer 2014, slowly started making my edits and gave a portion to a friend for her notes that Christmas. in the spring of 2015 I started rewriting things into past tense. which first involved rearranging and gutting the first third of my manuscript. by the time I finished that and got to the actual changing of tenses it was so painful I had to take a break. I went back to it - maybe twice - last fall but I really wasn't ready to pick it back up until a few weeks ago.

right now I'm about 18,000 words into the revisions. sometimes that feels like I'm not very far at all. but looking back over what else has happened while I wrote this book - all the visitors we've had, keeping up with the blog and the teaching I did, moving to Taipei, traveling for nearly 3 months of every year - it's actually pretty damn impressive. and when I sat down at the beginning of this year to read through what I had already revised, I felt really proud of what I have written.

exploring around Taipei

before Anna [of Slightly Astray] left for Malaysia, we managed to have a few adorable adventures together - including the Taipei Zoo, a Disney Tsum Tsum exhibit, and a cat cafe. my friend Sharon took me to the historic Dihua Street, where all the shops are setting up for Chinese New Year. [and where delicious peanut-covered mochi balls can be found.] I met another expat downtown in Ximen to walk around and chat while drinking coffee, and have made habits of biking around our neighborhood, shopping at the local market for produce, and mid-week pho lunches with another friend.

planning travels for 2016

it's the time of year where everyone is talking about travel plans... and while I'm not quite ready to reveal everything yet, we've been making steps. a lot of this involves the least fun part of travel planning: making a budget. when I heard how gas prices have been dropping, I thought we would luck out on plane tickets... but no.

one thing I can say is that I won't be heading back to the states this summer. [I know that makes certain of you very sad - and me too.] but after three years of not planning to go back and somehow ending up in the US for a month or three each summer, I'm at a 99% confidence level that this will be the year it doesn't happen. but what Husband and I are trying to plan for instead should be pretty awesome.

what have you been up to lately?

what we did wrong on our trip to Singapore [and why it felt so right]

do you ever feel pressured to do-see-eat-go everywhere when you're on vacation? maybe it's the travel blogger curse, but sometimes I think people have developed a prejudice against vacations that actually feel like a vacation. we want to get our money's worth, not waste our time, and immerse ourselves in the culture we are visiting. those are all great aspects of travel. but from time to time I just want a vacation, you know? eat good food, get a tan, have some fun and then put my feet up.

Husband and I visited Singapore over Christmas break, and we barely touched what's on most travelers' must-see lists. we didn't see the Merlion fountain, ride the Singapore Flyer, or visit Chinatown. we skipped the night safari and strolling through any of the famous gardens. and perhaps what most would consider our greatest offense: we didn't. even. set foot. inside a hawker stall.

gasp in horror and shut your laptop if you must, but we still accomplished everything we wanted to. maybe this is a weird way to tell you our itinerary. I just feel like there's still value in doing your own thing on a trip, rather than what people expect of you. even if you do encounter a judgmental "I can't believe you went to X without doing Y!" when you get home.

where we stayed in Singapore

like I said, our main goal in visiting Singapore was to relax. with this in mind we decided to splurge a little when it came to our lodgings. some friends of ours like to tell the story of how, during their 3-month budget backpacking trip through Asia, they spent Christmas in Singapore. this story involves a $10 per night hostel where a crew of Germans kept them awake until 4am by watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre clad only in their whitey-tighties. obviously that was not the experience we were looking for.

our first few nights were spent in a quirky boutique hotel called Wanderlust, set in the heart of Little India. each of the rooms is themed by color and song - we were in the Yellow Submarine. while it wasn't the most convenient location for exploring the whole city, it put us near some delicious Indian food [most notably Lagnaa Barefoot Dining] and lots of photo opportunities.

we then relocated the the surfboard, aka the Marina Bay Sands. in my research on Singapore I found extremely conflicting opinions about this place. budget-minded travelers call it a waste of money to stay there since you can visit the skypark separately, but everyone else has the rooftop infinity pool on their bucket list. I can understand why it doesn't make sense to stay here when your main goal is to explore the city. but for us - and our plan to spend all of Christmas Day lounging at said rooftop pool - it was perfect.

what we ate in Singapore

ask anyone what you should eat in Singapore and they will tell you: chili crab and chicken rice. the hawker stalls are famous for cheap and delicious local delicacies. but thanks to my abundance of food allergies, we skipped that. instead, we gorged ourselves in Little India and hunted down foods that we can't find in Taiwan. this included British breakfasts, a fancy Christmas Eve dinner at one of Mario Batali's restaurants [Osteria Mozza] and several meals at Sacha & Sons New York Deli. if you question this decision I have 3 words for you: pastrami. latkes. hollandaise. [also I totally failed on food photos, but my poolside Christmas drink was both delicious and festive.]

what we saw in Singapore

though we skipped many "major attractions" we did a lot of walking around the city - through Little India, Arab Street and Haji Lane, Emerald Hill and Orchard Road. we visited the Asian Civilizations Museum which Husband really enjoyed [he is a history teacher after all] and I was happy just about anywhere, drooling over the colonial architecture.

the view from our hotel room was as close to the famous Gardens by the Bay that we got. we intended to go wander on the night of Christmas, since there was a special holiday light and music thing happening. but after swimming through the crowds exiting the MRT, we realized that pretty much every other person in Singapore had the same idea. so we didn't.

honestly, we spent a lot of time at the pool. I didn't even take "real blogger" photos to document everything. [I do have a hundred pool selfies on my phone though, and a dozen instax photos.] I may not have had a vacation that lends itself to informative blog post writing, but it was just how we wanted to spend our holiday... so I'm happy with it.

don't worry too much though. I did take some photos, mostly of the gorgeous buildings. and you'll be seeing those later. hope you all had a lovely holiday, I certainly did!