oh...

I've had a lot of those moments in the last few days. Having settled into a routine here, I now find myself with more idle time for...introspection, as toolish as that sounds.
A few things that I've learned:
1. I miss home. How did that happen? Everyone else was homesick like last week, and I was like OMG TAIWAN!!!!!!!! But I really miss my dog. Sad.
2. I think that family is what I've been missing all those years in America. Of course I had my parents, but I had grown up with extended family always around, a constant source of love, attention, and delicious food. All of that was gone once I immigrated, and even my parents were busy (working to support me). I've been much more lonely than I had ever thought myself. I only realized this because I see parents walking their kids to school, and they seem so happy and cared for. Not that I'm not cared for. I just miss those simple childhood moments that young kids are too small to appreciate.
3. I saw a grandfather sitting with his grandson feeding pigeons (and ducks and possibly an egret - there's so much wildlife in Taipei, oddly). They looked so happy, and I could tell that this would one day become one of the grandson's favorite memories, which makes me both happy and sad. Happy that he could share such a nice moment with someone who loves him so much, but also sad because he has no clue that this would be probably one of his favorite moments in the future.
Maybe I'm just nostalgic because I miss my dog.
OMG I MISS MY DOG.
Sorry. I'll stop.
4. The week has gone by so fast, again. The program's going to be over before we know it. That's both exciting and sad. Exciting - I'll get to see my dog. Sad because I'll have to leave this new home that I've found. Thus is life.


And on a NOT sappy note, mango ice is so good. My friend describes it as a shaggy dog. It kind of looks like that. And its like shaved ice, but the ice is flavored with mango. And then you can get mango on top. And its delicious.
Mmm.

Oh yea, and today I realized that I've been trying to read this sign that says in English "Please don't feed the toilet" since I arrived at ICLP. I can now read all the Chinese characters except for 2. It's taken me 3 weeks to read one sentence, but man I earned that sentence.
Sweet.