sophia’s travel by night

"Typhoon Talim, with gusts near the center up to 227 kph (141 mph), made landfall just to the east of the capital Taipei in the early hours of Thursday and was bringing strong winds and rains to the island's northeast..." —cnn... well, i'm just glad the storm isn't so bad around me that i can't get online n watch tv, etc. cuz ther's def no way outta here. homebound for today at least. hv not experienced a typhoon in many years. so in the meantime, i will try to update my blog...

couple of days ago, my dad's autobiography was published in taiwan. it has been a dream of his to write a book on his life and his work as a doctor. his life's journey thru his contact with people and patience, thru his medicine and philosphy. his introspection n retrospect while living the present. a combination of balance of energy, meditation, etc. the writer he hired to edit his words is amazing, because sometimes, he speaks in very philisophical terms tht most of us, who has basic understanding of the language can't grasp. it was a very good press conference. very good turnout of ppl. tho i'm a little disappointed at the ppl here in taiwan. their belief tht chinese medicine, a tradition with a history of 5000 yrs, cannot b as important as or relevant as western medicine, which, i must add, is still in its cradles. they're highly skeptical of the USC research results of our liver pill supplement. case histories to prove. but o well. it'll b a long time b4 pp...

so, i wnt to a roommate interview the nite b4 i took off to taiwan. i didn't think i wd get the space, but i did!!!! so i'm now moving into a new space, somewhere i've been wanting to live. it's within walking distance to THE GROVE in los angeles. almost west hollywood, but not quite. it's a very quiet neighborhood. i'll b living w/3 other prof girls around the same age group. it's rent controlled space, so my rent (430) didn't go up at all moving into this awesome spanish style duplex! and i'll b fairly close to K-town... yummy! can't wait! i wish i'd taken a foto of it to post... but click on the title above n u'll get the link to the grove to chk out wht i'm talking about!

photo comment, the beach view is of DaShi. the guy is my friend Neil. my little god-daughter/ niece (rene) and myself... here i am in taipei... well, currently, i'm in taipei county, at my parents' mountain home (neihu). spent the day in DaShi (northeastern coast of the island, by the beach) anywher u go at this point, i guess, can b said to b hot n muggy. even at nite time, ther's no cool-down. u can just sit ther in the shade and sweat like nobody's business... which in turn attracts all these mosquito to bite me! alrdy got quite a few annoying bites to prove. however, neil's beach house in DaShi had a really nice face-lift on the rooftop deck area. they did a really really nice job, it feels like we r ready to throw a nice weekend beach party soon. once the rains stop. the waters were too flat to go surf in today, so no one wanted to go. i was totally fine by it, cuz it's way too hot n sticky to go out ther. and the sand sticks to ur skin like glue here. u do...

i can't believe another month has passed! and i'm just about to update my blog.... i'm packing again to go taipei, work on the anual lunar calender project for my family. next year will be the DOG year! whenever i start a project like this, the depressing thought is, my birthday is near... i will b 36!!!! and the year will soon b over! it's time for being retrospective n introspective. no good. well, i finally started sorting thru my travel fotos... but ther's way too much, i will just post this one first. it's of mark & shinae, 2 of the ppl i traveled with on this trip thru europe. this was taken one sat morning (really hot morning, late moring) in vienna. and here's me towards the end of the trip staying at Garrett's place w/his cute little family in LONDON. ------------ dude! i hv way too much stuff! too much clothing! too much dust! need to cut back. ------------ anyways. this time i will b in taiwan til october, coming back just in time for the ...