@ Kita : Phew, thank goodness then. xDD;; *hugglesquishes*

I haven't seen you in a while either too, you know! =O <3<3 I've just been busy with school lately. ^^;; How are you anyway? :'D <3<3


@ Rannie : Yes, really. :> Since eyesight doesn't get better in time as it only stays the same and just degrades, I'm probably gonna use glasses when I'm older, and I sure as hell want to look good in them if it's the inevitable. >.>;; Although, like you, I'm clinging onto the no-glasses thing for as long as I can. xDD;; <3<3

Ohh, same here. D: Although, I'm afraid to report that I'm not a natural cook at all. ;_; Here's to hoping you're not like me then, so you can accomplish your goal~ =P <3<3
And, umm... search for it? 8DD;; LOLOLZ. xDD;; I'll send you a link or a piccie next time. Currently doing some research on one of our local newspapers for a short paper due on Tuesday. D: </3
And hmm, not sure I know of that kind, although I may be more familiar with the name of the dish instead of what it's made of. ^^;; Sounds good though~ :3 And what's Taiwanese sausage like? =O Is it different from normal sausages? o_O;;

Lolz. xDD;; Well, we can stick to affordable then. 8DD;; <3<3

Haha, maybe. 8DD;; But, it can't all be her doing, right? =O I mean, that's sorta impossible in my book, for someone to adhere to his/her horoscope too closely. xDD;;

Hmm, in all honesty, I only have this very small and vague idea of how Van Gogh relates to our primal nature in art. xDD;; Care to explain, if it isn't so much to ask? =)

Oohh, we're exactly the same then. =O I love finding out about hidden meanings in things, because to me that gives something a lot more depth and all. ^^;; But you're right about simplicity. :> Sometimes I wish I can just take things at face-value more often though. :< Simplicity is one of the things I wish I could cherish more than I do now. ^^;;

OMG, that could be it!! =O
Genius. xDD;; I so didn't think of it that way. 8DDD;;

Well, competitiveness in my brother's and my case can be problematic indeed. xDD;; But you're right though. :>
And ohh, is it from your end or from hers? xDD;;

You should totally give it a read! :> It's a light and short novel, so you shouldn't take long at all in finishing it. :3 It's a nice break in between heavy novels, I think. :3 And phew, glad I didn't confuse you then. 8DD;;

Your weather there right now is like ours, I think. xDD;; It's really hot in the mornings over here, but the afternoons and nights are a little cooler, and sometimes there's even some rain with that. ^^;;

OH, wait. I read that as decreased, not increased. >.>;; LOLOLZ. xDD;; My bad. ^^;;

Haha, that makes much sense~ XD

I'm sure I'd be okay at it if I had some lessons, or had someone teach me, but I've pretty much had none of that.. as of yet. XD;

Ooh, it looks yummy~ 8'D I think we have something sorta like tapa, though I'm not sure if I've ever eaten the garlic fried rice before. 8O
Aww, do you need to do a lot of research? D8
Haha, it's pretty much shredded chicken with noodles, served cold, and with umm.. 'majiang' ( I think this sauce is made from sesame oil mixed with something like peanut butter? ) Also often has small cucumber ( and sometimes carrot ) strips mixed in. owo As for the sausage.. well, I guess it's different, at least from the typical American breakfast sausages. XD; The usual cooking method is either steamed or fried, and then sliced afterward; or grilled with a stick and eaten as such, haha. Sometimes soy paste is added, but most of the time, people just eat it 'as is' after steaming/frying. XD

Well, like I said, I'm not really sure exactly how often she checks horoscopes. XD; She's only mentioned it occasionally, haha~

Van Gogh left his family and (in his mind) society behind to make what he ( and a few others ) thought to be spiritual art. He'd ventured to a French colony, its name escapes me! o.o;, and sort of watched the natives and immitated their art style. ( I don't know if you've heard of orientalism, but this sort of goes along with that. XD ) The people weren't as civilized, and seeing them as more primitive, he felt that they were closer to God. So if he lived sort of like them, and made art in their style, the art would be closer to expressing spiritual truth. ( I was tested, but I didn't completely understand this part of the semester's lessons. XD; )

Yeah, but I've noticed.. with art, it seems to bounce back and forth like waves. A time period in a certain part of the world would have a wave of really simple and to-the-point art, or a work with a simple purpose/message. After a time, people would have to add to their creativity and respond to the past art movement, so they try for more complicated art, or art with multiple/hidden meanings, or art with many goals/uses. Then after another while, people would turn to revival or more creativity and respond to the recently passed art movement with simplicity again. And the cycle would go on. XD

Success! Language barrier(-ish thing) breached! XD

Oh, so he's like, the really competitive type, huh? XD;
It depends on what's being competed. XDD

I think I read a summary for it at some point, so I got a feeling that it'd go by pretty fast, hehe~

Yeah yeah, pretty much the same. XD

Hehe, I figured as much~ X'D

Doesn't it? xDD;; I even wrote down that reason in my little book that lists stuff I wanna do before I die. ^^;; Got inspired to do it after reading about someone who did it and was able to accomplish majority of his list before he did actually die. =P <3<3

You should go and look for someone to teach you then! =O Heck, you can learn right there in Taiwan! xDD;; If you have time to do so, of course~ =P

Garlic fried rice is LOVE. :drool: Seriously, you have GOT to try it one time. =P
And yeah, I do. D: Part of being a journalism student, after all. :<
And hmm... setting aside the peanut butter bit since I am NOT fond of it at all, it does sound good. :3 And hmm, not sure I can properly visualize what you mean with how you're describing the cooking process for your sausages, but it does sound interesting, at the very least. :>

Ohh, I see. =O Well, maybe you can ask her about it sometime then when you get back to the US. 8DD;; You know, just to check... Lolz. xDD;;

Yeah, I have a vague idea on what orientalism is. ^^;; And hmm, interesting lesson! =O Thank you very much for sharing that. :3 And hmm, from the way I understand it, it's because they're more open with their emotions and don't hold back as much as "civilized" people do (what with stuff like deception and proper etiquette and etc, especially during that time =P). So, hence the more "primal" and more spiritual art, I guess. 8DD;; But that's just the first thing that comes to mind. ^^;; Dunno if that's right, of course. But again, thanks for sharing that tidbit with me. :>

And yeah, trends always end up repeating themselves as time passes on. =P This is also especially evident in the fashion industry, where trends just keep cropping up after a couple years have past. xDD;; I mean, colored skinny jeans are in again, when they were once in during the... lolz, I can't remember what era, but you know what I mean. ^^;;

And yay for this successful breaching...? xDD;; <3<3

Well, he's not competitive, per se. More like he's too proud to lose to me. xDD;; Being proud is different from being competitive, I think. ^^;;
And, well, I actually don't know what we're competing for. o_o;; I think it's prestige or something? >.>;; Like I said, it's very one-sided, so I have no real idea. xDD;;

Yeah, it will. :3 So, keep the book in mind in case you wanna read some light fiction. ^^

And ohh, glad to know we're not the only ones having very strange weather. xDD;;

Sorry again about that, btw. ^^;;

Heh~ Makes me think of A Walk to Remember. XD
But yeah.. I should probably make my own list someday. It'd be interesting to read over anyway, like when I'm feeling down about something. owo

My dad, haha. XD It was one of my goals in coming over here, to learn how to cook some dishes from my dad since he likes cooking. But lately it's just been the housemaid making the food, and a lot of times, my dad has a couple criticisms about the dishes put out on the dinner table. XDD;

It sounds yummy, hehe~ And rice in general is absolute love. X'D
Aww, I'm sorry. It tastes more like the peanut butter than the sesame oil. >O> But there's also another version of the noodles with shredded chicken. It's either with sesame oil, or something close to soy sauce. But it's basically the same thing with different sauces. XD
Haha, one version looks pretty much like hotdog on a stick, without the buns; but it's grilled. XD The other version is just to steam it (like in a rice cooker so you can make rice and steam the sausages at the same time 8D) and then slice it, so eat you pieces of sausages. Looking up 'Taiwanese sausages' will give you a much better visual though, haha. XDD

Haha, I guess. XD
But she'll be leaving to the Philippines the exact day, or no no, a couple days after I leave from Taiwan to the US. XDD;; But we sort of keep in touch anyway. My sister's been hogging the ethernet cable since she's got here, so I mostly just go on Gaia and here on my dad's laptop.. no msn, no emails, and the other avi site I'm on. DX

You can put it that way, haha~ 8D
The thing is, the place that I can think of the name of, was a French colony by that time, and a lot of the people have already been erm.. introduced to the more civilized ways of the Frenchmen. Very few of the more native.. "primal" people were still around, and I highly doubt Van Gogh met with those people, much less communicated with them. So him and a couple other primitivists painted the natives in a way that they saw them (or the way they wanted to see them), if that makes sense. XD; And that's kinda where orientalism comes in, cuz people weren't painting the 'orients' as they were at that time, but more in their fantasized view, equating orients with qualities like 'savage', 'violent', 'exotic'.

Yeah, it just reminded me of fashion too, haha, after I posted~
And I noticed that skinny jeans were being talked about in the 3-item challenge thread. XDD

Indeed? XDD

So, he's like, younger than you by one or two years? 8O
My "it depends" part was in response to your "is it from your end or from hers" question. XD
But I do understand how you feel, haha~ XD

Yup~ And so I will. 8D

Haha, I think a lot of places have weird weather all the time. XD
But we are pretty close, so it makes sense for the weather to be similar here and there. owo

It's okay, I'm pretty sure I've had that happen a couple times, if not more. XD

Lura:: Yeah, it was probably in my exchange thread. -nod-
Yeah, its totally great. I can't wait to draw again. ^^
Yeah, I got a new keyboard too, its really nice. ^^

RyRy:: -is hugglesquished- <333
No, I haven't been around very much lately, I haven't been very happy.
And then, Sunday I did something really stupid and now I'm sick. I really need to talk to Gabby, but he isn't online very much. :(
Anyway, I hope you're having a good summer??

Lura~ Hiii!

Your coffee avvie looks so cute. owo

Good luck. <3

Kita - Can't wait to see more art from you~ 8'3
And yay for new keyboard. ^o^

Rain - Thankies~
And good luck with your purple items quest! 8D

Thank yooou~ ^^ *bounces around*

Ooh, I see a couple new items~
Those umbrellas are so cute. X'3

My friend just gifted it to me. owo I went all *faint* All I know that they are very expensive. owo But ain't it jsut so cuuute? *dies and huggles it*

And it protects my slightly vampiric eyes from sunlight~ *shot*

Heh, they are sort of expensive. It's very nice of your friend to gift it to you. 8'3

Slightly vampiric? XD

I know. owo She must have loved the bunnies I gave her. owo *hugs her umbrella moar*

And, yeah... I am extremely pale... My eyes have developed allergy to sunlight (Save meh, oh sunglasses!), I love night far more than day and usually stay up until the sun rises... I don't like but don't either dislike taste of blood... I storngly dislike meat, though. >< And love silver more than gold.

So, all in all, I have deemed my self a half-vampire or something like that. lol

Bunnies? XD

Haha, an interesting tidbit to have now known about you. XD
Is the allergy something you were sort of born with that just grew more affected over the years? Or is it something developed through environmental conditions or whatever?
Do you get a lot of sunlight in Latvia? ^ ^;

Hey Rannie, I'll reply to your text wall some other time, since I'm still not 100% well and I don't feel particularly up to a textwall as I'm kinda tired. ^^;; <3<3
I'll do it on my next post though!! =O <3<3
*hugglesquishes*


And Kita, I hope you get better soon! =O Coming from someone who's been sick the later part of this week, I know how it feels. ;_; </3
And, well, it's not summer for me right now. ^^;; It's currently the rainy season~ =P <3<3

That's perfectly fine, I don't want you to force yourself, hehe. 8'3 But it's good to hear that you've gotten much better now, so I think I remember from your post in your thread, I think something about 80% recovered? 8D
*hugglesquishiesback-but-not-so-hard-that-it-would-hurt* X'3 <3

Heh, we've started getting rain again here too. XD


Ah! And happy early birthday if I don't get a chance to say it on the 7th! X'3

AHH, I know I said I would reply in this next post, but I dunno, I sort of don't "feel" that last text wall anymore. >.>;; I don't really understand why. D: I'm so sorry! ;_;

We could... start a new one though? xDD;;
I think I need to start over so I can get the hang of text-walling again. 8DD;;
All these days of not posting on Mene has gotten me rusty. >.>;;
Sorry again. :x

Haha, that's okay~
I think most of them were close to ending anyway. owo

How's school been so far? 8O

And, you're feeling better now, yes? 8'3

I guess. xDD;;
We need new stuff to talk about. 8DD;;

And school? =O It's been hectic. @[email protected];; A combination of my classes and the organization I joined makes for a very busy schedule. >.>;; Especially since this July is my organization's month, so, we're all scrambling around and trying to get things done. ^^;; It's my first semester since applying though, so I'm very excited about what we're doing, despite the stress and everything. xDD;; I love my organization. <3<3

And yeah, thankfully. :3
Although, my teachers for my classes last Friday and Saturday were all sick with the flu, so, I have a four-day weekend! xDD;;
I haven't had one in FOREVER, so it's really cool. :'D <3<3 Even though I should be sad that they're sick. ^^;;
It's Sunday now though, so, two days of my rest days have gone by. D: Meaning that since I haven't been doing anything the past two days, I have to start cramming shizz today. >.>;; </3

How has your time in Taiwan been so far? :> <3<3

Haha~

Ahh, I remember hearing about the July month thing, I think. 8O
It's good that you've become part of something you'll love~ ^w^

Awesome in the sense that you get a long weekend! But I'd feel bad about the teachers that got sick. XD;
Ah, hope the cramming wasn't too bad! XD;

Pretty fun. owo
All the stuff we really wanted to do now has been done, so it's back to relaxation time,
until we go back on the 24th, and then I can catch up with all my American buddies~ X'D

Yeah, I probably have mentioned it before. ^^;; Can't remember when and where though. xDD;;
And yeah, it's definitely cool to be a part of something you love. :3
The people there are really fun, but definitely very responsible too. They take what our organization stands for seriously, so it helps a lot with the productive and friendly atmosphere we're known for. :3

Yeah. :< But you know, we had no class today either because of some storm. xDD;; Ahh, typhoon season indeed. ^^;;
And lolz, cramming will always be bad, but I've gotten so used to it that I'm almost immune to it. 8DD;;

Oohh, relaxation time is good~ :3 What have you guys done lately though? =) <3<3
And yeah, that'd be awesome. :'D Catching up with friends is always a nice thing indeed. ^^

To refresh my memory, what is it that the organization stands for? 8'O

Must be the one that's coming to us soon, haha.
XD; Are you the type to drink lots of coffee during these cramming sessions? >w>

Just shopping, and some more eating with relatives we haven't seen in a while. XD
Yup~ Especially with a group of like 3-4 friends. owo

We promote the effective use of mass communication and media to the public, to put it all simply. ^^ Since media is a very important tool here in the Philippines and all. :3 <3<3

LOLZ. xDD;; Maybe. :x I wish it doesn't hit you guys too bad then. =\

And actually, no. xDD;; I started drinking coffee real young, so now it doesn't affect me or help me stay awake. >.>;; Apples are what help me. xDD;; And chocolate, sometimes. :3 It all depends on my mood. ^^;; <3<3
What about you? =O

Oohh, that's nice to hear then. :'D <3<3
And yeah, good intimate talks are nice indeed. ^^

Heh~ What kind of things do you guys do? 8'O
Or maybe just, what have you guys been doing most recently? XD

Heh, did it hit you guys pretty badly?

Oh, I see. 8O
Haha, I eat apples a lot too! But mostly just cuz I like them, and drink lots of apple juice (or other fruit juices). XD There was a time when I used to take almost regular trips with my friends to Starbucks during high school, but once I got to college, I really haven't had that much coffee. o^o There's a popular tea place next to one of our bigger libraries, so I'd say I had tea more than I've had coffee in my three years at university so far. @[email protected] As for stuff to keep me awake, I usually just rely on my music and hope the class readings aren't boring enough to make me doze off. And sometimes I eat chips when I know I'll be staying up later than usual (leaning towards pulling an allnighter) cuz I know I'd be really hungry in the morning otherwise.. >o>;

Haha, it's just a good number of people for me I guess, helping me get even more in my comfort zone. XD

Well, one of the things we do is hold symposiums on major issues in the country. :3 This year, it's about using the media effectively on getting people to vote, as our elections for a new president are this 2010. =) Other things we do are hold media tours to major TV and radio stations and newspaper industries (we have established connections already), especially for mass communication freshmen who haven't been exposed to them yet. And, a bunch of other stuff, but I'm too lazy to list them all down. xDD;;

Yeah, actually. :x Classes were suspended last Friday for everyone, and there were a lot of flooded places everywhere. >.>;; Especially since there was another typhoon earlier this week that just left when this one came along, so, yeah, we were sorta unprepared for this new one. ^^;;

Fruits are healthy, so that's good! :'D <3<3 For some reason though, I don't really have much of a thing for apple juice. =O I love mango juice, orange juice, and four seasons a LOT though. :3 <3<3
And oohh, my Starbucks intake has increased over college, so I'm your opposite. xDD;; It was cause in high school, we weren't allowed to go out to the mall beside us and were just stuck in the buildings, so, no Starbucks for us. ;_; </3
And tea is healthier anyway. =P So, that's good? 8DD;; I'm not a tea person, personally though, although I do wish I could get into it so that I could keep my insides cleaner and stuff. xDD;;

LOLZ, don't we all wish for our class readings to not bore us to death. xDD;; I can't read properly with music though, for some reason. :x I think it's because I get into the music more than I get into reading, especially when there's a particular song I love and want to sing along to, and also when the reading is especially boring. xDD;;
And chips are awesome snacks for staying awake. xDD;; The munching helps in keeping you awake, I think. ^^;;

And that's what's important anyway, I think. :3 Although, it depends on each person, I guess. =P

Ohh, I see. 8O
Those tours sound really helpful. 83

Oh, ouch. D8
The typhoon that was making its way towards us actually swerved off towards the mainland, so it never really reached us. Sometime last week though, or like, these past few days, there were really strong winds, and the storm affected the coastline where I've heard about one surfer who had drowned, and another who had gone missing for a little bit of time, but was later found and rushed to the hospital. @^@ I haven't heard about any other deaths though, fortunately.

Ooh, mango juice is awesome! Mango slushies are even better, especially here~ X'D
Heh~ Why weren't you allowed to go to that mall in high school? D8

Yeah, that happens to me sometimes, haha. The music ends up being more a distraction than a help. XD; But then I'll get to some Japanese/Korean songs, and I guess thankfully, I don't know enough Japanese/Korean to be really distracted by the lyrics. XD
Haha, there's a scientific logic to how chips can help people stay awake? 8D

Well, I guess when the number gets bigger, it's easier to feel like umm.. I'm on the outside of the group, just for some moments at a time though, heh.