Some friends of mine and I are starting this new little project, called the unsettled. So, check it out from time to time. It's starting off pretty slow, but it will be picking up more and more in the coming weeks and months.....

This blog has moved to The Only Redhead in Taiwan.

Well, as a little gift for not writing for a while, I'll give you guys this. Fanfan showed me these videos recently, and, though I can't understand a word of what's being said, I think they're hilarious.

Fanfan, while not translating the songs for me in their entirety, she explained some of the lyrics, which are pretty funny as well. Things like, "I thought I was a good dancin' man, until this woman came and out-danced me" (She explained it in French, that's my loose english translation). I don't know what he's talking about though, this guy dances more than anyone else in the videos, which is the funniest part of the videos.

Also, if someone knows where these videos came from, I'd love to know. They're all under the tag "山歌" ("Mountain Song," if I'm not mistaken). I thought they were old videos, but Fanfan told me they were new. In any case, I hope they're old. If not, that shatters some images I had of a progressive China that is surging forward.

Then again, perhaps it's a sign of how far they had to go.

One last thing, for those Chinese that may be reading this and thinking, because Fanfan is Taiwanese and I'm American, that we're insulting China, we're not. Well, we are making fun of Chinese music videos, but that has nothing to do with our views on China. The first time I saw these videos, in fact, it was with Chinese students here in Paris who found them just as funny as Fanfan and I did.

I just want to be clear about that. We spend most of our time with Taiwanese and Chinese students here.



















Technorati tags:Funny, Taiwan, China, Music, Video, viral

I know it's been a long time since I've written anything, but it's been hectic. First of all, we changed internet servers, which, in France, takes weeks (three to be exact). Now, it's the end of the semester. Fanfan's finishing up at school, and she's gotten an internship working at Ultra Peau. As for me, I've been writing discertations and preparing presentations.

We'll both be finished with school at the end of the month. After, we'll have about a month and a half left until we both go home. This is assuming that our next trip to that god-awful, hell-hole (the Paris prefecture) goes well. We'll see at the end of this week....

I just wanted to mention that if anyone reading this blog knows could help me get a job in Taiwan, I'm planning on coming in September. I've already started applying for teaching jobs, but I've heard a lot of what concerns getting a good teaching job in Taiwan relies on connections. If anyone's got 'em and wants to hook me up, I'd be forever grateful.

That's all for now. Have a good one.

Technorati tags:Paris, Taiwan, life, relationships, Love, teach, Women

My lady bends light and time

Like blades of grass under bare feet

She reaches through

And fixes in me what was badly made

Stringing days on fishing line

To save for me like pictures that never fade

My love drowns oceans

And slows planets down

In quick glances and bows

She warms the cold places in me

And shades me from the heat

When soft is want she is soft found

And sturdy when I’m falling down

My darling holds atoms intact

And rubs borders off maps

She lullabies and hums

Runs from my one idea

To the next

As they escape

She ties them around her waist

And lets them spin a tidy revolution

Anchored by her

She doesn’t even know it

Technorati tags:love, poem, life, relationships, Love, Poetry, Women

One of the best examples that exists about how similar cultures are is the tendance of a woman to want to shop. I'm sorry if that sounds sexist, but to me it has a ring of similarity. The only thing that my parents ever really fought about when I was a kid (my father was working two jobs, and my mom was/is a school teach, which doesn't pay much) was my mom sneaking a dress or a new pair of shoes onto the credit card bill.

To her defense, the only reason her spending seemed exhorbitant was the fact that my father is the most frugal person on the planet. He can't even buy a pack of gum without checking consumer reports, internet forums on gum products, and asking the company for a test pack first.

Yesterday, Fanfan came home from the bank with a new necklace and two new bracelets from H&M. When she saw my grimace that said, "Ma petite, we've got no money to be spending on things we don't need," she frowned cutely and said, "But, I was feeling sad about always paying bills. I was frustrated. I hate paying bills. I wanted to show myself that all of my money isn't just going to bills." I wish there was some way to convey to you the immeasurable cuteness she is able to display when she says things like this.

And yes, "cuteness" is the only word for it. It's like when Dana Carvey talked about his son asking if God has feet and getting weak in the knees from the cuteness. All I can do is laugh when she does it. She has the most disarming goddamn cuteness. That's all I can say.

"T'es faché?" she asked me.

I told that there wasn't any chance I could be mad at someone so incredibly cute, and she was lucky for that.

Her face lit up, "Ils sont jolies, n'est pas?" she said, jingling the necklace and holding up her wrist for me to look at the bracelets.

I just laughed and went back to doing the dishes.


Technorati tags:love, culture, life, relationships, Love, Taiwan, Women, Shopping

Lumi made this dress for Fanfan for the Chinese New Year.

I'm not lying or exaggerating when I say that I believe she's the most beautiful girl in the world.

The letter I put in the first post, where I told Fanfan that I would come to Paris to play a song for her, that deserves a bit of an explanation, I guess.

You see, one night, we had been talking, and I had written a song for her. We got on Skype so that she could hear it, but the connection was bad. After several time trying to connect, the internet went out completely.

That was always a reminder of how fragile our relationship was. Not to be melodramatic, it's true. Our relationship relied completely on technology. If one day, a solar flare had wiped out all electronic devices, Fanfan and I would have lost each other, all of our letters to one another, and all of our photos. In a sense, none of our relationship exists exept on lines of 1's and 0's.

Like the song.

Here it is...