Give us this day our daily bread

Last week, the kids and I had dinner at our friend’s house where she served homemade dinner rolls.  It was delicious and inspired me to make it myself.  The recipe was easy enough except it required kneading for, get this, SIX to EIGHT MINUTES.  People, this is ridiculous.  Is this actually how breads are made…

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Scarecrow: Some People Do Go Both Ways

When you grow up, as I did, in a Taiwanese family but schooled in a Western context, you learn to cope with dissonance.  When your “village” consists of parents and teachers from dramatically different cultures, you are raised to straddle two boats  floating in different directions.  I have blogged in the past about my TCK…

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Flying Potatoes and Stained Shirts

I find potatoes extremely difficult to prepare.  I hate to claim superiority here but I have to state the facts: Rice easy.  Potatoes hard.  Potatoes take FOREVER to cook through, and they’re only good crispy yet mine always turn out soggy. This evening I tried a new recipe in which one boils the potatoes first…

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Lost in Translation

I am not a professional translator, but because I am bilingual I often have opportunities to translate.  In fact, for my job I translate our school newsletter every week to ensure both our Chinese and English readers can comprehend the information.  A rule I abide by in my translating work is to make sure I…

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My Beauty Regimen

I have never been a girly girl.  I never cared about the way I looked.  Here’s a picture of me in Middle School to prove I put little to no thought to appearances. Lovely, isn’t it?  While my girlfriends begged their moms to let them start wearing make-up, I shunned the idea of putting glob…

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For The Love of Typhoons

There are all kinds of storms brewing around us.  Typhoon Tembin has been threatening to invade our small tropical island for daaaays.  Seriously, this is the most wishy washy typhoon I’ve ever met, she looks like she’s heading this way, but then she’s taking her sweet time, giving the weather forecasters and the general public…

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Names, Numbers, Formulas

I just finished up the third week of my new job as an administrative assistant at the school.  My responsibilities include sorting through student applications, compiling lists on excel worksheets, processing information on school demographics records, pulling up attendance reports, and doing this with efficiency and accuracy.  Names, numbers, formulas. Don’t get me wrong, I…

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My Daughter and the Gilmore Girls

I know it’s totally last decade but I’ve been watching the Gilmore Girls while I exercise on my treadmill.  Some nights when Jason is working I’ll watch some episodes in bed by myself.  He won’t watch it with me, go figure.  Last night he walked in on me tearing up to Luke and Lorelai breaking…

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Boba Tea aka a High Ranking Love of My Life

Us Taiwanese have our challenges.  We cannot fly our own flag at the Olympics. We cannot grow very tall.  We cannot let go of our obsession over Hello Kitty. But we lay claim to introducing the world to the ingenious beverage that is Boba Tea. Let’s first talk origins.  Now I have personally read heartrending…

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