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August 25, 2008
this post took me over an hour to write
Okay. It's come to my attention that my Chinese characters are not being viewed properly by some browsers. The only thing I can think of to fix it is to go to your toolbar under 'view' then choose 'character encoding' and choose 'unicode.' That's on my Mac - Brian's PC isn't on so I can't look at the options for that. But it should be something very similar for PC-users. Hope that helps them look nice even if you can't read them haha
We've been making great strides here. Although I still don't have a start date for my job, Brian and I are finally taking steps in the right direction in terms of making a presence for ourselves in the Portland community.
The block party wasn't as disastrous as he made it seem (sometimes he speaks in hyperbole, as I'm sure anyone else who knows him is aware) - it was a small and relatively quiet neighborhood affair. We did meet several older folks who were very welcoming, some of whom had noticed us in the past few weeks and were quick to offer their help if we ever needed it! I've never really been very well acquainted with any neighbors of mine so I felt very grateful for that. We did meet the couple that he mentioned and chatted for a bit - they live just a handful of houses down and I think may be a bit older than us (they were married last November and I think the guy mentioned he'd been working for five years), but hopefully we can have them over for dinner sometime or something.
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this on here before, but I've joined Meetup.com which is... well... their 'about' page says it best:
Meetup is the world's largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face. More than 2,000 groups get together in local communities each day, each one with the goal of improving themselves or their communities.
I've joined several groups so far - Young Women Meeting for Friendship, Tennis Club, Book Club, and Chinese Language and Culture Group. I had my first meetup last night with the Young Women's group - about 10 new members met at a little coffee place down in Sellwood (a bit west and further south of us). I was a little shy at first - I've been a Meetup.com member since I was new to NYC but never actually made it to an event! - but soon opened up and had a lovely time chatting with the other women and getting to know them.
They're actually having a really cool event in mid-September... it's called 'Swift Watch' and something that I'm sure Wendy et al will be very interested to learn about (if you don't already know!). Every fall a huge group of Vaux Swifts make the chimney of a school in the NW quarter their temporary home before their migrate south for the winter, and in the evenings they swirl around the school and chimney for about an hour before settling into the chimney for bedtime. It's a huge family and community event, and I'll be bringing Brian along to the meetup. You can learn more here.
On top of that Brian's made some mountain biking buddies already - every time he's out riding he runs into someone and they make instant friends! I think I'll feel a lot better knowing he won't be hurtling down narrow trails by himself, and I think you'll all be a little more at ease too.
And the most exciting news I have for today is that I have finally learned how to stop on my bike without falling. Yes, at the tender young age of 25 I have conquered my fears of toppling over on my full-size big girl bike without having the seat lower than it rightfully should be. I'll spare you the gory details that brought me to this point but suffice it to say that it involved considerable tears, circling around a grassy park, and buckets of patience from Brian. (Mom and Dad... think of that video of me on the slide in Chicago. That's pretty much what it was like.) I went out for a little ride today on my own and did very well with the stopping, and I'm quite proud of myself.
爸媽：我終於學了怎糜用中文打字！：）我作天晚上夢見（不知道’見‘用得對不對）我回家了，而我們全家在紐約玩，但是當您們要送我回去時，我突然發覺我在 Brooklyn 沒有家了！ 但是我不可能叫爸爸開車送我回 Portland ﹣ 怎糜辦？！我沒計畫坐飛機，沒買票，而且先在也沒錢，只好讓您們帶我回 New Jersey 了。在那時候我才醒過來，發覺還好我還在我的新方間呢！我最近作了很多怪夢，原應大概是睡太多覺，一定要趕快開始上班了！！！
我也想真心得謝謝您們幫我過這些日子 ﹣ 我知道您們借我的錢不是很容已拿來的。我會努力得作工，存錢，慢慢得還您們這些錢。（希望可以 ‘快快’ 得，但是我不要給您們 'false hope' - ha!)
好了，柏安下辦回來了，我們要去買菜！希望我的中文沒太糟糕！：）
Okay we're off to Trader Joe's. Yay!!
posted by karel at 5:28 PM
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5 Comments:
all i see are symbols for the chinese characters...just so you know. could be my comp, but i usually can see mom and dad's comments pretty well.
哇！太讓我們驚奇了，妳居然用中文寫妳的部落格短文，雖然有不少錯字，但是寫得還滿通順的呢！
（我會訂正那些錯字，然後寄“伊媚兒”給妳）
妳會作回家的夢，表示妳在想家了！就像我不久前曾夢見妳一樣，我真得很想妳！
妳能克服恐懼而學會騎腳踏車，真以妳為傲！
我們也希望妳可以“快快地”上班，努力地工作；至於要不要“快快地”還錢，就讓妳自己決定了喔！﹕）
天氣漸漸涼了，多保重！
恭喜你能騎腳踏車而不再摔倒！ 豐富的經驗是信心的基礎；經驗是不斷地努力與練習累積的。相信自己就可以讓你有力量努力不斷。加油！
錢是賺來不容易，所以更要好好計劃和運用。
Hooray for the biking feat! The Swift Watch should be fun and I know Brian will take pictures to share. Yes, I always felt better when he was biking with others in case of any emergencies...the ER here has a room saved for us (mostly Chris). That is good that you are getting out and meeting people. Sounds like a great site, meetup.com. Hope you get word on starting your job soon.
Donna
"柏安下辦回來了"
HAHHAA!!!
It's like Engrish, but the other way around.
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