i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

I feel like it's been a while since I blogged anything of much substance... it's a little hard when one's constantly on the go (and I've missed that hustle and bustle). I'm sure I'll get back to your regularly scheduled post-college angst soon. ;) Just kidding. I hope I get over that emo nonsense once and for all. 2009 shall see a new, grown-up Kat! (HAHAHA)

I leave for the States (I typed "home") tomorrow night, so... sigh, I'm going to miss these kids boys MEN. Benj, we missed you around. :\ I keep remembering all these childhood jokes ("You must go UP!", "Huddle close to get warmth", "Bai-jee-lah, bai-jee-lah, huhuhu, bai-jee-lah") that the boys don't know. :\

In the meantime, here's a small glimpse of everyday life. I promised the boys a "date" day when they came home... the only small hitch in the plan was that we live out in the boonies (and Mom/Dad won't let me drive without that international permit, grr) so no problem, Mum came along.

Thanks, Jon, for taking a lot of these pictures. (So nice to have a photographer brother... I actually get to be in some pictures! Which was the whole reason I took up photography in the first place... yes, very shallow)

You can often find a bunch of us curled up on the sofa, reading/doing our own things. Here Tim's reading Eragon, Mom's highlighting every other verse in her Bible (I tease her about it a lot - the whole thing is a mass of colored lines), and I'm typing up quotes from the Golden Compass series. (In recent reading news, I finished [re-]reading Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte today. I'll post about that if I get some time)

My dad really hates it when I stick my tongue out in pictures... I've been doing it all vacation to bug him. :D I think I passed it on. ^_^

Mum very kindly drove us downtown today. She hates it when she sees my camera around, so she always screws up her face a little bit. Poor thing should just not resist me. ;) (Yes, my parents should not have to worry about their nearly 24-year-old daughter being the worst kid in the family... but whatcha gonna do...)

iPodding it up

Mom and her babies! Not so baby any more. Ummmm... I think my recent pics haven't been very flattering to Mum of late. Sorry, Mommy. I love you. (Hsinchu wind is not kind to people with our kind of poofy hair)

Sorry if you didn't want to see the inside of my mouth. Should I have focused on the car wheel instead?

Totally random, but I ran into Nancy's uncle here today. O_O I've been to this restaurant about 8 times during my time here. Considering the fact that I've maybe spent 18 days' total time in Hsinchu (the rest in Taipei), that's pretty amazing. It's all-you-can-eat individual hotpot, which is basically...

...Each person gets a small pot of soup stock, a plate for veggies (to be collected at the cold produce section), a bowl for sauces (self-mixed, also at the cold produce area), and an unlimited supply of meats, dumplings, tofu, etc. to add to their hotpot. It comes along on that revolving bar toward the right of this picture... unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight to take this picture when there was actual food coming our way (since I was busy trying to capture the ambiance while waiting to eat). Total price per person? $7.50 U.S. Now do you blame me for coming here so often? :D (It's turned to envy, hasn't it? That's right - eat your heart out)

I think Jon looks super handsome in this candid.

I really like this picture. :P Ahhhh, my baby brother shouldn't be big enough to piggy-back me around!!

We do kinda look alike from the back, eh? At least in a fraternal twinsy kinda way. I think it's the emo hair.

Here we're being menacing toward Mom. Unsuccessfully. I like how happy we all look. We had a really fun time giggling and listening to various jokes in the car. (Mom: "Is this joke any good? Tim: "Well, I find it quite entertaining.")

I'm teaching Jon my favorite window/mirror/touristy self-portrait trick. :P



We ran into Christine and Kevin in the department store.

Camera fun in the elevator

Then I took the boys to take sticker pictures with me. I kinda thought it would be fun (for me) and a good opportunity to torture them (since, uh, it's kind of a girly pursuit). I won't say that we turned out any amazing art, but it was good sibling bonding...?

We accidentally chose to print them out really tiny, so they're a bit hard to see clearly. :|

But I took pictures of the pics with my 30D, 'cuz... what else is $2000 worth of camera gear for, anyway? ;p

Hanging out with my brothers is really fun and a little bit strange. When they're goofy, they do the same kinds of silly things I do, so it's a very little bit like catching a glimpse of myself in a mirror out of the corner of my eye. I love them.

Left-to-right... first pic: I like how I stick out my tongue, and one brother thoughtfully adds cartoon "poop" near my face, while the other one writes, "Daddy won't like" (as mentioned before, Dad hates the tongue sticking out).

Second pic: Next, they try to obliterate my face. Fantastic. ^_^

Third pic: I wrote "Fan Burger" on the top of the cartoon image and "I eat pigs" "on" Timmy's shirt. Jon drew gas coming away from me and "Don't fart" on the bottom with a little skull. And Timmy wrote something obscure on Jon. "Watch out for ....???"

And this was an extra-long image... Jon thoughtfully added centimeter heights to, uh, point out how I'm definitely the shortest one now. >:\ :P

Please note how excited they are to doodle on me. Well, that's a relief - I was worried that they'd merely tolerate their crazy sister's feminine pursuits. (They do despise my shopping, so I'm glad I do it when they're not around)

Okay, good night/morning/Boxing Day! :P

Farewell pic: I have blue hair under bright light.

And a duckbill under duress*.
*interpreted loosely as "Any situation in which I feel pressured to behave a certain way."

And this is what your face sees a split second before I plant a wet one on you. Mwahaha.