Fri 10/11/02       Lunch Conversations and A Great Find

            Finally ate at the famous Grandma Nitti’s, known for its American food.  It was OK.  I had a chicken sandwich which was my first time ever having white chicken breast here, and the fries were good.  If hadn’t just had Juke’s already, I would’ve been more psyched maybe.  The conversation was about how if you go to work in Hong Kong you don’t need to pay ANY income taxes, you keep every penny you make.  I asked, “Can you IMAGINE?”  But Ben pointed out that you have to revoke your U.S. citizenship.  Oh.  That was a little setback.  We talked about how it’s weird you can be a U.S. citizen automatically as long as you’re born on U.S. soil, and how Taiwanese mothers wait until they’re 8 months pregnant, then quickly fly over to give birth.  I wondered, “How far do they hold off labor sometimes?”  Are they struggling and dilated, yelling “Hurry up and land the @#$ plane!”

At work, Chi Yuan brought over huge box of orange moon cakes from the PhD girl whose paper I laboriously edited.  I felt bad for thinking it was like pulling teeth, and shared mooncakes with all.  YuJung invited me to dinner with her and ChiYuan, and took us to a place her bf found behind the CKS Hall.  It was on the sidewalk, with low tables with tiny stools, known for ShauLongBau and GuoTie, my favorite kinds of dumplings in Taiwan.  The food was sooo good, ChiYuan kept exclaiming “JiaZan!” in Taiwanese.  He was starting to teach me some Taiwanese words until I said in Taiwanese, “[I know all the simple words]” and they both started in surprise.  He said he’d bring his gf who always yells at him, to eat here, maybe this will impress her.

No was one going out, and I didn’t try very hard to find something.  Mom called around 11, what luck that I answered on the night I was home.  Right after that Avani called, and we had a long talk.  I called Dave and even though he was in lab, he took his  lunch break and we had a good convo.  I told him how my dad sent me an email attachment on Anger Management tips, he thought that was hilarious.  I said, “I knew you’d appreciate it.”