The Purple Gang

So here is my office all dressed up for our purple party!


Wow, I know this is an odd thing to say but looking at this picture makes it all the more acutely obvious that I now live in an area where I am surround by Asians. Because I grew up in Texas and went to school in Oklahoma, it was rare to find myself surrounded with people that looked similar to me. And even though I'm constantly surrounded by Asians now, its not really something that I think about everyday. It is sort of refreshing but at the same time, I'm used to what I grew up with... which is to say that I am used to being "unique" or as "unique" as an Asian American is living in the U.S. Does that mean my friends who are Caucasians living in America feel somehow not unique at all? It's a curious thought that I'm not confronted with really until I'm here in Taiwan where I'm not "unique" at all.

This is the crazy hair style that my girl coworkers fixed me up with. Lovely isn't it?


Well, that is all for now friends. Until we meet next time!

Purple Thursday

So my entire office thought it would be fun if everyone could pick one color and see who could wear the most purple. The loser gets to buy the winner a drink from Starbucks. I know.. I'm in Taiwan and here we are drinking Starbucks.. whooo globalization.

So, I came prepared, my ensemble consists of:
1) purple dress
2) purple nails
3) purple eyeliner/eyeshadow

Anyway, that doesn't sound like a lot, because it isn't. One of my coworkers came in a purple dress, with purple shoes, hair pin, scarf, gloves, nail polish, and eyeshadow. She is definitely going to win today. Consolation is that I probably won't lose either. Although its been decided that the loser gets to pick the next color for the competition so that they can pick a color that better suits their wardrobe. I'm hoping its red so we can all look Christmas-y.

Oh right, cultural "shock" moment: my coworkers thought it would be fun to play with my hair and style it for me. They have now proceeded to tie my hair in a large knot above my right eyebrow and then put several small braids throughout my hair. When I saw myself in the mirror, I thought I looked like a Japanese anime character but they thought it was the cutest look ever. This is a look that would get stares on the streets of America but I guess this is exactly indicative of the aesthetic differences between different cultures. My hope is that I can remove the braids and knot before my hair gets stuck with a wave-like pattern, however this will have to wait till the end of the competition during lunch. Somebody save me!!

Pictures to come shortly!