taiwan series: it's good to be back

i woke up this morning at 4am, thanks to jet lag and a strange call from delta airlines. i really need to remember to set my phone to "do not disturb" while on the opposite side of the world. by around 9:30, i was ready to get out of the house so i went for a walk in the alleyways nearby. it's muggy and warm, and feels not at all like november. this is how taiwan always feels in my memories.

whenever i come home, i make an effort to walk by this house, which is conveniently near my favorite breakfast spot. it's so simple - all straight, spare lines and monochromatic. i also love the way the flowers are weaving their way through the fence, and the pink against the charcoal, wood, and white. 

i'm due for a nap now (totally losing the battle against jet lag today...) but will be back soon with more of taiwan. we go to taipei tomorrow and ilan monday! xoxo

pawling, new york

it's the weekend! how are you going to spend it? my in-laws are in town so we'll be staying in brooklyn, and probably also eating something delicious. (it's nice that i married into a family that can appreciate a good meal.) but a few weeks back, hhh and i ventured about 20 miles east of poughkeepsie to explore pawling and check out the brunch at mckinney & doyle. we ate a hearty breakfast at the bar, and then walked around the town center. 

we always check out the bookstores, so we ducked into the book cove. the books were just meh, but there were a lot of fun curiosities in the antiques section. 

i paused a long time at this lamp (above). it has hooves.... but i loved all the old landscape and animal paintings! 

after that, we drove around a bit more and came across this place. i made hhh circle back, since i can't ever have enough plants. plus, we needed some for the campus apartment. parrino's greenhouse has a gift shop with floral arrangements, as well as this huge greenhouse below. they also have chickens! but i don't think those are for sale.  

and here's one of the happy plants back at the apartment. hhh picked it because loved that the succulents were so tiny, he said. fast forward a few weeks...he is now expressing alarm at how quickly it's growing. "it's not as cute anymore."  

happy weekend!! xoxo

a cabin in the woods

this is my new house!

just kidding. this is the model home at hudson woods, a new architect-designed development west of the hudson river and about three hours north of new york city. the architect is drew lang, and he gave us a tour last weekend. the place is gorgeous.

the details are incredible and the add-ons are the stuff of dreams, as if the house itself isn't enough. fruit tree grove, anyone? pool? or a 2-bed/2-bath guesthouse? i'd definitely go for the greenhouse and vegetable garden.

anyway, here are the photos! peruse them while i go convince hhh that we need one of these.

the winding road to kerhonkson. it took longer than we thought it would...but it was scenic!

the functional and lovely entryway. 

a view from the living room out towards the pool. the furniture is all from small makers, a lot of them local. 

the kitchen is compact but has everything you need, plus a tiled backsplash from heath ceramics. you get a choice of color. 

i would almost be willing to live outside nyc if i got to live here. 

the master bath.

view from the master bedroom.

the master bedroom. 

the downstairs den, which gets plenty of light from big picture windows that look out onto the trees. the door back there leads to the laundry room. 

another view of the den. this door leads to a spacious storage area.

the laundry room.

the second bedroom. 

the second bath. 

the third bedroom, with build-in wood shelving and heavy felt grey curtains as closet doors. 

another glimpse of the third bedroom.

a view out one of the windows on the lower level. 

across from the main house, there is a garage/studio space. 

the deck, which wraps around the first (upper) level of the cabin. 

the pool. i could really get used to this.

the view of the house as you drive up towards it. no windows on this side. good for privacy? 

the driveway. i was so sad to leave. 

taiwan series: fantasy story

recently, i booked my plane ticket to taiwan for my mom's 60th birthday. it's been years since i've been able to be with her for it, so i'm excited for the chance to celebrate with the whole family. buying the ticket reminded me that it's been a while since i posted a taiwan entry. i should probably get the rest of my photos from my last trip up before i take my next! 

the streets of taiwan are ever changing, so i try to do a little exploring whenever i return for a visit. things are pretty different now from when i was growing up there. in the mid-nineties, my friends and i spent an inordinate amount of time at first square, a sub-par shopping center anchored by a forever streaky and less-than-impressive replica of the louvre's glass pyramid. first square's only saving grace was its cheap movie theater and an abundance of bargain shopping. (i bought a lot of earrings and clothes there as a 13-year-old.) we also did a lot of mtv-ing there. for some reason, "mtv" in the parlance of taiwan at that time did not mean the music videos or reality tv, but referenced businesses that offered rooms where you could 1) rent a movie of your choice to watch on a wall-sized screen and 2) order all manner of bubble tea, beef noodles, fried chicken, and other taiwanese snacky delights to go with said movie. it's not like we were living in the lap of luxury, but the entertainment that first square provided was right in line with our middle-school allowances. there were of course also the night markets (gloriously cheap), tea houses (on every corner), and department store food courts (the variety!). you could say that cheap eats was the theme of my adolescence. (really, not that much has changed.) 

taichung, my hometown, used to be a distant second to taipei in terms of food, culture, and shopping. but these days, there's plenty to keep me busy during visits. last time i was there, i wandered away from the comfort of the gongyi road eslite branch down some smaller streets and ended up at the bookshop in fantasy story.  it's a strange name for a venue - or rather, a series of them, i discovered - but basically, it's a collection of shops, cafes, and restaurants in the side streets around gongyi road and meicun road. 

hhh examines the fantasy story map.

the map up close.

there seemed to be one main building, which looked like a conversion of old residential houses. parts of the complex were left in disrepair, while others were restored and renovated. nature staked its claim on these buildings long ago, and it looked as if it would have been a losing battle to fight back. 

the domesticated parts of the complex housed boutique shops, populated by tiny potted succulents and bed linens. i think i also saw an architect's office, but i'm not completely sure. 

and a few more photos of the intertwining of house and tree. 

when i go back to taichung in november, i plan to visit the other fantasy story spots that i missed. stay tuned for more photos! 

ps. for more of the taiwan series, see here. 

update 12/01/2014: i went back! to see more, go here.

summertime in the hudson valley

this summer has been full of trips to the hudson valley for me. after a year in china, it's hard to believe that i'm back in new york for good, so i haven't had the urge to stray too far. plus now that we're going to be in poughkeepsie part of the week, it's basically my new (second) neighborhood. it's been great exploring more of new york state. 

as a last hurrah before the semester starts, hhh and i rented a place in copake with some friends. the town is teeny tiny - the town center consists of a diner and the front porch market. there's not much else! but it's equidistant between hudson and great barrington, ma, so there's plenty to do. the copake hillsdale farmers market is nearby for some great local produce, flowers, eggs, and meats. the house was this incredibly picturesque and very rustic lodge (too rustic! i killed about 15 spiders while we were there). 

i lounged by the pool, read books, watched numerous episodes of a really bad (but very engrossing) canadian sci-fi show, took long walks with willa, and ate really good home-cooked meals by my friend sarah, aka our resident chef. (she even made hand-cut pasta!) 

the more ambitious among us played tennis and biked on the harlem rail trail, but i was happy to just squeeze in a leisurely stroll up to bash bish falls. (well, we did have to walk all the way to massachusetts.) on the way there, we walked past the historic site of copake iron works, which is housed in this adorable white cabin. 

there were a lot of people at the falls, but it was still pretty glorious. nature! 

we made it to great barrington mid-week, and had some reeallly delicious breakfast sandwiches at rubi's as well as a cinnamon donut muffin and some coffee cake. rubi's is actually right behind rubiners, a cheese place with a nice selection of cheeses from all over.

i'm looking forward to spending more time out of the city. but i'm going on four days now here in the poughkeepsie apartment, and find myself missing nyc. good thing i'm going home tomorrow!