The joys of page stats

Ok, I will provide a summary of the last few days, but first let me introduce you to my latest source of delight--page statistics. I always wondered how people like Xiaxue or the Bouncer could talk about people visiting a specific article, or coming to their page from a certain search on Google, but now I too have that functionality. Even on a low-traffic site like this one (you guys visit more often than I thought--I just suck for not updating), there is movement & even visits from completely random people looking for something else entirely. The case in point? Recent Yahoo! searches leading here:
4 Yahoo! search.yahoo.com "what is a sheltered life "
1 Yahoo! search.yahoo.com "taiwan dollars"
1 Yahoo! search.yahoo.com "pcitures of kids in school uniforms"
1 Yahoo! search.yahoo.com "taiwanese girls pics"
1 Yahoo! search.yahoo.com "taiwanese raind dance"

I also had someone come looking for "eggbread machine" a while back, which certainly lead to my sad tale of how the recalcitrant twins weren't interested in eating that much egg bread back in the day. It's in the archives. Somewhere. And, regardless of typos, people search for the darndest things. When did I talk about sheltered life btw? I don't recall doing so.

On to stuff that's been happening. Today was not a bad day. My chinese teacher didn't show up, so I looked up a bunch of words I came across but didn't know. In the first two blocks I was in the library, waiting for our calligraphy teacher to show. Linda came after a while and started berating Ivan for surfing the net until he pointed out that he was where he was supposed to be, and that, in fact, the school's teacher was the one out of place. Got to read part of an English newspaper... lets me understand the background behind continuing stories on the evening news (like Lian's meeting with Pres. Hu Jintao in China).

Yesterday was largely uneventful save for an evening at Shilin Night Market with Fabio and some outbounds. Random fun was to be had, especially romping through expensive/trendy clothing stores, imitating the poses of people on posters and then photographing it. Also had pasta again... mm... Anna was going to come but she had to pack for moving host families. But then they postponed the move to Wednesday. In our circle we always move on weekends--no missing school for us. Maybe later I will go surfing if that can be arranged. Go expensive hobbies (maybe?) that require driving to Tofino. I was thinking of heading toward Tofino for a mini-road-trip with people this summer. Takers?

Of course, there are also friends old & new to be visited up-Island, but I don't suppose the majority of you are into that. Plus crashing space if any might be limited.

Saturday after choir I met up with Scott & his parents at our favourite restaurant by Wanfang. So cheap. I love being a regular too. We all hung out then went to 101, looked at the stores, went to the top--today the weather was clearer so I could see lots of parts of Taipei I knew, but we couldn't quite see all the way to Nanshijiao or Danshui, & the Muzha area where the school is was obscured by a mountain (the one the brown line on the MRT goes around/through a tunnel in). All in all ok.

Looked at children's boooks at pageone... Scott's mom is an author, so she went through finding the names of people she knew. Then we started looking for books for basic Chinese learning; however, the kind she was looking for is an English concept. She bought a children's book anyway, & I didn't get anything... still considering "Romance of the Three Kingdoms."

We had dinner at Zhang jia (where I currently reside). Scott did most of the translating as they are after all his parents for the impressing. Not to mention neither set of parents could speak the others' language at all, really. Sure, Taiwanese people know some English vocabulary, but there's nothing like never conversing in real English to dull skills that you never had.

Thanks for coming out once again. By the way, if you're interested in a new toy to obsess over related to your blog, check out www.statcounter.com. I'm also eagerly anticipating prom stories~ heard Brianna & Brad's excellent accounts, plus some sort of "anti-prom" from Martha. indeed. well, rock on... K out

[post written over several days for maximum incoherency... also May Day is the name of a Taiwanese pop band, and this is a may day]