Rose Bowl

I'm not really a sports watching type of person. In high school I would bring a book and a blanket to baseball games, watch my then boyfriend bat, and promptly resume my chapter. In a stunning lack of social awareness, it never occurred to me there was anything wrong with this behavior.

Then I moved on to USC where devoting Fall Saturdays to football is essentially a graduation requirement. But old habits die hard. And once last year I was on my way to the Coliseum with, naturally, the Los Angeles Times tucked under my arm. I managed to drop my paper, and as I scrambled to pick it up amidst the throng of stadium goers, I couldn't understand why some guy was loudly making fun of me for all to hear: "GOTTA HAVE HER PAPER! NEED THAT LA TIMES AT THE GAME!"

In retrospect, I think I get it.

Nevertheless, I am a loyal Trojan. And like any true Trojan would, I awoke at 5:30 (okay, not really until 6) today to try and find a livestream of our guys wiping the field with Bruin entrails. I searched nobly for half an hour. I emailed friends' Blackberrys back home for help. Then James tried. He's the pirating master of the house. He is the Captain Hook of internet piracy to my bumbling Mr. Smee.

Several of my family members read this blog. I worry they may disapprove of my flagrant disregard for intellectual property law. And to this I can only respond that witnessing the destruction of UCLA simply supersedes all moral and ethical considerations.

Unfortunately we never found a feed so we just went back to sleep, but awoke hours later to the sweet smell of victory wafting off of espn.com. Incidentally, victory smells a lot like stagnant water in the laundry room. The washing machine isn't working properly. And it's winter in the subtropics. And I'm afraid our laundry room is going to become a stinky mosquito hatchery.

But Malaria aside, I'm excited for the Rose Bowl, which will hopefully be easier to stream, and I have high hopes for an NCAA championship next year.

Five Things I Miss About America

I've been here a week and a half. The homesickness is mostly in check. I miss my family. I miss the O.G.s in Los Angeles (and by original gangsters I mean my wonderful 'SC friends), but I'm enjoying Taiwan too much to feel too left out of the stateside shenanigans. That aside, here's what I'm craving from the homeland:

1. Country music. Yeah, I know lots of you reading this back home wish they would send all the country music to Taiwan. I, however, laid in bed last night listening to this, this and this on my iPod. But I'm adapting and starting to take a secret liking to this.

2. Baby football. My brothers are dominating the 5th and 6th grade bracket for the Central Oregon Coast. I'm so proud of them.

3. Election season. I don't like waking up at 7 a.m. to stream the debates. And no one here wants to talk about it. James has an arsenal of preprogrammed answers for all my political waxings: His eyes glaze, his tongue lolls, "uh-huh," "yep," "I agree."

4. Sweatshirt weather. I'm told there is such a thing in Taiwan. I'll believe it when I see it.

5. The 7th season of The Shield. Okay it got way too soapy in the last two seasons, but I'm not a quitter. I need to know if Mackey gets thrown off the force, or killed, or what.