Trader Joe's

There's this huge scaffolding in front of Trader Joe's on 14th Street.

It makes such a bright and cheery place look like an ominous store that will sell you drugs. Really, what was once a huge sidewalk is now really scary-looking and narrow. Made me second guess my trip there; but I'm glad I still went in, otherwise I wouldn't have bought this AMAZING EDAMAME HUMMUS and a box of cherries! Now I just can't wait for them to bring on the peaches and nectarines.

(You notice that as I'm frantically studying vocab for my GRE I can still use words like "scary-looking"?)

So I'm sitting here watching "Three Times" by Hou Hsiao-Hsien, a Taiwanese film-maker. The movie is broken up into 3 different parts:

Part One: 1966 -- "A Time For Love": Two young people fall in love at first sight at a traditional pool hall in Kaoshiong (where my mom grew up, and she told me, "ah, and that's what we did! we played pool!").

Part Two: 1911 -- "A Time for Freedom": Basically, we have classic Taiwan trying to free themselves from Japanese powers. And, we see the classic Chinese male hair-do of a ponytail and half-shaved head.

Part Three: 2005 -- "A Time for Youth": I don't like this part because the girl is crazy and her male counterpart just doesn't know how to deal.

After Part Two is over, I'm going to skip out for coffee and to study.

Part One and Part Two are definitely worth watching, if not for the precious love story in the first part, then it's for the hidden history of Taiwan no one really knows about in the second.