Dou hua, Taipei 101 and Frank McCourt

Ate the most delicious "dou hua" EVER with my friend Charlene, who took me out one afternoon to see some of Taipei and "lian xi zhong wen," or practice Chinese. We hit up her favorite "dou hua" spot---MIND-BLOWING---then headed to Taipei 101 for some vigorous window shopping.






At the Taipei 101 bookstore, I bought Frank McCourt's book "Teacher Man," which I told myself NOT TO BUY because I'm pretty sure my mom has it, being a Angela's Ashes Trilogy fan herself. But I couldn't wait. I bought it and finished it in a day and a half. I ADORE HIM. I know he's almost 80 or something, but I swear that if I ever met that man, I would scream, cry and throw my arms around him all at once, Beatlemania-style. Although, I always said the same thing about Steve Martin, and I actually did meet him once and all I could get out was: "HELLO SIR L.A. STORY IS MY FAVORITE MOVIE AND MY DAD AND I KNOW ALL THE WORDS THANK YOU SIR ENJOY YOUR DINNER I'M A BIG BIG FAN AND I KNOW ALL THE WORDS TO L.A. STORY MY FAVORITE MOVIE." (Later, my mom would ask me, "Did you tell him you have a big picture of him up on your wall?" Thankfully, I'd forgotten that detail.) Also, Frank McCourt went to NYU, confirming that the two most important people in my world, Lady Gaga and Frank McCourt, are OBVIOUSLY linked to me in some mystic way and I'm meant to follow in their asymmetrically-banged (in Lady Gaga's case) and Pulitzer Prize-winning (in Frank McCourt's case) footsteps.