Current music: Hello I Love You by The Doors
Nearing the two month mark now here in Tainan. It's still amazing here, I never want to leave.
It's Monday. Monday is my longest day, because I have a private tutoring session with an 11-year-old named Prince right after my day ends. Apparently Prince is a semi-common English name for kids here...I have no idea why. I think his name has given him a complex though, because the kid has a bit of an attitude. He's convinced that he is always right, and he likes to give me advice on things in Taiwan. He is actually smarter than me, but I don't want him to know that. The kid is a fantastic reader because he has a crazy mother that forces him to constantly do homework. I feel kind of bad for him in this respect. So I go a little easy on him because I think that he sometimes forgets that he is a child.
This weekend there was a super-typhoon that decided to sit in the middle of the South China Sea, and no one knew where it was going to go. Taiwan was in a bit of a panic. So, once it started hardcore raining on Friday morning, Tainan was officially shut down, and my school closed for the afternoon. I was ecstatic and high fiving everyone. The best part was that it only rained for about 45 minutes and the rest of the day was sunshine. Tainan was, for the most part, spared Typhoon Megi, all we got was rain. Although it was horrible to hear that it hit northern Taiwan, causing flooding and landslides. A mountain collapsed near Suao, on the east coast, burying a tour bus. I heard that most people were rescued, but the total death count in Taiwan was 12, with 23 missing. Scary stuff, apparently it was one of the worst storms ever recorded, anywhere. Ever. We were lucky that it stopped when it did.
I finally got an Alien Residency Card today, so I'm no longer an illegal immigrant. I'm going to buy a scooter as soon as I possibly can. Getting a cell phone tomorrow.
Current music: Your Touch by The Black Keys
Halloween is on Sunday. I have to do pumpkin carving on Wednesday, which is scary because I don't want my children anywhere near me whilst I'm wielding a weapon. Chances are they will start climbing on me and things will go awry.
We got raided again last week. This one lasted for at least an hour. They seem to be cracking down on the kindergarten teachers, apparently they have never raided this frequently. It wasn't too bad though, it gave Peet and I a chance to go over the bilingual Christmas pageant. I am already super worried that some of my kids are going to fail horribly at the dialogue.
I went to a restaurant called the Water Frog on Saturday night. It was by far the weirdest dining experience I have ever had. You sit at a table, which has a hot coal BBQ in the middle of it. You take plates up to the buffet area to get your food. That catch is that all the meat and veggies are raw, and you cook them yourself in the middle of the table, using makeshift tin foil plates. I went with my new best friend Jane, who also does not speak Chinese. I have decided that the experience would have been a lot less stressful if there was more people, who knew the characters for different meats, and could help cook. It was a lot of work for two people. Anyways, I nearly lit myself on fire, and then was unable to put out the fire in the middle of the table because I was laughing so much at the situation. Long story short, I didn't burn myself or get salmonella, which was also an issue because all the raw meat was intermingling. On top of all that, they give you all you can drink beer, but I don't think it would be wise for anyone to be intoxicated whilst sitting at a table with open flames on it. In retrospect, it was a very funny dinner. They had ice cream, which made it worthwhile.
Current music: Nightmare by Avenged Sevenfold
It's pizza night at Willy's, which happens every Monday. I am super excited. I pretty much live there, I was there for dinner last night, now that I think of it. Whatever, I can't get tired of it. The servers all know us by name now, which is super convenient. It's like Cheers, without the silly situational comedy. There is some situational comedy, but less.
This season of Jersey Shore is over. I am more sad than I care to admit.
Thing I miss of the day: Subway. I hear there's one here, but I have no idea where.
It's pizza time! Wheee!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
When I was a little girl, I had a rag doll...
Current music: Charm Attack by Leona Naess
It has been pointed out to me that I have been neglecting the blogging. Apart from laziness, the only justification I can offer for this is that I seem to be getting used to the extreme weirdness of things here, therefore they seem less worthy of documentation. I know that this is not true, but that's all I got. But there are pictures now! Many pictures. Hopefully videos coming soon, stay tuned.
I just returned home from a sushi dinner at Sushi Express with the teachers from Head Start. I don't know them as well as I do my own co-workers, but they are all cool kids as well. Celeste is close to my age, from Alberta and speaks flawless Chinese, so I figured that she would be a good friend to have. And I was right, as she provided me with a Halloween costume; she will be going as Rachel Berry and I will go as Sue Sylvester. All I have to do is find a track suit, which will be easy enough, and spend my day berating people. What a glorious Halloween it shall be. I should also get a bullhorn.
John is yet another Englishman who has seemingly been in Tainan forever. He keeps trying to persuade me to go hardcore mountain biking around Jiali and Kaohsiung, but he doesn't understand that although I still enjoy the bicycle, I also don't have any other mode of transportation. So biking in my spare time is still something I leave to the evenings, when it is cool-ish. Not vertically, in the middle of the scorching afternoon. Perhaps in the future.
Kevin is (I'm guessing) from somewhere in the States and is the quietest person ever. How you can be that serious and still be an elementary teacher escapes me. Tim is from California, and I always seem to run into him at the bar. He has the same sense of humour as me, so we get along fine. I sometimes envy that they get to do elementary. But there is good and bad about every teaching age. I'm fine with my little hell-spawn for now. Although they did give me a wicked cold this past week, because they are laden with disease. Why must children be so toxic?
Current music: Warm Heart of Africa by The Very Best
Jump Start goes all out for Halloween. The school is decorated down to the last doorway, and they will be holding a pageant thing for the kids to trot around in their costumes in front of their peers, and many parents as well. They felt the need to stress to us not to dress up as anything too scary for the children, and then proceeded to display bloody scream masks hanging from the ceiling and prop up little toy witches with Freddy Kreuger faces in front of every classroom. So, I've decided to ignore this advice even more than I ignore all advice that I get from management.
I made the mistake of using one of the demon witches to scare my babies one day. Now they are all in a constant state of terror every time they pass by the toy. Though I often use this fear to scare them into compliance. Be quiet or the witch will eat you. I sense future lifelong fears a-growing. Maybe I have a sadistic kindergarten teacher to blame for my irrational fear of clowns. We'll never know.
Ok, I'm going to be honest about where my weekends have gone. The bars here do not close. Ever. As long as there are people in them, they stay open. So, last call does not exist. I have previously been out at The Armory, the local foreigner pub, until 7am. Therefore, this weekend is going to be extremely low-key, so I can rest. I may be going to Taichung tomorrow with Sonja. Apparently, there is some kind of jazz festival going on, and I love jazz.
Current music: Cherry Bomb by The Runaways
I taught my big kids to sing Do-Re-Mi a few weeks ago, due to my recent goal to be Julie Andrews. On the CD I use for that song, this song is immediately followed by Stop by the Spice Girls. Remarkably, one of my kids already knows it. Or at least random noises in the rhythm of it. So, I had no choice but to teach them all to say random noises to the beat of Stop. It was one of the most epic things I have ever seen. My twelve-year-old self would love me right now.
Thing I miss of the day: Nick...I get to Skype with you tomorrow! Excitement!
I'm drinking a weird Japanese beer called Asahi right now, and it's pretty damn good. No reason to throw that in there, but it needed to be said. Daniel told me that it's going to storm this weekend, he had better be lying.
Goodnight.
P.S. I shall do my best not to be so negligent in future times.
It has been pointed out to me that I have been neglecting the blogging. Apart from laziness, the only justification I can offer for this is that I seem to be getting used to the extreme weirdness of things here, therefore they seem less worthy of documentation. I know that this is not true, but that's all I got. But there are pictures now! Many pictures. Hopefully videos coming soon, stay tuned.
I just returned home from a sushi dinner at Sushi Express with the teachers from Head Start. I don't know them as well as I do my own co-workers, but they are all cool kids as well. Celeste is close to my age, from Alberta and speaks flawless Chinese, so I figured that she would be a good friend to have. And I was right, as she provided me with a Halloween costume; she will be going as Rachel Berry and I will go as Sue Sylvester. All I have to do is find a track suit, which will be easy enough, and spend my day berating people. What a glorious Halloween it shall be. I should also get a bullhorn.
John is yet another Englishman who has seemingly been in Tainan forever. He keeps trying to persuade me to go hardcore mountain biking around Jiali and Kaohsiung, but he doesn't understand that although I still enjoy the bicycle, I also don't have any other mode of transportation. So biking in my spare time is still something I leave to the evenings, when it is cool-ish. Not vertically, in the middle of the scorching afternoon. Perhaps in the future.
Kevin is (I'm guessing) from somewhere in the States and is the quietest person ever. How you can be that serious and still be an elementary teacher escapes me. Tim is from California, and I always seem to run into him at the bar. He has the same sense of humour as me, so we get along fine. I sometimes envy that they get to do elementary. But there is good and bad about every teaching age. I'm fine with my little hell-spawn for now. Although they did give me a wicked cold this past week, because they are laden with disease. Why must children be so toxic?
Current music: Warm Heart of Africa by The Very Best
Jump Start goes all out for Halloween. The school is decorated down to the last doorway, and they will be holding a pageant thing for the kids to trot around in their costumes in front of their peers, and many parents as well. They felt the need to stress to us not to dress up as anything too scary for the children, and then proceeded to display bloody scream masks hanging from the ceiling and prop up little toy witches with Freddy Kreuger faces in front of every classroom. So, I've decided to ignore this advice even more than I ignore all advice that I get from management.
I made the mistake of using one of the demon witches to scare my babies one day. Now they are all in a constant state of terror every time they pass by the toy. Though I often use this fear to scare them into compliance. Be quiet or the witch will eat you. I sense future lifelong fears a-growing. Maybe I have a sadistic kindergarten teacher to blame for my irrational fear of clowns. We'll never know.
Ok, I'm going to be honest about where my weekends have gone. The bars here do not close. Ever. As long as there are people in them, they stay open. So, last call does not exist. I have previously been out at The Armory, the local foreigner pub, until 7am. Therefore, this weekend is going to be extremely low-key, so I can rest. I may be going to Taichung tomorrow with Sonja. Apparently, there is some kind of jazz festival going on, and I love jazz.
Current music: Cherry Bomb by The Runaways
I taught my big kids to sing Do-Re-Mi a few weeks ago, due to my recent goal to be Julie Andrews. On the CD I use for that song, this song is immediately followed by Stop by the Spice Girls. Remarkably, one of my kids already knows it. Or at least random noises in the rhythm of it. So, I had no choice but to teach them all to say random noises to the beat of Stop. It was one of the most epic things I have ever seen. My twelve-year-old self would love me right now.
Thing I miss of the day: Nick...I get to Skype with you tomorrow! Excitement!
I'm drinking a weird Japanese beer called Asahi right now, and it's pretty damn good. No reason to throw that in there, but it needed to be said. Daniel told me that it's going to storm this weekend, he had better be lying.
Goodnight.
P.S. I shall do my best not to be so negligent in future times.
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