I talk big words

Not of the intolerably dodecasyllabic variety. Simply put, today was pretty darn good.

Got up, hung up my laundry. Went with Scott & his mother to Zhong-Lun high school for Chinese Culture class. It started with a lot of long speeches, but then Rotex did some more skits and hilarious entertainment so it was all good. A Rotarian's daughter sung "Ave Maria" and a Taiwanese folk song, thereby impressing me. Eventually, the powers that be announced they were electing a "monitor" & "vice-monitors" for the class (these are basically gophers that are also supposed to address the group for the teachers). Scott volunteered for the lead role, citing his experience in ROTC officer's training as a key qualification.

As there were no volunteers for #2 or #3, I decided to step up to the plate. Before I tell you exactly what happened, let me explain; I am not magical. I do not have an above-average memory for people. I did, however, read a book called Remember Every Name, Every Time about attaching names to faces. In light of its teachings, I tried to meet every exchange student during the previous gathering and that mornings socialising. Also, I had a book from Rotary with photocopies of their business cards. So, when I was passed the mic (all cordless at Rotary functions) I proceeded to name all the exchange students (I knew their countries as well) in the completely random order they were sitting. This elicited some surprise, applause, and position #2 ... not that the role is important but I thought that event was good.

After that, everyone introduced themselves a little further. Most of us are inept speakers (damn Laura, whom you all know, rules) and many people could speak little English... still it's the official language of proceedings until people learn Chinese. Then everyone who was to study Chinese at Wan-fang high school (where I will attend) left as a group. Randomly enough, we got there like... maybe 2 hours early. So we had lunch at KFC (I managed to order my friend Scott a water in Chinese, but it was actually steaming hot -- mreh). Then we walked around a bit, and went up to the school to talk.

Chinese began at 2:00 PM, and our teacher said almost nothing in English, which was nice. It's nice how everything is just assumed, like it was nothing special to be able to write your name in Chinese or something. We basically learned Pinyin... but I was surprised to learn I had had a few misconceptions about it. I think I have it straight now, pretty much, though I still screw up a little. Unfortunately, we will not be using bopomofo, which is more straightforward--I guess this is because it requires memorizing new stuff beyond the English alphabet. We played a game like French dictée for a while, writing the stuff she said in Chinese into Pinyin.

Afterwards, Claire (the American one) & Anna randomly decided we should hang out at Starbucks. So everyone called their host families (we're supposed to go straight home) and then we all talked for a while. Somewhere today, Anna was going to light up a cigarette, so Scott took her cigarette away; don't judge anyone, but of course I completely agree with him. Scott & I rode the bus/MRT back to Yong-he, talking about various things: Chinese, school, taking people's cigarettes away, US policy, politics, morality, whatever. It was, for the most part, extremely interesting. One of the most interesting things was seeing Claire & Scott interact, because they are basically at opposite ends of the political spectrum (within opinions you can have in the US).

Choir was pretty good, though it was raining all hardcore on the way there, and it was one hell of a motorcycle (read: scooter) ride. My calves and feet (incl. shoes) were totally soaked though the rest of me remained dry. I was trying to explain a bit of the concept of gospel (& pretending to be a big, afro-american person when singing it for maximum soul) as well as holding on pure vowels. Of course, I am neither the director, nor able to talk music in Chinese, so it wasn't TOO effective.

As to the subject of my post... my father got back from Europe today. While he was teaching me to use the dryer, I finally broke down and asked him to speak to me exclusively in Chinese. I'm going to see how long I can go without actually speaking a word of English... I am of course thinking/writing in it, and listened to the English song "Wonderboy" earlier, but the radio in my room will play only Chinese (& Taiwanese, & Japanese, & Hakka) stuff. Yay.

Maybe I will go to school next week. In the meantime, I hope everyone will keep blogging and share their newly compromised lives (due to school).