Stood up?

Adopt Your Own Emo Kid!

Yesterday & today I was "voluntold" to study in one of the school offices, as Wan-fang gaozhong's exchange students haven't begun class yet. Some people I thought were students (but who are actually just remarkably young teachers) gave me a tour of the school, and I bought lunch in the school store [translated as 'canteen']. It was a bit boring as all I could do was study Chinese; needless to say I developed a slight crick in my neck, and also got a bit frustrated. I got a children's newspaper (with bopomofo beside the characters) and began translating it, 'word' by word. The characters have no spacing in between, so you're never quite sure what is a bound phoneme/morpheme a polysyllabic word or stands alone--especially not until you've done a whole sentence.

It seems Rotary will not be paying for my school uniform. And by that I mean, I don't get a new one, but old stuff donated to the school by parents. It's in pretty good condition; however, there is one problem: all uniforms bear a student's identification number (and sometimes the name as well). I need them to have my name & number, but the sewing woman (I don't know how else to describe her position--she sits in a room full of uniforms, sewing the numbers on them) will not remove the old information. So, my mother & I have been removing the old names & numbers BY HAND with sewing scissors... no one here has heard of a seam-ripper. The numbers aren't so bad, but as everything is made of thread machine-sewn (not patches) the names are especially laborious to remove. I have done 3 shirts so far... today I did two and it maybe took me 2-4 hours; that's right, I lost track of time.

Today the Mexican student who will be studying at my school finally showed up (he arrived yesterday). It is my principal's birthday (though I've never seen him) so a secretary/teacher & I went to a supermarket to buy cards & a gift. All the exchange students who were there for language class wrote on it. Anna & Claire said that this evening they were going to a mall near Taipei City Hall MRT station, but it was too short of notice for Scott & I to join them, so we graciously declined. Though I enjoy highly the company of all exchange students, I must say that shopping with girls has never been one of my favourite hobbies.

Apparently tomorrow (somewhere in the 9AM-3PM period here, when most of you will be reading this -- under the assumption I have readers, save faithful Alleah) a large posse of exchange students is going to Danshui for the day. I think I am allowed to go. I gave my number to Anna, as did the others, and she said she would call this evening with particulars. As it is now past midnight I find that an unlikely occurrence in the immediate future. I have the faint hope I could get a call tomorrow morning, but as I don't know the meeting place or time for this endeavour, if that does not happen I am friendless for the day. mreh

I'll see what I can do for pictures on Wednesday perhaps, at Chinese culture class time. Also, some of you wondered how I could communicate with Scott if I was going for Chinese immersion. Well, I can't. And for that reason, he (the most desirous of fluency among us) prefers not to socialise with exchange students excessively, and even speaks to me in Chinese sometimes. It's a tradeoff here, the language barrier: either you slow yourself down reverting to English, or remain friendless, confused, & incommunicado for quite a long time. I don't know if I am ready for the latter as I like people. Sometimes, I wish they sent me to a country that spoke a language any less hard. Any contry. [though the culture is very interesting and I love the land & people]