The Sunday Evening Post

Greetings all, and welcome to what should be the first issue of a recurring weekly publication: the Sunday Evening Post (with styling italic font). This should deliver the week in summary, slightly more concise & relevant than before -- though I don't know if I can promise anything about verbosity. In fact, this might better be considered an "executive summary."

'Executive Summary'

The past week, on the whole, was fairly positive, though at times coloured by slight illness. I was not so ill that I couldn't sing, run, play tennis, or do push-ups, as I engaged in all of those activities this week; however, sometimes I was excessively cold or hot, or needed to blow my nose. That is not to say, of course, that it is very cool here... today was positively sun-tanning weather, when in Nanaimo it is no doubt bitingly cold.

Choir: Another progressive week has had in choir. We are making progress in all our songs, though we have not finished work on any, or completely learned No. 26 "All we like sheep have gone astray." The choir sounds rather good and I would say Handel is definitely not spinning in his grave at this point. I got hold of a recording of the songs we are singing and have been listening to it extensively. On Friday there was mild flooding in the choir room (due to a water line leak) but other than that, unremarkable.

Culture: In culture class we again did Chinese Gong Fu. Unfortunately, we also discovered that we will be performing our routine during the Tea Tour. Of course, this is a part of Taiwan culture & must be accepted with a baring of the teeth that hopefully resembles a smile. Of course, Gong Fu is far less emasculating than the dance we did earlier (Scott confirmed that the cloth finger twirling is traditionally a women's dance). Some tidbits... people don't confront each other directly with their problems, but instead tell a third party who acts as messenger; in culture class a Rotarian (instead of announcing things), just tells Scott to tell everyone something, while everyone is looking at her; friends just treat each other to things (like burning a CD or some food or lunch) but of course we foreigners always pay each other back.

Language: Language class is good, we continue to learn much. There was no class on Monday due to a surprise Typhoon holiday. I am progressing, ever so slowly, and can sometimes (with a lot of creativity) learn new Chinese words using Chinese. Talked to a guy on the bus yesterday who didn't know bopomofo, found it odd.

Events: Went to the mall & bought shoes last week with Alice, they are excellent & sporty runners. Had sushi + tea with Alice & her mother... bought Twining's of London Earl Grey tea. Rested and read Virginia on the typhoon holiday. Slept from 8:40 PM Tuesday to 7:20 AM Wednesday. Was thrown to the ground by several girls in Gong Fu class. Went trick-or-treating / sang a song with my classmates for an English class Hallowe'en exercise. Went to the National Palace Museum with Scott, and then went to see "The Forgotten" with Scott, Tiffany & Ivonne. Went hiking on the coast (very nice, but I got a sunburn on my neck) with Scott, English Claire, & my father.

Next weekend is the Tea Tour, & the weekend following that we three shall move families (which means I will be farther away from school)... until then I hope this format is enjoyable to the intended audience.

Also: note to all, I need a couple people (pref. girls) for Tiffany's native-English-speaker survey, so I was wondering if a few of you could help me out. E-mail/ post a comment if you are interested (Alleah, Amay, ... Barbara... Brad ?) thanks.