Time + Energy = Blog

Though you can usually cut out one and fake it. I was feeling pretty tired after my 70 minute bus ride home, but after two rousing games of baseball (I got better and won by one point, 11-10 in the 2nd game) I am feeling good.

Let's talk about Wednesday. Our culture class was really weird, there was this lady to teach us how to tie scarves so you can dress yourself like a weird asian middle-aged woman (not the cool kind of which I earlier spoke). Actually, some of them were younger women's styles; however, none of them were very manly. So, after trying to teach Raphael to tie a double-windsor knot well (he was apt at learning the method, but boy is it hard to make look good), I went outside and had a spontaneous hack sesh with Scott. And Raphael a bit, & maybe Michael Torres, but they left to play volleyball, so we hacked some. But back to the scarves:

Scott & I went to the office of Zhong-Lun to get his lunch box... turns out it didn't heat up because we didn't plug the machine in. So we had to wait for that, and while we were waiting (not that there's any other way to kill time) Scott had a sudden addiction spasm & decided we had to play hackey-sack, right there, right then. So we hacked, until we were tired & sweaty and also his lunch was hot.

Lunch at the mall, followed by Chinese class... we had a good test (listen-write) and then more good learning. I think our relationships are improving. Like, now I can talk to Yu-Jing (or Yu-gyeong) in Chinese (she speaks a little Japanese, bettern than me, Korean, and little English) a little. I don't know all the words she/Alex know because they are the best & hang out together all the time. Mayhap I ought team up with Kenta...

Catholic choir was random. Caught up to my first host mother on the way there, we talked again. It's funny that in the 3 months I was there, I never had the ability to understand anything she said, but now I can have a decent conversation with her, somehow. Our teacher & the l33t posse of people spent over an hour on their little group project, so I chatted with the accompanist (she made me sight read this hard gospel song because I was watching her struggle with it) and gave her suggestions on how to rock out the end of said song. So we mostly practised with her (there being 3 sop, 3 alto, 3 bass & a loud but sickly me) going through the three motets--a.k.a. mottetto a quattro voce miste--for the majority of the time.

Then our teacher came back and we did this stupid song. I hate some of the lyrics and the lead guy on the recording is smug sounding. And there's like no harmony. Somewhere in there there's another line with 3rds but that's about it. Where's the Bach Chorales? I may ask. There was this one place where I really disagreed with the lyrics, but this guy insisted the meaning of "conquer" is "overcome" in this case in English & Chinese. But it's totally not, check the context:

Glory, glory to the Lamb
You will take me into the land
We will conquer in Thy name
And proclaim that Jesus reigns.

That's an ode to global domination if you ask me. Also, I've never heard Jesus called "Lion of Judah" before. Anyway, I'll only have to hear that piece a few more times. The music was even written in do-re-mi. I hate reading numbers.

On Thursday, being today, I went to school. I was tired a lot. Ivan didn't show up to Living Technology at all. I can't remember what I did but it involved studying. I also learned Evanescence-girl's Chinese name, and how to recognize another common surname on sight. At lunch, the boys were playing "Taiwanese Dodgeball." It's a pickup game, boys only, it is like keepaway/piggy-in-the-middle, except the two guys on the ends whip a ball as hard as they can through a field of guys. The guys in the middle try and catch it, if they can they replace a thrower. Otherwise they just get hit and we all enjoy a good laugh.

I showed some hackey-sack (and by that I mean hacked demonstratively), and learned a new word or two by just chilling with my classmates who were watching. Also, during Domestic Science (where Alex didn't show up, just went and "worked on his 101" -- he's building a model of Taipei 101 out of wood & glue) I kept looking up words for useful basic things and then checking them against the guy sitting next to me with simple pictures. If no-one else wants to teach me basic vocabulary, I guess I will. A few days ago I learned "Head of State" and "Prime Minister." So today it was "Flag," "Hammer" and "Nail."

In P.E. they were doing volleyball tests again. I ran up beforehand to do chinups on the field (for otherwise-neglected biceps), then down to the volleyball area. We ran, and then did the usual stretches and pushups, though again no abs. There was a test for bumping a ball a lot, but I am last in the list. So I waited until #42 went and was all psyched, but then the girls and people who failed went to try again. So that's another strike against my P.E. teacher, who is nice as a person or at the school store, but a disagreeable woman (viz. bitch) in class.

Got on the Green 2 after school and had an adventure. It eventually got to Nanshijiao, but went the long way round, thereby taking SEVENTY (70) minutes. Only cost $12 NT though :) After dinner I played the baseball game with Joe again. The first game he won good, but I started to strike out most of his batters, and figured out ways to hit the ball differently. The second game was a close 11-10 in favour of me. hooray. Now it's just been blogging, for your enjoyment. I hope.

Also, my Diana Krall CD has become somehow become corrupted. That's right, the LAST TRACK of "The Girl in the Other Room," the one about MY HOME TOWN, fucks up at about the one minute mark. So, if someone would be so kind as to rip/download "Departure Bay" by Diana Krall & send it to my hotmail or to kevinjdobson @ gmail.com, I would be much obliged. In fact I could even post a picture with a thanksome note.