"they come for the alex but they stay for the kevin"

The title would be, of course, the official Quote of the Day by Greg, my compatriot likewise representing in Taiwan (the only other Canadian guy I know here, there can't be many of us).

Anyway, I was just checking out some interesting Google pages about their page-ranking and stuff & then I ran into a page of Florian linking to my site on some German message board. [Translated automatically by Google for your viewing pleasure, except Anna, who can click here for maximum understanding] Ironically, that makes Florian the second German to comment that my blog is difficult to understand unless one's English is good.

As I mentioned earlier, today was our school trip. Got up at 5:45, had a breakfast sandwich (with sweet meat, not cooked bacon) then took the 6:15 Green 2 towards Wanfang. French Alex got on partway again, I think around the new Carrefour. At school everyone piled on buses, & I mean that in the most controlled, orderly way possible. We first sat in our classes in nice neat lines (boys & girls seperate), then went by classes, one to each bus.

We went out to this place where Alex said he once played paintball with his Rotary. Real paintball... I must look into this. On the way there, I saw the giant yellow statue that Scott, Mr. Chen & I hiked up to one time oh so long ago. Once we arrived, there was the usual hullabaloo of over-explaining everything, then we tied on safety belts & started doing random activities.

There was a rock climbing wall (like at the Romper Room) outside on a tower 4 stories high. Everybody was to attempt it (except one girl in my class didn't try for sure & I have no doubt there were others) and the girls on the ground kept yelling "Jiu hao!" which doesn't really have an English equivalent. You could say it was like "go, go, go!" -- it isn't really encouragement, just a prodding to rock on. Some of my classmates made it to the top, including our class leader (班長 banzhang) Kate (謝仁潔 xie renjie) who is an awesome person but weak like most Taiwanese girls. I was impressed, because it was a challenging wall, esp. in places. Most of the stronger/athletic (i.e. rocking strength/weight ratio people) made it.

And then it was my turn. Or rather, I went like 3rd because I was really stoked for it. As I said, it was a challenging wall. I had to use my full reach, and sometimes grab a handhold and jump with both my feet to reach footholds which would let me advance. At one point I could feel my strength fading & wanted to give up, or rather wished that I would give up so I could stop exerting all this effort. Apparently the shaking in my limbs was visible from the ground. But of course, I didn't actually give up. I thought something along the lines of "fuck you body, fuck you self, your hatred duly noted, so let us continue," and then went the next 12-15 feet to the top. Token cheers for display of physical excellence & then the belay eased me down [actually I was 'rapelling' viz. bouncing of the wall at the start but you're not supposed to do that in that circumstance].

Later on I did rappelling (stupid spelling) from the top of the tower. I admit it was actually kind of scary, but now that I've done it, I found it cool and want to go again. Basically, you have a clip through your safety belt through which a rope is wrapped a certain way. You hold the rope with both hands, and if in your right hand you move it away from your body, it gives play and you go down. But the thing is, it's not like you're anchored in any other way. So, preparing to 'fall' backward off the fourth storey of this building, I felt a little anxious. I kind of got the hang of it partway down & it was fun, but still. nyurg

Current Music: "Never is Enough" BNL (stunt)

The barbecue was similar to the ones I did around Moon Festival time... this time it was me, two guys & 7 girls from my class (an offer I couldn't refuse) including 謝仁潔 who I must confess is my favourite. She's just awesome. Also there was the P.E. leader/activities girl who is also cool, but randomly can't swim & isn't too strong (but she can run pretty quickly) ... it's strange for the leader of our gym class to be lacking aforementioned qualities I think. Afterwards, we went to this place, and this guy tried to teach the students how to milk a cow. A couple tried but they were pretty sucky at it. Cow didn't look too happy.

On the busride back to school, I talked to one of my classmates & we both learned some new words. It was neat because I didn't have my dictionary (though he had his walking English dictionary, our english/homeroom teacher Scarlett (劉鎮珍 liu zhenzhen). Also, while watching karaoke I learned how to write an important word.

On the Green 2 back home (Left route first time w00t) I talked with Alex for a while. We discussed stuff like our experiences at the beginning of the year & Canada / France / Taiwan. After he got off, a laughing (& might I add very good-looking) girl gave me a note which I was to give to "my friend" meaning Alex. This was much to the chagrin of her two friends who were covering their faces & hiding in their intense laughter.

Later I ended up sitting near her (but beside this other woman) and we talked a bit. Mostly in Chinese, and a little English, so it was good. Found out she is 16, and wants to exchange instruction in languages with us. Of course, she started wanting to be friends with Alex, because of his model-good-looks always attracting the Taiwanese. But as Greg said, she "stay[ed] for the kevin," because I have, you know, a personality & also can speak a little Chinese. So I gave her my MSN, but soon after had to get off the bus. hooray for Chinese conversation.

As I got off the bus, so did the woman I was sitting beside. She hurried up to me as I was waiting for the crosswalk light to change & offered shared cover under her umbrella. I accepted, as it was and still is raining like a bastard (that is to say, very hard). So I talked to her a bit, extrapolating on the things she'd been listening in on. Turns out she's a 19-year-old X-ray-related employee at Wanfang hospital & also a university student. Nicely walked me all the way to my house, so I gave her my MSN also. Yeah girls. & as I've said in Chinese many a time, I like Taiwan because everyone is nice.

Incidentally, where were the comments on the last post? I know I've been churning out a lot of content lately, but I can't tell if people are reading or not if nobody posts. Which makes me sad. Which makes me not want to go to the effort of posting pictures once my camera battery recharges. Anyway, here's the one picture I got... Ivan. It's also high time I gave full thanks to Connie for solving my unexpected Diana Krall "Departure Bay" craving problem:

Apparently, this took me since 9:01 to complete. Also, note the inadvertent ABBA song allusion in the picture.