I apologize for the lack of posts recently... I have been very busy & will continue to be until about Sunday, so I guess I can say there ought be another post then, detailing some of what happened.
Monday wasn't too bad of a day. In military training we again went inside and sat around, even though it was a nice day outside. Grr... but choir practise wasn't bad, and then in Music class, our teacher talked about the differences between operas & musicals. And we watched some kickass scenes from Phantom, incl. "Music of the Night" (which Bigface made me sing on the first day) and this other one where the soprano chick hits the E two octaves above middle C. badass.
At the start of Chinese class, Alex was like "Oh, you are supposed to call Ivonne." Claire was also complaining about some last-minute Rotary BS but I had to discover my own and not hear it... anyway I called Ivonne. She was like "You have to call PP Jean your counselor," and I was like, "I've never talked to her ever & I don't know her number." So she text-messaged me this thing. And it was just a hotel address & 6:15 PM. I called her later several times to finally ascertain it was a Rotary event that I had to go to & that it would end very late. Thanks, for the excellent 4 hour heads up, Rotary. Thanks (I am sarcastro).
So, I headed over to Shuanglian MRT station (where I'd seen a sign for said "Ambassador Hotel" once before) & started roaming the streets looking for the hotel. In my roamings, before I found a map, I did find a hardware store (五金行 wujinhang) but I didn't buy any nails because I was on a different mission. Eventually I got to the hotel. It was apparently their annual meeting, which meant a LOT of talking. I learned the word for Rotary club president (which doesn't include the word 'president') & also talked to some lady that knew English. We had a long, many course meal. Most of the courses were the gross kind of food that I sometimes get eating out (I can't figure out if it's Hong Kong style, Hakka, or what) except for a few... such as this half of a small bird. The English-talking woman speculated it was dove.
On Tuesday I was kind of tired, having been cut of sleep by this random event. I did manage to get all the promises I'd made sorted out, i.e. giving Alex the note from the girl on the bus, giving Bigface the choir music at which to take a boo, & the likes. At lunch, I went to see Alex's model "Taipei 101 Building" (台北101大樓)... while there, I saw some hammers & stuff, so I asked a teacher if I could borrow a hammer & have some nails to fix my classmate's chair. She acquiesced. So I fixed the one guy's chair mostly, so it doesn't fall apart any more at least, and also another guy's. Girls chairs rarely break because they don't lean back as often/as hard.
Then I went up to the top field & did chin-ups. This was fun, & it always makes me feel good. Scout was not too excellent, though as always I enjoyed cleaning the school, in a NON-half-assed manner. Cursed Taiwanese students. Alex is right when he says they are learning bad habits (like cleaning stuff suckily with water). Art was also o.k. Afterwards, I got on a Green 2 home. It being my luck, it was too full at the front so the door was closed & I couldn't ask the driver left/right route as I got on. So I asked Kenta in Chinese & he responded in kind "Right route." Well fuck me.
"It's not so bad," I rationalized, "only 70 minutes instead of 50." But I shouldn't have thought that, because it made the gods very, very angry. As a result, I had already been on the bus about 90 minutes by the time I got off in disgust at YongAn Market MRT (捷運永安市場站) & finally got home over 1 hour 45 minutes after I got on the bus. I hate this bus. And in fact, Charity said on MSN, completely of her own, "I hate bus!!" Which I take to be a concurrence in her spotless Chinglish.
In the evening I talked to Eleven (十一)--a.k.a. Friday bus girl--who was confuddled by some statements Alex made. I translated the French ones to her satisfaction, but English is English & I couldn't make that much more sensible. Also, she tried to get me to translate something into English (from Chinese) but it was beyond me. This was all in Chinese on MSN, btw... talk about a headache but also learning new characters x 1,000,000.
Wednesday somehow offered a less suck-taculous culture class than usual. Sure, I got stuck with needles and Scott scraped my head with a spoon a lot, par instruction, but it was less boring than the time we went to Longshan Temple. Scott has had better experiences with traditional Chinese medicine.
Language class was again not too bad, we learned some good words. Man the guy teacher is just awesome. It makes me wonder though, because we're all going at the same pace as the other class. Which is odd. At this rate, we won't get into the 2nd book by the end of the year, let alone the 3rd. I took the bus to Gongguan & then MRT to Nanshijiao to avoid monkey business this time.
Choir wasn't too bad. I got to be page turner for the organist for part of it, which was cool. Because organs are cool. Also, I gave Jack lots of mad tips on drums style throughout the thing. We finally mixed everybody up so we're not in sections, so it was cool. Like, I instantly got perfect at everything because I didn't have to listen to (or lean on as I might sometimes do) other good-tenor-guy who can roll Rs & stuff. I was beside a loud soprano for most though. Phillipines guy didn't show up, & this was our "dress" rehearsal.
Today, I felt rather tired for most of the morning classes. I kind of perked up in Civics (公民 gongmin) when I thought I heard the teacher making a joke about foreigners' Chinese. But then after that she started talking about culture, and I could almost follow, though I didn't understand the meat (i.e. most of WHAT she was saying ABOUT it)... part was about Taiwan vs. western culture & word origins, which was neat. In English we moved desks, and at lunch I did chinups and jogged a couple laps, which was good right before choir.
In the first Domestic Science, I kind of talked quietly to Alex & explained to him a few Chinese things. In the second one he left, so I worked on my little people. The teacher seemed kind of irked by him "skipping my class again" (she said in English) "though I don't care. You're welcome to join us next week for cooking." To which I responded with a silent 'hooray.' Because I love doing stuff with my classmates (as opposed to sitting silently in a room with them).
On the whole though, I might have to say that P.E. was somehow the highlight of my day. I think we have a student teacher, 'cause this guy just keeps coming back... but I did a few laps and then we played soccer. This time it was back to 15 pushups, but I did 20 anyway, because why would I want to decrease my total count? We started out playing some weird game, but I learned a word I think, so w/e. Then it was like some ball control drill. Which I converted into a possession drill with everyone I could explain it to in Chinese, so that was fun. It's like "This is your ball. I want it, but you don't want to give it to me. So I will try to take it, understand?" (Chinese) And then when I managed to get it, I would make them try to take it from me. Tiring, but really fun.
I'm going to do another post soon about all the stuff I'm doing in the next few days. My classmates are in the background of the following picture:
