Recennement

Wednesday: A fairly regular day at school, albeit with no real classes, just people studying (or not) at random. Ms. LIU Jingyu seemed pretty darn cheerful when I saw her. She's every reason to be: her raw choir-teaching roxorness was recognized as best the second year in a row. Chinese classes with LIAO Lingling were in different time slots & that was random.

In the evening I went with Scott to Yuanshan hotel ("Grand Hotel") for a Rotary-sponsored event where, as Ivonne assured us, we were guests but not performers. At the start Scott was really choked because they didn't--as every time--arrange food for him in advance. Ivonne seemed to be a little choked at both of us since she still expects us to lead in the face of BS, disrespect & idiocy even though we've both (as AA also has) from culture class. At the start I was chatting with Wil & Scott and then I saw some hot girls and suggested we go talk them up. They told me to jia you and do it myself.

After being stodgily ignored I turned my attention to the woman on my right, an unmarried, middle-aged former engineer who is now a reporter for the children's newspaper I like. We proceeded to talk for several hours until the conclusion of the event. She taught me the 7 main ethnic groups of mainland China so I was happy. The event itself was all about Hualian county trying to sell itself & its culture. Most of the 10-course dinner included organically grown bamboo shoots as a main ingredient. Anna & Claire were convinced one of the appetizer meats was the "little bird meat" so Yoshiteru & I stared in puzzlement at the character, unable to decide what it was.

Thursday was pretty lame. Aside from, well, nothing, I essentially was on the internet all day from 11:00 AM until 1:30 AM. I did read up on some things, like cryptozoology, David Koresh / Waco, Rapture theology, quantum encryption, Carnivore & that program where a bunch of countries spy on everyone's telephone communications. I forget what it's called though. Call it a day of research into...unusual and 'fringe' topics, if you will.

Today was darn good. Dullish Chinese class at 2 followed by a meal at our favourite restaurant. Did I mention Scott got food-poisoned badly, even after the Rotary chick specifically made the order for food he could eat? (we listened to her cell phone conversation) I got a spontaneous invite to another of his club's events. So, once again with the promise of helping him find it, I went. This time, unlike my own hosting club they actually had a name for me on the attendees list next to Scott & a nametag premade. We sat at a table with the children of Rotarians again.

Conversation during the meal was slightly sparse, though we talked to a girl who did most of her schooling in Canada & her sister. Scott dared challenge me on whether a character in two words was the same (湯匙 &　鑰匙 ... read differently but identical) and asked the girl. She thought at first I was full of it, but after consulting with other people & plugging it into her cellphone she had to concede the error of her ways. I don't know much, but that which I do know, I know well.

Luna from Tek 3 was there again... at the end of the concert (Scott set this up very tactfully) Rtn. Medicare made me go up and sing. So I did "Hotel California" & oh man was she good backup ... the keyboardist laid the sound down great & played all the guitar solo parts, plus I got her to do the high harmony chorus backup as well as others. It was great--I don't know about on my part, I mean, I really suck at using mics but I didn't have any problems with it stressing my voice.

Request: those of you who have experience singing amplified by microphones want to give me any tips? Nobody ever taught me really, and I do it so rarely I always finish feeling dissatisfied & like my sound blew ass due to the nature of the amplification.

Continuing on, afterwards I talked to her for a while. Not only did I manage a standing invite to their regular gig on Monday nights, but also scored her email (she asked me if I checked out their website, so I pointed out her manager had never got back to me with that).

To top it off, Scott & I went to coffee with the youngest of three sisters (he went out with the eldest once or twice) and talked for a long time. My favourite part is how one of the first things she said was "hey, don't speak English." She is also not too bad at explaining stuff, I learned a word for street protest or rally. Speaking of which I plan on attending a large one with Gregg & Anna tomorrow, so I must be off to bed. [1 h 45 m] K out