Choir Trip Day 2

I got up around 6:30 in the morning, due to a wake-up call from a few choir ladies (incl. Rolin whom I sort of like) ... naturally my hair looked really stupid due to showering at night & then sleeping on it. Sometime in there I got a call from Alice, and I talked to Luke some more at breakfast. The sun was really nice out & I took advantage of the light. We went to a kind of buddhist place, with a really big bhodisattva (buddha?) statue and a tower. I went to the top of the tower and saw the good hotel where we didn't stay, which was conveniently near our hostel:

Then we got on the bus and watched "Shark Tale" while driving up, and up, and up. Eventually we ended up 3275m up Hehuan mountain (合歡山 hehuanshan), then subsequently walked up a very, very steep alpine-meadow type slope. You can kind of see what the terrain looks like in this one, as well as the vestments of many people. I actually underdressed for this one:

As we got higher & higher, it got cold, then damn cold. An ice wind arose, bringing in the windchill factor. There was snow on the ground though--something exciting and novel to most of the Taiwanese children. Snowball fights & stuffing of snow down shirts quickly ensued, going to show that children everywhere do this naturally, & it is more a spontaneous than learned behaviour. There was also an unmanned but running (locked up) military/radio facility, along with an underground parkade. Not to mention the little pillboxes/fortifications for riflemen. I just thought I'd show a picture of people being excited by snow:

In the evening at our mountain hostel, it was a little chillay. I had a headache from being out in the cold too long so I popped an advil (I still have more than half of the original 8 or 12 I brought). In the evening we looked at constellations & I could see Orion, even with the bow. I found alternate sleeping arrangements so I could go to bed around 10:30. w00t

Today I got up pretty late, chitchatted on MSN a bit then went to Scott's again. We finished watching the first season of "Full Metal Panic," then ending of which was a bit odd, & had some pineapple buddha fruit. This fruit is a hybrid of pineapple & buddha fruit and it's only available in Taiwan. It is very good, though I don't know if I--as Scott has--can declare it yet the best fruit ever. Later the 1st, I plan to go to see some live indie rock with American Alex... finally! Live music that's not pop or classical: it's been that long. Rock on [1 hour 10 minutes] K out

EDIT: fixed a grammatical error and removed a gross < hr > tag.

100 posts bittersweet...

...but not about blogging. Today marks the departure of he who I believe is the last of the Taiwan exchangees who came last January--Raphael. I believe over 20 people showed up to see him off at CKS Terminal 1. Scott, Etienne, Yujing, Claire & I got there a bit early, but we got to talk to everybody, incl. people we don't often see. It was all cool until shortly after our old mentor walked in through the secure departure gate, when we realised he was truly gone and not coming back. It kind of snuck up on me.

Afterwards, Scott and I got a ride back to the MRT from Wine (with Raph's host mother & Kelly, a fine lass from Zhonglun). At Scott's we commenced to watch 15 episodes of "Full Metal Panic" as well as laugh at a few things from Homestarrunner.com, notely the retro "Teen Girl Squad" as well as a few of Scott's favourites. Does anyone still have 'Rejected' on their computer? I liked that a lot but cannot find it on the internet anywhere so far.

Also, yesterday after a slow start Scott, Claire & I finished Season 3 of Smallville. Subsequently we watched a ton of special features and sometime in the future Season 4 must be begun; however, many people must be caught up first (Kaylee, Wil, Yoshiteru, Yujing namely).

Some random things: It's interesting to note this girl Nicole/Lucy on the Rotary exchange to Japan is apparently "coming home on the fourth of June" which struck me as a little odd. I mean, would one not want to stay just a little longer abroad in what may be a 'once in a lifetime opportunity?' I know I'm shooting to come back around the 15th of July. She is from Canada & probably the district that sent me. I feel just the most minute, tiny, tad resentful, probably because I just watched 6 hours 15 minutes of anime; however, I would like to think that given the same opportunity (I was passed over for her and 3-4 other individuals) to go I would have stayed longer. Like, 11 months or the full 364 days legally possible. Just a moment in the life of me though.

I'll try to get the rest of the trip covered later (with more pictures!) but this took me 1 hour 55 minutes. K out

Choir Trip, Day 1 [#99...]

I've decided to break this up into several posts, for my convenience & also so I will post more pictures. Note this is à la mode Tea Tour, so I shall probably do 3 posts for the 3 days. Plus I don't feel like writing all that much in one night.

So, let's start at the beginning, shall we? You don't exactly have much choice except to read along (or scroll down). It all began at about 6:00 AM on Wednesday morning. I got up, got dressed, grabbed my bags, & two slices of bread for breakfast (all I could find). I then, foolishly, took my dictionary out of my bag because it was heavy and I wanted to pack light so I didn't look out of place. I hopped the MRT, and got to Main Station about 20 minutes early. With a little bit of doing I found the 3rd North Door to the train station; subsequently I supplemented my breakfast with some simple fare from 7-11 (chosen for calorie/price ratio).

We got on a train bound for Hualian (花蓮) and it took quite a while to get there. Oh, did I mention everyone except me brought a ton of stuff? I mean, I know girls will take a huge suitcase of clothes and stuff for a few days, but everybody had multiple heavy bags, and the roller-ones you can use as checked luggage on an airplane. I played cards with people for most of the ride (3+ hours) and just looked at the scenery at the end.

When we arrived, everybody got on a bus, and we went to a beach. One of our tour guides (a young man & woman from China Youth Corps), the boy, told us not to swim. I thought I heard him wrong but when I got to the water we saw this:

Wave after wave pounded the shore, and there was actually like a big rise where we stood, but every once in a while foam would come over the top. The spray was fantastic, but probably bad for people's cameras... the water near the shore was this crazy blue--I think the picture shows it--and the waves curled into the tunnels (but you'd have to be a small midget to surf inside). Also a group photo, click for large version:

Afterwards we went to the Taroko Gorge (太魯閣 tailuoge) for a while... a lot was pretty awesome sights, and around this time I started seeing the misty mountains like in CTHD. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was filmed in Taiwan. However, I have more pics of this later... O.k., one now, but it comes with an anecdote. We were walking along, looking at a nice reflecting pond:

Suddenly, the sound of plastic on wood turned all our heads. It was quickly followed by a dismayed Chinese expletive, as one of the boys realised he dropped his cell phone. Through the slats in the wood. Down 20+ metres into inaccessible undergrowth, or a river. So, now he has to buy a new cellphone.

In the evening we went to a youth hostel (a CYC establishment), where I saw Luke Wheeler with a bunch of other people. He'd been hiking the mountains with them. Later on, we did some really weird activities as our groups got together & selected us as their representatives (no-one is leet like waiguoren). I beat him in two important games of rock-paper-scissors. Afterwards, played cards in our room (7 people sleeping on the floor, just mats/blankets/pillows, no beds) for a while. But the schedule said to bed at 12:00 & up at 6:00 AM...

Note: In preparation for the 100^th post, I have made some changes to the template thus allowing larger pictures. Relish in their resolution!! Also, happy 2^nd anniversary to the Collective~my apologies for the belated wishes. Until next time, rock on. [1h50]

On the road again

Note the title alludes to all the lyrics of the song, not just the fact that tomorrow bright and early I am going on the trip with the choir.

In the past few days it's been mostly choir practise. Yesterday (I think) I met Jake in Danshui, whereupon we sortied about for a while having fun & trying food / activities. I was forced to translate for him as he has somehow managed (even being down-island) not to learn much Chinese at all. Escorted him back to the bus stop near main station, where I stumbled into North Gate, the only original unmodified gate of Old Taipei.

Today was a lot of singing practise & then we cleaned the class. We weren't as thorough as I liked, but I exerted my influence, and insisted on a more than cursory job (considering the music room may only be cleaned twice a year. I made sure most stuff was actually moved so the stuff under it could be swept and mopped to at least knock the dust off everything, and that was fine. Also did some exercise on the field, viz. chin-ups and angle-situps (where the "ground" is 45 degrees below the horizontal).

I gotta be at the train station at 7:00 AM tomorow, so I will bid thee all adieu & be back in a few days, hopefully with a sampling of the numerous pictures I plan on taking. Rock on

the "vacation" begins

Sorry, but you guys won't see me online much at all (let alone anywhere near primetime) as I'm booked up for the next 7 days. Don't know if I'll find much time to blog either.

Yesterday, I went to school. Kenta wasn't there for me to give the homework to. Nor, in fact, were any of the other exchangees. Well that they weren't.

There was no class, or anything. People just cleaned out desks and wiped up the board and stuff... so I mostly just studied and wrote in my journal--I'm now on volume three but I don't write as much as I am studying more often these days. We had an assembly where awards for exams were given out (I believe) & then the administration lectured us about being safe on the break. Because of course, any time you leave the walls & gates of your school or the metal doors & walls of your home you are entering a world of extreme danger (Sarcastro strikes again!).

Afterwards one of the school's embedded military officers kept the 1st-years just waiting, because we were "talking too much." And he yelled at us. I was not too pleased, as I came to school to be educated, not do chores & be berated. By the time I got home I'd spent around 2 hours in transit for 3 hours of non-educational school... much better than the Rotary ratio, but w/e.

The rest of the day was spent on MSN mostly, I think. I also read some Maclean's and ate chocolate. Mmm....

Today, I went to school for the 1st day of choir practise. I don't even get a "weekend" to sleep in or anything.

As I walked onto the school grounds I heard ever-so-faintly the strains of a distinctive Japanese traditional instrument in a unique style. "Only one person in Taiwan plays like that!" I thought, and soon I found Kenta, following my ears. I told him about the new essay and gave him his other homework. Turns out he's going all hardcore, practising from 9:00-4:00 for I don't know how many days.

The practise was all right, we started a nice new boys' song & stuff. Had a good lunch at the old curry place of cheapness. I also learned some good words, which went straight to flashcards, so I can start studying them into memory right away.

Moving towards the bus stop afterwards, I had a sudden flash of inspiration. Why not speak with the Zhangs immediately? I needed to talk to them about when I can leave for Canada so I can make an informed decision booking the flight home. I'd also like to know what everybody's opinions are on that... do you guys want me to come to your grad, Wellington grade 12s? Is that meaningful to you? How much of the summer is needed, everyone, to party & are there times you couldn't make a home-coming bash that I should avoid? I want to spend most of the summer in Canada, but don't want to miss out on a few opportune moments in Taiwan free from school.

I headed over there & started talking with Mrs. Zhang. Man she is easy to talk to, not using a bunch of words I don't get & the likes. I learned some new stuff, & basically she told me any time was good (as Mr. Zhang also chimed in). I went into Claire's room to talk to her and discovered Etienne there as well. We all decided (at other-Kevin's prompting) to go rent a DVD. So we did, the DVD being Pirates of the Caribbean, which we'd all seen (I was cheering for Mulan 2 :p).

After eating a long, filling dinner of goodness, we settled down to watch the movie. Phone calls between various members of our party had been going back & forth with Scott but he had other things to do and could not make it to the start of the movie. Thus, we watched the movie (can I say it in any less dull of a way without stealing "Awesome Squad" writing style?)... subsequently I went to the MRT station.

There I ran into Scott & Jack (he lives down-island). They were talking to some Chinese chick so I joined in and we all gave her our cards. But then the subway to Nanshijiao was pulling into the station, so I hit the jets and got on just in time. Sitting in the train flashing through my cards, I realized I *definitely* hadn't taken the time to beep through and had in fact crashed the turnstile. So when I arrived I had to make the guy enter it onto my card by computer. No hassles.

Tomorrow I need to be up bright and early for choir, but in the meantime post a comment... and check out my keyboard layout at the bottom of the page (scroll all the way down or just press the 'end' key while reading this). Rock on [20 minutes] K out

Don't your feet get cold in the wintertime?

The sky won't snow & the sun won't shine. Well, the sun'll shine, but the buildings are still made of concrete, not to mention the fact that people leave windows open deliberately, then wear coats inside. I don't understand, but nor do I judge (just wear my sandal/slippers, so my feet don't touch the floor).

Let's talk a little bit about Monday... I posted in a comment somewhere how it didn't suck enough, and you all should have inferred likewise from the lack of rant. Even though the event involved very flawed treatment of we the exchange students & in general "culture class" has been poorly executed, several saving graces prevent me from doing anything but providing a summary.

At a few minutes past 4 I arrived at Yuanshan station (seems all Rotary events are up on the Red line), which it turns out is the station for the famous hotel that looks like a traditional Asian building and is very nice. Hacked with AA/Scott for a while before we went to the hotel. People were of course late.

We went up to the 12th floor and started wandering aimlessly--a sweet hall was decked out for the visit of the presidet-elect of Rotary (i.e. he just got voted in for RI but won't lead until later). We were given cold lunch boxes for dinner, rushed to eat them, and then we went out to practise, sans props, on the stage. This finished around 5ish which was when Yujing got there (I admire how she is consistently late).

After this, we had nothing to do, and were left to our devices in a rather small room (maybe 20' x 20' for 20 people)... the event was not to start until 7:30. So Scott & I talked to some college dance students, who were there to be lackeys for the dance-teacher lady. This was cool and part of the reason I was not *furious* afterwards as it helped pass the hours of waiting. Later on we had to put on lame t-shirts... partway through I left the little room (gasp!) to listen to the speech by the President. It was pretty interesting, though broken up due to him stopping for the translator every couple lines.

Just prior to the start of the event, Scott and I placed our business cards (with handwritten messages) at the new president's spot at the head table... go my random ideas. At 9:00 PM (5 hours after we HAD to be there) we performed our parts, and posed for pictures. We all shook hands with the president and exchanged a few words with him. This was interesting, though unfortunately, he was fresh out of business cards. We also met the assistant to the president, a Mexican (pres is a Swede) who in turn has an unimportant assistant.

I think we were finished at about 9:30 & got to the MRT. 5 hours 30 minutes for a performance/photo op of 10 minutes tops. At this point we were mostly pretty irked due to all the wasted time and the leadership style of Vino. So there was nothing for it for me & some of the guys to go play pool at Ximending. Sure I didn't get home until 12:10, but I had fun, forget some of the suckiness of before, and got better at pool. I had do some laundry and stuff, so I didn't get to bed until 2:30.

However, as Kaylee had invited me & I had been keen to go, on Tuesday I went to the Taipei Zoo with some people... I got there at 10:00 AM sharp, as she'd said. Of course, Etienne, Yujing & Yoshiteru arrived around 30 minutes later... the ticket was really cheap, just over $1.00 CDN (30 NT). I brought my camera & by the end took about 120 pictures, but I think I will post only two:

Most of the ones I took after a while were of signage, because it was difficult to photograph a lot of the animals & I was more interested in seeing them myself. Also, the signs had English names & Chinese with bopomo (the zoo is children-friendly, yay) so I took a lot of those for educational purposes. Scott came after a while and all in all it was great fun.

After a long time walking around we eventually left, ate at MacDonalds (I had a ew "prosperity burger") & berate me if you must, but I need my calories however unhealthily they come. Subsequently all agreed to watch Smallville at Scott's (incl. new addition Yoshiteru). Thus we rode the MRT back to Dingxi, picked up Claire from the Zhang residence & started on another disc. It had some terrific episodes I tell you, beautiful story... actually I cried at the end of the last one on the disc (this usually only happens during LotR; "Princess Mononoke" makes me fall asleep if I'm tired).

After that Scott, Claire & I watched a lot of bonus features... Smallville is amazing not only because all the actors are brilliant, perfectly cast, and with awesome chemistry, but also for numerous other reasons. The script is really well-written. Characters have intelligent lines and the many interacting story lines are really enjoyable and cleverly interconnected. The show's theme is about secrets, revelations thereof, & who knows what... also they always try to go for feature-film quality. I love it.

Afterwards, we three had a long discussion on various topics, from Monday, to Chinese to who will probably get sent home... a number of things. Rotary, how we're treated, whatever. It was really neat & I agreed to go with Claire sometime to meet the Su family in Neihu (if I though Nanshijiao was far out, this really is the boonies... take the MRT to the end at Kunyang, then take a bus, then walk. Yeah. Gotta love living in Taipei county.

Today I went to culture class & it was pretty random. It was another Gong Fu, kind of in the middle of the stupid one and the awesome one, but we mostly weilded sticks. This class (unlike others) ran all the way until the end. For once. Several people again took their sweet time coming, & I don't blame them. Lunch was good, with fine conversation to be had. Chinese class was random though, we ended really early.

BUT, I add, something interesting happened. I was assigned yet another 500 word essay (these people aren't very creative are they?) about what I will be doing Chinese New Year (not at all)... that is until my teacher realised I was already writing one about it. So now it's about everything in the break except the CNY. That means I can write it earlier, but it also means Kenta & I have 3 essays of 500 words each to write over the break (that's 1500 words, in Chinese of course, otherwise I wouldn't complain).

Went to a stationery store afterwards. I got a new book with sections, A4 paper (8.5" x 11") for my essay like the school told me, and flash cards. I plan to use the flash cards to convert transit time into study time with them. Got on the bus at like 4:15, it was really fast, only half an hour or thereabouts again, not hitting traffic until the drag in Zhong He city.

That's all for now folks. [1 hour 15 minutes] K out

Post-numbering secrets revealed!!

This post isn't as exciting as you'd think, but in response to Megan's question, I like to mark events such as the 50th & 100th post. It got tiresome counting up from 50, so I marked post 69. Then that got irritating in and of itself, so I have started numbering them again. Now I don't need to though...

Anyway, recently I was delighted by a rather hilarious page entitled 10 Worst Black Metal Pics. Also entertaining are the only web comic I read & toothpastefordinner's deligthful drawings.

In response to Connie's question, I did indeed feel a bit lame. I met some of Amy's reporter-friends, and I stopped hating them shortly after they started talking to me in Chinese (& stopped talking to me in English). There's nothing quite so frustrating as, when trying to immerse oneself in a language by going to a country where it is spoken, having people talk English at you because you are white (at least in this author's humble opinion -- I'm sure people telling you that you suck on a daily basis would also work).

But yesterday was a it of a contender as well. In the morning I got up, and we went to the birthday party of this girl I met the first day I came to this house in Nanshijiao. Of course, it was the family party, not the college-friends-craziness party, but whatever. Then for the rest of the day, I talked to people on MSN... in the early evening I finished Ruined by Reading while eating chocolate. High-quality chocolate I might add.

At that point, I went to bed (9:30ish) because I was feeling tired. Just randomly.

Now, it's 9:30 again... I think that this evening's Rotary event will prove to be most suckitudinous, but we'll see. I have things I want to say right now, but I won't judge it until it's over. If it blows enough I might be forced to rant in a very biased way; however, it remains to be attended. All I have now is the anticipation.

Here's a picture of the styrofoam cake cover, & the effects of flame thereon:

#94

O.k. not too much has happened recently, but I'll give you the low-down:

On Thursday I didn't go to school because, on Wednesday, an office lackey told Kenta & me (in Chinese) that we didn't have to come Thursday, but to come Friday at 8:00 AM. I got a good amount of sleep and then talked to people on MSN for a little while. At some point in the early afternoon I headed over to Scott's, where we hung out for some time.

Shortly, EC, Etienne, Kaylee, & Yujing arrived, having been studying (or so they said) at Zhonglun. We decided after a while to watch Smallville, and were making sure everyone was down with that... Yujing was going to just use the internet while we watched even though her English is really good, but then I had an interesting idea. Just like with, say, French I have studied it a lot but don't speak it very much, so I am much better reading, I guessed she would be more comfortable reading & listening to be able to follow the show.

Turned out I guessed right and both of the girls whose first language wasn't English got an extra boost from the subs. We explained some stuff to Yujing in Chinese (Etienne had seen the show before in Brazil) & she seemed to get all of it, and had a good time as did the rest of us. Partway through I did a bunch of pushups for exercise... Scott was watching my form & I kept going until I basically couldn't do anymore as my torso & limbs felt like lead. I'm still feeling it in the muscles now.

Friday brought sleeping-in for me. I decided there was no reason to go that early on exam day (no classes so wtf) and thus I slept with my cell phone on. I got a call at like 8:30 and found out I had to pick something up at the office... convinced them 1:30 would do just nicely, and went back to bed. From midnight to 11:30 was a nice 11.5 hours of sleep. Mmm...

I got the winter break schedule, and apparently I have to go back on Thursday for no reason. I also got two 500 word essays for homework, hooray. Good old Wanfang, but I can take a lot of silliness which has been pre-mitigated by the choir. Chinese class wasn't bad, we learned a bunch of movie-ish words & lots of words in general.

Oh, in the evening I went with like 10 exchange students to Ximen to play pool again. It was pretty fun, though b/c Raph & Laura like to smoke my clothes got smoky so I had to wear new clothes. Dammit guys, stop killing yourselves. Also, Alex's host brother OWNS. So modest, and yet so good.

Yesterday, or rather today (being Saturday)... not that much happened. I guess I spent most of the day talking to people on MSN. I was planning on going to hang out with Alex but he cancelled. So I saw a piano/orchestra at National Concert Hall. The pianist was an 80 year old lady on her last performance and it was pretty hardcore. We gave her a standing O and clapped for 5+ minutes but no encores. I checked and it is indeed a "Steinway and Sons" grand, I am sure it's full length as well. What a sweet venue. [this post actually took over 2 hours as I've been talking to people, but didn't adjust the time] K out

"The exchange student's job seems to be eating shit & crapping out flowers." #93

Ok, I was quite surprised & pleased by the number of comments on the previous post. It also seems I have new readers of whom I was not previously aware (注意: several changes have been made to links reflecting my current reading practises). I found Victor Fan's blog & he is quite a thinker... I wish he would write traditional Chinese--somehow what I wrote got encoded in Simplified HZ instead of Traditional Big5 though. Also, both my English & Chinese comments sound a little stupid in retrospect. I think it's time for some more Face Time^tm (probably not my trademark though) with the exchange student with the best Chinese:

Meet Alex. Alex is from the United States of America. Like me he is a deputy leader of the exchange students; both of us are under Scott. Unlike me, he studied Chinese for a year some time before coming to Taiwan. For this reason, his Chinese is relatively good & we in Taipei like to boast of his r0x0ring ways. Part of the invalidity of the Rotary-adjudicated speech contest stems from the flawed result in which he did not place.

Monday was a rather good day. In the morning we discovered it was our last calligraphy class; the guy gave us our calligraphy gear so now I have basic stuff with which to practise... I need paper, but I know where to get it. I have yet to ascertain what will fill that time slot. Military Training brought more studying, as usual. At lunch I went to the music room & some random class was watching the end of "Into the Woods," so I caught that. Then in Music class everybody except me & Kenta had a singing test... almost everyone was terribly quiet though, singing pop songs. Even the people in choir were almost impossible to hear. It was a little irksome after a while.

Chinese class was all right, we learned some things, probably had a test of some sort as well. Oh, I almost forgot. Since it was Scott's birthday, & then Kenta's yesterday, we decided to have another cake in Chinese. So at lunch I wanted to go get one, but, surprise surprise, I don't have freedom of movement--at my school, I am limited as the other students. I had to push a form to get past the gate security, which needed to be stamped (similar to signing, but more authoritative) by my English/homeroom teacher, & one of the military staff from the discipline office. I had to fill out the form myself, so the guy looked really skeptical at my three-character reason for leaving: "buy cake" (買蛋糕). It took me only about 5 minutes, I got a good cake, age candles, & a lighter and ever-so-quickly returned (I am pro).

I decided I wanted AC to help me because she is kind of a birthday-observer/good organizer. But right when we put the candles on I was like "wouldn't it be cool if you did the thing like at a restaurant where you take the lid off to reveal the cake." Quickly I added, "but with the fire, it won't work, we can only do one at once. In fact, you should keep two hands on the cake, Claire." Now, Claire can be randomly spazzy at times, projecting small objects at high velocities and walking into things, but she has her pride, so she replied, "No, now I'm doing it." Of course, the cover was styrofoam so it caught fire a bit, but nothing really bad happened and the cake was good. After AC almost dropping cake, we delegated that to AA who decided to only serve once. So Kenta got a ridiculously big piece of cake, about 3/8ths or thereabouts.

After class I headed home, took a shower, put on some non-school clothes, picked up Scott's present & headed to Dingxi. At Chinese I had given him instructions on how to get to the martial arts place (he got a metal fan from somebody). At Scott's we watched Smallville & ate dinner & goodies. I stuffed, and enjoyed, myself thoroughly. I also gave him a ridiculous children's book called "Why am I here?" so he can practise reading bopomo & learn a few words.

Tuesday was a good day as well. Spent the morning studying... in PE we played table tennis (in Chinese 桌球 "table ball") and English conversation & talk-Chinese-with-Denise class were ok. I forget what I did at lunch~I was probably at the music room. In "waste office staff's time" I went to the counciling center and talked to a senior guidance counselor for a long time. Luckily I knew the word for 'pressure' among other things; the discussion proved instructive.

Scout wasn't bad as I spent a lot of it studying & practising characters. After class my teacher talked to me for like 10 minutes, mostly just talking constantly. I followed her for about 9 minutes hardly missing a word & also learned the word for weekend. Yay. In Art we finished "Triplettes de Belleville" with much laughter from my classmates. I also snapped some pictures of the elusive "obey" sign:

I thought it was fitting. Nothing remarkable in the evening, talked with Scott & Alex about Rotary issues and also some of the weird/crazy things about the school system.

Today, I had intended to arrive fashionably late for culture class; however, somehow I ended up right on time. I took my sweet time having a nice morning shower (makes hair nice for the day) & then got on the subway at like 8:20... somehow this worked & I got the bus at main station & didn't get lost this time.

In response to Anna's comment on my previous post, lol indeed. It's funny because it's the exact opposite of truth. Sarcastro strikes again!

Hacking with Scott was good, as was my lunch. I don't know I did well on the Chinese test but whatever. It was the guy teacher, pleasant surprise. On the ride home on the Green 2, which came very conveniently, I wrote a journal entry in Chinese... a little messy and a character or two maybe wrong, but all from my mind--didn't look anything up. Alex has begun to do the same. It only took like 35 minutes again today, yay.

Right now, my host mother is multi-tasking: watching a movie on t.v., talking on her cell, and excercising on a sort of walking machine all at once.

I am thinking of doing some more extended opinion pieces on Rotary and stuff that's been irking me lately, but I am curious? Do we have any Rotarians among the readership? Also, who IS my readership... I know some of the core Wellingtonians & some exchange students read, but there are new people I'm not sure of. Post a comment, everyone, & tell me what you'd like to see more of. [2 hours 20 minutes] K out

Finally a real post (at the behest of Connie) #92

Alternate title, "damn you all, comment!" But as I always say, when desiring comments, make fresh content with exciting pictures. Anyway, I haven't talked about goings-on since the New Year. I'm just going to go with highlights if you don't mind...

Sunday was the performance at Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall... it was some sort of "interfaith prayer for peace" or something. Anyway the performance didn't start until 7:30, and we weren't on until 8:50, yet somehow had to be there at 1:00 PM. Some smart people made up BS excuses and came a lot later. There was security, like you had to go through a metal detector to get on stage and stuff. Went out to dinner with Mrs. Chen & talked with her, but other than that it wasn't all that good. That's another kickass venue checked off my list though... it would be nice to stay for National Concert Hall, but that's August 8th & I suspect some of you would like to hang out with me this summer.

Monday was pretty regular. I can't remember what I did on the weekend, but on Monday we had calligraphy again. In Military training I studied as usual, and at lunch found we had no choir for a while because the exams are coming up. Apparently, people need every free moment to study & cram for like two weeks on end. In Music, we watched more "Into the Woods," and the class was going to finish it in a block Kenta & I had Chinese so we missed the end. Chinese was o.k., Alex & I made jokes for most of it, and there was a random moment when Kenta & I sung a song from into the woods, which Claire has apparently seen.

After school, I went with Alex & Claire to hang out at Alex's house in Jingmei. It is indeed nice as his host parents are indeed wealthy. Went to a night market and tried some stuff (I think chicken ass but not gizzard of anything). Looked at his pictures from the U.S., talked with both of them. I think we pissed his host mother off though, inadvertently. Watching t.v. was random though.

Tuesday morning, I accidentally slept in. You might recall this also happened one time with Physics second semester last year. So I missed the assembly (there wasn't choir practise) & ended up right on time for badminton P.E. English conversation was interesting--we were talking about vacation plans and how Rotary can somehow shut you down (i.e. if you ask Vino). Kenta said he'd found a train/bus trip along the east coast of Taiwan, all the way to the south end. It also apparently visited the most beautiful mountain in Taiwan. In case you didn't know, the east side is the pretty side, the west is full of crappy cities.

Fast-forward to Art Class... we were watching a movie which just happened to be "Les Triplettes de Belleville," a production partly made in Quebec. It's a largely wordless, brilliantly animated piece with lots of music. Unfortunately at the spoken parts (in French) my classmates decided to start talking loudly in Chinese... one thing people here don't seem to realize is while they can read subtitles, we can't hear dialogue unless it's quiet. This was compounded by the fact that my French isn't too good.

My Art teacher also had a photocopy of an article (title trans: "In only 4 months studying, Kevin knows Chinese"), probably from an interview at a Rotary event a few weeks ago. I lent it to French Alex though, and he hasn't yet given it back. A guy from Catholic Choir also sent it to me in scanned format, but the quality isn't good.

On Wednesday, I messed up the bus to Zhong-lun. Somehow. I even got on the right bus, but I think I studied past my stop, and I ended up in the boonies out past Songshan. I got worried when I was the only person on the bus and we drove on a bridge, so I got off after that, crossed the street & took the Blue 27 back to civilization. Which turned out to be Taipei City Hall station. So after consulting a map I walked to SYS Memorial Hall station, & thence to Zhong-lun.

This made me an hour late & when I got there, they were doing line-dancing. Or rather, 4 people were, and the rest were talking, or clustered around one of 3 computers that people smartly brought. I learned the dances really fast, they were simple & fun a bit but after a while I got tired of it. Lunch was o.k. at the mall, there weren't so many people this time though.

Language class wasn't too bad, though it was the woman again. She is now doing 2 classes a week, but she was supposed to be taking January off to go on vacation. Go figure. It's just not as positive a learning environment, because she wants us to be like Taiwanese students. psht psht psht. Afterwards, Scott, Claire, Alex & myself went to Alex's house. We hung out, watched part of a show which I think is called "Bullshit" and played some worms. Again fun.

Thursday morning, Sophie returned to Australia. I could have gone to the airport & saw her off, but I didn't know her at all (she was one of the two people who came last January)... Raphael is leaving soon too, we'll see him off with a bang. Whatever classes I had were unremarkable, I actually had to leave at 11:00 to go to Rotary. I accidentally took the MRT up the Brown line to "Nanjing E. Rd. station" when my instructions were to go to Zhongshan North Road & Nanjing West Road intersection. I got to Zhongshan station, and then walked to the hotel (very close).

The meeting was o.k., once again most of the business was conducted in Taiwanese, but I got the people sitting beside me to talk to me. Found a new (the ancient method) way to write "zhen" which messed me up when trying to read a newspaper article. Also, met PP Jean's daughter, who is a really nice girl studying Art History & Politics in New York. She has heard of Diana Krall, & her English is perfect, but I made her talk at me in Chinese. She appreciates my jokes, I think. Thursday evening I went to the music store & played piano for an hour.

This past Friday also had some goings-on associated with it. In "Three Principles" I got my teacher to agree to write me up some sort of vocabulary list (of unspecified length) that I can study over winter break. This will rock severely as the specialized vocabulary should allow me to talk more about politics and understand more of the textbook. w00t. At lunch I hung out at the music room & played piano. I think in there somewhere I got this girl to try sight-reading Chopin's "Fantaisie Impromptu"... it was random.

Chinese class was o.k. I guess. Afterwards went to choir where Ms. Liu talked about the trip for like half an hour (I got a lot of it, but not knowing the word for taxi I missed the part in the middle) and then we had choir tests. I talked to her afterwards & she agreed to lend me the "Into the Woods" DVD. The choir trip will be the 26th to 28th of this month and will cost several thousand NT (it might end up being over $100 CDN) & will rock a lot. We are going to Hualian (in Yilan) and Taizhong (see map). Also, she invited me to come visit her house with other choir students sometime in the break. Hooray.

I got on the bus and was freaking out because outside it said left line, but inside it said "right line." Turns out it was left, and I got home around 6:30. While on the bus I realised I had two tickets for a concert, instead of one. So I called my host mother but she had to work night shift at the paper. Or evening shift, or whatever.

Once home, I made a few calls and finally Mrs. Chen agreed to come, so I said I would meet her at CKS Memorial Hall station at 7:10 (the concert being at 7:30). I wolfed down dinner, changed into some non-school clothes and hopped on the subway. We got there just in time. Again, the seats were on the 4th level, but this time instead of being way at the back, we were right on the edge about 10 rows from the back, which afforded a superb view.

The orchestra was really good, it was the private orchestra of some random corporation. In the second act they again wheeled out the grand piano, this time for one 35-minute-long piano/orchestra piece. The pianist was good, and it was kind of a virtuoso demonstrative piece, but the guy from before was better. I've also seen Rie Okamura (who across from the twins & plays for A Capella Plus) play better. Afterwards, some fun orchestral numbers that were very famous pieces. 3 encores, including one dedicated to the tsunami victims. This orchestra, like NTNU's, has a harpist. Go harp, something I don't see enough of in Nanaimo. Like orchestras. Or virtuoso pianists busting out on full-length grand pianos (the one at the National Concert Hall doesn't even have a music holder on it--nobody unable to remember whatever hardcore piece they're playing uses it).

Saturday morning I got up early to meet the guys at Xindian station for paintball. This was part of Scott's birthday celebration, and the following people were in attendance: Scott, myself, Wil, Kyle, Fabio, Raphael, Yoshiteru, Noemie. We took the Green 3 to the end of the route, then walked a little to the paintball place in the hills south of Taipei. It was a little cold (but I always play paintball in the winter) and the ground was a little muddy. Wil went fucking hardcore, lying prone, crawling on his belly, and slaughtering the other team. It was fun, and when we played in the barrel area it was really scary because when a ball hit the barrel it made quite the sound. Pictures!

After a while we started playing random 1-on-1 deathmatch games. The Taiwanese guy called it "PK". That was pretty sweet too, I have a few videos of Yoshiteru/Kyle as well... in the last game I took a lot of hits, and got some marks on the shoulders. Some hit me in the face, which got my hair, but didn't hurt due to the mask. I love paintball.

Afterwards, went to Scott's & we watched the bonus features disc of Spiderman-2. The movie CD wouldn't play because the player said it was wrong region (though other region 1 stuff works). So we played Worms for a while then I went home & read Maclean's magazine, which was from another package I got--thanks guys :) Turns out I missed out on an invite for the evening with AA & AC.

Today I went and played pool with Raphael, Fabio & Scott at Ximending. It was pretty cheap; I'm not sure how long we played but over an hour. It cost 295 NT, which worked out to less than 3$ CDN for each of us. After that, we went to the arcade & Scott/Raph played shooter games as a team. Raphael is really good though I think Scott might be the better shot in real life. Tomorrow is Scott's birthday. You might want to head over to that blog of his and write him a birthday message. *wink wink* [1 hour 30 minutes] K out

Also, I'm drinking really good "strawberry milk tea" right now. Mmm...

"with sunglass and ling straight hair. You are surely a lender guy, right?" [sic]

I saw this neat thing on Anna's blog... (all "Xanga"s changed to 'blog"):
1. take your blogger username and replace each letter with the corresponding number (A=1, B=2, etc...(underscore = 27):
11 + 4 + 15 + 2 + 19 + 15 + 14

2. add all of the numbers together to create a kind of super number:
80

3. add the digits of the number together:
8

4. find the post of this number in your blog (if you dont have this many posts add the numbers together again): chrysocolla opiates

5. take the digit you noted in step 3, and count that many words into the post:
only

6. use the resulting word in a google image search, and select a picture from the first page and post the results.

Wasn't that fun? Y'all should try it.