"No one's gonna stop my flow, yeah"

Once again, links adjusted to reflect my current reading habits... if only Foo would post more.

Fun link of the day: mosnews.com -- for the same reason I watch CPAC, let me offer this awesome Russian news site. What's best is you don't even need proficiency in the language to enjoy its stories! There's something I enjoy about the different underlying cultural assumptions & situations that is hinted at or revealed in the stories. Also, apparently you can grow a penis on your arm. But don't take my word for it.

Saturday, I went to the peace march thing as I had planned. You can read an article about it or the reaction at my newly discovered find, wikinews. There were a LOT of people and let it be said that Gregg, Anna & I did lots of random things. At the beginning we got free propaganda from the DPP (green stuff) & then some Lions Club banners. I think this chick that interviewed me before photographed us for a newspaper with said banners -- my classmates mentioned seeing me in the paper. Anyway, ran into Medicare & Alice (my new official counselor) at which point we got rid of the Lions banners & got big Rotary ones... we carried two-person banners like you see in protest marches on tv. While Greg & I were doing it we kept sending Anna to the 7-11's we passed, but NONE of them had burgers, which is what I wanted. grr...

At the event we met another Canadian, a 23 year old English teacher from Saskatchewan. I found out about a new Chinese school of sorts, which seemed very interesting to me... I might try to pull an 'Alex' later on in the year, haha. After people started clearing out, this old drunken guy started hanging out with us, teaching us basic phrases in Taiwanese, Japanese & Afrikaans. Also met a random girl who is pursuing her graduate degree in journalism from 台大 (taida NTU). Got her MSN, but apparently she was 'busy' that evening.

On Sunday pretty much nothing of interest happened. I got a mysterious phone call from Jake in there somewhere, returned it 2 hours later but no answer. I think I got up at like noon and then went to bed 9:30 ish ... it was a short day. I did talk to a few people on MSN though, yay. Oh I did pushups too. Lots of pushups.

Today was another pretty good Monday. In the morning, guess what? there was once again no calligraphy teacher, so I read articles on wikipedia. I also got to talk to James (Windross) & possibly Brianna on MSN. In army class we did a lot of pushups again, and then marched around in the sun. After this I had energy problems doing pullups, but I still go every weekday; this time I saw lizards again. w00t

In choir we are starting a new song in Taiwanese, which means lyrics which are a bitch for me to learn. In choir we did another one, but the textbook uses a weird kind of pinyin for their Taiwanese so I can read it faster & guess at the sound. It was called "Garbage Truck" in English... go figure. Still no word on our next project about musicals--it'll be sweet if we do it though. Chinese class was random, with another sub... then I had another block with my awesome LIAO Ling-ling. Did two poems... one took a while, but the other was basically all characters I knew so I figured out most of what it meant on my own (it's still poetry though).

Recent Developments: Just spent the last while registering online for a ticket site, & finally acquired a ticket to the Diana Krall concert, w00t. I will be going on the 4th, but Avril is tomorrow. rock on, y'all [1 h 40 minutes] K out

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

The best possible outcome

You'll note that once again our hands are not in the 'peace sign' format, but holding up a single finger. The "peace sign" actually means like "yes" or "yeah" in Taiwan, not "peace" or anything of the sort. I have to go to some sort of Rotary event tomorrow & people's exams are coming up.

In other news, my choir won. I've never been #1 in a country for high-school-level anything before, so it was new for me. Also, this is I believe the second time ever our teacher has taken a choir to 1st... usually they are in the top 3. It's especially good because they won last year, so this counts as 'defending the title.'

I have more to type about later, but I just thought I'd let you all know, because naturally people are interested in this type of thing. Your wishes of luck were greatly appreciated. This was going to be the day when I finally broke another months-long draught of no hugs; however, Natasha from Denmark surprised me with one when I saw her randomly at my bus stop at Kunyang. And scored another invite to Hualien. Oh, how I love Hualien. Yilan is not as good.

rock on

PS it was raining HARD at Wanfang & made for a soaking run from the tour bus to the MRT station. This time no after-party to miss because everyone has to study for exams.

7 months

Well, I left Nanaimo-Collishaw airport on the 20th & here it's the 20th again, marcking the passing of 7 months (less than 4 remaining until return) & also auspiciously the Vernal Equinox.

Yesterday I met some people after choir as there was a random Rotary event at my school.

Tomorrow & the next day I will be going to Yilan with the choir to prepare for & compete in the national music competition. Wish me luck. Later in the week it's exams, so no school for me (but stress for my classmates). Yesterday a girl passed out during practise. Today a different one did. Lack of oxygen + hard work singing + stress = actual physical problems.

In other news, I am still single as can be. Darn it. Rock on for now.

Thank you for the music

Well, today was long and random in a lot of ways. I started by waking up at about 6:22, whence I proceeded to take a shower & have some bread for breakfast. I got on the Red 2 at 7:03 & arrived at Yuanshan MRT about an hour later. Rode to Jiantan (next station) then got off, and found the 260 bus to Yangmingshan. Saw lots of university students... Taiwanese university girls are hot. Indeed.

I finally got to the end station at Yangmingshan around 8:48, so only like 1 hour 45 minutes there... did I mention I didn't get a seat on either of the buses? lol. I had a while to wait as Ms. Lin (a.k.a. fanfan) was coming to pick me up at 9:10. It was a really, really nice day & the scenery was beautiful; there was even a cool wind. The mild hint of sulphur in the air didn't help things, but I didn't mind much as it seemed almost clean compared to Taipei air. Mmm... mountains. This randomly reminds me of the time me & Zed went hiking last summer.

Having arrived at the school I proceeded to give my crappy presentation to the grade 5 class about Vancouver. They seemed really interested in the talk of hockey players though. Afterwards we got to see Fanfan's pics of her trip to Vancouver (discussing said voyage was how I met her in the first place). Apparently she has no husband but dumped her boyfriend recently, which doesn't explain how she ended up with 2 kids my age. Whatever. I was then compelled to go outside and play basketball with the children. They have a little track and a little basketball court, all in miniature, thus I could just barely make a slam dunk--impressing them muchly.

Subsequently, I taught a grade 1 english class. Did I mention that asian small children are cute? Not to the extent of Zed's CUTEST KITTEN EVER (see reference) but still very much so. I read them stories and sang them songs... this one girl kept saying "tenor" in chinese and adding a number every time I sang a high note, lol. Afterwards they didn't want me to leave... I literally had little people clinging to my legs. Turns out I can walk with 50-lb bundles of joy attached though, w00t. Following this I had lunch with Fanfan & then took the Red 5 + MRT back to Wanfang.

At school I went to random choir practise in the middle of the day for a while. Then I was going to go to PE, but we weren't doing sports, just getting measured for heigh & weight & eyesight & the likes again... BUT the teacher said I wasn't to do so, so I left and helped my Chinese teacher translate something from Chinese to English. This was very challenging to the mind but likewise quite interesting & fun. AFterwards I was just like "oh man, my brain is tired." It seems I can find the senses of Chinese words I didn't know before and find the exact English matches with my mind (that show up in her pocket dictionary after I called them). This is a repeatable phenomenon. And 'twas an interesting experience.

Tuesday & Wednesday were boring and not worth mentioning. This post somhow took an hour and twenty minutes to write. In case you were keeping track, I spent like 4 hours on buses and MRT today, w00t. K out

Now with more calories

Blooooooogs... they're closing. I yearn for the days of much fresh content & the likes... I am sure some days now I go through the list & nothing is updated. Some days...

As for Sunday, I went to choir in the morning (once again late due to lack of water) & thence to the Hyatt. It was nice to meet some girls, though the aspiring English teacher in particular was rather dull. The food, on the other hand, was excellent. We all ate a lot, & I was blown away by the excellence of the deserts. What really got me, though, was that they had English Breakfast Tea... mmm... I mean, the Earl Grey was ok, & generic stuff is all right too I suppose; however, though strong on its own, with cream & sugar this particular type is about the most perfect tea ever. I did have a good blueberry blend at one point, but Scott found it at some random market so I dunno where to get more. All in all it was a rather random, unproductive day.

Man I could use some Taiwanese friends. All this studying and stuff has got to go; people need to be having free time & doing stuff with me. Failing that, I will continue to complain.

Phrase of the Week: "They must study; you aren't allowed to talk with them."

Today, I had what felt like a long day. Once again away from home for over 13 hours. Music class was interesting because she actually expected Kenta & I to know what was going on and learn something. That's fine & dandy by me as we are studying Chinese instruments so I might as well pick up this knowledge as I won't hit it later.

I also saw a really pretty girl on the subway. And on the bus, the chick sitting beside me was knitting... I couldn't tell what though, I think it's supposed to be a hat. One of those stupid hats that sometimes Taiwanese girls wear, but they actually usually don't, because they too realize how stupid said hats look.

In the News: China enacted their anti-secession law today. Also, it is White Day, Pi day & Commonwealth Day. hurrah!

rock on

Now with more sodium (sweet jesus!)

Just thought I'd include that picture for kicks, it's me on my first day in Taiwan at CKS International Airport. I found it by accident on a Chinese-language Rotary site. Hurrah!

In other news, I am a consumer whore (and how). I just bought a Jay live CD, Avril's "Under my skin," and an ABBA collection with DVD. Yay. Now I have good Chinese music to listen to, and ABBA tunes aside from Super Trouper (not that it's not an excellent song), plus the Canadian stuff so I will not be confused at the concert. Some of the songs were pretty good, but as I say, wait for the live effect.

Lately I have been finding it difficult [read: not possible] to post comments to blogs. I don't know if this problem will ever be resolved, but in the meantime rest assured I am reading every single one as displayed in the list of links on the side. I will attempt to continue with fresh content so y'all are up on everything that's going on.

Today, I woke up to discover the water flow in our house mysteriously nonexistant. This means that not only was my laundry undone, but the toilet wouldn't flush, I couldn't wash my hands or clean dishes. Moreover, the shower was not functioning. This may not seem like such a big tragedy, but keep in mind on Friday it was like 25 degrees. I had PE and then went to work out & jog on the field at lunch, so I was a bit of a smelly boy when I woke up. It's not like there was cold water or anything, but no water at all. Eventually my host dad was like "oh, I'll just go upstairs and fix that."

So I had a shower, which was somehow warm the whole time, and then was off to school. This made me a bit late for choir, but people were still dicking around when I got there, and arrived before Liu Jing-yu (劉靜瑜, our director). I mean, sectional practise is all well and good, but the tenors are not that good & instruction from our awesome teacher is better. Boy can she sing.

Anyway, practise was all right but she was kind of choked at us (tenors in places of Messiah No.26 for slowness, and basses at the end of that part for flatness on an octave leap upwards). So we have another practise tomorrow morning, after which I am going to the Hyatt for lunch with Alice & her daughter (w00t, girls my age). I think it might be bad form to hit on my de facto counselor's daughter, but the children of other Rotarians are fair game. We'll see how it goes.

After choir I went to Ximen and roamed around for like an hour. Eventually I could only find the one music store I'd seen before. I bought the aforementioned CDs, though I was tempted by "Joe Hisiashi Piano Solos" (he wrote the soundtrack to Miyazaki films like Mononoke Hime & Sen to Chihiro no Kamekakushii). I got kind of pissed because the low price posted on the CDs is actually some secret member's price so it all ended up costing me like CDN $60 instead of $40. W/e... this Jay stuff is really good, as is the ABBA, not to mention it comes with DVDs/VCDs & I needed the Chinese music. I am also really happy because I have found explanations of Taiwan gov't structure on Wikipedia, so now I can match up English to Chinese names, maybe discuss more news and better understand "Three Principles" class. w00t

Afterwards I came home. Somewhere in there I watched "Mystic River" with my host mother. I liked it a lot, the way it kind of ended without real resolution, leaving people to deal with what happened seemed really true to life to me. I want to read the book now though. Also, I missed the dialogue in some parts, because Taiwanese people watching subbed stuff don't care about the foreign-language audio too much... sigh.

Also, read a kind of interesting thing called the Matsuyama Declaration about haiku. If I were tired due to parties, mother, I wouldn't exactly be complaining. :p My exercise program (i.e. exercise a lot, eat a lot) seems to be working as I currently stand at around 133 lbs. I've now regained the weight I lost. Just goes to show you should take the Rotary anecdotes about massive weight gain on the YEP with a grain of salt. Sure, thin asian girls going to the US could gain 20 lbs or 20 kilos, but not I. rock on

pretty shuai for a white guy

Today was a good day. I was really tired in the morning, so I ended up having sliced bread (but healthful BROWN bread) for breakfast as I walked to the bus so I could get to school on time. And on time I barely was. Also, for part of the morning quite tired I was... I just put my head down on my desk & tried to sleep for most of the 30-minute 'test time' which is not a class before first class. Ms. Liu (unmarried, been dating the same guy for 15 years but he doesn't have the balls to propose) asked if I was all right and I assured her I am tired--as indeed I am--merely because I am trying to sleep like a Taiwanese person. In fact even more than them. But it's still not quite enough.

Domestic Science with S210 was kind of dumb. I got some studying done, but not very much because I was pretty tired. For part of it they were talking about homosexuality and stuff, or at least the teacher was. The typical Taiwanese guy is even more homophobic than Welly's lowest common denominator, I think. I caught the word "disgusting" a couple times (and my host mother confirmed that's their POV too). Learned there is no special term for homophobia, I managed to guess the right term, w00t. Turns out I *can* circumlocute sometimes... power plant IS 'electricity factory' too... heh.

In Earth Science, I got bored really quickly as most of the guys around me. I don't know if I was studying the new vocabulary or flash cards, but it was a little tiresome. Chinese class was great, I really like this intern-teacher-girl, she is fun... we finished the passage for the chapter~ I am doing grade 3 stuff now... maybe by this time in 2006 I will be ready to study the stuff I'm sitting through in class right now, lol. Tomorrow we are doing a Tang poem, as I want to hold off until Tuesday on another chapter of vocabulary. The new grammar, words and characters are awesome; however, it's a lot to manage and I think I need over the weekend to get it down. Hooray poems.

Lunch I hit the chin-up bar (it's hot outside) and then walked over to the choir room. While I was doing chin-ups, there were these two girls talking about 50 metres away. As I was walking away they simultaneously yelled "bye bye" in a typically cute Taiwanese fashion. It was perfect. Choir practise was good, my voice was good & felt I got some kickass volume on the warmup, for part... still don't have endurance or very much breath support, bwah.

Living Technology is where things got interesting. At the start we were just wasting time and walking around to various rooms. Starting talking to one guy who wanted to study abroad... I suggested Rotary because he doesn't have much money, but he wants to live and work in America & I don't know he can get good enough to like write the SATs in one year. Eventually we ended up in a classroom, some guys started crushing a one NT coin in a vise. I helped out with my bulging forearms (lol, no definition though).

Partway through we started an assignment in groups (my favourite class leader Xie Ren-jie was there) & this sheet was all about "how does technology relate to society?" "what would your life be like without technology?" &c. Part of the 'without technology' question said [trans:], if there wasn't power, you wouldn't have a cellphone, couldn't ride vehicles etc. So I am like "you could soooo ride vehicles, for example a horse, old train, or bicycle." So they called the teacher over and parroted that to him, and we had a random short discussion. I am glad I made there be student-teacher interaction: one rarely sees it, esp. the whole asking questions thing.

I got people to teach me a few words, and we even had discussion & stuff. I got XRJ to teach me "driver's license" (she knows a ridiculous amount of English... I see her reading a collection of Byron's love poetry sometimes), but nowhere to write it, so on my arm it is. Yay. Then there was PE class. The warm-up with jogging and stupid stretches, and a pitiful amount of pushups and situps (20 & 20). Girls only have to do 12 pushups, but most can't even do that many. We played basketball: I was in two games of 3 on 3, and then we did 4 on 4 with some girls--I mean that in the most basketball sense too, no sexual connotation implied.

Then I bought some "Pocali Sweat" (I swear it's 'pecori' but that's what the can says) which is a Japanese drink for replenishing the -- ignorance appears -- stuff... chemicals/minerals/electrolytes you sweat out when you exercise all hardcore in the 22+ heat. I hopped on the MRT and headed off home. At Zhongxiao Fuxing I saw Michael Torres, so I talked to him a while. At Donghu I got more flashcards for all my new vocabulary & some pringles for snacking on, as I write this I just ate a plate of grapes though, mmm...

Dinner was good, I got salmon, white rice and fried lettuce. My host father got a fried egg but I thought that a little much. There was even conversation, fun fun. I am thinking of starting a blog in Chinese, but the URL I want is taken, so it may wait for another day. Thought it'd be a good way to get into and keep in a lot of contact with people I meet. K out

Current Music: [some I listened to from shuffle on the whole list] "Making Plans" (Brad) , "Past & Future Secret" (Blind Guardian) , "Soma" (Brad cover) , "One Way Mule" (Silverchair) , "Thorn" (Blind Guardian) , "Unknown Pop Track" (Unk. Taiwanese Artist) , "Always the First to Die" (D & D song, Unk. Artist) , "Systematic Failure" (Genetic Drift) , "Ode to the Old [Radio Edot]" (Brad & Kevin) , "Super Trouper" (ABBA) , "Ashitaka to San" (Joe Hisiashi) , "Nightfall" (Blind Guardian)

Just Randomly

I have a ticket to an Avril Lavigne concert for the 29th. This is good. The fact it's looking progressively less likely I can go to any of the 5 day music festival in Kenting is not so good. Can still do a choir 1-day event. My school & choir teacher are convinced that I am really, really awesome.

In other news, it is my host mother's birthday. I got her a card that I wrote in (a big one, but I'm saving the biggest for someone else) & a teddy bear. She said she didn't like sweet things so no maple syrup for her. Also, it's International Women's Day everywhere & Mother's Day in Albania.

The amount of comments Alleah gets is ridiculous. Still, I'd rather have reasonable amounts of comments than flame wars. So I won't be calling anyone a poser.

K out

"Babies Taste Great"

If you don't know whose motto that is, just ask--sort of an inside joke among a few people. On a completely unrelated topic, Rotary is being problematic about traveling. I am offering them the (in my opinion) completely reasonable proposition:

I am encountering difficulty and was wondering if you could help me out. As you doubtless know, there is in Kenting from April 1st-5th a music festival. Students who went last year have informed me that it is a great, unique opportunity to experience the music culture of Taiwan. Of course, both as an exchange student & lover of music I would very much like to attend.

The difficulty arises because I do not completely understand the rules of travel outside the district. Could you please suggest to me the most acceptable method (最可以的辦法) for attending this event? It is not necessary to go for the whole thing, even 1 or 2 days would be fine to experience it.

My host mother was supposed to represent/advocate this desire at a host family + rotary meeting today; however, I don't think she did a very good job as their apparent answer is "不行" (buxing no, not permissible, not acceptable). So I have sent an email explaining in no uncertain--though I feel fairly reasonable--terms to the district.

I am trying to be a 'good exchange student' not running off and doing stuff by myself. If they say "you need to stay with this host family, being home at 9:30 at night, and only go for the weekend," that's fine by me. I can understand even requiring some adult chaperone to accompany us on the way there (what trouble one can get into riding the train or bus I can't imagine) & back, aside from staying with approved people. I want to go in a small group though. Travelling with two busloads of people does not count as traveling. Going to Gaoxiong with that many people on a Rotary schedule is not going to a 5 day music festival in Kenting.

In other news, I have officially withdrawn from the 'culture class' so I can not suffer the BS & the dancing anymore. This means more time at school & a yummy TWO blocks that day with my personal tutor (provided gratis by my school). Plus, I can finally go to Wednesday morning choir practise. The more Chinese / less English should be better overall. Naturally, the 'status quo' of people sleeping in and stuff would have been better to maintain, but that won't be possible.

In a brilliant contractual violation, PP Water even went so far as to say that if people came late to culture class any more, their allowance would be withheld or reduced or something. That was kind of too much for me. I mean, sure I signed a really stupid contract to come on this exchange where the host Rotary district can add clauses in the form of a rule-set I wasn't able to see when I signed my name to the contract. Not to mention that neither Rotary nor your host families have spelled-out responsibilities. Nor do you have recourse if, say, your host family just locks you out of your house (happened last year, happened this year). Sorry if I sound negative. But now it's time for my

Short Article Extolling Youth Exchange!!

That's not to say everything is bad. In fact, even though I am often frustrated I am still glad that I took this opportunity & would still recommend youth exchange, even Rotary youth exchange, to all of you. It's a fantastic way to experience another culture (even though parts of Taiwanese culture make me sad & glad that I didn't grow up going to Taiwanese school) and if you want to take a good stab at a foreign language.

Depending on your personality, I would or would not recommend Taiwan. It has the advantage of being the only country in the world on RYE where you can learn Mandarin Chinese, but depending on a few factors beyond your control you may not be able to enjoy the same lifestyle as people in other countries (such as many European ones). Still people for the most part are still having an ok time & no-one has gone home, save a German guy who got really, really sick.

Naturally, having such great friends back in Canada, some days it is difficult. "I could be jamming with Brad right now," I think, or hanging out with any number of people. On the whole, I think I have benefitted in personality, experiences, and language education. Not to mention my pushup count and bulk in my triceps (body's overall mass remains the same).

Just keep on rocking, y'all, and post a comment. Also, Soobus' blog closed its doors. Another one bites the dust. [3 hours, on and off] K out

Parts were good, parts were bad

Anyway, on 228 I went to choir practise then watched a bunch of Smallville: season 4 with Scott & Claire. Good way to spend a day, none of this exercise or experiencing culture in the rain. On Tuesday in my "waste random office staff's time" class I wanted this lady to explain what 228 was all about but she didn't know so she had to look it up online. I eventually figured it out with the help of a wikipedia article.

Wednesday brought about yet another culture class. Once again, I was punished for participating in class, yay. They were learning this coolio dance with fans, so Scott, AC, Kaylee & I all learned it, while the rest of those in attendance (some arriving at 11:00 or later) sat around. At the end of the class Water & Vino were talking about stuff and declared that if you wanted to quit culture class you could, and just go to school. I will probably do that, my school will block me two hours of Chinese class on Wednesdays, I just need to make sure my teacher is up to it. I am still shooting for 16 hours/week of instruction that I think is the maximum / ideal. Alex & Scott have got it already (Alex with 10 hrs of college + 6 hrs chinese class, Scott has 10 or more hours at his school) and so far I am partway to my goal with about 11 hrs / week. We'll see if independent study is possible & renders more time unnecessary--I don't want to monopolize the helpful intern's time. Nowadays in our Chinese class we are pushing and doing a chapter every 2 classes or thereabouts. It's easily possible... like 2 hours of time is for vocab & grammar, then 2 hours for tests, with us studying in between.

Thursday, being today, I got to school almost on time and we had a riotous "Domestic Science" class with S210. They were going skits about relationships, but almost all of them involved all guys with a guy playing one of the girls and the point, if any, was lost. I took this time to make some of the words & idioms I've been learning recently into flash cards. Third block I *thought* was going to be Civics, that's what my schedule says, but no, we had Earth Science. So I tried to figure out the words for continental drift and stuff by looking in the textbook, then I found an index with the word in Chinese, English & a chinese definition in the back. b'oh!

The MRT ride to Songshan was quick, saw some interesting people on the way there. I arrived early and so got to enjoy the use of the hotel's deluxe Japanese toilets (the expensive heated-seat electronic kind, not squat toilets like at my school). Club meeting was good on the whole. We had japanese food again, good sashimi & good coffee. Met Rtn. Printing's daughter, who is hot & just finished high school; she has yet to write university entrance exams. I also got another month's allowance which will coming in handy for paying the added costs of transit to & from school. I am still rolling in the dough though -- not to worry, 'rents.

They made me give a speech which was dumb, because people weren't really listening so I would just ask people at random to ask me a question about something. Go improv, none of this prepared BS. Except for the second speech contest, because then I can use idioms. I found one of the books I have been issued is a diary like my classmates use. So I will try now to write each day about everything I did in a day, to help learn new words & find out what characters I don't know how to write down. Hopefully I can get someone (i.e. one of my teachers) to edit for grammar & character errors; I rarely use wrong characters.

I talked to the girl (Heidi, but I can read her Chinese name) for a while when the speaker finally came. It was finally a guy who could deliver an entire lecture on something about plants & pigments and making colors all in Taiwanese. But, that also meant I had no idea what he was saying. He was a bit long-winded too, so by the time he finished I was ready to hit the road. Heidi suggested I hit up the bookstore at Ximending, or 101. Not wanting to go further away from my house I decided I would visit PageOne at Taipei 101's mall, because it is reputed to be "the largest English-language bookstore in Asia."

Walking from the MRT station to the building in the rain was no fun: I had an umbrella but that didn't stop my feet from getting wet. The hardcore raininess of Taiwan plus uneven streets with puddles is not good. I finally arrived and roamed around designer clothing stores and banners welcoming Bill Clinton & touting his book until I finally found PageOne. Of course, since this was the one day I decided to come, it was closed for them to take inventory. Needless to say, I found myself midly frustrated & pointedly irked. After unleashing a short string of expletives combining the three I know in Chinese, I got a bus from City Hall all the way back home.

And that's what's been up in the life of me. I've been trying to post more comments on people's blogs, but though I read every one on the list, I don't post to all of them all the time. Alleah's blog has been getting unprecedentedly high totals lately.

Please Note: Changes have been made to the links list to reflect my reading habits and the realities of the local blogosphere. Victor hadn't posted since January & Devin's blog just closed its doors. As always, it's arranged in alphabetical order. If anyone would prefer their blog not be linked to, just post a comment or send me an email & I'll remove it. Thank you for your patronage. [45 minutes]