Tuezday

Today was once again not quite the usual routine; however, it was not especially good. I've been feeling tired some mornings, and let me assure you when Thursday's Rotary meeting comes around I'll be sleeping until the meeting--I don't get up at 6:00 every morning unless I have to. Luckily the Zhangs have been good lately with not minding me sleeping in a bit or neglecting to go to school. There are still a few things to do at school & they indeed mind.

This is not true for all of us at Wanfang. Alex & Ivan seem to spend all day in the library or one of the offices (they don't go to class ever), but even being on computers all day cannot sustain one's interest indefinitely. In fact many people seem to already feel bored or that they've "had enough" of Taiwan. Naturally nobody will give Rotary the satisfaction of going home early (with the single exception of a German guy who got seriously ill), not even Augustin, who has still not been located. I admire his tenacity, if sometimes questioning the merits of & moral grounds for acting to spite oppressive authority after voluntarily submitting oneself to that authority. mreh, people are people.

Speaking of people being bored, I still feel this way quite often. I don't always have motivation to study Chinese as adding to my ability doesn't exactly reap immediate benefits in improved communication or whatever. American Alex's Shida semester ended, and now he is so bored that he goes to school sometimes. I leared the lyrics to the anthem today, and how to write it, though a few characters are really obscure. Also, Ms. Liao taught me "Changgan March" or "Walk from Changgan" or something--a really famous, long poem by Li Bai. In fact, I think it's so popular that Laura has read an English translation of it before. I would ask her on her blog, but it [due to unfortunate circumstances] is no longer extant.

Stuff I did today: Went to choir, then tried to sleep in Chinese. Played basketball in the blazing sun, and subsequently talked to the guys in the shade. Tried once again to sleep in the next Chinese block... too hot. Studied two poems with Liao Ling-ling. Ate lunch. Tried to sleep--still unsuccessful. Went to the library next block. I want to check my email & stuff, to save time at home, but of course some wisecrack administrator recently rendered hotmail inaccessible from the school network. I am still talking to various profs every day getting a schedule of suitable courses hammered out. After that I was going to drums, but then Phoebe detained me to interpret an email from her prof. She is kind of weird & seems to want an MA handed to her with no effort or original thought on her part.

Monday was an ok day. I slept in due to the events of Sunday, but due to my reverse order the cause-and-effect will not be apparent to you for a while. In music class we watched more Phantom, and it is verrah, verrah good. After school Alex, Ivan & I went out to dinner with the office lady, finally. Kenta jammed out again because he had to pack his bags (moving host families).

Sunday involved realisation--after long last--of more Smallville watching. It is great, as always, to visit the Chen's and Chen ma gave me a quote on how much sending back the little boxes can run. I think like 13 kg for under $40 Canadian, if you want it to take 3 months. Scott's shipped stuff only took 1 month though, so I'll have to ask his 'rents about that.

Unfortunately, one very important episode was missing. Moreover the taped episodes ceased before the season-ender. Not only were we shocked & disappointed, but also had more time on our hands than we thought. So we hung out at the Zhangs for a while, then went to Su Jia for dinner. After that I came back home, but since it's from Donghu I got back at like 11.

Saturday I went to choir. Following that, I went with Scott & two of my classmates/choir-buddies to lunch & then the pool hall. Eric was way better than both of us combined, and though Squirrel said he'd never played before he seemed kind of pool-sharkish to me. The Mormon wedding ceremony was interesting. Apparently the guy met Bush before, because there was a picture in the slideshow of them standing around together. neat

Sorry for the increasingly fast-paced summarizing in reverse chronological order, but you know, life's like that. haha. Well, not exactly. Rock on for now, and forever, but for now too

Happy Birthday to Connie!!

I was going to dedicate this entire post to Connie, and then I thought I didn't have that much to say. But then I realised dedicate can mean something different. So, the following post is dedicated to Connie (a.k.a. 'The Birthday Girl'):

Thursday ended up being an ok day. I've been trying to study Chinese a bit more, but I think soon I will get back into other languages as well. Namely French & Japanese. As you may have noticed, my English is still o.k.

Why the renewed study? Well, it is course registration season. Turns out that due to me not having studied these languages for a long time--even though I "have the prerequesites" for more advanced courses--I must write placement exams so they can figure out exactly where to put me. Problem: I am living overseas. Solution: guess which course is suitable, pick it. Then, write the exam later. Possible problem: not passing said exam = deregistration from the course. Probable solution: study before said test (while I have access to french & japanese people).

Anyway, the morning involved more writing emails on the internet, attempting to sort out the whole courses thing. Afternoon featured going to class (hurrah) and then going home. Another girl figured out I could speak Chinese too. I must have said something to a teacher in the stairwell & she overheard me. But it was somehow a surprise to her. To be fair, it's not as if I go around declaring "I can speak your language, people! Hallelujah!" or some such.

In the evening I made some spontaneous plans with Scott & then talked to Foo on MSN. That reminds me--if any of you guys want the custom stamps or calligraphy supplies or books or something, drop me a line. I am not in the business of supplying Chinese/Japanese names though. I'll give you an English name if you want though :p

Today I went to Star Wars III with Scott & Flora. There was 1 person in the theatre besides us, probably because we went at 12:30 in the afternoon. After that they both went home & I searched for NTU's bookstore. I found a crappy one that had nothing I wanted.

Choir practise was ok, but Ms. Liu informed me I would of necessity attend choir practise tomorrow. So no Rotex event for me. I think choir might end rather early, as our concert is on the 5th I believe & shortly after we must adjourn for the weeks-long final exam cram. No choir + my classmates constantly studying all day at school = less attendance of school by me? Perchance.

In the evening the whole family got together to watch Blade Trinity. Now I am just writing more emails & the likes. Before I forget, pictures for all!

This has got to be one of my favourite MRT signs... there's nothing wrong with it, it just happens to sound like so many US patriotic slogans:

Also, here is the room where those boxes we moved on Monday are, presumably (as they were labeled) full of test papers. I am not sure if they are already written & thus to be marked, or if they are final exams beeing stored here for no reason:

I just realised I watched two movies in one day. Heh. I would also like to thank you all for the excessive amounts of comments on the previous post. There wasn't even a flamewar. It would be great if Rasta'poppus, 'Ramagus or a Twin could post a long explanatory comment for those who are not familiar with the restored church known as LDS. Last time I checked, the regular churches have "everyone welcome" written in stone at them. :p Good night

[post 140?]

desperate holiday

Monday was, for the most part, a fairly boring day. In the morning, I did discover the goodness of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," which is apparently the most popular Chinese novel of all time. At least, every one I talk to has read it. English translation for me though :p

Military training boasted us carrying tables down 4 flights of stairs then unloading boxes of test papers from a truck. This all only took one class, though due to the extreme heat it turned out to be pretty sweaty work & we were thus gifted with "Pocari Sweat" ion-restoring beverage (a japanese import). The second block featured the ever-popular "read your own books--no sleeping" policy. At least there was air conditioning. mmm...

Speaking of A/C, some classes at my school have it. Naturally the offices do--a few office staff have more need of cooling then 40 students in a smaller space--but it turns out that Junior 3 &　Senior 3 are likewise equipped. Their "need to prepare for the test" is so much greater that they have air conditioning. Too bad I am not in that grade. In music class we started watching "The Phantom of the Opera," and this is the first time I have seen it.

We postponed for one week the 'talk talk' dinner invitation put forward by a random office lady at my school. Alex cancelled to go look for his cell phone, & Ivan didn't have permission to go on such short notice from his host parents. During '3 principles' class I got tired and so fell asleep. Unfortunately, when I woke up the last class of the day, Physics, had begun, so I was unable to leave at 4:00 as is my preference. Partway through that class, to my great dismay, the skies opened up and rain began to pour down, as is typical in Taiwan and the Wanfang area. I got thoroughly wet walking down to the MRT / bus stop.

Tuesday brought another cancellation~ I couldn't go to lunch with my Chinese teacher because Sandy decided I can't leave during school at lunch, for any reason, even accompanied by a staff member. Go figure. I was too stoked to read more "Three Kingdoms" so I went to the library for an hour instead of playing drums. The weather was a bit nicer though.

Today was gonna be the day they were gonna throw it back to you. Well, actually it wasn't. This morning I did practise drums for 2 hours, and the weather was a little bit cooler. Art class was o.k. We watched a video of some guy painting fruit, then we all painted fruit. Mine ended up looking pretty shitty, especially compared to the examples; however, it wasn't as inept as the work of some of my classmates. Way to paint things in one solid colour when we're working on light & shadow, gradients, etc. lol

Saturday still promises to yield either a Rotex event or choir, followed by a wedding reception / something. It's like a combination of Taiwanese wedding & Mormon wedding, so I will get to see 2 new things. whee

Rock on.

The end is nigh

Well, not really. But things are sneaking up. Jake is already back in the US, in time to catch all the end-of-year parties, clever boy. Over the next few months more & more people will depart. I plan to see lots of people off, though I certainly won't be the last to leave (speaking of which, anyone seen Last to Leave in concert lately?). But back in time a little bit. First I'd like to give you all this picture. It really needs no explanation:

Scott's father, while in Taiwan, would always insist on wearing his hat in the rain, even if it was mild. He jokingly proposed that the rain falling on one's head would cause baldness. So, here I provided Scott with an improvised bag, so he could look cool & play it safe while we walked around at Gongguan.

On Thursday I didn't actually get to watch Smallville with Scott. He had developed a fever & sore throat so was staying home (luckily his frail constitution could still handle a little Warcraft III). I think I just took it easy after the Rotary meeting.

Friday was another pretty regular day at school. The 2nd-years had a singing contest, so I went to see that. As Kenta was in S210's music class he participated with them. It was pretty fun to go see, and of course their class won (as it is oddly stacked with lots of good people from choir & people randomly talented at traditional Chinese instruments). Unfortunately every class did that stupid song "Winter Magic" as part of their repertoire. I never liked it in the first place so it got old fast. Moreover, I found it to be pretty out of place in a city where the weather has been in the high 20s & breaking 30 degrees day in day out.

Saturday morning heralded another day of missed choir for the sake of compulsory-attendance Rotary events. We had another speech contest, but this time fewer people put effort into their speeches. Of course, it is the same room as we usually practise in and naturally plagued with audio problems. The cordless mics are of course intermittent (Ms. Liu bought herself a cordless headset because the school microphones for the most part suck) so many of us spent half our speeches shouting as having half one's words disappear into the abyss.

Afterwards, I got the job of taking Samantha & Ada to the Chens' where they would be staying the night. We had problems deciding where to eat (I don't know the area) & trouble agreeing on what to eat as well--Ada dislikes pizza & Samantha prefers to eat vegetarian. We eventually went to the 'beef noodle' place, where we got a soup for Samantha called "beef noodle soup" which is actually just beef-flavoured, with no meat whatsoever. I of course shattered Samantha's slowest-eater title. Later I took them to bookstores, then hung out at the Chens' talking to Chen Ma. They even got me bubble tea without the bubbles (which I hate) so essentially cool milk tea. w00t

I then proceeded to chill at Zhang Jia for a while, and played some songs on the piano. I was going to go hang out with people (some were at Ximen watching Star Wars, others all over the place) but they didn't seem to be doing anything of interest. So we had spaghetti at Chen Jia and then talked for a while. Ada went to the night market with some guy after a while. It's interesting that although the two girls pwn me with Chinese, due to the extra-restrictiveness of their Rotary in Taizhong they are pretty helpless (hopeless?) at getting around places. Translating for Jake at Danshui was weird, but having to lead foreigners through the MRT? Definitely an unusual experience.

Today was kind of fun as well, though of course inolved lots of sitting around. The "party" was of course compulsory attendance & turned into another long-winded Rotary speechfest. I don't know about in other countries, but be prepared to be really, really bored at Rotary meetings in Taiwan. It is of course mandatory to introduce every single person in the room, and have them be applauded. Every Rotarian, rank-and-file or big guns, must deliver a speech. Of course, these are prefixed by acknowledging as many of the guests as one can name. Fwagh.

Anyway, we all got our [VCDs/DVDs/CDs] of the trip video. A few of the antics are on there, such as the (now infamous) kiss between two unlikely, probably intoxicated individuals. I still have to give French Alex a CD-R so he can burn me a VCD of the videos he took on the trip, which were made after the cameramen went to bed & the real activities began. Nice of him to offer, really. woohoo

It was good to see people, the food was pretty good & I had some fun. The speech Scott was going to make (he is still sick, it seems) was handed off to Samantha, winner of the speech competition & all seemed well. One fun picture:

Kyle was cleverly collecting addresses so he can visit people later. I shall also need to do this soon. I got some not-bad certificates, so maybe I can get some free language credit or something later. There were some great English errors on all of them, but I guess I can get a notarized translation of the Chinese.

Anyway, now I think I'll be off to bed. Tune in after a couple days for your next installment...

trendspotting

I apologize for the little delay, but at least I bring you an accounting of my antics.

Saturday night featured hanging-out at Ximen by me, Anna, Greg & Katy. We ran into Laura, Noemie & Lisa, with whom Anna ditched, and then we went clothes-shopping. I didn't buy anything--I still have my original clothes from when I came except 2 free tie clips from Rotary & 2 free shoes, also from Rotary. When Katy went shoe shopping Greg & I played pool because, one or maybe two pairs of shoes is fine. Pool was good, Gregg won 2 of 3 at eight-ball, but I won the game of nine-ball. I like pool.

At the end we saw my old Chinese teacher, and he gave us people-shaped things made of balloons. We had to hand them off to random girls as we were leaving though. I'll see if I can get hold of a picture of that.

Sunday morning I was awoken by a voice speaking English. It turns out Scott's mom was hanging out with the Zhangs because her glasses were broken & in the repair shop. Later I met up with them at CKS.

For once the Memorial Hall was actually open, so we got to see the big, badass statue of the former President himself. It looks kind of like the Lincoln Memorial, except he is smiling & wearing a robe, with no hat. Inside there is an art gallery, a memorial library and lots of cool stuff. There were exhibits with Chiang Kai-Shek's cars, uniforms, books, writings, and all sorts of neat pictures from the early days of the Republic. He had a gigantic bilingual world map bigger than the wall of my bedroom (much more than 10 feet high). It was really cool, and I totally dug the 50s decor.

Later we went to the National History Museum. This involved walking, which involved getting wet feet. We noticed that around the current President's residence the barbed wire barriers have been replaced by a smooth 10+ft concrete wall. Well-dressed guards (secret service agents?) with umbrellas are placed at regular intervals. We wanted to ask one for directions to the museum, but he wasn't allowed to talk. At the museum, we mainly checked out their special exhibit on some area of China... like Duangzhou or something. I forget. Anyway, it is like a mega cultural heritage place because back in the day when Buddhist grottoes & caves were the big thing, over 50,000 pieces of art, frescoes, religious writings (incl. sutras) and historical records got stored away.

Of course, some French sinologist ganked about 7,000 prime pieces for some French museums (gotta visit someday) and other countries took at least 6,000 more, so they didn't have that much good stuff. Some was reproductions, and I'll admit stuff like wall frescoes are near-impossible to move around. There were good reproduction classical instruments though. The National Palace Museum is better in the way of having the real prime pieces (bless that tricky KMT government for 'relocating' them all to Taiwan).

Evening we had Subway & tangyuan (little balls, mine had sesame inside, in a hot soup, mine being sweet red bean) for dinner while watching Lord of the Rings on tv. The next morning they left so that ends the saga of "hanging out with Scott's parents."

Monday and Tuesday were pretty regular days. I got one of my classmates to teach me a bit of Taiwanese so I could try to understand the lyrics to a really famous song we are singing. Also in music class on Monday, Kenta & I shared a laugh at some lyrics... our class has to sing at the graduation ceremony for the 3rd-years, and of course they are sappy sentimental songs. We took semantic exception to the line "bravely shedding tears" (or "bravely crying"). But Ms. Liu & some classmates insisted that it's ok to say that in Chinese. What about you guys, do you think it's ok to say that you are "bravely crying" in English?

Today Scott & I went to Tiffany's school for our presentation. We got there around 11, and proceeded to talk/peruse their English textbooks while our lunch boxes heated in the machine. We started around 12:45 and finished near 1:45... it was pretty crappy overall. The room was apparently so nice that everyone had to take shoes off before entering, though it was just a lecture room. One unexpected problem: the students had remarkably terrible English.

At the start Tiffany had told us we weren't allowed to speak any Chinese & in fact to pretend we could only speak English. Unfortunately this was not working as they basically understood nothing of Scott's basic introduction & extolling of the glories of Texas. I had an idea though... Tiffany & the other teacher were going to start translating, but I am like "wtf, let's just do it ourselves." So while Scott spoke I would go after line-by-line or paragrah-by-paragraph. I got hung up on "pride" (there are 2 ways to say it, but one is the same word as for "arrogance") & "rodeo." Honestly, when do I ever talk about rodeos in Chinese? Later, Scott returned the favour for me.

We even met a kid (grade 9) that was taller than us. He was the banzhang (班長 class leader) of one of the classes. The teachers overall thought it was really good, and another teacher wanted us to come back another time, I think. Tiffany was really hung up on "safety" or some such with the classic "pay attention to safety" caveat spouted by Taiwanese people everywhere. She said she wanted to protect us, but from what I'm not sure. I've found Taiwan to be pretty darn safe, with the most dangerous thing just crossing a street. I don't know what she expected to protect us from, as she can't weigh much more than 110 lbs & is no master of any crazy martial arts.

Afterwards Scott & I went to Gongguan & played pool waiting for Flora to come hang out with us. She took a long time & we racked up about 2 hours 35 minutes of pool, with some close games and some total domination where Scott or I would clear half the balls & sink the 8-ball with the opponent having only 1 ball in the pocket. I was up 5 balls on Scott when Flora finally arrived, but in a stroke of mad skillz he caught up with a series of consecutive beautiful shots. I managed to win in the end in a battle to pocket the 8-ball. good times

Dinner at Subway was followed by a retreat to Starbucks to play with Scott's card games. We played a few different ones (all are pretty r0x0r) and eventually it was 9:30ish and time for Scott to make the long trek back to Su Jia in Donghu. Flora suggusted that because I am hilarious/fun she will try to hook me up with one of her hot university classmates. While I can't fathom her reasons for going to school in the summer (studying Russian) I welcome any potential developments this might bring. Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow I hope to attend a Rotary meeting, then watch some Smallville with Scott. Then there is a bunch of Rotary stuff on the weekend. Now I present for your viewing pleasure, some recent keyword searches which brought people to my site:

• "body crumbles"
• "pictures of person with lots of post"
• "what two things does continental drift propose"
• "taiwan dollars"
• "places to eat in taipei, gongguan"
• "wonder drift"
• "what makes people happy"
• "MEXICAN DESSERT PCITURES"

Once again I would remind you to, if you feel the urge to leave a comment and have an opinion, give your take on the concept of "bravely crying" or "bravely shedding tears." Rock on

Stairway to Heaven

Today, as I walked up to practise drums in the rain, the water was flowing down the long, long flight of stairs--it was like a series of little waterfalls and flat rivers, except with the added effect of raindrops creating silent 'explosions' (like artillery shells or missiles hitting in an old computer game) with their impact. I'm glad I brought my umbrella.

The forecast for the next five days, starting from tv:
Friday: low 23 high 33
Saturday: low 23 high 33
Sunday: low 23 high 34
Monday: low 24 high 35
Tuesday: low 24 high 35
So in P.E. we were playing basketball and it was freakin hot. I stopped after a while to just sit down and drink water; too much. I need some Canada not-hot-ness. Mmm... but of course, the whole day was hot. When the sun was out it was insane, otherwise the clouds of course opened up insanely, sheeting water along the ground.

Most of today's classes were occupied with teachers reviewing the papers from the tests people did this week. I studied some lyrics, read through a bit of a poetry book that PP Medicare (Scott's counselor) gave me, and did just a little bit of sleeping. Drumming was fun & choir was fun today too. I hate sectional practise but I love group work with our awesome, awesome teacher.

I'd like to share a brief anecdote from yesterday: As you know, next week on Wednesday Scott & I will be teaching a class at Tiffany's school (she is an English teacher we are friends with for some reason... forget how we know her). Anyway, Tiffany agreed to meet me Thursday night to give me a map to her school, so we can find it. I never get speaking engagements near the MRT... but this is at least better than the 2 hours + minutes to Yangminshan. That was a nice place though.

As I was sitting down to dinner I got a call from Tiffany, "Hi I am outside your house. Please come downstairs." Close to the plan. So, I busted a move on out, only to find no-one at the door. Odd. More annoying was the fact that I had locked myself out of the inner door, and had to buzz to have a Zhang 'rent open it for me. haha

Sitting down again I got another call. "Where are you?" "Well, I am at my house, I went to the door & there was no-one there. Whatever happened to meeting at McDonald's?" It turns out she went to the Chen residence. So I grabbed some socks, my keys, and an umbrella, then headed out to make the short walk over. Of course, I stepped in a massive puddle, getting my shoes & another pair of socks wet. I was also wearing my wife-beater, which elicited a random comment. No, I don't feel cold, I feel hot. Lows of well above room temperature do that to you.

Otherwise, it was a successful exchange, though anything involving talking to Tiffany takes a very, very long time. The cold, dry noodles weren't that bothersome. Rock on [50 minutes] K out

The last 3 days...

...have been not bad at all. On Monday I went to 101 with Anna, we had food & read books at the bookstore. Also discovered "Jason's," a store that carries lots of international brands. Finally, European & Japanese candy is at my fingertips, plus normal North American food. I suspect any to all food pickiness problems I may have had in the past might disappear upon my return. Just keep me the heck away from tofu. :P

Tuesday was my day of rest. I am pretty sure I didn't leave the house the whole day. Unfortunately the MSN conversations to be had were few as people apparently go to bed on Monday night so they can get up on Tuesday. Go figure. I'm sure I accomplished something. Oh wait, I did. I wrote that essay thing that Rotary wanted and sent it in, but of course fucking Ivonne's computer has some totally weird encoding. Like, the emails she sends me are always in Unicode, so I think I sent it in Unicode, or whatever it was I got it back garbled. I don't see why she wants things emailed, but whatever. Also I tried to de-virus the Zhangs' computer, but it is pretty thrashed. I killed some, but there are a lot. Lots & lots & lots of Trojans.

Today I got a nice email back from Paul. It was in regards to my earlier letter he wrote some flattering things. I also read the unhappy news that no-one will be representing RI district 5020 (Vancouver Island &c.) next year, because their candidate pulled out. Sounds like someone either reads my blog, or had the balls to walk away when they didn't get their first pick country. That reminds me, still need to go to Japan, and by extension still need to stop sucking at Japanese. I also want to learn German; I am shamed/awed by the ridiculously excellent English commanded by the many Germans I have met (Nico, Flo, annA, Chris, Lisa, Katy &c.) and I am like "I know... some German words. Look! airplane!" haha

In the morning, I went with Scott, his dad, & Flora--a university friend of Scott's from Taizhong--to play pool at a Gongguan pool hall. We had to teach the girl, but Scott's dad & I lost two close games by them getting to the 8-ball first. I sunk a few good ones, including some 3-in-a-row plus other shots the Texans found highly improbable. I still suck though... we don't even talk about the droughts where I don't hit anything for like 20 minutes straight. I had a good pineapple-shrimp-curry fried rice thing for lunch, though it was a bit expensive. Did I mention Scott's dad is awesome & was picking up the bill most of today?

We went to the electronics thing near Zhongxiao Xinsheng that French Alex told me about. It also has lots of anime and manga. I need to go looking about again sometime, though I already have a lot of consumer electronics. We returned to the hotel to meet up with Scott's mom. Scott & his mother decided they needed naps, so we the non-sleeping men read newspapers in the lobby. Eventually we moved onwards toward the dinner invite location from PP Medicare (Scott's counselor).

It turned out to be at the same place they held my birthday party: Edelweiss' classy restaurant/British porcelain dealership. With an address & closest MRT I was able to navigate there no problem. The food was great, conversation was fun, and Edelweiss showed up after a while so I learned where the meeting will be on Thursday. Hooray. I also got a free poetry book from Medicare. It's kind of neat, modern & more free-verse like. When I got home I had the opportunity to talk to Amanda (the Zhangs' daughter) on exchange in Germany for a while. Seriously these people call way too much.

You'll hear more about Amanda later, as she is returning very early and we will be living in the same house for the last 20 days of my exchange. This should prove interesting (finally someone almost my own age with which to hang out!). Her English is also not that good as, shafted by Rotary, she didn't go to an English-speaking country. Unfortunately, Sue Su, who is now in the Nanoose Bay area, will not get to meet me (by far the most Chinese-speaking member of my family) as we take off on the same day. Such is life.

Thanks for reading, and write a comment if you must. Anyone hear of any violent conflicts around the time of the Rutherford fair? Tell me about it. Oh and rock on. [1 hr 30 minutes] K out

Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day. So, to all of you out there who are mothers, consider yourselves wished a Happy Mother's Day!

Today, I went with Anna & Chris (also from Germany) to do stuff. We ate & chatted at the Burger King by Main Station for maybe 3 hours, then went to Ximen. We were going to play pool, but decided to watch a movie instead. Anna voted "house of wax" because she likes to scare herself with scary movies, but "Kingdom of Heaven" won out in the end. It was pretty good.

Rock on, y'all.

teeheehee

Ok I sent an email to Ivonne a while ago asking about the speech contest, just to try & figure out what the rules were, if there were any. Here is her reply:

"Subject: RE: Question about Speech Contest

Hi!Kevin, here the information about Speech Contest

it will be ok if you present with few rapping, taiwanese, english, classical poetry, songs, stripteases...as long as they like your speech!

Good Luck! i look forward to it!

Ivonne"

and then after that a generic copy-and-paste of the publication I received earlier.

Just take a minute to sit back and enjoy the simple elegance, beauty & perfection of this email. I hope I have helped you all have a better day. rock on

When in doubt post, post again

Thanks to all of you for the numerous prom posts. I love living vicariously by reading the blogs of others over the internet. I can't believe, however, that somehow the main event for Wellingtonians was a no go. Suffice it to say that last year over 200 people gathered in one place to socialize in a way meriting RCMP enforcement of a noise complaint. The secret? Nobody knew where to go until like 11:15 as prom was entering its final stages. "Hey what's up, know where the party's at?" "Uh, no I dunno. Some people are going to ------ ---------'s, so I'm following them."

In Art yesterday I had one of those little moments that make me chuckle and start narrating silently in the first person to no-one in particular. Or maybe I write it down in the 3rd volume of 'the Taiwan journals' just in case anyone is bored & persistent enough to tackle the work in all its obscure, illegible glory.

As I may have commented at the start of the year, my class started out gender segregated. Well, we were arranged by number, and the girls got the first half of the numbers, so there was a perfect line through the middle of the class: girls at the front, boys at the back. Of course, eventually that changed. But the culture that takes the pains to arrange those sorts of things did not abate. I doubt I can even take a dent at it in my time here; right now, all I do is berate people who say homosexuality is disgusting, and tell others to think for themselves when they consult others' work or a review book for help on a "The Lady or the Tiger?" essay.

Anyway, when French Alex & I were in a different Art class first semester, we sat with the girls and thought nothing of it--but of course, we're waiguoren (外國人), the exception, not the rule. So Sunny, a guy who I sometimes think is gay, but is handsome & popular with the ladies, was pimpin' at a table with 5 girls. The teacher asks (over the mic of course) "Is this a guys' table or a girls' table?" Some tools feel the need to respond "A girls' table!" Sunny, with a reluctant grin on his face, relocates.

At this point, just because I can, I wrote "where's the gender equality?" on the middle of a piece of paper. Well, more a sense of irony than anything. What surprised me was when my class leader (I still call him fubanzhang as he was 1st semester though) took the paper, wrote something and gave it back: "Not inside our school" was his answer, in nice legible characters that made my day. Well, at least there's hope for the new generation. As long as they don't become (or remain) tools or get into any wage slavery at any salary level, it should be all good.

[Providing China doesn't change the status quo.'

For those interested

Rotary was nice enough to send an email to the 4 students out of Nanaimo, so I figured I would respond. And since I spent so much time typing it (time flies sitting in front of the computer) I figured I would also present it here for your viewing pleasure. Not interested? Skip ahead to the next post, or comment on something :P

I guess you'd call my response an "open letter" considering I'm broadcasting it to you all right now. w00t, I suppose. Gotta w00t for something.

The original letter:
"I just wanted to let you know that our Nanaimo Youth Exchange joint committee members are thinking of you all, and hoping that everything is going well with you. As you know, you are now into your final quarter of your exchange year. I expect you are wondering how the time has gone by so fast. We are all looking forward to getting together with you when you get home, and hearing about your experience. The committee would like very much to hear from you, and let us know how things are going. What have you been up to? How is school, tell us about your host family, have you been interacting with your host Rotary club? Let us know if there is anything that we can do for you.
Paul Geneau"

And my response:
Dear Paul & Nanaimo YEP,

Thank you for your concern. I assure you all that I am alive & well (as may not have been evident in my previous correspondence / lack thereof). I do of course prove the exception to the rule that "you WILL gain weight on this exchange year." Earlier, I lost weight, though I gained some of it back through a dedicated regime of snacking and sitting in front of a computer. My friend from Texas also dropped a lot of pounds. I am now officially underweight acccording to the BMI. :p

Taiwan is a challenging country, made more so by the fact that I had no previous experience with the language before arriving. On that note, in the interest of actually advancing the cause & improving RI D5020's success in this country, could you please help me get in contact with the outbound to Taiwan for 2005-2006? I heard it is a girl from the US. I would like to help her prepare as best I can, what with things to bring/not bring & a head start on Chinese.

Is there anything in particular you'd like to know? I'd be glad to show you any of the 2+ GB of pictures I took or the numerous short videos upon my return (well in between parties, road trips, and playing lots of pool & jamming with my friends). I went to see Diana Krall live in concert, as well as Avril Lavigne, earlier on in the year. I have no idea how to get tickets to the popular Taiwanese acts, but I have a bunch of pop songs on my iPod I listen to so I can "better appreciate the culture." [ulterior motive: improve Chinese-language ability]

School continues to be pretty boring. I have a good time with my personal Chinese teacher (free of charge, w00t) 5 hours a week, and I also practise drums 5 hours a week--they couldn't not let me, considering our resident Japanese guy of being-good-at-everything has several hours a day to practise his instruments. I swear, he came to Taiwan just to learn a kind of traditional Chinese two-stringed violin, haha. Most of my classes suck. I transferred out of English and Math because I don't like them. I don't mind listening to Chinese Lit or History class, though I don't quite understand. I have a Chinese school textbook, but it is Grade 3 level, so I kind of suck considering they put me in a grade 10 class.

My favourite two classes are Government (kind of... it's really about the writings & political philosophy of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, who led the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty & established the Republic of China in 1911) & Citizenship. In Citizenship it's supposed to be about a wide range of different things, but because so many guys are really homophobic, our teacher just talks about gender issues & brings in GLBT guest speakers, who are all really cool university students. I would much rather have gone on the university exchange this year, come to think of it. I stopped memorizing poems a long time ago because the language is too classical/ archaic.

My host family is pretty good. I'd like to take this opportunity to laugh at fate. If you'll recall the District urged me to pick Taiwan or Finland (I guess I should have adopted a "Japan or bust" policy as some Texans did) with the specious assertation that "people in those countries are very health-conscious; they don't smoke much." Of course, this host family I am currently in not only includes a father who smokes in the house but also a cat which lives in the house. Glad I mentioned my aversion to those on my application. I guess it's only fair though, my friend from Texas has all sorts of food allergies & he always gets food poisoning at Rotary events because nothing is prepared for him (Rotary knows, they take no advance action). But really my host family is great. My host father is really, really awesome... my host brother even talks to me (the others were all silent all the time) though my relationship with my host mother isn't so good.

One of the most annoying things about host families in Taiwan (besides the cultural differences which mean commitments, meeting times &c. don't mean much) is that in Taiwan, due to a lack of volunteer interest for hosting inbounds, families sending out an outbound are obliged to host an inbound. This leads to two things: 1. many indifferent or uninterested host families merely fulfilling the terms of their contract (I've watched four great girls, including a terrific Korean exchangee with terrific Chinese, break down over 4 hours at a coffee shop because their host families are so cold & unloving). Mine have been pretty good, though not so good about letting me go out and do stuff. I can handle that though. 2. The second annoyance is never having a host sibling my age, as the person in the exchange age range is of course overseas~otherwise I wouldn't be in the home. I don't mind this either, except of course because my classmates are all 2+ years younger than me. And they don't talk to me either, regardless of my facility for communication in the language of their choice. But such is life. :)

As for my host Rotary club, did I mention that I have a ladies-only club? I don't mind, but just thought I'd share, because apparently they--as well as my first host family--thought I was a girl, even though I checked the "boy" box on my application. Something must be done about actually reading & understanding the applications; I put so much work into mine, including horrible tests I would never do again for the medical part, and then it's just disregarded. But back to the club. Though I have mentioned several times I would love to come to every meeting and attend their events, they tell me only to come on the first Thursday of the month. So I do. It doesn't help that their club charter says they are supposed to speak Taiwanese at club meetings, when exchange students must study Mandarin Chinese--it's the language of instruction at school, spoken exclusively at home, and taught in Rotary classes (which ended a while ago... it was a nice gesture though). My counselor is really awesome though.

Did I mention I had a counselor change? The lady who was supposed to be my counselor would never talk to me, but this other lady always called me, inquired after my health, and took me to lunch to talk about my life & exchange. So now that lady is my counselor, which works out nicely for all concerned. Because she is a businesswoman, and a Rotarian in Taipei (they all seem loaded) we go really nice places for lunch, like the Hyatt at the base of 101. In fact, whenever I go out with her we seem to be cavorting in the halls of international trade & jet-setters at the base of Taipei 101. All in good fun.

Anyway, in case you've forgotten all I really wanted was the contact information of the next one coming down the pipe for Taiwan. My only other concern would really be this summer. I have about 3 weeks from the end of school until I plan to come home. I am not sure if I will be able to do any of the traveling I want to do though. I don't want to sit roasting in 27-33 degree weather with nothing to do--I could be watching my best friends graduate & spending our last summer together before everyone leaves to their far-off universities. So I might need help either with pressure for activity approval or a revised flight date--I'll get back to you on that later.

Thanks for your concern. Rock on and write back.

Regards,

Kevin Dobson
(8 months without a haircut... it'll take forever to grow back)

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Well that's it for today. I hope my back-in-time dating of this post works to place it behind the one which should be above. rock on

The joys of page stats

Ok, I will provide a summary of the last few days, but first let me introduce you to my latest source of delight--page statistics. I always wondered how people like Xiaxue or the Bouncer could talk about people visiting a specific article, or coming to their page from a certain search on Google, but now I too have that functionality. Even on a low-traffic site like this one (you guys visit more often than I thought--I just suck for not updating), there is movement & even visits from completely random people looking for something else entirely. The case in point? Recent Yahoo! searches leading here:
4 Yahoo! search.yahoo.com "what is a sheltered life "
1 Yahoo! search.yahoo.com "taiwan dollars"
1 Yahoo! search.yahoo.com "pcitures of kids in school uniforms"
1 Yahoo! search.yahoo.com "taiwanese girls pics"
1 Yahoo! search.yahoo.com "taiwanese raind dance"

I also had someone come looking for "eggbread machine" a while back, which certainly lead to my sad tale of how the recalcitrant twins weren't interested in eating that much egg bread back in the day. It's in the archives. Somewhere. And, regardless of typos, people search for the darndest things. When did I talk about sheltered life btw? I don't recall doing so.

On to stuff that's been happening. Today was not a bad day. My chinese teacher didn't show up, so I looked up a bunch of words I came across but didn't know. In the first two blocks I was in the library, waiting for our calligraphy teacher to show. Linda came after a while and started berating Ivan for surfing the net until he pointed out that he was where he was supposed to be, and that, in fact, the school's teacher was the one out of place. Got to read part of an English newspaper... lets me understand the background behind continuing stories on the evening news (like Lian's meeting with Pres. Hu Jintao in China).

Yesterday was largely uneventful save for an evening at Shilin Night Market with Fabio and some outbounds. Random fun was to be had, especially romping through expensive/trendy clothing stores, imitating the poses of people on posters and then photographing it. Also had pasta again... mm... Anna was going to come but she had to pack for moving host families. But then they postponed the move to Wednesday. In our circle we always move on weekends--no missing school for us. Maybe later I will go surfing if that can be arranged. Go expensive hobbies (maybe?) that require driving to Tofino. I was thinking of heading toward Tofino for a mini-road-trip with people this summer. Takers?

Of course, there are also friends old & new to be visited up-Island, but I don't suppose the majority of you are into that. Plus crashing space if any might be limited.

Saturday after choir I met up with Scott & his parents at our favourite restaurant by Wanfang. So cheap. I love being a regular too. We all hung out then went to 101, looked at the stores, went to the top--today the weather was clearer so I could see lots of parts of Taipei I knew, but we couldn't quite see all the way to Nanshijiao or Danshui, & the Muzha area where the school is was obscured by a mountain (the one the brown line on the MRT goes around/through a tunnel in). All in all ok.

Looked at children's boooks at pageone... Scott's mom is an author, so she went through finding the names of people she knew. Then we started looking for books for basic Chinese learning; however, the kind she was looking for is an English concept. She bought a children's book anyway, & I didn't get anything... still considering "Romance of the Three Kingdoms."

We had dinner at Zhang jia (where I currently reside). Scott did most of the translating as they are after all his parents for the impressing. Not to mention neither set of parents could speak the others' language at all, really. Sure, Taiwanese people know some English vocabulary, but there's nothing like never conversing in real English to dull skills that you never had.

Thanks for coming out once again. By the way, if you're interested in a new toy to obsess over related to your blog, check out www.statcounter.com. I'm also eagerly anticipating prom stories~ heard Brianna & Brad's excellent accounts, plus some sort of "anti-prom" from Martha. indeed. well, rock on... K out

[post written over several days for maximum incoherency... also May Day is the name of a Taiwanese pop band, and this is a may day]