i woke up to the sound of 2 soft knocks on my door but i didn't want to get up yet so i ignored them and then i heard paper being slipped under my door and it was a note that said 'WAKE UP! the new guy is here :)' from dena so i rolled out of bed and went upstairs. his name is steve, he's from near seattle. he seems nice. i don't think the first week anyone is here is a good time to form an opinion about them. he just got done teaching 2 years in china though so he isn't going through culture shock or anything.
tonight i had this guy on the bus who kept tapping my shoulder and speaking to me in chinese, even though i kept giving him the shoulder shrug, deer in the headlights 'i dont have a clue what you're saying' look. i thought he was being creepy at first, but he was just trying to help me. i finally told him i was going to da chu and he tapped me again when we were at the first of 2 da chu stops and i tried to tell him i was getting off at the second one. i guess it stands out because no one has ever touched me before here. they actually go out of their way not to make contact if possible. i went to the grocery store tonight and had about 10 instances of one person seeing me and then turning to point me out to their friend. sometimes it's flattering and sometimes it's annoying.
my tuesday class is so good. there are 21 of them which is a whole lot, but they're fun. we played a bunch of games today and they were being nice and it was fun. they get a kick out of it when i make them scoot over so i can share their chair with them as we read the new vocab individually. i can't remember 3/4 of their names, but we're bonding anyway. when i left tonight i felt like a rock star :P they were all coming up to me and saying goodbye and kids were screaming goodbye from scooters as they went down the street with their parents.
i bought cookie mix a week ago and i've been putting off making it but i promised that i'd make it when steve got here, so i made it tonight. they didn't taste like real cookies and our oven can only broil, but they were ok. next time i might try to make them from scratch although i doubt that they have chocolate chips here.
early(ish) class tomorrow, time for bed.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
but still, like the dust, i'll rise
today was very plain.
woke up late, hung around the dorm, read a bit. i got one of those tofu pancake things again today for lunch. i tried to take a picture but it didn't turn out and i was too embarrassed to keep trying. people were looking at me as i was taking the pictures and i felt like a super-tourist.
my classes on monday are really good. the first one is a bunch of like 8-10 year olds who have been taking class together for the last 4 years so they're really comfortable with each other. we're reviewing for a test next week. today they were different than they have been toward me. mainly, they're saying my name a lot more and getting into my personal space which i think is good.
my little kid class in the evening is cute as can be. today we played duck duck goose again because they were screaming for it, and it was hilarious. their new QA today was 'who are your english teachers?' and when we were answering, they said 'pretty carol and pretty megan are my english teachers' which carol had apparently taught them on her day ahead of time. they were beaming at me like 'we surprised you and we're being super sweet' and it was really cute. they had to draw us and it was pretty funny. i think that's my favorite class.
aunt carol was asking me earlier and i didn't realize i hadn't explained the process of classes yet. basically, kids enroll in the school and are given an assessment test to see what their level is. once they get enough kids on the same level, they start them in the appropriate class. i guess there are a couple of options but i'm confused about what they are. they have different names but they don't mean much to me because i don't have any of the very beginner classes.
other than that, i don't have any news except that dena taught her class the phrase 'super fantastic' which i apparently say often. i have a stamp that says 'excellent!' and i was trying to explain what it meant to the class and all i could think of was 'super good or super fantastic'.
i can't stop hiccuping. it's been 5 minutes.
woke up late, hung around the dorm, read a bit. i got one of those tofu pancake things again today for lunch. i tried to take a picture but it didn't turn out and i was too embarrassed to keep trying. people were looking at me as i was taking the pictures and i felt like a super-tourist.
my classes on monday are really good. the first one is a bunch of like 8-10 year olds who have been taking class together for the last 4 years so they're really comfortable with each other. we're reviewing for a test next week. today they were different than they have been toward me. mainly, they're saying my name a lot more and getting into my personal space which i think is good.
my little kid class in the evening is cute as can be. today we played duck duck goose again because they were screaming for it, and it was hilarious. their new QA today was 'who are your english teachers?' and when we were answering, they said 'pretty carol and pretty megan are my english teachers' which carol had apparently taught them on her day ahead of time. they were beaming at me like 'we surprised you and we're being super sweet' and it was really cute. they had to draw us and it was pretty funny. i think that's my favorite class.
aunt carol was asking me earlier and i didn't realize i hadn't explained the process of classes yet. basically, kids enroll in the school and are given an assessment test to see what their level is. once they get enough kids on the same level, they start them in the appropriate class. i guess there are a couple of options but i'm confused about what they are. they have different names but they don't mean much to me because i don't have any of the very beginner classes.
other than that, i don't have any news except that dena taught her class the phrase 'super fantastic' which i apparently say often. i have a stamp that says 'excellent!' and i was trying to explain what it meant to the class and all i could think of was 'super good or super fantastic'.
i can't stop hiccuping. it's been 5 minutes.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
chifferobe
todayy..
i didnt do much of anything, to be honest. hung around the dorm all morning. josh, beth and i went to latini's for lunch and i had the panini again because it was so tasty the first time. they were closed until 5 but they let us in early which was nice.
then josh and i went for a ride on the scooter around the surrounding 'townships' ..mainly the back roads of da chu and da hua which means big flower which i think is in reference to the sunflower fields all around. i took one picture of one that was in between these buildings, but there were lots of them that were actual big patches of field like they were being grown for a reason.
anyway it was a nice drive. 2 hours on the back of a scooter is a little rough, but it was good to get out and about. we drove past tons of lotus fields which are like 4 feet of water with these GIANT waterlily looking things growing up like 4 feet above it. and we saw dragon fruit plants. i dont have a picture but it looked liiike this
most of the drive was just little roads with odd buildings like:
we also found a pond with a funny sign.
i was amazed that with a 'turn down the smallest road possible' strategy, we never hit a dead end. we kept magically popping out on main roads and then finding our way to roads we recognized. it was good.
then tonight a bunch of us went to carrefour to buy a new dvd player because ours is dead/dying and then we watched the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. it was a nice night :) we'll end on this note..
keith: just another day in the life
i didnt do much of anything, to be honest. hung around the dorm all morning. josh, beth and i went to latini's for lunch and i had the panini again because it was so tasty the first time. they were closed until 5 but they let us in early which was nice.
then josh and i went for a ride on the scooter around the surrounding 'townships' ..mainly the back roads of da chu and da hua which means big flower which i think is in reference to the sunflower fields all around. i took one picture of one that was in between these buildings, but there were lots of them that were actual big patches of field like they were being grown for a reason.
anyway it was a nice drive. 2 hours on the back of a scooter is a little rough, but it was good to get out and about. we drove past tons of lotus fields which are like 4 feet of water with these GIANT waterlily looking things growing up like 4 feet above it. and we saw dragon fruit plants. i dont have a picture but it looked liiike this
most of the drive was just little roads with odd buildings like:
we also found a pond with a funny sign.i was amazed that with a 'turn down the smallest road possible' strategy, we never hit a dead end. we kept magically popping out on main roads and then finding our way to roads we recognized. it was good.
then tonight a bunch of us went to carrefour to buy a new dvd player because ours is dead/dying and then we watched the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. it was a nice night :) we'll end on this note..
keith: just another day in the life
the dorm seems more fun, anyway
me: than what?
keith: before you
me: ah
aww.
keith: of course, dont be silly
Saturday, July 12, 2008
no matter how long it takes
yesterday was so fantastic in so many ways.
i subbed a class in the morning that was pretty good. they didn't know they were having a sub, so when i walked in, no one knew what was happening. one kid actually walked into the class, looked at me, started to turn and walk out before his classmates were like 'noo, you're in the right class!' it was hilarious.
keith and i had the same break between classes so he took me to this delicious juice lady and i had a pineapple, banana and orange smoothie that was delicious. then he took me to this stand that sold these pancake things with egg and mine had bacon in it. it was easily the tastiest thing i've eaten in taiwan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scallion_pancakes
anyway once i got home, i went straight to this spa beth's been going to that's right on the other side of the park. they import all of their products from italy and the owner, nicky, and her sister, margaret, both speak english very well. http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/merveilles-11/article?mid=208&prev=214&next=201
there are some pictures of it. it's super chic. the room it shows in the second picture is the room i was in. so i got there at 330, they explained the menu to me, which took like 45 minutes. they brought me 2 kinds of tea while i was sitting there. they have you pick a tea and the kind of music you'd like every time. i decided to get a 'leg treatment' which was supposed to be good for teachers who stand all day, and a facial. so they have me shower, put on a robe, and soak my feet in steaming hot rose water while i sit in the room at the bottom of that website, overlooking a park in taoyuan. it was so pretty. nicky brings me 2 different kinds of cake to try, one pineapple in pastry and one white bean with coconut. both delicious. meanwhile, margaret is talking my ear off and painting my nails.
so i go into the room and they start the leg treatment. first they rub my legs with something that burns a lot because i had just shaved my legs, but it was ok. then i was scrubbed, then i was wrapped. basically, they wrap an ace-bandage made out of gauze looking thing around your whole leg from foot to upper thigh, and it's supposed to get really, really cold which is supposed to 'make your legs feel lighter'. they warned me that last week, a woman actually started screaming because it felt so cold on her. it started off feeling really hot for the first 10 minutes or so and then it started feeling really cold like my legs were wrapped in ice. it was weird. they give you a shoulder and neck massage while you're laying there to take your mind off of your numbed legs. so that was that.
then i got a facial and she put at least 12 different creams on my face and it was lovely. margaret re-did my nails because i got them all smudged when i got up to use the restroom.
anyway it was a really fun experience. they have you shower again to get the oil from the massage out of your hair and then you can dry it afterwards at this little counter. apparently margaret wanted to dry mine for me but she had to leave before i was done.
i ended up spending FIVE HOURSSS there. it was good.
in the evening, we all hung out around the dorm chatting until around 1 or so and dena and i stayed up until 5am because i wanted to watch this episode of Bizarre Foods set in Taiwan that was listed in the paper. but then, when we finally got to 5am, it wasn't even on! i was outraged.
so i obviously slept late because i was up late and now im trolling for things to do. i think the new person, steve (as we found out by his new nametag on the door) should be arriving any day now. they didn't even have my name tag up when i arrived.
i subbed a class in the morning that was pretty good. they didn't know they were having a sub, so when i walked in, no one knew what was happening. one kid actually walked into the class, looked at me, started to turn and walk out before his classmates were like 'noo, you're in the right class!' it was hilarious.
keith and i had the same break between classes so he took me to this delicious juice lady and i had a pineapple, banana and orange smoothie that was delicious. then he took me to this stand that sold these pancake things with egg and mine had bacon in it. it was easily the tastiest thing i've eaten in taiwan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scallion_pancakes
anyway once i got home, i went straight to this spa beth's been going to that's right on the other side of the park. they import all of their products from italy and the owner, nicky, and her sister, margaret, both speak english very well. http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/merveilles-11/article?mid=208&prev=214&next=201
there are some pictures of it. it's super chic. the room it shows in the second picture is the room i was in. so i got there at 330, they explained the menu to me, which took like 45 minutes. they brought me 2 kinds of tea while i was sitting there. they have you pick a tea and the kind of music you'd like every time. i decided to get a 'leg treatment' which was supposed to be good for teachers who stand all day, and a facial. so they have me shower, put on a robe, and soak my feet in steaming hot rose water while i sit in the room at the bottom of that website, overlooking a park in taoyuan. it was so pretty. nicky brings me 2 different kinds of cake to try, one pineapple in pastry and one white bean with coconut. both delicious. meanwhile, margaret is talking my ear off and painting my nails.
so i go into the room and they start the leg treatment. first they rub my legs with something that burns a lot because i had just shaved my legs, but it was ok. then i was scrubbed, then i was wrapped. basically, they wrap an ace-bandage made out of gauze looking thing around your whole leg from foot to upper thigh, and it's supposed to get really, really cold which is supposed to 'make your legs feel lighter'. they warned me that last week, a woman actually started screaming because it felt so cold on her. it started off feeling really hot for the first 10 minutes or so and then it started feeling really cold like my legs were wrapped in ice. it was weird. they give you a shoulder and neck massage while you're laying there to take your mind off of your numbed legs. so that was that.
then i got a facial and she put at least 12 different creams on my face and it was lovely. margaret re-did my nails because i got them all smudged when i got up to use the restroom.
anyway it was a really fun experience. they have you shower again to get the oil from the massage out of your hair and then you can dry it afterwards at this little counter. apparently margaret wanted to dry mine for me but she had to leave before i was done.
i ended up spending FIVE HOURSSS there. it was good.
in the evening, we all hung out around the dorm chatting until around 1 or so and dena and i stayed up until 5am because i wanted to watch this episode of Bizarre Foods set in Taiwan that was listed in the paper. but then, when we finally got to 5am, it wasn't even on! i was outraged.
so i obviously slept late because i was up late and now im trolling for things to do. i think the new person, steve (as we found out by his new nametag on the door) should be arriving any day now. they didn't even have my name tag up when i arrived.
Friday, July 11, 2008
polka dots, checks and stripes
this is my new stamp :)
the titles of these blogs are completely random. it's usually song lyrics that are stuck in my head or that i'm listening to at the time. todays is from a song we did a ballet recital to when i was 8 though.
today was good. went to latini's this morning and had a panini and an 'espresso ice cream' which was a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a mug of espresso. it was so good. the panini was made on homemade bread and had tomato, mozzarella, basil and prosciutto and it was SO good. that's going to be a regular thing.
we're preparing for demo's in both of my friday classes. one class is made up of 21 kids and its just mayhem in there at all times. thankfully my co-teacher has it handled and it goes pretty smoothly. there are 2 adorable tiny boys in there. the picture is them playing this game that involves drawing circles with the dry erase markers on the floor. every time they lose 'paper scissor stone' which is rock paper scissor, their circle gets smaller and they have to ask a Q/A. when their circles got too tiny today, one group had the ingenious idea to go piggyback.
my other class is a beginners class but they range from first to fourth grade age. they're super sweet though. today they sang the peanut butter and jelly song and the motions they did were HILARIOUS. 'peanuuut' involves them cranking their arms around in a big circle and 'jelly!' is like jazz hands but they take a step out with one foot and put their arms out like they just finished a big stage show or something. it is sooo funny and cute.
tonight i made a lackluster version of this curry stuff i make at home. i forgot to buy chicken broth and it lacked some serious salt. it's coconut milk, potatoes, peanut butter, an onion, curry powder and beef. it's pretty tasty but it does need a can of chicken broth.
then dena and i played 4 rounds of speed but she couldnt beat me so she went to bed :P so i played keith and we must have played at least 20 games. i think he beat me a few more times, but we stopped keeping track. he kept getting all giggly though. it was pretty funny.
i wasn't working tomorrow but sandy called me at like 11 to ask if i would sub 2 classes, so i'm going to pick them up. keith has class at the same school at the same time so i dont even have to take the bus!
andd we're supposed to get a new person pretty soon. they put a set of bedding in a room and some guys came and fixed something in the room today. i've already thought of what i'm going to say to them. it goes.. 'we've been waiting to meet you all week and we're so excited you're here. all of the people who live in the dorm are really cool. i'll show you all of the places i know that have good food and someone will show you how to get to all of your schools and it's going to be awesome.' that's what i wish someone had told me when i got here.
time for bed!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
i can only think in spanish
i'm tired and i just watched like an hour of emil's travel videos so this will be the short version.
this morning.. went to carrefour, got a carrefour card which gives you back a certain amount every time you spend a certain amount. i obviously don't know what the deal is, but it was free and it makes me happy to whip out my card and let them know that i'm a semi-permanent resident. i also feel that way when i use my bus card. a lot of the local people pay with change so when i use my bus card i feel like i'm showing them that i'm not just some random foreigner who doesn't know what's happening.
then i went to a coffee shop to do my lesson plans. the guy didn't speak much english but 'caramel latte' is the easy enough. and i had pumpkin cheesecake that wasn't very sweet. they have an odd relationship with sugar here. bread is generally sweet but desserts are generally not as sweet as you would like. i got a doughnut the other day that was like.. air. i'm not sure how to describe it other than 'a complete lack of flavor of any kind'. anyway i loved the coffee shop in spite of the sub par dessert. they were playing relaxing jazzy music, there was a shaved golden retriever with red hair that i made friends with, and the guy went out of his way to explain things to me. i think i'm going to go there a few times a week. but it opens at 1.
i successfully made it to school tonight andd i ordered pork with snap peas and carrots and rice from this little tiny restaurant down the street from school and it was delicious. tonight i had one fantastic red book class and one horrific WOW class. they spoke chinese with the co-teacher the whole time and i just didn't know what to do. i can't make friends with them, they didn't like anything i tried to do, and they're just mean-spirited kids. we'll see.
after class, josh gave me a ride home and we stopped at a thai place to pick up dinner to go. he lived in thailand for a year so he could speak to them sort of and it was pretty good. i had pork pad thai that was as good as i've had anywhere.
chatted with keith, dena, josh, beth and emil tonight at various points throughout the night and now i'm headed to bed finally at 220am.
random things:
-i bought tide laundry soap. it smells like home and i think it's making me itchy. our washer doesn't rinse very well because everything smells reallly strong even after it's done cycling.
-got my stamp from the stamp guy. it just says Megan (sometimes you can get them to add a weird little picture of an animal or something) but it makes my life 1,000x better.
this morning.. went to carrefour, got a carrefour card which gives you back a certain amount every time you spend a certain amount. i obviously don't know what the deal is, but it was free and it makes me happy to whip out my card and let them know that i'm a semi-permanent resident. i also feel that way when i use my bus card. a lot of the local people pay with change so when i use my bus card i feel like i'm showing them that i'm not just some random foreigner who doesn't know what's happening.
then i went to a coffee shop to do my lesson plans. the guy didn't speak much english but 'caramel latte' is the easy enough. and i had pumpkin cheesecake that wasn't very sweet. they have an odd relationship with sugar here. bread is generally sweet but desserts are generally not as sweet as you would like. i got a doughnut the other day that was like.. air. i'm not sure how to describe it other than 'a complete lack of flavor of any kind'. anyway i loved the coffee shop in spite of the sub par dessert. they were playing relaxing jazzy music, there was a shaved golden retriever with red hair that i made friends with, and the guy went out of his way to explain things to me. i think i'm going to go there a few times a week. but it opens at 1.
i successfully made it to school tonight andd i ordered pork with snap peas and carrots and rice from this little tiny restaurant down the street from school and it was delicious. tonight i had one fantastic red book class and one horrific WOW class. they spoke chinese with the co-teacher the whole time and i just didn't know what to do. i can't make friends with them, they didn't like anything i tried to do, and they're just mean-spirited kids. we'll see.
after class, josh gave me a ride home and we stopped at a thai place to pick up dinner to go. he lived in thailand for a year so he could speak to them sort of and it was pretty good. i had pork pad thai that was as good as i've had anywhere.
chatted with keith, dena, josh, beth and emil tonight at various points throughout the night and now i'm headed to bed finally at 220am.
random things:
-i bought tide laundry soap. it smells like home and i think it's making me itchy. our washer doesn't rinse very well because everything smells reallly strong even after it's done cycling.
-got my stamp from the stamp guy. it just says Megan (sometimes you can get them to add a weird little picture of an animal or something) but it makes my life 1,000x better.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
hilarity
http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=EhCPEI9zwtY&feature=related
i live with that fool. he's actually a pretty cool guy. his name is Emil and he's been traveling around the world for the last 5 years and living out of a backpack. go to www.youtube.com/monkeetime to see his bio and various travel videos. i think it's pretty entertaining, but maybe it's only because i know him. anyway he's fun and i admire his ability to travel alone for so long.
tonight dena and i were talking about a dream i had last night in which i owned a little dog and it turned into a kid who i was putting into a car seat and how i don't want it right nowww, but when i do have a family, i'll be ready for it. i think my traveling right now is making me more comfortable with the idea of having roots somewhere later. it's making me realize exactly how much i love austin and going to central market every weekend and eating food that i looove and being able to drive 15 minutes to see my family. i'm happy i'm here, but i'll appreciate everything when i get back.
i had a fantastic day today. i found a stamp guy who can make me a stamp with my name in english. we have to sign all kinds of papers and books all day long so i had been using my new hello kitty stamp but i really wanted my name done. there are all of these little shops around town with big keys made out of poster board hanging from their awnings and some of them also make stamps. so i found a guy who is going to make me one. it's supposed to be ready tomorrow. i'm excited.
today i taught 2 classes that both went pretty well. i think my kids are starting to get a better handle on my personality and i'm remembering all of their names which is nice. we played some really fun relay games that they got excited about which is exciting for me.
there were 2 vehicle-related adventures:
1) the bus to dar chu takes you a different way every time, but eventually i get somewhere where i can see the school, so i just get off the bus. sometimes its on the right side of the street, sometimes not, but always close. todayyy, i see the school and then the bus turns down this road that i didn't know existed and starts off toward the middle of nowhere. i knew i should have pushed the button when i knew how to get back to the school, but for some reason i just waited and stayed on the bus. at that point i had 40 minutes until i had to be at the school so i wasn't worried. but it just kept going further and further (is it farther or further?) away from the main road and we were passing these big fields of sunflowers and orange flowers and little houses and fields. it was actually very pretty if i hadn't been completely lost. eventually i did get back to the school but i was within 10 minutes of the time i needed to be there which is cutting it a little close for my liking.
2) so i'm sitting in front of a bank, waiting for the bus after class when an SUV parks in front of the bank. an elderly woman gets out and says 'hi there' which set off the bells in my mind because it's so colloquial that no one who only knows a bit of english would ever say it. so i say 'hi!' and then she goes to use the ATM and when she comes back out, she starts to ask me the typical questions.. 'are you an english teacher? how long have you been here? where do you live? how long do you plan to stay? what do you think about taiwan?' so in the course of answering the questions, we figure out that i teach her grandson in one of my classes on wednesday nights. his name is harrison and he's a pretty good kid but he's in my 21-kid class so i don't know him very well. anyway they offer me a ride home which is AMAZING because the bus would have taken me at least an hour and a half. so on the way home we talk about the food and how it freaks me out and they invited me to their house to have dinner one night which i'm totally going to do. they also told me not to take random taxi's and corrected my pronunciation of 'tung an' (the street i live on). it's more like tong an than tung an. they said tung an is a street in taipei.
anyway they were obviously super nice and i can't wait to see them again. klaus and julie huang.
klaus is her son and he studied german so when i told them my last name was klein, he got all excited.
i know this is getting long so i'll gloss over the last part of my night.. we went to this bar/pub called Rodeo and there was a band playing american songs. the first one was Maria by Carlos Santana. i almost died laughing. the guy clearly 'learned' the words by listening to the song, so there were some words he sang that were not words at all but did sound like the words in the song. it was the funniest thing in the whole world. i ordered nachos that weren't too bad but i have super heartburn now.
ok time for bed! no class until 5 tomorrow woooo!
i live with that fool. he's actually a pretty cool guy. his name is Emil and he's been traveling around the world for the last 5 years and living out of a backpack. go to www.youtube.com/monkeetime to see his bio and various travel videos. i think it's pretty entertaining, but maybe it's only because i know him. anyway he's fun and i admire his ability to travel alone for so long.
tonight dena and i were talking about a dream i had last night in which i owned a little dog and it turned into a kid who i was putting into a car seat and how i don't want it right nowww, but when i do have a family, i'll be ready for it. i think my traveling right now is making me more comfortable with the idea of having roots somewhere later. it's making me realize exactly how much i love austin and going to central market every weekend and eating food that i looove and being able to drive 15 minutes to see my family. i'm happy i'm here, but i'll appreciate everything when i get back.
i had a fantastic day today. i found a stamp guy who can make me a stamp with my name in english. we have to sign all kinds of papers and books all day long so i had been using my new hello kitty stamp but i really wanted my name done. there are all of these little shops around town with big keys made out of poster board hanging from their awnings and some of them also make stamps. so i found a guy who is going to make me one. it's supposed to be ready tomorrow. i'm excited.
today i taught 2 classes that both went pretty well. i think my kids are starting to get a better handle on my personality and i'm remembering all of their names which is nice. we played some really fun relay games that they got excited about which is exciting for me.
there were 2 vehicle-related adventures:
1) the bus to dar chu takes you a different way every time, but eventually i get somewhere where i can see the school, so i just get off the bus. sometimes its on the right side of the street, sometimes not, but always close. todayyy, i see the school and then the bus turns down this road that i didn't know existed and starts off toward the middle of nowhere. i knew i should have pushed the button when i knew how to get back to the school, but for some reason i just waited and stayed on the bus. at that point i had 40 minutes until i had to be at the school so i wasn't worried. but it just kept going further and further (is it farther or further?) away from the main road and we were passing these big fields of sunflowers and orange flowers and little houses and fields. it was actually very pretty if i hadn't been completely lost. eventually i did get back to the school but i was within 10 minutes of the time i needed to be there which is cutting it a little close for my liking.
2) so i'm sitting in front of a bank, waiting for the bus after class when an SUV parks in front of the bank. an elderly woman gets out and says 'hi there' which set off the bells in my mind because it's so colloquial that no one who only knows a bit of english would ever say it. so i say 'hi!' and then she goes to use the ATM and when she comes back out, she starts to ask me the typical questions.. 'are you an english teacher? how long have you been here? where do you live? how long do you plan to stay? what do you think about taiwan?' so in the course of answering the questions, we figure out that i teach her grandson in one of my classes on wednesday nights. his name is harrison and he's a pretty good kid but he's in my 21-kid class so i don't know him very well. anyway they offer me a ride home which is AMAZING because the bus would have taken me at least an hour and a half. so on the way home we talk about the food and how it freaks me out and they invited me to their house to have dinner one night which i'm totally going to do. they also told me not to take random taxi's and corrected my pronunciation of 'tung an' (the street i live on). it's more like tong an than tung an. they said tung an is a street in taipei.
anyway they were obviously super nice and i can't wait to see them again. klaus and julie huang.
klaus is her son and he studied german so when i told them my last name was klein, he got all excited.
i know this is getting long so i'll gloss over the last part of my night.. we went to this bar/pub called Rodeo and there was a band playing american songs. the first one was Maria by Carlos Santana. i almost died laughing. the guy clearly 'learned' the words by listening to the song, so there were some words he sang that were not words at all but did sound like the words in the song. it was the funniest thing in the whole world. i ordered nachos that weren't too bad but i have super heartburn now.
ok time for bed! no class until 5 tomorrow woooo!
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