just dance

allen and i went for japanese at carrefour this afternoon. if i had a penny for all of the breaded pork steaks i've eaten in this country.. but i do love them and i'll never eat this quantity of japanese food at any other point in my life.

anyway we're going downstairs and he pulls this numbered key out of his pocket and mumbles something about how he doesn't know what this random key opens. i assumed it was some key from the hospital and passed it off, but he handed it to me. eventually it clicked that it probably went with one of the lockers in carrefour where you can leave a backpack or something.
i really wanted to see what was in it, and he was getting oddly shy about it and trying to get me not to look, so this crowd of people was forming around us, watching us go back and forth. after a minute he let me open it, and there was a bouquet of roses and a card inside! totally sweet. when i went into the living room with the bouquet in hand, dena just started laughing. he definitely has a certain style.
so my internship phone interview is set up for tuesday night, taiwan time, and i started driving myself insane reading some message boards and researching, but i've decided to just let it go until tuesday and trust that it's going to work out. or that's the plan.

steve showed up at the dorm tonight so i ran for my camera so i could capture his [ridiculous] mustache. he's been rockin' that thing for several weeks now.
we went to paspi the other night for dinner and the owner took one look at him and he just couldn't stop smiling and chuckling to himself.

the list must be honored

there was a cockroach in my shower bucket. i was hootin' like a girl but what are you supposed to do. it was INCHES away from my hand when i reached for my conditioner. i'm just hoping it crawled in there while i was in the shower and it didn't come from my room. sick. i swept just now but there are about a million places for nasty things to hide in this room.

tonight only one thing of note happened and it was during my second class with my 8 year olds who don't know very much english at all. i've had them for 3 months or something at this point. there's a kid in there, alex, who literally can't sit still. he definitely has ADD/ADHD.
anyway tonight he was jumping all around the room as usual and he just stopped in his tracks and asked sarah a question in chinese. he said 'why does megan have blonde hair and blue eyes when all of us have black hair and brown eyes?' it was hilarious. i'm not sure if it never occured to him or if he just hasn't stood still long enough to notice until tonight.

a whole bunch of people have mentioned how they just have a feeling i'm going to get the internship. if we could all just visualize me in DC, i would appreciate it. tonight my favorite administrator was at my school and i told her about it and she got all excited. she hugged me twice and this woman isn't a hugger. she was wearing a dress tonight because she wanted to 'soften her image'.. if that gives you any idea. but she agreed that it would be a once in a lifetime thing and she thinks obama is the coolest.

find of the day: youtube videos from improv everywhere like this no pants in the subway day. they do things like spontaneous musicals and flash mobs. that stuff is so entertaining.

three things that belong to you

alan and natalie gave me this plant in september and i'm happy to report it's survived and dare i say thrived under my sporadic care. i can't take total credit though, it lives on the table outside my room and i think dena waters it a couple times a week too.
i'm organizing a water gun fight on sunday evening. earlier this week josh brought home a water gun and invited us all to shoot him, and it was a lot more fun than i remembered. i bought one today and i think we can get at least 30 foreign teachers in on it. should be fun to storm the big park with a bunch of water guns. i can't waiiiit to see the taiwanese people's faces.
class was actually fun tonight. i decided to just let the chinese speaking go. they know they shouldn't do it and there's nothing i can do. we played a bunch of games and at the end i had them get out a piece of paper, make a snowball and we threw them all around the room for 10 seconds and whichever side had the most had to stand up and ask a question.

first they banned together and threw them at ben, then they stuffed them all in my purse so i just attacked them and then they threw them at me while my coteacher defended me. it was pretty fun.
our QA in there tonight was 'what are three things that belong to you' and they mostly said things like my money, my clothes, my pencil.. but i also got 'my virginity'. i guess we've turned that corner. they wanted to hear all about my first kiss. they also asked what kind of student i was in high school. i think they were kind of disappointed to hear i was a good student. so uncool.
i looove folded toilet paper. it can't roll anywhere. it's convenient.

internship news

i got an email from the white house saying they need my info for a background check so we can do a phone interview!!! cross your fingers!

p.s. this you know you've been in taiwan too long when... list is soo funny. i think about half of them apply to me

jon: you're really sitting in your room with no AC right now?
me: yoyo and jason came to fix my internet so i had to just sit here while they fixed it
jon: your face is all red and greasy looking.
me: yeah this heat is insane
jon: the white people are dying.

117, 98

many exciting things today.
i woke up to a soft knock on my door, and when i opened it, keith was out in the hall! in my sleepy state, i just waved him into my room and we chatted up as i woke up. we spent the day at carrefour, the bank, tina coffee and a coffee shop (where we asked the owner to please keep keith's chocolate ice cream in the freezer while we sipped rose milk tea). it was super, super nice to see him.

it's funny because in some ways it felt like it was september again and nothing had changed, but now i know my way around and i can ask for things in chinese and i've got the sparkles with allen.. so really, a bunch of things have changed. it was good to catch up though.

almost as exciting as seeing him.. they have ivory lavender body wash again at carrefour!! i've been in there every week for mooonths and it's been gone, but it's back.

what else today. our QA in my first class was 'do you like to exercise? what kind of exercise do you like to do?' so i was hopping all around the room alternating between running, jump roping, doing ballet, push ups, pull ups, sit ups, etc. and the kids kept saying 'megannnn! you are crazy'. the class after that thought it was even weirder since they didn't even have the exercise QA. tuesdays are so awesome though. i love those kids.
today we did the complimenting section in side by side so they had to stand up and compliment me or someone in the class and it was awesomeee. it was painful for some of them.


a bunch of us went bowling tonight and i didn't do very well but we did have a lot of fun. it is way too hot in this living room to stay out here. they BETTER fix it tomorrow!

micronesia

keith wants to go here:

baby of mine

my internet isn't working in my room right now so i'm in the living room which just isn't the same. today seemed like it was nonstop. i went to bobo's for chinese.. this week i'm learning sports and some other random thing that i can't remember right now.. i learned how to say pleaaaasseeee (bai tuooo, bai tuo).

then this afternoon i ate quick lunch before jimmie and i headed to the hospital for our health checks. the woman couldn't find my vein when she was taking blood and she could tell i was freaking out so she said 'oh, good, good!' when she tried the other arm. it was nice because she was being really abrupt through the whole thing but she knew when i needed some reassurance.

right after that, i had time to do my lesson plan and then it was time for class. busy day. class was pretty funny. jasmine asked me if i was still going to go home and i told her i'm waiting to hear from the white house to see if they'll take me for this internship. the kids just heard me say 'obama' and they asked if he was my boyfriend. i said yep and their mouths dropped and they said 'reaalllly megan?! obama is your boyfriend?!!!'

the most exciting part of the day is that jon came back from america! wooo! i've been missing him. i thought he was coming back yesterday. he adds such good energy to the dorm. he's always saying funny things and he's positive and friendly. i've missed our friday dinner dates too.

pumpkin thing recipe:
1 smaller-than-a-volleyball, bigger-than-a-baby's-head sized pumpkin.. hollowed out, cut into chunks (not necessarily peeled) and shredded with a large cheese grater
(it would probably also be really good if you subbed zucchini or some other kind of squash)
3 eggs
a generous pinch of salt
keep adding flour and water until it looks like thick pancake batter
drop generous spoonfuls into hot oil and cook for about a minute and a half, turning once, until theyre golden brown around the edges (they'll keep cooking for a little bit after you take them out)
ours had no other seasoning and it was tasty but you could add anything