Sick Day/Scootin around Taichung/ Bad Luck Lockout...

Tuesday, October 11th

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTEN!!!! Wish I was home to celebrate. When I woke up I found out that I had no classes until Thursday afternoon, good to know! I decided to take the day off: I was exhausted, my throat was irritated, and I never took a personal day off for all the crazy crap that's going on at home, so why not. I haven't taken a day off from work in a long time. Never called in for the nanny job or substitute teaching (that'd be ironic to call in sick for that job..) I called in a few times for my bar jobs though..but this was different. When I called Mark, he heard my voice on the phone and insisted I get rest and said that since I don't have class for the next few days, I'll be able to rest my throat and voice. He's had 3 sick days since I started not even two months ago, so he's cool with it. Then he kept asking if I want to go to the hospital and I was like ..woahhh no..I think I just need to rest.. I decided to sleep in until 11, take a bath, and then head over to this tea shop by my apartment that I'm never brave enough to try. It looks so nice but I can't read anything on the outside except for "tea house." I figured I could sit with Sabrina's thesis paper, drink some tea, and eat some soup. The workers didn't speak much English but the little old lady who runs the place is so sweet. Once I walked in she guided me to this nice booth by a window. For once I didn't get strange looks for being by myself. I brought my little Chinese translation book (the one Caitlin got me) that thing is pretty handy. I opened it and she went ahead and started flipping through pages with me and pointing to things. I ended up with some ice green tea and spicy beef noodle soup (surprise surprise..that's what I get for only know mien and la..noodles, spicy.) After the meal and tea, I got some coffee which was really good, very strong.

I got a lot done on editing the paper. I had a hard time correcting her sentence structure or just the overall flow of the chapters. I actually feel like I'm losing my English out here! I was trying to think of words to substitute the ones she kept repeating and I was drawing blanks. So frustrating! I've been making more and more typos in this blog too, drives me nuts. After I think I've read through and corrected my mistakes, I post it and then notice more and more..(So..sorry about that if you're reading.) Sabrina's paper was actually very interesting. From the start of the job, I noticed that she was one teacher who showed a strong interest in my ideas and lessons and was asking for help or for me to pass on my material to her. From working with her in two classes, I could tell that she was the type of teacher who didn't want to be old fashioned and wants to engage her students in the classroom and all of these traits showed through in her Thesis topic. Every idea I present, she gets excited about which is more than I can say for some of the other co-teachers. Each one is different in their own way, but from Sabrina's paper, I can tell she's the type of teacher that wants to stray away from the norm. The thesis was about the standard Taiwanese English curriculum and how the government decided in the past couple of years to initiate Character Education in the schools. Sabrina thinks that Character Education and English can be combined in the classroom, and students should read English young adult literature in their English classes because this teaches life lessons and builds character. On top of that, it also makes learning English more interesting. She used the book, "Dear Mr. Henshaw," for her research with her own classes. Right now, Taiwanese schools are focused on the testing and assessment of the students and only teach material that will help the students pass their big exam. Sounds like what the U.S. is starting to do.

I contacted Wyn about when my next scooter lesson would be and he said that that night would work best. This time, I'd be heading over there on my own. I already left my new helmet with the bike at my first lesson so I didn't need to lug anything extra along and hopped on a bus towards the Art Museum. He met me there with my scooter and I was scared to have to ride it straight from there but he ended up riding me over to his apartment building where we could practice speeding up and doing circles around a little strip of land out front of his place. I just followed him with my scooter and I think I caught on pretty quickly. That first lesson helped a lot. Once you get the balance and control of the brakes down, the rest you just pick up as you go. He had me ride down this little one way pathway and accelerate over 30, and let me tell you, going 30 feels like you're going 70. I don't know how people speed on these things haha. Then after about 20 minutes of practice he goes "ok, I assume you want to take it home tonight right? Just follow me until we get up to the highway and I'll follow you  home from there." This was a terrifying idea..I'm like.."wait..highway? wait..you'll follow ME?" And he said that the highway is a straight shot to the train station and from there I'll most likely know how to get to the park that I live next to. The good thing about this "highway" is, it's not really a highway at all..it's like their version of our Army Trail or something..except 3 times as crowded of course, and there's a stop light every 300 feet it seems like. At each red light, Wyn would ride up right next to me and give me tips or feedback and right away he said "you're doing great! you look like a natural!" then at the 3rd red light he says "ok so back there..you cut someone off..keep checking your mirrors.." So I'd say the lesson didn't go perfectly, but overall I did well, and at this point there's no going back! We already rode back to my apartment. He gave me the previous girl's registration papers and said that any scooter shop will transfer them into my name, they might hesitate at first, but they'll do it. I parked it right out front of my garage.

That night, I got a few missed calls from Sabrina, she wanted to pick up her thesis and work on it. Oops, totally forgot that she would've wanted it by that day. She said that she'd stop by my place and she'd also bring me some special drink for my throat. I met her at the two main intersections by my house and she asked if I could go through some more of my editing with her so I said..well I do live above a classroom..we could work on it there? She was curious about my apartment also so I gave her a little tour (my room was a disaster though, laundry day, so every item is used as a drying rack) She said it was cute and she liked my giant thing of pictures. I couldn't figure out how to turn on the air conditioner in the classroom, knowing that my landlord likes to save on that, I'm sure he locked it down some how. She gave me her special drink mix, and it was this super concentrated starfruit juice and you just use a little of that and add hot water and salt to it..well salt is almost non existent in Taiwan so I definitely didn't own that, but the goopy syrup and water did just fine. It almost tasted like there was salt in it already. It reminded me of hot apple cider (but not as good of course) Sabrina said that she was kind of stressed out because she has been staying up really late to re-type her paper. She also reminded me that I have no classes until Thursday afternoon and asked what I was going to do with those classes...(umm..shit..no idea..) and she goes, "well I think it would be good to just show a movie because they just did all of their exams, they should be able to relax." Amazing idea, Sabrina!

I was so tired and hungry after we worked on this for an hour. Between the commute out to get my scooter, and an hour of editing, it was already after 9 and I still hadn't had dinner. But on a really really bright note, I didn't have to walk or ride my bike anywhere! I could hop on my scooter and giddy up and go. I will admit that I was pretty nervous, but I took a short ride over to get some of my cheap potstickers and I made it home alive.

Wednesday, October 12th

I had absolutely no class..I just worked on random things all day long. Everyone was very concerned about me after I called in sick. The librarian who sits next to me had the Chinese version of "The Help" on her desk and I look at her and go, "oh I love this book, very good book!" and did my little game of charades because she doesn't speak English, and right away she turns around to ask Wenli, what I assume would be "what the hell did she just say to me?" so I automatically was like, "Oh Wenli I was just saying that I love that book, I read it too. It's really good." And Wenli just goes, "oh mmmhmm mmhmm..she's very concerned about you and she wants you to rest your voice." So I take that as a hint to ..not talk anymore? I worked on my lesson plans for tomorrow afternoon which was just showing "The Nightmare Before Christmas." I actually hated that movie when I was little. Ms. Weir showed it to us in second grade and it was just really disturbing..now when I watch it I'm like..wow this is a cool movie! No second grader wants to see a movie about monsters kidnapping Santa Claus..but in a country where no one knows who Santa is..I'm sure it's just fine!

That night I decided to go to the scooter shop that's next to my apartment. I asked the young guy to switch the scooter information from the former South African girl's name, to my name. He didn't hesitate to do so. He didn't know any English but understood my hand motions, I love when they understand that. That took about 20 minutes and then I asked him about switching the mat on my scooter. Even though it has a pretty bird design, the burnt orange color just isn't matching with the forest green body and dark gray detailing..anddd I know it's just my transportation for a year..but if I have the opportunity to make this scooter cuter, then that's happening.  The young guy ended up using this computer that was out in the open to do google translate with me because he brought this red mat out and I was like...ehhhh maybe just black? do you have black? So he got his coworker involved to find one and they ordered it from another store and said it'd be there by next Tuesday. Then I ask the guy to install one of these hook things on my scooter that all the other ones have. Its right where the "glove compartment" would be, like when you sit down, it'd be in front of your knees. I see people mainly using this hook for their bags and drinks (well all of the drinks come in bags.. which is interesting because if you want a bag at the grocery store you have to pay for it to help save the environment, but every little coffee, juice, or tea you order, comes in a plastic bag.) The hook was 100 NT, the mat would be 200 NT, and switching the registration was a little over 600 NT, so $30. Not too bad. The mechanics had two friends stop by and one was a girl who spoke a little English, so once she pulled up they were like, "heyyy heyyy!! talk, talk." She was telling me that the one guy wanted to know if I had insurance and he can take my ARC and information and go to the government and get it for me and I was trying to think of the standard scooter procedures foreigners follow..not necessarily the legal ones..so I said "uhh I'm not sure if I want to do that yet.." and they kept asking for my Chinese name and I'm like.."I don't have one.." So we settled for the papers being transferred and I figured I'd just ask Wyn about the whole insurance thing.

Thursday, October 13th

I was really excited to not have to deal with class 202 today. I only had my afternoon Thursday classes, which I really like. I brought the gift I got for my sister to the school because Wenli said she'd take me to the post office to send it and take me to the bank to try and use my new ATM card. At 10 we got ready to go to the post office and she whispers to me, "um Diana, I'd like to stop at one more place besides the post office and the bank.." (again with the whispering..this makes me think we're going somewhere shady or personal) and turns out she just wants to stop at Chung Yo department store to see if they have these shoes she wanted. I was like, "Oh I love Chung Yo! I'll go." Plus we had a few hours to kill until lunch. The post office trip was very different than the typical post office trip people dread to make in America. It was this quaint little room with about 5 people working and only about 3 customers. I filled out a form with my address and my family's address, checked off a few boxes, and I didn't have to answer the questions that said "what is the contents of your package? how many items are in your package?" But I did answer how much it's probably worth because I got insurance. So it cost 400 NT, $13 to send out. Not bad, Wenli was worried that it was too much and felt bad for thinking it'd only be 200, I was like, No Wenli, this is cheap, it's fine. On the way to Chung Yo, Wenli talked to me about all sorts of things. I have a feeling that people here don't disclose personal information to each other or just don't have the same relationships with friends that we have because when they talk to me it seems like it's the first time they're saying it to anyone. We got into the topic of why she isn't married and turns out she doesn't want to get married. Her sister doesn't want to get married either and they're going to move in together in a few years..(Call me crazy, but the day I have to move in with Kristen past the age of 40, is the day that I sign up on every dating site known to man.) I guess she had a pretty tough upbringing and she's afraid of getting her heart broken, and I'm thinking..you're 40, it should've been broken at least 3 times by now..I thought the women here would be very conservative and all be married by 25 or something, but that's not the case. Shija even comes across some older women who just don't plan on getting married. It was a good conversation, I like Wenli. When we were by the makeup she asked if I needed to get anything and I was like, actually, yes, I need a new face wash and face lotion. On my weekend trip to Taipei with Shija, I tried her Shisiedo face wash and I loved it. She had really good things to say about it and said her and her mom use that and the night cream, so I decided to look into it. (It's called White Lucent and is a "brightening" system. Just gets rid of dark spots and brightens up your face or something)..I'll try anything new. I never used to care about washing my face, but ever since I got to Taiwan I've been breaking out like a 14 year old..I blame the pollution/sweat, and plus, these products may be the Asian's secret of why they look 10 years younger than they are... So normally it's a pretty expensive product, but I think I got a really good deal. If  you spend a certain amount (like at any make up counter) you get a free gift. Well their free gift had a ton of stuff and one thing was this face mask that you use once, and I googled it, and it's like $64 US!! Sold! So we walked around and window shopped, I decided to wear my painful Tory Burch shoes that day because I knew I would barely have any class, but did not anticipate a mall trip. My feel felt like they were bleeding they were in so much pain, but they weren't bleeding so that's always good. 

At lunch, her and mark told me that the government is sending all of the foreigner teachers plus one co teacher from each school, out to Kenting for a weekend trip, I asked if I got to choose what co teacher comes with. She said, "oh we'll probably vote on it at our next meeting (which I KNOW I won't be involved in) and you're so lucky, Kenting is beautiful! Great food, great beaches, a night market.." So I said, "well, If I have any say in it, I think you should come. I know you the best out of the co teachers!" She got so excited, she's like "really!? but... I don't think the principal will let me, I have so much work."

Kenting Beach

Seems like a great place for a work trip

I had plans to have a relaxing night..no creating lessons, just watching modern family on tvblinkx.com and  listen to my radio stations. Around 9pm, I wanted to take a break and grab a snack and some water (ok maybe a beer..but I really did want water.) Sometimes when I just have to run down to grab something from the fridge like milk for my coffee or a glass of water, I leave my room door open and go down to the classroom and leave that door open. Well this particular night, I left my room door slightly open and I subconsciously closed and locked the door to the stairwell behind me when I went down for my snack. Didn't even realize it until after I got my drink and cut an apple because I go to open the door and I'm like..shit...I locked the door behind me. Right away I decided to check the classroom for any spare keys,  no such luck. I then decided to use one of the 7 emergency phones that are all over my building, and they weren't even set up. No dial tone, nothing. Ok so I'll just go downstairs and tell the security guard in the building that's next door, to call Vince (my landlord.) I left that door open as well (in total I have 3 keys for 3 doors and a garage opener for my garage.) I literally looked for a garage opener in this garage for a good 6 minutes (which felt like 30 minutes.) There's no noticeable button around and I even looked in the desk that's in there for an extra one. Press the emergency buttons and try the phones again, nothing. Finally, I check out this soap dispenser looking thing on the wall that's set kind of high up, and I'm like..pushing it hitting it poking it and nothing was happening. Then I press the tiny little logo on it and that happened to be the button. Garage opens... good.  I look like a mess, didn't take my shower yet, and I was completely barefoot. I walk past the random hair salon that's the garage door next door to me (never even knew that was there, they must only open at night) and go to the security office which is where I go to throw away my garbage. No guard. The guy is alwaysss thereee... he watches me like a hawk when I throw away my garbage. He's like the trash Nazi. Sure enough, he wasn't on duty tonight. So I knock a few times loudly on the security door which is attached to this whole other nice looking apartment building. Nothing. No answer. My last resort is to talk to the people in this hair salon..no matter where I go, I don't have a phone or a phone number for anyone. Especially memorized..I don't even own my landlord's number or email address so no matter what, I'd have to call Sam. He'd have a field day with this..

I start to get panicky, well I was already panicky but now I'm on the verge of tears. I knock on the hair salon's big glass window entrance and there was a guy cutting a ladies hair, the ladies husband, and then the hair cutter's wife also was there. There was the prettiest white dog I've ever seen. She was so cute...I kept saying hi and pet her a litle..until she started barking and growling at me. Out of the 4 people, no one really spoke English except for the one guy customer. I tried explaining what had happened, and the guy who knew some English says, "Can you call someone?" I said, "Nope, I don't have my phone, it's locked in my room." He said "can you go get it?" I said.."Um No..I'm locked out..I can't get anything out of there. I don't have the keys." So the hair cutter's wife calls up her son who supposedly speaks English, and has him talk to me. I explain the situation, and this is how our conversation goes:

Him-"can you call the landlord?"
"No, my phone and all the numbers are in my room."
"Can you go get it?"
"Nope..its locked, I'm locked out. The keys are in there and the phone is in there.."
"Ok..soo..can you unlock your door?"
"No the keys are in my room."
"Can you go get the keys?"
"NOO, the room is locked."
"Can you call someone?"
"NOOOOOO My phone is in the room."
(I think you get the idea of how repetitive this conversation was..well this went on for a good 10 minutes on the phone..exact same lines with increasing frustration and then the end result: crying.) The 4 people in the salon just didn't get it, and when I started to cry, that made the situation just more awkward for everyone..I can't imagine what was going through their minds...(why is this barefoot foreigner is in our salon..trying to pet our dog and talking in jibberish..oh great now she's crying..) They walked out front of their store with me so I could try and show them what was wrong and we're in the street, and the lady goes "Oh, look, garage is open, it's open!" I calmly explain, yes that's open, that's not the one that is locked.. The 2nd door is locked. The the hairsalon owners' teenage son shows up (the kid on the phone) and then they get their grandma, the aunt, her young boy who has better English than the older boy, and then the salon customers go and get the dentist across the street. In total: 9 people in the street trying to understand what the hell I'm talking about. I think 7 out of 9 had the same exact conversation with me that I previously had with the teenage son. I ask the teenage son if I could use a computer of theirs or one of their phone's internet to get someone's phone number and they weren't getting it...

FINALLY, the salon owner says, "We go get new key." and hops on his scooter and leaves, and I look at the little boy and say what? and the little boy says "we go get you a new key." Yes because that makes complete sense..And in the mean time, the grandma is prodding the little boy to speak English to me, he's more interested in his Nintendo DS, and the two customers start asking me if I could tutor their daughter, she wants to learn English..I'm like.."ok ya know..now's not a good time for me to talk about this.." The salon owner returns on his scooter and he brings with him: a barefoot old man with a cigarette in his mouth and a pink hello kitty helmet. This guy looked as if he hadn't showered in a week, but he had a tool box...I ask the teenage son.."who is that man..is that the locksmith?? will he unlock the door." and the kid is like, "yes he will unlock." So me, the teenage son, his dad (the salon owner), and the barefoot locksmith all walk into my garage. The teenage son looks down at my feet and the locksmith's feet and says.."should I take off my shoes?" I'm like.."Nope. that's not necessary..mine are locked in my room..(not sure what the locksmith's excuse is..)" We all go up to the door and he pops it open in two seconds and goes "Two hundred." Perfect English when it comes to money..The group disperses and all is well again in Taiwan land. I let Sam know that I need my landlord's information as soon as possible and I need him to fix the emergency buttons in case something like this happens again.