I had my 2nd Chinese class. It went well. They split up our class though so now the girl from Thailand and guy from Turkey are in a different room. But let me tell you how excited I am to have Luis from Costa Rica in our class! HEEE is a tequila and whiskey distributor and maybe even the head of this liquor company and him and his Taiwanese wife are trying to make margaritas big in Taiwan with his 100% agave tequila. I told him that I don't just like his idea, I LOVE his idea. A hot island should not be margarita free (that should be a written law somewhere.) Shija and I might be getting some samples, and how appropriate, to practice our pronunciation that night, we learned the phrase "jiu zhong jiu" (joe jong joe) and it means 9 types of liquor. Very productive class I'd say! These classes are super hard though, the words are ridiculously confusing. I'm going to include a video that my mom sent me that reallyyyyy helps me get a grasp on how to pronounce the language...
I stayed up late that night re organizing my room in attempt to make it more cozy/cute/livable. I'm thinking I'll stay with what I have and really stress that I shouldn't have to pay for a tv and I want help with finding a scooter.
Saturday, October 1st, 2011
I woke up to find out some sad news. I found out that my Uncle Joe, who had been battling colon cancer, passed away the previous day. This news was heartbreaking for several reasons. I felt empathetic for my cousins and their kids and I put myself in their shoes and immediately felt homesick. I was upset that I couldn't be around my own family (or around anyone for that matter) when I heard the news. It's not exactly something that you would like to have a face to face skype conversation about though. I don't even think my dad and grandma made it down to South Carolina in time to say their final goodbyes. My dad did make several trips to visit during Uncle Joe's battle with cancer and that alone must have been an emotionally draining process. Dealing with the loss of a sibling is another unimaginable thing. But unfortunately, with grieving, there is no right or wrong way to deal with it. There's no "settling" phrase that you can say to comfort someone, in fact there is no good or bad time to offer comfort. It's such a gray area that it's just all around stressful. It reminds me of one of my favorite college courses, Death Education (sounds morbid but it was extremely helpful.) I think back to this class almost everytime I deal with a life change. It talked about death and loss in our culture and how Americans almost look at it as a taboo topic and something shouldn't be discussed with fear of hurting or offending someone. It shed some light on ways of dealing with loss and how to deal with others dealing with loss. I'm glad I did get to speak to my Uncle before I left for Taiwan and he said he's proud of me for going.
I obviously had the choice to sit in and feel sad all Saturday long, but that's not a realistic thing for me to do, in fact I don't think that's what my uncle or family would want me to do (again, there is not right or wrong thing to do.) I made the decision to continue with my plans for the weekend which was to attend a BBQ in Hsinchu which would be with the only friends I really have in Taiwan. Shija and I planned to head to the train station together around 2. When we met up, we were both sweating like crazy on our walk to the bus. I met her by the night market and I actually had a student of mine run up from behind me going "TEACHA TEACHA TEACHA DI AN AH!" Thank god it was one of the 40 student names I actually remember from the 600! I was like..hi Peggy! Anyway, we finally got to the train station and went straight to the information desk to figure out which train we should take. Not too long after we were on our way to Hsinchu. Shija and I talked the entire way there! She's really cool and like I previously mentioned, she reminds me a lot of my friends at home. Is very laid back and has a good sense of humor. It's so interesting to hear everyone's story about why they're out here. Not one story is exactly alike. I thought I would meet a lot of people my age who were struggling to find jobs but that's not the case. I'm actually one of the few that is experiencing my first living abroad experience, most of the teachers I meet have either done this before or have lived in another country before. The ride to Amber's flew by and when we arrived, her, Sarah, and their friend, Evelin, met us at the Hsinchu station to all ride back to Amber and Sarah's place.
The scooter ride to their place was interesting because it was soo windy! Hsinchu is known as the windy city in Taiwan but this was exceptionally windy! Sarah told me that their friend saw a lady get blown over on her scooter! (that's what these ladies get for being so damn frail and skinny, go eat a burger and fatten up! well actually don't eat a burger here, they're gross..) So the weather was kind of crazy because it was like..20 degrees colder than Taichung! Did not expect that. I wore my little t-shirt dress from Akira thinking that I want to avoid any chance of sweating at this BBQ. When we got to their place, Grant (whom I met last time I came to Ambers) and his friend Stan, were drinking some cocktails. We started off with some glasses of wine and Shija was impressed with their apartment because it's very different than what we're living in. We discussed a game plan for the night because we did need to bring BBQ food and booze. We got chicken, beef, veggies, and pineapple to put on skewers and me and Shija got Coronas. On the way there we picked up some Mango Bingsas which is just a mango tea slushie that we add vodka to. Those are dangerous, you can't taste any of the liquor.
The BBQ was a blast! Gretchen and Juan's house is very cool and has a perfect backyard to BBQ in. There were a lot of the same people that were at South Africa day plus a ton of other people. I met a guy from Slovakia and used the only Russian my dad taught me, because apparently a lot of it is the same language..actually I could've just made that up..but he said Nostravia for cheers, and my dad always says that...Anyway, this guy was excited when I told him I'm Croatian. I met a girl from South Africa that wants to go to Brazil for the World Cup in 2014, I think I told her I'm coming with! haha. Actually, I should really start saving for that because it would be amazing. We hung out at the BBQ for a while and then a majority of the people planned on going to this club, Plurr. Amber and Sarah decided to head home for the night but Shija and I decided to stay out and see what this club was all about.
 |
| Drinkin Bingsas and Making Kabobs |
 |
| Stan the cook with his Mango Bingsa |
 |
| Juan grilling, cigarette in hand haha |
 |
| Not sure what was so funny! |
When we got to the club we realized that Stan was wearing shorts so he wouldn't be able to get in :( Him and Grant are sort of a packaged deal so that means they're both out. Shija and I tried to convince the bouncers but I'm not sure if it was the language barrier or just the lack of interest in Foreigner girls..but they could care less to hear our plead. His shorts were cute and trendy too, he was dressed nicely. Some guys were walking in there with hats. Grant and Stan insisted that we still go in and Stan put Amber's address in Chinese into my phone. Genius. The club was a lot of fun. Again, very very smokey, but it was still a good time. They play a lot of the same music, it's just a different scene. This club wasn't a lesbian club this time, in fact it was kind of the opposite. At one point, they cleared one of the center stages that people were dancing on, and it turns out it was a boxing rink! They started having these guys box each other!?? It was so bizarre. The drinks were about the same price as a downtown Chicago bar (where's this cheaper Taiwan I heard about..) They were $280 a drink so about $8! Even for Heinkens! We had plenty at the BBQ so we only got a few drinks there. Afterwards, Shija and I were a little hungry even though we consumed a lot of kabobs at Gretchen's place, so we decided to get some snacks at 711. I bought a package of Oreos that I was extremely excited about. We actually ran into Warren, Amber's friend that I met my first time out here in Hsinchu. We saw him at the club as well, but we ran into him afterwards and he asked us if we were hungry and took us to the same Tapanaki place that I've been too (which I was NOT opposed to, it's so good.) I don't know if it was because I was pretty buzzed but, my food seemed extremely spicy this time. Warren is so nice and he ended up paying for our meals!
 |
| The entrance of Plurr |
 |
| Climbing through the lazer beams |
The taxi ride back to Amber's was a little blurry but we made it back ok and it was kind of tricky to recognize her building or even what floor she was on. Somehow I managed to get us into the right building. The wind had gotten veryyy intense at this point. We took the elevator to about 3 different floors before we got to the right one (I knew her door had the pandas on it.) I passed out immediately even though I didn't have a pillow (I just bundled up my clothes into a ball and slept on that) I woke up sweating because the wind had gotten so bad over night that they closed every window. There's nothing worse than sweating with a hangover. Amber, Evelin, and Shija were already awake and Amber was making breakfast. It was just as delicious as the last one. She made breakfast burritos! She really does make some good vegetarian food (even her kabobs were amazing because they had garlic and pineapple and a ton of peppers.) We just lounged around for a few hours and then they took us back to the train station. Ughh back to the grind. I was dreading getting back to my place because I knew I'd have to work on lessons.
Monday, October 3rd
I stayed up pretty late working but everything went well. My lessons were just review lessons so I was just going to have the kids repeat their vocabulary words, read the dialogue with a partner, and then play a review game. When I got to work, Mark came up to me with this radio that he mentioned on Friday. He had asked if I'd be interested in using it. They way he described it was a bit odd but I was like, alright I'll take a free radio. He gives me this thing, and it looks almost like an iPod dock. It was black and came with this little remote and he said that I could connect it to my wi-fi in my apartment. He already changed it to English. I had to ask him again, I was like.."wait..what is kind of radio is this??" He explained that it's a satellite radio and I can listen to stations all over the world. I was pretty excited! But also nervous that it wouldn't work in my apartment. I coffee Joe made me this crazy strong coffee that is brewed for 2 days. He also showed me a video on his iphone of him making one of those awesome cappuccino designs. He also shows me videos of his baby, Sophie. He told me that she's teething and he needs to get her some new teething toys and I told him how the crazy rich moms in Chicago spend a lot of money on this one giraffe teething toy. I googled a picture of it for him and I was like..ya its about $20 which is like $600nt. He's like "WOW why so expensive??" and I told him that it's like hand made and non toxic or something like that..basically in America, people spend a lot of money on strange things.. We also googled images of really cool cappuccino designs that he should start doing. He just knows the pine needle one.
Oh I forgot to mention this, but Friday after school, when I got my juice, the super nice juice guy randomly gave me this giant papaya. He like hands it to me and was like.."this is called a papaya.." and I'm like.."oh..that's nice.."(why does everyone enjoy talking to me about names of fruits..) and he's just like "Here..it's yours! Papaya!" So I told coffee Joe that the guy gave me a papaya and his eyes got all big and he's like "REALLY!! a papaya?? You can make papaya milk!" (again..what is the big deal..I don't know.) SO before Chinese class, I went to the same tea/juice stand that's right outside of it (I feel like I'm cheating on the other juice stand by the school, but they're just too far from my place) and this is another juice stand owner that loves me. She talks my ear off! So I told her this papaya story and I'm like.."ya so I have this papaya at home and don't know what the big deal is but, do you have papaya milk?" She's like "yes yes of course you want to try??" So I get this stuff and Oh my god. It's awesome. It tastes like a strawberry milkshake but probably a quarter of the calories--not even! I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that they only use whole milk here. Move over grapefruit green tea and kiwi juice, I have a new favorite.
 |
| Eency Weency Chinese classroom |
I went home listened to a ton of different stations on my new radio. I saved a bunch of favorites. On my favorites list I have: two comedy stations (those might be my favorite, unlimited stand up comedy!) the Beatles, alternative 90's (that's tied for 1st place) Euro club hits (duh..weekend music) hip hop hits, top 100 in US/UK, classic rock, and Mozart's classical pieces (that pre-set was already saved by Mark..)
Tuesday, October 4th
So today was supposed to be the day that I go to a meeting with the other English teachers, but they conveniently canceled on me and said that I don't have to come. "Um I don't think that you need to be at the meeting because it might be quite boring for you. We're just talking about the English Choir contest that's coming up and it will all be in Chinese.." Soo..I know everyone here thinks my voice is jacked, and believe me, I do NOT want to sing and could never carry a tune..but if they're singing ENGLISH songs..why are they discussing everything in Chinese..don't you think they would want me around? Oh ya, every single person tells me that they are very worried about my voice. Wenli said that the tiny little lady in the office (the one who reminds me of my grandma and helped get me the original bike) listened to my presentation last Thursday and is very worried about my voice. She told Wenli to tell me to drink warm tea, not hot, not cold, just warm. This might be the 6th time somebody's talked to me a bout my voice. I honestly don't think it's that different..it's always been slightly deeper or raspier than a typical girl's voice, but I wouldn't say that it stands out as this horrible sounding voice..I've heard worse...I think..
So while every English teacher is off to the meeting, I had to tell Chiao that I wasn't going anymore because they told me not to. At first, I think she thought it was a little strange and then she said the same thing that all the other teachers say! "Well yes it might be quite boring for you.." I'm loving this phrase, "quite boring." Since when do people get out of things because it's going to be "quite boring." I wish that was an acceptable excuse growing up, Sorry mom and dad, I'm skipping church the next 10 weeks, it's quite boring for me. Sorry professor, I'm unable to attend Biology again this week, it's quite boring. Hey, I'm only going to make the reception part of your wedding, that whole 2 hour ceremony beforehand, is quite boring. (It's actually kind of polite sounding.) I never really use the word "quite." Anyway, my co-teacher Sabrina, asks to speak with me on the side for a little while the others walk to the meeting. She's done this before so I know it's not anything serious, but now I'm always going to assume she does this when she's about to ask for a favor. The first time she pulled me aside, it was to ask if I'd be able to teach a few kids everyday for an hour after school (which fell through) and now she's asking if I could edit her paper for her. I'm like "ohh suree, I can do that.." (Um spoke to soon.) She hands me this giant book and the paper isn't just a paper, it's a thesis, and it just so happens to be due next week AND she needs it by Monday. She said she'd give me 3,000NT which is $100 and she said to do whatever I can with it and she'd really appreciate it. Ughhhhh why do I say yes to these thinggsss, what is wrong with meee. I only have one break left before the next one in January, and it was the upcoming 3 day weekend, and I agreed to edit a book. That would've been a perfect time to say "Sorry Sabrina..but I have no interest in editing your thesis, it might be quite boring."
Since I didn't have a meeting to attend and had most of the afternoon free, I decided to head over to the juice stand. I asked Joe if he wanted anything. He did get me a big tea on teacher's day and I owed him anyway. He didn't hesitate one bit and just said "Ok" with a big smile. Ha, gotta love the forwardness. If it were me I'd be like "no no no don't worry about it" but then secretly hoping they get me a drink anyway. I decided to get us some papaya milks, since he talked so highly of it the previous day and I was already craving another one. He was excited for the papaya milk, as was I. I think I drank that thing in under 4 minutes..and that was with trying to slow down..I could've easily downed it in 2. With my free time, I sat at my desk and did some googling of used scooters for sale. I ended up coming across a few on this Tealit website which is a site for foreigners in Taiwan. I sent out a few emails and got a response from a guy who was listed as Jose but emailed me back saying his name is Wyn. I couldn't tell if he was Asian or not (I know stupid question because he called himself Jose, but I have students named Sky and Bear, so Jose is not too far fetched..)We planned on meeting the next night so I could see his scooters. I didn't even want to bother involving Sam because I wasn't interested in hearing his long drowned out lectures about safety and the rules, BUT I was worried this guy would only speak Chinese and I didn't want to get ripped off. So I decided I'd ask Sam to come with me the next night after we get our medical check up.
