So with the new edition of my T.V/cable and new sofa, I had to do some rearranging. I spent an entire Friday night and Saturday just moving shit around. The bed and the desk were the hardest to move around and they made a horrible screeching sound against my tile floor and it was real late at night so I felt bad for my neighbors..oh wait! That's right. I don't have any. Let the music blare and the furniture drag across the floor and walls as much as I want..The cable outlet was on the one side of my room I was hoping I could put the couch and put the TV across from it but I had to work around it. I got rid of the big bulky desk chair that I never use, put one of my table chairs by the desk instead. Put my table near my bed with one chair because I can watch TV from there and eat and then the couch will go against the window and I can turn the tv towards me if I need to.
The Jeremy Lin Epidemic
Jeremy Lin's parents were born in Taiwan. Taiwan now believes that they created the NBA superstar, Jeremy Lin, who was raised in California or something. No but I am excited for them..I feel like this country needs a little excitement in their lives besides traveling to near by cities and taking self photos inside of Starbucks. Sit in front of a TV every once in a while and cheer for a team! And that is just what Yu Ying is doing. The kids who speak no English can now just come up to me and say 3 simple words and that will be their conversation and connection to me and those words are, "Teacher Teacher..Jeremy Lin." I just nod and say..yes..Jeremy Lin..good basketball player.. (when in reality, I just got a tv after the whole craze started to I have no idea whats going on with this guy.) In fact, my satan class (202) which I used to believe was a class full of degenerate assholes that just so happened to be placed in the same homeroom..is loving this NBA craze. I probably didn't mention this but for class 202, they took my co-teacher Brandy out, and replaced her with Beryl. Hallelujah! Just the mere presence of Beryl (who is NOT an intimidating person mind you) keeps these kids in line..since the start of second semester..Class 202 has become one of my favorite classes..I feel like Michelle Pfeifer in Dangerous minds or something. So during this New York Knick winning streak, it just so happened to be about 10am in Taiwan and that was right around the time I had class 202..I walk in, and they have the game on the giant smartboard screen!! They pleaded for me to keep it on..and it had about 10 minutes to go (which turned out to be 20 minutes) and I looked at Beryl and said..whatever I don't care..So we watched the basketball game. The only rule was that they weren't allowed to say any Chinese so whenever the Knicks would miss a shot they'd be like, "ohhhh mannnn, game overrrr." My original lesson plan for them was lame anyway so I was ok with this.
Saint Patrick's Day
On St. Patty's day, me and Shija went shopping. Surprise surprise. I was on the hunt for a green shirt. I finally found something that would kind of work but apparently it was only green to me and no one else that night. This guy Grant ended up inviting me to Soho 7 where there were a bunch of people drinking outside. The weather was perfect. It was cool to see all of those people out and about and I was excited for green beer! Shija showed up with our buddy (well..acquaintance) ChiMing shortly after. I was nervous to show up to a place by myself to meet Grant but I've done it before so it wasn't a huge deal but once I got there..like 50 people asked me, 'why aren't you wearing green?? that's not green? that's blue..." and I was just playing it off like.."yaa this is greeen see.." This one Gabby girl kept saying it to me and like..kinda making fun of what I thought was green..I was like..listen, this shirt is mint green and my sweater is like a moss green..and I barely even know you..and I'm a quarter Irish and you're not so I win. Soho street is a cool set up because you can mingle with every little bar there BUT they all shut down at 10:30 pm! crazy. There was talk of heading out to the refuge and Shija had never been, and Chiming offered to drive, so off we went!
The refuge was hyped up just like the last time. Nothing too great was happening. Then some ignorant jerk who clearly has been in Taiwan by himself for way too long, started drama with Shija..you do not want to start drama with Shija haha. First off, Shija is a very devoted Christian. She may not come across that way, but it's a big part of her life and it's a sensitive issue to her. Some 40 year old man who's been out in Taiwan doing "improv comedy" and god knows what else..(cool life..I bet you got yourself a great fan base..I can't even get someone to understand a knock knock joke out here) so he is trying to be funny and starts telling Shija how he's an Atheist and right away she didn't feel like listening to his reasoning, but he was very persistent and didn't like the lack of attention. He kept prodding with questions like, "wait you seriously believe in Jesus..really? you believe in this and this and think this and yadda yadda.." but THEN he says, "so you're a Hindu-Christan." It was very uncalled for and ignorant and Shija was pissed and argued with him for a bit and the man tried involving me and wanted me to say that she was overreacting and I'm only sticking up for her because she's my friend and blah blah blah, and Shija walked away from the situation. Me and Grant said something to the guy and told him he was outta line and I told him he must be a pretty boring person if he has to use religion or politics in order to hold a conversation or an interaction with another person..this my friend, is why you are 40 and single and in Taiwan trying to make non-english speakers laugh at you on a pretend stage..
That was the first and last time Shija will step foot into the Refuge.
Movie Theaters in Taiwan
So I made it a point to finish the 3rd book of Hunger Games before I saw the movie..not that it was completely necessary (I knew the movie would only cover the first of the series) but after a couple of bloody marys at Early Bird Diner on a Saturday afternoon, I finally finished. I was set to see the movie and Sunday Night was the Night for Hunger Games! Now..before my rant about the annoyances of movie theaters in Taiwan, I have actually seen a lot of movies by myself or with Shija in Taiwan, and there are times where you can really enjoy the movie. Here's how a general purchase of a ticket goes
1) You wait in one of 10 lines to get up to the foodstand counter/ticket counter all in one. They ask you what movie you want to see but realize you're a foreigner so they hand you this English schedule of showtimes which is in 8point font on one piece of paper. Even if you SAY the movie you want to see, it doesn't matter because there is a Chinese name for everything..famous people, big companys, movies, everything. So even though Hunger Games is the most popular thing in Taiwan, it doesn't matter. You say Hunger Games, they have no clue what you mean because they have some unnecessary long Chinese translation for it. (Small story about this: one time I showed up for the movie I wanted to see and checked the times online and I went there, told them I wanted to see Safe House, pointed to the schedule and the time, and the kid prints out a ticket that's all in Chinese and says that my movie doesn't start for another hour..I said..no this can't be right, I thought it was at 9:15. He assures me and points to the Chinese ticket where in the middle of all the Chinese characters, there's a military time that says it's going to be 22:00. SOOO from 8:30-9:20 I sit at Starbucks waiting and waiting..and then I decide to look at the ticket one more time and on the back there's a tiny title of the film and it says "Din Tao Leader.." I'm like..wait a second..that's another movie..the idiot thought I pointed to Din Tao Leader of the Band or something..which is entirely in Chinese mind you, and didn't print it out for Safe House. Ran upstairs to the theaters, cut in front of 10 lines of people who probably hated me and I said, "You gave me the wrong ticket, now I'm late for the movie.." and instead of just admitting me into the theater, they had to do some transaction and re-print my ticket..after their mistake and I'm already late..no apology..nothing. If he listened to me when I said "Safe house" and used his few elementary school years of English where he can recognize some letters on a paper, he would know that.)
2)When you choose your movie, they then flip the schedule over and show you a map of the movie theater that's divided in to sections A-E. A is closest to the screen, B is the best because it's the dead center of the movie theater, C is in the back. The sides are D and E which I doubt get much use at all in this country because EVERYONE is placed in section B. You have an assigned seat. Even if the movie has 20 people watching it, you walk into the theater and sit in your assigned seat. So the girl points to her map which just has some colored squares on it with the letters and says, you can sit here..or here..and moves her finger across this B square.. and I'm like..um ya that's fine whatever. So I get into the theater and at first I'm so excited because I'm the only one in my row. No. When people started filing in, they were also in my row.. An entire theater and she starts putting people in the exact same row. So I'm at the end right next to the aisle. Some guy has a seat open next to him but still sits in his exact assigned seat..and I'm contemplating moving.Well the movies isn't the only entertainment in Taiwan. People come for the food as well. They love to order every damn thing on the menu and even walk in with a bag of McDonalds on the side. This one guy and his girlfriend are walking down the aisle next to me and he trips a little and SPILLLSSS his entire bag of popcorn, his drink, the ketchup on his hotdog alllll over the floor and it's NEXT to my seat. Right next to me. The guy looks down and him and his girlfriend just kind of giggle awkwardly. My foot got splattered with a drink and you know what this asshole did??? He just went to his assigned seat with his girlfriend and didn't bother to pick any of it up OR apologize to me OR go get a movie theater worker to inform them..SOOO people are filing into this theater and have to step over this mess that I'm sitting next to and they're probably thinking I made that mess. So 3 minutes before the movie begins I realize that not 1 human is sitting on the sides of the theater..no one is in D and E and I would much rather put my feet up and stretch out then be squeezed into the same 5 rows to have the supposed "best seat" in the theater..listen, I don't care what people say. There is no bad seat in the theater unless you are seated in the front rows. Those seats are stupid no one likes to sit there because you physically need to move your head and look up at the screen..but the sides of the theatres are the same because the theater curves and you are still facing the screen that covers the whole wall...so why is everyone placed like sardines in a can...and right after that spilling incident and I was smelling ketchup and popcorn next to me, I got up and sat on the sides. Not in my assigned seat..ooiiiooo I'm rebellious.
3) If you think going to the movies is cold at home, you are sadly mistaken. Taiwan believes in blowing constant air conditioning and fans to the point of shivering when you still have your gloves and coat on and this is because they believe everyone's germs will start floating around if you don't freeze them to death. Even though the population wears face masks everywhere..it's not enough to get rid of the germs..don't use soap or hot water when you wash your hands because that's crazy..but wear an ugly face mask and keep the air blasting and windows open when it's 50 degrees outside.
4) The movies have Chinese subtitles..so I think people think its ok to have conversations because they don't need to listen to movie, they can just read it. They still take out their phones and play games and take pictures of themselves.
Overall, Hunger Games was good. I liked it. They casted everyone great except for Peeta!! I was hoping Peeta was going to be this hot blonde guy and it was this puny little guy that looked girlier than Katniss.
