Tuesday, August 30, 2005

   I'm Sick.
No, not in the good ways of 'hahaha! You totally didn't just shove that up your nose! Thats SICK' kinda of sick, in the ways of 'geeze, she threw up in the bathroom again' kinda sick.

I exaggerate a little. I haven't thrown up yet.

A few days ago I started feeling really ill, but I ignored it. Why? Because it's just a cold, right? It will go away. Who cares?

It's been progressing, though, over the last few days. Yesterday, when I almost let my advanced class out half an hour early, I realised I was sick and I needed either a doctor or medicine.

I swear, thats stupid on another level. I have to wonder how I look to my kids in such a state.

It's not that bad, really. I'd be sicker than I am, but I was given some really good medicine from a pharmacist here. Yiyi took me to see him, asked me exactly what was wrong, and he gave me three doses of pills that are supposed to completely cure me of what's made me sick.

So, after three meals, I should be better.

This is astounding to me. What gets me even more is how much it cost. It was only eighty dollars Taiwanese. Thats less than three dollars Canadian.

So, for three bucks, I got medicine that will actually help me, won't have a bunch of side effects from something that has nothing to do whats wrong with me, and is actually aimed at the problem I have.

The only side effect is how tired it makes me. I try to refrain from muttering 'what' as often as possible, since I think it makes me sound completely retarded, but I find myself spacing out or totally being incapable of concentrating on what I'm doing.

I'm sorry I haven't answered e-mails. I'll do that tonight.

In other news. I've ordered a scanner (the store didn't have them) and on Thursday I'll have it. I'm going to get back on Azale again. This time I have someone to help me write.

Wee.

I'm gonna go answer e-mails now.

Thanks for everyone who's said nice things to me.

-Chris
Current Music: The Arcade Fire- Cars and Telephones

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Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Still here.
I've decided a few things over the last few days, and realised a few more. A lot of people stated I would grow up a lot when I came to Taiwan to work this job. At the time of this statement, I was really quite aggravated. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not a child, I have not been anything less than an adult since I was sixteen years old when I left Ontario to come to British Columbia. Through trial and error, through mistakes and goals met, I grew up a long time ago.

But this is not the same as what I thought it was.

I am slightly naive to the way that I see people. I'm foolish in the way that I assume there is ever a set good or bad side to anything. Everything has a right and a wrong. Every person thinks in a slightly different way. Every culture is different. Respect is earned, not given. Growing up has many steps that I'm certain I'll pass through in a broader sense as I age.

I also have learned some things that are a bit bothersome. Not everyone cares about people they should. Not everyone understands things the same way. Not everyone is heartfelt and emotional. And many people are very selfish and bitter.

But I stand by the same thought I have had for years. You should try to understand and respect everyone, regardless of what they want, who they are, where they are from, etc, unless it becomes dangerous or makes you feel profoundly uncomfortable.

Taiwan is a nice place, but I feel quite alone. I have, since I came here, spoken to two native English speakers, and I have noticed a great change in my speaking patterns, the way I carry myself. I have difficulty feeling optimistic about much of anything. I speak whenever I can to friends from home. Michelle has been offline since she came home from Japan, so I have heard nothing from her in two months. I phoned Taber, twice now, but he is rarely available either.

Walking down the street, people stare at me, sometimes ask me questions in Taiwanese that I'm still unable to answer, and.. I now respect the foreigners who come to Canada a lot more. Nothing is more frusterating than someone speaking to you in another language, you answering incorrectly, and having everyone laugh at you for reasons you don't understand.

I have drawn many things since I got here. Nothing I'm terribly proud of, although I am getting better at cging images. I wish I knew more about realism. I think I could pull off better things if I understood those proportions better.

My classes are easier, as I've now realised that my boss with most definately never be happy with what I give her. I can follow her instructions to a T and she still finds some reason to complain to me. I managed to escape the 'free babysitting' fiasco, but it was a long and artuous argument to get there.

I'm desperate for someone to interact with personally. People need companionship. I just want a friend to be around who I can talk to, in my own language, about things that I don't find insanely boring. (Or that they don't find insanely boring..)
I really miss playing Dungeons and Dragons. I'm a nerd, and I demand my nerd socialities, goddamnit.

Woo.

I'm really looking forward to October, which is when my friend Adrienne is actually coming to Taiwan to visit. Few things excite me the way the concept of seeing someone makes me feel. And in January, both Luke and Terri are meeting with me in Thailand for a nice Vacation of 9-10 days.

Today I was given the great pleasure of teaching my class all about American customs and symbols. Not only did I find it completely frusterating (Like I know what the 'Liberty Bell' is), I think it's totally useless to them. When will they go to America? Probably never. It would be more useful for them to learn about China- it's closer, and most of Taiwan's business is conducted there. Sheeze. And when we went to count the Stars on the Flag that the school had hung up, it didn't have fifty stars (like the book says it's supposed to), it only had fourty one. I don't know why.

I was then brought to dinner by my boss, where we met with her husband's very stupid and drunk friends. I wouldn't call them stupid if they weren't so adamant on pushing me to drink every time I was with them.

'I can't drink' I say 'It makes me sick.'

They ask again, again, again, and eventually fill the glass anyway, until they get really pissy and whine like five year olds when I don't drink it.

Well, no duh. And I know the culture, I eat whatever they give me, even if I don't want it, but booze is something else entirely. You can make another foreigner look like a blasted idiot and laugh at them. Not me.

Eventually we go home. Where they try to make me drink again.

Until I get pissed off and go upstairs to my room early. I can handle different cultures, but no means freakin no. Goddamnit.

Okay. I'll end this here. Forgive the length of this.

Have a good one, everyone. I'm thinking of you.

- Chris


Current Music: The Verve Pipe- The World I Know

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Saturday, August 20, 2005

From the School
(This entry is pasted from my livejournal, which I updated yesterday.

Sorry, sometimes I forget I have an otaku account. :sweat)

I'm at the school. Posting anything from the school is always an adventure. For some reason the kids are thrilled with the speed of my typing. And since it's in English that makes me friggen brilliant.

I took an IQ test today online and did very poorly on it. Yep. Just thought everyone who didn't already know would like to hear that I still do math to save my life. I also don't know anything about American history.

Oh, how terrible.

When I first got to Taiwan, I found myself extremely depressed for the first few days. Dad told me that would go away, come back a few months later, and then fade again.

And he was right. I'm now waiting for the depression to fade. I have a few friends in Victoria who have completely dropped contact with me. One of whom I considered a very good friend of mine for a long time. Because of that, it's really sent me over. I really don't know what the problem is. I sent him an angry letter. Such rage I hold. Oh, such rage.

This morning I woke up half an hour later than I was supposed to. There was a glorious carnival act of me getting out of bed, tripping on most everything that was around the bed, hitting the floor, whining for about five minutes, and then running to the bathroom to get dressed. I have a great mess on the floor of my room, which is probably attributed to the fact that I know nobody will see it, and nobody will really care if I'm messy. This is depressing to me, because if Luke were here, I'd feel really bad about being a total slob. But I just don't care.

Anyway, after panicking, yanking a comb through my hair, spilling half a bottle of mouthwash down the sink and then going through a panicked search for my books, I realised it was actually 11:30 am, and not 12:30, and that I'd freaked out and destroyed many of my belongings for no reason.

I am as agile as the softest butterfly, and you know it.

The reason I say this random thing is because I have very little to report here. Somehow I thought I'd have lots to talk about when I was in Taiwan, but I usually don't. I sent a parcel home to Victoria yesterday- there are many letters inside, but I haven't written everyone back yet. Yesterday I ate pig's blood. After everyone insisted I'd love it, I realised I really don't, and they were wrong.

This makes me weary of the chicken's feet.

I ordered a coffee. On my own. In Chinese. And got what I actually wanted.

A crazy woman at the McDonalds yesterday from America asked me to join her church. I laughed and then realised she was serious. Felt pretty stupid afterwards.

Things are okay, if not passing quickly. I'm learning a lot, and the kids are learning too. I think things will be fine, even if I am a bit tired lately and homesick.

I'm looking forward to cold weather. Maybe then my face won't be oily all the time.

Dad, I got your postcard last week. Sorry I forgot to say so. Thank you so much.

Oh.. and I totally screwed up the cake, everyone. :( I'll write more about that, but not now. I gotta go home.

-Christine

Current Music: One of the kids is bashing a ball off her brother's head...

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Sunday, August 7, 2005

>.< (Nerdy as all hell. Just so you know.)
I can't stand it when noobs drop into my rpg lists and then just assume they can do whatever the hell they want.

Here, a brief aside from my real life. And a yahoo conversation:

Rayne: Huzzah. We have a problem, it seems.
jellybo600: ?
Rayne: in the rpg.
Rayne: Digimon.
jellybo600: how so?
Rayne: You're saying you already work for Lydia. But you don't.
Rayne: I know, because I play Lydia.
Rayne: We've never roleplayed that.
jellybo600: couldn't it just be backstory?
Rayne: It could be if I didn't already have so many characters attached to Lydia.
Rayne: Seth and Cathrine would have known about you if you'd been there. But you weren't.
Rayne: So we can't just call it backstory.
jellybo600: maybe I was top-secret?
Rayne: It wouldn't fly.
Rayne: Just write it out. It's not hard.
Rayne: We can roleplay it.
jellybo600: oh, and it doesn't say that I work for Lydia
jellybo600: merely that I'm "in league"
Rayne: I don't really care how you worded it.
Rayne: You shouldn't know who she is if you have no reason to.
jellybo600: but that would imply a separate relationship besides working for you which would explain why the other two don't know me
Rayne: Honestly, we've never rpged anything with the two characters.
Rayne: I agreed to giving you the role as the next major villain. But I also would like it if you tried to get there first.
Rayne: This means dealing with Lydia. You are not in league with her. You've never spoken to her.
Rayne: You could either become in league with her, or attack as part of a power battle.
jellybo600: this is fiction though...why can't it simply be backstory
jellybo600: a secret from the past or something
Rayne: I've already said why.
jellybo600: because we haven't roleplayed it?
Rayne: Because there isn't any way to say this is possible with the other characters who have been under her care during every waking moment of her life.
jellybo600: villians often have dark pasts though...would you not agree that it offers an interesting twist if the two knew eachother, even slightly, beforehand?
jellybo600: for the sake of story
jellybo600: and hypothetically speaking
Rayne: Honestly, I would have been more for it if you'd asked me about it first.
Rayne: I'm frusterated because I set up everything so that Seth and Cathrine would not be in the base, and Lydia would be extremely underpowered right now.
Rayne: ... I'm not going to say you were partnered with her. I'll go with the idea that you knew her, in some way.
jellybo600: okay...hold on a second though
jellybo600: this isn't really Jeice, so I don't really have any say in what happens with his character
jellybo600: I'm his brother
jellybo600: he went to bed already
Rayne: What the fuck?
jellybo600: I know what he wants though
jellybo600: he was talking about it earlier though
Rayne: No offence, but this is retarded.
jellybo600: well, I can understand your reaction
jellybo600: I'm more pissed because his profile
jellybo600: is a copy/paste of mine from another group
Rayne: He can deal with it himself, when he figures out what the hell he's doing.
Rayne: I'm not going with this now. Bullshit.
jellybo600: ??
jellybo600: it's what he wanted to do
Rayne: I don't care. He was given an option to be a high powered character. Our group has been running for five years.
Rayne: I am not letting it die because someone who can't follow the same rules as everyone else or make his own character comes in and tries to fuck with the mods.
jellybo600: in all honesty...he's not a very good evil anyway
jellybo600: he's been trying to do that for a while
jellybo600: in DA02
jellybo600: not that he's BAD
Rayne: Whatever. He can tone down or leave the list.
jellybo600: what, exactly are you mad about anyway? because he listens to me when it comes to roleplay
jellybo600: I can steer him in the right direction if you tell me what you want out of him
Rayne: You can't decide a past for another character.
Rayne: Thats not allowed. Unless you talk with the other member.
Rayne: He didn't talk to me. I'm pissed.
jellybo600: ooooh, okay
Rayne: And then I think I'm talking to him about it and I get his little brother.
Rayne: Thats a load.
jellybo600: BIG
jellybo600: brother
Rayne: Sorry, sorry, either way.
jellybo600: I was just trying to help him out, and getting a feel for your group...I was curious

----

If I were actually ever given mod status, this moron would be gone. I'm so pissed right now. Garr.
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Saturday, July 30, 2005

ZOMG! Things!
I'm sure my subject titles are absolutely riveting to everyone. I do my best. Haha.

First, I need to apologise for being so lax with my e-mail. I checked my inbox today to find two e-mails from almost everyone I knew- one saying what was going on, and another saying what was going on, and also, wondering where I was.

I promise I didn't die!

I'm still alive, honest. I think. I'm pretty sure.

I spent the last month working. Not just my normal job, but I was also suckered into a babysitting job.

Now, a babysitting job isn't a big deal. I can suck up almost anything to take care of two kids for two hours a day. I dont' care, honest.

But this was so much more aggravating than that. Turns out, I was hired so that I could tutor them in English while I was there. Surprise! We're not paying you for it, but you get to be a teacher here every morning too! Hee!

After many cases of the children ignoring me or not really caring how to say 'car' in English (Throwing blocks at my head is much more entertaining, apparantly,) and the parents complaining to my boss that they weren't learning anything, and hearing 'Ten little indians' about a million times, I completely lost it and just quit. I'm not giving up on something thats my responisibilty. I'm just not a damned babysitter. Not when I came here to do it.

If I wanted to make next to nothing watching bratty kids, I could have done it in Victoria. If they want their kids to learn English, they could enrol them in our cram school...


My Adult's class was also postponed this month. There were a lot of things that happened to a lot of people (One of my students has a Father who is dying, one just had a baby, and two of them had to go to Taipei for something for all of August.) leaving me with one student, and we all decided it would just make more sense to put it off until later.

My Kindergarten class starts when my older kids go back to school in September. Tomorrow I start teaching an Advanced kids class at the school.

I love my kids. Teaching them has become something I actually look forward to. I love seeing them every day. I spend my days at the school just so I can play with and read to them.

Everything's becoming pretty simple to me lately. I'm accustomed to the culture, I can now use chopsticks, I can sing 'Tian Kong' by Jolin in Chinese, and I've started to like rice. Luke is coming to visit in December, and he and I are going to Thailand for Christmas. Terri is supposed to come too. It makes me pretty excited.

Months have gone by now. I can't believe how long I've been here. Sometimes I wonder what home will be like when I go back. Every time I return to a place I've left, it changes.

I'm excited to see.

If anything, I've become closer to my family since I came here. That really brings me up a lot. Nothing's as good as coming home to an e-mail from someone I care about.

Even if I promptly fall asleep after reading it and then forget in answer for a few days. D: How horrible of me. I'm going to stop doing that, I promise.

I am reading the new Harry Potter book now, so no one need worry whether or not I've forgotten to jump on the bandwagon. I've read all those books now. I'm not sure if thats good or bad. But it really makes me happy..

And yesterday I went to Taichung City to finish renewal of my visa. I had Starbucks. Starbucks tastes awful in Taiwan too, unless you get something that isn't what they call normal coffee.

I had normal coffee. The sandwich was good though. At least I had coffee. It's hard not to start my mornings without coffee here. It's also hard to eat Taiwan's bread. I swear, there is nothing good for you in that bread. At all.

I can't stand the grain bread my Dad eats, but I do eat whole wheat now thanks to Luke. I miss that.

Anyway. I've droned on long enough. I'm going to answer my e-mails and then.. write a lesson plan so tomorrow I can sleep until noon.

I may be lazy, but at least I have it down to a science.

-Chris
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Thursday, July 21, 2005

Fricken Typhoon
I say this in the most calm sense possible. I finished freaking out over the fear of drowning in rain or being blown away last night when the typhoon finally ended.

I know it might be pathetic, but I was scared out of my mind. When my boss asked me to go to work yesterday morning I stared at her like she was insane until she agreed that, oh, maybe we SHOULDN'T go outside when the wind was kicking the crap out of everything out the doors.

The two days I had off this week were used for important things. Resting and writing lesson plans.

You have no idea how happy I was for my mini vacation. Sweet, sweet vacation.

We drove up to the mountains halfway through the storm, which scared the living daylights out of me. I wound up dizzy halfway up, but I don't know why...

Everything was.. quite broken. Signs lay everywhere, the street was littered with different articles from different yards, trees were down EVERYWHERE.. It totally blew my mind.

For anyone who lived in Ontario when it happened, it kinda reminded me of Ice Storm 98, but without all the snow and ice and.. more rain and flooding.

Ah.. sorry to complain so much.

Many people are injured as a result of all of this. It's worse in areas outside of Taichung County, where the floodwaters have reached to waistlength or worse, and many people have died. They had to airlift many people from their homes, and a lot of buildings were destroyed.

They're calling this the worst storm Taiwan has seen in five years.

And I was here to see it.

Somehow I know I'll be bragging about this later, and I feel kinda bad for it.

-photos will be updated soon. I have many of my class, but very few of the typhoon aftermath. My camera batteries died the day it happened.

I know, pretty lame, eh?-

Thats all for now,

-Christine
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Thursday, July 14, 2005

Eric, update your damned journal.
And while I'm here, I might as well post this too:

You know you like weird linkage!

Might as well. :3
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Saturday, July 2, 2005

Happy Canada Day!
I do realise I'm a day late, but since this isn't the case where most of my family and friends are, I'll say it anyway.

I had an interesting Canada day, being as it was the only one I've ever had where nobody else was celebrating it. I kept telling people it was Canada day, but being as nobody knew what I was talking about, nobody really cared. I soon gave up trying to broadcast this. I did draw a little flag on the blackboard though. I'm pretty rebellious, I know.

Two of the four students in my adults class simply didn't come. I was a bit frusterated, namely because of the size of the class. You see, normally when two people don't show, it's okay, they just get the info from the other students. But I know they won't, and now they're going to be left behind. Jerkfaces.

I have 'irate teacher' syndrome. Thats how you act when your students demand results but refuse to study to get them. Of course you don't remember five different sentances in a new language! You never look at your books outside of class!

I know this is the first school I've taught at, and I realise I'm like, half their age, but that doesn't mean I don't know what I'm doing. I taught adults before. They need to study, damnit.

The adult women's class, on another note, is doing very well. They catch on easily and study hard. They're about four pages ahead of the men's. I think it's cause the class is bigger. I don't know.. the men dislike studying.

Sheeze. o.0

I went to 'KTV' last night, which is kinda unusual, but kinda fun too. It's Kareoke.. in a sense. They give you your own room, and two mics. There were a few English songs, but I didn't know what most were. This is cool, because I didn't need to sing much. Bonus.

(It's fun with friends, but when there's like, fifteen people around you who don't participate and just listen, it gets kinda scary and nerve racking.)

I sang 'Ironic' by Alanis Morisette, and 'The Phantom of the Opera'. I tried to sing this other song, but I don't remember what it was called, and I'm pretty sure I broke a window a few blocks over. Singing is not my art. I accept this.

They offer beer, and other alochol (I don't drink), cigarettes (I don't smoke) and free food (which is pretty cool.) Everyone dresses fancy, and they dance like it's a rave between songs. I was in the Hello Kitty shirt and long skirt I wore to work. You know me, always making a fashion statement. Haha. (Yes, Chelsea, I wear my Hello Kitty clothes when I teach. Because I can. :))

The odd thing was that my students really wanted to take me to this place. I thought they didn't like me very much (what with never studying, coming to class ten minutes late if at all, and whatnot,) but they offered to take me to KTV and pay my way. It was actually lots of fun, and it was kinda nice to be able to go out and get to know my students better.

I also taught kids how to make cookies yesterday. Seems pretty basic, but chocolate chip cookies aren't really something that people commonly make out here. Nobody had ever done this before, and despite me substituting a lot of ingredients and baking them in a toaster oven, they were... edible. I personally think they were awful. But the kids had a lot of fun making them, and they tasted kinda like cookies when they came out, so everyone was really happy. Yiyi wants to make cake. She's never made cake either. I told her we need a stove first. She's positive the toaster oven is the same as a stove. Eee.

It's really hot here lately. When I step outside of the car (which is airconditioned) my glasses fog up. I think that if my glasses fog up from something like that, it's too hot. Even assures me it gets hotter. I'm not surprised, but I'm not looking forward to it, either. I've had these headaches from being in the sun too long...

Nana's been a serious brat lately. I don't know what to do. She's spoiled, so I understand why she's the way she is, but I draw a line at the kid kicking me every time she looks at me. I'm not joking. She goes out of her way to come and kick me in the shins. She also smacks me. Or, on occasion, bites.

She's not my kid, and Yiyi's response is usually something like 'Nana! Buu-shi!' (Nana! Stop that!) and going back to whatever she's doing. I don't know why the kid is suddenly so volitile. It doesn't seem normal. Maybe it is. She's three. Is it normal for three year olds to do stuff like that? Let me know.

Not much else to report. Sorry for the lateness of updates, and also my lack of e-mails. I've been really busy lately (same excuse,) but I do intend to come back again soon.

If anyone's interested, I drew some pictures on the computer with my mouse. My tablet's broken. Or not working. Same thing..

They're in my photobucket.

Tell me about Canada Day! I missed it!

Now to answer comments:
--
DeathBug

Sadly, English Teacher Eric will never, ever be the coolest guy named Eric that you know, no matter what he does. He's such a poser.

If I recall correctly, Asian cultures are communal, so the idea of just wanting to be alone would be foreign to them. I never thought of that; it makes sense, though.

Glad to see you're feeling better. Rock, rock on.
--
Yeah, that teacher Eric guy's totally not as cool as any other Eric I know. ^^;; I know too many people named Eric..

The communal thing sucks sometimes.. I get ragged on a lot for not getting stuff done, but I seriously have NO TIME since they use it all up with dragging me everywhere.
--
Shijin13
I am sorry i have not been on in so long. So how goes it?
--
Eh. You know. Doin okay. Tired a lot. A whole lot..
Good to see you again. :)

-Chris
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Monday, June 27, 2005

Leave me alllooonnneee
I think the one thing I miss most lately is my complete inability to have any time to myself.

One thing that I find interesting about being out here is how busy everyone is. Everyone is *always* busy. If you aren't, the people around you will assume you're bored, and you will be taken somewhere to do.. something. I probably seem really lazy to them, with my enjoying sleeping in on Sundays and wanting to simply stay indoors when it's hot.

I like doing nothing! I'm lazy! Not all the time, of course, but on occasion...

Another unusual thing I've notice is that we never seem to eat at home. I have had one meal at the house since I moved in here a month ago, and that was thought to be unusual. I'm not sure if it's because Yiyi simply dislikes cooking, or if this is commonplace. It might be rude to ask, so I've decided to flat out not.

In any case, I've been busy. I'm only teaching two classes now, both adult level. My beginner kindergarten and elementary levels start next month. The advanced elementary class starts in August. I'm a bit disappointed by my lack of hours, but Yiyi has offered me substitute classes once she finishes training me. This training isn't really 'learning to teach' so much as learning how Taiwanese children learn. I'm still mildly offended every time she asks me if I know how to teach elementary now. I know what she means, but it just doesn't sound right.

I spent $112 Taiwanese at the 7-11 today. This concept horrified me until I realised that I'd only spent about $3.80 Canadian. Not bad for ten packs of instant coffee and something to eat. I'm a bit surprised by how much bread costs here, but.. everything is different everywhere.

I really miss my coffee pot. I also miss instant food thats really really bad for you, like pop tarts and sugar cereals. I know it's awful, but there's just something that makes me feel all happy when I have a chocolate pop tart. My stomach doesn't agree, but we can't all be friends.

To get past my whining... I went to a barbecue yesterday. Taiwanese barbecues are very interesting. They cooked something like, six or seven fish, three full chickens and corn on the cob. Beer was also served. This is a bit different than what I'm used to, but still really fun. I have no idea what this one guy was saying to me the whole time, but he seemed facinated with talking endlessly to me in Chinese. Every once in a while I'd nod, as if I understood, and say 'ah'. He seemed pretty nice though. Yiyi assures me that he was putting the moves on me, but he wasn't doing very well for someone who I didn't understand.

I think that's really funny.

Aferwards, I went to Yiyi's kindergarten class. They were graduating. It was very cute. I have pictures, but my batteries in my camera are dead. I don't know how to ask to buy them yet from the 7-11, since they're behind the counter, so I need to wait until I figure out how to get to another store where I can just kinda nod and hand the money to someone.

I shop for everything at the 7-11, because if you spend $60 Taiwanese, you get a Hello Kitty magnet. Thats about $2.35 Canadian. I have six magnets now. I really only go to the 7-11 so much because it's cheap and it's sorta like something I recognise from home. I'm a pathetic person sometimes.

Anyway.

At the Kindergarten graduation, I met another native speaker. He teaches English at Yiyi's school, and his name is Eric. I found him to be quite obnoxious , but apparantly everyone else thinks he's very funny. Maybe thats what I need to do. Act more obnoxious. Sure.

He asked me if I wanted to go out with a bunch of other English Teachers. I'd love to, but I really dislike bars, and I know thats where I'd end up.

Since I can't drive and don't know my way around, I hate the concept of being stuck somewhere I don't know. I know if I went out it wouldn't exactly be safe, and I have no idea who is his! Also, he's obnoxious. And really loud!

I was happy to see that the girl who had cracked her head open had still gone to the graduation. She seems to be doing well. Good news.

I'll post those pictures as soon as possible. I need to go get ready for my adult class now.

Oh. Since I was asked, but haven't answered yet... I teach Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for Adult level, currently, from 8pm to 9:30. I'm really not working much. It's troublesome, but I wasn't supposed to work at all this month, so I guess it's not too bad.

Goodbye, then.

-Chris
Current Music: Kiss! Bang!- Komatsu Ayaka

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Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Classes have started...
And I'm very tired. I was surprised how much teaching kids takes out of you. Explaining animals is lots of fun when the effort involves making animal noises and guestures. I felt pretty stupid, but the kids were happy. Thats what matters, right?

I need to talk about the wedding first, because I said I would, but then got lazy and decided to do other things than write about it in my journal. Namely sleeping.

It was a very beautiful event, although many of the traditions are quite different from what I am accustomed to in Canada. For one, this, like the one previous that I'd been to in Taiwan, had a stipper present. Now, I've heard of strippers at other events that surround weddings; like stag parties and the like; but never *at* a wedding, where the entire family was present.

What surprises me more about this, is how little anyone there cares about such. It's just a girl dancing on a pole. It's perfectly suitable for a wedding.

I'm still confused, but I'm just going to be quiet about it now.

I was a bit bitter about the entire thing. I went, because I was kind of expected to, as I am Yiyi's guest and I usually go wherever she goes. On the other hand, I'm also *extremely* overemotional, and the entire thing made me very very sad. Not even for good reasons. It was just difficult for me to be at a wedding when I'm so far from my fiance.

I blame my overemotional tendancies squarely on my Mother. Mom, I love you, but we're both whiners, and it's just not healthy.

Anyway.. I didn't actually meet the bride, but the stripper did move right past my table. I think I was the only one impressed by that, though. From the pictures I saw, the bride is a beautiful woman. Though my expierience at this wedding was probably a bit different from everyone elses', I was happy to have seen it, and gone. It was one of those events of my life I'll never forget, even if I was pretty whiny when I got home afterwards.

The week or so after that has gone by pretty quickly. I've been spending a lot of time hanging out at the Cram school with Yiyi's sister, Even. Even's a pretty interesting girl. She's trying to be a Vegetarian in Taiwan, which is near impossible, and she's sticking to it. I'd certainly follow the same route if I wasn't someone's houseguest. She's very funny, and has done a lot of travelling. I like hanging out with her.

I was trying to find something on a map the other day, when Yiyi found me and asked me what I was doing. There is no map in our cram school of anything besides America, so I was on the internet looking for a good one to find where my Dad was. When I told her I was looking for Oman, she thought I was crazy.

This led to me showing her how to read a world map. I'm still a bit surprised by this, but I found out that most Taiwanese people only learn about Chinese Geography in school. Meaning, most of them can't read a map at all. I showed her where Russia, Canada, America, England Australia etc were. Even Japan she wasn't too sure. I can't even imagine not knowing how to read a world map, but I guess this is really common here. I feel kinda smart for paying attention in Geography class now, since I'm not even sure if my students have known what the heck I was talking about when I drew a flag on the board and told them I was from Canada.

If they can't read a map they might not recognise the flag. Our school teaches American english, so I need to make sure they know I'm Canadian. I know how irrational that sounds, but it's important to me. I'm not an American. I really don't wanna be one. (No offence! I like being a canuk! I love beavers!)

Since the news on television is completely screened here, I'm finally free of propeganda culture that the US government dishes out to the world. (example: Bush: That lil' Arab boy said bad things about GOD, so it's fine that they shot 'im. I'm lowerin tazes!)

My thoughtless and obviously stupid comment shows how much I know about whats going on right now.

Luke's informed me that an American citizen was reporting via the internet some things that were going on in Baghdad and Falleuja. I don't know all the details. His name is Joe Carr, though, and when the American government found out, they bombed the hospital. Now they refuse to give back power because 'The terrorists might use it.' The result of this is that the disease rate in Falleuja is sky high, but the hospitals have no clean rooms or supplies to help these people. The US won't let the Red Cross into the city to help anyone, so it's really bad and a lot of people are dying.

This is all I've heard so far, though. It's kinda nice not to see Bush on television all the time, but sometimes I wonder whats going on.

If anyone has any other news of things going on back home, please let me know. I can't seem to find anything regarding this online at all, and I don't know anything else about whats going on back home. I have nothing against the States, but seriously, not everyone who's a terrorist is Arab, not every Arab is a terrorist, and there's really no excuse to bomb a hospital. Thats the stupidest response I can think of.

Changing the subject abruptly.. I took a lot of night photos today, so they're up in my blog now. I'm horrible with the camera, though, and most of them are shaky or out of focus. I don't know how to fix that.

I've found my classes to be much easier than they were when I started. Adults are easy to teach. Kids are not. This is opposite to what I originally thought. It's a surprise to me, too, but thinking of games for EVERYTHING becomes very very trying after some time, and very tiresome. Taiwanese kids are rewarded for behaving at school with prizes, so I need to give points which they can collect to cash in random objects at the front entrance of the school.

I find this practice to be very bizarre and unusual. In effect, we're bribing them to be quiet and pay attention, which they should be doing anyway. This is common here, so my confusion on this is very funny to my collegues, but I'm sure people from home will understand why I find this odd.

I'm required to name all my students. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this yet. This is a requirement of mine. I need to give all my students English names.

So, in other words, I have no idea what their Taiwanese names are. Only the English names they either come up with, or I give them. And it needs to be something easy to pronounce, so any suggestions to give them cool names like 'Spartacus' or 'Moon Unit' will be ignored.

I find the practice of naming anything difficult. When I write stories, I sometimes spend the afternoon brainstorming different names. Yiyi has agreed to simply have them choose their own names. I think it would be easier just to use their real names, but this is out of the question. I don't know what to think of it.

I'll be going to Hong Kong to renew my visa soon, with Even. I was only able to get a 2 month one before.

This one has a possible length of six months. I don't think the Chinese government likes foreigners very much. They certainly work hard to make us leave.

In any case, photos will be taken of this trip, although I have no idea when it will be.

In closing, thanks for signing my guestbook. XD

Goodnight,

Christine
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