I knew I hadn't posted on here in a while, but I didn't realize it had been a whole month! Sorry, I am the suck. I have been all sorts of busy studying, rewriting essays, making travel plans, and in general, trying to figure out my life. Plus, it is summer, so I have also been trying to go out and have some fun in my remaining time in Taiwan. I got a little sick the other day (or it seemed like the beginning of a sickness that ended up backing off and not taking full effect), so I feel fine now, but my sleeping schedule is all messed up (I can't fall asleep until like 5 in the morning! For the past 3 nights! Ai yo...). I will post something real and good soon, but to keep you entertained til then, here is a link to my facebook photo album with all recent photos+witty captions...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2278787&l=eb0d7&id=10201406

enjoyyyy

I kind of sucked this week and am just now getting this, so I guess a more apt title would be, "Things that happened last week," but whatever. I just got back from downtown where I was sitting in Starbucks and doing further studying for the Lit GRE. I feel like I am making a bit of progress becuase I am using a few different outlets to study, and I have found that they cross over and from the study with the one, I recognize things from the other, and am already familar with things I previously wasn't. Hooray!

On the elevator coming down from work, I had a funny interaction, or at least funny to me (my life isn't very exciting, after all). When I got in, there was a woman and her really young son... I am bad at guaging age, but he was a toddler and still seemed unsure on his feet, so very young. After I got in, the mother told him to say hello to me. Without even the slightest pause, he says, "Bu yao," which means, "I don't want to." Not only was there no thinking time involved for him, but he said it is the most distracted and bored voice I have heard from a toddler. There was no smiling, or shyness, or anything like that that usually comes from little kids over here. Just "bu yao," said in that hilariously bored voice as though he was saying, "Mom, saying hello to this waiguoren stranger when I am only two and don't even know English is the stupidest idea I have ever heard, I am not even considering it." His mom kept on telling him to say "hello" to me, with the same response every time. Fun times. Fun elevator times with bored babies.

So! Exciting things this week (well, not all that exciting really...)

-Rom and I went down to Gonguan (one MRT stop away from where Laura lives and where The Wall is) to do some eating of Thai food and some looking around. We ended up ordering a ridiculous amount of delicious delicious Thai food and eating it all. We really went all out. And we still only paid like 300-something NT per person which is a bit pricey for food here (not so much for a nice meal, but you know, a bit pricey to be spending everyday), yet when I convert it back to US dollars, it is still incredibly cheap.

-I decided to take my camera to work this week and take pictures of all my students. I somewhat failed since I did not get all of my classes, due to running out of time in the class and also becuase I forgot a couple of times. This week I will go back and get the classes that I missed.

My Monday class, being all shy and stuff.

My Tuesday class, looking all cool.

My Wednesday "special" class, with more than half of the class hiding behind the others.

Mina, an incredibly jolly girl, who likes to pick up the little kid chairs and play it like a drum while she sings made up songs.

My Wednesday class, most of them looking remarkably awkward.

Two students from my Friday class... I forgot to take a picture of the whole class, as well as (you might have noticed) my Thursday class. Darn.



With Claire, who was (and no longer, sniff) my Friday night one-on-one.  She was so sweet and even gave me a Taipei Starbucks tea mug thingy on her last class.

My Saturday morning class. They are so quiet and well-behaved it sometimes drives me nuts since I am always really sleepy and they manage to sometimes put me to sleep further. Somehow, on a Saturday morning, I am usually the most peppy one there.

Teacher Says. I don't know what I was making them do, but Linda (in the front) seems to be really into it.

Saturday lunchtime class, my favorite class. They are freaking hilarious.

Another picture of them, this one with lots of mid-blinks.

-On Sunday, I went to Bali (right across the water frm Danshui) with Laura to her school's bbq. It was at what they called a "camp ground" but not as we would think of one. It was this little compound next to the water that had paint ball, archery, those trampolines you can jump real high on becuase you are in a harness, and then a pavilion where you can get little grill boxes. They supply the food, and they gave us a ton. It was delicious.

pictures:

me acting stupid and looking like I need a shower

a too-far away shot of Laura and I

We decided to leave after a while and try to catch a boat over to Danshui to get on the MRT there. This is a huge statue that is on the way to the Bali dock area, and it proves, along with the photos following, that Taiwan is weird. From what we could tell, the statue is a huge bronze monkey astronaut. There is no explanatory plaque anywhere around it. It is just there as though it makes sense. 

Further evidence of bizarreness: this little scene right next to the dock area. These two women were singing and shimmying around and the guy on the far left was sort of dancing around too. I *think* the guy in the middle in the business attire was hypnotized. This is what I gather from not knowing any chinese, not that anyone was standing around really explaining anything in it anyway. The guy in the middle was doing weird stuff, like picking up the stool and slamming it down in beat with the music, or using the stick to pretend to write things on the pavement, or picking up and dropping his shoes and dropping them like they do with these red blocks in Buddhist temples (you ask a yes or no question, and then drop the blocks and they tell you the answer or something like that). So, actually, he may have been hypnotized, or maybe it was a religious thing. Either way, TAIWAN WEIRD.

Ok, I am bored and lazy and don't want to write blogginess anymore. Peace outtttt