Blatherings of 500CBFan - A Journal of My Life in Taiwan

Beautiful Crafts from Taiwan

2011-01-12T09:56:00.004+08:00

These are some of the beautiful handicrafts that can be found in Taiwan (click the photo for a larger view). The figurines are made of ceramic, called Koji pottery, cochin ceramics, or 跤趾陶. The bead work is handcrafted by the Paiwan tribe, one of Taiwan's aboriginal peoples. If you'd like to buy some of them, please visit my eBay store and do some shopping. I'd appreciate any support! I also sell aqua titanium-germanium sports necklaces and bracelets, titanium + germanium bracelets and necklaces, and fine German 316L stainless steel jewelry.

Alive, but not exactly well

2009-04-08T07:08:00.002+08:00

Hello gang,

I have no time to blog. School pressure is mounting, free time basically doesn't exist. One bright spot in my dreary life is The Fug Girls and this year's Fug Madness tournament. I'll share it with you so you have something to laugh at, too.

In other news, I have a flight booked back to the US at the end of June for a two-week visit, at the amazingly low price of $750, tax included. Wow.

Gotta go, gonna be late for my 8:00 a.m. class. Enjoy the video.

A modern ritual: waiting for the garbage truck

2009-02-04T19:14:00.002+08:00

A community rite, and indicator of civic pride, collection time is a brief window for bonding
By Joseph Yeh
Taiwan News, Staff Reporter
Page 4
2009-02-04 12:47 AM

Beethoven's "Fur Elise" is probably one of the best-known pieces of classical music in the world. Its beautiful flowing melody has been practiced by millions of piano learners, and nowadays is even used by some as their mobile phone ring tone.

Likewise, "A Maiden's Prayer," a melody by Polish composer Tekla Badarzewska-Baranowska, is familiar and well-loved by many people. It is a tune that has been passed from generation to generation.

To Taiwanese, these two classic tones share another very interesting common point - both have been used as signals by garbage trucks to remind people to take out the trash. In the United States and in most European countries, people just put their trash and household waste into garbage cans and recycling receptacles for sanitary engineers to collect them. But in Taiwan, people have to carry out their rubbish and dump it right into the garbage truck themselves.

Several decades ago, waste collection in Taiwan was like those in other countries, where people put their household waste into public garbage cans for trash collectors to pick up. However, since this island nation - in its subtropical location - is relatively small and heavily populated, the public garbage collection spots were usually extremely smelly, attracting mice, flies, and insects - a horrible sight that largely affected the hygiene and image of a modern society.

The central government, therefore, decided to change the waste collection system and asked everyone to bring their household garbage and personally dump it into garbage trucks. To make sure that everyone knew that the garbage truck was coming, the Environmental Protection Administration added the melodic come-on to signal the arrival of the yellow trucks.

Taking Taipei city as an example, every night except Wednesdays and Sundays, city residents gather at the mouth of a street alley, one hand carrying blue plastic bags, the other carrying recyclable waste, waiting for the rear-loading garbage trucks to appear around the corner.

Whenever they hear the melody "Fur Elise" or "A Maiden's Prayer," city dwellers emerge from their apartment buildings, head to the gathering point and wait for the slow-moving truck.

Who chose it?

Rumor on the Internet has it that the decision to use "Fur Elise" was made by the late Hsu Tse-chiu (1920-1988), former director of the Department of Health. Sometime in the early eighties, he was looking for music for the trash trucks. One day, his daughter, a piano learner, was practicing Beethoven's famed composition and he decided that it was one of the most recognizable classical pieces around the world. He the chose it as the "garbage music."

The EPA that is now responsible for the waste collection could not confirm the rumor, saying that more than 20 years had passed since the seminal decision was taken.

But no one has complained that the notes of this beautiful music ring repeatedly when the time comes to take out the trash.

But in other parts of this island, people do not just hear "Fur Elise" or "A Maiden's Prayer." At Christmas time, the trucks play Christmas songs, and during Chinese New Year, some traditional Chinese music.

Six years ago in Taiwan's southern city of Tainan, residents heard a very foreign-sounding voice speaking sentences of basic English conversation. Instead of Beethoven, the speakers on the garbage trucks played "How are you?" and "I'm fine, thank you."

The innovative idea came up during a private conversation between Tainan City Mayor, Hsu Tain-tsair and his wife. "We got together with teachers and members of the city government's education bureau and came up with a series of conversational dialogues that we felt were simple yet important," said Hsu in an interview with a local newspaper in September 2002, not long after the project was launched in the city.

But the project was short-lived. Earlier this year, the city government suspended its "English conversation lessons through garbage trucks" and started broadcasting city policies in both Vietnamese and Thai, for the benefit of foreign spouses who do not understand Chinese. Both the English teaching program and government policy promotion show that garbage collection time in Taiwan is so much more than just taking out the trash.

A lesson from Taiwan

It is a rare opportunity for a brief time of bonding among neighbors. It is the only time some meet rarely seen neighbors and have a little chat with them. In this cold, largely indifferent modern society, this 5-days-a-week ritual helps to bring people closer to each other, if only for five to ten minutes.

Very often, Indonesian and Filipino household helpers and nannies can be seen gathered around in a small circle, using their mother tongues to chat while waiting for the garbage truck. For them, this small nightly gathering is a widely anticipated event.

Julia Ross, a freelance writer and former U.S. Fulbright scholar in Taiwan, observes that waiting for the garbage truck in Taiwan is "one of Taiwan's liveliest communal rites."

In an article entitled "What I Picked Up about Trash in Taipei" which was published by Washington Post on Dec. 2, 2007, Ross, who spent a year on the island studying Chinese before returning to the U.S., was deeply impressed by Taiwan's garbage collection system.

"Many evenings I watched food vendors from the night markets, buckets of eggshells in hand, chat up convenience store clerks alongside Filipino nannies, who traded kitchen appliances as if they were at a Sunday morning swap meet. Freelance recyclers keen to make a few dollars showed up to collect cardboard and newspapers, which they would sell back to the city. An alderman with a whistle kept traffic at bay," she wrote in the article.

More than just a lively community ritual, the garbage collection system in Taiwan also earned credit from Ross who lauded Taipei's waste-disposal network, which is "made up of municipal employees and regular citizens all doing their part to keep the system humming.

"Watching the city's disparate trash tribes at work shamed me into compliance after years as a half-hearted recycler back home," she said.

"Even more impressive, they fueled a sense of civic responsibility in a place where democracy is still taking root. Just as the Taiwanese invest in their young representative government, they invest in a clean environment."

At the end, she gives highest credit to the garbage lessons she learned in Taipei by saying that "living in a place where I was expected to use what I bought and recycle every last yogurt cup and juice box left me with a new appreciation for what clean streets mean in a civil society, and the realization that I'm responsible for everything I consume. That's as good a Chinese lesson as any."

The article was later translated into Chinese and made into pamphlets by the Taipei City government to give away to its citizens reminding them that Taipei and Taiwan as a whole has a system to feel proud of. Indeed, Taiwanese should be proud that garbage collection time has become a unique cultural experience that can serve as a great lesson for people around the world.

End of article

What's written above is all well and good, but I for one am thankful I now live in an apartment building with central trash collection in the basement and don't have to chase the trash truck anymore! :)

My Final Grades

2009-01-20T09:11:00.004+08:00

I've gotten all my grades now, and the only reason they're as good as they are is because the teachers are being nice to me. I think it's the "give you an A for effort" approach to grading. I'm not complaining, because this means I can apply for a scholarship for the upcoming semester, because my average is 84.6, and foreign students only need 65 to be eligible (kind of a joke, huh?).

Here's the rundown:
Chinese Paleography 文字學 65
Introduction to Literature 文學概論 76
Selected Readings in Chinese Poetry 詩選及習作 77
Labor for Education aka Raking Leaves 勞作教育課程 82
Physical Education 女生體育 99
Taiwan History 台灣歷史采風與踏查 90
Introduction to Chinese Classics 國學導讀 84
Introduction to Computers 資訊概論 81
English 英文 96
Typing 中英文電腦輸入法 96

I got to choose my own phys ed class for next semester, and since most of the classes offered were those that would require me to actually be able to run or jump, I decided to go for Billiards. :) Course selection is all done online, and we only have a certain window of time in which to choose our classes, so the system is always jammed with people trying to get in. I was afraid I'd be too slow, but I got it! Maybe since it's at 8:00 a.m. no one else was interested. I'll miss having a little sleep-in on Wednesday mornings, but it's worth it to have a class that's fun (although I play pool a lot better when I'm drunk than sober!).

In a couple of days I'll be taking off for Thailand, can't wait. I'm more looking forward to seeing Cheryl and Terry than I am seeing Thailand. I miss those guys, even though I spent quite a bit of time in Hong Kong last year and got to see them. Hopefully I'll have the energy to write about the trip when I get back.

Now it's off to the bank for another withdrawal. It's really a pain to have to go every day, but the maximum my US bank allows me to take out per day is $500. I have to pay my tuition, and that's $1500. I thought I could use my credit card, but turns out they'll only take Taiwan cards, so cash it is. Sheesh. Oh well, it gets me out of the house and walking!

Although yesterday I walked so much that my knee was talking to me last night. Feels better today, and after the Thailand trip, it's to the doctor for the MRI, since I finally have the Taiwan insurance card and can afford it. I don't know if there's anything they can do, and I really don't relish the thought of an operation, but I'm pretty darned tired of not being able to do anything without being in pain. Stairs are sheer misery, and there are a lot of stairs I have to climb at the university.

My weight keeps going up because of the lack of exercise, and of course that makes the knee worse - it's just a vicious circle. Dieting alone doesn't seem to work very well for me, my body needs aerobic exercise before it agrees to let go of the flab. My friends keep trying to talk me into doing the Herbalife diet, since they've had such success with it, but I've done liquid diets in the past and all it did was screw up my metabolism so that now it's even more difficult to lose weight. So, I'm not trying that yet. Man, I do miss the convenience of the frozen diet meals that I had in the US, didn't have to think about what to eat, just pop a Weight Watchers or Lean Cuisine frozen entree into the microwave and that was it. I only recently discovered that there's one of those buffet style restaurants close to campus where I can buy tons of already prepared vegetables. Next semester I'm going to make a point of going there almost every day and getting those and a piece of chicken, as that's what I did when I lived in Zhuwei and it helped with the weight loss. I'll have to soak the oil off of them before I eat (wish they wouldn't drown everything in salad oil here), but that's no big deal.

Anyway, like I said, I have to go to the bank. Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!

Five Weeks of Freedom!

2009-01-12T10:00:00.003+08:00

My first semester of university is thankfully over, and I have a five-week winter break. I had no idea it would be this difficult, and the thought of having to live through it for another three and a half years is making my stomach hurt. I can only hope it gets better as I become accustomed to the Taiwan "stuff the duck" style of education. What is that? you ask. Well, their method is to overload students with a minimum of ten different classes per week, as well as the so-called "practical" sessions for a few of those classes, expecting that the students (in lieu of actually learning anything in these classes) will simply utilize their incredible memorization skills to "stuff" all this information into their brains in order to pass a test. After which they can cheerfully forget it all and prepare the brain for the next round.

This is going to be a very, very long post. I hope you're all curious enough to bear with me and read to the end. I'm going to take my week day by day, class by class, and try to give you a feel for what my life has been like since September. And then maybe you'll understand why I wasn't able to find time to write regular updates or answer e-mail! Next semester will be much the same, although I'm losing a couple classes and gaining two others.

Monday
At least I get to sleep in for a little while on Mondays. My first class at 10:10 (til noon) is Introduction to Literature. My teacher, Wang Li Hua, is a woman who appears to be in her 50s or early 60s, difficult for me to tell. She's quite nice and at least has had the experience of having a foreign student in the past, the Russian girl that I hear so much about but have never seen.

Ms. Wang's method of teaching is a slide show to accompany her lecture. The first few weeks I barely understood anything she said and had to rely on trying to read the Chinese slide show, which didn't really contain a lot of information. We don't have a textbook for this class, the teacher just gives us copies of short stories (in Chinese) to read. Some of the copies are very poor, and it's hard for me to make out the characters because they're so small. Hence, it takes me forever to try to read the stories. If I'm lucky enough to find the text somewhere online, it's a big help, because my Chinese word processor has a built-in dictionary, and that's way quicker than trying to look up a word I don't know in a regular dictionary. You see, first you have to figure out what radical the character would be listed under, then how many strokes the character is formed with, and then you can find the word. Sometimes I can guess at the pronunciation and look it up that way, but generally not. So for me to read a few short pages takes hours and hours. The Taiwan kids get through it in a snap.

The most annoying thing in this class is the behavior of my classmates. While the teacher lectures, most of the students are chatting with each other, and not quietly, either. I couldn't believe that the teacher never told them to shut up! They were so loud that I couldn't hear the teacher, even though she was using a microphone. It's very difficult for me to understand Chinese when I hear it in a noisy environment, because I just can't separate one voice from another. After suffering through this for weeks, I finally one day asked the teacher if she could please ask them to keep it down so I could understand what she was saying. She ended up giving them a scolding, told them I was more diligent than them, they should be ashamed, blah blah
blah. That kept them quiet for about 20 minutes, then we had our break, and when we came back from that, they were just as loud as before. The teacher started her lecture, and I turned around in my seat (I sit in the front row) and gave them all a loud "SSSHHHHH!!!" Only then did the teacher admonish them again. Even though it's currently better than it had been, they still talk, but they're starting to fear me. More on that later, too.

We watched some interesting movies in this class. The first was a Swedish film called 「Mother of Mine」: "During World War II, more than 70,000 Finnish children were evacuated to neutral Sweden to avoid the conflict. "Mother of Mine," the latest from the award-winning Klaus Haro ("Elina"), tackles that painful patch of history in a tale of 9-year-old Eero, a child who increasingly feels abandoned by his biological Finnish mother and yet not attached to his Swedish surrogate mom. When he is returned to Finland, his confusion intensifies." A wonderful film, this, and one I recommend. The film was in Swedish and Finnish, with both English and Chinese subtitles. Next we watched the German film, 「Run Lola Run」, in German with only Chinese subs, so I had to try to read those to understand: "Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manny. He lost 100,000 DM in a subway train that belongs to a very bad guy. Lola has 20 min to raise this amount and meet Manny. Otherwise, he will rob a store to get the money. Three different alternatives may happen depending on some minor event along Lola's run." An awesome movie, if you haven't seen it, get it! These two movies we watched before mid terms, and part of the mid term exam was writing about them. The second half of the semester we saw a Japanese film called 「The Last Dance」(no English subs) and 「Immortal Beloved」, in English, yay! These were featured on the final exam.

The exams were difficult for me, because I write slowly in Chinese. On the mid term I did not have time to answer one question, and I also didn't really understand it. We were supposed to talk about the writing style in one of stories the teacher gave us, but we hadn't ever discussed it in class. I'd read most of it, but I didn't really pick up on the fact that it was a satire, because I didn't understand all of it. The teacher gave me 60% on my mid term. I just checked my final grade for the class and it's 76, yay! One great thing about her tests is that she allows us to bring all of our notes with us, so this time I used the notes I'd taken (which were better than during the first half), but once again I didn't have time to finish. I think some of the other students had the same problem, though.

When Literature ends at noon, I go back home and start to type up my notes from class, look up information on the Internet (gotta figure out which authors she talks about, because she uses the Chinese transliteration of their names, and I have to find out the English, because we don't just discuss Chinese literature, but Western as well). I have my lunch and take care of any eBay stuff, and I try to relax a little bit. At 3:30 I head back out for a fifty-minute class that begins at 4:10.

I hate this class more than I can say. I hate the subject (Introduction to Computers, Practical Session), and I hate the smarmy Teaching Assistant who runs it. Here's how the class goes: the kids file in, sit down, fire up the computers, and start surfing the Internet. The TA starts his slide show and talks a mile a minute, flipping slides faster than I can read. The other students completely ignore him while I try to follow along. I got completely lost when he was giving the lesson on using the university's BBS system (talk about outdated, who the hell uses BBS these days?), and the kids on either side of me were doing their own thing, so I asked the TA for help. That supercilious little prick told me to ask my classmates. I finally gave up toward the end of the hour and started surfing like the others, and that asshole came over to ME, completely ignoring the 75 other kids who were playing, and told me I should pay attention. Yeah, right,
fat lot of good it does to pay attention when I don't understand and you're not willing to take time to help me.

So in the first semester this completely unnecessary class has brought us lessons in how to use Internet search engines like Google and Yahoo, the bare bones of how to use Word and Powerpoint, how to set up Outlook Mail, and other basics that any 10-year-old child these days already knows. I've often not gone to class, sending the TA an e-mail telling him I'm too busy focusing on more important studies. Half the time his projector stops working 5 minutes into class, and it takes him a good 10 minutes to get it going again. If I get 30 minutes of actual instruction out of this I'm lucky. For that I should leave my comfy home and make the trip back to school? Uh uh.

The TA's section on the mid-term exam was laughable, 15 multiple choice questions, such as "What's Tamkang University's website address?" "Which of these websites can be used to search?" "Which of these e-mail addresses is for the university?" Of course these are things EVERYONE knows, how ridiculous is this? The final exam was more difficult, because there were quite a few questions about Word and Presentations, but since all I have is the English version of these, I don't recognize the terms in Chinese, and I couldn't understand many of the questions. It's not like he actually TAUGHT us anything during his sessions, either, because he himself didn't seem to know it. More gripes about computer class to come.

Tuesday
No sleeping in, it's up at 6:00 a.m. for the first class at 8:10 - English. My teacher is Wang Wei Ying aka Wanda. She's either in her late 20s or early 30s, a tiny little thing with a mass of permed hair that she wears in two bushy pigtails with a head scarf, making her look like a refugee from the 60s. She's kinda laid back, which is a bad thing, because these kids really need some stern measures. When we first started, she only used English, but she soon realized that the kids didn't understand anything she was saying, so now she uses English and then repeats it all in Chinese. I'm not surprised the kids don't understand, as the Taiwan method of teaching
English is stupid. The kids almost never get a chance to talk in class, so they never use any of the words or grammar they're "learning." The teacher's English is not great, either. Oh, she's not horrible, but she often leaves the "s" off plurals and her pronunciation is odd, as well as the rhythm of her sentences. It's a very boring class for me, but since the alternative would be trying to learn Japanese, I'll gladly sit through this. When the kids have dictation tests, I get to read the sentences, and they love that. One day I didn't go when they had a test, and they all complained to me after, saying they can't understand the teacher.

This is another class where their behavior annoys the piss out of me. We had to do group assignments, reading dumbed-down versions of classic books and then giving a group report. Every single time a group was at the front giving their report, the rest of the class was chatting and laughing and totally ignoring the group on stage. Wanda rarely tells the kids to shut up, and although their noise didn't affect my ability to understand, it just made me angrier each time. Many times I'd turn around and to the "SSHHH!" at them (and remember, I have a lot of classes with the same kids and have been through this more than once).

I didn't have trouble with the tests, of course, although I didn't get 100%. There were sections where I had to fill in the blank, given the first and last letter of the word. I just couldn't think of any words that fit sometimes!I'm sure if I'd memorized the lessons, like the other kids, it would have come to me, but I honestly didn't spend much time reading the boring textbook. I also think I'm slowly forgetting English!

So, my last day of this semester in English class, the final two groups gave their reports, and I had to keep turning around and shushing the students. Before we dismissed, I asked Wanda if I could say a few words to the kids. She gave me the microphone, and I blasted them. I told them they were incredibly rude, they had no respect for teachers or classmates, and that if I were their teacher, they'd have been kicked out of my class and given a big fat zero. I told them they were adults, not children, and that they should start acting like it, especially if any of them wanted to go abroad to continue studying, because this sort of behavior wouldn't be tolerated
in Western universities. I scolded them in English and then in Chinese to make sure they understood. They all looked pretty sheepish, but I'm betting it doesn't make a bit of difference. They may be 18 years old, but they're more like 13- or 14-year-old American kids.

After English class is Phys Ed. We spent a few weeks in the weight training room, which I enjoyed, then a couple sessions of volleyball, which I couldn't do as I can't run (but I helped serve the ball a few times), then I had to go buy a bathing suit for our swimming portion. We ended up in the water exactly once. Then we moved on to badminton, which was sort of fun for about 5 minutes and then was a huge bore.

I totally love the teacher, Sunny Qin. She was a pretty huge basketball star in her youth, and she's got a great sense of humor. She also doesn't tolerate any nonsense or impolite behavior from her girls, which I really appreciated. I'm quite sad that I can't have her next semester, but she'll only be teaching basketball, and I sure as hell can't do that. I have to choose my Phys Ed class this time, and so far I don't know what to take. There's not much I can do with this knee, but since it's a required course, I need to pick something. It ain't gonna be swimming, because that's co-ed, and damned if I'm putting this fat on display.

Tuesday noon it's back home for a much-needed shower, lunch, and then working on any assignments I have (which is usually a lot), plus the eBay.

Once again I have to leave home at 3:30 for the much-hated 4:10 - 6:00 Introduction to Computers class. I tried, I really did. I did my best to pay attention, although the volume of the other students' chatter effectively kept me from understanding the teacher. No one is interested in this class, and they either spend the time sleeping, studying other subjects, or talking loudly. The teacher is a nice enough guy, Xu Zhi Peng, and he's even sorta cute, but the stuff he teaches is way over our heads and completely unrelated to the normal person's needs. He's teaching us as if we were majoring in computers, for crying out loud! The first part of the semester I did manage to learn some things, like the Chinese names for computer system parts, and the test was relatively easy (I got an 87% on it), although I couldn't manage to memorize some of the meaningless data. The second half of the semester was ridiculous, with him teaching totally technical stuff that I'll never, ever need to use and certainly don't understand (and wouldn't
in English, either). I asked him when he was reviewing some complicated number chart for the final, "Can you please tell me when I will use this information and of what practical use it is?" His reply, "No use, just for the sake of taking a test, that's all." WTF? I'm quite certain I failed the final, because most of the questions I couldn't understand. I kept writing, "I don't understand the Chinese." next to the questions.

I have to suffer one more semester of this required garbage. I'm gonna die. I loathe it, simply loathe it, and now I use the time to study my other subjects, because I don't need this information, I don't want this information, and I don't understand this information. I'll be goddamned if I'll waste my time memorizing completely useless stuff just because Taiwan'
s Ministry of Education has decided that all students need this crap.

Wednesday
Another early day, but I eventually began skipping the first class at 8:10, because I already know how to type, both in Chinese and English. I've become friends with my teacher, whose name is Way, and I'd at least go in early enough to chat a bit with him before my 10:00 class. He's a sweetie, gave me 100% on my tests. I'm losing this class next semester, but Way and I will still find time to hang out. Instead of this class, I have to take some stupid Science and Technology Revolution class (it's on Friday afternoon,not Wednesday a.m., I can sleep in, but now my Friday is totally screwed.), and I know I'm going to suck at that. I checked out the syllabus, and it's stuff about DNA, genes, air pollution, global warming, the development of
technology - I'm supposed to be able to understand this in Chinese? Yeah....right.

My Readings in Chinese Poetry class if also extremely hard for me. The first few weeks I mostly didn't understand anything the teacher was saying in class and found it difficult to even know where in the book we were. The teacher, Ma Ming Hao, is an awesome dude, though. He's funny, tells entertaining stories (even when I don't understand I can tell they're funny!), and is very patient with me. He and I agree that it's stupid to expect a foreign student to be able to understand poetry during the first year, and this class should be deferred until year 3 or 4, but since that's not possible, he's found a lovely PhD student named Sammi to work with me once
a week to help me learn. He was also totally nice for both exams, allowing me (and the three Korean exchange students whose Chinese is much worse than mine) to work on the answers at home instead of having to do it during the test. He gave me 60% on the mid-term, and I'm hoping I did a bit better on the final.

So one day, after he'd found Sammi to help me but we hadn't started yet, he says he'll be having lunch with her that day, so I asked if I could go along so we could talk about how to help me. Well, it turned out that five of us went to lunch at a nearby Japanese restaurant, and instead of discussing teaching me, we all got rip-roaring drunk. :) Mr. Ma treated us (he has lunch with those three PhD students every Wednesday, too), and the beer just kept coming. I had a blast and missed my 3:00 class, and that evening I didn't manage to get anything done because I had a hangover. But damn, it was fun!

I'm trying to make a head start in poetry for next semester, with a goal of reading at least five of the 300 Tang Dynasties Poems every day and trying to analyze their structure (old Chinese poetry has some strict rules which must be followed when writing). Sammi has given me some very helpful info, and I'm looking forward to our weekly sessions.

Here's how great Mr. Ma is - he gave me an overall grade of 77 for the semester! So far Literature and Poetry are the only two classes for which the grade has been posted, keeping fingers crossed for the rest.

On Wednesdays I usually meet my friend Maria for lunch, but sometimes she's busy, and I end up eating lunch alone. I like my classmates, but they're all so immature that I really don't want to spend much time with them, I can't handle that much giggling. I'd been eating in the cafeteria when Maria couldn't join me, but now I go to a nice, quiet place called Black Tea House. It's a little more expensive, like US$5 as apposed to US$1.50, but worth it for the peace.

At 1:10 on Wednesday I had my very favorite class, Taiwan History, and I can't tell you how sad I am that I don't get to continue this next semester.

I love my History teacher, Wu Ming Yong. This guy knows how to make a subject interesting. And it's the only class in which I had so much laughter and a good time. Plus, the guy is a hunk! Well, to me he is. I find him very attractive, but I'm quite sure he's married (I think he's in his late 40s), although he doesn't wear a ring and says he's always in his office until midnight or later working on his thesis, which doesn't sound like a married guy. I mean, wouldn't a married guy go home and work? I flirt with him outrageously and ply him with baked goods, too. If there's a wife, I'll find out sooner or later. But anyway, I did love the class, although I had to read a lot on my own in English because the textbook was too hard for me. You see, one problem I have is not being able to differentiate Chinese names (of people or places) from other Chinese words. It's not
like English, where is you see the word "David" you know it's a person's name. Chinese name words are also regular vocabulary words, and that makes it really hard to make sense out of what I'm reading sometimes. So, most of what I read about Taiwan's history was in English, and I had to use a lot of English to answer the questions on the final, but I don't think Mr. Wu's English is very good. :( I was able to use Chinese on the mid-term, though, and I got an 80%. Now, I don't really think I did that well, I think Mr. Wu just was being nice to me, because he knows how hard I try (and because I give him Kahlua cake, cheesecake, and tiramisu, hahaha). I also helped translate some Chinese to English for him, although I had to enlist help from Aaron and Claire to do so.

Anyway, I'm thinking about auditing one of his classes next semester, right before the stupid science class. I figure if I can have a fun class with a gorgeous guy first, then it won't be so awful. I'm not willing to give up a class with the first guy I've been attracted to (well, other than Wu
Bai) since I got here! Funny thing, he's from the same part of Taiwan as Wu Bai, has the same last name, and similar facial features. Hm, I guess that's just what I like. I'd better hope he never stumbles across this blog, huh?

The class that's replacing the History class on Wednesday's next semester is one dealing with ancient Chinese novels, which I'm a bit anxious about, because one of my classmates told me that the ancient language is super hard to understand, even for native speakers. However, I read the students' critiques of the teacher, and she sounds pretty cool, so I'll give it my best shot.

Thursday
Best thing about this day is getting to sleep in, because the first class isn't until 1:10. It kinda goes downhill from there, though.

Well, not entirely. I truly do like Chinese Paleography, because I love studying the origins of the Chinese language. My teacher, Gao Wan Yu, is in her early 30s and really easy to understand. Also, we have a fairly easy textbook, with Chinese that's not very complicated, and she pretty
much follows the book in class. The problem is the amount of information we're covering. It's a lot for me to absorb, because I have to read the text more than once, and that takes a long time. I also read as much as I can in English, as well, because that helps me remember more.

I had my first breakdown of the semester in this class. I'd already been feeling totally overwhelmed and wasn't understanding much in any of my classes, and we had a "small" test, for which I'd prepared the best I could. Well, I got a zero (first time in my life I ever failed a test!), because I couldn't even answer one question. I started crying in class, and I kept crying through the rest of the afternoon. It was so frustrating, because I was understanding what I was reading, but none of it was staying in my head. I went to the Office of Foreign Exchange that
afternoon and just sobbed my heart out, trying to get them to understand how hard it was and telling them I felt cheated by the department chair. When I'd gone to see him before I applied, I asked him if he thought a foreigner studying in the Chinese Department would have difficulty (since ALL my Taiwan friends told me it would be too hard, they thought it was too hard for them!), and he assured me that I'd have absolutely no trouble at all. Liar!

Anyway, he must have realized I was in distress during his class after the Paleography class (the tears probably gave it away), and I ran into him on campus as I was heading home. He told me he'd talk to Ms. Gao and see if they could come up with an alternate method for me.

After that is when I discovered that Wikipedia had a lot of info that was taken from the English translation of our textbook and started studying that. I wanted to buy the book, but the only one I found online was US$200, and that's just too much. So, I studied harder, and the next "small" test we had, I got 57! That time I used English to answer a lot of the questions, and the teacher has no problem reading and understanding. I felt so good about my improvement, and Ms. Gao told me that for the mid-term I could also write a report about Oracle Bone Script to add points. I learn so much more when I do research on a subject, and research I did. I knew all the ins and outs of Oracle Bone Script by the time I was done with that report. I studied very hard for the mid-term, and I got a 56 on it. Best of all, mine was NOT the lowest score in class - I did better than some of the Taiwan kids, yeah!

I probably spend more time on this class than any other, because I actually do understand this one, and I feel that I'm really learning something. I'm crap at taking tests, though. For Christmas, Ms. Gao gave me a gift - another "small" test. Yeah, we don't get Christmas off here in Taiwan, I had a test that day instead. And once again I did a miserable job, despite the hours of preparation. I only got 4 points on that one. Sheesh. And I got an assignment to add points - another report, this time on the script used during the Warring States Period.

The final wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting, and I managed to do an OK job (but I still couldn't remember a lot). I know I passed, because I went by to talk to Ms. Gao on Friday, and she said I did a good job and that my report was very good. I'm sure I'll have an OK time next semester, as she wants me to help her with her English, and she knows how much I like her class, so at least I don't have to stress about possible failure for this one. The two of us are going to go to the National Palace Museum together during my break, because I want to go and really LOOK at all bronzes that I wasn't impressed with before, because I never realized how very old they were and that they contained some of the earliest writing found. I have a new appreciation for bronzes now, Carol!

So, after Paleography is the "sweep up the already immaculate road" class. I have no problem with doing some productive community service work, but my group got assigned to hunt down and rake up leaves in one of the cleanest areas of the campus. And talk about a bunch of lazy-assed kids, I had to keep grabbing the rake away from one of the guys and doing it myself because he doesn't know the concept of "put your back into it." It's annoying, but we're usually done within a half hour, so what the hell. It's no fun in the heat of summer, and it's no fun when it's cold, either. Maybe we'll get assigned to a dirty area next semester so I'll get some some of feeling of accomplishment.

Thursday is the day I dread the most because of the last class of the day, Introduction to Chinese Classics, taught by Mr. Cui, the head of the department (you know, the guy who promised me I'd have no trouble?). I'd leave this class confuzzled every time, because I understood NOTHING, and I'd have a headache from the way he would scream into the mike. I think my friend Maria must have said something to him about that (lord knows I complained
to her enough about it), because over the last few weeks he's not been so loud. I would often begin to cry in this class, because it seemed so hopeless and futile. I couldn't make heads or tails out of the handouts he gave us, because they're all in very formal Chinese, which is nothing like what I learned in language class. I couldn't understand anything he was talking about. I couldn't read what he wrote on the board because he uses calligraphy, which while very beautiful is not easy for me to interpret. After ever class I'd tell him, "Teacher, I don't understand ANYTHING AT ALL." He'd just reply by telling me not to worry, take it slowly, you'll get there, just come to class - "Trust me!"

I had no clue how to prepare for the mid-term. I didn't even know what the teacher's objective was! I got my test paper, looked it over and couldn't understand a bit of it, and spent the whole test time writing a big long letter (in English) to him, telling him how I felt, not just about his class but all of it, and then waited for him to talk to me. It took almost 3 weeks for the test score to be posted, and I damned near fainted from shock when I saw he gave me 80%. Again, WTF? I didn't answer even one question! While I appreciate his kindness, this is totally unfair to the Taiwan students who spent so much time studying.

The day he handed the test papers back, he took me outside the classroom and told me he wanted to find a Master's student to help me. I asked for Amy, the girl from Malaysia I'd done English camp with. She set up an appointment with me, and I went to see her, hoping she'd be able to shed some light on this subject. It was a joke. She said, "Mr. Cui just wants you to know
you don't have to worry, just go to class every time, take it slowly, you'll get there....blah, blah, blah." So, basically, I could do nothing except bring my body to class and I'd pass. OK, that's fine, but I'm actually trying to LEARN something here!

Nowadays I set next to Momo during class, and she helps me to make sure I've written down anything Mr. Cui says is for the exam. She helps me decipher his handwriting, too. Momo is a sweetie, and she loves the Chinese Department. She's helped me quite a bit this semester. But you know what? I thought I'd be much more prepared for the final, as I had what I thought was all the info I needed. I studied it, copied it over and over, tried to remember it (which is damned hard when you don't understand what you're trying to remember!), but when the final came, it was loaded with stuff I didn't even remember seeing. Crap on a rope. Oh well, I'm not worried, because I was able to answer at least some things this time, so he should give me 100% for that!

Friday
Last semester Friday was the best, because there was only one class at 9:10 a.m., and that only for 50 minutes. However, because they've added that stupid Science class in the afternoon at 3:00, that effectively ruins the whole friggin' day, which is why I'm willing to audit Mr. Wu's 1:00-3:00 class. I mean, what the hell, it's not like I can do anything else.

This class is the "practical" session for my hated Intro to Chinese Classics. The first few weeks, I sat in the back next to a guy who is very helpful, but again, because of the noisy conversations going on, I couldn't understand anything the young TA was saying. She had a mike, but it didn't help. I finally moved to the front row, and after suffering through the same rotten behavior (talking during class, talking during group presentations), I turned on them one day and told them to shut the fuck up, that I couldn't hear anything, and that I was already under enough pressure. I was so pissed off that I was crying, which I hate. So, they shouldn't have been too surprised when I lambasted them after English class, because they'd already gotten it once.

I don't feel that I got anything at all out of this class, but at least I got to watch a great movie, 「Rouge 」with Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui. The TA let me write a report on the movie instead of doing a book report like the others, because she knew it would take me forever to finish reading a book. I hope next semester I will understand a bit more of what's going on.

So, that's been my life since September. I'm mostly miserable, with a couple of bright spots such as two fabulous pub concerts (although queuing in line all day sucked) which got me up close and personal with my adored Wu Bai and China Blue, an autograph session where I stood in front of my adored Wu Bai and told him it was all his fault that my life sucked now, because if I'd never discovered him then I'd never have moved here. He laughed at me, the stinker. Another very fun thing is that Dino, the drummer for China Blue, and Xiao Zhu the bass player have opened a fabulous Italian restaurant not far from where I live, and I've gone there a couple of times for food and fun and will go again on Saturday.

I had no Christmas. I had no New Year's Eve (we were off school Thursday and Friday, but since finals were on the following Monday, my time was spent preparing for those). I considered the December 20 pub show to be my Christmas present, and the party at Dino's place on January 3 was my New Year celebration.

There are two more bright spots coming: I'm going to Thailand January 23 through February 1 for Terry and Cheryl's wedding, and I'm really looking forward to that. I miss my friends, damn it! I have no social life to speak of here, and I'm sick to death of being around immature kids, I need adult conversation. And then on February 28 there's another pub show, so I get to see my favorite guys once again (but queuing all day will suck, ha).

Next semester I have nine different classes, all of which are required, so please don't ask me if I can't take it a bit easier. I would if I could, believe me. I need 139 credits to graduate. My first year I'll only make 31 of those. I need to average 34.75 credits per year to make that 139, so there'd best be some classes in the future that give more than 2 credits per, because I don't think I can handle any more classes per week!

I'm all typed out now, and about to faint from lack of food (it's 1:56 p.m., haven't had a thing to eat today). Thank you, my friends, for understanding my lack of communication and still remaining my friends. You can just figure that the next few months will be pretty much the same as what's written above. I'll do what I can to stay in touch, but don't expect a whole lot
out of me, K?

Love you all, miss you much.....

Everybody Dance with Matt

2008-12-12T14:34:00.002+08:00

Hi all,

School is killing me. The semester ends after the first week of January, and then I'll give a full report of these last agonizing months.

For now, something that one of my teachers passed along, something that made me smile a whole lot. Make sure you watch it in the HD mode, and make sure you watch all the other videos he has.

Week Two Slightly Better

2008-09-19T13:45:00.004+08:00

I've made through the 2nd week of university without killing myself, but it was touch and go there for a bit.  Last week was really, really tough, and I was near tears many times, as I couldn't understand a lot of what was going on, and I was having serious misgivings about the wisdom of deciding to attend college at my age when classes are taught in a language I'm not fluent in. When I went to talk to the Chair, he assured me that in three months I'll be fine. Three months! Aiyo....but the mid-term exams are in November, what about those? How am I ever going to pass any tests? The Chair also said that the teachers will grade me based on my ability. I can only hope this is so.

At least my schedule got a little better, now down to only 12 classes per week:

Mondays
10:10 - 12:00 Introduction to Literature (Difficult to understand a lot of what the professor says, but she's really nice and I think she'll be patient with me.)
12:00 - 4:10- a four-hour break, during which I can come home and relax a bit
4:10 - 5:00 Introduction to Computers - Practical Exercises (I cut this class this week, seemed pointless, as we hadn't actually had the real Intro to Computers class and had nothing to practice)

Tuesdays
8:10 - 10:00 English (I love this class, hahaha, but I feel sorry for the teacher, as she can't seem to get any response out of the students at all.)
10:10 - 12:00 Phys Ed (First item on the agenda was jog around the track five times. Well, I can't jog, so I walked as briskly as I could, in the 100 degree heat, playing Wu Bai songs on my cell phone for encouragement. Since the others were half jogging, half walking, I was able to keep up, because their walking pace is extremely slow. Then we did some stretches in the weight training room, and that was about it. Next week we're supposed to learn how to use all the equipment, after the jog around the track. I like the teacher, she's funny but no-nonsense, and she understands about my bad knees. However, she told me I need to lose weight. No, gee, really? Gosh darn, if you hadn't told me, I just wouldn't have known, thanks ever so much for the enlightenment.)
12:00 - 4:10 - a four-hour break where I can go home and shower after sweating like a pig during the phys ed class. I dropped the Grammar and Rhetoric class that I had at 1:00, because it's a 3rd year class, and I didn't understand anything at all.
4:10 - 6:00 Introduction to Computers (Incredibly annoying class, because while the teacher talks, the other students chat loudly or sleep, and I can't hear anything.  The teacher never once told them to shut up, just kept talking, and they got louder and louder......I mean, sheesh, I wouldn't understand an explanation of binary code in English, let alone Chinese!  Why on earth this is a required class for the Chinese Department, I'll never know.)

Wednesdays
8:10 - 10:00 Computer Word Processing - the other students practice typing English, I'm trying to learn how to input Chinese with the keyboard instead of with software, it's kinda fun
10:10 - 12:00 Readings in Chinese Poetry (I like this teacher very much, he's cool, but I don't understand much, yet.  Too many references to things the Taiwanese kids studied throughout grade school and high school, and I have extremely limited knowledge in that area.)
12:00 - 1:00 LUNCH! (I have a standing date with my friend Maria for Wednesday lunch in the cafeteria, where I can get a huge plate of rice with four veggie selections for only US$1.50, and it's tasty, too.)
1:10 - 3:00 Taiwan History (Another cool dude for a teacher, totally adore him. I understand most of what he says, but sometimes he loses me. In this class we'll also be doing some field trips, which I'm looking forward to.)
3:00 - Go home! I dropped the Selected Readings of English Sinology Writings because 1) I discovered I didn't need the credits and the course is an elective, and 2) the teacher was pretty boring. This class is taught in English, but his English is not very good at all, and he was nervous about having me in the class.

Thursdays
Sleep-in-late day!
Originally, I had the practice class for English in the morning, but the Teaching Assistant said it would be silly for me to attend and listen to the English CDs with the others. I just have to write a short paper for him, and that's it.
1:10 - 3:00 Chinese Paleography (Otherwise known as the study and scholarly interpretation of earlier, especially ancient, writing and forms of writing. Not an easy class to understand, and requires one extremely huge, heavy book along with a smaller one, no fun lugging those to class. It's a subject I find very interesting, and I hope I'll be able to puzzle it all out.)
3:10 - 4:00 Labor for Education - Groups of students clean up the campus and sometimes go out into the community to clean up there, too. I think it's a great idea, and American students should also be required to do this. However, spending an hour in the hot sun in the summer in Taiwan is not much fun. Still, I guess it's better than having to clean the stinky restrooms.
4:10 - 6:00 Introduction to Chinese Classics (OMG, so hard to understand the professors, who is also the Chair of the Chinese department, because he uses a lot of words I just don't know.  And his voice through the mike is SO LOUD.  Yesterday the itty bitty girl next to me was concentrating on taking a note, and the professor suddenly shouted to make a point, and she shrieked and jumped out of her seat in fear.  I had a bad headache by the end of class.)

Fridays
9:10 - 10:00 Introduction to Chinese Classics Practical Exercises (Sigh....yet another class where I'm clueless as to what's going on. The teaching assistant has lousy handwriting, so I can't understand what she writes on the board. Well, come to think of it, I can't understand most of the other teachers' writing, either. It's like I've only studied printing, and they're using handwriting - big difference! Anyway, in this class we're separated into groups to work on reports, and at least the guy who sits next to me speaks a tiny bit of English and can help explain stuff to me.
10:00 - go home! Originally I had, of all things, a "nursing" class in the afternoon, but the school decided that foreign students didn't need to take that, hooray! Now I have a day that I can go into Taipei to meet my friends for lunch once in awhile.

My classmates are very nice, but they're all 18 years old, and I don't really have much in common with them. Some of the girls are just too giggly for me, and there are way too many of them who seem to want to make friends just so they can learn more English. I'm going to be a little standoffish for awhile, I think, and I'm not going to be attending many of their group activities. So far I haven't run into any crazy-as-I-am Wu Bai fans, but I'm still hoping I will.

When the typhoon left us on Tuesday, it took Autumn along with it. It's been back to stinking hot for the rest of the week. I do hope it starts to cool down soon.

Busy weekend ahead, got some reading to do and will meet with Aaron, who has finally come back from England. I know Monday will be coming along far too soon. :(

Sinlaku Lands on Northern Taiwan

2008-09-13T12:46:00.004+08:00

Can you see Taiwan? Nope, you can't! We're just a bit to the left of the eye of the typhoon.

From Accuweather.com's Hurricane Report

As of late Friday evening, EDT, dangerous Typhoon Sinlaku was centered near 24.1 north and 122.7 east, approximately 40 miles east-southeast of Taipei and 340 miles west-southwest of Naha, Okinawa. Winds were sustained at 100 mph with gusts to 120 mph, and movement was to the northwest at close to 6 mph.

Landfall on the northern tip of Taiwan has occurred tonight, EDT. A ridge to the north and east of the storm will cause it to drift slowly to the northwest, which will cause a direct effect on Taiwan over the next couple of days. Interaction between the storm and the varied terrain of Taiwan will result in torrential rainfall and flooding, as well as mudslides. Damaging winds will be a threat to Taiwan, as well as the southwestern Ryukyu Islands.

Sinlaku is expected to recurve later this weekend and could impact southern Japan early next week.

Sinlaku's close proximity to Taiwan will inhibit strengthening this weekend, but as the typhoon moves northward, over open water north of the island early next week, sustained winds could rebound to 120 mph.

Gosh darn it, why can't these typhoons wait for a weekday to hit? The weekend is completely ruined (to say nothing of the Mid Autumn Festival tomorrow - no moon viewing, no barbecuing for us, phooey), and it will probably be classes as usual on Monday. Boooooo, hissssss.

An Even Briefer Appearance

2008-09-07T17:07:00.002+08:00

Best news: I successfully got my ARC! Yup, I now hold that coveted little card that will allow me to stay here in Taiwan for the next year without the hassle of extensions, applying for new visas, dealing with the HK visa office, etc. And I can finally apply for the National Health Insurance, which means I'll be able to afford the MRI on my knee and the possible surgery I'll need to get it back in shape, as well as the much-needed dental work that I've been putting off. Yippee!

Not so good news: When I attended the orientation on Thursday, I barely understood anything they talked about. This does not bode well for my ability to understand an instructor in class. And you should have seen me trying to fill out the 100+ questions personality test in Chinese! Actually, I was surprised I understood as much as I did, but I'm thankful we didn't have to put our names on those things, because I may have given some pretty weird answers. :)

Another thing about that orientation.....they didn't tell me they were going to try to kill me. At 8:00 a.m. they made all the students line up on the playing field, in the hot sun. There I am with a bunch of 18-year-olds, feeling quite out of place. I knew the orientation would be held in the gym, which was a short walk away, so I was a bit surprised when they marched us all in the opposite direction. Up some stairs. Down a long road, around a turn, then back up the way we'd come. Up a very, very, very long flight of very, very, very steep stone stairs. And all the while the campus police were telling us to hurry up, making the students jog. Not me, I can't jog. I told one of the "herders" that my knee was injured and that I was going as fast as I could. When we reached the gym, they wanted us to climb the stairs to the 7th floor! Screw that, I said, and took the elevator. Mama don't play that tune, is how I think my dear friend Romita would put it. This is apparently a school tradition, making the students experience a bit of exercise and see how it was back in the old days when the students used to walk to school instead of taking mass transit or riding scooters. Yeah, wonderful idea for today's lazy teens, but bad idea for poor old me.

Tomorrow is the first day of school, very thankful it's only the two classes. I'll make use of my four-hour break in the afternoon between those classes to finish up some registration stuff at school and to open a new bank account. There doesn't seem to be a branch of my current bank anywhere near my house or the school, so I'm switching.

Thanks to everyone who sent me good wishes - please keep them coming!

A Brief Appearance Before I Vanish

2008-09-02T18:11:00.002+08:00

Hm, been a couple of months since I wrote anything, guess I'd best let you all know I'm alive. Not that anyone seemed worried or anything, which leads me to believe there isn't anyone reading this mess anyway.

So, I went to Hong Kong at the end of June, thinking I'd apply for my new visa. Nope, that typhoon that was over Hong Kong was dumping enough rain that I decide to blow it off and just go back at the end of July instead, figuring I'd have more time to spend with Cheryl then, as she'd be done with work for the summer. Wouldn't you know it, the day I was scheduled to fly out, a typhoon hit Taiwan! What is it with me and typhoons? I thought the flight would be canceled, but those nuts took off in the typhoon anyway. It was bumpier than the flight in June, but we made it safely.

I went to the visa office the next day, waited for an hour, and handed over all the stuff I thought I'd need (and had some stuff like bank statements for backup, just in case). The woman (and I'd been unlucky enough to get the really bitchy one I've dealt with before) looked through my stuff, asked to see my original letter of acceptance (ha, she thought I only had a copy), and then asked me if I knew I'd have to get my diploma and transcripts approved in the US. "Oh yeah, I did that already, in May!" beamed I, happy that I'd covered that base. I'll be damned if that woman didn't look at me and say, "Well, we need to see them." "What do you mean, YOU need to see them? There was nothing on your website about that. I have to turn them in to the university on registration day - those papers are very important. I left them home so I wouldn't lose them!" She smirked at me, bundled up all my papers, and shoved them back at me. "You'll just have to come back when you have them."

I guess I'm used to the ridiculous rules and regulations the Taiwan government has, having had so many occasions to be flabbergasted by them, so I didn't lose my cool, just thanked her and left. Got back to Cheryl's and booked another flight back to Hong Kong just 10 days after I was getting home to Taiwan. Imposed my presence once again on my oh-so-gracious host and hostess, taking over their couch for a few days, went back to the visa office with all paperwork in hand, got a much nicer woman this time, and successfully got my resident visa.

Got back to Taiwan on 8/14, went to apply for my Alien Residency Certificate (ARC) on 8/15. Was told I'd have to wait 3 weeks to get it, which is this Friday, Sept. 5. I didn't have it to show the university on registration day, thankfully not a big deal, but we have an orientation on Friday that lasts until at least noon, and it will take me almost 2 hours to get to Banqiao to pick up the ARC. I'm expecting to run into some sort of problem when I go, as that seems to be the way my luck is going these days.

On September 8, 2008, I will begin my life as a university student, and my current life of leisure will be OVER. I registered for my classes yesterday and was slapped in the face with the reality of the decision I've made: 16 classes, Mon-Fri from 8:00 to 6:00 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 10:00 to 6:00 on Mondays and Thursdays, and 9:00 to 3:00 on Fridays. Oh, goddess, I just want to cry.

Well, OK, on Monday it's actually just two classes, one from 10:00 til noon, and one from 4:00 til 6:00, but it still shoots the whole day for anything else. I get 50 minutes for lunch every day. I have to put in one hour of hard labor per week (yeah, OK, it's only cleaning up the campus, but who wants to be sweating outside at 3:00 p.m. on a hot day, especially when you don't get any credits for it?), and I have to attend a two-hour phys ed class once a week (zero credits). You can bet your booties I'll be getting a doctor's excuse for that one, because there's no way this bad knee of mine can handle any physical exercise that's any more than a slow walk. I also have to take one hour per week of a course that translates as "Nursing." WTF? This is a required course for the Chinese Department? I guess I'm going to learn CPR and other first-aid crap, all without getting any credits. Why? Why?

Truly, I had no idea that attending university would be this involved. It seems to me that the Chico State University students I used to see running around in Chico didn't have a care in the world. Study? What's that? Let's go out and party! Perhaps it won't be as difficult as I fear, but I'm wondering how I'll fit dinner, chores, studying, homework, and my part-time job into the short hours between getting out of class and getting to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour. I've grown too used to having all day to goof off, I guess, forgetting what it was like to have a full-time job. I know, you're not feeling one bit sorry for me, are you?

Don't expect me to be answering any e-mails. You think I'm bad at that now? Ha, it's just going to get worse. Don't expect any blog updates, either. I'm sure you gave up on those long ago anyway, right? This may be the last one you get for a long, long time.

Somber Reflections

2008-07-11T16:34:00.001+08:00

Two things happened today to remind me of the recent tragedy in China: the Sichuan Earthquake.

First I received an e-mail from a friend showing the rescue of some pandas from the Woolong giant panda breeding ground after the earthquake. I'm glad those little fellas got rescued.

We had a 5.1 earthquake not far off our north coast this morning, which swayed my apartment for a little while.

In this day and age we seem to forget too quickly the disasters that befall others, so I want to put this link here so I won't forget how many lives were lost or destroyed on May 12, 2008. 69,196 are confirmed dead, including 68,636 in Sichuan province, and 374,176 injured, with 18,379 listed as missing.

For those of you who can bear to look, photos that aren't quite as heart-warming as pictures of pandas, from EastSouthWestNorth, Ronald Soong's blog.

Project Enlighten

2008-07-01T14:48:00.000+08:00

Project Enlighten is a registered 501 (c) (3), Non Government, Non-Profit Organization, in the United States of America. The organization aims to provide non-discriminatory charitable giving that shall encompass education and humanitarian assistance to international communities based on need.

Asad Rahman, International Manager of Project Enlighten, is a good friend who was my roommate long, long ago. I've just recently tracked him down and discovered his very worthwhile project. Won't you please visit their website and blog and make a contribution to their cause. Thank you.

Woohoo, I'm a business woman now.

2008-07-01T11:39:00.000+08:00

My eBay Shop, Gargoile's Far Eastern Bazaar
My Yahoo! Taiwan shop

My funds for that university education come from these shops, so go buy something! The eBay shop is English, the Yahoo one is Chinese.

It's Gonna Be A Bumpy Ride

2008-06-23T12:30:00.004+08:00

I have to fly to Hong Kong on Wednesday, because that's the absolute last day I can stay in Taiwan on this trip. Unfortunately, Typhoon Fengshen has chosen that day to park itself smack dab between Taiwan and Hong Kong, so we'll have to fly right through it.

Wish me luck.

6/24 update: No longer a typhoon, Fengshen has been downgraded to a tropical storm, and not even a "severe" one at that. Looks like all will be well, maybe still a teeny bit bumpy. Yay! And besides, I have confidence in the pilots who fly EVA's planes.

Impossible

2008-06-03T17:06:00.003+08:00

It's June.

It's Taiwan.

It's currently 67 degrees Fahrenheit at 5:12 p.m.

This does not compute.

It's usually around 80-85 and feeling much hotter (it was around 95 or higher on Friday, and that was still in May!). Historical data on the monthly mean minimum temperature for June, from the Central Weather Bureau's site, gives the low at 75.7F.

Not that I'm complaining, mind you....

6/24/08: I'm complaining now. It's frickin' hot.

The USA, a nice place to visit, but wouldn't want to live there

2008-05-31T11:07:00.007+08:00

Warning, it's a long one!

Day One - Saturday, May 10

I flew out of Taipei at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 10 and arrived at SFO on Saturday May 10 at 7:00 p.m. - I love that time difference, get there before you leave, ha! My flight was on EVA, economy, for the outrageous price of US$1321. I'd been moaning about the fact that I couldn't afford the very lovely business class and dreading the discomfort of economy, but I was pleasantly surprised! The plane was one of the new Airbuses, and it was extremely comfortable. I was in an aisle seat with no one in the middle seat, just a woman in the window seat. Even though she got up to pee frequently, it wasn't a problem, because the distance between rows was much greater than on the last economy flight I took, actually enough room for a person to squeeze past! The aisles were wider, too, so I didn't feel as if I were bumping into every single person on the way to the loo when I went. The seats were very comfortable, and I was able to sleep almost the whole way. Well, at least after the small child who was kicking and bumping into my chair when we first took off was finally seated next to her mother and asleep. I think her mother was a bit shocked when I turned around and asked her in Chinese to please not let her daughter keep kicking my chair. Especially since I don't think she understood Mandarin, ha. They were apparently from Hong Kong and only spoke Cantonese and English, because the flight attendant had to speak to them in English when serving the meals.

A quite troublesome family, actually, as the father spent the flight coughing up phlegm and polluting our air. My seat mate and I kept exchanging disgusted glances as he did this, and sure enough, I ended up sick during my stay in the US. More on that later. About an hour or two before we landed, the little girl was once again wide awake, and the mother allowed her to stomp up and down the aisle. Yes, stomp. She was wearing wooden shoes and delighted in making as much noise as she could when she walked. I was ready to throttle all three of them!

Got through Immigration fairly quickly and managed to find my rental car desk. My knee was still not very stable, so dragging that suitcase around was tiring. I'd reserved a nice economy car, a Chevy Aveo, as I knew gas prices were through the roof. Imagine my surprise when the clerk told me I'd be getting a PT Cruiser. They acted as if it was a bonus: "We've given you a free upgrade!" I don't want an upgrade, I want the economy car I reserved. "Oh gee, sorry, we're all out of them." Hello? Does not making a reservation ensure that you will receive the model you want? Isn't that the whole point? The time to say, "Sorry, we're fresh out." would be when the reservation is made, so the reserving party can choose to try a different company. Grrrr.

I picked up the car, brand spanking new from the looks of it, and proceeded on my way out of the parking garage to my hotel in Chinatown. Or so I thought. As I left through the security gate, I asked the guy manning the gate how to get to the freeway for San Francisco. In his broken English he said said to go out and turn left, which I did. This brought me to an upper level and a different rental car agency. They wouldn't let me out of their gate because they couldn't be sure that I wasn't stealing the car I was in. The man at that gate told me to turn around, then take the first left, which I did. Ended up at a dead end, went back to the man, and he repeated his directions, this time telling me to go right. I said, "But you said
left last time!" He started over, once again saying "left" then changing it to "right" when I asked him to confirm. I gave up, drove off to the right, ended up in an employee-only parking area, got further directions from one of the guys driving a rental back to its berth, headed back the way I'd come, and finally stopped at a booth and asked a WOMAN to tell me how to get the hell out of this place. Her directions actually worked, bringing me back to the first dolt who told me to turn left. He looked at me in surprise when I pulled up (I'd been driving around for a good 15 minutes), and when I told him his directions were wrong, he said, "Well, I meant after you first drive to the right and down, THEN go left!" Oh, thanks. Anyway, I finally managed to get onto the freeway.

Got to the hotel with no trouble, as I'd stayed there in the past and still remembered how to drive in San Francisco. By this time it was close to 10:00 p.m. and I was dying for a beer. I checked in and then headed out to find a nice 7-11 where I could pick up a cold one. Ha, I forgot that I was back in the US, with nary a 7-11 in sight. After walking around the streets of Chinatown and Little Italy for some time, I stumbled across a Walgreen's that was still open, but alas, no beer. I settled for a bottle of soda and a bottle of water, although the shock at the price (over US$3!) dang near killed me. That's at least twice as much as I'd pay in Taiwan. Went back to the hotel and went to bed.

At 2:00 a.m. the assholes in the room next to me came back in, and they were in the middle of a big-ass fight. They were yelling and screaming at each other, the girl crying, and I pounded on the wall. That earned me a "Shut the fuck up!" from them. I thought about calling the desk to complain, but then I thought, "Hm, this *is* America, and lots of people have guns." Decided to just get up and read for a bit, as I wasn't really that tired anyway. Read until the guy left, slamming the door behind him, and the girl called a friend and cried on the phone for a long time. When it got quiet I went back to sleep, only to be awakened at 4:00 a.m. when the girl decided to play music, loudly. Oh fuck it, I might as well just get up. Later in the morning I went to the desk and asked if those people would be checking out that day, because if they weren't, I wanted a new room. The clerk said they were and asked me why I hadn't complained. I mentioned the whole gun thing and he said, "Oh. Well, we have a security guard." Yeah, right. I'd already seen his fat old self and didn't see as he'd be much use.

Day Two - Sunday

Brandi and Lisa were due to arrive at the hotel at 11:00 a.m., and they were staying for one night in another room. Since I was up so early, I headed out to find something to eat for breakfast. It was about 6:00 a.m. or so, and the streets of Chinatown were mostly deserted, which felt so odd to me, as here in Taiwan the early morning hours are when the old ladies go do their shopping, and all the roadside food stalls are selling yummy breakfast stuff. There were a couple dim sum places open, so I just bought a couple pork buns and went back to the hotel to wait. The music was still playing next door, but it eventually went off, and I took a short nap. Eleven o'clock rolled around with no sign of my buddies, and around 11:30 Brandi called to say they were running late. I sat at the little table to read, and shortly before noon I began hearing a thumping sound coming from next door, then some heaving breathing and a girl panting. Oh swell, first I had to listen to them fighting, and now I had to listen to them having sex! I'm thinking, "Jeez, noon is checkout time, what the hell are they doing screwing at 11:50 a.m.?" Then I heard the maid knock on the door, and the guy yelled, "Just 5 more minutes, we'll be out soon!" and they went back at it. Brandi and Lisa showed up, and I made sure to comment extremely loudly on what assholes my neighbors were and how I'd had to listen
to their sexual escapades while waiting for B and L to show up.

It was great to see my two best friends after two years, and we had a lot to catch up on. I still wasn't walking very well, but we headed out to Little Italy to find some lunch and then spent the rest of the day just wandering around lazily and talking, enjoying each other's company. We bought a ton of snacks in Chinatown and sat in the hotel munching on those, even though none of us needed junk food! Dinner was once again in Little Italy, and the food prices were so high that I was choosing the cheapest thing on the menu. When we were splitting up the bill, I had my phone out to use the calculator, figuring each person's meal, plus tip, plus tax. So much easier in Taiwan, no tax and no tip! And it's way cheaper to boot. But it was nice to eat some real Italian food, even though it was pricey. After dinner we stopped into Z. Cioccolato - "The Sweetest Spot in North Beach" to do some fudge tasting, and I bought a tiny box with two flavors. Boy, it's sure hard to choose when there are 65 flavors! If you're so inclined, you can shop online - you won't be disappointed.

Day Three - Monday

The reason I'd stayed in San Francisco was that I need to go to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Organization (TECO) to have them put the stamp of approval on my high school transcripts and diploma, as well as on the bank statement that showed I had enough money to pay for my university education. I also needed to apply for a new visa, as leaving Taiwan negated the visa I was currently using.

We first had a nice breakfast at the Victoria Pastry Company, an Italian bakery which has been in business since 1914. Absolutely scrumptious, and if you go to San Francisco, you must give it a try. Here's their website. We each ordered something different and
split it three ways so we could try it all. Yummy!

We checked out of the hotel, and they were nice enough to let us leave our cars parked there in their lot. We walked down to the TECO offices, arriving a little before noon. I didn't have to wait too long before a gentleman was able to help me. The first thing I gave him was the letter my bank had given me with its accompanying notary general acknowledgement. He said that it wouldn't work, because it wasn't all on the same page. I asked him what I should do, and he said to find a local notary and just have him or her stamp the back of the letter. OK, fine.....I left and went to find a notary. After inquiring at several banks, I finally located a Chinese notary and told him what the TECO guy had said. He laughed and said that no notary would ever stamp that document and that it was already fine the way it was, just needed to be stapled together. He did so, gave me his card, and told me to tell TECO that it was fine and legal. I headed back.

By this time the man was gone, and I ended up with a woman, hereinafter referred to as The Bitch From Hell, or TBFH for short. From the first word out of my mouth she was rude to me, incredibly impatient, not taking the time to look at any of the papers I gave her, and telling me that nothing I gave her was right. We stared out with the bank letter. Nope! Won't work, I don't care what the notary says, if it's not on the same piece of paper you're shit out of luck. Fine, forget that, let's move on to the high school stuff.

My high school transcripts are in my stepfather's last name, because that's how Mom registered me, but he never formally adopted me, I just used his name from age 7 until 18. My diploma was issued in my legal last name. I figured this might be a problem, so I'd come prepared with my birth certificate, which had my birth date, place of birth, my mother's name, and the same name as my diploma. My transcripts also had my birth date, place of birth, my mother's name, and a note that the last name was that of my stepfather. To any person with half a brain and the willingness to look at the documentation, this was proof that I was that person. But no, "The last name on your passport is different, we can't approve these documents." "Well, yes, but you see, way back when I was in high school, I wasn't married. The name on my passport is my married name. Surely you realize that American women change their last names upon marriage." "Won't work, it has to match!" "Well now, I just don't think that's possible, since I WASN'T FUCKING MARRIED WHEN I ATTENDED HIGH SCHOOL SO HOW THE HELL CAN I GIVE YOU DOCUMENTS THAT HAVE MY MARRIED NAME?" Of course, I was exceeding polite when I responded to her, and did not use any profanity. That was all in my head. She was shuffling through the copies I'd given her, kept telling me I hadn't given her this or that, then I'd say, yes, it's right there. "I don't see it." Well, fucking stop and look, you bitch. Then she told me I'd have to give her my marriage certificates or I could just forget it. OK, I know when I won't win a battle, forget the high school crap, let's move on to the visa application.

I'd brought every single piece of documentation I'd thought I'd need - school attendance records, evidence of continued enrollment, a letter from my teacher saying I had a scholarship to continue, six months of American bank statements to show I wasn't working and depositing money in that bank, just making withdrawals to deposit in my Taiwan bank, an airline ticket out of Taiwan to Hong Kong in June, and a detailed letter stating that I'd applied for university to begin in September. I gave her the whole packet, and she proceeded to give it a cursory glance, then started tossing papers back at me. "You already gave me this, you already gave me this." Then I'd say, "No, there's only one copy of each, they look the same but they aren't, they have different dates on them." FUCK! This woman just wasn't going to be helpful if her life depended on it. I finally shelled out US$131, handed over my passport, and left.

I'd kept my smile and my composure the whole time, but as soon as I set foot out the door, I lost it. "Bitch! Fucking bitch! ARGH!" Definitely time for a drink. Brandi and Lisa tried to comfort me, but I had a bad feeling. I'd come all this way and spent all that money, and I couldn't get anything accomplished. What the hell was I going to do?

Lisa headed home to Fairfield, and Brandi and I went to her place in Alameda. We stopped off at Trader Joe's, my favorite grocery store, for some fixings for guacamole and some beer, and I picked up some orange juice and some Airborne, as I was feeling pretty lousy and knew I was getting sick. We had a great evening at her house, watched a fabulous movie called Boondock Saints while eating the guac with chips and drinking beer. Right before bed I discovered that Dad had called and left a voicemail, saying that a woman from TECO had called (I'd given his number as my local number, forgetting that I had the temporary cell phone) and that I needed to go to TECO for an interview. I didn't know if that was good or bad, but figured that at least they hadn't rejected my visa out of hand, so maybe it would be OK.

Despite Brandi's couch being one of the most comfortable places I've ever slept, I could not sleep. I just kept trying to work out what I needed to do, the fear of not being able to stay in Taiwan overwhelming me. Man, I'd die if I had to move back to the US. I got up really early and got online, finding the Washoe County Clerk's website, where I ordered a copy of marriage certificate to Mark, then I tracked down the address of the Yuba County Clerk's office, as I could go there when I went up to Chico. My biggest fear was that there was no documentation anywhere that had my stepfather's last name, other than my high school transcripts.

Day Four - Tuesday

Brandi and I went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant and had margaritas with our meal, then did a little shopping at the second-hand shops in the area. I'd called the TECO office and left a message, and TBFH finally called me back. She told me I had to have an interview to explain why I wanted to go back to Taiwan, saying I'd already studied for two years and that was long enough. I told her that all the schools in Taiwan tell the students that the government allows three years to study Chinese. I made an appointment for Wednesday afternoon (oh swell, I have to drive back to SF instead of going to Dad's as planned). She called back later in the afternoon and
flat out said they wouldn't give me a visa, but if I wanted to give her US$27, she'd fax a letter to the government offices in Taiwan and ask them if it was really three years or two. Oh, right, I'm going to give you even more money! That $131 application fee is non-refundable, and I'll be damned if I'll pay $27 for a stupid fax as well. After I hung up, I decided I'd just go pick up my passport, return to Taiwan for a 30-day stay just using my passport, since I already had the ticket to Hong Kong in June. I knew that once I had the acceptance letter from the university I'd have no problem getting a new visa in Hong Kong. My big problem was getting the transcripts and diploma approved.

Brandi took me wine tasting in the afternoon, and it was really wasted on me, because they were reds, and I just don't like red wine. Well, unless it's mixed with 7-Up or Sprite and had ice cubes in it, ha.

Day Five - Wednesday

Brandi took off for work, and I headed back to San Francisco, parking my car at the hotel parking garage because the fees were comparatively reasonable and it was only a short walk to TECO. When I got there, TBFH was not in sight, and another woman helped me. She was so nice, she already knew about my situation, and she apologized about having to follow the rules. I told her not to worry, I just wanted to pick up my passport and forget about the visa, since having a visa would do no good if I couldn't get the other stuff authorized. I asked her what I could do to get the high school stuff stamped, and she said if my high school would just type "aka (married name)" on them, that would be good enough. She said I'd have to wait for TBFH to get back from lunch, so I hung around waiting. When I saw her in the back, I told Theresa (the nice lady), and she went to get TBFH. As soon as she came out to the front, she started bitching at me, telling me I wasn't going to get a visa, blah blah blah. Theresa told her, no, she's just picking up her passport, she's not asking for the visa. TBFH continued her harangue, and Theresa, with a little more feeling, once again said, "NO, she's NOT asking for a visa, she's JUST PICKING UP HER PASSPORT." Even she was frustrated with her co-worker's bad attitude. I waited again, over a half an hour, mentally tallying the cost for parking my car, and finally yet another woman, a younger one, came out with my passport. She was also very nice and very apologetic. Damn, they should fire that other one, and I'm going to do my best here in Taiwan to complain about her attitude. I know her name!

Back at the parking garage, I forked over $14 for parking fees and headed off to Dad's. Traffic was light, and I got there quickly. It had been quite cool in SF, but the weather started to warm up on Tuesday, and by Wednesday it was pretty darned hot. I'd checked the weather report for the upcoming days in Chico, and it was going to be over 100F (38C) most of the time, yuck. At least Auburn was a little cooler.

Days Five through Eight - Thursday through Sunday

I don't want to detail every little thing I did while at Dad's and while in Chico. Let's just say that I had an enjoyable visit with Dad and Berti, with them insisting on paying for every meal we had. Dad also gave me $700 to pay for the car rental and gas, and Berti gave me $150 for shopping money. I felt so bad that I hadn't been able to do any shopping to bring them presents from Taiwan, but they insisted they didn't need anything. We went to the movies (What Happens in Vegas - bleah), attended one of Dad's retirement luncheons (salad bar!!!!), ate lots of good stuff, and watched TV.

I left for Chico on Saturday and got to Bob & Weiwei's place mid afternoon, where Weiwei had prepared a lovely salad for lunch. They apologetically told me that they had no air conditioning, as they were doing some remodeling and it had been cold up until the day before, so they hadn't worried about getting the air going. No problem, I took off to do some shopping while Weiwei did homework, and I picked up a fan that I could use at night. It wasn't too bad at all. We had dinner at Casa Ramos, and Weiwei and I watched a bunch of "I Love Lucy" episodes. Sunday she and I went out for breakfast and Bob went hang gliding, then we shopped all afternoon. More "I Love Lucy" that evening, really fun.

I'd thought I'd drive to Marysville on Monday to go to my high school, but then decided I'd just go by on Thursday when I headed back to Dad's. I sent an e-mail to the woman there who had helped send me my transcripts, detailing my troubles and asking for a letter from them and amended transcripts.

Days Nine through Eleven - Monday through Wednesday

On Monday I stopped by the City offices to visit with my ex co-workers, then went to my bank to ask them if they could give me a new statement with the notary on the same page. The gal there said no way, the way they did it was the way they always do it and that it was fine that way. She doesn't realize how pig-headed those people at TECO are.

Then I hooked up with Wendy and spent the night at her place that evening. Tuesday I visited with Mark for awhile during his lunch hour. He took me to our old house and showed me all the remodeling that he and Nancy had done, just gorgeous, and gave me a tour of their motor home. Then Wendy and I just shopped around, and I bought myself a nice Sony Viao laptop on sale at Circuit City, only $419! Of course I had to buy some software, Office 2007 and Kaspersky, and a wireless mouse, total came to $719, still way, way cheaper than I could get it in Taiwan.

All this time I was sick, either with a cold or allergies. I was taking antihistamine and blowing my nose all the time and coughing, and my eyes were itchy. My throat hurt and I just felt icky. The wind was blowing at about 50mph (80kph) at times on Tuesday and Wednesday in Chico, kicking up all sorts of pollen and dust. Not fun for me.

I had lunch with Rose on Wednesday at Burger Hut. Man, it had been a long time since I had a good burger! Stopped by the City offices again to see some people who hadn't been there on Monday, and that evening had a nice dinner at Turandot with May, Krista, Trish, Cindy, and Cris. Cindy gave me the new volume two of My Hometown Chico book to go with volume one that they'd all given me when I left. After dinner I went back to Bob & Weiwei's, and I think I kept them awake with my coughing. Kept myself awake, too, so was pretty tired.

Day Twelve - Thursday

I got an e-mail from my friend who works at Tamkang University, telling me I'd been accepted by the Chinese department. I was ecstatic, and I asked Weiwei to print that for me so I'd have it when I returned to TECO on Friday. I stopped by her office and visited with her for a little bit, then for Dad's. Dad had also called to tell me that the marriage certificate from Reno had arrived, yes!

I stopped in Marysville on the way, first at the high school where I was told I needed to come back at 1:00 to see the head counselor, so I went to pick up my copy of my first marriage certificate at the Clerk's office. Got that, headed back to the school, met with the counselor, who of course said the school couldn't alter official documents by putting my married name on them, but they typed my legal maiden name on the transcripts to match my diploma and birth certificates, and they gave me a letter which clearly said I'd attended school under both names and that the diploma was in the legal name.

When I got to Auburn I decided to make one more stab at the bank letter, so I stopped by the branch there. When I told the gal what I needed, she said, "No problem!" and proceeded to give me a new statement with the notary all on the same page. Huh, and why couldn't the Chico branch do that? Dunno. But, I had it, and I was happy. Now I had everything I needed!

Another nice meal with Dad and Berti at a very nice restaurant, with them once again treating me. Tried a new beer called Duvel Golden Ale, a Belgian ale that is bubbly like champagne. It was fabulous, and I've discovered I can buy it here in Taiwan, so I'll be making a run to Jason's soon for some of that.

Day Thirteen - Friday

Now, my original plan had been to go to Fairfield and spend my last evening with Lisa and Steve there. However, now I needed to go to San Francisco, which is about an hour farther south than Fairfield. Did I really want to drive back to Fairfield on Friday afternoon, the start of the Memorial Day long weekend? Uh uh. So, Lisa called Brandi and asked if the two of us could stay with her in Alameda, and she said sure. Great, I'd get to see both of them one last time before I came home!

I got to TECO around noon, and was happy to see Theresa at the window. She told me TBFH was off that day. Oh gee, too bad I missed her. I gave Theresa everything, the marriage certificates, the birth certificate, the high school stuff, and explained each and every page. She said she wanted to confirm with her boss that all was in order, and of course that meant I had to wait for an hour for her boss to get back from lunch. More parking fees! No problem, I went for a cup of coffee then came back to the TECO office to play with my new laptop while I waited. Eventually Theresa called me over and said that everything was fine and that they'd be able to approve it all, just not on that day. I'd come prepared with a postage-paid Priority Mail envelope so they could mail it all to Dad, and I'd left him money and instructions to send it on to me Global Priority. Man, what a fiasco getting this done! I swear, if this stuff gets lost in the mail, I'm either going to go on a killing spree or just kill myself.

Hung around Chinatown waiting for Brandi to get off work, got back to her place just as Lisa was getting there, and the three of us went our for Mexican food and margaritas. Then we bought a bottle of tequila on the way home and had more margaritas while we watched a hysterically funny movie called "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra", a parody of the old black and white B movies of the 1950s. I highly recommend this one, and Brandi kindly gave me her copy to bring back with me.

Day Fourteen - Saturday

My flight was leaving Sunday at 1:40 a.m., and I needed to get the car back to the rental agency by 8:00 p.m., or I'd be charged for an extra day. Brandi, Lisa, and I went out for breakfast, then we went shopping in Emeryville. I was afraid my suitcases were already over the weight limit, so I couldn't buy anything else, boo hoo. Then we went to Hangar One for some vodka tasting. I didn't like most of them, but they had a marvelous pear liqueur that I loved, and Brandi bought a bottle for me to take home.

We parted at 6:30 p.m., I drove to the airport and dropped the car off (got a tiny discount for early return, too), then spent many boring hours waiting for the EVA check-in window to open at 10:00 p.m. I'd done the online check-in, so I figured it would be quick and easy. At 10:00 I headed over to the check-in counter, and there was an enormous line already. I didn't see the online check-in window, so I asked where it was. "Oh, we don't have one here." Peachy. If I'd known that, I would have gotten in line sooner! Took me over 45 minutes to get checked in.

When I went through security, they pulled my carry-on and said they needed to inspect it. Apparently the fudge from San Francisco looked suspiciously like a bottle in the X-ray, or maybe they thought it was plastic explosive. I had the carry-on packed with chocolate stuff, because I was afraid it would melt in the suitcase, and that earned a strange look from the inspector. Once they were satisfied that it was edible stuff, they sent me on my way.

Day Fifteen - Sunday in the US, Monday in Taiwan

I had an aisle seat against the bulkhead this time, no way for a brat to kick the back, and loads of leg room plus space to stand next to my seat - and right by the bathroom. Sadly, the young man on my left spent the entire 13 hours of flight time snorting snot up his nose instead of blowing it, so I had to keep my earplugs in the whole time to avoid listening to that disgusting sound. He also coughed a lot, and I expect the funny feeling I have in my throat right now means that I caught some germ from him. Sheesh.

I landed at 6:00 a.m. on Monday, breezed right through Immigration (right, I don't have a visa this time, I'm just using my passport, here's my ticket to Hong Kong next month, thank you very much, goodbye.), and got the limo service back home. Yeah, it's pricey, but I still had leftover money from Dad, and being driven home in a nice clean Mercedes beats wrestling two extremely heavy suitcases onto the bus (no, the driver does NOT help), then dragging them to the MRT station, then either getting them on the little bus or taking a taxi for the last leg of the journey. That method requires about two hours, while the limo service is under an hour. Sometimes that's just worth it.

Got home before 8:00 a.m., unpacked all my crap, bought some groceries, took a much-needed shower. The house seemed very empty without DZ, but I wasn't able to pick her up from Selena's until almost 10:00 p.m. Boy, was she happy to see me. She'd spent the entire two weeks hiding behind their couch and only coming out at night. I thought she might enjoy playing with two other cats, but she just wouldn't warm up to them. Selena said she came out once when Mimi was eating and took a swipe at her, then ran back to hide when Mimi hissed at her. Poor DZ, I guess she's just not well adjusted socially. When we got home, she kept meowing and running from room to room, as if to assure herself that she was home and all was well. She used to sleep at my feet at night, but lately she's been sleeping up by my head.

I've spent this week trying to catch up on the lessons I missed, had a test on Wednesday and actually managed to get 91% even though I'd missed the whole thing and just studied it on my own Tuesday evening, and I have to turn in a composition to make up for missing the mid-term test. So, I haven't had any time to write to anyone, just figured updating the blog would have to suffice.

Well, this has gone on for nine pages, and I'm sure it's not been easy for you to read. I guess I'll just stop here, saying that I'm very happy to be back where I belong, and I'm looking forward to my continued studies here in Taiwan. I should be getting my acceptance letter next week, but I probably have to wait until August to apply for a visa. I'll have to go to Hong Kong in June, July, and August, but that's OK, because I'll get to see my Hong Kong friends.

Ta all!

Gone Bye-Bye

2008-05-09T20:18:00.003+08:00

I'm outta here tomorrow evening at 8:00 p.m., flight to the US is at 11:30 p.m., and I'll be back on May 26. Dad lives in the dark ages and has no computer, so I'll only be online when I'm staying with friends. Don't expect to hear from me! Yeah, like I answer mail anyway, right?

Let's hope the leg holds up for the whole trip. So far, so good, walking fairly well, but still wrapping it in the brace. Today was the first day I didn't drag that stupid crutch along with me. Guess I won't take it to the US, either.

Wish me luck getting a new visa. Back with a report sometime around the end of May.

I Can Walk Again!

2008-05-03T13:17:00.003+08:00

My knee seems to be getting better every day, thank goodness. I'm still bringing one crutch with me every day to school, just in case I need it, but I'm mostly walking without it. I'm wearing the knee brace when I go to and from school, but at home and during class it's off. It actually feels better without it, I think, but I'm still a little scared to walk without the support. I felt like I pulled a muscle in my left thigh getting off the bus one day while trying not to put too much weight on the bad right leg, but that cleared up quickly, too. The right calf muscles were really sore for days, but now they feel OK.

So, it looks as if I'll have no trouble making the trip next Saturday, although lugging around those suitcases might not be so fun. I'll take it easy all next week, which sadly means I won't be able to shop for presents to take with me, boo hoo!

The auction business is paying well, my total income for March and April was about US$267, and my boss is confident that June will be even better (May will suck because I'll miss 2 weeks of work, but in June my share goes up to 50% from the current 40%). I still make a lot of mistakes, mostly because I confused with some of the Chinese, but it's getting easier.

Back with more later!

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

2008-04-26T13:05:00.001+08:00

Bum Leg A Bit Better

2008-04-26T12:24:00.003+08:00

Went to another hospital yesterday, saw another doctor, had another X-ray, this time of the right hip, just to be sure there was no problem there. Nope, no problem there. The bill this time was even more amazing, only NT$673 total, which is about US$22. Unfortunately, if I get the MRI the doctor recommends to find out if there is internal damage that needs repair, that's gonna set me back US$330-US$395 - that's rent for one month! I elected not to have it, for now.

I can walk without crutches, very carefully and slowly. The doc said to see if the knee gets better on its own, just keep doing the heat therapy and no walking, plus stretching exercises to fully extend it. I'm feeling a little more optimistic now and think I'll be OK to make the US trip.

My troubles seem so minor compared to my poor friend, Maddy, who slipped in the shower, broke her tibia, and had to have a titanium rod put in it! I can't imagine how much all this is costing her, because like me, she has no insurance, but unlike me, she's in the US and having to pay the outrageous costs there. Ya think maybe the next president can do something about that? Sure hope so.

Bum Leg Blues

2008-04-25T09:29:00.002+08:00

Three years ago, about two days after I arrived in Taiwan, I fell down and slammed my right knee into the sidewalk, hard. It's never been quite right since then, but never really, really bad, just always felt like it was bigger than it should be and uncomfortable sometimes. Didn't stop me from being able to walk long distances or anything.

Over the Chinese New Year holiday I sat on my butt almost every day, with my legs extended either propped up on pillows on the coffee table or on the sofa itself, because it was freezing cold outside and rainy, no incentive to get out and move. Toward the end of my two-week vacation, I noticed my right hip joint had a burning pain, hurt to press on it. When I started back to school and began walking every day, I gradually got a pain that was going down the side of my leg and to the knee, and that seemed to worsen every day.

When I reached the point where I couldn't walk without a lot of pain, I finally went to a clinic that Guoxi had taken me to before for some acupuncture on the knee. The first treatment was a chiropractic type, lots of bending and twisting. This was right before the Hong Kong trip. The doctor told me to go back the next day, but I couldn't because I had too much to do. I ended up hobbling around Hong Kong in pain, but after I got back here, I seemed much better, so I thought the walking had actually helped. Spent lots of time walking around with Carol, and still seemed OK.

But then the pain started again, so I went back to the clinic, where they performed an absolutely awful treatment called fire cupping that hurt like hell, left my leg looking as if it had been attacked by a giant octopus, and did no good. The next week I hurt so much I could hardly walk, so I decided to go to the chiropractor Nat had taken me to in March 2005 when my bursitis was so bad. He'd gotten me well in only two visits, so I was hoping he'd be able to fix the leg.

The first day I went he told me a nerve down the side of my leg was pinched and that I'd waited too long before going to see him, almost to the point where I needed an operation. He may have been talking about the knee, too, I didn't understand everything he said because he spoke so quickly (in Chinese, of course). He twisted me and cracked me and make me yelp and cry, but I felt a lot better after that. He told me to stop walking so much and let the leg heal, and I made an appointment to go back a couple days later. That visit was last week on Friday, and it hurt so much! On Saturday my leg really hurt, but I could tell it was more the pain of muscles that had been pushed and stretched into unfamiliar positions, not the same pain as before. By Sunday I was feeling great, walking normally (I'd been doing a very stiff-legged limping along for quite a while), and happy. I noticed a clicking sound coming from my leg when I walked, but since I'm old and already have a bit of arthritis in the left knee, which makes it creak and crack at times, I figured that's what it was.

On Monday I left for school, happy that I was walking without pain. I wisely avoided the stairs, going through the underground parking area and up the elevator to the lobby of the main building instead. I walked out the front door of my building down the small wheelchair ramp, and something snapped behind my right knee, leaving me in severe pain, completely unable to walk because I could put no pressure on the leg at all. There I was, standing outside on one leg, while other people walked by to catch the bus. One woman stopped to offer her arm, but she was a lot smaller than me, and I didn't think she'd be able to support my weight. I got the security guard to bring out a small plastic stool, which I hunched over and scooted across the ground, hobbling back into the lobby, where I sat on the sofa waiting for Nat (I'd called her with a "Help! I can't walk! Help!"). She took me to the hospital, and I spent the whole day there, because we had to wait there for almost three hours to see the doctor in the physical therapy department (the first doctor who looked at me was a surgeon, and he said it wasn't his speciality). Nat had to go back to work, but she'd called Kennie and asked her to stay with me and help with any interpretation necessary.

The X ray doesn't show any bone problem (the doc wanted to be sure there weren't any bone fragments from that old injury that were poking something), but there's some degeneration of the meniscus in the knee. The doctor said it's possible there's a torn ligament, but without an MRI he can't say for sure. I know that it felt like my hamstrings snapped in two, but since I can use the leg, it's not that, just felt like it. He gave two types of painkillers, told me to rest at home for the next two days, and to immediately go back to the hospital if it hadn't gotten any better by then to see a doctor in Orthopedics (doctors are at the hospitals here, they don't have offices like they do in the US).

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at home. Monday evening was bad, because I couldn't put the tiniest bit of pressure on the leg, and any small bit of twisting to the side also brought tears to my eyes. I managed to use crutches to get around, but it wasn't easy. I slept badly because I was afraid I'd twist my leg in my sleep. Tuesday I used the heating packets a lot, and there was less pain if I moved the knee. On Wednesday I was actually able to put pressure on the leg and could stand as long as I still propped myself up with the crutches and kept most of my weight on the left leg. I could walk slowly, step by step, using the crutches, instead of hopping on one leg and dangling the other.

I went to school yesterday, but I had to take a taxi from home to the MRT station in Danshui and then take another one from the station by the school. After class I had to go to my bank, which is only about two blocks away, to pick up my proof of sufficient funds letter for my university app and to pay my rent (which was already overdue). It took me forever to walk there, and my armpits and palms were so sore from the crutches. Took a taxi to the station, MRT back to Danshui, then taxi home, where I collapsed, exhausted. My knee is huge, looks like it's totally whacked out of place, quite ugly. That might be because I can't quite straighten the leg completely, I don't know, I just know it looks awful.

I wanted to go to school today, but I just can't do it. I'm afraid if I do I'll end up hurting the other leg, and then where will I be? As it is, and I have no idea if I'll be able to make the trip back to the US on May 10 like I'm supposed to, or if I'm going to need surgery, or what. My landlord is so nice, he's taking me to a different hospital this afternoon (they are famous for their orthopedic department), and I hope they have good news for me. I may end up having to delay the trip, but one way or another, I have to go get my documents stamped and approved for my university application.

On the bright side, I have wonderful friends here to come running to help when I need them. Nat and Kennie really went all out on Monday, Carrie came by on Wednesday evening, did a little shopping for me, and kept me company, and then Nat, Charlene, and Betty came over last night with some dinner and companionship. I know I can call on the landlord's mom if I need something, and he and his wife are taking me to the hospital today. Also, on Monday the hospital visit, the X ray, and the medicine only cost US$37 (I don't have insurance, either)! Isn't that amazing? Sure can't go to the hospital in America for that, not even *with* insurance. Funny, though, the crutches and the 2 heating/cooling packs were about US$20.

Wish me luck, everyone. I hope I'll be seeing some of you in May, but if not, then likely June or July. I already have my plane ticket, so I'll be back, just a question of when.

You CAN Go Home Again, But You'll Pay For It

2008-04-10T18:03:00.004+08:00

Holy crap, I just booked my flight to the US - $1321! Now you know why I don't go back to visit you all more often, hm? That's more than three months' rent, for pete's sake. Thank goodness for the scholarship, that's all I can say.

I'm sure sorry I won't be able to meet up with good friends like Romita, Carol, and Alice, because they live so far away from where I'll be staying. Ah well, Carol already came to visit me, and I know Romita and Alice will make it eventually, Romita after visiting Korea, and Alice after getting that son of hers married off on the 4th of July!

Boycott the Olympics in Bejing!

2008-04-04T10:21:00.001+08:00

Why? China doesn't play nicely with the rest of the world.

From today's Taipei Times:

The number of tactical ballistic missiles deployed by China against Taiwan reached more than 1,400 at the end of last year, said the National Security Council (NSC), which said in May 2006 that the figure would rise to more than 800 by the end of that year.

An NSC report released on March 26 said that China had more than 190 cruise missiles targeting Taiwan at the end of last year, rising from more than 100 a year before.

The council said the deployment “allows the People's Liberation Army [PLA] to launch a nine-wave, 12-hour saturation missile attack on Taiwan and conduct precision strikes on more than 100 key targets in Taiwan.”

By Shih Hsiu-chuan
STAFF REPORTER, The Taipei Times
Friday, Apr 04, 2008

March Blew Away

2008-04-04T10:00:00.004+08:00

OK, I've put off updating my blog for far too long! Let's see if I can actually remember what the month of March was like.

First big news is that I got not one, but two scholarships! The school gave me the monthly one (for 4 months only) that they give to students with high grades. That's NT$12,000 x 4 = NT$48,000 (approx. US$1576). I've already gotten the money for that one. The second one is offered by the government to American students only, and it's a refund of tuition after completing a semester and attending class like I'm supposed to. I'll get at least NT$16,000 (approx. US$525) for that, but I may get it twice (I hope!).

Second is that I'm tickled to have made NT$3228 (US$106) during my first month of business with the landlord. It's easy work, and so far in April I've already made almost half that, so by the end of the month I'm expecting at least NT$5000.

Carol visited from March 16 through March 25, and we had a lot of fun. First we met up in Hong Kong March 13 and attended two Wu Bai & China Blue concerts on the 14th and 15th (I don't need to write about the shows, they were the same as the ones in Taiwan, basically). That was a blast, despite some after-concert stuff that still has me a bit angry with certain people and still in need of some confrontation with one to air it all out. We spent a little time hanging out with Terry and Cheryl, who took us to Sai Kung for the afternoon, and then just shopped around a bit at the jade market and the handicrafts store. It's not easy finding vegetarian food in Hong Kong, so Carol was delighted to find such an abundance and variety here in Taiwan. She said it's a vegetarian's paradise! I took her to Jiu Fen and to Ying Ge, and she graciously paid my way up into the observation deck at Taipei 101 so I finally got to see the city from way up high. We went up just as it was getting dark, and it was fun watching the city lights slowly come on all over.

On February 29 we went to see ABS play, and at dinner before the show I was eating some simple penne pasta with pesto sauce, bit down on a miniscule hard something or other, and broke a piece off my already cracked molar. That was fun. I haven't been to the dentist yet, because the tooth doesn't hurt, and I'm chewing on the opposite side for now. But, I have to go, can't ignore it forever. At the show that night, Nat and Charlene gave me a birthday cake (oh yeah, I had a birthday on March 4, nothing much to say, got older and feel it), which was unexpected. Dino got one, too, but I don't think he appreciated it as much as he liked the bottle of alcohol someone else gave him. I didn't want to spend money on a cab home, so I asked Xiao Zhu if I could catch a ride home with him and his wife, since they live in Danshui, and he said sure, but I'd have to wait a long time. So, Charlene and I ended up going with the guys to some other tiny little bar so they could continue drinking (since Du Du was driving, she abstained, thank goodness), and once Xiao Zhu had his fill, we took off, me in the back seat with Da Mao, who also lives in Danshui. By the way, his little daughter is simply adorable! His phone was full of photos that he proudly showed us. I got home around 4:00 a.m. and only slept for about four hours. I'm too old for this!

On my actual birthday I went out for pizza with Shannon, to the all-you-can-eat place. We stuffed ourselves, and it was great. Other than that, it was a pretty average day.

March 22 was election day in Taiwan, and the KMT party won. Phooey. I hope it's not the death knell for democracy here, we'll have to see what happens. I don't trust the new prez, Ma Ying Jiu, one tiny bit. He takes office in May.

I'm on a semester break this week, and damned if the weather hasn't been sucky since day one! Why is it that every time I have a vacation, it's rainy and cold? I hate being stuck inside. And the weather report says that it will clear up on Sunday and be stinking hot. So far today doesn't look so bad, so maybe I'll get out for a walk. I took a walk on Wednesday and ended up buying a new computer desk, so maybe staying home isn't such a bad idea. :) Yesterday my landlord and his wife took me to Costco, where I loaded up on cat litter (3 30-pound containers) and cheese (5-pound block of cheddar, 2-pound block of pepper jack - it freezes well!). Couldn't resist a box of Act II microwave popcorn, but I managed to NOT buy all sorts of other tempting treats.

I'll be making a trip back to the US in May, as I have to take my transcripts and diploma to TECO in San Fran to get them stamped. Leaving Taiwan will probably mean that I once again will have no visa, but I can just do the monthly trip to HK until I get my acceptance letter from the university and then apply for a new one.

Well, heck, I can't think of anything else right now, and the tummy is saying it's time for food, so I'm outta here.

The Boneless Woman

2008-03-01T16:16:00.001+08:00

A friend sent me this link, and I was so amazed by this woman's flexibility that I had to share it with you.

University, Here I Come!

2008-02-29T11:46:00.002+08:00

Boy, it was nice to get back to school after all those boring days at home. I can't believe how cold and miserable it's been here, absolutely no desire to go outside if I don't have to. It warmed up briefly and then got back to chilling cold, bleah.

I went to Tamkang University on Wednesday and talked with the head of the Chinese department. He loves me! Looks as if there will be no problem getting in, which was a great relief to me. I'll be going back on Monday to discuss how to get my transcripts and high school diploma approved by the Taiwan high mucky-mucks. Normal procedure is to have them stamped in your own country, because most folks apply for uni from there, but I'm already here, so it's not so easy.

I've been spending time getting training from my landlord, Mr. Zhang, on how to do the eBay and Yahoo business, and I'm hoping I'll start seeing a small income from that. Still waiting to hear if I actually get the scholarship at the language school this time, and of course I'll apply for the university one, too.

Eagerly anticipating my trip to Hong Kong on the 13th and meeting up with Carol. Tonight we're going to see ABS at Riverside Pub and will have a cake to celebrate Dino's birthday, which isn't until March 6, but this is our only chance.

Gotta run, stuff to do. Had yesterday off and today, too, yippee.

Dear Diary: Day 5 on the Island....

2008-02-07T10:44:00.000+08:00

I've been on vacation from school since Friday the 1st. And since Saturday the 2nd, I've been spending hours and hours a day watching the most faboo TV series, Lost. It all started when Shannon arrived on Saturday afternoon. She spent the night Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, leaving Tuesday morning, and except for a couple runs to the store for victuals and food prep time in the kitchen, we had our asses plunked down on the couch, working our way through all of season 1 and part of season 2 before she had to leave. I've continued the grueling ritual and am now into season 3. Hopefully, Shannon managed to find the series for rent at Blockbuster, because my set is region 1 coded, and she's unable to play it on her DVD player. Hoo boy, she was so pissed off Tuesday morning, because the student she left my place at 9:30 a.m. to meet stood her up, and she could have stayed here and watched at least two more episodes before her afternoon student!

My ass hurts. My legs hurt. I'm really tired of sitting. However, it is rainy and freezing-ass cold outside, so I have no incentive to vacate the premises and get some exercise. I walked to the store yesterday afternoon and got soaked, because one shoe seems to have sprung a hole that caused my left sock to become a soggy lump and the wind was so bad that my umbrella did a "kai hua" - that's Chinese for "blossoming flower" and I think you get the idea. It's not raining right now, so there's a good chance I'll get out and about today, before I lose all feeling in my nether regions.

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, around 2:00 a.m., I was awakened by wailing and moaning. I figured it was the kids next door crying, tried to fall back asleep, but it kept up. Finally, I took my earplugs out and walked over to the wall, thinking maybe I'd bang on it, but then I heard the sound again, coming from outside. It was the wind, sounding just like it does during a typhoon! I guess the way these buildings are set up it sort of makes a wind tunnel that gives the wind a lot more force, and it just wailed and wailed for over an hour, keeping me awake. Can't imagine what it will be like during an actual typhoon, but guess I'll find out.

So, hey, it's now The Year of the Rat! Happy Lunar New Year to everyone! I'd dithered a bit about whether to make the trek into Taipei and pick up some yummies from Shanghai Dumpling to bring back here to eat or to fend for myself, and the sorry state of the weather pretty much decided me on staying here. I already had some stuff to make hotpot, so I bought a little more and sat here with DZ eating fish balls and mushrooms and sliced beef boiled in broth and dunked in hot & spicy sha cha jiang. Trust me, it tastes a whole lot better than it sounds. There were lots of fireworks and firecrackers last night, but not all night long, thank goodness. I went to bed around 1:30 a.m., I think. No wailing winds kept me up.

It's perfect baking weather, and last week on Friday I made chocolate chip cookies and some muffins, which Shannon and I made quite a nice dent in. Today I'm going to make a cheesecake, just because I feel like it. Having the little oven on for hours sure makes it warmer in here. If you remember, Taiwan apartments don't come equipped with central heat (or air), so all I have for warmth is a standing space heater that actually does quite a good job. Taking a shower ain't fun, though, as the bathroom is really cold. Best I can do is set the heater up outside the door and try to get the tub/toilet room warmed up before I get in, and get dressed as fast as possible when I'm done.

OK, so I'm gonna get myself outside before the rain starts again, and then when I come back I can continue my immersion into fantasy island life with the cast of Lost, trying to figure out all these mysteries.

My Beautiful Island

2008-01-26T09:54:00.000+08:00

For those of you who still don't understand why I left the US behind and came to Taiwan, please spend 10 minutes or so watching this little introduction, and I think you'll see the light. :)

I hope this inspires some of you to make a trip here and see for yourself why the Portugese named Taiwan "The Beautiful Island."

The Honeymoon is Over

2008-01-19T09:47:00.000+08:00

I committed some heinous crime in a previous life. I'm not sure what it was, but it must have been particularly awful. That's the only explanation I can think of for why I'm unable to find a quiet place to live.

The first couple of weeks here at the new apartment were so nice, very quiet at night, no problem sleeping at a decent hour. Then the noise from upstairs gradually became worse and worse. When it first began, it was only a couple of nights a week, beginning at 10:00 p.m. when the kid took his shower and got ready for bed, continuing until 11:30 p.m. Well, OK, just a couple of nights, I can handle that. Then at the beginning of January, it was every night. Every single friggin' night, and every three to five minutes (yes, I'm keeping a written record) a bedroom door slamming, a cupboard slamming, drawers slamming, things dropped on the floor, dragging furniture across the floor. So, I talked to the security guys, and they said that noise after 10:00 p.m. was a no-no in this community, and if it continued I should call them.

Finally, I did call them one evening and asked them to call the upstairs folks. Didn't have any effect, the noise still continued until 11:30 p.m. After a few days, I'd had enough again, and once again asked them to tell the 10th floor folks to knock it off. I heard the guy upstairs on the intercom phone, saying "OK, OK, sure." then talking loudly to his wife as the noise continued. Obviously this is not working.

Fine, I decided I'd make a change in my own lifestyle. Most people here shower at night before bed and not in the morning like I'm used to, so I've been doing that. This allows me to sleep in a bit longer, but it also cuts down on my morning "drink-loads-of-coffee-while-fiddling-around-online-to-wake-up" time. I still don't feel I'm getting enough sleep, and I usually get shocked awake by some loud bang at least once after I hit the sack.

Last Sunday I wrote a very nice letter, which Shannon had helped me compose, really polite and all, asking the upstairs neighbors to be more considerate after 10, close doors, drawers, and cupboards gently, etc. I gave it to the security guy to give to them, because he said that was the best way. Attached to security's copy was a two-page record of the time and type of loud sound I'd been experiencing. After about a half hour, my doorbell rang, and it was one of the security guys. He said the upstairs folks had refused to take the letter and maintained that it wasn't them making the noise. Needless to say, I was incredulous, mouth agape as I listened to this hogwash. The guy said the next time the noise started, I should call the desk, and they'd send someone to my place to listen to see where it was coming from.

Strangely enough, Sunday night was very peaceful, no slams and thunks, and I heard the first shower running much earlier than usual. I had a meeting with my landlord on Monday evening, and I talked to him about all this. He told me that in Taiwan buildings sometimes the sound is actually coming from three or four floors up, that the people right below don't hear it, but the folks two floors down do. I'm sorry, but I don't buy this. Granted, the origin of some noises seems difficult to pin down, but those slamming doors and dragging furniture are quite obviously right over my head! No way in hell that sound is coming from two floors up.

Monday and Tuesday were also quite peaceful, and I was able to sleep early. To me, having it suddenly become quiet after security talked with the 10th floor people just seems to reinforce the fact that it was them making the noise. I mean, why else would the noise cease like that, after being a nightly ritual for over two weeks? However...... Wednesday it was business as usual with lots of noise. I tried to listen carefully to see where exactly it was coming from, putting my ear against the ice-cold concrete walls on both sides. I thought maybe some sound was coming from next door, and since I'd already met that woman and she was very nice, I went to ask them if they were possibly closing doors and cupboards quite loudly. She and her husband talked to me for a long time, both maintaining that their living room, which is right next to my bedroom, has no cabinets or anything that would make that sound, and that since she babysits infants she has always taught her family to be very quiet, so as not to disturb the babies. OK, so not them. Didn't seem that the noise was coming from the apartment on the other side, either. After the loud noises continued until 10:40, I called the desk and asked them to send someone up. Of course, just as when you take your car to the mechanic it will NOT make that funny noise, so it was that as soon as the guy arrived (bringing with him a disgusting miasma of cigarette smoke that polluted my entire apartment), the upstairs was silent. And as soon as he left, the noise began again, but thankfully ended at 11:00 p.m.

On Thursday they started early, around 8:00 and continued until at least 10:40, this time someone using power tools, dragging furniture around and rolling something heavy across the floor. I tried to ignore it best I could, certain that if I once again asked the guys to come listen, it would be quiet. Last night we had more power tools and hammering, and when someone fired up that drill at 10:20, I lost it and called the desk. But then I heard the drill sound twice more, and once it really did seem to come from the babysitter's side. It's hard to tell, is it upstairs and making the wall vibrate and the sound is traveling down it? I truly did believe the neighbor when she said they try to be extra quiet all the time, because she has that honest sort of look. I tried listening at their front door to see if the drill sound was coming from in there, but I couldn't hear anything. And there was clearly some sound that was coming from upstairs, because in the small bedroom, there are no other apartments on either side, just two balconies, so the sound is definitely originating from upstairs.

So here I am, once again dealing with inconsiderate neighbors (somewhere) who don't seem to sleep much themselves. It's still much better here than in Zhuwei, and I don't have the added burden of tons of noise from outside 24-7 to deal with. I will try to adapt and just stay up later than I want, since I don't think anything is going to make them stop. I sure wish I were the sort of person who could roll out of bed, wash my face, get dressed, and be out the door, because then I could sleep until 7:45 a.m.! Alas, that's not me. The latest I can sleep is 6:45 a.m., I need that hour of wake-up time in order to be fully functional. I don't know how the Taiwanese do it, getting only 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night - or less.

Now that I've gotten that particular rant over, on to a new one. My teacher this semester is incredibly boring. We're third-year students and we're being treated as first-years. The first test she gave was so laughable, two pages, handwritten (badly, my writing is much nicer), of simple "fill in the blanks" and make some easy sentences. For the last three semesters, each time I've had a test it has taken me almost the full two hours of class to complete it. Most required writing some small essays, and most were four pages of typewritten questions. It took me less than half an hour to complete the test last week. And so far this teacher has not asked for any homework! OK, so that's sort of nice, except that it doesn't really push me to make progress. Another thing that bugs me is that she loves to hear herself talk and doesn't give us much chance to say anything. This may be helping me improve my listening skills, but I need to talk, too! We're all frustrated and not looking forward to dealing with this every day until March 28 when the semester ends. Argh.

Despite all of the above, I must say that I'm still incredibly happy here in Taiwan and have no desire to leave it. Anyone who knows me knows that I will always have a complaint about something, no matter where I live. It's the way I am, I'm a griper for sure, and too old to change my ways.

A Strange Sense of Deja Vu

2008-01-13T08:43:00.000+08:00

The day after the presidential election in 2004, I read with incredulity the news that Bush had been re-elected. I couldn't understand how that happened, couldn't understand that the American people could be so blind that they would re-elect such a war-mongering idiot, but they did.

I have much the same feeling today as I read the Taiwan election news and see that the Kuo Ming Tang (KMT) party kicked the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) collective ass in the legislative elections. With the presidential election upcoming in March, this does not bode well for Taiwan. Since I suck at discussing politics, I'd like to refer you to an excellent letter in today's Taipei Times, written by Lee Long-hwa in New York. I truly fear that if Ma Ying Jeou wins the presidential seat in March, Taiwan will soon be hanging "Welcome to Communist Taiwan" signs in the airport.

In other articles in today's Times (worth a read if you have the time), writers point out the low voter turn-out. I do understand the voters' frustration, with neither party being worth much, but this is a case of choosing the lesser evil, and they should have gone to vote green (DPP) just to keep the country from turning blue (KMT)! I used to half-jokingly say that in 2004 I would have voted for a serial killer just to keep Bush out of office, and the slogan "ANYONE but Bush!" appealed to many people. I wish Taiwan would wake up and see that if the KMT gains power once again, they're likely to lose their freedom. Surely many folks recall the days of martial law (which only ceased in 1991) and the "White Terror" they endured after the massacres in 1947. The Wikipedia article will give readers more information on the party, and please do pay close attention to the "Current issues and challenges" to see what a great guy Ma Ying Jeou is (also note heavy sarcasm).

I was recently contacted by a fellow I knew in the US, who had moved back to Beijing before I came to Taiwan. We were chatting a bit on MSN, and I wanted to show him photos of my place here. He couldn't access the website. Then I wanted to let him read my Chinese blog. He couldn't access the website. He asked me why I didn't go to mainland China to study Chinese, and I replied, "You have no freedom there. You're not even allowed to visit simple photo and blog websites because your government blocks them. Why would I want to live like that?" I don't want to see Taiwan end up like this.

'Tis the Night Before Christmas

2007-12-24T18:49:00.000+08:00

Merry Christmas everyone! It's almost 7:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve. I spent my afternoon making a huge pot of minestrone soup, which I'll freeze in batches to provide quick and healthy meals for myself in January (that's when I am determined to get back on the diet wagon, which I fell off of last month). I think I'm going to kick back and watch my favorite Christmas movie, "A Christmas Story" later on. I've seen it a million times, but it's always so much fun.

DZ and I have settled in nicely to our new home. She's still opening drawers, sometimes pulling all my socks out in the middle of the night. Don't know why, she never did that before. I now close my bedroom door when I leave in the mornings so she can't get in. And one night I heard her chewing on the tape that holds the plastic piece that closes off the open side of the end table where I keep my autographed Wu Bai stuff. She knows that's a huge no-no. I ran out of the bedroom yelling at her. She knew if I caught her she was in for a spanking, so she ran into the kitchen.
She jumped up on the stove, then up on the chrome rack, then on top of the bookcase - then she jumped up into the recessed lighting area! She started running around the whole room like she was on was a race track, meowing loudly. I swear, it was so damned funny, and I tried so hard not to laugh, because I was pissed at her! Oh jeez, I wish I'd been able to get video of it. I finally had to climb on the sofa and grab her when she went by to get her down. And yeah, she got her spanking. My Wu Bai stuff is sacred, thou shalt not touch it!

I have class tomorrow as usual, no Christmas holiday here. I'll go have lunch with Nat and Charlene after school, then I'll just come home and hang out with DZ. Wednesday a bunch of us are going to the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet for lunch, and that will be my Christmas celebration.

Next weekend I have four days off, but I'll need to spend a lot of that time preparing for my semester final, a written exam on Wednesday and an oral exam on Thursday. This happened last semester, had time off for Mid-Autumn Festival and spent the whole time studying! Grrr. And no week off after the semester ends on January 4, either. Because we get two weeks in February, we have to make up one of the weeks now, so it's back to class on Monday the 7th.

It's looking like Carol will definitely be coming for a visit in March! We'll meet up in Hong Kong for Wu Bai & China Blue's two concerts then she'll come back with me, maybe for a week (or longer?). I thought I'd be off that week, but I was wrong, the semester ends March 28, so I'll still have to go to school in the mornings and play in the afternoons.

I went to the final round of concerts for Taiwan (making my total five this year, yeah!) on December 15, sat in the front row, really close to the stage. It was the same basic show as the other three I attended, so I didn't see the need to write much about it. The special thing about this time was that friends came from all over - David, Lee Ying, and Lee Yang from Singapore; Ah Wing from Hong Kong; Elsa from Macau; Yasuyo from Japan; Johnny from Malaysia. It was great to see them all, and of course there was a lot of good food involved. After the show, Charlene, Ah Wing, Yasuyo, and I went out for dim sum, and we called Nat to come join us. She is truly a great friend - she gave me a ride home afterwards so I didn't have to pay for a cab! That was a very unexpected and pleasant surprise.

Well, OK, now it's 7:30, and if I want to get that movie watched, I'd better go. Happy holidays to everyone!

無聲的所在

2007-12-02T11:13:00.000+08:00

My blog entry title is from a Wu Bai & China Blue song, and it means A Place of Silence. I'm still incredibly amazed at the peace and quiet I've found at my place in Danshui, and I do feel at times that I'm living in a place of silence. It's so quiet that I can now hear the weird noises the refrigerator makes, and I never could before! Once in awhile I hear the people upstairs, but it's rare and never late, late at night. Since my apartment isn't on the street side, there's very little outside noise that filters in. I finally got photos posted today, so please drop in and take a look at my home sweet home. Another thing that worked out absolutely perfectly was that the gas tank at the old place was just about empty, so I was going to have to buy more, but I made it without having to, and the tank at the new place is a full one, so I'm set for another three months.

DZ has been a bad girl lately. I don't know how she manages it, but she gets the dresser drawer opened - it's full of heavy stuff! Determined little bugger, that cat. She also jumped up on the Wu Bai showcase by getting on the small dresser, and then onto the wardrobe, knocked one of the stuffed sharks to the floor, and chewed up the tag. She jumped on top of the entertainment center by first jumping onto the chrome rack in the kitchen, and knocked over the Kirin beer stein Kayun gave me. I know she walked around up there, because I saw her footprints on the center shelves. She might find herself locked up in the spare bedroom during the day when I'm at school if she keeps this up! I'm being very careful where I put posters this time, hoping they are all out of her reach.

OK, so in America when you moved out of an apartment, the landlord expects you to leave it spic and span, and if it's in less than perfect condition, you're going to lose a lot of your deposit, maybe even all of it. I moved out of my place where I'd been for eight years, and I'd even paid to have carpet installed and some other upgrades, and I didn't get a penny back! So, when I saw the horrible condition my apartment walls were in after I took down the posters (who knew that sticky stuff would be THAT strong?), I assumed I'd need to paint the place before getting my deposit back. I even asked a friend if he'd like a job doing just that and was prepared to pay him for his bus ticket here and the labor. It shocked the hell out of me when the landlady told me not to worry about it, she was going to have it painted anyway, and she didn't care about the walls. On top of that, I didn't even have to clean! I'd already swept the place, with help from Shannon last week, but I figured I'd have to mop thoroughly and clean up the kitchen a bit, so I went back yesterday. I had just started, and the landlady came by, told me she didn't want me to bother with it, that she thought it was already very clean and that after the painters left, she'd do it herself. Whoa. She handed me back 100% of my deposit, about $930US, so I felt as if I'd won the lottery. I'd already kissed that money goodbye!

My new landlords are so very nice. They have an air conditioner that they traded to me for two of my little window ones, and a friend has another one he said I could use for free. I'm not going to get them installed until March or April, though, don't need them right now. I was shocked that no one was willing to buy used air conditioners for the low price of only $46US. I paid almost $200 apiece for those things, dammit! So, I gave the old landlady one of them, couldn't bear to just throw it out.

I ended up paying $8000NT for moving (around $248US), and it was worth it. Funck and Carrie helped me one evening, and we moved quite a few large boxes and some small furniture, and it was a royal pain. From old apartment into elevator then into van (a close distance), then from van to new apartment (long distance). Poor Funck, he probably didn't know what he was in for when I asked him if he was free to help. It was great that Carrie had a big van from her work, because we were able to haul a lot. I'm sure if we hadn't gotten that load here, I'd have had to pay the movers about $3000NT more for one more truck. We had two trucks, one small and one large, and they were packed until you couldn't get one more thing in. We started at 2:00 p.m. and had it all into the new place and them gone by about 7:30 p.m. I immediately started unpacking, then Carrie dropped by a little after 8:00 and stayed until about 11:00 or so. After she left, I started again and stopped at 1:30 a.m. Then I got up at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday and worked basically non-stop until 6:00 p.m. Talk about exhausted! After an hour or so, I did a bit more, but then gave up. So, I've been doing it bit by bit this last week, and now it's all in order, at least as far as I can go without another cabinet. I hope whatever the landlord has to loan me will be able to fit, need to get him here to look and see my setup.

Charlene and Natari have been working their asses off lately, sometimes stuck at the office until midnight or later, because their boss has been opening a lot of new restaurants. I'm telling you, Taiwan people work harder than anyone else, and they don't get overtime pay for it, either. You just try to get Americans to work 80 hours per week for $800 to $1860 a month (that's the average salary, office worker to manager)! Ain't gonna happen. I sure hope both of them get a really nice, fat Chinese New Year bonus in February, because they deserve it. So far neither one has had any time to come see the new place, so hopefully next weekend they'll be able to.

Hopefully I'll be able to go to Hong Kong mid March for Wu Bai & China Blue's concert. Unfortunately, the shows are on a Thursday and Friday, and that Friday is the last day of the semester, which means the final exam will likely be on one of those days. I may not make it to the Thursday show, but maybe I can get to the Friday one, if I can find an afternoon flight. I'd need to go in April anyway in order to extend my multiple-entry six-month visa, so going a month early won't be too bad, and at least I'll have a purpose for going. Plus, I'm off that whole next week between semesters, and Carol just maybe will be able to come for the Hong Kong show and then here to hang out with me! Another nice things about living here is that the landlord's mom also lives in this complex, and she'll come feed DZ for me when I'm gone. I met her yesterday when she came by to show me how to turn on the gas stove (not the same at the other one, didn't know about the safety lighting feature that keeps kids from getting burned), and she's really sweet.

I've walked to the MRT station a couple of times in the mornings, takes about 30 minutes. I think I'll continue to do that when the weather is nice, get a bit of exercise. I've not been good with the diet lately, eating too much junk and not walking much, so I need to cut that out. I want to start using the exercise room here in the afternoons, too. No one else uses it, so I'll have it all to myself. It's very bad that right outside the front entrance of the building is a little stand that sells deep-fried chicken nuggets, extremely tasty. And the grocery store is right there as well, making it far too easy to buy beer and potato chips. Must not allow self to indulge too much! Must not, must not, must not. Concert coming up in two weeks, must try hard to shave off a couple more pounds before then.

Well, OK, I think that's enough for now, and I really need to get cracking on homework. Toodles!

Moving is a Pain in the ASS!

2007-11-29T21:00:00.000+08:00

Brief update to let you know I'm still alive. Am all moved in to the new place, and I totally love it. Have managed to get most of my things put away, but still have three large suitcases of crap and no place to put it. Leaving it in the suitcases is OK for now, since it's all stuff I don't use much, but I gotta move it eventually. Landlord has some extra cupboards he can loan me, so need to find out what size and see if they'll fit. Will have photos posted soon, waiting until it looks nice - and also for the Wu Bai & China Blue posters to be re-hung. It ain't the same without them.

This place is so friggin' quiet compared to the old apartment, what a difference. No more waiting until hellacious brats upstairs go to bed at 11:00 p.m. or later, no more suffering all evening listening to them screaming and running and dropping steel bowling balls. I LOVE MY NEW APARTMENT!

Crazy busy due to move and homework and still need to go clean old place on Saturday, yuck.

Moving to California in Two Weeks

2007-11-07T16:45:00.001+08:00

Isn't life strange? In March 2005 my friend Nat signed the contract for my apartment on March 6, and I moved in on March 22, coming from California to Taiwan. Yesterday, on November 6, I signed the contract for my new apartment, and I'll be moving in on November 22! And isn't it funny, the name of the new apartment complex is California Community. This whole thing just tickled me, still here in Taiwan but I'll be living in California again.

It was pouring rain and incredibly windy yesterday when Shannon and I got to Danshui to go look at the apartment. The ad said it was only a 12-minute walk from the station, but judging by the map, we knew that was impossible. After a half an hour walk, mostly uphill, we arrived at the building, completely drenched. The complex is huge, four large buildings around a central area that has a big swimming pool and children's play areas. The apartment is on the 9th floor (I can't recall how many floors in all, maybe 16), and it has a very nice view. It's smaller than my current place, only two bedrooms and no actual dining area, plus only two small balconies instead of the two very large and one small one I have now. But the lighting is awesome, with loads of indirect lighting as well as direct lighting, and the kitchen is nice and big.

The bathroom is miniscule, a tub and a toilet crammed together, with the sink in a separate area outside, rather like many hotels have. Not a problem for me, less to clean, is how I look at it.

I'm not really sure all my furniture will fit, and there's not one closet in the whole place. That's one thing I find incredibly odd about Taiwan apartments, most of them don't have built-in closets. People buy cabinets and wardrobes, or sometimes they have closets built in when they buy a place (like my current pad has two large ones with overhead storage space as well), but you don't get any sort of storage space at all in the apartment! Also, there are no air conditioners in this apartment, which is fine now because it's winter, but come summer I'll have to shell out more money for air con, because the ones I bought for this apartment won't work in the new one. The windows are not the same, so I'll have to buy the kind that half of it is wall mounted on the inside and half is mounted on the outside.

The photo below will be my bedroom, it's the largest. The second room will have the computer and the extra bed, unless I decide to put the computer in my bedroom and a lot of my bedroom furniture in the extra room. We'll see. I'll sure miss the huge built-in desk with shelves and drawers that the current apartment has. I won't be able to display all my cool Wu Bai & China Blue stuff!
The complex has, in addition to the pool, an exercise room with treadmills and weight machines (no more excuses why I'm not exercising!), a squash court, a dance studio (costs extra for a teacher and classes), a reading room, a basketball court, pool and ping pong tables, a movie room, and a meeting room. There's a 24-hour security guard, and I will no longer have to chase the garbage truck, as there is a central trash collection area in the basement, and I can throw it away when it's convenient for me. There's also a generator, so if the power goes out, we'll still have it. Doesn't happen too often, but I do recall the day I was stuck in the elevator for 10 minutes in the middle of summer and thought I'd die. There are also numerous shops and food stands within a few minutes walk, a bus stop right outside the main door with 10 different lines, a bus every three minutes, meaning a quick ride to Danshui MRT station. The landlord is going to draw me a map showing me the shorter way to walk, which really is about 12-15 minutes, piece of cake. More exercise for me, that's a good thing. The apartment is also within walking distance of Tamkang University, where I hope to be enrolled next year (keep those fingers crossed).

The best two things: the rent is $3500NT per month less than what I pay now, so I'll save about $100US per month (can you imagine renting a nice apartment in California USA for $370 per month? I can't.) And we went upstairs to inquire if the apartment above was infested with noisy children, and I can cheerfully report that there is a family with one 7-year-old boy, and their next door neighbor (of whom we made the inquiry) said they are quiet. But if they aren't, I can call the managers, and they will go talk to them, an option I do not have where I am now. Gosh, maybe I'll be able to get a good night's sleep! Also, according to the ad, this house has absolutely fabulous feng shui, so I'm assured of a prosperous future and a happy life - yeah!

I have a lot of packing to do, and I'm not looking forward to shelling out big bucks for a mover, but it's impossible to move it myself. Hopefully I can enlist the help of friends to move the smaller stuff and just pay to move the big things, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I'm sure hoping I won't be required to paint the place I'm leaving, just clean it up nicely. I suppose if she wants me to paint, I'll tell her to take it out of the deposit, I don't have time for that.

So, anyone wanna buy an air conditioner? Make you a hell of a deal.....

Round One: Tainan Concert

2007-11-03T09:50:00.000+08:00

Note: Original post was written on 10/28/07 in Chinese, just now getting around to writing the English version (sorry!). So, the "yesterday" was actually 10/27. :)

For the past few months I've been eagerly awaiting the Wu Bai & China Blue concert, and yesterday the day finally arrived. Charlene and I met up at 1:00 p.m., had a quick bite to eat, then boarded the bus for Tainan. I love the buses in Taiwan, with the big comfy seats, almost as good as first-class airline seats (although this bus didn't have the "flight attendant" offering snacks and drinks like the Aloha Bus does). There's a small TV which gives you the choice of watching a TV station or a movie. When we started out, I was watching "Charlotte's Web" but halfway through I got creeped out by Charlotte and decided to sleep. When I was a kid, I loved that book (still do, actually), but I never pictured Charlotte as quite that "spidery" looking! I loathe spiders, ugh.

It was already dark when we got to Tainan, a little before 7:00 p.m. Another one of our friends, Lonely Bird, had driven over from Chiayi with another fan, a girl named Ah Ga (I think), so he swung by and picked us up from the bus stop. We drove directly to the concert locale, where we miraculously found a parking spot right across the street, ran into a little noodle shop where we sucked down some dinner within the space of ten minutes, then headed for the concert.

Charlene is absolutely amazing. The seats she bought for us were in the second row, not only extremely close to the stage but also close to the center. When the concert began, first Da Mao, Xiao Zhu, and Dino came onstage. Xiao Zhu was directly in front of us, Da Mao way off to our left, and Dino center stage on a raised platform in the back. The music began, and Wu Bai entered from our right, carrying a big black umbrella, singing "I want, I want, I want...." as he walked to the mike in the center, the beginning of the song "Innocent Years." He sang the first bit, where he doesn't play the guitar, while holding the umbrella, then it was snatched into the air and he grabbed the guitar for his opening chord.

Every time Wu Bai plans a concert, he spends a long time wracking his brains for new ideas, because he always wants to give the fans a new surprise. This time he threw off his cool rocker look for glam rock look. I'd already seen a photo of him all dolled up in the newspaper, so I knew what to expect. It was a little weird, because the blue eyeshadow he was wearing wasn't on his eyelid, but under the eye. He was wearing a little pair of diamond-studded horns, and his shirt and jacket were Vivienne Westwood designs. It was as if he'd suddenly changed identities and become an adorable, handsome little devil. Ah, Wu Bai, in my book, you don't need to gild the lily, you're already perfect and flawless without any adornment! My preference is Wu Bai drenched with sweat and hair in disarray, and thankfully that came later in the show. :)

As I fully expected, the concert was fantastic from beginning to end, and for over three hours we had a great time. When Wu Bai came and stood directly in front of us, with his face wreathed in smiles, and played that guitar while smiling right at me, my own face was also one big grin. This is one of the things I truly appreciate about him, he will always acknowledge the fans he knows, letting us know he appreciates our presence. Sometimes it's winks and grins, sometimes it's guitar solos in front of us, sometimes it's just a finger pointing our way with a nod, but he will always do it. Since Dino, Xiao Zhu, and Da Mao are always wearing sunglasses on stage, it's difficult to know if they're really smiling at us particularly, but Dino also takes pains to let us know he sees us. I was bobbing my head side-to-side
during one song, and when I turned to look at Dino, he bobbed right back at me, so cute.

Lately Wu Bai has been on a dancing kick, and we once again got a few songs where he danced with four scantily clad young things. I just can't help laughing when Wu Bai dances, because he truly can't dance (I think he's too nervous, and that makes him stiffen up), but I admire him for his courage to try, and he gives it his best shot. The dance they did to "Crush on You" was really cute, though, hope that gets into a concert video for all to see.

The seats in the whole first row had not been available for sale, apparently
reserved for VIPs. Well, it was a total waste, because none of those people
exhibited any sort of energy at all! They barely moved, and even though some of them stood up for a few songs, it was totally without enthusiasm. The woman in front of me was blatantly using her cell phone to video the show, and one of the security folks came over and told her to stop. She just kept on doing it, prompting a second, sterner visit from security, after which she finally stopped. Jeez, if those people don't appreciate the primo seats, then don't let them have them, give them to us instead! Not fair, truly.

Sigh....times passes all too quickly, and eventually the last encore was over (I love the routine of Wu Bai yelling "Hurry and go home!" and all of us yelling back "We don't wanna go home!"). Three of us piled into Lonely Bird's car and took off to the south, to Gaoxiong to see Sharrie. She and her husband now have a little food stand at the night market, where she works until 1:30 a.m. on Saturday nights, so she wasn't able to come to the show. We were there in a little under an hour, then had to find the night market. Sharrie was surprised and happy to see us, and we hung out there for a little while before heading back to Tainan. Charlene and I
boarded the 2:00 a.m. bus back to Taipei, arriving around 5:30 a.m. The MRT doesn't start until 6:00 a.m., so I had to wait a bit before I could get home. It was close to 7:00 a.m. by the time I tumbled into bed, and then I only slept for three hours. I'd slept on the bus back, and also in the car, but it wasn't a good, deep sleep. However, I had too much to do Sunday (like homework!), and in any case, the noise from the builders outside and the brats upstairs ensured that I wouldn't get any rest even if I'd stayed in bed. Next week is the concert in Taizhong, and I know next Sunday I'll once again be exhausted!

And now it's November 3, and in a couple of hours I'll be taking off for the Taizhong show. I'm sure it will be the same as the Tainan one, so I'll likely not write about it, unless there are surprises or something cool happens on the journey. At least I'll be getting home sooner this time, as Taizhong is only about two and a half hours away by bus, not four, and we won't be making any unexpected road trips to other places.

You all remember my former friend, Hiyoshi, the one who got married last September, went back to Japan, and since then has never once gotten in touch with me? Well, as we were on the road to Gaoxiong, I received a message on my phone: "It's Hiyoshi, the wife and I have brought our kid back to Taiwan, can we meet tomorrow? I really miss you!" I was spluttering with indignation as I wrote back: "Bullshit. If you missed me, you would have stayed in touch. That's what friends do. I'm in Gaoxiong and won't be home until morning, and I have things to do tomorrow." Jeez, talk about having nerve! How the hell can he expect that I'd just welcome him with open arms after more than a year of silence? He's been off the "Friends" list for a long, long time, and I have no interest in re-writing his name there. Hmph.

In other news, I've been spending a lot of time looking for a new apartment and finding that rent has risen considerably in this area. Tuesday I'll be checking out a place in Danshui, not nearly as convenient as where I am now, but about $100US per month less than my current rent. Wish I could stay in Zhuwei, but everything I've looked at so far that meets the price is pretty crappy, and the nicer places are just over my budget. I'll keep looking, though, just in case something new shows up.

I like my new teacher, Lin Laoshi, although she's a little on the low-key side in class, and sometimes it's difficult to hear her over the sound of the air conditioner. She has an interesting method of teaching which gets us interacting with each other, giving little performances in class, etc. My first test is next Wednesday, no clue what it will be like, but I don't think it will be really easy. She requires homework three times a week, but she lets us decide what to write. My plan is to continue writing one composition a week and the other two assignments will be practicing making sentences with the new words and idioms we study (and that's not easy!).

There's No Place Like Home

2007-10-21T10:09:00.001+08:00

I'm back from my short trip to Japan, with a new visa in hand (multiple-entry, good through April 2008, extendable), and it's so nice to be back home in Taiwan. I like Japan, don't get me wrong, but this is truly home and I missed it.

I arrived at Kansai Airport in Osaka the evening of October 14, where I spent a good 45 minutes in line at immigration. They were moving folks through quickly, but there were hundreds of passengers. My dear friend Kayun was there waiting for me, though, with a big smile on her face. After a bit of discussion with a not-too-friendly clerk at the counter and at Kayun's urging, I bought a three-day Kansai Thru Pass which was supposedly good on all the subway and rail systems in the area, unlimited rides to anywhere, plus some discounts at tourist attractions, for about $44US. Now, I usually only spend around that same amount for a whole month of travel on Taipei's system, so I was a bit shocked. Kayun and I both kinda figured that three days was like 72 hours, beginning the first time I used the pass, which was for the 15-minute ride from the station where the airport bus dropped us to her house, and that I'd be using it up through Wednesday evening. Nope, wrong. I got two days of travel out of it, because the first "day" was that 15-minute ride! And it turned out that I couldn't use it on one of the main systems, either! I therefore ended up spending another $21US to see me through the two other days. That was my biggest trip expense - $65US on subway/rail fees plus $40US on the airport bus. Crazy. I guess one must pay for punctuality - you can set your watch by the transit system in Japan, truly amazing.

Luke and Kayun have a nice little apartment located in the country-like suburbs. The neighborhood is quiet, with small rice paddies and gorgeous trees and flowers. I was totally impressed with Japanese toilets and thought the shower area was really interesting. Luke and Kayun don't have a lot of space, but they make the most of it, and Kayun keeps it all sparkling clean. I slept on a comfortable sofa in a little room with a sliding door, and it was sooo quiet at night, not used to that!

Got up bright and early Monday morning, because Luke was taking me to the visa office before he went on to his school. Kayun rode with us on her way to her Japanese classes (every day from 10:00 a.m. to 2:35 p.m.), and Luke and I continued on to Umeda Station, where we had to switch trains. The subway/rail system in Osaka is so ridiculously complicated that one could never, ever find one's way alone. We got off one train, walked a long, long way underground to a different station, and took a different line to a station close to where we needed to go. After I submitted my application, Luke left me at that station, and I decided to explore a bit. Yeah, I explored all right, the underground shopping area that stretches for miles in many directions with confusing signs and no one who speaks English! I was starving, hadn't eaten a thing, so I ducked into a Doufor Coffee for a bite. Part of the menu had photos, so I could pick out a sandwich, but the rest was all in Japanese. I can read it if they use the traditional Chinese characters (kanji), but if they use katakana (used for words that come from foreign places) and hiragana, which they normally do, I can't read a thing. So, I'm trying to ask what kind of cold drinks they have, and the guy points to the Japanese menu. I mutter in Chinese, "But I can't read Japanese." and the girl next to the guy says, in Chinese, "Wow, you speak Chinese!" What a blessing - she was from Fujian, China, and she got me my orange juice. Turns out she is also a Wu Bai fan, so it was fun chatting a bit to her.

After I left there it took me at least 45 minutes to find my way back to the station I needed in order to get to Osaka Castle. I was exhausted when I got there and still had a bit of a walk to get to the castle itself. The park is huge (and Blogger is having photo issues now, so you'll just have to click the links to get to the pix, and then you can see all the other ones, too), very quiet and beautiful. Actually, most of Osaka was very quiet and beautiful, and unbelievably clean. I found a spot to sit and rest for awhile and then continued on to the castle area. Swarming with grade-school kids, it was, as well as high schoolers. Seems to be my luck that any time I visit a museum, I can't see anything because there are hoardes of children blocking the view. The castle itself was packed from top to bottom, but I still went in and all the way to the top for the view. I like the way this building gives the illusion one can see through it.

Kayun called after she got out of class, and we made plans to meet back at the station near her house. Took me forever to get there, as I got lost under Umeda Station again, but I finally showed up. We went for dinner at a great place that had salad bar and fresh bread for about $9US (and Kayun treated). The bread, OMG, the bread! A waitress with a huge basket of various slices of bread made the rounds, and we got to eat a lot. There was this one kind that had figs and nuts in it, totally divine. I do miss good bread, which is next to impossible to find in Taiwan. The Taiwanese like bread the texture of Wonder Bread and about as flavorful, it's just nasty. I brought back two half-loaves from this bakery, the fig one and another swirl type that is just lucious. Probably have them totally gone by tomorrow! The salad bar wasn't like US salad bars, as it actually featured various types of pre-made salads, all very good and probably even healthy. Before dinner we had gone to the grocery store across the street, where I was shocked at the prices for fresh fruit. Actually, lots of prices were very high, and Japanese beer turns out to be more expensive in Japan than in Taiwan because of their taxes. Made the delightful discovery that there's a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop near Kayun's home, so we indulged ourselves there, too. Oh man, it's been a long time since I had Jamoca Almond Fudge ice cream! Cost me $3US for their "king-sized" scoop, but I didn't mind paying that. Went back the next day, too, ha.

Tuesday it was up early again and out of the house with Kayun, because I didn't think I could find my way to the station without her. I planned to pick up my visa and then explore a bit on my own before meeting Kayun after her class. Got the visa no problem, but once again ended up wandering around underground, searching for a place my little Kansai Thru Pass guidebook mentioned. Never found it. Finally decided I'd rather just go early to the station where I was meeting Kayun and look around there. Found the airport bus station there and checked what time I'd have to be there Friday morning (7:55 a.m.), looked around the area a bit, then found a Starbucks and sat reading my Chinese book and waiting for Kayun. When she got there, we headed for Kobe for the evening, where we ended up eating in Chinatown, because it's one of the few places a vegetarian like Kayun can manage to find food without meat in it. I got a small plate of guo tie (potstickers) that would have cost me $1.50US in Taiwan but was $5US in Japan (and not as tasty). Then we walked to the harbor area, arriving just as the sun was vanishing for good. Everything was decorated for Halloween, and we just wandered around the shops (best find, the Ghibli Studios shop - Totoro everywhere!) enjoying the evening.

Wednesday, and yet another early rise and out the door, this time to meet Kieko in Nara. This time I didn't get lost at Umeda, because Kayun was with me, on her way to the China embassy to apply for a visa for her Shanghai trip. We parted ways before Namba Station, and there I managed to find the right train for Nara, arriving much later than I'd expected, causing poor Kieko to wait about an hour for me at Starbucks. She's a good sport, though, and wasn't angry about that. We wandered a shopping district for a bit, looking for a reasonably priced place for lunch, found one that wasn't bad, ate and chatted, then headed for Nara Park, home of the sacred deer, which terrify Kieko. Seems she was chased by them when she was a child, so now she doesn't care much for them. They are pushy little things, that's for sure. You can buy deer food for them, flat crackers that are yucky (yeah, I tried 'em) but they love them. The deer will bow their heads to you, and then you feed them.....and then you're surrounding by a troupe of bowing, butting, biting deer. They'll tug on your clothes and get deer snot all over you, but they're so cute! Watch this movie, then pop on over to YouTube for two others, including a mating season battle.

Nara Park is also huge, and there are so many wonderful shrines and temples. We walked and walked and walked, took some rest and ate ice cream (mango for me and "some kind of citrus" for Kieko). The deer are everywhere in the park, and the deer poopie is also everywhere, but as soon as they let fly, some little lady comes out with a broom and dustpan and sweeps it up (at least, in front of the shops they do). I bought some Deer Poopie Chocolates to give to a friend, just chocolate covered peanuts, but they do look almost exactly like what was emerging from the deer's hind ends.....yum. After we left the deer park, we walked around other parts of the area to view other shrines. It's so pretty everywhere, even the manhole covers in Japan are artistic. We walked until we could walk no more (well, I couldn't, maybe Kieko could have), then found a place for coffee and chat. Finally, I had to leave for the two-hour trip back to Kayun and Luke's, so Kieko and I parted. I hope she'll come back to Taiwan for a visit - I miss her!

Luke was already home when I arrived (normally he gets in after 9:00 p.m., poor guy, long hours), and Kayun had made quesadillas, saving one for me. Damn, it was so delicious! She's really a good cook, that girl, using sausage, pork, and gouda cheese to create a uniquely flavored quesadilla. And there was enough for me to have one for lunch on Thursday, too. I definitely need to make a trip to Costco here for salsa and tortillas to make my own Kayunsadillas!

I spent most of that day hanging around at their place, relaxing, finally sleeping in until 8:45 a.m. I went to the 100 Yen Store (awesome shop, so many cool things for only $.87US, wow!) and walked around the neighborhood. I was meeting Kayun in Takarazuka City at 4:00 p.m., so I headed out early to give myself some time to check it out on my own. Lovely little town, home to the Takarazuka Revue , an all-female musical theater troupe. I strolled along the flower road to the river and across, then back to the station, meeting Kayun and walking back along the same route I'd taken, but then in another direction for a different part of town. Honestly, by this time I was pretty tired of walking, so after hitting the 99 Yen Store (one yen cheaper!) for groceries for Kayun, we took a cab back to the station, caught a train back to her house, and met up with Luke for dinner. He treated us to all-you-can-eat BBQ (meat for us, curry and veggies for Kayun), and we were the only customers in the whole place. This was the kind of place where you cook your own stuff on the grill set into the table, and they offered all kinds of beef cuts, some marinated, some not, and chicken and perhaps pork, too. Plus sushi, desserts, curry, takoyaki (not as good as the stuff sold close to Kayun's house), chicken nuggets, too many things to even remember. It was a lot more expensive than the same type of place in Taiwan ( about $18US per person versus about $9US in Taiwan), and we thought it was good, but Luke said the Japanese are picky about quality and likely the reason there were no other customers was that this was not a good place!

Friday morning it was up at 6:00 a.m., to the bus by 7:55 a.m., sad parting from Kayun, and a 90-minute ride to the airport. I was on Cathay Pacific for this trip, nice airline, decent food, very comfy seats - and punctual, too. When I got back to Taoyuan International Airport at 1:15 p.m., I was shocked to see no lines at immigration! I was able to walk right up to the counter and got through in less than two minutes. That has never happened before. Caught the bus back and was home by 3:30 or so, I think. DZ was so happy to see me, and she didn't seem as distressed as she'd been the last time I was gone for a long time. Guess she has now realized that I will eventually come back, so she doesn't panic.

Japan: quiet, clean, good air quality, cars that yield to pedestrians, people who actually wait for passengers to get off the train before trying to get on, coffee shops playing quiet background music. Taiwan: noisy, not so clean, air full of smoke from people burning ghost money, cars that try their best to run you over in a crosswalk, people who push and shove to scramble onto the train hoping for a seat, coffee shops blasting music so loud one must yell to be heard across a table.

Japan: somber people dressed in neutral tones, homes that are beautiful and serene but lifeless, residential streets that have no people in the evenings, old people standing on trains because they get insulted if someone would offer a seat, silent subways and railways packed with people afraid to look at one another. Taiwan: people dressed in a riot of mismatched colors and patterns; homes that are decorated with colorful banners and plants - and laundry drying on the balcony; residential streets full of life - kids, dogs, chatting neighbors; people more often than not yielding their seat to older folks and them grateful for it; trains crowded with laughing, happy people madly chatting away to each other.

Japan: a nice place to visit, but wouldn't want to live there. Taiwan: full of life and loudness, annoying at times but oh-so-preferable to a life of stilted politeness. This is my home, and I love it.

Japan Ho!

2007-10-13T14:19:00.000+08:00

Having survived both Super Typhoon Krosa (which really pounded us) and the last hectic week of the semester (3 tests), I am now ready for my trip to Japan. I'm leaving on Sunday the 14th on a 4:00 p.m. flight, which puts me in Osaka at 7:40 p.m. I have all my visa application documents ready to go, including incredibly bad photos taken at the automatic photo both last week, right after I had my hair cut. Scary, really scary. In the mirror I don't look so old, but in photos? OMG. It sucks when your only choices are 1) be fat and look younger or 2) be thinner and look old. I'm not sure I want to continue to lose weight now!

I spent over six hours on my day off Wednesday preparing for my semester final, and it paid off. I got a 93 on it! And miracle of miracles, the test on Monday, where the teacher reads sentences and we have to write the Chinese correctly - for the first time I got them all right! I used to get 100% on the tests Miss Wang gave, because she didn't use words I hardly ever write, but Miss Cao is always using weird words that we've forgotten how to write. So I was dancing around the classroom after that one, yelling "終於!" That means, "Finally!"

I've been looking over my tests for the semester, and I did well on all but one. Scores are:
89, 89, 95, 97, 92, 89, 80, 92, 95, 89, and 93. Those scores plus the fact that I turned in every bit of the homework, and some extra stuff on top, will hopefully get me a high final score, which I need for the next scholarship application. The teacher wrote me a very nice letter to take to the visa office, telling them how studious and self-motivated I am and what a pleasure it is to have such a great student. :) I felt warm and fluffy all over when I read it. So yeah, visa office, I'm a good girl and study hard, please let me continue!

So there I was Wednesday evening, studying hard, when I got a phone call from Natari. She said my landlady called her (she signed the original contract) and said I have to move, because her family is moving back to this apartment. Now, I've been talking about moving for some time, because those little shits upstairs are still incredibly noisy and annoying, and I've been thinking I should find a cheaper place anyway. But now that I have no choice, I'm a bit sad! I really love this apartment and the location. Hopefully I can find something just as nice in this area, maybe for less. My friends are helping me look around online, so I expect when I get back from Japan I'll start going to check out places. My contract is through March 6, but the landlady said I can move sooner if I want, and she won't keep my deposit. It sounds as if she'd prefer the sooner the better, so I'll try to oblige. Sorry to everyone who didn't have a chance to visit me yet, because I may not have much room in the new place, and visiting me may not be nearly as comfortable as it is now! But hey, ya'll had your chance, so pfffft to you. :)

Autumn is finally here, with lovely cool weather that has the Taiwanese wearing jackets and sweaters and me still working up a sweat after walking for a few minutes. But the breezes are nice and the evenings are lovely. This year perhaps we'll have a proper winter, since we sure didn't last year.

Charlene and I decided we're going to Hualian for the Wu Bai & China Blue concert, trading the two tickets I have and can't sell for two Hualian ones. She found a hostel for $37US a night, and split between us that's cheap. The train fare is $24US, not bad. Charlene will buy one of my tickets, and my total cost to attend this show will be $127. I'd rather pay that than return the tickets for only a 70% refund! I mean, what the hell, I'm here in Taiwan, I might as well attend every concert I can, right? Charlene and I joked that we'll just eat instant noodles for a few weeks, ha. So, wow, four Wu Bai and China Blue concerts coming up, how great!

Hopefully I'll have some fun stuff to write about Japan after I get back, and some photos to share.

Getting Krosa to You

2007-10-06T09:36:00.001+08:00

Once again we have a super typhoon paying a weekend visit. This time it's Krosa, and it's been krosing in on us for a few days, putting panic into the hearts of many, who say it's one of the biggest, baddest storms in the last 100 years. Jury's still out on that one, since it seems to me that typhoons in Taiwan always remind me of the little boy who cried "Wolf!" all the time. However, it's better to be prepared, so I have a bathtub full of water to use for flushing toilets should our water supply be cut off (apparently this happens) and boiled water to make coffee and for drinking. I think the water problems are more apt to happen in areas like Taichung, though. We had a typhoon on September 17, and everyone got the day off work and school. It hardly even rained in my area and it was sunny most of the day! The wind was howling at times, but not that bad. Didn't even stop the workers from continuing on the buildings that are going up close by.

So, right now I have rain, rain, rain, and then there's a little rain on top of that. Wind is still pretty mild, but I don't guess I'll be hanging my laundry on the balcony to dry today. Nope, the dryer will be put into use (as long as the electricity doesn't go out).

Next week is the last of the semester. Wednesday is a national holiday. Monday I have a small test, Tuesday I have a bigger test, and Thursday I have my semester final. Gee, the teacher just loves tests! We had a four-day holiday for Mid-Autumn Festival, Saturday through Tuesday. The Friday before she gave us four pages of homework to complete and told us we'd have a test on the first day back. So, I spent most of my holiday time studying. Paid off, though, because I did well on the test. I have no idea which teacher I'll have next semester and what the textbook will be like. Part of me is hoping for less homework, but another part of me knows that being pushed is good for me and helps me make progress. I'm a lazy soul and if no one prods me, I tend to not do anything on my own.

I still haven't gotten a working ATM card. The password never did arrive for the first one, so the bank cancelled that one and issued a new card pre-pinned with a password I'd selected. That one arrived, but when I tried to use it at the bank, no luck. Wrote back to the bank asking what the problem was, and got the reply that apparently foreign banks don't accept US cards with passwords beginning in zero! Would have been nice for both me and the patient woman who's been helping me to have this knowledge in advance. So, she sent yet another card, pre-pinned with a different password that I know. That was on 9/21, and it's still not here. What worries me is that I just received my September credit card statement, and stamped on the front was "Missent to Bangkok Thailand." Oh, hooray for the US postal service, which doesn't know one country from another! My friend Wendy, who works for the USPS, once mailed a package to Nigeria. It got sent to Nicaragua instead and took a whole year to finally get to Nigeria! So who the hell knows if my ATM card ended up in Thailand? Thankfully the card for the second account is still working, or I'd be SOL for sure.

My trip to Japan is set for October 14 through 19. I'll arrive very late on the 14th and will return on a 1:00 p.m. flight on the 19th, so really I'll just have four days there, and two of those will be used for visa application and (hopefully) pickup. Kayun is so sweet, she's going to meet me at the airport because she's worried I'll get lost. I think I'd be OK, but it will be nice to have someone to talk to on the hour ride to her part of town. I'll meet up with Kieko, too, and might spend one night in Kyoto at a guest house that's pretty cheap. I'm not looking forward to spending all the money for this, but I need the visa, and the Hong Kong office most likely won't give me one, so it's to Japan I go. And of course I'm very happy about seeing Luke, Kayun, and Kieko!

I'm still on the diet, but I haven't lost much more. The total lost is 9kg, not too bad, but for the last two weeks I haven't gotten as much exercise as I'd like, so the weight ain't budging. Nat and Charlene are doing so well on the Herbalife diet that I'm tempted to try, but I don't think I have the discipline to not eat in the evenings. We'll see, maybe I'll try it for a month or something.

I'm really bummed that Carol can't come for the Wu Bai concerts. Now I need to sell the tickets I got for her, and if I can't, Charlene and I might just go to the Hualien show, because we can exchange the tix for that venue. Originally, we had decided it would just be too expensive, because there's no way to get back at night and we'd have the expense of the hotel. But what the heck, we may do it anyway. If I return the tickets for a refund, I only get back 70% of the cost, so I kinda hate to do that. And besides, I've never been to Hualien yet! But dang, I really wish Carol could have come, since I didn't have a chance to see her when I went back to the US last year, and it's been five years since she's been to Taiwan for a Wu Bai concert!

Another friend, Krista, is mulling over the idea of perhaps coming for a visit during Chinese New Year. I have two weeks off, and even though so many places are closed, there's still a lot to do and see. She thinks perhaps she could come during the last week and then stay on a bit longer when things are back to normal. It sure would be nice to have company, because I'm always so bored then. Maybe I can talk Cheryl into coming over for the first week! Or maybe I can actually go to Hong Kong to see her (depends on what sort of visa I can get).

My friend Ye Ying, who went to Leiden, Holland, to study is finding that the Dutch are not very friendly. Her boyfriend, Xuan Yi, went with her and stayed a couple of weeks, and they traveled to Brussels and to Amsterdam, and he said they ran into some incredibly rude people. It's quite sad, really. I find the Taiwan people so friendly and helpful, always willing to assist me, asking me if I'm lost if I'm looking at a map at the MRT station or on the street. I recall how the first time I needed to take the airport bus from Minquan W. Rd. station, and I couldn't figure out where it was, a complete stranger went out of her way to walk with me and ask people where the bus stop was, making sure I got on the right bus before going on with her own business. I hope Ye Ying will soon be accustomed to the unfriendly atmosphere in Leiden and not let it bother her so much.

I miss my language exchanges sessions with Ye Ying, and next week will be the last language exchange I have with Xuan Yi, because now that he has graduated, he needs to move out of the dorm and go back to Tainan. Then he needs to do his army service before looking for a job. He's going to help me find a new partner. I get to see Shannon sporadically, which is nice, but she's working every single day, not even one day that's completely free, so it's not easy. She's going to spend the night Tuesday, since we have Wednesday off, and that should be some fun (but I have to spend a lot of time Wednesday afternoon and evening studying for my final!).

My Wednesday afternoon brother and sister students flaked out. Pisses me off, because I met with them first, told them that learning English wasn't something that could be done in a once-a-week, one-hour lesson! I told them they'd need to spend time themselves working on it. The brother is just too busy with his business, and since he was paying for the lessons, both and his sister have quit. Now I'm only teaching Claire for one hour on the weekend, and her friend Jessica is supposed to start, also for one hour on the weekend. Meaning: no money coming in. I guess it's OK, because I do need a lot of time for my own studying. I've decided that I'm going to be picky about students. Just like I pay for three months in advance and if I don't go to class, I don't get any money back, any new student is going to have to do the same. I want a commitment out of them! If they aren't willing to do this, then they aren't serious about learning, so forget it. I hate wasting my time, no matter how much someone is paying me. This way I should weed out the flakes for sure.

Oh, here's an ad I happened across, can't even recall where:

"Don't strees any more over which tense to use and how to rearrange your sentences on your college application essay. Let a Berkeley graduate help you to create the best written expression of your qualifications and get into your dream school. I'll get into your head and help you turn your cognition into English. A coheret and fluid essay makes a vast difference!! $2/per please contact via email (removed)

Rather pitiful for a college graduate to produce such a poorly written advertisement with spelling and grammar errors. I can't figure out what her actual charges are, either. Per word? Per essay? Huh? But hey, she could get a job teaching English in Taiwan, because she has a degree!

My friend Aaron is back from England, yay! So nice to see him again, and so funny for him to be talking about how fat he got there. Yeah, right, if he walked outside today, the typhoon would blow him away. I'd be surprised if he even weighs 140 pounds! His sister's wedding celebration is today, and I'm afraid it's going to be ruined by the typhoon. Part of it is supposed to be in Keelung, and that's on the coast and getting battered severely right now. Relatives from Hong Kong were supposed to fly in this morning, but I'm sure they weren't able to. He said when his other sister got married, there was a typhoon that day, too!

I guess I've written enough. I should be doing homework, but I can't get into it right now. Still, the wind is picking up, and the power might not last, so I suppose I'd best get to it while I still have the 'puter to use.

Tasty Tidbits

2007-09-28T19:34:00.001+08:00

Spotted stacked up outside a dumpling shop not far from my house. Just sorta makes your mouth water, don't it? Note from where these delicacies have been imported!

And guess what? You can buy fried pork rectums in the US! Yes indeedy, if you live near Rowland Heights in the LA area, stop in and try 'em: Yoso-Silly Discusses Fish Balls and More

Bad Things Come in Threes

2007-09-07T07:37:00.000+08:00

Bad Thing No. 1: A few weeks ago I tried to use my US bank ATM card to get money and it didn't work, apparently worn out. Requested new card from bank and began using 2nd account while waiting for new card. New card arrived on August 17, however to this date password has not arrived (suspect lame-o US postal service sent it to the PRC instead of the ROC). Yesterday morning sent e-mail requesting new card and new password. Yesterday afternoon attempted to withdraw money from 2nd account and received the message, "Your password is incorrect." So, now unable to access any of my US funds. Not happy. Edit: Tried the card at a different branch today, and it worked. Happy now. :) And yes, I had the right password yesterday, I've used it for years, and I'm not likely to forget it!

Bad Thing No. 2: Went for a walk last Sunday, brought along insulated water bottle. Placed said water bottle in purse, upright. After taking drink from said bottle, replaced in purse. After a few minutes felt water dripping down my right leg, discovered bottle had tipped over, cap was not on tight, cell phone completely drowned. Purchased new cell phone yesterday and waved goodbye to $166US. Although the new phone is much nicer than the old one, so maybe not quite so bad, but still not happy about having to spend the money.

Bad Thing No. 3: Was eating my cereal yesterday morning, and I bit down on a date or a raisin, sure a but hard but not like *that* hard, and experienced excruciating pain in left rear upper molar. Pain remained all day, and trying to chew anything on that side is one big owie. I fear I've cracked a tooth, not surprising since it's mostly just one large filling with a shell. Crap, more money to spend. Crap, crap, crap. Edit: This afternoon the tooth doesn't seem as bad, let's hope for the best.

Have a test today, studied until late last night. Couldn't sleep. Kept tossing and turning. Finally fell asleep, only to be shaken awake at 1:53 a.m. by very, very large earthquake that rattled the whole island. And of course could not fall back asleep very easily, until right before my alarm went off. Since I'm still in one piece (and so is my house and everything in it), this isn't really such a bad thing. Just don't worry about me, I'm fine. :) Edit: Ugh, did not do very well on the test, because I could hardly stay awake. Blew a couple simple things because of lack of brain function. No biggie, just hate not doing well, you know?

Maybe I'll have time to write more tomorrow.

Time Flies as Fast as a Weaver's Shuttle

2007-08-25T09:45:00.000+08:00

歲月如梭 - that's a Chinese idiom for "time flies." And that's how the days are going by now, as quickly as the shuttle flying along the strands of threads as the weaver makes her cloth. My lessons have a fixed pattern: Monday we begin a new chapter in the book, and by Wednesday we've covered all the new words and then some. On Thursday we have a 聽寫, a test that's basically taking dictation (my prior experience taking notes at meetings helps with this one because I first scribble the words in pinyin and then write them in Chinese), and on Friday we have a test on the whole chapter. I'm going to continue to toot my own horn by saying that for each test I've scored the highest in class (teacher doesn't give a numerical score for the dictations, but I've done well on those, too). I rock. We had our fourth test yesterday, and I think I did pretty good, have to wait until Monday to find out. If Joe or De Ming gets a higher score, it's only because they cheat when the teacher leaves the room, using their dictionaries in their cell phones to look up words! Damn, I hate cheaters, I really do. I sit behind them, and I'm so tempted to smack 'em both with my umbrella.

So almost every day when I get home, I'm dragging out the dictionary to look up stuff the teacher taught us, to be sure I understood her explanation. I'm making tons of sentences using the new words and phrases to see if I really get it. I'm writing scads of characters over and over to burn them into my memory. And I'm writing one composition per week, which isn't easy when I have no inspiration, like this week. They're coming back to me with very few corrections, which gladdens my heart, as it means I'm actually learning something. I wrote my longest one week before last, almost 1,000 characters. Is it any wonder my right hand hurts like a sonofabitch most of the time? This is worse than any carpal tunnel syndrom could ever be! Well, OK, maybe not, but it's still hell on the old hand. Right now, just after this little bit of typing, my right pinky is totally numb and the ring finger isn't far behind.

Last weekend Super Typhoon Sepat came calling, but it was a tempest in a teapot up in my area. Although it battered other parts of the island and vegetable and fruit prices are now nice and high, I barely saw any rain and had hardly any wind here. The best thing is that the weather has been cooler (just a little) since then, especially in the evenings. I had to use the air conditioning a lot more this year than I did last year during July, and I don't really want to see my bill when it comes in September!

Still plugging away at the diet and have managed to lose a total of 7.9 kg (17.5 lbs) now. That's still 3.6 kg (8 lbs.) more than I was when I got here two years ago, and it's also 8.7 kg (just about 20 lbs.) more than I was back in November 2004! Crap. Why is it so easy to gain weight and so hard to lose it? My fruit-selling family vanished on me, taking away my extremely convenient buy-it-on-the-way-home method, so I haven't been eating as much fruit as I should. Now I have to go over to the busy and congested street for fruit, so I often just blow it off because I don't want to deal with the crowds and the cars that keep trying to run over me. I'm gonna make a fruit run today, though. And my Kashi Go-Lean cereal, that I was able to buy last time for about $3US because the store had it on sale, is now costing $7US! Uh uh, no way, I'm not paying that, it's hard enough to pay $5US for Kellogg's Just Right Mueslix. Why is it that fattening food is so cheap and anything healthy costs the earth?

I'm looking forward to the next four months. In September Taka is coming with her family from Singapore, so I'll get to see her briefly, probably just long enough to hand over some Wu Bai merchandise Angela ordered. There's also a possibility that my former stepson, Chris, will be coming. He's in the Navy now (amazing), currently in the Gulf, and he said they're coming to Taiwan for a week. But, he doesn't know exactly where in Taiwan they're going. And now I'm not sure he's actually coming to Taiwan, because his last e-mail said "everyone I work with that has been to Hong Kong says its a blast there so I am looking forward to it." Perhaps he's not sure just where Taiwan is, I dunno. (Edit later same day. Yup, he thought I lived in Hong Kong, said he's sure that's what his dad told him, and despite at least five e-mails that talked about him going to TAIWAN. Kinda worries me that this boy is in the Navy.) Also in September is Aaron's return from England, right around Mid-Autumn Festival (which means a day off school).

October gives me another day off school, right before the end of the semester, and brings me my trip to Japan mid month and then the Wu Bai concert at the end of the month. It will hopefully bring Carol, too. Slight chance of Cheryl also being able to make a stopover on the way back from a training seminar in Korea.

November has the Wu Bai concert on the 3rd, because Thanksgiving is meaningless here as I can't possible cook a turkey dinner. But I will probably make a pumpkin pie, so all is not lost. This month might also see the return of Guoxi from his airline pilot training in Australia. He'll be back either October or November, I'm pretty sure. He can't wait, says the food in Australia sucks and he misses Taiwan food.

December - another Wu Bai concert! This one is bringing some Singapore fans over, which is always a treat. So far Lee Ying and Lee Yang, David and Tona are for sure. Angela, Taka, Vynson, and Nicole are possibilities. I hope they can all make it. That show is my Christmas present to myself.

OK, I'm stopping before my hand gives out completely. I have to save it for the Chinese writing I'll be doing later. Bye now.

Everything is Swell

2007-08-12T09:37:00.000+08:00

Got my report card from last semester - 92%.

Got my visa extended with no problems, good through Oct. 19.

Neither of the two typhoons that were headed this way caused any problems for us, just a lot of rain in certain places and a bit of cooler air (not much).

That's all I have time for now!

Quickie

2007-08-06T20:07:00.000+08:00

OK folks, you're not going to see much of me for the next three months. Last week was the first week of the new semester - I got the strictest teacher in the school. We had two tests last week - two! But ha, I got the highest score in class, high five me! However, I'm hitting the books at lot harder this time, and I'll be spending loads of time studying and writing, so I won't be playing around on the computer. If something significant comes up, I'll write about it. If my stress level gets out of hand, I'll write about it. Otherwise, it may just be a stray post here and there, sorry.

Best news is that Wu Bai & China Blue are having four more concerts this year, and I'm going to two of them. Related to that is the fact the Carol will most probably come over for the shows, too (won't you?), and that makes me very happy. I'm dying to have friends from abroad come and visit, but so far only Ranger Steve and Cheryl have taken advantage of my hospitality.

That's all for now, gotta go keep practicing writing characters (which is also making my right hand very, very, very sore, another reason I'm not typing much).

Ta for now!

Steaming Toilets

2007-07-29T09:56:00.000+08:00

A quote from funny friend Cheryl's latest dispatch from Hong Kong:

"you know it's hot when the toilet bowl is steaming. yes indeedy, when you flush the toilet here, steam comes out. the water in the pipes is that hot. silver lining: you get your toilet bowl and your ass steam-cleaned for free."

And here in Taiwan, you feel a blast of heat when you raise the lid. Haven't quite noticed steam upon flushing, though. Suffice it to say that it's demmed hot.

I've spent the foregoing week on holiday from school, and as expected, bored out of my mind for the most part. What's the use of time off when it's too hot outside to have fun? I did manage to read the new (and final) Harry Potter book, but that only took up about 9 or 10 hours total. This was a long-awaited book, and it was over far too quickly. I was left with a bit of a sad feeling that the Harry Potter tales are now over. Gosh, couldn't Rowling have dragged them on for a few more years? How could she end them so abruptly??? Nine years of my life with Harry, watching him and his friends grow up, and now no more. Phooey.

I've also been reading Japanse author Haruki Murakami's (村上春樹) excellent novel, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (發條鳥年代記). If you've never read his books, run right out and buy one now. I know, I've only read Kafka on the Shore and this one, but that's enough for me to know that all of his works are marvelous. I have to thank Wu Bai for allowing me to discover this author, because the only reason I bought Kafka was that I knew that Wu Bai's favorite author was Murakami. Not all of his novels have been translated into English, but I fully intend to read everything that is, providing I can find them at decent prices, which ain't easy.

And I went into town (read: Taipei) twice, for language exchange and teaching, but the rest of my time has been spent loafing around the house, with only brief forays to nearby shops for victuals and the weekend beer, fans and/or air conditioner at full blast, computing, reading, and watching movies. I watched Arthur and the Minimoys, Death Note and its sequel Death Note: The Last Name, Night at the Museum, Curse of the Golden Flower, Monsoon Wedding, Lady in the Water, 300, and most of Devdas. While none of these flicks sucked, none rate glowing reviews, either. The least enjoyable was probably Lady in the Water, which I found simply too far-fetched and weird. It borders on sucks without actually falling completely over into it. Night at the Museum was better than expected, with some pretty funny scenarios (loved the "throw the bone" dinosaur skeleton); Curse of the Golden Flower was a feast for the eye with its incredibly lavish sets and inspired in me a desire to learn more about the Tang Dynasty; Death Note featured two quite adorable young Japanese actors who weigh about 121 pounds (or less) sopping wet, along with a couple of well-animated Death Gods for laughs (and let me tell ya, I'm on Kira's side all the way); 300 took liberties with history that made the Persians out to be right weird folks and had me wondering if all those buff guys were weighing body suits or were really that buff; and Monsoon Wedding and Devdas are the usual fun-filled Indian movies that pair comedy and tragedy so well. Arthur and the Minimoys....I need to re-watch this in the Chinese dubbed version, because Wu Bai was one of the dubbers. Don't know which part he dubbed, don't really care, just like hearing his voice. Cute movie, anyway, and I hope to see lovely little Minimoys hanging around in the garden someday.

I haven't neglected my Chinese this week, either. I've read the next lesson, practiced writing the new characters, looked them all up in the dictionary, and have started typing my compilation of synonomous grammar (jeez, how many ways can you say "if"???) that I hope will be helpful as I write compositions. I still have no idea who my teacher next semester is, but I sure hope it's not the dragon lady the students who were switching to an 8:00 class were afraid they'd be stuck with. I'd rather end up with the not-so-lively Chen Laoshi, whom I had for one week in February, than this fearful woman who seems to enjoy yelling at the students in class. I'll be the only girl in class this semester, and I don't like that. I'll miss my female classmates and am not looking forward to having to Westerners in my class, especially since one is a friend's ex-boyfriend.....

Poor DZ, she's also much too warm these days. She tries to find a cool place to sleep on the tile floor or waits for me to go into the living room and turn the fan on so she can lay in front of it on the coffee table. I gave her a bath last weekend, hoping to cool her off and clean her up in one swell foop, and I got hate glares from her the rest of the day. But damn, she was filthy. Even though she doesn't go outside, the crap that blows into the house is pretty bad. For months they've been slowly digging away at the little hillside next to my building, and every day dirt is coming in through the open windows. I should probably get myself a few air filters to put around the house, but that's money I don't want to spend.

How's the diet coming along, you ask? Well, it's not. I was so pissed last Saturday when I found that a half a kilo had come back, and I'd been darned good all week! I'd walked, eaten sensibly, hadn't pigged out, and still I gained some back. Well, that just made me feel less like being good this week, and I haven't. I didn't gain back any more, but I didn't re-lose that half kilo, either. I'm going to try to force myself to walk a lot this next week, even if it's 108 degress outside (you know, we had the hottest day in July in 80 years last week or the week before - global warming, ya think?). I'm not giving up this fight!

I'll be back next weekend with more of this exciting report from Isle de Formosa!

What Dreams May Come

2007-07-22T10:03:00.000+08:00

Today didn't start easily, for I read the news that my friend's husband, Tim, had left this world behind. Cris and I were co-workers and friends for many years at my former job, and although I didn't know Tim well, I liked and respected him and was especially fond of his political views, and I will sorely miss reading his thoughts.

I've been following the story of their last journey together since the day Tim was diagnosed with incurable lung disease a few months ago. The journey has been too short, but the pain of one has now ended while the pain of the other grows stronger. I can't be there to hug my friend and give her what little comfort I might offer, so I will ask any of you who read my blog to visit hers and discover this lovely lady with a beautiful mind, and leave her a short note. I know she's strong and that she will handle whatever life dishes out to her with grace and aplomb, but every little bit of love will help.

Cafe Imagine

Tim, I hope your adventurer's heart is finding this new journey to be wonderful and exciting. I hope there's a river for you to ride, mysteries for you to delve into, and music for you to enjoy while you wait for Cris to someday join you. You touched so many while you were here, and you will be missed.

The Dog Days of Summer

2007-07-15T08:50:00.000+08:00

{Trumpet Fanfare} Hear ye, hear ye! Please note the passing of 6.5 kilos of ugly flab! That would be 14.3 pounds for you US folks. Ah, the little things in life that can make us so happy.

Next week is the last week of the semester, with the semester final on Thursday. So, I've been cramming for that, plus trying to write the compositions that I haven't yet written (yeah, I'm a slacker sometimes and do my best work at the last minute). And after the semester is over, I have 10 days off before starting the new one on July 30. I'm guessing I'll be bored senseless most of the time.

However, I do have one lovely thing to look forward to - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! The book comes out on July 21, and I've already pre-ordered at Eslite. So this week I'm re-reading The Half-Blood Prince, since it's been two years since I read it and have forgotten some of the details. This is a strange sort of anticipation, because this book is the final Harry Potter book, and I'm so sad about that. How can Ms. Rowling leave us like this? I'm hoping she won't, that she'll continue writing books related to other characters or at least set in the same magical universe. Surely she needs to make even more millions than she currently has.

One of my friends here in Taiwan is writing a book, and she's been letting me to read it as she writes. It's a quirky vampire novel, and I love it! After reading some of the complete drek that's on the market now, I'm quite sure she'll have no difficulty getting published, as her work is miles above a lot of that crap.

The weather this week has been truly miserable, hot and humid like you would not believe. We had one or two days of marginally cooler air thanks to super typhoon Man-Yi that was making a fly-by on its way to Japan, but it wasn't enough. Today is supposed to be a RealFeel of 106F, bleah. At least there's wind, which does help a bit, and it will probably rain sporadically all next week. Being the bright bulb that I am, on Tuesday I decided it would be an excellent idea to walk from school to Zhongshan MRT station. The temp was probably around 103F degrees and not a cloudy day, and no breeze. After my almost one-hour walk, I damn near collapsed at the station! First thing I did when I got home was take a cold shower and then guzzle down a bunch of water. Yikes, won't be doing that again soon. Although I will try to force myself to go for early morning walks along the river while I'm on my school break, instead of sitting on my fat ass in the house all day long.

I started teaching a brother and sister last week. Jerry, the guy, is quite good looking (IMO) but a bit shy. He's 33 and is an interior designer with his own business. His 31-year-old sister, Celine, is an interesting person. She says she has "healing hands" and can use qi gong energy to help people heal. I'm hoping to get her to try on my bad knee, which still bothers me quite a bit sometimes. And I'm trying to surreptiously find out if Jerry has a wife, girlfriend, or boyfriend, because if he's single and straight, I'm going to introduce him to some of my friends!

Wu Bai & China Blue will be going to Malaysia in August for a concert at Genting. I will not be going, because if I leave, I ain't got no visa to come back. Just as well, since it would cost me tons of money that I can't afford. I also didn't go to the autograph sessions that were held today in the central and southern Taiwan because 1) it appeared that it would be just Wu Bai and not the whole band and 2) I have to study for my final. Hopefully there will be a session in Taipei that will feature everyone. Not that I don't madly adore Wu Bai, of course, it's just that if I'm going to get a CD autographed, I want EVERYONE'S signature since EVERYONE worked on the CD, not just Wu Bai.

Just one more month and my friend Ye Ying will be leaving for Holland for her studies there. I'll really miss our language exchange sessions. She's an excellent teacher and a fine friend, and I'm so proud of her for passing her IELTS exam and being accepted at Leiden. If the opportunity arises, I'd love to be able to visit her there, but I'm afraid it's probably far too expensive a trip to make.

And then in September my good buddy Aaron will be returning from England, where he's been studying for the last year. It will be great to have him back, and I know he'll be happy to be on home ground again. He called yesterday, and we talked for an hour and a half. One of his best friends had gone to England to visit him, and the cheap bastard sponged off Aaron the whole time! This guy is a teacher who makes good money. The only thing he brought as a gift to Aaron was one single pack of instant noodles, that's it. He stayed in Aaron's dorm, in Aaron's bed, while Aaron slept on the floor. Aaron had to spend his money eating out every day while his friend was there, and not once did the guy offer to pay for a meal - even after he won 25 pounds (around $50US) at the casino! Like they say, with friends like that...... So yesterday on the phone I taught Aaron all sorts of new words: cheapskate, tightwad, miser, stingy, penny pincher, niggardly (which I told him to avoid using, as it sounds far too much like a very unpleasant word, despite having nothing at all to do with that word). I'm so grateful that my friends are the generous sort.

The first year I was here, I wasn't very careful with my money at times (what a dork!), and I also spent a lot furnishing my apartment. My bank balance dwindled by $22,621 that year, which is not bad by US standards but for a person without an income not so great. So the next year I was much more careful, and I also managed to earn a bit more from teaching. Yesterday I finally calculated the cost of last year to my bank balance, and it was $11,223. Wow, I managed to cut expenses in half without even realizing it! I've been working on paying off the two credit cards I have, so I've been spending about $250-$300 per month on that (and was spending a lot more per month that first year). So, once I get those paid off (I have about $2300 to go), I'll be spending even less. I just want my little nest egg to get me through four years of university, and I think I can squeak that by, especially if I can keep teaching just a little bit.

By the way, a big thank you to all of you who faithfully read my blog instead of sending me e-mails asking me what's new (yeah, you know who you are, if you finally dropped in to read, cuz I already chewed you out for it). I have to say that it's truly disappointing to know that some friends don't bother to read it, especially now that I write so little, so it's not as if they have to spend hours a day catching up on my doings. I admit that I don't check my Chinese friends' blogs very often, because it's not so easy to read the Chinese, but everyone who blogs in English gets an almost-daily visit from me to see if there's anything new. I may not always leave a comment, but I'm reading!

If at First You Don't Succeed.....aka No Joy in Mudville Part Deux

2007-07-04T15:51:00.000+08:00

Steeeeee-rike two!

I didn't get the scholarship. Again. Despite having the highest grade in the school (no applause, just throw money), they didn't give it to me. Why? Because out of 110 hours of instruction (one semester, 11 weeks), I missed 8 hours (4 days of classes). Two hours was because I had a recording job that day and earned $1,800NT, nothing to sneeze at, but I could have not gone. Two hours was because I was home puking my guts out after eating something bad, and there was no way I could get to school. Two hours was because the fucking unhelpful girls at the front desk couldn't be arsed to tell me in advance that I'd need two weeks to apply for the ARC, causing me to make a frantic run to the Banqiao immigration office in the morning for a short extension and then on a futile trip to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (you'll recall I didn't get the ARC), leaving me no time to make it to my 1:00 p.m. class, which wasn't even a real class, as the teacher had taken everyone to a teahouse that day. Two hours was because I had to friggin' leave the country because I didn't get the friggin' ARC and there weren't any cheap flights on the weekend or even later in the evening, so I had to vacate on a Friday afternoon, again missing a class.

The Powers That Be at the school only allow you to miss 6 whole hours if you want a scholarship, so I was over by 2 hours. The rules the government sets down for student visa requirements allow one to miss 10 hours (5 days of class) per month, and you'd think they'd be the stricter ones. Deng Laoshi told me that although they really, really, really wanted to give me the scholarship, they thought the other students would complain. How the hell the other students would even know how much time I missed was a question she couldn't answer.

Pissed? Yes. Disappointed? Yes. Giving up? No. But I swear, if they blow me off one more time, there's an explosion gonna be happening.

正中下懷

2007-06-30T10:21:00.000+08:00

The title of this entry, Zheng Zhong Xia Huai, is a Chinese "proverb" which means to be just what one hopes for, or fit in exactly with one's wishes. Since that's mostly the way I feel about the concert last Saturday, I feel it's apt.

Caroline and I met up at Xinpu station and caught a cab to Xinzhuang. When we arrived, Nat, Charlene, and Sharrie were already there, out front with Wu Bai's parents having a chat. I haven't seen his folks since 2005, so it was a treat to see them again. Wu Bai's mom (whom we call Auntie in Taiwanese, sounds like Ah Mm) looked great, seems to have lost quite a bit of weight, and his dad (Uncle in Taiwanese, Ah Bei) looked the same as always. I love to watch Ah Mm smile, because she has the exact same smile that her son has. He definitely takes after mom, not dad. Sharrie went with them to have some dinner, and the rest of us went to another place. By this time we'd been joined by the rest of our crew, and after some lovely potstickers, we headed for 7-11 for drinks. There I ran into my friend Dan Qi, whom I haven't seen since April. Her hubby, who hates Wu Bai, had graciously brought her to the show and would sit in a coffee shop the entire time waiting for her. Then Tona and David from Singapore showed up, and then Hui Lian and Yumiko, also from Singapore. We all headed back over to the stadium to wait until show time, finding a sort of cool area where the air conditioning from inside was leaking out. I bought a little bit of the concert merchandise, but I wasn't awfully impressed with what they had this time, so I got to save some money!

This much-anticipated Wu Bai & China Blue 15-year celebration was certainly different, at least in the beginning, than other shows, for it seems that recently Wu Bai has been bitten by the dancing bug, and there were at least three numbers in which Wu Bai did not once play guitar, just sang and danced with the girlies. Unfortunately, he appears to have been only partially infected by said bug, and his dancing could still use a few years of daily practice! I do have to say that he's awfully cute when he's on stage surrounded by scantily clad, skeletally-thin women and so obviously nervous trying to match their fluid movements. I think for someone like him, who really is so painfully shy, to be willing to get in front of thousands of fans and risk their laughter is quite a feat. I know the man has rhythm, because I've seen him shaking his ass quite nicely while he's holding his guitar. But you take that security blanket away from him, and he becomes totally awkward (while retaining that Wu Bai adorable-ness that I love so much). He did a few songs from a tiny stage in the midst of the audience, with no guitar, and at one point he just picked up the mike stand and tried to play it! Definitely out of his element sans guitar. So after a couple dance numbers, Nat turns to me and screams at the top of her lungs in order to be heard, "Wu Bai cannot dance!" I screamed back, "I know he can't dance, but at least he's trying!" "But he CAN'T DANCE!" And then I noticed, not far above our heads and a bit to the right, the microphone that was being used to record the show. Oh peachy, two women yelling in English that The Emperor of Rock can't dance, that's gonna be quite obvious when they play that back. I shouldn't have told Dino, who just about busted a gut laughing when he heard, because he'll probably try to find that bit and point it out to Wu Bai.

But other than having to watch cutsie pseudo-sexy stick women drape themselves around the object of my adoration (one wonders what thoughts of violent death Mrs. Wu had running through her mind during these displays), the show was fabulous. When they began, Wu Bai wasn't on stage, but slowly emerged from a hole under the stage, holding an umbrella, to sing "Innocent Years." There was an extra guitar player in the back, near Da Mao, and a bald fellow out front playing. Didn't really pay much attention to them, as I tend to focus on Wu Bai most of the time, and I think we were at least four songs into the show before I realized that the bald guy was Xiao Zhu! Now, we've always known that he was balding and that's why we've never seen him without a baseball cap or a head scarf, but he's had the long ponytail running down his back all these years. Gone, completely gone, shaved that skull bare he did! You can bet that today, when we go see ABS at the Canada Day beach party, I'm asking him what on earth possessed him to do such a thing. I would have asked his wife, who was standing down in front of us, but it was too difficult to try to talk while screaming. Perhaps he just decided that's it's too flippin' hot to wear hats all the time and that if he shaved it all, no one would guess it was departing on its own already.

We had very nice seats, quite close to the stage and off to the band's left. As I mentioned, there was a small stage, called the Rainbow Stage, in the middle of the standing rock area, and that was even closer to us. When Wu Bai was there, the fans could crowd around and even get their hands shaken, if lucky. We watched our friend Xiao Hu, arms leaning on the stage, right at Wu Bai's feet and gazing up at him in pure adoration, and were completely jealous. When Wu Bai sang "Only Love" all the house lights were on, and he could clearly see the audience. There's a part of the song that says, "I used to be alone, and was used to being alone. Why did you bother to give me that kind of kiss? Maybe I've awakened and shouldn't take this seriously - you stole my soul away." During the "you stole my soul" part, I was singing along and pointing at Wu Bai, and damned if he wasn't pointing right back at me. I don't think it was my imagination, either, because Charlene gave me a good hard whack on the back from behind, so she thought so, too.

The second part of the show was very cool, because it was a recreation of the old pub days at Live-a-Go-Go, back in 1994 and 1995, I think, when the band was first starting to build up a following. They even had shirts just like they wore when they filmed the Wu Bai Live DVD, those pirate-y looking ones. And Xiao Zhu wore his head scarf (thank the goddess). The whole stage extended out farther into the audience, bringing everyone even closer to us. As they were preparing for this part of the show, they showed the Wu Bai Live video, getting everyone all worked up. I sure wish I could have been there at the beginning, part of those intimate pub shows that made the band so famous.

There were a lot of encores at this show, and during one of them the whole band hit the stage to dance to "You are My Flower." Damn, they're so cute, really. There had better be a concert DVD for this one! The show ended at 11:30, much later than I'd expected (I'm not complaining!), and I was in a daze by that time, so thirsty but having to pee so badly. Caroline and I went to the ladies', and when we came out everyone was gone, except for David and Tona. It took forever to get a cab, and the MRT had already ceased for the evening, so I had no choice but to pay for a cab ride home. We dropped Caroline in Banqiao first, then headed toward Taipei 101, where David and Tona's friend lives. They'd brought their baby, Kimi, with them, and the friend was babysitting. Would have loved to have gone out to eat with them, but it just wasn't feasible. The cab driver had arranged for another cab to meet us along the way so I could make the switch, and I got home around 1:30 a.m. It was still incredibly hot outside, and my apartment was stuffy and muggy. And DZ was griping at me for being gone so long, as usual.

I spent the next few days running the show back through my head, getting silly smiles on my face when I thought about it. On Monday I met up with David, Tona, and Little Kimi, and we went for lunch at Shanghai Dumpling then to Coldstone Creamery for dessert. Wow, it has been so long since I've had really good ice cream (the cheap stuff doesn't tempt me one bit, and I won't pay the price for Hagen Daaz, however you spell it). Coldstone is actually affordable, as a bowl is around $3.35US for a decent-sized serving. Then I added another buck for the chocolate dipped waffle cone bowl. Ummmmmmm! Good thing it's so far out of the way and not easily accessible, because it could make dieting a bit harder!

Oh yeah, I've lost 12.75 pounds now, 5.8 kilos. Was hoping it would be more this week, because I've been doing a lot of walking (and sweating), but it didn't drop much. Perhaps next week will be better. I did go out for lunch twice this week, but I tried to just eat fruit in the evenings on those days. Since I'm going to the beach party this evening, I'll try to be really good the rest of the day.

I thought the school would announce the scholarship winners this week, but they didn't, so hopefully next week I'll know. I gave up my Wednesday night teaching, because it just didn't seem worth it to me. The students don't really have the time to study, and two hours a week just won't help them make progress. It's wasting their time and money and my time. I found a new pair of students, a brother and sister, and I'll start once a week with them for two hours, and they might bump that up to twice a week. The guy is a cutie, but of course too young for me. Still, I'd rather be teaching a handsome fellow than a butt-ugly one, ha.

Ye Ying got her IELTS score last night, and this time she passed! I have mixed feelings - happy for her because she made it and will be able to go to Holland to study, but sad because she'll be gone and I won't get to see her for a long, long time. And she won't have time for our language exchange, because she'll be working more in the next couple of months before she leaves. But now her boyfriend, Xuan Yi, is finally finished with his thesis and will graduate, so he's going to start again in her place.

I can't believe this semester is almost over, only three more weeks left. I need to write a few more compositions to meet the teacher's requirement, and I'd best get my butt in gear! Sometimes it's just difficult to think of a topic, and I want to make my compositions interesting. I suppose I can just wing it, after all it doesn't have to win the Pulitzer Prize. I've been thinking about writing a letter to Wu Bai, so maybe I'll use that as an assignment, be good practice for me.

OK, enough, I have so much that I should be doing before I take off at 4:00, including studying for the test on Monday! Over and out.

Deja Vu

2007-06-22T14:02:00.000+08:00

Went out for all-you-can-eat pizza and fried chicken for lunch yesterday with three (very skinny) friends. Only ate a grapefruit for breakfast and wasn't one bit hungry in the afternoon and evening after stuffing my gut with pizza. Did more walking than usual to try to make up for it, too.

So, fearfully I got on the scales this afternoon when I got home. Normally, I only weigh on Saturday or Sunday morning, since I tend to get discouraged if I weigh every day and don't see any loss, then I eat because I'm bummed. But today, wow! I'm happy to say that I've lost 11.24 pounds which, gee, puts me exactly where I was on June 15, 2006. Yes, I keep a record of my weight, so I know just when I was the fattest. So at least I've gotten off what I gained during the last year (some of it came back with me from the US after my trip back!), and now I can work on the 14 pounds I gained during my first year here. And after that I will tackle the 10 pounds I gained between my September 2004 concert trip and my March 2005 arrival!

Then maybe I can actually buy some clothes that fit. And wear my Wu Bai & China Blue concert t-shirts. Yup, good incentive.

Countdown to Happiness!

2007-06-19T10:05:00.000+08:00

Getting through the next few days won't be easy. The anticipation is building, fueled by the very short performance we saw Saturday night at the Golden Melody Awards. This Saturday, June 23, is Wu Bai & China Blue, yeah! An added bonus is getting to see Tona and David with their new little baby, as they'll be coming in from Singapore.

The awards show was tons of fun, got to see a variety of performances, including the classic band Wynners, featuring Alan Tam. The Korean boy band Super Junior was there, as well as a couple of Japanese cuties whose names I don't know. They all look around 12 years old but quite adorable. Jolin Tsai kicked off the night with an impressive number featuring dancers wearing Native American-style outfits. She was a co-presenter with Wu Bai and also ended up scoring the award for best female artist (Mandarin language).

Today is Dragon Boat Festival, so we have a two-day holiday (yesterday and today). I'm just kicking back at home, staying out of the heat.

I'm so pleased with myself, because I've lost 10 pounds since May 1! Yeah, yeah, I'm still 15 pounds heavier than I was when I got here, but hey, I'm working on it! Hopefully my determination will not waiver and I'll continue to get the flab gone.

I completed my application for the scholarship last week, and I think next week the results will be announced. I'm sure hoping I get it, as it's around $361US per month, which goes a long way here. That will pay for my plane ticket to Osaka, at least!

I will try to go to Hong Kong in November, too, because my friend Maddy will be going over with her good buddy Maxine, and it's such a good opportunity to see her. I think the last time we saw each other was February 2001 in San Francisco!

Last Wednesday my class and I went to the National History Museum to see the Terracotta Warriors exhibit. It was a disaster! There were millions of school kids there, and it was almost impossible to get close enough to anything to see, and the kids were running all over the place, crashing into us. Or seated on the floor in front of exhibits while getting a lecture, effectively keeping anyone else from viewing it. What a waste of time and money. Extremely small exhibit, too, truly not worth the NT$150 we paid for our tickets. I mean, the main museum charge for students is only NT$10, for crying out loud! Later we found out that the afternoon was basically child-free, as one of the other teachers took her class there, too, and she said it wasn't crowded at all. Our bad luck to have morning classes, I guess.

Another countdown is to July 21, when the new (and final, boo hoo!) Harry Potter books is released. That's gonna cost me at least $30US, I think, but I don't care, I'm buying it! Hopefully Page One will have it on a 20% discount. Also, author Darren Shan will be making a visit to Taiwan in July, and if Caroline goes around to see him, I might tag along. Haven't read any of his books yet, but would really like to. Argh, my list of books I want is so very long. Hm, maybe if I get that scholarship I'll go on a book-buying spree at Page One! I picked up quite a few used books a couple weeks ago at Whose Books, which was nice.

That's about it for me, not much going on here. Hope everyone is well and happy, just like me!

Confirm File Delete

2007-06-13T14:24:00.000+08:00

Had to steal this one from a friend's blog, because it's such a nice idea. If only we could.....

Safe for Another Two Months

2007-06-12T15:24:00.000+08:00

Got my visa extension yesterday, no problems, so I'm good through August 20. The guy said it should be no problem to extend another two months, through October 20, and then I'll have to leave Taiwan to get a new visa. So, I'm hoping it will work out to go visit Luke and Kayun in Osaka! My semester ends October 12, and the next one starts October 22, so I'll use that week to get the visa.

The ticket for the Golden Melody Awards arrived today, so that's all set. Hope it's not pouring that day, because we want to go early and watch all the stars arrive. Be no fun in the rain, that's for sure.

And ABS will be playing a beach party on June 30 for Canada Day, so of course we're going to that!

Just for Laughs

2007-06-09T22:39:00.000+08:00

Found this great website with crazy cat photos. This one is one of my faves:

Katze

The captions are hilarious. Spend an hour looking and laughing.

Plum Rainy

2007-06-08T20:06:00.000+08:00

Let's see, it's been steadily raining for about a week now, with very few breaks. We've gotten 5 inches of rain so far today, and I was wading in deep puddles getting from the bus stop to the MRT station at Jiantan this afternoon. This is the 梅季雨, the Plum Rains season. The nice part is that the weather is much cooler, even though it's still quite warm during the day. I'm continually drenched with sweat, and I'm really tired of my paper sticking to my arm when I'm in school and trying to write. Still, I'll take this over California winter rains any day!

Observation: no matter how flippin' hot it is (with a RealFeel of 103 to 107 degrees Fahrenheit), you will see these teeny, tiny Asian women wearing long-sleeved sweatshirts, denim jackets, and other various forms of warm clothing. I'm not sure if it's because they're so damned skinny they freeze to death when the air conditioning hits them or if it's because of their unreasonable dread of a single drop of sunlight falling on their skin. There was actually an article in the Taipei Times awhile back stating that Taiwanese women were often deficient in vitamin D because of their vampire-like dread of sunlight. When my teacher went to Thailand over Chinese New Year and came back with a beautiful tan, her Western students complimented her on how lovely and healthy she looked, and her Asian friends started back in shock and exclaimed how dark (and therefore ugly) she was. Me, I'm envious of the beautiful color of her skin when she tans. I just end up turning a very funny color when exposed to sunlight, not pretty at all.

Got my official grade from last semester, and it was 93. I surely hope this means I will get the scholarship next time. Gimme money, gimme gimme gimme. I'm doing OK so far this semester, getting in the mid to high 90s on my tests (Wang Laoshi doesn't actually give a grade on compositions). I truly enjoy her classes, and I'll be sad when the semester ends on July 20. She'll be going to the actual university to teach beginning in September this year, so maybe I'll be lucky enough to have her again when (and if) I start at Tamkang proper.

Was going to go apply for a visa extension today but because of the torrential rain decided to wait until Monday and hope it lets up. If they say "no" then I guess I make an emergency trip to either Singapore or Osaka for a new visa. Osaka will cost more, but if I go there I can see Luke and Kayun, and everyone says it's never a problem to get a visa in Japan. Some folks have had issues with the Singapore office. Well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

More than minor annoyance: my friend Carol was kind enough to do some shopping for me, as I'd checked the US Postal Service's shipping rates online and decided just how much I could spend for some stuff. She ran all over and got the things I wanted and then went to ship it, only to be informed that as of May 14 the post office has discontinued economy surface shipping internationally, everything is now priority mail and hence much more expensive. Like costing about $5US per pound expensive. WTF? So poor Carol had to return a bunch of the stuff, since I wasn't willing to pay $5 to ship a box of low-fat Cheez-its! As it was, it cost me $37 for the small 7-pound box I got, but at least that was all stuff I just can't get here, important stuff like earplugs, ibuprofen, and hair color in lighter shades.

Hm, what else? Well, next Saturday I'll be going to the Golden Melody Awards, IF I get my visa extended and don't have to leave the country. Wu Bai's official website was giving away 50 tickets, and of course I got one. Being a foreigner does have its perks. Wu Bai & China Blue will be performing, and Xiao Zhu has been nominated as best producer for an indy band. Hope he gets it. Then the following week is the concert, also looking forward to that. The new CD came out today, and I was going to pick it up this evening but decided it wasn't worth a trip out in the rain. I'll go get it next week.

The diet is going well, losing weight albeit slowly. I've lost 8.4 pounds (today, Saturday, was weigh-in day, so even though no loss last week, at least there was this week!), and I feel better already. If I could get more exercise, I'd lose more, but until my foot is better, I just can't walk much. If I ever manage to get the home gym I bought in November put together, then I could use that, but I haven't found anyone who can help me yet. So, it's still in pieces in the spare room. What a waste of money, huh? I guess I should just sell it.

On Wednesday I got together with Sherry, the woman Hiyoshi used to teach Japanese to. I hadn't seen her for over a year. Last week I got on MSN, which I hardly ever do, and she was there, so I started to chat with her. Apparently she'd called a few times, but every time must have been when I was out of the country, because my phone never showed any missed calls. She thought maybe I'd left Taiwan. She's the one who told me about Hiyoshi's baby, and she said he had never contacted her, either. Because she's going to Tokyo next month, she called him to ask him a question, and then he told her about the baby. I was very happy to connect with Sherry again, because she's really cool. Hopefully we'll be able to meet regularly now. Oh, and here's an example of just how straightforward the Taiwanese are. We were at Sherry's house chatting, and her husband was there working (they have a home business). I was bemoaning my weight, trying to refuse the snacks Sherry was pressing on me, and she said I hadn't gained weight. Then hubby piped up with, "Oh, yeah, much fatter than before!" Gee, thanks, I needed that. There is such a thing as too much honesty. Never mind, continue to diet.

Next Wednesday our class is going to the museum to see the special exhibit of the Terracotta Warriors. If you don't know what they are, just click the link. Someday maybe I can visit the museum in China to get the full effect of the magnitude of this amazing project.

Can't think of anything else right now. DZ is fine and is still misbehaving whenever she gets the chance, although she hasn't torn up any posters lately. Life in Taiwan is still great, despite the summer heat and all the rain. I still love Wu Bai as much as I ever did, despite wanting to give him a good hard whack on the head sometimes. And...that's all. :)

Well, That's One Little Mystery Solved

2007-06-01T21:16:00.000+08:00

OK, folks, you remember the saga of Lisa and Hiyoshi and how I (and other friends) just couldn't understand why they were getting married when Hiyoshi didn't even know if he loved her?

Well, I just had a long conversation with a friend I haven't seen in a long time, the woman Hiyoshi used to teach Japanese to. We'd go to her house and sing karaoke and have a good old time. I lost touch with her after Hiyoshi started seeing Lisa. And she just told me that in April Hiyoshi became a father to a little girl. Hm, let's see, they got married in September, had a baby in April. Guess we now know why they jumped into that marriage, huh?

And why do I have the feeling that Mr. Naivety himself was totally set up for this one?

My Kitty is So Smart

2007-05-23T22:22:00.000+08:00

When DZ is behaving herself, she's very cute and funny. Finally got a video of her getting a drink from the shower.

DZ Gets a Drink

I've also recently uploaded a lot of ABS videos and some of Mojo, too. So after you watch DZ drinking, check out the others.

If You Want Peace, You Must Not Keep Hurting Taiwan

2007-05-20T08:25:00.000+08:00

Lung Ying-tai (龍應台). May 18, 2007. Public speech on May 17, 2007 at Cambridge University, England.

If You Want Peace, You Must Not Keep Hurting Taiwan

Come on World, are you going to continue allowing the Big Bully to intimidate Tiny Taiwan? I try not to think about the number of missiles aimed this way, but sometimes it's not easy to ignore.

Jeez, two weeks just vanished

2007-05-11T21:19:00.000+08:00

Seems like only yesterday I was here with an update, but it's been two weeks! Whoa. One day just blends into another and flashes by at the speed of light.

Well, I'm in my third semester at school, and happily back with my first teacher, Wang Laoshi. I love her, she's just so much fun. And the book is way simple, much easier than the last one! This one is called, "Chinese Moral Tales" and it's like Aesop's Fables for Chinese folks. Even though we're only on lesson one, I've already read up through lesson 5, piece of cake. Which hopefully means a good report card. :)

Speaking of which, I got either a 92 or 93 on last semester's! Deng Laoshi said she can't remember which grade it was, but it's great. Wang Laoshi said it's kind of an unwritten rule that the teachers don't give out grades above 93. Yup, I'm way happy about that, and I hope next time I apply for a scholarship I get it (that will be in June).

Here's what I'm not happy about: Those two days of concerts I wrote about last time? Well, the first thing to piss everyone off was the price of the tickets changing and getting higher. And then yesterday, they suddenly announced that there would be no Sunday show, only Saturday! WTF? Charlene had already bought our tickets for Sunday, in the standing rock area, last week at the Tai Ke concert and had gotten them autographed. We bought seated tix for Saturday since we didn't have anyone who could queue in line, figured we'd do that Sunday. Fuck. So now Charlene has to scramble around and change tickets. At least they're going to return the signed tickets to us after the concert is finished, which is nice. But we gotta give 'em back first. Thankfully Tona and David from Singapore were coming on Saturday anyway, but poor Sharrie from southern Taiwan might not be able to come on Saturday due to work. This is really inconveniencing a lot of people.

And because so many people were on the message board at the official site complaining about this, mysteriously that board is now closed, with a message that it's just not up to today's Internet standards and that they'll be giving us a new one after the concerts. Bullshit. You think we're stupid enough to believe that? If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. What kind of idiots are running Moonlight Music anyway?

Tomorrow we're going to see ABS at The Wall, and that should be fun, despite the fact that they have a new owner who seems to think that raising the price of beer to $6US per bottle is a good idea - and using a smaller bottle, too! Yeah, right, Bud, we're gonna drink a lot of that beer. Pfffttt. If I'm thirsty, I'll pop outside, run to 7-11, buy a can of beer for $1US, guzzle it down, and go back to the show.

I started a diet on May 1, not a super-strict one, but more focused on not buying beer and chips and eating more fruits and veggies. It's working, because I've lost about 4 pounds. I'm hoping once my poor foot is better that I'll be able to do a little more exercise and get the weight off faster. I'm truly sick of the way I look, and the clothes I bought last year in the US are almost too small for me. I spent so much time and worked so hard to lose 50 pounds before, and now 30 of those pounds are back. Not good. I decided this is something I need to do for myself, and so I'm doing it. Because it's Friday, I bought two cans of beer and some chips today, and that was my dinner. Tomorrow it's back to being careful. Even though I'll go out to eat with the gang before the show, I'll still be somewhat good. And at those high beer prices, no worries about drinking too much of that! I think this is when I start missing Hiyoshi - not missing the guy but missing having a person to hang out with and walk, walk, walk. I haven't really met any new friends at school.

But my good friend Kayun called today from Korea! She and Luke had their Korean wedding, and next Saturday they will have their Japanese wedding. She sounded so happy. Gosh, I miss her. But I'm sure saving money on my cell phone bill by not having her around, ha. If I can't get to Japan to visit them this year, maybe next year.

And as for the noisy monsters upstairs, recently it's been much better (except tonight they were doing something earlier that sounded like dropping 50-pound weights repeatedly on the floor. I truly hate those kids.). I think maybe the family on the third floor had another chat with them about the way they bother all of us, so now they're being quiet, yay. However......now there are barking dogs! Last Saturday night at 2:30 a.m., the dog in the apartment across the street from my bedroom started in, yap yap yap. Small dog, one of those annoying yappers. I got up, slammed the windows shut, and turn the fan on to a higher speed to drown it out. Then this week, on Tuesday night, it started in at 5:30 p.m. and kept it up constantly until 10:00 p.m.! I suppose the owners were gone, otherwise they would also have been driven to distraction. Then on Wednesday night, another yapper on the opposite side of the building began barking at 8:00 and kept it up until after 9:00. Obviously the owners had stuck it outside and then proceeded to ignore it. I mean, ke-rist, why have a dog if you're going to treat it like that? I'll bet it's the same one I saw one day as I walked to the MRT station. It was a hot, sunny day, and this poor little white dog was stuck in a tiny metal cage barely bigger than itself, no food, no water, placed on top of the trunk of a car in full sun. Jesus, people, have you no brains in your heads? Do you not realize how easy it would be for the little thing to die? If I see that again, I'm tracking down the owner and giving him or her a piece of my mind. And if they let the dog bark for hours again, I'm calling the cops.

The other night DZ was at the kitchen door, the one that goes out to the balcony. She was just sitting there watching something for the longest time, so I went over to see. Ah, a cockroach. A big cockroach. I opened the door, and she dashed out, but the bug was too quick for her and ran behind something where she couldn't get it. She kept trying to figure out how to get it, so funny. Finally, I made her come back in, but she stayed at the door and kept meowing. Eventually I let her out again, then I moved stuff around so the bug would run, and she missed it again. I didn't want it to get inside (the screen door doesn't always stay completely shut, sometimes there's a gap), so I closed the inner door. Poor DZ, she really wanted that thing. Now every night she goes out looking for it. I tried taking her outside again the other day, but she was completely freaked and wanted to go back in. She likes to jump up on the shelf on the balcony and watch the birds and such, but she doesn't like that big blue sky over her head. Now she's curled up in a box in the computer room, waiting for me to finish so I'll play with her. So, I'll go now. Catch ya'll later.

Sorry for the Long Absence

2007-04-28T09:22:00.000+08:00

Well, I've made the trip to Hong Kong and started a new 60-day tourist visa. Hopefully there won't be any problems extending that in June, because the expiration date falls right around the time that Wu Bai & China Blue are having their concerts! Yup, got the news from Charlene last night, June 23 and 24 here in Taipei (well, OK, Xin Zhuang, but it's still considered part of the greater Taipei area). Charlene and I are agreed that we don't want to spend days in line this time (it's gonna be hot, hot, hot), but we don't know yet if we'll be buying seated tickets or ones for the standing area. I'd opt for seats, because I'm quite sure someone taller than me would end up in front in the standing area, and I'd be pissed off. If I end up having to leave the country and apply for a new visa, I'll just be sure to leave early enough so that I don't miss the shows.

On Wednesday we had a karaoke competition at school, and my teacher twisted my arm until I agreed to compete. So I went and made a fool of myself singing "Norwegian Forest" and, of course, didn't win anything. I guess it was kinda fun, though. Not in any hurry for a repeat performance, though.

I had a good time visiting Terry and Cheryl, even though we didn't do anything special, just wandered around close to their place in Tai Po. Had some scrumptious dim sum and some tasty pizza, watched a good movie, drank some beer, got to see some little village areas, bought some hot dog buns (can't find 'em here at all), and came back to find that DZ had actually behaved herself and didn't destroy a single thing. I hated leaving her alone, but none of my friends seem willing to come all this way to check on her, and I figured for two nights she'd be fine with a huge pan of food and a huge pan of water.

May 12 is another ABS show at The Wall, looking forward to that. This time their friend Marc should be there performing with them. Guy has a fantastic voice.

These days I feel as if my body is slowly giving up. In addition to the knee problems, I now have a serious problem in my right heel that makes every step I take complete agony. Care to read more? Here's the exact problem: Plantar Fasciitis This happened to me a few years ago in the US, and the podiatrist gave me a cotton pad to put under my arch and some Vioxx for the pain. Worked like a charm, but stupid here threw away the cotton pad when I was better. It's like a catch-22 - if I lost some weight, I wouldn't have the problems in knees and heel. However, because I have the problems, I can't do the walking I should be doing to get exercise. So, my weight is increasing, which only makes the problems worse! Aiya!

I got the new computer, after grudingly forking over the equivalent of US$821 (hey, that's a round-trip ticket to the States!). No choice, really, as a computer is essestial for school and work. I got a PC with a humongous hard drive and a nice 19" flat panel monitor for my poor old eyes. It has a few bugs, which hopefully I can have my friend help me to fix, but I can't bother the poor guy now, because his 22-year-old married sister just hanged herself last week.

I feel so bad for him, and how sad is it that a girl that young would be so depressed that she'd choose to die? Another friend said that the girl had suffered from depression since high school. Those of you who can read Chinese can visit Sheng Ying's blog, if you wish. 中和44區 I haven't been able to read it yet, because just looking at the photos and listening to the music makes me start to cry.

Other friends in the US, a married couple, are dealing with their own difficult situation. The husband suddenly discovered that he has a terminal lung disease, and that maybe a lung transplant would be the answer. However, lung transplants aren't all that sure, and he doesn't even know if he'll be accepted. I keep up on their respective blogs, but that's also heartbreaking to read. I don't know what to say to either of them, and I can't even begin to comprehend how both of them must feel. I wish I believed in miracles, but I'm too much of a skeptic for that. And I wish I could give my friend a good, firm hug in person, but I can't do that either. Cyberhugs just don't seem to cut it in these situations....

My trifling little problems are so insignificant next to the issues my friends are facing. It does put life into perspective and make me less inclined to whine. I think I have a fairly selfish nature, and I tend to focus on me, me, me most of the time. The reality is that my life is pretty damned good right now and looks to continue on in that fashion for awhile.

But there is no joy in Mudville -- mighty Casey has struck out.

2007-04-20T08:55:00.000+08:00

And in this instance, Casey is me. I applied for my Alien Residency Certificate yesterday and was told that basically there was a snowball's chance in hell of being approved, so I shouldn't bother paying the fee of NT$4,400 (US$135) as it was non-refundable. The Taiwan government is under the mistaken impression that studying Chinese for two years is plenty, and since I've logged in 19 months, they think that's close enough.

The good news is that my multiple-entry visa allows me to make the hop to Hong Kong and come right back, and as soon as I get back, the 60-day visitor visa starts up again, and that I can get extended twice while I continue to study. Until yesterday I did not know this! Pretty cool deal, that. So, I'm off today for a couple nights with Terry and Cheryl, once again imposing on their hospitality. The plane ticket cost me around US$55 more than the application for the ARC, so that's not too bad. And I won't have to leave again for another six months, at which point I'll once again bother my good friends (hopefully with a bit more advance notice than they received this time).

By Special Request

2007-04-03T10:23:00.000+08:00

Scenic requested a picture of Little Miss Jealous, DZ, so here's one of her along with the object of her jealousy (and one of the few posters that she hasn't been able to mangle). More photos can be found at my pbase site: DZ Da Krazy Kat

She loves getting up on the back of the office chair. However, since her spaying she's getting a little fat, and one of these days when she jumps up there, she's going to go ass over teakettle along with the chair!

Disheartening news: my nextdoor neighbor may be right. Last night there was definitely at least one of the kids home and making noise until after midnight. Granted, it was much quieter than usual, but they were there. Was it all just a cruel April Fools Day joke? Could that little girl from the third floor actually be so dense that she thought I was talking about a family that has already been gone for a long time? Why must I suffer so????

Oh Happy Day!!!!!!!!

2007-04-01T19:42:00.000+08:00

This has been the most peaceful weekend I've experienced at home since I moved to Taiwan. No annoying children sounds from upstairs. They woke me up at 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning, and from then on it was quiet, figured they went away for the weekend. Could hear some little bit of normal noise from up there, doors closing, slight bumps, but really minor.

So this evening I went out to buy some fruit, and on the way back I ran into the little girl from downstairs, walking home. It's her mother who has also complained to the parents of the monsters. We started chatting, and I mentioned how lovely and quiet it was this weekend with them gone, and she said, "Oh, they moved! Everyone kept telling them they were too noisy, so they moved." I damn near danced all the way home.

When I got back, a lot of fireworks began going off outside, something to do with this week being the week to honor ancestors, burn ghost money, and clean tombs. But I felt like it was to help me celebrate finally getting rid of the one thing I hated about living here.

Now, let's hope that whoever moves in upstairs isn't one of those sort who love to sing karaoke at full volume all night long.

Edit Monday evening, 6:21 p.m.
I saw my next door neighbor when I got home, told her the kid downstairs said the 5th floor monsters moved. She said she didn't think so, saw them today, said the other family up there had moved a long time ago, and that they were also noisy. Now I'm hearing the brats running back and forth again, but I'm still holding onto a hope that they're just there cleaning up stuff and really have moved. But I have a bad feeling about this.....

Spring Break

2007-03-31T09:42:00.000+08:00

I'm on break from school, don't have to go back until April 9. April 5 is a holiday here, commonly called Tomb Sweeping Day in the West. This is the day that families go to take care of the graves of their ancestors, sweeping up, pulling weeds, putting everything in order. Originally, the school was only going to be closed on that day, but apparently someone in the government decided he or she would like the full week off, and suddenly the schools were all closing for the full week. I wouldn't mind, except that I'm getting cheated out of one week of classes, and I paid money for those! Now I'm only getting 10 weeks of instruction instead of 11. Truly unfair!

In other unfairness news, I have learned a valuable lesson about one of the big differences between Western culture and Chinese culture, and that is called "guan xi" - 關係. I already knew that 關係 played a huge part in the business world, where it's not so much what you know but who you know that will get you a good job. Relationships between people are very important here, so it's a good idea to makes friends with as many people as possible, as one never knows who in the future may play a part in helping one with something. However, I didn't realize that 關係 extended to scholarships, which I have always assumed to be awarded based on merit. They posted the names of those awarded scholarships, and I wasn't on the list. My teacher said it was not because I'm not a good student, because I am. She said the American guy who got the scholarship has been at the school for a long time, and although he's not a very good student and I'm much better (her words!), he got rewarded for time served. She encouraged me to apply again in June, since by that time I'll have six months in and have a better chance. So, no money for me this time around. I did decide on one more year of Chinese classes before starting at the university, because if I want a scholarship for that, I need to maintain a good grade, so I'd best be good at Chinese!

I've started teaching Xiao Niu and her co-workers on Wednesday evenings, and that's fun. They're a good group, and they seem serious about learning. Right now they don't understand a lot of what I say in English, so I'm using more Chinese to explain. I was hoping to do total immersion, like I get in my Chinese classes, but they just aren't ready for it. They chose a very good book, TV English, which contains "real" conversational English, like that between friends. They also chose a much more difficult one for business English, and I'm guessing those classes, which will alternate every other week, will not be as much fun. I also need to teach them some basic grammar. This will be a long road to travel, and I hope they stick with it. The downside is getting home at 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday nights, but I can live with that once a week.

Last Friday evening ABS had a performance at Riverside Pub, so of course we attended. We had a large group this time: Twiggy and Joel from Hong Kong, Elsa (I can never figure out if she's from Hong Kong or Taiwan!), Charlene, Caroline, Xiao Niu, Kennie (who brought a co-worker with her, a guy who looked a lot like Nic Tse), my former teacher Shannon, and the birthday girl, Natari. Nat's birthday was actually on Sunday, but we celebrated that evening, getting Dino to sing "Happy Birthday" to her and providing a ridiculously expensive cake. Charlene, I know you're reading this, and I'm never going to stop saying that that cake was so overpriced it was laughable! Folks, for a 12" cake, we ended up paying around US$54! If you want to see what it looked like, view the Ripoff Cake here. If the flavor had put us into spasms of ecstasy, maybe that would have been OK, but it was your normal, not-sweet-enough, weird-stiff-pudding-in-the-middle sort of cake, i.e., Japanese lack-of-flavor style. But, boy it sure was pretty, and I think Nat liked it, so I suppose that's the most important thing, right? But damn it, next time give ME the money and I'll make two killer cheesecakes that will make everyone swoon and still have money left over for profit.

Every time I see ABS perform, I'm blown away by the talent. Dino's energy on the drums combined with his fine voice, Da Mao's magical keyboarding (sometimes you can almost see flames spouting out of him when he gets into it), Xiao Zhu's heart-thumping bass underscoring it all, and then the fantastic technical skill of guitar players Xiao Yang and Lao Liu. It's no wonder these two guys are both referred to as Stevie Ray, because that's how good they are. When the band is covering Stevie Ray Vaughn tunes, if you closed your eyes, you'd swear it was the man himself come back to life. As much as I adore Wu Bai, I have to be honest and say that Dino can outsing him anyday, and Xiao Yang and Lao Liu play guitar far, far better. No, Wu Bai's pull comes from somewhere other than just skill, it's his music combined with his passion, some weird charisma that sucks you in and makes you overlook it when his voice cracks as he sings. Somehow that just doesn't matter at the time. And if Wu Bai weren't backed up by three excellent musicians like Dino, Da Mao, and Xiao Zhu, would the magic be there? I think maybe not. I think that spell requires four key ingredients, and if you leave any out, the result just isn't the same.

We didn't ever really have "winter" this year, more like a cool spring, and now instead of real spring it seems we're getting a slightly cooler summer already. It's hot and sticky, and I'm afraid when we hit June and July it will be unbearable. Damned global warming. Eh, maybe I'll sweat off some of the excess poundage. Probably not, but we all need dreams, hm?

Daily life is much the same as always, nothing new or exciting. I'm truly enjoying having the afternoon class, able to sleep later in the mornings, given that the brats upstairs still drive me nuts with their noise in the evenings. Now it stays quiet until around 9:00 or so and then the noise starts, usually up until 11:30 p.m. I find that if I'm playing on the computer it doesn't bug me as much, but if I'm just trying to read or study in the living room, I get totally fried. Sometimes now I just put on a CD of instrumental music to drown them out, and that helps. When I signed the lease for this year, I told my landlady I'd seriously considered moving, and she said she'd understand if I still wanted to. Having experienced living under this family herself, she knows how intolerable it is at times. I like her, and I like my apartment, so I'm going to stick it out.

Last night when I turned on the laptop, it wouldn't. Instead I was greeting with "disk read error, press Ctrl +Alt +Del to restart." So, I did, but got the same error. Oh no! Major tragedy! I tried three or four more times with the same result, even turned it off and back on, no go. I called Charlene to ask if one of her friends could help, and she suggested I contact Rudy. So, I sent him an SMS, and when I turned back to the computer, it had started. Whew! Funny thing is that I already have plans to go with Xuan Yi on Monday to buy a new computer, a PC. I thought the laptop was acting a bit sluggish, and the color when it first starts is now red which slowly changes to blue, so I was afraid the video card was on the way out. It's four years old and it gets a lot of use, so I figured it was time for a new one before I lost everything. I made backups last night, since last time I did it was a couple months ago, and I'm always saving new stuff. I hate to spend more of my ever-dwindling money, but I gotta have a computer for school and teaching and staying in touch. Gotta. The laptop started right up this morning with no problems, not sure what was wrong yesterday. Charlene said it was protesting the heat of the day, and that could be true. :)

And DZ.....she's gotten herself banished from my bedroom at night (she's been banished during the day when I'm not home for a long, long time). Normally she comes in late and sleeps on the bed with me until I get up, but night before last she jumped up on the dresser and attacked yet another Wu Bai poster, so she's being punished. I might let her back in after a week. What is it with that cat and my posters, my WU BAI posters, not the kung fu movie ones? And no, I'm not getting her a playmate, because that would just be destruction times two!

I'm meeting a potential student today, one of Funck's friends, named Claire. I hope she ends up being one who will actually come to class so I can make a little money. She wants Saturdays, and since Xiao Zhu says his son is too busy, I'll take Claire for twice the fee, no problems. If Vincent ever gets "unbusy" I'll try to work him in. I'm still meeting Ye Ying once a week for language exchange, and Shannon and I started yesterday meeting for that, too. It's great to have two Chinese teachers to help out with my questions, as well as enjoying their friendship. I haven't been able to meet with Ye Ying's boyfriend, Xuan Yi, for our language exchange for a long time, because he's been so busy writing his thesis. Now that he's done, maybe we'll be able to find some time.

OK, well, this was a long post. I'm done now, thanks for reading. :)

Rainy Days and Sundays

2007-03-11T09:53:00.000+08:00

After many days almost summer-like weather, we've had nothing but rain, rain, rain for a week. Cold rain. Cold days. I'm not complaining, you know. A little bit of cold in a hot country like Taiwan is a good thing!

I'm once again experiencing teacher frustration. Friday night Xiao Zhu called and said Vincent is just too busy these days to attend English class on Saturday and that he'd call me when his son has more time. Having experienced this excuse before (Rosa, Jennifer) to take the place of the more straightforward, "Sorry, changed my mind, don't want to study English.", I'm not holding out much hope of Vincent returning. We shall see. Xiao Zhu asked how to get me the paltry fee from the first class, which was supposed to be paid with the rest of this month's classes in one shot, and I told him I'd collect it from him on the 23rd when we go to see ABS.

I decided I'm going to apply for a scholarship at the language center, which would be NT$12,000 per month, or approximately US$365 (tuition is NT$16,000 every 11 weeks). I meet the requirements, so we'll see. Wish me luck.

Every time I think about trying to attend regular university beginning this year, I start thinking about how little I do know about the Chinese language, and I start to worry. I've only actually studied for a year and a half, and that barely scrapes the surface. I'd much prefer one more year of studying the language itself before attempting to attend classes taught in Chinese. So, at this point, I've decided to wait until 2008 to start my "real" studies. Ye Ying also advised that I look into a couple other universities that might be cheaper than Tamkang.

There's a test tomorrow, so today will be spent studying. Since it's no weather to be outside, staying in is certainly not a problem!

I'm Not Getting Older, I'm Getting Better - Right?

2007-03-05T09:14:00.000+08:00

Ah yes, once again the Birthday Fairy visited me and bestowed another year of age. Considering that the alternative to growing older is death, I'll not complain. Besides, I don't mind growing older as long as I never grow old.

Caroline, Charlene, and Shannon treated me to a lovely dinner at my favorite dim sum place, City Star. I wish there could have been more of us, but PJ had just gotten back from Korea, so Nat, Xiao Niu, and Betty were meeting up with him. Since most of the dim sum comes in servings of three, I was worried there'd be some fighting over who ate what, but it all worked out quite well, as Caroline hates mushrooms and isn't overly fond of shrimp, and I don't like the turnip cake much. We all ended up well stuffed in the end.

After dinner we stood around trying to decide if it would be worth it to brave the crowds at Chiang Kai Shek Memorial to look at the lanterns, but in the end decided no friggin' way. Caroline and I walked to Page One and spent about an hour shopping around there. I came away with four books for about $30US, which is a hell of a good price in Taiwan, thanks to Caroline having their discount card and two books being on sale. I was already packing a heavy load, with two books that Caroline had given me, two magazines with Wu Bai articles that Charlene had given me, and also my Lost Season 1 which Caroline had returned. If I'd been empty-handed, I probably would have spent more money I can't afford at Page One! Thank goodness for credit cards......which all seem to be working fine now, after much wrangling with the bank. Shannon gave me the most adorable little purple kitty that she made herself out of beads. I'd never have the patience to make something like that.

Didn't get the chance to see if the new approach to teaching Vincent would work, as his dad called to cancel the class on Friday night. I'm still a bit unclear as to why, since Xiao Zhu was calling from a very noisy place, and I'm not good at understanding Chinese spoken over a cell phone. I chatted a bit with Dino on Saturday morning, and he said that although Vincent is a bit shy at first, once he gets to know a person, you can't shut him up. We'll see if he actually makes it to class next week.

One of the best birthday presents I got was the almost total silence from the upstairs neighbors last night. It was almost eerie. I'm not sure if the monsoon-like rain that was pouring down was so loud it was drowning them out or what, but it was soooo peaceful between 10:00 and midnight. Wish it would stay like that, but likely won't.

Errrr, I'm supposed to be preparing for a role-play exercise at school today. Best get going on that now.

Good Things, Bad Things

2007-02-27T20:31:00.000+08:00

Good things:
1. Got a 92% on my test yesterday. Surprised the hell out of me.
2. Got my visa extension today without a hitch. Surprised the hell out of me.
3. Met with Xiao Zhu last night to discuss his son's classes. Discovered Vincent is not actually a child but is a small adult and should be treated as such for best results. Duly noted, and this Saturday will attempt to teach him to play poker and chase women instead of giving English lessons.
4. Tomorrow is a holiday.

Bad things:
1. Without Cheryl here the noise from the monsters above is all too clear. Must teach DZ to talk so said noise will be less noticeable.
2. Stupid US bank has an irrational fear that my Visa card "may have been compromised" which "may result in counterfeit cards being made and used" so they have issued a new one that, of course, has not arrived yet. And the old one "will no longer be valid as of March 2, 2007." Idiots.

Well, hey, there are more good things than bad, so no worries.

Return to the Real World

2007-02-25T21:01:00.000+08:00

Chinese New Year holiday is over, back to school tomorrow, and a test. Yippee skippy. Cheryl left at 5:00 p.m., after a food-filled visit that doubtless left us both a few pounds heavier. I'm sure she's not looking forward to returning to the less-than-pleasing Hong Kong food. Taiwan food rules! I know she's already planning her next visit, making out the list of foods that are a must.

This visit was a fairly laid back one, more of an eat, drink, and watch movies trip instead of a see-the-sights one. The day she arrived we hit Carrefour for an infusion of junk food and alcohol and spent the evening watching movies. Cheryl brought me three Shaw Bros. films that I'd asked for (and wouldn't let me pay her for them, the stinker), along with my very own specially made copy of the best of Little Britain that Terry had put together for me (yay!) and a copy of Castle Cagliostro. The first night we watched the Bollywood film Dhoom 2, which had us alternately laughing at the ridiculousness of it and drooling over Hrithik Roshan's very, very fine body. Damn, that is one fine-looking man. I kept trying to picture Wu Bai's face on Hrithik's body, which I think might just be the perfect look, but I couldn't hold the vision in my head. 'S OK, cuz I kinda like Wu Bai's slightly chubby body anyway. It suits him.

We met up with Natari, Charlene, and Betty for dinner at Niko Niko on Thursday night, always a pleasure because of the good discount we get, complemented by the freebies PJ sends our way. Funck took us to a nice hotpot place in Tian Mu last night, and we filled out the rest of the time with some niu rou mian, local vendor french fries and fried chicken, Ge Ba Fu Fu mixed nuts, pistachios, Sushi Express, French toast made with raisin bread from Ginno Pasco, my homemade tiramisu, and lots and lots of raspberry vodka and beer - and corn dogs, how could I forget the wonderful corn dog I had at the zoo? Oh my, been so long since I'd had one, it was pure heaven. I think it's a good thing Cheryl only spent a few days. We're really each a bad influence upon the other. Then again, we did an awful lot of walking over the last few days, so maybe we balanced it out a bit. Maybe.

I shouldn't be online. I should be practicing writing characters and studying for the test tomorrow. But my eyes were starting to cross and my hand was hurting, so I decided a short break was in order. However, it's getting late, so I suppose I'll be a good girl and get back to studying. At least Wednesday is another holiday!

恭喜﹐恭喜!

2007-02-21T09:50:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I got a phone call from Luke and Kayun in Japan. They've decided on a wedding date - May 12, 2007! Congratulations to them both, and a very happy life. Kayun has to return to Korea next week, and I'm sure she'll be very busy with wedding preparations over the next couple of months.

Death Wish

2007-02-20T10:48:00.000+08:00

My cat apparently desires to die. You remember back on January 23 I wrote about coming home to find that she'd clawed my Li Hai concert poster? Well, what I didn't write was that the very next day she did the same thing, but this time she totally destroyed the poster, as well as tearing up corners of two other ones. I didn't get a photo of the destroyed one.

I was so pissed at her, and her butt got beat hard. I ended up completely rearranging the dining room and kitchen, moving the cabinet she'd jumped onto into the kitchen and making it impossible for her to to reach those three posters (Charlene gave me a new Li Hai concert poster to replace the destroyed one). So what does the little shit do? She jumps up onto the cabinet in its new location in the kitchen next to the fridge, up onto the fridge, and proceeds to rip my Wild Day Out poster, which is irreplaceable! Again, the butt is beaten, and this time she's tossed onto the balcony, where she stays without food for about five hours. Did that stop her? No, the next night she was back up there, again ripping the poster in the same place I'd taped it. Another beating, and no food, exiled to the balcony. But wait - this cat is so stubborn that she did it yet a third time! And each time she knows she's wrong, because as soon as I wake up, she runs and hides because she knows I'll find out.

OK, fine, I took the poster down and moved it to a wall with no access to save us both some grief, and we have a couple of days of no trouble. Until this morning.

I walked into the living room to find my Two-Faced Man remix poster with one corner detached from the wall and claw marks. That little shit! She jumped up onto the TV stand and from there up onto the shelves that go along the top, then up onto the bookcase and across to the little DVD rack and got my poster! What the fuck is she doing? Why is she on a mission to destroy every one of my posters? Then in the bedroom I find that she'd gotten to the Two-Faced Man poster over my bed, who knows when. She'd already long ago torn up the corner of the DNA Lounge poster that Carol sent me, but she's been working on it even more lately.

So, I guess DZ will no longer be allowed in my bedroom at night. She's already banished from there and my office during the day when I'm not home, because she destroys things. Her world is getting smaller and smaller, and soon she'll find that the balcony is all she has. I'm moving everything I can, but it seems almost impossible to keep things out of her reach. She jumps up onto every cabinet all the time (I find her footprints, so I know), and no matter how much I spank her - even using the toilet brush! - she keeps going back and doing the same things, knowing that she will get in trouble for it. I have never in my life seen such a stubborn cat.

Anyone want a cat?

Ugh

2007-02-11T09:08:00.000+08:00

I've been sick all week. It started last Sunday evening, when my throat began to hurt. Monday I felt awful, but I still had to go to school, because it was the first day of the new semester. I got my final exam - and it was 99%, wow! I was amazed. I got a final grade for the semester of 90%, which I assume is based on tests and homework completed. It's high enough that I am eligible to apply for the scholarships they give out, so I think I will.

After the first session with the new teacher, I knew I wasn't going to be very happy. Boring, boring, boring. This teacher seems like a nice person, but no spark of life in her at all. Perhaps her mind is on her upcoming wedding in March, but all of us were in danger of falling asleep.

Tuesday I was so very sick that I did stay home, feeling chilled all day despite the warm weather outside, even my skin hurting when my clothes slid across it. I dosed myself with some Theraflu and spent most of the day sleeping. Dragged myself to school Wednesday and Thursday, still feeling like crap, but if I don't go to school, then I have visa problems. The bright point was that the teacher, Chen Laoshi, decided that it wasn't worth her time to teach a class of only four students, so on Friday we split, with my three Indonesian classmates joining Chen Laoshi's 8:00 a.m. class and me going into Deng Laoshi's 1:00 p.m. more advanced class.

I like Deng Laoshi. She was the one who gave me the placement test, and I thought at that time she was pretty cool. Even though she's one of the older teachers, she's not stuffy and rigid, she's funny and lively. I was still half out of it on Friday, doing a lot of coughing, but I enjoyed her class, and it's obvious the other students really like her, too. I'm now on a two-week break for Chinese New Year, and I'll be spending a lot of time reviewing things I've forgotten. The book we're using in the new class is called Taiwan Today, and when I was at CLD we had studied up through lesson 4 of this book. Thankfully, a lot of it isn't brand-new stuff, but reviews what we learned in the Practical Audio-Visual Chinese Book 2, Part 2, and that's the one I've forgotten most of.

Today is another book-signing event, two actually, and Charlene, Natari, Xiao Niu, and I are going. Charlene and I went last week to the one at the book exhibition, but there were so many friggin' people there that I didn't think it was worth standing in line. Besides, my lower lip was blossoming with a huge cold sore, and I certainly didn't want to stick that in Wu Bai's face. It's better now, despite two smaller ones that popped up over the course of this rotten cold. Since I am sick, I might wear one of the face masks folks here use to prevent germs from running rampant (popularized by the SARS epidemic). I already have my book signed, but I need to get Alice and Caroline's signed, if possible, which means standing in line twice.

Oh gosh, I don't think I've written about my first lesson with Xiao Zhu's son, Vincent. Well, I consider it less than a success. His mom dropped him off last Saturday, and I spent two hours trying to get the kid to say more than "yes" or "no" to anything! I think he was just so shy that he didn't know what to do. I finally discerned that he liked Harry Potter and brought out my Harry Potter books. Vincent picked up each one, opened it in the middle, stuck his face in, and inhaled deeply. I have never seen a kid smell books before. Very strange. He also enjoyed playing with DZ and wandering around my house as if he lived there. I need to sit down and talke with Xiao Zhu and Du Du and find out what makes the kid tick, what he's interested in. I can't spend two hours just talking at him, he has to talk back. This week my voice is so bad that I told Xiao Zhu no way could I teach, so hopefully during the next week I'll be able to meet with the folks and form a plan. If anyone has hints on how to get a shy kid to talk, let me know. I even plied him with chocolate! He's either 13 or 14 (Dad says 13, kid says 14), and he's as tall as me, maybe a little taller, and he's pretty chubby, which surprised me. Xiao Zhu and Du Du are both rail thin, like most of the people here. So at least Vincent and I have one thing in common - a love of food. :)

Hm, I think I'm still a little loopy from the Theraflu. Sadly, last night I downed the last packet, and I don't think I can buy it in Taiwan. It's about time to make up a shopping list and impose on the folks back in the US to shop for me. I'll bet I can twist Dad's arm a little bit, ha.

Feeling Testy

2007-02-02T15:43:00.000+08:00

Today was the last day of my first semester at the new school. Next week I begin a new class with a new teacher, and I'm so sad. I love Wang Laoshi! I wish I could continue on with her, but she'll only be teaching the very first book next semester, and I must move on. I've heard a couple of bad things about the new teacher, Chen Laoshi, but I'll wait to form my opinion until I've actually experienced her teaching. I sure hope she's not one of those extremely strict teachers, ewwww.

So because today was the last day, we had our final test, which covered the seven chapters we've studied over the last 11 weeks. I began studying yesterday around 2:00 p.m., and I kept going until 8:30 p.m., mostly practicing writing characters, because that's my weak point. Man, was I tired! I think it paid off, though, because I felt I did pretty good today. Won't know until Monday, of course, but I have a good feeling. As I was coming home on the MRT, it hit me that I'd written the entirely wrong answer for one question, though. Duh...

This semester marked my first experience with a test that's very common in most Chinese classes, but not at the school I previously attended. This is called a "ting xie" which means "listen write." The teacher reads a sentence, and we have to write the correct characters, as well as the pinyin spelling (or bo-po-mo-fo) with the correct tone marks. Luckily, we only had four of these, the first two being full sentences, and the last two being just words or phrases. On my first test, I scored 92%, on the second 93%. The third was 100% correct, and I'm confident that today's will also turn out to be 100%. For the other tests at the end of each chapter, I'm happy to say that I always did pretty good. My scores were as follows:

Chapter 1 - 95%
Chapter 2 - 99%
Chapter 3 - 98%
Chapter 4 - 98%
Chapter 5 - 98%
Chapter 6 - 100% (finally! I was tired of the 98% rut.)

I'm hoping for 95-98% for today's test, but since the final portion was writing a small essay, I'm not so sure I'll get that many points. When I can write at home, I do quite well, because I can type it first and then I have something to look at to help with characters I don't remember how to write. But on the spot like that, I can only use words I remember, which makes my composition read like a child wrote it. Argh.

Update: Wow, I got 99% on the end-of-semester final! Shocked the hell out of me, that's for sure. I got a final grade of 90% for the semester, which I assume is based on both homework and tests. Me so happy....

In other news, Xiao Zhu called to say he can't bring his son tomorrow, because he has to go to Tainan for a show, so his wife, Du Du, will bring the boy. I like Du Du, she's very energetic and happy whenever we see her at ABS shows, seems like quite a character. I must make sure the house is spotless tomorrow to make a good impression!

Tomorrow evening a new student named Donny will come for his first class. I hope that works out, because I sure can use the money. I think it will be only about a one-month class, because he's taking his IELTS test in March, and if he passes, he won't need me anymore.

Sunday Charlene and I are going to the International Book Exhibition at the Taipei World Trade Center to see Wu Bai. I went to his book forum on Monday at the Eslite store, and it was quite fun. He looked particulary handsome that day, and I was so happy that I understood about 75% of everything he said. Plus, he remembered my name, when I brought my book up to be signed. I like his photographs very much, and I hope one of these days he publishes a book of his drawings, too. Quite the talented fellow, that Wu Bai is. Music, photography, art, cooking - the man does it all.

One more week of school, then we break for two weeks for Chinese New Year, and Cheryl comes to visit! Yay!

Comet McNaught Glory

2007-01-25T17:31:00.000+08:00

Guoxi sent this photo of Comet McNaught that one of his classmates at pilot training school (they're in Adelaide, Australia) took the night before last. Guoxi said that this was the first time he'd ever seen a comet.

Sometimes I miss Magalia's whole sky full of twinkling stars on a dark, dark night. It's too bright here in Taipei, so even if there were no clouds (rare), we still couldn't see many stars.

Not Too Politically Correct

2007-01-24T18:32:00.000+08:00

I've just now remembered this little story that I had intended to write here but forgot.

The last time I did recording for that cram school, I was working with a guy named Roger. Instead of reading a conversation as we sometimes do, we just had to clearly and slowly pronounce words on a list, and we were alternating. Well, you know that many words have two different pronunciations, one for if it's a noun, one for if it's a verb, like research, subject, reject, etc., with the accent on the first syllable for nouns and the second syllable for verbs. We weren't sure if we should read noun or verb, so we were just winging it. So it's Roger's turn, and he reads "REtard." A moment of silence as our eyes meet, then both of us burst into hysterical laughter, pointing at one another and yelling, "Retard! Retard!" while the two guys in the sound booth stared at us with puzzled looks. I had snot coming out of my nose and tears flowing down my face. It took forever for us to calm down, because we'd read a word or two and then start the whole laughter thing again. The Taiwanese guys just didn't get it, even after Roger explained to them what retard means. Some humor just doesn't translate well.

Finally, Something to Write About!

2007-01-23T16:05:00.000+08:00

There's a Chinese saying 舊的不去﹐新的不來 - if the old doesn't go, the new doesn't come. Well, in the case of English students it appears to be true.

Today I was on the MRT on my way home when my phone rang. It wasn't a number I have programmed into the phone, so I thought it might be one of the girls Ye Ying gave my number to, a couple of prospective students. I answered (in Chinese, of course), "Hello?" A man's voice replied (the whole conversation takes place in Chinese), "Hi, is this Marla?" As I said yes, I was thinking maybe it was Kitty's brother or father calling me with an update on her whereabouts, which would sure be nice. But it wasn't. To my profound surprise, the voice said, "Hi, it's Xiao Zhu." A couple seconds of silence while I processed this information. Xiao Zhu? Wu Bai's bass player Xiao Zhu? Huh? OK, a phone call from Dino would not be totally unexpected, but Xiao Zhu?? Wah.... When I recovered my wits, I asked him how on earth he could be calling me.

It appears that Xiao Zhu's thirteen-year-old son, Vincent, is in need of someone to speak English with him, as there is no one at home who can do this, therefore he's not making much progress in his lessons. Xiao Zhu knows that I taught Guoxi English, so I guess he asked Dino for my number so he could see if I was interested in teaching his son. I told him of course I would do it, as it would be very convenient, living so close to them as I do. I'm even giving him a huge discount, because a hot (and I'm referring to his skill, not his looks, although he certainly is a cutie) bass player like Xiao Zhu deserves it. So, in a couple of weeks, on Saturday, I'll start working with Vincent.

I'm wondering how I'm going to feel about Xiao Zhu seeing my apartment, with posters and photos of Wu Bai all over the place. I think perhaps I might be just a teeny bit embarrassed about that! What can I say? I'm a fan....not just of Wu Bai, but of the whole band. It's just that photos of the rest of the guys are few and far between.

And speaking of these posters, DZ lost one of her lives this afternoon after I discovered she'd jumped up onto the cabinet, on top of the little oven, and had shredded one side of my Li Hai concert poster! That little shit, the worst she can do is fuck around with my Wu Bai stuff. Last week I found another poster from above the same cabinet on the ground when I came home, but I assumed the sticky stuff had just worn out and that it had fallen down. Now I know she'd been up there playing with it. Perhaps after her spanking today she'll think twice about jumping up there next time. She's going to find herself shut up on the balcony while I'm in school if she keeps this up.

Welcome to the World, Kimi Tuominen Ng!

2007-01-20T09:32:00.000+08:00

Congratulations to my Singaporean friends, Tona and David, on the birth of their first child, a boy, born January 17.

Make sure you raise him right, as a proper Wu Bai & China Blue fan!

Completely Abandoned

2007-01-17T22:07:00.000+08:00

I am now studentless. Funck came for his lesson this evening and said he wants to quit, because running his website is taking too much of his time.

Kitty is still MIA, went to Shanghai for "a week" at the beginning of December and has not been in touch since. Oh, her father called me the week after she left, said she'd be in Shanghai through the end of December, so sorry. What, they don't have e-mail in Shanghai?

Jennifer said she was too busy September through December doing her wedding consulting and would start up again in January, but she hasn't gotten in touch, either.

Rosa quit a few weeks ago, because she's just too tired on the weekends after her long and stressful work week. I can understand that.

So here I am, making no money at all. I suppose it's time to seriously look for new students, but I'm so fed up with the way people just cancel all the time or aren't all that serious about the lessons. I'm not sure it's worth it, and I'm spending more time on my own lessons this time around anyway. Hm, have to think about it, I guess.

2007 - So Far, So Good

2007-01-07T11:34:00.001+08:00

Once again I begin with an apology for not writing much. I wish I had more excitement in my life to share with you all, but.....I don't.

So, the party on 12/23 was a success, we had fun, ate lots of good food (including some homemade hot and sour soup that Ye Ying and Xuan Yi made), I drank lots of beer, my Korean friend Kayun drank too much pear cognac and fell asleep on the couch for awhile, and the tiramisu was awesome. So awesome that I made a second batch, which turned out not quite as good since I used too much espresso. Next time I'm experimenting with making my own invention, Kahluamisu.

Kayun stayed with me for a few days last week. She had to give up her apartment on Wednesday, so she showed up at my front door Wednesday a.m. with her huge suitcase in tow and stayed until she left yesterday at 5:00 a.m. Silly girl had booked an 8:30 a.m. flight back to Korea! So, she had to take a cab to Yuanshan MRT station to get the airport bus. I hope she made it on time, haven't heard from her yet. I'm really going to miss her.

Oh, getting the visa extension was a bit of a kerfuffle this time. My visa was due to expire on January 2, so I went to the Taipei County police department in Banqiao the week before, on Wednesday. The last time I went there, there was no MRT, just a bus, so taking MRT I wasn't sure if I needed to go to the police station close to the Banqiao station or the one at Fuzhong (they are very close), so I tried Banqiao first. Nope, the folks there said I needed to go to the one close to Fuzhong, so Kayun (who kindly accompanied me) and I walked there. After arriving at that police station, they said, "Nope! You need to go to yet another station." Well, OK, we don't mind walking, finally got to the place I'd gone to before, and I got a form and started to fill it out while Kayun went to get a number. They had a sign posted there, only in Chinese, not in English, telling foreigners that if their visas expire after 12/29, they have to wait until January 2 and go to a new office to get their extensions. Kayun was trying to figure out what the sign meant (we both read Chinese pretty darned well but this was complicated), but she didn't quite understand it all and finally asked a clerk, and he told her. She was shocked that they would post such an important notice only in Chinese and expect foreigners to be able to understand it, and she proceeded to tell them how stupid that was (not exactly the best thing to do, but she was right). I didn't know any of this was happening; I was still filling out my form. We were very confused, and the clerk drew us a little map and told us to go to the new location. OK, so we walked a little way, went past number 168, which looked like a police station, looking for number 166. There was a brand-new office being worked on, still not open, and we asked the workers if that was number 166. They pointed back the way we came. We returned to 168, where we found a police officer. Asked him where 166 was, he pointed back at the workers. WTF? Finally, we just walked back to the police station and told the guy there that the office at the address he gave us wasn't open yet. "Right," he says, "you have to come back on January 2." "But that's the day my visa EXPIRES. Isn't that cutting it a bit close? What if I'm sick that day? Can't I apply for the extension today?" He goes and asks some other guy, who finally explained to me that the government was moving the handling of visa extensions to the immigration department, and that the police department will no longer be responsible, and that there is simply no way I could apply for the extension until January 2.

I was really worried about having to wait until the last day, because one other person told me that when her friend waited until the final day, he was told he had to leave the country and apply for another visa! But I had no choice but to wait until the 2nd and was afraid they might tell me "no" when I went. I thought about buying a plane ticket to Hong Kong on Tuesday just in case, but then decided I should just hope for the best. Everything turned out fine. Kayun and I went bright and early because we figured there'd be a crowd. The office was a madhouse, tons of others who had had to wait all piled in, the poor workers hadn't been provided with essentials, like calendars, so they had to count on their fingers to figure out dates for visa extensions, and the woman helping me kept her cool despite being so overwhelmed.

So now I'm good until March 3, when I will be applying for the Alien Residency Certificate (ARC) to avoid having to keep leaving the country. That will also propose a problem, since I have to apply two weeks before my visa expires. Here's the hitch: school closes February 10 through February 25 for Chinese New Year. They, and all government offices, will also be closed February 28 for a national holiday. So the week before my visa expires, there are four working days. I have to have all the paperwork from the school before I can apply for the ARC. I have to wait three days from the day I ask the school for the paperwork before I can get it. So, if I ask on 2/26, I can't pick them up until 3/1, which would again be cutting it way, way close. But applying before the holiday closure is probably too soon, so who knows what I'll do? Not me, that's for sure.

Taiwan finally got some cold wintery weather. We went from balmy days in the upper 70s to upper 40s, low 50s. It's still not super cold, especially inside the house, but I now need to wear a jacket. Been a bit rainy, too, which always makes it feel colder than it is. The long-range forecast says we'll be back to high 60s, low 70s by the 13th. Maybe, we'll see. I just hope it's nice in February when Cheryl comes to visit.

Doris from Hong Kong arrived Thursday, and Nat, Charlene, Betty, Xiao Niu, and I joined her for a wonderful dinner at Shanghai Dumpling. I love that place, especially since we get such a great discount, as it's owned by the company Nat and Charlene work for. I passed on going with Nat and Doris to Miaoli yesterday. They were going to go to the hotspring, and I don't do hotspring, plus they were spending the night. I can't afford to spend much money now, since I'm not making any. What I have in the bank has to carry me through four years of university, so I'm saving the bucks for Wu Bai & China Blue related stuff!

I managed to waste all of my Saturday yesterday, doing absolutely nothing except dinking around online and reading, with a tiny bit of timeout for meeting with a young lady named Vivi who wants some help with English. Her family owns the convenience store by my house, and I've chatted with her off and on since I moved here. She truly wants to study English but can't figure out how to pronounce words she doesn't know, so she gets intimidated. I told her I'd try to find some phonics stuff online to help out, because I don't understand the method they use here in Taiwan to try to teach the kids English pronunciation.

Need to get my hiney in gear and accomplish something today, so zai jian, see ya, toodles, ta, and all that.

I'm not buying wool ever again

2006-12-30T13:36:00.001+08:00

Learn more at SaveTheSheep.com

Earthquake Day!

2006-12-26T21:16:00.000+08:00

I'm just quietly sitting here doing homework, and my whole room starts to shake, and it keeps on shaking, much more than what I normally feel. I fire off a message to Kayun, "Wow, big earthquake!" She replies, "Thought I was going to die, still feels like it's shaking." About five minutes later, along comes another one. This time I get a call from Kayun. She's kinda freaked, because she's on the 11th floor and feeling it much more than I am. I just checked the website, but all they have listed now is the one that happened earlier today in Taitung, down to the southeast. It wasn't very big, just 4.6.

Just got the update on the website. The one I felt at 8:26 p.m was in the ocean off the very farthest southern tip of Taiwan, in Hengchun. It was 6.7 magnitude (and some reports say 7.2) and was felt in just about every part of the island, which is not usual. The second one, at 8:34 p.m., was very close to Kaohsiung, also at the southern tip of Taiwan, and it was 6.4. That one wasn't felt as strongly up here in the Taipei area, but enough to make us take notice! From what folks are posting on the message board, it hit pretty hard in Kaohsiung, even knocking out cell phone service.

Wednesday morning update: Five quakes in all yesterday, four of them last night and in the south and one in the afternoon on the east coast. The two later ones in the south didn't shake the north, being at 5.2 and 5.5. I've only been able to access Yahoo! news, nothing written locally yet, but at least one person died in Pingtung when the house collapsed. Sounds as if there was extensive damage in that area and a lot of fires, disruption of phone service, etc. Not a very nice Christmas gift for folks here. At least the feared tsunami heading for the Philippines faded out before causing even more damage.

Taiwan is a very small island, but the quakes were still about 260 miles away from me. Feeling that much shake here makes me really glad I wasn't anywhere near the epicenter. I was very happy to hear from Sharrie that she and her family were OK (she lives in Pingtung).

Wednesday afternoon update: At 10:30 a.m. today another 5.9 quake hit, 42km west of Pingtung, out in the ocean. The Taipei Times reports about last night's quakes: Phone lines and power were cut in many areas of southern Taiwan. At press time, reports were filtering in detailing the damage and TV footage showed rescue workers attempting to locate people suspected to have been buried in rubble. The quakes knocked down two apartment buildings in Hengchun, burying 11 people in the rubble. At press time, the body of a man had been recovered and four people rescued, while six people were still trapped. One of the reactors at the nearby Third Nuclear Power Plant was briefly shut down because of a malfunction, apparently in connection with the earthquake. Cracks in the Kaoping Bridge -- which connects Kaohsiung and Pingtung cities and is part of a major transport artery -- appeared in the wake of the earthquakes, sparking concerns of another collapse of the structure. The bridge collapsed in 2000, injuring 22 people, because of poor maintenance.

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-22T19:21:00.000+08:00

Hallo everyone! I wish each of you a very Merry Christmas, and of course a very Happy New Year. As happy as I am here, I do miss my friends back in the US, and I'm sorry I can't share the holiday cheer with you in person.

I'm also sorry I haven't been writing much lately, but there just hasn't been anything to tell. I've been going to school every day, doing lots of studying and homework, doing language exchange two days a week, and spending some time with my friend Kayun, who will be leaving in January to go back to Korea. I'm going to miss her a lot, so I'm taking advantage of what little time she has left here in Taiwan. My three-day-a-week student, Kitty, is in China this month, so I'm only teaching Funck on Wednesday evenings, not making any money at all :( Boo hoo. I don't want to find new students, though, because I need my own time to study. Jennifer, the three-hours-on-Sunday student, should start up again in January, and Kitty will (hopefully) be done with her family's business stuff in China and be back in January, too.

Tomorrow I'm having a Christmas party, starting at 2:00 p.m. and going on until we get tired of partying. I really don't know how many people will show up, maybe only a few, but I made tiramisu for the first time ever, and I have a Kahlua cake, too. I discovered that it's danged expensive to make tiramisu in Taiwan. The savoiardi cost me $6US, the mascarpone cost $9, and the amaretto (should probably have gotten cognac, but I'll drink amaretto as a drink and I won't drink brandy, so cognac it is) was $16. Of course, that bottle should make quite a few batches of tiramisu :) I hope it tastes good, because I didn't spend the $18 for real Italian espresso like the recipe said I should use. I just used plain old Barista Seattle Espresso blend. The recipe was cute, it actually says: Make the espresso and poor it into shallow flat-bottomed bowl. Add one shot of cognac, one teaspoon cocoa, and allow to cool to room temperature. If at this point you've decided to use coffee instead of espresso, take the coffee you've made and drink it. Then make espresso.

I just made some spaghetti sauce, too, not real sauce, just using Classico jarred stuff (it's really not too bad) and adding ground beef, onions, loads of garlic, mushrooms, green pepper, and red wine. However.....I have a feeling that bottle of red wine made the change to something resembling vinegar over the last 10 months that it's been in my fridge. The sauce smells a little strange, and it doesn't taste quite right. Oops, guess next time I'd better taste the wine before dumping it in. It's edible, though, just not super great, bit of a tart tang to it. Good thing I was only making it for me and not to serve at the party!

Let's see, anything else? Well, DZ has gotten a bit chubby since her operation. I guess it's partially being spayed and partially bulking up for winter. Not that we actually have winter.....the temperature has been quite nice, around 68-75 during the day, but a bit chilly at night. It's still not as cold as last year was, and some days I don't even wear my jacket in the afternoons. The Taiwan folks are all bundled up in ski jackets, and I'm in shirtsleeves. They must think I'm nuts. But I have a nice big layer of fat to keep me warm, and they don't.

The Taiwan postal service is pretty good. My dad sent a Christmas card, and he didn't write my actual street on the envelope, but they found me anyway. Probably not that many foreigners living in Zhuwei, they could figure out the street from the alley and lane numbers.

Last week I had a notice in my box that I had a parcel at the post office. I was all excited, thinking "Christmas present!" so I headed to Danshui Sunday morning to pick it up (yeah, they're open on Sunday, can you believe it?). The weather was beautiful, so I walked along the river to the post office. Sadly, it was not a Christmas present. It was a free gift from Hinet for upgrading my ADSL service. Unfortunately, it was a handy little device to help one learn English. Not exactly what I need. I think I'll give it to one of my friends - regift!

Yesterday I needed to apply for the next semester of school in order to get my visa extension. My visa is only good until January 2, so I have to go to the police station next week for sure. The school told me I had to wait until 12/21 to apply, so in the morning I picked up the forms. The assistants at this school aren't nearly as friendly and helpful as the gals at CLD were. The one who gave me the forms yesterday never smiles at all, always looks like she's sucking on a lemon. I told her I'd bring the forms back in the afternoon, so Ye Ying and I stopped at the counter after lunch, before our language exchange. That little bitch looked at my form and said, "The teacher needs to fill out this part." Well, you twit, why the hell didn't you tell me that this morning??? It was too late to catch my teacher, she was teaching another class, so I had to wait for this morning. Now I have to wait until Wednesday to get the confirmation letter from the school. That's just cutting it too close for me, and there had better not be any problems, or I'm gonna strangle that twerp.

I guess I've rambled enough now. Again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love the Faster Internet Connection!

2006-12-10T21:36:00.000+08:00

Wow, I finally decided I'd had enough of trying to watch jerky videos, so I switched over to a faster connection. And that means that I can upload vids of my own to YouTube. This weekend has been spent uploading a lot of A.B.S. videos, and one Wu Bai & China Blue one. I have a lot more to do, but even with a fast connection it requires hours of time, which I don't have. So, check frequently or, better yet, subscribe so you'll know when new videos have been posted. But for now, please drop in and check out A.B.S. at My Videos at YouTube

Christmas Came Early

2006-12-09T08:26:00.000+08:00

This post is a big "THANK YOU!" to some really cool friends in the US who made me smile this week.

I arrived home on Wednesday to find an attempted delivery notice in my mailbox that had been left on Tuesday, but I didn't have time to go to the post office to pick up my package. Most of the mail I get at home is junk advertisements stuffed in by the locals, and I sometimes don't bother to use the key to open the box, just peek in through the wide slot at the junk. Alice had said she was sending something, so I assumed it was that, figured I'd grab it Thursday. Not long after I got home, the security buzzer rang, and I answered, expecting my student. But it was a guy from the post office, with a large box.

To my delight the box was from Romita, and it was filled with three bags (three!!) of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, a box of sinfully fattening Orville Redebacher's Movie Theater Popcorn, a few packages of taco seasoning, some Del Taco hot sauce, and some lemon and rum extracts. I've been thinking about tacos a lot lately, and now all I need is shells (and I know where I can get 'em) to start munching. Thanks Romita!

Just a few minutes later the bell rang again, but once again it wasn't my student, it was another post office guy! So, I made the trip downstairs again to get another package, this one from Alice. Huh? Then what's at the post office? A surprise, I guess.

Alice made me the cutest calendar you can possibly imagine. I'm going to have to take some photos of it and post them, because it's just adorable. Of course there are some photos of Wu Bai in it, but also some kitty pictures and some really cute cartoons. I love it! She also sent a bright holiday dish towel and a Santa ornament, that I have hanging up in the living room. Since she'd told me she was going to mail something, I'd asked her to get me some denim iron-on patches for my jeans, and she sent me three packs of those. Just in time, because my pants weren't safe to wear, as they were ready to sprout holes in an unfortunate place. Amazing what friction can to do cloth.... Thanks Alice!!

So, Thursday I didn't manage to get home until after 5:00, so no trip to the post office. But I went yesterday and found a package from Carol in New Hampshire, and she'd sent me some NH honey and maple syrup (the real deal)! That stuff is pretty expensive here, so I don't buy it, so getting some as a gift is truly nice :) French toast on the horizon, along with peanut-butter-and-honey toast for breakfast. Thanks Carol!!

Edit on 12/17/06: And another "thank you" to Maddy for the beautiful candle set that arrived Saturday afternoon. I love them so much!

Now, all my friends know that I'm incredibly lame when it comes to Christmas shopping, and normally I manage to get gifts out sometime in January. Don't think this year will be any different, because it won't be. But I wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

My Three Seconds of Fame

2006-12-03T12:54:00.000+08:00

Charlene kindly pointed out to me that I have the longest "exposure" in the latest music video from Wu Bai and China Blue, Cherry Lover. That footage was shot at the autograph session on November 5, and is my tattooed ankle, then the back of my custom-made t-shirt, then the front. No face, which is fine with me. The footage at the beginning was shot at The Partyroom during the two shows I attended in October, and I get split-seconds glimpses of me, Nat and Charlene, Xiao Niu, and others I recognize, but the picture isn't very clear. If you'd like to watch the video, here's the link: http://www.im.tv/VLOG/Personal/470305/866390

Yesterday Dino talked me into to going to the Simple Life music festival today. It's going to be freezing cold, and I may be sorry, but I'm going. Eason Chan, a Hong Kong singer I like, is also performing. Wu Bai & China Blue are the last act, of course.

Blogger is having issues. Buttons for uploading photos have vanished. No way to format font, no way to edit HTML. Hope they fix it soon....this seems to happen frequently.

Welcome the Weekend

2006-11-25T09:03:00.000+08:00

Well, first week of school is over, and I'm still glowing with happiness. Nice classmates, great teacher, not much homework - just what I wanted! On Monday I will have my first lunch date with classmates, two Japanese girls. Yesterday was Ryoko's birthday, so I baked a Kahlua cake Thursday and brought some to class with me. Everyone was suitably impressed with my cooking skills, except for the Korean girl who doesn't like sweet stuff. The teacher (Wang Laoshi) wants the recipe, because she also loves to make cakes.

Last night Caroline came over for a bit of chat, eat, drink beer, watch Bollywood movies. She wasn't able to get out of work early enough to get to my place before 9:00 p.m., so we didn't have tons of time. I think I'm going to her place in Banqiao this evening, though. I ate way too much fried chicken nuggets and squid tentacles last night, must try to do better today. But dang, they're so good....

The other evening one of my friends saw Wu Bai's car in front of a little noodle stand on a street close to my school and saw him outside waiting for his order. It's a distinctive car, an Alpha Romeo, and she recognized it as she was going by on her scooter. She gave me the name of the stand, and you can bet I'll be going to scope it out ;) Of course, he was there in the evening, and I'm only in that area during the day, but maybe he'll wander over for lunch someday. I want to try the food, because she said it's the Sichuan hot and spicy kind, which I love.

A bit of sadness on the horizon: Guoxi leaves for Australia tomorrow, gone for a year to train as a pilot. I'll miss him, and I hope he stays in touch. I'm wondering if he'll come back speaking English with an Australian accent.

And it appears that I now have arthritis in my right hand. On every finger the first knuckle is sore and swollen. This distresses me to no end, because it's just another sign of my ever-increasing age. It also makes it a little more difficult to practice writing Chinese! I'm taking MSM tablets every day, thanks to a gift from Cheryl, and I'm taking my liquid glucosamine, and while this helps with my knee problems, it doesn't address the arthritis. I've stopped taking ibuprofen every day, like I was for months because of the knees, after hearing Caroline's tale of her grandmother collapsing, vomiting blood, because the ibuprofen had worn a little hole in her tummy. OK, maybe Grandma was sucking down ten pills a day to my two, who knows, but still....I don't think I want that effect. I'll have to see what kind of Chinese medicine is out there for arthritis and give it a try.

It sure seems that last year by this time it was much cooler than it is right now. I clearly remember freezing my ass off on December 16 at the Indie Music Festival, but November holds no clear memories. It's definitely a lot more pleasant than mid summer, less humidity, cool breezes, not much rain, and if it stayed like this I wouldn't complain. It's still warm enough that I have the fan on at night, and also when I'm just sitting and reading (never realized that light bulbs emit that much heat!). Most of the Taiwan folks are wearing jackets these days, but I'm still just in short-sleeved t-shirts. I can't consider 68-70 degrees to be jacket-wearing weather, unless there's a very cold wind blowing.

I hope everyone in the US had a happy Thanksgiving. Try not to stress out too much over Christmas shopping and such ;)

And for my Chinese readers....

2006-11-24T18:41:00.000+08:00

OK, I'm ready to unveil my attempt at blogging in Chinese. Don't expect much! I'll be posting what I write for homework and probably some other stuff as well. Please do feel free to correct me or to offer suggestions on how you think I could say it better.

歡迎來看我的文章﹗My Chinese blog

Love the New School!

2006-11-21T17:51:00.000+08:00

I'm so happy, lalala. My new teacher is great, reminds me very much of Ye Laoshi from the old school as far as her personality and teaching method. My class is small, only 7 of us, which means it's easy for all of us to have enough time to talk. I only have to write short essays three times a week, yay!

However, I do need to practice writing characters, so I can't spend too much time writing anything here right now =)

Freedom Ends Monday

2006-11-18T09:30:00.000+08:00

It's my last weekend of being a lazy bum, because Monday I start my Chinese classes again. I'm looking forward to meeting new people and making new friends, and also to probably spending more time with the friends I already have, as I'll be in their area every day now. So, hey, maybe next week I'll have some interesting stuff to write, provided I can find the time to blog in between homework and teaching.

Originally, my Mon-Wed-Thurs student had asked me to start a daily routine with her, cutting our two-hour lessons to 1.5 hours. But since she also wants me to spend time correcting the practice work she does, and she doesn't want to pay over a certain amount per month, we're sticking to the three days per week, and then I'll spend two afternoons at home working on her compositions and sentences. She sent me a couple Thursday - 18 pages of sentences in one, and 6 pages in the other. Took me four hours to do. Her compositions are worse, because her English writing skills are pretty weak, and sometimes I can't even figure out what she's trying to say. I think she's asking too much of herself, trying to cram five years of English study into a half a year to prepare for a test that I'd find difficult! The GRE Test is a very advanced test of English, requiring students to discuss issues and present arguments, and I doubt that many ESL speakers do well in it unless they have studied for a long, long time. We'll do the best we can, but at this point I'm not very optimistic about her chances.

The weather is bizarre. It started to get nice and fall-like, with cool (and even cold) days, but now it's back to being hot. I never know what to wear, or if I should bring a jacket or an umbrella with me when I leave in the morning. I'm still sleeping with the fan on at night. If I use the covers, I'm too hot. If I don't, I'm too cold. ARGH! So, I spend a lot of time tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable.

My house is a pigsty, so hopefully I'll muster up the urge to clean today. I truly hate mopping floors, but just vacuuming doesn't do the trick when one has tile and wooden floors. I think they're overdue for a good scrub.

Next week is Thanksgiving, and I do so miss the huge turkey dinners of the past. I'm trying to decide if I want to find a turkey breast and do up a little dinner of my own. I know I can buy all the ingredients for pumpkin pie, too. However, is it worth the effort? Dunno. Some of the restaurants here offer Thanksgiving dinners, but they're very expensive, and from what I've read on the message board, not really all that tasty. Maybe I'll make some Hainan Chicken Rice instead :) Or have hotpot at home, since I bought the pot and still haven't used it.

And of course after Thanksgiving comes Giftmas (Nicole's very apt word). I just want to forget about that particulary holiday. I don't have the extra money to buy gifts for my friends, and I don't want my friends to spend their money on me. I have everything I need, and I don't need a present to prove that my friends love me! I know that already. Christmas cards would certainly be welcomed with a smile, because knowing that my friends are thinking about me makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Gosh, I suppose I should start looking for my own cards here, too.

Well, the dirty house is crying out for attention, so I suppose I should tear myself away from the computer and get started before it gets much warmer.

Wu Bai's Poetry in Song

2006-11-16T09:56:00.000+08:00

This is one of my favorite songs from the new CD. I had to ask my language exchange partner, Ye Ying, to help a little with the translation, because of the use of metaphors. That's the biggest problem trying to translate Wu Bai's songs into English. Chinese-speaking people understand the references, but I don't always get it. I think the poetry of what Wu Bai writes is completely lost when translated, because I don't think English is sufficient to convey his thoughts and ideas. Another problem is the lack of verb tense in Chinese. It's difficult to know whether something is currently happening, or if it happened in the past.

So, here's a song that Ye Ying said she feels is about a guy who loves a girl, and he perhaps promised to marry her but now feels that he can't live up to that promise. He still loves her, but wants to leave and wander on his own, and he's struggling to decide if he should go or not. The wind is a metaphor for the girl and her love, pulling at him, trying to convince him to stay, and the whirlpool is a metaphor for the struggle and possible arguments that they have about him wanting to go.

一千萬個理由 A Billion Reasons

站在那風吹的角落
Standing on that windy corner
嘲笑風兒的淺薄
Jeering at the feebleness of the wind
世界如此的遼闊
The world is so vast
為何只對我訴說
Why does the wind speak only to me?

又不是情話慢慢說
Furthermore, it's not slowly speaking whispers of love
要是細語我會懂
If it were low and gentle talk, I would understand
過去我是答應過
In the past I did make promises
難道我們要哀愁
Can it be possible that we want sorrow?

靜靜的摀上我耳朵
I quietly muffle my ears with my hands
不要徘徊我身後
Do not walk to and fro behind me
我都已經在漂流
I'm already drifting about freely
難道妳沒有出口
Can it be possible that you have no way out?

我有一千萬個理由
I have a billion reasons
證明愛妳的是我
I'm the one who proved he loved you
關於那天我的遠走
About my leaving that day and going far away
有個拉長的漩渦
There's a drawn-out struggle (as if caught in a whirlpool)
我有一千萬個理由
I have a billion reasons
愛妳愛妳的是我
I'm the one who loves you
離開那愛妳的漩渦
Leaving that whirlpool of love for you
等待風兒的放手
I'm waiting for the wind to let me go

New Look

2006-11-14T12:25:00.000+08:00

I've switched over to the new Blogger, so I opted for a simpler look. Hope ya'll like it. I also went through a lot of the older posts and put labels on them.

I've started a Chinese blog, so I can practice my writing, but I haven't actually put anything there yet. Once it gets going, I'll put a link in the sidebar for all of you who can read Chinese. I hope you'll help me by making corrections for me, so I can improve :)

My Cat is Weird

2006-11-14T11:21:00.000+08:00

Most cats (hell, most animals) drink by placing their mouths close to the bowl of water and then lapping it up. Not DZ. She is such a bizarre cat. She walks up to her bowl, sticks her paw in the water, and then licks the water off her paw. Now I know why her water gets dirty so quickly!

After I take a shower, she'll often go into the bathroom and start lapping the water off the little stand I have in the corner of the shower. I find this very odd, because this water usually has soap suds in it. And for a cat who loathes being bathed, she doesn't seem to mind padding around in the puddles on the floor in the bathroom (remember, I shower directly on the tile floor) and then tracking footprints into the bedroom.

She doesn't like people food, either. Every time I'm slicing cheese in the kitchen, she'll come over, start meowing, and stand up on her hind legs like she's begging for some. But, if I give her a piece of cheese, she just sniffs at it and walks away. Ditto for ham. So far I haven't found any food that she'll eat, other than her canned and dry cat food. She won't even drink milk. This just isn't normal behavior for a cat!

Lately she's taken to jumping way up onto the wardrobe in my bedroom late at night. I store some empty boxes up there, and the first time I found one of the smaller ones in the laundry basket, I thought maybe there'd been an earthquake that knocked it down. Then one night I was awakened by strange noises. When I got up, DZ jumped down from the wardrobe, onto the smaller dresser next to it, and to the floor. She'd been up there banging around. She did it again the other night, once more knocking the small box into the laundry basket. Who would have imagined that she'd be able to get up that high? Or even want to!

A couple of days ago she was hanging out in my bedroom while I was getting showered and dressed. Normally she just lies on the bed, snoozing, but this time she crawled inside the pillowcase on my pillow and went to sleep.

Like I said, she's weird.

It's Been a FOOD Week

2006-11-12T12:02:00.000+08:00

I've eaten far too much this week, oh yes. It all started on Tuesday, when Guoxi invited me to go with him, his mother, and his younger sister to Jia An Village in Taoyuan County to eat lunch. I couldn't figure out why we were driving an hour just for lunch, but it turned out that Taoyuan was where the family lived until Guoxi was about 15 or so, and his mother just loves one restaurant there. The speciality of this restaurant is 活魚, live fish.

We arrived at the restaurant around noon, and we were the only customers. The first thing we did was walk to the rear of the restaurant to the pool where the fish are kept. These are not tiny fish. I'd say they averaged three to four feet in length! Guoxi's mom told the guy which size she wanted, and he snared it up in a net. Then he flopped the monster onto the ground and dispatched it with a few flicks of a very sharp knife. I missed this part, as I was in the bathroom, but I got a play-by-play from Guoxi. Then we all stood there watching as the guy cleaned the fish and scraped the scales off. Mrs. Zhang gave her order, listing six different ways she wanted the fish cooked, and then we all sat down at a large round table to wait.

The fish dishes appeared one by one - a deep-fried tail portion drenched with a tangy sauce that may have had citrus in it, a garlic-laden dish that smelled heavenly and tasted even better, a deep-fried middle section accompanied by a tasty dipping sauce, hot and spicy tofu with fish, a dish covered with dark sauce and full of some unindentified round things that looked like hazelnuts but weren't, and finally a huge pot of soup made with the fish head. Well, they certainly didn't waste any of this fishy. Along with the fish dishes we had some shrimp balls and stir-fried greens called 空心菜. The entire time we were eating, the owners' dog was frisking around the restaurant. Not a small dog, a large one. Once in awhile he'd come over to the table hoping for a handout, and sometimes his friend dog would join him inside, or he'd go outside for a romp with his buddy.

There was so much food we could have easily fed at least five more people. Every bit of what was left was packed up to go, even the soup because Mrs. Zhang had wisely brought along a metal pot to put it in. I was completely stuffed and mananged to turn down all offers of giving me some of the leftovers. It was extremely tasty, but the fish was loaded with bones, and I really don't like bony fish, because I'm afraid I'll get one stuck in my throat. So, the lunch was enough for me, no need to repeat the experience.

Friday afternoon I went to Tamkang University to take my placement test for the upcoming classes. I did a lousy job, because 1) I've forgotten a lot of what I learned and 2) I cannot write Chinese characters from memory. However, the teacher who was giving the test was very nice, and she accepted oral answers rather than written ones. She was satisfied that I read Chinese quite well and really did understand almost 100% of what was on the test, even though I couldn't write the answers in Chinese (I gave her some pinyin, though!). We decided that I should start out in the class that's using the book I've already finished studying, so that I can concentrate on improving my writing rather than trying to learn new stuff. This will also give me some review of what I've forgotten, which is much needed. Not to mention that homework will be a snap! hehe If I find that too boring, I can switch to the advanced class, which is using the book I had just started studying when CLD fell from the government's good graces.

Friday night after our class Kitty took me to a local steakhouse. You can order various cuts of steak, and there's a small salad bar that has, in addition to "normal" salad stuff, Taiwanese snacks like dry tofu, boiled egg halves, fried tofu, tiny stir-fried eggplant, french fries, chicken nuggets, and some of the best melon I've had, not sure what it was. Looked a bit like cantaloupe on the inside, but the outside wasn't cantaloupe-ish. They had papaya and kiwi, too.

After seeing the folks next to us get their orders of steaks smothered in sauce, I asked for mine to be plain, without sauce. Kitty was shocked. She said she'd been extremely pissed off in America when the steak she ordered at Denny's came without sauce. I told her that American's prefer to taste the meat itself when eating steak. I'd ordered the sirloin, and it came on top of some spiral noodles that had an insipid sort of red sauce on them, some frozen mixed veggies, and a fried egg. Hm. I took my steak off the sizzling metal plate and placed it onto my salad plate. This was not easy to do since my fork didn't seem to be able to actually pierce the meat. Trying to cut the first piece off was exhausting work. I don't believe I've ever run into a steak that was quite this tough. I should have spent a bit more money and gotten one of the more tender cuts (if they actually exist). Let us say that I don't think I'll bother with any Taiwan steakhouses again. If I feel the need for steak, I'll go to one of the Western-style steakhouses and pay an exhorbitant price for the real deal. At least the salad bar part was enjoyable, and it only cost me $7.50US, so what the hell.

Yesterday was the Wu Bai & China Blue Airwaves concert over by Taipei 101, so the gang met for lunch at Niko Niko, a California Roll sushi place that is owned by the company that Nat and Charlene work for. We were me, Nat, Charlene, Ah Ci, Shun, Xiao Niu, and PJ (who is one of the chefs there and was on duty) to start out, then Kennie (whose birthday it happened to be) and her boyfriend arrived very late. I let Nat take care of most of the ordering, except for making sure that I got a spicy roll. Everything we had was delicious, and I think I could have forced myself to eat even more than I did. Nat ordered a large plate of sashimi, but I don't really like plain raw fish, so I didn't have any of that. I stuck to the various rolls we got, plus a bit of the salad (boy, that was good, despite the ubiquitous canned corn that was tossed in). Eight of us ate until stuffed and the total was only $840NT (about $26US) because of the huge discount we got because Nat, Char, and PJ work there. I gave Nat $200, which is probably more than my fair share, but I consider it to be pretty cheap for what I got.

We headed over to the concert shortly before it began, not worrying about being in the back because the venue was so small. It just didn't seem worth it to try to arrive early enough to stand right in front this time. The show was loads of fun, but pretty much the same as the shows at The Partyroom, nothing new. Doesn't seem to matter how many times we see the same thing, though, it's always a high to be at a concert. Wu Bai was looking quite handsome and sexy, and all the guys seemed to be having a great time. Well, maybe Dino wasn't so happy, it's hard to say. He did one very odd thing, coming out to the front during one song that has no drums, no bass, and tossing drumsticks into the crowd. The look Wu Bai gave him was half irritation, half puzzlement. We're not sure what that was all about.

So, after the show we started off to San Zhi to visit Carrie. She'd invited Nat, Charlene, and I go her place to sit about and bullshit and do a little drinking. We had to stop off at my house first (it's on the way) to pick up the beer I'd bought the day before, and we stopped at a roadside vendor to get food and more snacks and beer at the convenience store. Carrie met us there so we could follow her up to her place.

Her house is really cool, older with concrete walls that she has decorated with some lips and flowers that she's painted onto them. The kitchen is in the basement, along with a bathroom, and there are some rooms upstairs from the living/dining area. We sat around her dining table and stuffed ourselves on the stuff that Nat bought - fried chicken, fried squid, fish balls, pig skin (not me, uh uh), tofu, enoki mushrooms - and the potato chips and Ritz cheese crackers I'd bought. Nat and Charlene started on the red wine, while Carrie and I had beer. She had wine afterwards, but I stuck with my beer, downing four of them. At about 10:45 Nat said it was time to go. Carrie said we were all welcome to stay there, but only Charlene chose to stay. I was a little worried about DZ, because she'd been acting strange when I got home to pick up the beer, not coming to the door to greet me, just staying on the bed in the spare room. I guess she was just faking it, though, because she was fine when I got home, wanting to play and keeping me up until 12:30 a.m.

So, I have one week before I start school again, and I'll be trying to do a lot of review so I'm prepared. I got the same class time as I had before, 10:00-12:00, but I have a little farther to go now, so I'll have to leave the house by 8:30 a.m. every day. After I get to Guting Station, I have a fifteen-minute walk to the school. Riding the MRT at that time means I probably won't have a seat, which sucks. I used to catch the 9:00 one, and that was perfect. But I don't want the 1:00 class, because then I'd never be able to have lunch with my friends, and the 3:00 class doesn't cover what I need to study. And no way am I choosing the 8:00 a.m. class!

Time to start cleaning my filthy apartment before the landlady comes by for her mail. Don't want to give the woman a heart attack :)

I Can Never Wash This Hand Again

2006-11-06T11:19:00.000+08:00

Well, folks, yesterday was the big day, the day I stood right in front of Wu Bai for the first time in the over five years that I've been a fan.

Autograph Session Photos

The autograph session was held in a little plaza across the street from the new MRT station at Fu Zhong. Charlene and I got there at 11:30 a.m. to get in the line, joining Ah Ci and Xiao Niu. Caroline came later, after she was through with her class, and Nat showed up late, too, which meant going to the end of the line, since we'd all been given consecutive numbers and no one could cut in. Didn't matter that we weren't right at the front this time, though. The session was due to start at 2:00, so we just chatted and watched the sun slowly eating the shade we were in. By the time 2:00 came around, we were all in full sun, and it was hot.

The guys performed a few songs before starting the signing, and that was cool. Have a look at this video one fan uploaded to YouTube: WuBai's "Flower" Dance

I wasn't able to get super close to the stage, and there was a really tall guy in front of me and Caroline, so I had to keep moving around to try to see. I attempted to take a video, but lame-brain apparently had her camera on the wrong setting, so all I got was a photo of Wu Bai's backside. Eh.

After the mini-concert, the signing began. I had wanted my lyrics booklet signed, since the only pix of China Blue are inside that. But no, The Powers That Be had decreed that the only thing that could be signed was the outside box of the CD, nothing else. No posters, no scrapbooks, no photos, nothing. One CD per person, thank you very much, and please move along quickly, don't ask to take photos with Wu Bai because you know he's so shy, yada yada yada.

As I climbed up on the stage with CD in hand, Charlene tugged my arm. I turned to find a girl with a video camera by my side, wanting to shoot my tattooed ankle. Oh great, just what I want. I told her it wasn't finished, that I still needed to get "and China Blue" added to the 伍佰. Then she ran the camera up my body - crap! I hate, hate, hate having photos of myself taken, not to mention a video camera in my hot, sweaty face! I guess the novelty of having a foreign fan who's this crazy about Wu Bai & China Blue hasn't quite worn off yet.

I bantered a few words with Dino, who was on the end of the table closest to me. Then came Da Mao, who greeted me with a big smile and a "nice to see you" in English, then Xiao Zhu, who calls me 老師 (teacher) since they know I'm Guoxi's English tutor. I asked him if his English was improving and he laughed, saying it was non-existent. I love these guys!

Then the moment I'd been anticipating and half-dreading: face to face with Wu Bai. I was so worried he'd say something in Chinese that I wouldn't understand, because I still have this problem of not understanding when people talk to me sometimes. I managed to squeak out, "Over five years, and I'm finally standing here." in Chinese. He then shocked me completely by asking what my name was. I mean, dude, how many foreigner fans do you have who queue in line for days to stand right in front of you at concerts? And I'm pretty sure your mom must have mentioned me to you a few times, hm? So, my tone of voice when I said, "I'm Ma La!" was a bit incredulous. However, he didn't hesitate at all when writing "To 瑪拉" on the CD, and since there are quite a few ways you could actually write those sounds and he knew the correct one, I eventually convinced myself that he was probably just making 100% sure I was who he thought I was (you know, we white folks all look alike, and I'm not blonde like I used to be, got red hair now). Then he asked me where I lived. What, not gonna ask for my phone number? No, I guess with the guard dog (i.e., wife) standing at his back that wouldn't have been a good idea. ;) And then I got the beaming smile (damn him for hiding his eyes behind those ridiculous sunglasses) and the handshake. Awwwwww. Later, as I checked other fans' CDs, I saw that no one else had a personalized one, so I felt kinda special. Of course, there might have been some that I didn't see, but still. He wrote my name .

We waited around for Nat and Xiao Niu to get through the line, then decided we'd stay until the end just in case they were going to perform again. Caroline hadn't gotten her CD signed, so at the last minute she decided to go up at the tail end of the line, and I went along with her, taking another CD with me. Dino laughed when he saw me again, and I think Wu Bai was a little surprised, too. Well, that look on his face could have been leftover from seeing Caroline's ample bosom in the low-cut tank top, ha. I'll bet all the guys appreciated that! If she had been wearing a nurse's uniform, she would have made Wu Bai's day. You know he has some weird obsession with women in nurse's uniforms, don't you? Well, you do now.

So, how do I feel about finally touching the man I think is the most beautiful creature on Earth? Well.....it's weird. I don't know if I expected sparks or something, but it was so very ordinary, no pounding heart, no drool escaping down my chin. Perhaps it was just the quickness of the whole thing, a few fleeting seconds of contact. I get more of an afterglow and a high at the end of a concert! I can't say it was a letdown or anything, but it certainly wasn't what I'd imagined it would be. On some level that soothes me, makes me know that I'm not so caught up in a fantasy that I can't see reality. I think I'm sort of happy that I felt so comfortable in front of him, not really nervous, just as natural as I am with Dino, Xiao Zhu, and Da Mao. I think that means that Wu Bai is the sort of person I could be friends with. Despite the way his management wants to promote him as the "Emperor of Rock," he didn't give off those "I'm so much better than you." vibes, and watching him as he signed CD after CD, smiling at his fans, sharing a few words with them, just made me happy all over.

OK, right then, now I need to tell you how much friggin' trouble it was to get a visa.

The whole fiasco of getting a health exam done could take up pages. Let's just say that it wasn't easy, and I ended up making three trips to the hospital before I managed to get it done. I had my letter of enrollment from the school, I had my letter from my Taiwan bank stating that I had almost twice the required amount of cash to support myself during my study, I had my visa application completed with photos attached, I had my letter explaining why I was studying Chinese and why I didn't need to work because I had the money from selling my house to support me for years to come. I was ready.

Got to Hong Kong on a late flight on Monday the 30th, after dropping DZ off at the vet for boarding and spaying. By the time the airport bus got me to Tai Po and Terry and Cheryl picked me up, it was close to midnight. Thank goodness for friends who are willing to go out of their way for me! Stayed up chatting with Cheryl, who was off work that week, but Terry had to hit the sack.

Tuesday Cheryl and I headed over to Hong Kong island so I could apply for the visa. Found the visa office, after getting off on the wrong floor and a bit of slight panic when the office was not there, and there was no one waiting. Cool. Got right up to the lady and handed her all my stuff. Then she asked for my driver's license from the US. Uh....I don't have it with me. I don't drive in Taiwan.

Her: "But you need to have proof of your US address."
Me: "But, I moved and don't even have the same address as on my license." (I'm using my dad's address as my US one since I sold my house.)
Her: "It's one of the requirements. Where are your bank statements?"
Me: "What? I have the letter from the bank showing how much is in there."
Her: "That's not enough. Do you have your bankbook?"
Me: "Yeah, here. Most of my money is still in my US bank."
Her: "Can you bring a bank statement?"
Me: "Well, yeah, I can print it from the website this evening."
Her: "Fine, bring that back tomorrow. And since you have the same US address written on your HK immigration form and inside your passport, we'll take that."
Me: "OK, thanks.

Wah! Stupid, I was so stupid. I completely missed the "proof of residence" on the instructions, because I got sidetracked by the "HK ID photocopy not required for non-Hong Kong residents." That was an idiotic thing. But the bank thing? I thought I had that covered.

Back at Cheryl's that evening I printed my last statement. Then I decided to print the prior two months, just in case. Good thing, because when I went back on Wednesday and said I'd brought the statement they wanted, the lady asked me if I had three months' worth! Then she told me to wait. So, Cheryl and I waited. And waited. And waited.

Eventually, a door opened and a woman called me in to a little room. Then the third degree commenced. Why haven't you been in school since the end of May? I had to explain about my prior school saying they thought they could work out their problems, and I was hoping to be able to return there. Where does your money come from? Well, like I wrote in the letter, I sold my house. How much did you sell the house for? I told her how much, not that that was how much I received, but hey, she didn't ask me that. Why do you have all these daily deposits of $15,000NT or $16,000NT? Because I can only take out $500US per day from my US account, so I go get the cash, then I walk into the bank and deposit it. Just look at the bank book and compare it with my bank statements, and you'll see they're done on the say day. Duh.

Then she told me that I'd already studied Chinese for a long time, and why did I need more. Excuse me? One year of studying Chinese doesn't even scratch the surface! I told her that I want to attend university here to pursue a degree in Asian studies and language, but that right now I'd never be able to understand the instructions. Also, I have aspirations to be an interpreter, and that requires years of study! By this time my stomach was in knots, and I was sure they were going to tell me no. She even asked me why I didn't go to Mainland China. Since I wasn't sure she was actually a Taiwan national, I didn't want to tell the truth, which is, "My god, that's a communist country with zero freedom, why the hell would I go there?" So, I told the other truth, which is that Mainland China has no Wu Bai & China Blue. Guess that worked, because I did get my visa.

Now, Cheryl and I hadn't eaten yet (those cheese Ritz didn't count), and it was after 3:00 p.m. The day before we'd gone to a great Mexican restaurant called Coyote for lunch, and we knew they were having happy hour now, so we headed over for some celebratory margaritas and food. It was expensive, $289HK, which is about $37US, but it was worth it. I can't get decent Mexican food in Taiwan, and a real margarita? Sppff, no way. We then went over to Marks and Spencer, where we had quite an enjoyable time making fun of the clothes, almost as much fun as we'd had in Starbucks the day before, looking at the Elle Magazine fashion photos. Almost giggled myself off the chair a couple of times with that. Most laughable were the bras, so heavily padded for those teeny little mosquito bites that pass for breasts on so many of the Asian gals.

The rest of my Hong Kong visit was spent watching Bollywood and Korean flicks with Cheryl, interspersed with a bit of the second season of "Little Britain." Met Doris for dinner on Thursday and had some good Shanghai-style food that was pretty inexpensive. Took off early Friday morning with Terry so he could drop me at the bus stop, landed in Taiwan at 1:00 p.m. Had to go to the visa office at the airport to get the actual visa attached to my passport, and that little delay resulted in me being stuck in a crowd of Japanese tourists waiting to get through immigration. Lordy, six planes must have landed at once! It took over an hour to finally get through, and my suitcase was sitting forlornly next to the luggage carousel when I got there. Got the bus back into town, took the MRT from Yuanshan home, dropped my suitcase (which, by the way, had been damaged and now the pull handle barely works) off, and headed to the vet to get DZ.

This was DZ's first time away from home. I didn't have much choice, can't keep asking friends to travel half an hour to feed my cat, and she needed to be spayed. Vet said she was a wild bundle of claws every time he went near her, which resulted in said claws being clipped. Also, their two cats were very curious about DZ and kept going over to her cage, which agitated her, so instead of locking their cats up in their cage, the vet put newspaper over the front of DZ's cage, so she was always in the dark. Gotta tell you I'm not real happy about that. She was completely traumatized, and it wasn't easy for me to get her out of the cage. Once I got her home, she was much better, but I got a few bites from her as she let me know exactly how she felt. I have to take her back today to get the stitches out, and that's not gonna be fun. Speaking of which, I need to go, it's getting late. Outta here.