Five Weeks of Freedom!

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.....

March Blew Away

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.

'Tis the Night Before Christmas

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!

Round One: Tainan Concert

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!).

正中下懷

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.

Countdown to Happiness!

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!

Safe for Another Two Months

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!

Plum Rainy

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. :)

Jeez, two weeks just vanished

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.

Spring Break

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. :)

Finally, Something to Write About!

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.

My Three Seconds of Fame

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.

It's Been a FOOD Week

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 :)