Most people know my English-speaking skills have been going down the drain over the past 6 months but today was just a little worse than usual. Hence my title (I was going for Dick Clark during a New Years conversation) followed shortly by "Don't count your chickens before their hatched!" Which Jacqueline of course had to point out made no sense and I meant eggs. I'm sure there were some others but it happens so often now I can't remember them all.
Anyway... it's been awhile. I think the last time I wrote I said Chris was coming. And as the few of you reading this already know (unless some random internet person stumbled upon this blog) he just got back to the states from his visit. He came for a little over a week. I was super busy the whole time he was here, and have been since he left, and haven't talked to people much so I'll go through all the details of his visit in here. His flight came in late Monday night so I went to school that day and then jumped on a 5:10 train to Taipei. I got there a little before 8 so I met Karin for dinner and then she showed me how to get a shuttle to the airport. Chris's flight was supposed to be coming in 9:55 and we had to catch an 11:05 train to Hualien. The airport, I was told, was about an hour shuttle bus ride from the train station and of course it would take time for him to get through customs and get his luggage so I was oober worried about not catching the train in time (which was the last one out of Taipei for the night). However, his flight ended up getting in early and aside from the long customs line he had to wait in we were able to get out of the airport by 9:45. I decided to take a taxi instead of the shuttle to shave off 15-20mins even though the price difference was ridiculous ($35 vs $8). We ended up making it to the train station with a few minutes to spare and were headed back to my home, Hualien. There are about 3 different types of trains and ours was the slowest one so we didn't get back until 3am.
I called in "sick" on Tuesday (headache due to lack of sleep haha) and we slept in until almost noon but once I got up and saw what a gorgeous day it was I had to get him up and moving =) As soon as I mentioned that our first stop would be the train station to pick up my scooter (I scootered to the train station to go get him but we took a taxi when we got in at 3am) AND rent him one, he was ready to go lol. His scooter was a lot newer and nicer than mine (which isn't hard to find) and fast so he was excited. We got some lunch, ran some errands, and then headed out to a favorite spot of mine, the beach. It's about a 15 minute drive out of the city so Chris got to really cruise down the roads and take in the scenery. We were able to get some good pictures at the beach and then headed back to town to go to my hair salon for a shampoo and massage. Haha, I know it probably sounds weird, especially for Chris but it's really normal here. The salon is super super cheap and a lot of people, male and female, go often just for a shampoo and massage. They do your scalp, neck, and shoulders and it's amazing! My roommate Cassandra had family in town also so we met up with them and Jacque for dinner at a Japanese restaurant that our friend Doris's husband owns.
Chris had a busy and tiring first day and then had to get up at 6am to go to school with me Wednesday =/ He was able to meet my staff at my favorite school, who of course adored him, and see all my kiddos. Their reaction to him was sooo funny. Before he came I made sure to learn how to say this is my boyfriend in Chinese and as soon as my kids saw him and I said "Ta shi wo du non pon yo" (that's my own spelling lol) they were all sorts of excited and giggling. We were trying to walk down the hallway and he could barely get by with the kids walking backwards in front of him and pretty much standing on top of him circled all the way around. Finally someone understands what I went through when I first got here =) I explained to him that in America we're used to seeing all different colors, shapes, and sizes of people, but here, they don't see much variety. So we would very rarely see someone who looked "foreign" to us until we hear them speak. But here, we are very, very clearly foreign and some of my kids have rarely seen that, if ever. SO, they just stare, and then stare some more. They literally put their face about 6 inches from yours and just take in every detail of your face.
Wednesday is a half day for students, and teachers meet in the afternoon, but it's usually all in Chinese. So my director said Chris and I could leave early to go do some sightseeing. I took him to a couple of well-known spots that are near my school, the power plant and Liyu lake. They both are incredibly picturesque and he was able to get some great pics and video. That evening we met all of my staff for dinner in the city and my principal LOVED getting to introduce Chris to Taiwan Beer. They are so proud of their "Gold Medal" beer here and I told the principal before Chris came that he really enjoys beer. Principal Lee prides himself in having "good feet" the translation of a Chinese saying they have for people who are always up for some social drinking and wouldn't be the person to cut out early- can stay and drink beer with the last of the group. I told Principal Lee a few weeks back that Chris has good feet too so he wanted to drink with him first thing. Chris gave his approval of Taiwan's Beer (the food was a different story though haha) and seemed to have a good time with everyone.
Thursday we headed back to Nanhua again and he was able to see me teach my classes. Let's just stay he is definitely not, nor ever will be an elementary school teacher. He pooped out after 2 classes and had to head back to his computer in the office because he couldn't stand to sit through another Dr. Jean Kindergarten song about "Color Farm" or the alphabet, lol. Thursday was Dec 31st, New Years Eve, so right after school we headed to the train station to turn his scooter back in and hop on a train to Taipei. We spent New Years sitting directly under Taipei 101, the world's tallest building, currently, and it was incredible. Incredible doesn't even come close to being appropriate for what we saw. They shoot fireworks out of the building top to bottom, all the way around, and we were completely awestruck. You'll have to check out the pics on Facebook and video on YouTube to try to get a better feel of what I'm talking about.
Friday and Saturday we did some sightseeing around Taipei, mainly just in the 101 area. We went to the top of Taipei 101 which I hadn't experienced yet and Chris LOVED hahaha, then we met up for a little bit with my friend Staycie (a fellow Hoosier). Saturday afternoon we went back to Hualien and enjoyed a nice buffet dinner at...Pizza Hut =) After dinner we walked around the night markets of Hualien and started picking out gifts for people. I mentioned to Chris before he came that maybe he could hold off on getting Christmas gifts for people and get them really unique gifts from Asia. He decided against that and went ahead and got things at home so that he would have gifts for family on Christmas day. But then when he got here, the list of people to buy for seemed to grow haha. Suddenly we were consumed with tracking down gifts for 10 people. But shopping here is great and we got to travel around to a lot of my favorite spots to try to find great gifts for everyone, and people who know me well know that I LOVE to pick out gifts for people. Sunday we drove around (I rented him another scooter when we got back on Saturday) and saw some more areas of the city that I really enjoy and sought out more gifts. Sunday night we had a Mexican fiesta night at my apartment with Cassandra, Jacque, and Linda. Yum.
Monday it was back to school. My director Doris told Chris what his Chinese name was and I told him he should get a stamp made. So over the weekend we had picked out a marble stamp for him and his friend Julian. On Monday we left at lunch to take the stamps to have their Chinese names carved in them. Chris is "Ka lee si" and the "lee" part has three different characters he could choose from. Well we learned that one of them meant "power" so of course that became the one. We were able to go pick them up that evening which was really nice because it typically takes a few days to finish the marble ones. Tuesday Chris got to go to my other school for the first time and saw what it's like for me there, ridiculously behaved kids and a staff who doesn't really talk to me (with the exception of 1-2 people). It's a completely different environment from my other school and again, it was nice to have someone from home experience it first hand. After school on Tuesday we had to catch yet another train to Taipei. Chris had to be at the airport early Wednesday morning so we needed to take the 2 hour train ride the night before. I called up my friend Karin when we got there because she's a pretty cool cat and I really wanted Chris to meet her before he left =) We met her at one of the more well-known touristy night markets for a little stroll. Wednesday was an even earlier morning than school days to get to Taipei Main Station and catch a shuttle bus to the airport. I fell asleep on the bus but I guess we got caught in some traffic and were cutting it close, getting their around 9 when Chris's flight left at 9:45. We had to say our goodbyes quickly so he could get through security in time and then I suddenly found myself all alone in the airport trying to find my way to the place to buy a shuttle ticket back to the city =( it was really hard after having company 24/7 to be traveling all the way back to Hualien by myself. But, I had a good book I was in the middle of so that kept me pretty well distracted.
Whew, that was a lot, haha, I love that I gave you all those ridiculous details even though they really weren't all that interesting probably. I'm sure the pics and videos we both got are much more entertaining than reading through my novel of an entry =) But, I will end this with sharing that I finally chopped all of my hair off today =D Some of you already know this but I grow my hair out to donate to Locks For Love. This was the 5th time I've done it (started in high school) and each time it seems like the minimum length gets longer and longer. The first time I donated it only had to be 6 inches and now it's 10. My hair grows really fast which is why I like to do it, but I've been working on growing it out for a while now so alot of people have gotten used to it long, especially people here, even though I've had it short many times in the past. I teared up just a tad when she cut the ponytail off, I always do, but after that it was fine. I even had her go back and cut it shorter after she was all done the first time. It's quite a difference, but I'm satisfied with it. I have bangs again which is good, it was getting a bit shabby and out of control. Even Chris who loves long hair admitted that it was a bit too long lol. I took before and after pics but they're on my friend Linda's camera so I'll have to post those later.
Okay, that's really it now =)
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Finally some exciting news to BLOG about!
We had a MAJOR earthquake! It was scary! PRAISE JESUS I was not inside my 12th floor apt when it hit. I would have been even more scared and probably sobbing. Luckily I was outside, on the ground, with Cassandra and Jacque in the city. We were just walking around where everyone hangs out at night when it hit. It was a big one even for the Taiwanese. Some people were screaming. I found out it was a 6.8...aaahh! It just kept going and going and getting scarier. My mind was racing and I was like "we're standing under this tree and that can't be safe. What do they do in movies? Oh, they go stand in a door frame." So I walked to go stand in the closest thing and Jacque was like "what are you doing? Get away from there!" Turns out my "door frame" was the entrance to a small little outdoor seating shelter that probably would have come down before the tree would have, haha. I was panicking though and didn't know what to do. The stone path we were walking on was broken after from the tree roots. I am glad to know that even after an earthquake of that size everything in our apartment was okay. Nothing huge fell over, just my pictures frames and books and stuff in my bathroom. So now I know the bigger items in our apt can withstand a good-sized quake.
However, when Cassandra and I did arrive back at our place there were fire engines outside. Some pulled up right as I did and I was watching to see what they were doing. They got off the truck and started looking up at the balconies. I was like Oh My Gosh someone fell off the balcony! But again, praise Jesus, that was not the case. Long story short a guy on the first floor ran outside during the earthquake and heard something hit the ground, then he smelled gas. It turned out to be an empty gas tank that fell off of someone's balcony. But all everyone kept hearing was gas leak and we had to stay down in the lobby for 30-40mins while the firemen got the whole thing sorted out. (For those of you outside of Taiwan we have 2 gas tanks on our balcony, one for the stove and one for the water. So it's not an odd thing that an empty gas tank fell off of someone's balcony)
I'm now up to 5 on the aftershock count which almost doubles the number of quakes I've felt since I got here. I'm going to put pictures up tomorrow and check out the news websites to make sure it wasn't worse than it seems but I don't believe it was bad enough for buildings to be destroyed or casualties. Still, very very...VERY scary!
However, when Cassandra and I did arrive back at our place there were fire engines outside. Some pulled up right as I did and I was watching to see what they were doing. They got off the truck and started looking up at the balconies. I was like Oh My Gosh someone fell off the balcony! But again, praise Jesus, that was not the case. Long story short a guy on the first floor ran outside during the earthquake and heard something hit the ground, then he smelled gas. It turned out to be an empty gas tank that fell off of someone's balcony. But all everyone kept hearing was gas leak and we had to stay down in the lobby for 30-40mins while the firemen got the whole thing sorted out. (For those of you outside of Taiwan we have 2 gas tanks on our balcony, one for the stove and one for the water. So it's not an odd thing that an empty gas tank fell off of someone's balcony)
I'm now up to 5 on the aftershock count which almost doubles the number of quakes I've felt since I got here. I'm going to put pictures up tomorrow and check out the news websites to make sure it wasn't worse than it seems but I don't believe it was bad enough for buildings to be destroyed or casualties. Still, very very...VERY scary!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
So I have this boyfriend and he's super cool...
and he's coming to see me in 23 days!!!! AH! I'm so excited. Aside from the fact that I miss him like crazy and cannot wait to see him, I'm super excited for someone from my life at home to witness my life here. It's strange but they're such different worlds and I would love for every single person in my life at home to come here at some point but I know the plane ticket cost alone prevents most from being able to do that. I keep talking to my friend Karin here about the culture shock we're going to go through...when we go home. When we got here, yes life was different, people spoke a different language, yada yada, but there are many of us here in the same situation. We talk to each other all the time about what we're going through and compare experiences. When we get home, we have to merge our way back into our old life while at the same time feeling so different. And no one will be there to understand. As much as I can't wait to be home and see everyone, I think it will be hard. So having one of my favorite people here to see my city, my apartment, my schools, my favorite hang out spots... it'll be really great. =)
Plus, he's never traveled out of the country before and I highly advise everyone to do it at some point in their life. It's just such an incredible experience and something I LOVE so if he could catch the travel bug too that would be groovy.
OK that's all I wanted to say =D
Plus, he's never traveled out of the country before and I highly advise everyone to do it at some point in their life. It's just such an incredible experience and something I LOVE so if he could catch the travel bug too that would be groovy.
OK that's all I wanted to say =D
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
I won the Taiwan lottery...
well, I won the lowest prize but still =D
Okay so Taiwan has the lottery they created with receipts that you get at stores, restaurants, etc. They were trying to find a way to encourage customers to demand a receipt so that the business had to be more accountable for their books. So, being foreigners, we jumped on the lottery craze. People kept telling us, "Oh it gets old after the first month, just donate your receipts." Well us three Hualien gals saved all of our receipts from August and waited for the July/August numbers (the numbers are drawn every 2 months). We had a party one friday night, checking all of our receipts, BUT people were right, nothing. Well, I'm fairly persistent so I continued to keep my receipts from September and October and once again, last week it was time for new numbers. I needed something to do on the train ride to Taipei so I grabbed all of my receipts and jotted down the numbers. There are 8 numbers on a receipt and you have to check them starting from the right. You have to have the numbers consecutively and winners start at 3 numbers. Well, I had one receipt that had three of the numbers! It's the lowest prize and only 200NT ($6.06), but that particular receipt was from buying a 10NT ($.30) newspaper so I'm excited =)
Also, I'll use this post to get away from my yesterday grumps and write about the past week. Last week I got to talk to Asher and Kate on Skype. It was Asher's first international video call and I was so excited haha I can't believe how much he's changed since I was there to see him in person! I love reading their blog to see how the Smola family is doing and Kate is much better than I am at updates =)
On Friday Cassandra and I left for Taipei. We spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday going to completely new places thanks to our fantastic tour-guide Karin. Friday night we went to Ximending, a really fun area of Taipei with shopping, art, and good food and drinks. Saturday we went to the Jade Market. It's a HUGE market underneath the interstate. The tables of jewelry made of Jade, Coral, Rose Stone, etc go on and on and on. We walked up and down those rows for hours, did some bargaining, and found lots of great Christmas gifts. After the Jade market we did some more shopping in the big shopping district with various clothing stores and the big department store. Then we met up with some other friends for our "Thanksgiving" dinner at Chili's! I had been soo excited to go to Chili's in Taipei because it's one of my favorites at home.
On Sunday Cassandra and I changed our tickets to a later train so that we could go to the hot springs way up on the north side of Taipei. It was really crowded there and I couldn't help but think about how dirty the water was but it did feel good. After the hot springs we got some good ol' Italian food for lunch and then realized it was way too sunny and gorgeous to not be outside. So we got a blanket and some cards and went to a park near Karin's house. Definitely an enjoyable afternoon even though Karin kicked my butt at Phase 10 (there were forces against me that I will not go into) =) Finally we went to the Taipei 101 area to go to the English bookstore, I got My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult and The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (both highly recommended by Karin). Lastly, before getting on our train we went to the big grocery store with lots of American food so that I could get ingredients for Chili and mexican stuff.
It was a very enjoyable weekend as it always is with my Taipei tour guide Karin =D
Okay so Taiwan has the lottery they created with receipts that you get at stores, restaurants, etc. They were trying to find a way to encourage customers to demand a receipt so that the business had to be more accountable for their books. So, being foreigners, we jumped on the lottery craze. People kept telling us, "Oh it gets old after the first month, just donate your receipts." Well us three Hualien gals saved all of our receipts from August and waited for the July/August numbers (the numbers are drawn every 2 months). We had a party one friday night, checking all of our receipts, BUT people were right, nothing. Well, I'm fairly persistent so I continued to keep my receipts from September and October and once again, last week it was time for new numbers. I needed something to do on the train ride to Taipei so I grabbed all of my receipts and jotted down the numbers. There are 8 numbers on a receipt and you have to check them starting from the right. You have to have the numbers consecutively and winners start at 3 numbers. Well, I had one receipt that had three of the numbers! It's the lowest prize and only 200NT ($6.06), but that particular receipt was from buying a 10NT ($.30) newspaper so I'm excited =)
Also, I'll use this post to get away from my yesterday grumps and write about the past week. Last week I got to talk to Asher and Kate on Skype. It was Asher's first international video call and I was so excited haha I can't believe how much he's changed since I was there to see him in person! I love reading their blog to see how the Smola family is doing and Kate is much better than I am at updates =)
On Friday Cassandra and I left for Taipei. We spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday going to completely new places thanks to our fantastic tour-guide Karin. Friday night we went to Ximending, a really fun area of Taipei with shopping, art, and good food and drinks. Saturday we went to the Jade Market. It's a HUGE market underneath the interstate. The tables of jewelry made of Jade, Coral, Rose Stone, etc go on and on and on. We walked up and down those rows for hours, did some bargaining, and found lots of great Christmas gifts. After the Jade market we did some more shopping in the big shopping district with various clothing stores and the big department store. Then we met up with some other friends for our "Thanksgiving" dinner at Chili's! I had been soo excited to go to Chili's in Taipei because it's one of my favorites at home.
On Sunday Cassandra and I changed our tickets to a later train so that we could go to the hot springs way up on the north side of Taipei. It was really crowded there and I couldn't help but think about how dirty the water was but it did feel good. After the hot springs we got some good ol' Italian food for lunch and then realized it was way too sunny and gorgeous to not be outside. So we got a blanket and some cards and went to a park near Karin's house. Definitely an enjoyable afternoon even though Karin kicked my butt at Phase 10 (there were forces against me that I will not go into) =) Finally we went to the Taipei 101 area to go to the English bookstore, I got My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult and The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (both highly recommended by Karin). Lastly, before getting on our train we went to the big grocery store with lots of American food so that I could get ingredients for Chili and mexican stuff.
It was a very enjoyable weekend as it always is with my Taipei tour guide Karin =D
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Today was a cranky one
Haha, I can't believe I'm writing a blog about being cranky but I said to myself I was going to try and update more often so here it is.
First of all I woke up at 7:27....my ride picks me up at 7:30, so right there I'm off on the wrong foot. On top of that for some reason I have multiple aches and pains hitting me at once. I'm used to the hamstring being sore (I injured it in April) and I've been getting used to my back being sore, but the headaches have been the most annoying. Once I got to school though I wasn't in a bad mood...yet. My 6th graders were fine, we had some fun and I was looking forward to doing some venting during my break. But then, that conversation didn't turn out so well, and after, I had my 5th graders who were complete little pills. I have four classes in a row before lunch and that usually wipes me out. I had 2 more classes in the afternoon and then finally it was time to go home. For some reason I just kept getting more and more cranky over the course of the day and I just couldn't handle the guy driving me home. I love the people here, I do, they go above and beyond for me and are always very concerned with my well-being but sometimes their form of "conversation" due to lack of English words becomes redundant and annoying. I decided to ask the teacher who drove me home some Chinese instead of him trying his best at English and I asked him if beef was "ro" which I was already pretty sure it was but couldn't remember if it was beef or meat in general. He had no clue. I've noticed here that some people get so freaked out about assuming they aren't going to be able to understand your English that they don't listen to your Chinese. Sometimes at McDonald's we'll try to tell them the number we want in Chinese, or one time my roommate was telling them tea in chinese, and they get all twitchy and ask someone else to come over. We're speaking Chinese! And I realize you're thinking "you're probably saying it wrong" and sometimes yes that's the case, but other times they are very basic words that we've been saying for months now. It's just that they don't take the time to listen and realize we're speaking Chinese because they get so freaked out about not knowing English. Anyway I guess that's kind of what happened in the car because he said he didn't know when I asked what the Chinese word was for "beef" and asked if it was "ro". I said "Chinese" in chinese, and then said "eat" and motioned eating....then "cow"...then I moo-ed. Still, nothing. I went as far as to give an example of a dish that I like "lou ro fan" which is minced pork rice but no. When we got to my apartment he pointed to my building and tried to start telling me about getting "beef" at this restaurant and he said it like he was introducing me to a new place. It's in the bottom of my apartment building!! I'm aware. Well my patience was shot for the day and I said "I know that, I've lived here for 4 months." Hopefully his lack of English comprehension will mask my rudeness =X
So anyway, that's a little insight into me not always being pleasant. I do think this whole journey has been extremely good for my patience level in many different ways (which has always been a little low in certain areas). Tomorrow is a new day AND it's Wednesday which means I don't teach any classes. I have the whole day to plan and prepare for Christmas! =D
First of all I woke up at 7:27....my ride picks me up at 7:30, so right there I'm off on the wrong foot. On top of that for some reason I have multiple aches and pains hitting me at once. I'm used to the hamstring being sore (I injured it in April) and I've been getting used to my back being sore, but the headaches have been the most annoying. Once I got to school though I wasn't in a bad mood...yet. My 6th graders were fine, we had some fun and I was looking forward to doing some venting during my break. But then, that conversation didn't turn out so well, and after, I had my 5th graders who were complete little pills. I have four classes in a row before lunch and that usually wipes me out. I had 2 more classes in the afternoon and then finally it was time to go home. For some reason I just kept getting more and more cranky over the course of the day and I just couldn't handle the guy driving me home. I love the people here, I do, they go above and beyond for me and are always very concerned with my well-being but sometimes their form of "conversation" due to lack of English words becomes redundant and annoying. I decided to ask the teacher who drove me home some Chinese instead of him trying his best at English and I asked him if beef was "ro" which I was already pretty sure it was but couldn't remember if it was beef or meat in general. He had no clue. I've noticed here that some people get so freaked out about assuming they aren't going to be able to understand your English that they don't listen to your Chinese. Sometimes at McDonald's we'll try to tell them the number we want in Chinese, or one time my roommate was telling them tea in chinese, and they get all twitchy and ask someone else to come over. We're speaking Chinese! And I realize you're thinking "you're probably saying it wrong" and sometimes yes that's the case, but other times they are very basic words that we've been saying for months now. It's just that they don't take the time to listen and realize we're speaking Chinese because they get so freaked out about not knowing English. Anyway I guess that's kind of what happened in the car because he said he didn't know when I asked what the Chinese word was for "beef" and asked if it was "ro". I said "Chinese" in chinese, and then said "eat" and motioned eating....then "cow"...then I moo-ed. Still, nothing. I went as far as to give an example of a dish that I like "lou ro fan" which is minced pork rice but no. When we got to my apartment he pointed to my building and tried to start telling me about getting "beef" at this restaurant and he said it like he was introducing me to a new place. It's in the bottom of my apartment building!! I'm aware. Well my patience was shot for the day and I said "I know that, I've lived here for 4 months." Hopefully his lack of English comprehension will mask my rudeness =X
So anyway, that's a little insight into me not always being pleasant. I do think this whole journey has been extremely good for my patience level in many different ways (which has always been a little low in certain areas). Tomorrow is a new day AND it's Wednesday which means I don't teach any classes. I have the whole day to plan and prepare for Christmas! =D
Saturday, November 21, 2009
got my hair washed today...mmmm
I love getting my hair washed here! Going to the salon is quite different here than in America. First they sit you down and massage your neck, upper back, and shoulders. That alone makes getting a haircut enjoyable. But then, they not only wash your hair, but massage your scalp for about 10mins. It's fantastic...literally, gave me goosebumps. Then they cut your hair, style it, and you're all set. And the best part? It cost me 300 NT. That's under $10. Incredible.
So I decided since I had just been sitting around all day on a Saturday that I needed to get out and do something. I hadn't had my hair trimmed since I first got here in August and remembered LOVING the experience as explained above, so decided I could go to the salon and then hit up the grocery store on the way home. About 4 blocks into my journey though my scooter was driving kinda funny, like it was on ice or something and the steering kept sliding to the side. I stopped to check things out even though I had no clue what i was looking for and everything seemed okay so I thought I'd just try it again to see what happens. Well, that time it was worse, the bike wouldn't budge even when I gunned it. I got off again, and then I saw the busted tire. I had to call my director Doris, have her call the shop where I bought the scooter, and they came to pick up me and the scooter. It took like 10 minutes at the most for them to give me a new tire. While they were changing it I was thinking to myself, "good thing I just decided against the Hong Kong trip in two weeks because this is probably going to cost me some money." Well when he was finished I asked how much (in Chinese) and he answered (also in Chinese of course). It still takes me several seconds to translate and process the numbers in my head and when I got it I thought "hmm, 500, that's not too bad I guess." I handed a $500 bill and waited to see if he was going to hand me a receipt, but he handed me change instead. I said thank you and walked away (of course pretending like I wasn't confused haha). I realized he had given me 450 back. It only cost me 50NT to be picked up and taken to the shop and a new tire put on. That's like a buck fifty!! Holy cow!
SO, that turned out to be just a small hiccup in my evening, and after, I got to enjoy my scalp massage and get some groceries. I decided to write a blog about it even though it's not that big of a deal because I've been horrible about blog updates lately. I think in the beginning everything was so exciting and new and there was so much to write about and now everything has become fairly normal and routine so I feel like I don't have anything interesting to share.
So I decided since I had just been sitting around all day on a Saturday that I needed to get out and do something. I hadn't had my hair trimmed since I first got here in August and remembered LOVING the experience as explained above, so decided I could go to the salon and then hit up the grocery store on the way home. About 4 blocks into my journey though my scooter was driving kinda funny, like it was on ice or something and the steering kept sliding to the side. I stopped to check things out even though I had no clue what i was looking for and everything seemed okay so I thought I'd just try it again to see what happens. Well, that time it was worse, the bike wouldn't budge even when I gunned it. I got off again, and then I saw the busted tire. I had to call my director Doris, have her call the shop where I bought the scooter, and they came to pick up me and the scooter. It took like 10 minutes at the most for them to give me a new tire. While they were changing it I was thinking to myself, "good thing I just decided against the Hong Kong trip in two weeks because this is probably going to cost me some money." Well when he was finished I asked how much (in Chinese) and he answered (also in Chinese of course). It still takes me several seconds to translate and process the numbers in my head and when I got it I thought "hmm, 500, that's not too bad I guess." I handed a $500 bill and waited to see if he was going to hand me a receipt, but he handed me change instead. I said thank you and walked away (of course pretending like I wasn't confused haha). I realized he had given me 450 back. It only cost me 50NT to be picked up and taken to the shop and a new tire put on. That's like a buck fifty!! Holy cow!
SO, that turned out to be just a small hiccup in my evening, and after, I got to enjoy my scalp massage and get some groceries. I decided to write a blog about it even though it's not that big of a deal because I've been horrible about blog updates lately. I think in the beginning everything was so exciting and new and there was so much to write about and now everything has become fairly normal and routine so I feel like I don't have anything interesting to share.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
a random assortment of updates
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Whew I'm finding it hard to keep this updated. Since my last update I've had three extremely busy, but fun weekends. First we went to Kaohsiung to visit with Deb and her family. We got to see some really cool sites around the city the night we got in thanks to our super groovy tour guide, Mike. Saturday we met up with Deb and her family and headed to Fridays for some fantastic American food. Then we got to go to the "Dream Mall" with its 7 floors, I believe it was, of food and shopping with a ginormous ferris wheel on top. After the mall we went to get tattoos and piercings =D Deb and Staycie got tattoos. Cassandra, Jacqueline, and I weren't real keen on permanently inking our bodies so Cassandra Jacqueline got their ears pierced and I re-pierced my nose! Later Saturday night we got to have a girls night out and walk to a little bar near our hostel. OH, speaking of our hostel, that was my first time staying in one and it was sooo nice. I'm pretty certain that's not normal for a hostel but ours was like renting out someone's apt. Our night out at the bar was full of fun and laughing, lots of laughing!
Halloween weekend, we went to Taipei. Cassandra's aunt had invited us to go to a parade with her on Saturday so we decided to go up for the weekend and visit with our Taipei friends also. Saturday night we got to dress up and go out for Halloween! Turns out Halloween is a huge celebration in the city. I was a hippie because it was cheap and easy to put together with stuff I already had, haha. We had a great time as always in Taipei.
This weekend there was a marathon in Hualien. People came from all over the island and even from as far as Kenya to participate in the race. Our Taipei friends Staycie, Karin, and Monica came as well as Eileen and Eric. We had an early night Friday night because of the early race time. Those participating had to leave at 4:30am! The rest of us were supposed to be on a 7:20am train BUT, true to form, I overslept =) I missed the train because my alarm was set for "Mon-Fri" therefore did not go off even though I had set it the night before. I decided instead of driving over to the train station to find out what time the next train would be, I might as well just make use of my own transportation and ride my scooter. It was my first long ride on the scooter. It took about 40 mins to get there and I got to test out driving with a little more speed... I got up to 65 (that's only about 40 mph lol). At the race it was really cool to see so many people from all over. Also, after the race we took our visiting friends on a walk through the gorge to see some of the beauty of Hualien. We mainly just rested and chatted all afternoon and then went out to entertain ourselves in the city for the evening. We went to the golden bear (it was our first time even though we live here) which is this huge casino looking place with all kinds of video games. We played a few games in Chinese and then went to get some dumplings for dinner. Lastly, we went to crazy bar! Let me explain that we (and by we I mean Karin, haha jk) have been talking about going to crazy bar ever since the first time the Taipei crew were down in Hualien. Well I will not give the all the details of the evening but I will say that Crazy Bar definitely lived up to its name in many ways. It was fun, exciting, embarrassing, mortifying, and hilarious all rolled up into one. Today we got up and went to Country Mama's (also a first for us even though we live here) to have some yummy western breakfast before taking the girls to the train station.
Wow, these last few weeks have been exhausting! I think November is going to be the month to rest and regroup.
Whew I'm finding it hard to keep this updated. Since my last update I've had three extremely busy, but fun weekends. First we went to Kaohsiung to visit with Deb and her family. We got to see some really cool sites around the city the night we got in thanks to our super groovy tour guide, Mike. Saturday we met up with Deb and her family and headed to Fridays for some fantastic American food. Then we got to go to the "Dream Mall" with its 7 floors, I believe it was, of food and shopping with a ginormous ferris wheel on top. After the mall we went to get tattoos and piercings =D Deb and Staycie got tattoos. Cassandra, Jacqueline, and I weren't real keen on permanently inking our bodies so Cassandra Jacqueline got their ears pierced and I re-pierced my nose! Later Saturday night we got to have a girls night out and walk to a little bar near our hostel. OH, speaking of our hostel, that was my first time staying in one and it was sooo nice. I'm pretty certain that's not normal for a hostel but ours was like renting out someone's apt. Our night out at the bar was full of fun and laughing, lots of laughing!
Halloween weekend, we went to Taipei. Cassandra's aunt had invited us to go to a parade with her on Saturday so we decided to go up for the weekend and visit with our Taipei friends also. Saturday night we got to dress up and go out for Halloween! Turns out Halloween is a huge celebration in the city. I was a hippie because it was cheap and easy to put together with stuff I already had, haha. We had a great time as always in Taipei.
This weekend there was a marathon in Hualien. People came from all over the island and even from as far as Kenya to participate in the race. Our Taipei friends Staycie, Karin, and Monica came as well as Eileen and Eric. We had an early night Friday night because of the early race time. Those participating had to leave at 4:30am! The rest of us were supposed to be on a 7:20am train BUT, true to form, I overslept =) I missed the train because my alarm was set for "Mon-Fri" therefore did not go off even though I had set it the night before. I decided instead of driving over to the train station to find out what time the next train would be, I might as well just make use of my own transportation and ride my scooter. It was my first long ride on the scooter. It took about 40 mins to get there and I got to test out driving with a little more speed... I got up to 65 (that's only about 40 mph lol). At the race it was really cool to see so many people from all over. Also, after the race we took our visiting friends on a walk through the gorge to see some of the beauty of Hualien. We mainly just rested and chatted all afternoon and then went out to entertain ourselves in the city for the evening. We went to the golden bear (it was our first time even though we live here) which is this huge casino looking place with all kinds of video games. We played a few games in Chinese and then went to get some dumplings for dinner. Lastly, we went to crazy bar! Let me explain that we (and by we I mean Karin, haha jk) have been talking about going to crazy bar ever since the first time the Taipei crew were down in Hualien. Well I will not give the all the details of the evening but I will say that Crazy Bar definitely lived up to its name in many ways. It was fun, exciting, embarrassing, mortifying, and hilarious all rolled up into one. Today we got up and went to Country Mama's (also a first for us even though we live here) to have some yummy western breakfast before taking the girls to the train station.
Wow, these last few weeks have been exhausting! I think November is going to be the month to rest and regroup.
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