Resolution and KTV

Today was the last day of orientation. Typing that is weird--it means that we are now all supposedly oriented, both to the country and to our jobs; next week, we become independent, functioning members of society again. Which is an odd concept, in large part because the biggest function of this month (how have I been here almost a month already?!) has been to show me how little I know and how little I can function here independently.

But here it comes at me, full-force, Taiwan without the training wheels! It really does feel that way: like I've been learning how to ride a bike, and now, just as I realize how complicated it all is and how little I understand it, my overenthusiastic teacher is pulling out all the stops.

Can I speak Chinese now? No; I can order coffee, tea, or juice alright, or point and say "我要 這個" ("Wo yao zhege"--I want this one), but that's about the extent of it. If I get flustered I inexplicably revert to Spanish. Can I navigate the city? Not really; I can take the MRT to whichever sector I want okay, but street directions? Impossible, thanks to the not-really-pinyin-pinyin-signs and my inability to read Chinese characters. Can I ride a scooter? I guess tomorrow will tell; we're taking our driver's license tests, but even if I get mine I don't have a scooter, and if I did, I don't really know how to handle traffic yet--all my experience is in a parking lot at San-Min. Can I teach? Well, I hope so, but really that is the one thing which requires training wheels-less practice to know for sure.

To top it off, Karina is pretty much definitely moving to a new apartment in the county. While I know she's going to love her new place and have a great experience, the selfish side of me is really really sad that she's leaving--she's a great friend, and I hate that we won't get to hang out every day now. I love spending time talking with her, and she has been a wonderful support to me on many levels in this last month, including graciously helping me with my language inabilities. She's just fantastic in general.

But Karina moving out brings me to the resolution part of this post: we are no longer in limbo; the drama has (essentially) ended. The Meinong league was cancelled today; Lydia will be re-placed in a school in the city. We can't even begin to fathom the stress and bureaucratic crap that Alex and Fonda had to go through to make this happen, but we are eternally grateful to them for doing it.

So today, after question-and-answer time, first just with our ETA group and Prof. Spring and Alex, and then with the larger group of LETs and Prof. Lee, we each sat down with out own schools and figured out when we're going to see them and meet everyone/observe classes. I thought we would be there all week, and some schools are doing it that way, but after impressing my openness to that idea on my LETS four or five times--and after a good 40 minute discussion on timing--it looks like I'll just be at my schools for one, maybe two days next week. Long day Thursday, beginning with meeting Maggie at the Formosa MRT station at 7:15am so she can show me how to get to the schools from there, then going to the first part of Han-Min's morning meeting to meet people, then going to the second part of Qing-Shan's morning meeting (same time) to meet people there, then lesson planning with Patty at Qing-Shan, class observation with Patty at Qing-Shan, then back to Han-Min to (hopefully) observe and lesson plan with both Maggie and Alison. If, as is very likely, we run out of time to do all that, I'll come back Friday.

After our scheduling meeting, we were free for the day; I didn't do much of note until the evening, when we went to check out a gym--really nice, but might do a different (more expensive and further away) branch because of its classes/facilities--then went to a WONDERFUL chocolate shop that gave us each TONS of truffle samples (including the best dark chocolate I have EVER tasted) and free tea--love it!--then went to KTV.

For the uninitiated, KTV is the Chinese/Taiwanese/Korean/Japanese/maybe other countries version of karaoke. Here, unlike in the US, where karaoke translates roughly to drunk strangers belting songs off-key to a roomful of strangers, karaoke takes place in a private room, with just your friends nearby. Which means drinking is no longer a necessity, and therefore the singing is, as a rule, dramatically better.

Tonight, our group consisted of myself, Rachel, Emily, Lydia, Samia, Karina, Tiffiany, and Andew; two of Karina's LETs, Lucy and Emily; Alex, Fonda, and Evelyn. It was a lot of fun, especially when we ended up in a long stretch of Avril Lavigne, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, and the Titanic theme song: great having all the female ETAs busting it out while Andrew got awkward.

Another wonderful moment--indeed probably the defining moment of the evening--was Karina's Beijing-opera-meets-Elvis impersonation. Unfortunately Blogger won't let me upload it for some reason, but just look up "Beijing opera" and imagine it superimposed on "I Can't Stop Falling in Love with You." It was pretty epic. Here it is!

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