Bullet points

Some days, my life warrants paragraphs. Today, it warrants bullet points.

• The most exciting moment of the day came the second I walked into our teachers' office at Hanmin--and discovered that we have a new foreign teacher! Ingrid, who's from the Netherlands, will be here for 2 months teaching English, and is currently teaching with Fiona. She just graduated college, and is filling the time between her degree and her Master's in what I think is the best way possible--teaching English in Taiwan!
• I spent much of the day figuring out travel plans, because MY BROTHER AND SISTER-IN-LAW come next week!
• I still like the gym, even after a week-long hiatus and when I forget my headphones at home. Woo!
• I put pictures up for the first time in about a month. If you're my friend on Facebook and missed them, here are the links:
• Teaching 'n stuff: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2163914024684.2105389.1451610020&type=1&l=6718d387c3
• Kaitlin's visit!: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2948540759862.2120425.1451610020&type=1&l=dd996d3d21

And that's it for tonight, folks. Later!

Average

Today was average--ie, for the purpose of blogging, it was boring. I taught. I came home. I went to the gym. I wasted time online, and reaffirmed my suspicion that even the Internet is getting boring from too much use.

The only things of note, as always, were points of human connection. Before classes, I was able to chat briefly with my mom and my older brother, Alex, and at greater length with my younger brother, Scott. It had been too long, and it was great to catch up on his life and tell him about mine. I've said it before, but I do love Skype!

Tonight was nice, too, as I got to chat with a couple of guy friends from Seattle, both of whom happened to be on way late--it was 3am there when we started talking; near 5am when we stopped--and so were on in time to chat with me at normal time, while none of my non-time-zone-restricted friends were on. I love the backwardness of how being far away sometimes actually facilitates conversations.

And that was it! Pretty average day; I won't waste any more of your time with it.

Little Moments

I feel like I've used that title before, but I don't care. All days are made up of little moments, and today they were all happy ones, dozens of little gems strung along in particular order. Each one stands alone, like a Facebook status, without any apparent connection to the others. And, as it's past midnight, I can't be bothered to forge one, so here they are, in their individual glories:

I discovered that both of the kids sitting in the far front of my 6th grade classrooms are named "Tim." Gotta love mnemonics!

Alison and my hybrid drawing game for phonics went off beautifully, and the kids really seemed to enjoy it in every class. Yeah multi-sensory engagement!

I came home to the delivery of a package from the States, containing my new Kindle cover (so cute!) and new headphones to replace the ones that didn't quite survive their recent trip through the wash. Official day count to ship home to here: 11 days.

I spent my afternoon in Sunnyday Cafe, making real progress on the first short story I've seriously attempted in a while. I like where it's going.

I stopped in at Watson's and bought mouthwash, an uninteresting tidbit but for the fact that, in addition to its being half off and buy one get one, my purchase somehow earned me a smallish, heart-shaped, pink fleece  pillow. Only in Taiwan. <3

Seen here in its natural habitat.

Parking at the gym was easy! Always a bonus, since it's right behind a major department store...

My workout was great. I'm going to be so sore tomorrow, and that's the best thing I can think of at the moment. I've finally reached the point where (knock on wood) I actually enjoy working out!

I came home ravenous, and a single touch of the knife was enough to make my watermelon burst open of its own accord. You know it's a good melon (and it was!) when...

Finally, I found this, a great little spoof on The Hunger Games called The Hunger Pains. Definitely worth checking it out.

And that was my day!

Endorphins

...are nice. They put a positive spin on everything and, as I just got back from a pretty great workout, they're making my day look pretty amazing. Not that it needed any help.

I mean, really. My day today consisted of playing the clothes relay race over and over again, this time with an entirely different group of 5th graders at Hanmin. And they, must like their comrades at Qingshan and around the world, absolutely loved it. My favorite, though it was undoubtedly also the most dangerous, was playing the game in those classrooms which ban shoes in favor of socks and/or slippers. Nothing like a good old fashioned socks-on-tile floor slide to make your day more amazing.

Also wonderful were the "hats" we used for the game, ie newspapers I folded into sailor hats and held together with lots of tape after the first class's attempt left us with a crumpled, torn mess. The kids absolutely loved them, despite their designed lack of aerodynamics (hence all the head-holding); when I asked my last class of the day who wanted them, hands shot up all over before I had even finished my question--and that's with me asking in English.

LOVE this picture.

So that was great. Then, after a brief hiatus at home, my apartment (and most of the other ETAs in Kaohsiung, for that matter) headed out to Pier 2, where we met up with Dr. Vocke, Fonda, Kelly (coordinator for ETA programs in Yilan and Kaohsiung), and our guest of honor, Tori Augustine, Program Officer for East Asia and Pacific Fulbright Programs in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State (wow, her title's a mouthful) for dinner at Pasadena. 

The dinner itself was wonderful, of course (salmon with dill sauce, yum!), but just as wonderful was the conversation we got to have with Tori, about anything and everything we've been doing. She wanted to know what we thought about everything, from how the program was run this year to how we feel in our schools to suggestions or concerns we have for future years. She asked great questions and was fully engaged; she is extremely good at her job, and it was great to feel that our opinions were valuable, both to her and to the program as a whole. It was great to be, not just listened to, but actually sought out by someone with the power to act on what we said. (Not that we had complaints, of course--we are all absolutely loving our time here, and that's not me sugarcoating, that's me listening attentively all night to my colleagues' conversation--but we all have some suggestions about how to make things even better in the future, and she was really listening.)

And after that wonderfulness, I hit the gym, to encouraging results all around, and a fantastic (and funny) greeting by Kody, the front desk person at the gym, saying "you look pretty today! Why?" I really love how straightforward people here are, haha. But I got to tell her that I had just gotten back from a dinner with my bosses, and it was great!

So yeah, I have endorphins flowing through my system now. But even if I didn't, I'd have to conclude that today was pretty much amazing.

Also, I just found this. Sometimes you've just gotta smile.

Or was that "haha point"...?

 

Good Food, Good Company

Here I am again, posting about food. But it deserves it--and, besides, the next-most exciting thing I did today was cleaning. So...onward with the food!

I'll be honest. After last night's dinner with my host family, I didn't know if I would eat again, ever. Which was slightly problematic, in that I knew that I had dinner plans tonight--so I ate next to nothing today in preparation. And, by 7pm, when Rachel and I set out, I had finally succeeded: I was hungry!

Rachel and I met up with Issac (our trainer from the gym) and his friend Juna at Foster Hewitt's, a Canadian-run restaurant in Zuoying where I had happened to go for Thanksgiving on my unsuccessful quest for turkey. Then, I settled for steak.

Today, however, was different. I ordered the BBQ beef burger, and then Rachel, Issac, Juna and I entered into a wonderful and several hours long conversation, mostly in English but with Chinese and even some Taiwanese thrown in for good measure, in which we discovered things like that "haha point" is the direct translation of "punchline"; why many Taiwanese people don't eat beef; that "all guys are alike" (from Issac), "yeah, all guys are ***holes" (from Rachel); and that Issac is a major lightweight.

Also in debate were whether or not Asian girls have butts (Issac said some do; Rachel said they don't), whether it's "study aboard" (Issac) or "study abroad" (the rest of us), and which of the many foreign guys in the busy restaurant was most attractive (question from Issac to Rachel and I).

So many other wonderful moments; far too many to tell. And the food--fabulous. Wish I had pictures to show for it. All in all a great night, and one I'm still full from now, four hours later...might necessitate another fast tomorrow.

Bad habits die hard

Habits like putting off writing until 1am when you have to teach at 8:30am the next morning.

Good habits can be cultivated, though, and here I'm not just talking about writing. Minor victory that it is, I went to the gym today in spite of my still-aching muscles. Having a trainer is already paying off: he was on Facebook this morning when I was and he gave me an assignment for the day. And, if you know me at all, you know that I can't not do something that's been assigned to me. I'd like to think I would have gone either way, but the truth is there's no telling.

After all, as this short-and-sloppy late-night post illustrates, just knowing you shouldn't do something doesn't necessarily change a thing without outside stimulus.

Pancakes

Thing 4:
I made pancakes today for the first time since being in Taiwan. Or, rather, I helped make pancakes. When I got up I found Analicia beginning the process; I volunteered my help and my griddle, and suggested we add chocolate chips and bananas, which was obviously a fantastic choice.

So that was my one new thing of the day. It wasn't really my only new thing, but the thing I'm more excited about is much more difficult to put into a "new" framework, since it was the objectively simpler act of going to the gym for an hour for the first time in...well, a while. Also, it was great.

Another new thing, at least for this break, is happening right now: I'm going to bed before 3am. Let's keep this thing going!

Lazy

I just love it when I pull up my new post window--early, even--and realize I have nothing whatsoever to blog about. Usually, I solve this problem by thinking for several more hours, then staying up late to pour whatever psychological drivel I culled out onto paper. (Or, well...pixels?) But not so today.

Today, I am going to unabashedly embrace my laziness and sheer exhaustion and not write much. Because, ironically, today's laziness stems from not being lazy for the rest of the day--made it to Chinese class, the gym, and the fruit market, exhaustion notwithstanding--so I think I've been self-disciplined enough for the day. And, besides, this is still (technically) a blog post!

(Insert mental image of someone screaming "WORDS! WORDS!" a la zombies screaming "BRAINS!", crossed with Patrick from Spongebob.)

To subsidize my post's brevity, allow me to direct you to one of my favorite sites ever, which--OH MY GOSH HAS A NEW POST FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MONTHS!

Anyway, enjoy. :)

Overheating

No, Kaohsiung hasn't been hit by a recent heat wave. This is overheating of a different sort. Or, rather, several different sorts (do you see a list coming? 'Cause I do!):

1.) My computer, Petey. (Yes, I named him. Moving on.) Being a laptop, and so quite logically resting on my lap, I'm heatedly regretting all the work I've asked him to do lately. I mean, really, emptying my several-hundred-photos full camera chip, sorting through and editing said photos, and finally, uploading them to Facebook...it's a lot to do, especially when I force him to simultaneously provide me with fantastic Seattleite music via Click 98.9 live streaming (,a favorite memory of home I can revive at will).

"Be kind to me," my computer screams, "what do you have to gain if I overheat and die?"

The answer is, of course, nothing. But sometimes, you've just gotta battle through, even though you're hopelessly behind in uploading so that, next time, you won't be so hopelessly behind as to make it seem utterly impossible. So, I'm sorry, Petey, but you're overheating days are far from over.

On the upside (for human friends, that is), here's the public link to pictures of all my in-class Halloween festivities!

And also this.

2.) My brain. I had Chinese class today, so this entry pretty much writes itself. But, in addition to the typical strain put on it by our biweekly marathon Chinese lessons, after class today, I went to the gym. And at the gym, Phoebe, who happens to be one of my favorite people here in Kaohsiung and who works at the gym, asked me to show her what I had learned.

On the plus side, my brain didn't completely empty out, as it did last month  when Chialing asked me the same thing. I remembered that we had learned about making phone calls and arranging plans, and I told her this. So she 'called' me to test it out. And then my brain went blank. We made it about 3 sentences into the 'conversation,' which consisted of me fumbling through a few ways of saying "It's me, Bekah," and then combining two ways of saying "Do you have free time Monday?" into some weird amalgamation which promptly made Phoebe and the other employees standing nearby burst out laughing.

"It's cute!" Phoebe said when I asked how terribly I had done, then ran up the stairs for the comparatively less embarrassing feat of actually working out. Maybe one of these days my brain will accept the need to actually use the patterns I learn in class on an immediate basis, but that's just something I'll have to work on, for now.

3.) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Yes, I know that it makes little to no sense to say that a story is overheating; in this case the more accurate word would be "fried," and even then, it would once again apply to my perception of the story, but who cares. The point is, over the past two days, I've read a shortened version of this story 6 times. Monday, I'll get to read it another 5 times. And that, my friends, is far too many times.

It's my own fault, of course: I suggested we read a Halloween story as part of our lesson, and of course whenever I make a suggestion like that for "us" to do, I'm fully cognizant that it means me. Actually, in this case, that's not even true--poor Maggie and Alison are stuck translating the whole story after me, line by line, because the kids' version of the story that I found online, cut by about half, and then simplified, still needs to be translated for most of the kids to catch the nuances of the story. It's pretty complicated, when you think about it!

I am very grateful that tomorrow and Friday, though still Halloween-themed and still requiring my massive bags of candy and my pirate costume, will be Sleepy Hollow-free. Another inherent advantage of having an actual, fully-equipped English classroom at Qingshan is that we can show video clips for this sort of thing!

Anyway, with all that said and done, I'm off now to give my computer, brain, and story-telling abilities a rest. Time to sleep, before the rest of me starts overheating, too.

Halloween, part 1 and ZUMBA!

It's never a good sign when the most creative thing I can think of for a blog post title is just a summary of the posts' parts. So we'll see what happens here.

This morning, I got up and put on a white shirt, khaki shorts, black shoes, brown hat, turquoise scarf (worn as a belt), wooden sword, and black eye patch. This will, I realized, be my costume de rigueur for the next week.

Why, you ask? Well, it's simple. I am an elementary school teacher. More specifically, I am an American English elementary school teacher living in Taiwan, and I teach 19 classes a week, with no repeats, at two different schools. And next Monday is Halloween. Therefore, from now until the actual holiday rolls around next Monday, I'm a pirate!

You know, just in case the kids at Hanmin had gotten used to a foreigner walking around, I thought I'd give them something new to gawk at. (Pictures forthcoming, but I seem to have forgotten my camera at school.)

This morning, Maggie and my first fifth grade class of the week (incidentally, I always feel bad for the first class--they are essentially a test group with whom to work out any kinks of the lesson plan) had a lot of fun, learning "trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat," making paper jack-o-lanterns, hearing the story of "The Headless Horseman" (abridged and in dual language to make it comprehensible), and then got to go trick or treat at the Principal's office! And here's the test of whether you read my parentheticals: I'm glad the first class of the day was the one picked for this honor.

So after a day of adorableness (lots of kids dressed up, by which I mean donned a witch hat or vampire cape or glittery mask--the costumes of choice here, apparently), I headed home. More on Halloween-y stuff later--but as I already said, this will be my week, so I've got plenty of time to extrapolate.

Tonight I went to my first Zumba class! Because, you know, there's nothing to make getting in shape easier than a fast-beat dance you've never learned that is being taught, when it's being taught at all, in Chinese. But it was fun, in a grueling, sweat-and-exhaustion inducing way! I definitely want to go back on a regular basis; maybe learn the basics so I'm no longer the awkward foreigner flailing about in some sort of misguided attempt to follow the instructor.

What made matters worse was that the other gym employees decided to come watch us, and bring people who happened to be touring the gym at the time. This didn't just happen once, either--I counted at least three separate instances when I looked over and suddenly saw Phoebe, or Cody, or Jackie, or some other Fitness Factory guru, laughing behind the glass at us, either alone or with strangers in street clothes in tow. Oh, and did I mention that I happened to be right next to said glass? Just go ahead and combine my dislike of being watched while I work out, my insecurities about my dance abilities, and my COMPLETE NEWBIE status together, and you get a real pleasant cocktail of stress.

Seriously, though, Zumba was a good idea, and I'll be back. I can already tell I'm going to be sore all over, including muscles I never think to work on the machines when I work out on my own, which is great. And of course it's a phenomenal cardio workout with great music and moves which may actually help improve my dancing at some point? We'll just have to hope and pray on that one. (And hope and pray that the new class schedule next week will still work--they change it all around every month!)

There's no real way to tie together Halloween and Zumba. Unless you imagine me dancing to Latin music in my pirate costume, which is just not a pretty picture.

Fun Surprises

Just a few little things from today--a few little moments which, by themselves, don't look like much, but which, taken together, make for a nice day.

1.) Class 6-1 at Cing-Shan, my first class of the day every Thursday and the one which is notorious school-wide for bad behavior, was a little better today (or at least they seemed a little better to me). In fact, the whole day today at Cing-Shan went really well, I thought; the kids were engaged, I was enjoying myself, and the teaching really seemed to flow and tie it all together, which is something of a first for me.

I think I may have hit upon a better way of teaching vocabulary, actually. Our lesson this week involves household chores-- "do the dishes," "get the mail," take out the trash," "feed the fish," "walk the dog," and "clean the room." In our lesson planning, Patty asked that, while teaching these new words, I first explain the verb and then add on the prepositional phrase. But really, how do you explain a verb?  I explained it by telling the kids all the other things they could "do," "get," "take out," "feed," "walk," and "clean"--and not just telling them, but asking them to fill in the blanks. "What else can you do?" "What else can you clean?" When they answered, I'd act out whatever they said, which led to some fun moments--walking a lion and an elephant, for instance, and a boy saying he would feed his girlfriend (which I suppose is better than not feeding her)--and which actually had the kids all focused on me and enjoying themselves.

This was new for a lot of these kids. The kids at Cing-Shan sit at tables facing each other in cramped quarters, and possibly because of this, almost every class has issues of paying more attention to each other than to the teaching. Today was an epiphany: I made them all focus on me from the beginning (I wouldn't begin until I had everyone's eyes on me, I told them, and my heart warmed when one boy reached across the table to nudge someone who wasn't looking--self-managing classroom glimmering in the far distance!), and then I managed to hold their attention by directing their talking into productive replies.

Lesson learned: make them talk, but talk to me!

2.) I learned I can pick up finger-picking guitar fairly easily. I can play the bass guitar, of course, but I'd never really tried to pick up an acoustic before; I don't know chords, and I have not the slightest idea what note the upper two strings on a six-string are tuned to.

But tonight in Chinese class, Andrew announced he didn't want to play guitar for our performance (we're still trying to persuade him otherwise), and Analicia volunteered that I play the bass. I picked up the teacher's guitar and in a few minutes I was able to recreate, by ear-training/bass knowledge/piano theory training, "Wode Bao Bei." And it sounded decent! Granted, it's a simple song, but it was a thrill for me nonetheless. I still hope Andrew can be rallied to the cause, but if he can't, I guess I'll be well-practiced soon enough.

Lesson learned: I should buy an acoustic and teach myself!

3.) After Chinese class, I forced myself to go the gym. I had a headache, it was almost 9pm, and everything in me wanted to just stay at home, but I hadn't been to the gym since Monday, and I actually kind of missed it. And I was rewarded! My headache all but left me, and I got all the wonderful warm-and-fuzzy endorphins that makes gym-going addicting.

Lesson learned: couch potatoes can be retrained!

So that was my day--some nice surprises, making strides in teaching, music transferability, gym motivation; nothing major, but altogether great.

The Gym

The gym is suddenly quite a large part of my life, for the first time ever. I've been every day for the last three days; today was 2 hours, beginning with an hour personal training test-run. I feel so accomplished! And also so sore.

Today was odd for me, and oddly revolved around the gym. I woke up around 8:45, on the understanding that the painters would be here at 9 to paint our rooms, and I would flee to the gym's 10 o'clock fitness yoga class to escape the fumes. Yeah...that did not happen. I realized that a) I didn't really want to go anywhere, b) I didn't have a yoga mat, and c) I had an appointment for later and didn't want to be too exhausted for that.

Instead, I spent the morning lounging about my room and reading, in turns, my email, my Facebook, my Bible, and my new Kindle version of the New Yorker (Oct. 3 issue--LOVE LOVE LOVE Kindle subscriptions, for the record). And it was lovely--means I should wake up at the proper time every Thursday!

After school, then, I had like 20 minutes at home (during which I scarfed several handfuls of nuts, since I had only eaten an apple for lunch) before I had my scheduled meeting at the Fitness Factory with Gaudin.

Oh, Gaudin. He was great! He speaks some English--better than he thinks but not fluent--and he put me on this body mass/make-up analyzer and then explained to me that I'm pretty average, but that I could stand to lose a little fat and gain a little muscle. (To which my question is--why else would you go to a gym?) He then had me walk on a treadmill for 5 minutes while chatting with me (actually a welcome distraction--and another of his clients came in who had studied in Bellevue, Washington, so I got a little moment to talk about how amazing Seattle is!), then taught me how to use a bunch of the leg/back/chest machines.

As "homework," he told me to do the treadmill/elliptical for 40 minutes, trying to keep my heart rate in the weight loss range. Then, while I was doing this, he came over and told me to speed up! Getting mixed messages here...

Not entirely sure whether I'll be able to do personal training going forward (this one was a one-time complimentary feature of the gym), but I will definitely grab hold of the things he taught me and start adding machines into my gym regimen.

And I have a regimen now! I've discovered the secret to making myself work out: pay for it, don't do too much too fast, and make sure there are individual TVs attached to the elliptical machines. I'm not going to lie, I think that last one is what is making it easy--as long as I don't think about the fact that I'm working, all I really notice is the endorphin rush when I'm done, with the added bonus of getting to feel healthy. :)

I'm thinking I'll add a Zumba class on Sundays and, if I can get up next time, Thursday morning fitness yoga.

So yeah, the gym is great! For the first time ever.

Real life

I don't know what to think about this, but my days now seem to naturally divide themselves into two parts--my school day and my 'real' day. By the time I sit down to write my blog, most of my school day has faded away, as if it was from a different life.

But of course it's not! In fact, it's more my 'real' day than my time after school--it's at school that I get to teach kids English, after all, and that's the reason I'm here! So, with that in mind, I taught 5th graders with Maggie today. They learned phonics, the "ng" sound, doing things like chanting "There is the king/ The king can sing/ The king can sing on a swing." After one of my classes, one of the best students came up to me to tell me that he was going to give an English speech tonight. That was all, just wanted to tell me. Super cute. :)

At lunch, as is my norm, I ate the school lunch in the subject teachers office and chatted with Maggie, Alison, and Fiona, the other English teacher at Han-Min. I always love talking to them--though the lunch today was somewhat less than delicious, rice porridge with taro, mystery meat, and tofu. Still loved the greens that are an ever-present part of the meals, though. That and the milk. :)

One of these days I'll give a more complete run down of my daily routine.

Today, though, I went to they gym for the first time here! Rachel and I went over after she got home from school, and I pretty much just followed her around the gym, seeing as it's been far too long since I've been and I was pretty lost as to what to do, other than the first half hour of cardio, which is pretty standard. Nonetheless, though, and the air conditioning notwithstanding, I was dripping and my muscles were strained by about 15 minutes in--I had not realized how out of shape I was. This will be a fun next couple of weeks...

We also did weights, and I did an ab workout, too, so the rest of the week will be pretty sore for me in general. I had ample opportunity to realize this, too, because after the gym we went to Carrefour and I bought a vacuum cleaner to take care of my rapidly dirty-ing rug in my room. Shaking it out can only do so much.

Another fun side effect of buying a vacuum cleaner is that I learned how to drive with something entirely occupying my foot space on my scooter. Or, at least the part of my foot space that I usually use--apparently, there's still plenty of space if you maneuver a bit.

Anyway, as a result partly of a bad nights sleep and partly of my workout, probably, I'm now really tired, and tomorrow I have to teach Morning English, and get gas before I head to school. Realistically I'll still be up for a few hours, but finishing this now makes that process shorter, at least. Now back to real life. :)

Productive Sunday

Wait, productive Sunday? What is this crazyness you speak of?

It's true, though--I got SO much done today that now, as it nears midnight, I can hardly believe it. Typical Sundays here have consisted of lounging about and watching TV, as you may have picked up from my immensely boring typical Sunday posts.

TODAY, however...

• I joined the gym. Rachel and I drove our scooters over to Sanduo, proudly presented our receipts from yesterday's excursion, signed our names a few places, shelled out some more money, and we were in! It was an interesting experience in which I was almost totally silent, since no one working knew English (in stark contrast to last time we went, when at least three of the six people working were essentially fluent), but the woman who signed us up was one of the same people from last time and remembered us, so that was nice. And another major bonus was that, for some reason, the people at the gym took both of our receipts but gave us Rachel's discount--the full discount--even though I spent $500NT under what I was supposed to. Sweet! And now I have full reign of machines, weights, a game room, and weekly Zumba, yoga, and step aerobic classes, amongst others. And, in my ever-growing consciousness about the layout of Kaohsiung, I found out that this branch is RIGHT off my normal route to/from school. Must remember to start packing gym clothes and a shower towel when I go to school...

• I finished drafting my application. (As a side note, I find it ironic that you can tell I'm a writer because I refuse to use the word "write" for this sort of thing--everything is a draft until it's turned in/published, and even then it's not always beyond revisions!) This involved sitting in the Brunch Cafe across the street for several hours and pounding away on my Internet-intentionally-disconnected computer. And, on a related note...

• I ordered at Brunch Cafe--a whole conversation, not just "I want this," but with options and new vocabulary--and the lady understood me, and I understood her! And Brunch Cafe gives numbers for food, which they then call over a 20-year-old-McDonald's reminiscent microphone--in Chinese--and I knew when to go pick up my food! (I think--it wasn't cold when I got there, anyway.) Win!

• I went to church, along with Analicia, her friend Wendy, Karina, and Fonda. Turns out the church is in Zuoying, really close to where Karina lives, actually. Also turns out this will likely NOT be my home church. Analicia warned me that it would be traditional--single hymns interspersed on a printed service order in the bulletin--but in addition to that, I found portions of the sermon iffy, at best. The pastor hit some good points, but for the most part, I think our core theologies differ too much for me to feel like I can learn from him. Here's a (very rough) graphic representation. In this case, deviation from the blue line means I disagree with what's being said:

To clarify my unclear graph, the Scripture part at the beginning refers to the yellow along the blue line.

 So yeah, some things were pretty far off from my own theology, some things were just minor differences or argument holes; and while some parts were right on, I think I'm going to keep looking. I miss the City Church; I was definitely spoiled in Seattle with such a wonderful church and the inspiring and challenging messages of Judah Smith.

• Back at home (and back to my list), I filled out my weekly report, did my Chinese homework, and worked a bit more on my application. It's due this Friday, which is so crazy! It'll be nice to have it in,though.

Now, though, it's past midnight and I have classes at 9:30. So goodnight, world! More productivity to be had tomorrow.

Taxi!

Considering my other non-Taipei, non-USA weekends since I got here, I did a remarkable amount today. But it wasn't quite intentional.

The day began with me looking at my clock and thinking "Huh, 10 o'clock. Not a bad time to get up!" Seconds later, I looked over and saw that it was now 11 o'clock.

Once I was up, though, I immediately set into cleaning mode: our apartment decided to set up weekly cleaning people, rather than divvy up weekly chores like we did at my last house. And this was my week, and I hadn't yet completed probably the biggest and most important of my cleaning jobs: sweeping and mopping all the common areas. It wasn't pretty, and it certainly wasn't fun (take all the joy of normal cleaning, then add 15* and humidity), but it was rewarding to see the outcome: clean floors, for about 5 minutes. Se la vie, I guess.

Anyway, after that, Rachel and I set out to try to find a way to spend $2,500NT. That may sound like an easy task, but ours was actually more complicated--the reason we were trying to spend money was that the gym we're planning on joining, Fitness Factory (for the record, not the gigantic one with the rock climbing wall and pool pictured; we're going to a smaller, cheaper branch off of Sanduo), is having a promotion in which, if you spend up to $2,500NT at once at one of their partner stores, you can deduct that amount from your joining fee of $2,500NT. So, really, it's a question of "Do you want to give us $2,500 and get nothing, or spend $2,500 somewhere else and get something?"

Big surprise, we chose the latter.

But it was not an easy task! We visited Fitness Factory on Tuesday, found out about the deal, and were given a pamphlet listing all the partner stores. It was, however, written entirely in traditional characters, which neither Rachel nor I can read. (We could read "SUBWAY," but $2,500NT worth of sandwiches is a bit extreme...) So we (and by we, I mostly mean Rachel) spent the week asking various Taiwanese friends what the places on our pamphlet were, and where we should go. With the help of Chialing, as well as Rebecca and Karen (Rachel's LETs), we got some translations and narrowed down the list to a few contenders.

And this morning, we clutched our little green pamphlet, grabbed a cab across the street (and down a ways, since the guy in the cab directly across the street was sound asleep in the driver's seat), and asked him to take us to a car store. Now you may be thinking "Cars? But you don't have a car.." which is true. Our thought was that they might also sell scooter stuff, and we have both been hankering for a better scooter helmet.

Turns out, though, that your thoughts were right--nothing doing. As Rachel pointed out, we could have gotten Ferrari bumper stickers for our scooters, but I really can't say that's something I'm in the market for.

So we hailed another cab and asked him to take us to our back-up place--a jewelry store which turned out to be right around the corner from the gym. It also happened to be a tiny little section of a department store, with prices beginning at $40,000NT. Next!

We hopped another cab and asked him to take us to either of two watch stores on the list; whichever was closest. He agreed and set out, but as we looked closer at the address on the pamphlet, we realized that even the "closer" one was in Zuoying--by the HSR station, quite a ways from where we were. *sigh* One $200NT cab ride (spendy for here, but dirt cheap by US standards) later, we finally found the store, and discovered we'd finally found somewhere to spend our money. I walked away with a great watch and a pair of cheap clear glasses (for scootering at night), and Rachel walked away with a pair of cheap clear glasses and a pair of "designer" (we're not sure if they were telling the truth...ever hear of Martini?) sunglasses. I was actually a bit disappointed, though, because they gave me a discount, meaning my total was less than the $2500 allowed. Never been disappointed about a discount before! But now I have to pay a good $420NT to join, which is unfortunate.

Anyway, since we were in Zuoying and I'd promised Karina a visit today anyway--she lives in Zuoying now--we took the MRT down to meet her puppies. They are absolutely adorable! She adopted them off of Cijin Island a few weeks ago, and though she's since discovered she can't keep them--she's taking them to Taipei next weekend to become animal therapy dogs--it was so much fun to see the little pups and watch them play. Their names are MoMo and ChiChi--combined into "Mochi" their names mean "an unspoken deep understanding" in Chinese--and they were born at almost the same time that we got to Taiwan, Karina says. I do wish she could keep them if only for that reason--they have the same amount of history here as we do! In any case, though, it was lots of fun to see them, and to see where Karina and Esther live now.

We then grabbed another cab and went back to our apartment, where Brittany (who had been at a Taiwanese engagement ceremony of the friend of one of her LETs all day) was waiting for us to go to Kaohsiung Sky Tower 85--the landmark building of Kaohsiung, which we hadn't been to yet.

So we hopped in yet another cab and went to the 85, as it's usually referred to around here. At the top (or, rather, floor 74, where the observation deck is), we enjoyed some great views and an....interesting....Tokyo photographers exhibit, before grabbing dessert (caramel apple cheesecake for me; Haagen Dazs for Brittany and Rachel; Karina didn't want anything) and heading home.

For Karina and I, anyway--we walked to the MRT and went our separate ways. Brittany and Rachel grabbed another cab and went shopping.

And that was my day! Did some application work when I got home, which I should have done all day, and now I'm sitting here doing this. At least it doesn't require a taxi!

Errands are fun!

When done by scooter, that is. I just got back from an epic journey (okay, a quick jaunt) around town with Rachel to get some necessities finished--we pre-registered for a gym (we'll do the real stuff Friday), then back to Chialing's for dinner and directions, then on to the vegetable market, then back to the fruit market near our apartment.

I'm love getting off at noon on Wednesdays.

Things I learned about Kaohsiung today:

1.) The roads curve around, meaning that many of the turns Google tells me to take are not, strictly speaking, necessary--I could just as easily take one road most of the way to my schools.

2.) I need a *real* helmet--one that doesn't resemble a bike helmet and include a rubber chin strap--ASAP. Partly for my safety, true, (though, to clarify, my helmet was made for scooter riding, not biking), but mostly because rubber + skin + heat = extremely unpleasant.

3.) Any wrong turn can easily be converted into a tea stop.

That's it for now. :)