mommysquad

My friend is a new mother who recently started a community for those essential lists of what you need when you're pregnant or have a newborn baby. It's not just advice on items, but also where to go like parks and activities. It's a blossoming place for a new mom or moms-to-be to get advice and help, especially for those around the Chicago area. Check out www.mommysquad.org and their forums.

Meh

I haven't posted for a while. That's not an accident. I don't want to post about boring daily life. I did however upload a ton of pictures to flickr recently, check those out at the flickr link.

I might post about my visit to Tokyo and Senday in Japan I took in May and how I got radiation poisoning and lost 2 toes.














No, not really.

A real estate gig

So my brother recently moved to San Diego and has just setup a company that creates floor plans of homes to help them reach their "peak potential" in marketing. The name is Summit Floorplans and if you happen to know someone in the San Diego real estate business who needs a high-quality proof, then there you go.

Spring screamin'

pictures are up on flickr, blog post to come and some indeterminate point in the future

The Resurrection

Howdy there. You still read this? Can’t say I know why as I haven’t given you much (any) reason to even check lately. I thought about pounding out another wall of cultural commentary and teaching trials but then thought back to English class. How does a student get out of a creative writing assignment? Poetry of course, and especially haiku! The 17 magic syllables give a veneer of erudition, yet are the effluence of indolence. So shamelessly, knowing full well I take the easy way out, here are my last several weekends.

Weekend of 2/12

Pingxi with Irene;

Lantern Festival was fun.

A packed train station.

2/19

Overrated club,

But good DJs and dancers.

Where’d my money go?

2/26

A three day weekend!

Many possibilities.

Some good and some bad.

Sun Moon Lake I heard

Would be fun, I have to go!

Sadly mistaken.

An attic to sleep,

Our mattress was three blankets.

Ouch, ow, @#%^! Cheap place.

The mountaintop farm

Qingjing’s quite cool sheepdog show

Did not disappoint.

3/5

Two days to payday,

So a pretty tame weekend.

Uh oh, rent is due?

3/12

Friends to visit us;

Simultaneously sick.

See you next weekend.

3/19

A house party here.

Flip cup, beer pong, both fun games.

Floor smells like college.

3/26

Have no big plans yet;

My friend has a new girlfriend.

You’re welcome, C*******

4/2

Spring Scream Spring Scream Spring

Scream Spring Scream Spring Scream Spring Scream

Spring Scream Spring Scream YEAHHHHHHHHH

So there you go, a quick look at the past, present and future. Some interesting teaching related things: I was doing an oral test which is just a 1-on-1 Q & A session with students. This was quite a low level, and I asked “What’s your favorite color?” Although the finer meaning of ‘favorite’ is lost on them, they (should) know the pattern and say “My favorite color is ___.” Not this all-star. His response? “MONKEY!” Yes. For real.

On one quiz the students were filling in charts of verb, verb past tense, and verb past participle like drink/drank/drunk throw/threw/thrown, etc… For fly, one student wrote fly/fland/flet. I don’t know why. Still, I rank this student far smarter than the few whom left the boxes blank even after I said not to and it would cost points.

Overall though teaching is going quite well. I can tell I’m developing as not only are my classes responding better to me, but when I sub a class or otherwise go in cold, they are still better. Is it going well enough for me to want to stay another year? I don’t know yet. I’m still quite interested in improving my Chinese and see myself landing a job denominated in American dollars. That said I also find it hard to believe I wouldn’t come back out here again for some reason or another.

The Chinese is getting much better. Irene is helping me dramatically; I think we’ve reached a point where we speak more Chinese than English. Speaking at length can be quite a pain but responding to a pointed question is not difficult, and my listening has improved the most out of the 4 facets from being in Taiwan. This is no shock since it’s Chinese is literally unavoidable here, I hope I can translate it (pun intended) into speaking improvement.

A milestone: I am now able to drive legally in Taiwan, for both scooters and cars. Whoop! I extended my International Driving Permit which expires in Taiwan when you become a permanent resident. Why is this relevant? Doesn’t every foreigner and even some Chinese drive their scooters unlicensed? Yes. But for Spring Scream, my roommates, Irene, and another training friend will take Irene’s parents’ car to Kending for the 4-day weekend. Have I met them? No. Do they even know about me and Irene? I don’t think so. Am I surprised? Yes. Will I commit vehicular manslaughter when some aggressive scooter zips in front of me? Sweet lord I hope not.

As far as money goes, March has plenty of hours so after we get paid for it I should be on fine fiscal footing from there on. February was short and we lost a week with Chinese New Year so everybody was hurting a little. Hourly work isn’t fun that way. The receipt lottery drawing is tomorrow so that always provides a little excitement, even if I’ve been stiffed both times so far.

There have been a few other things I have since forgotten to blog about that I thought might have provided an entertaining anecdote. Oh well. Now that I’m working full time and have become acclimated my desire to blog has decreased. I’m sorry if that means drier entries for you, I know exactly how it feels to read something that you don’t necessarily have to but feel a loose obligation to do so. I did go to college after all.

Go Badgers, congratulations Tubs, and good luck Japan!

pictures, again

Pictures up on flickr from Chinese New Year zoo trip, and this past weekend's trip to Pingxi for a lantern festival. Going to try to get a post about that up within 24 hours to avoid the backlog problem I've been creating for myself the past couple months.

新竹站到了

Well time keeps on slippin’ while I stay right here. It’s been a month since updates, and why you ask? First of all, the daily grind is quite pedestrian. I get up, do nothing significant, go to work, come back and do more nothing, then sleep. Second the weekends can be quite fun, but then when there’s something to write about, I either don’t have the time, or have the time but want to spend it doing something that isn’t so laborious.

I’m going to cover a whole lot as quick as I can so stay with me. New Year’s has been discussed, then the next week was my birthday. I’m still the youngest at my branch, hooray! My actual birthday wasn’t on a weekend, so instead we waited until Saturday to go out. First people gathered at our apartment for just a few drinks, then off to local American restaurant #1, Squares. I had a quite nice burger there though I have since found better. After that, we went to a (pretty crappy) nightclub called Goethburg. It has really tacky décor and a subpar sound system, with a meh DJ. I didn’t really mind however; since clubs in general aren’t my thing I spent the vast majority of my time playing foosball outside the main bar area. I already won a couple games during training and I fancy myself pretty good, so I challenged my friends first and then some strangers. I won more than I lost but still came out with a disappointing record around ~.667 but I guess that’s what happens when you’re out of practice. After everyone else got tired of the club we called it a night.

This party pretty much just consisted of people in my extended network of work friends. We got a new roommate that Friday however and she joined us too. Hailing from New York, there are now 3 of us in the apartment, making rent much lower but also just adding another person to talk to, so really everyone is a winner in the arrangement. In an example of mind-numbing bureaucracy, she needed an original lease in order to apply for the Alien Resident Card, not a copy. Sounds normal, right? Well, her name isn’t anywhere on it. In fact there’s nothing to indicate she didn’t steal it or outright invent some fictional property, but the office needs a piece of paper and the gears of government must turn.

The weekend after amounted to nothing much. During the week I went to a meeting about teaching at an elementary school. This is a unique program to this elementary school, apparently because some rich sponsor went there decades ago and now wants to fund English classes for the whole school or something, complete with real live foreigners. It will add an extra 4 hours a week to my pay so that will be nice, and will also serve to get me up in the morning instead of being so lazy.

On the 22^nd/23^rd, my roommates went to Taipei to see LMFAO do a show at a high-end club called Luxy. Since I was not as enthralled with this group, I went to Taichung. Met up with Yvonne, went to a housewarming party, went to another club, and watched a bunch of movies. One of them was Deliverance which is a mightily messed up movie, but truly excellent in every way. I came back Sunday night and graded a bunch of homework.

A week after that, it was almost Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is the only extended vacation time I get. There are a couple random national holidays we get off, but CNY is 6 days, Feb 2-7. Before that though, was the weekend then a couple days. The work was easy; the weekend was a little more eventful. Yvonne came up, and on Saturday we two and my roommates went for hot pot with about a dozen friends. That went well, then the guys split up and we went to a bar while the girls went to a club. We talked, they danced, and both got back late. To make a long story short, Yvonne and I had something of a falling out. She left on Sunday, for good.

Having a two-day workweek was nice, getting paid early was nicer, and actual CNY was the nicest. At first it was weird; every non-chain shop was abandoned all day for several days. Tuesday was the last day of work, Wednesday was CNY eve which we spent in Hsinchu lighting off bottle rockets (I’m sort of a pro at lighting 4 at a time, arcing, and the simultaneous cross-direction light) on top of our building’s roof. Thursday we went to Taipei, dropped our stuff at the Happy Family Hostel, got food and then waited for a training friend to come up from Taichung. Did that hostel sound familiar? Before you go looking, yes it was the one I stayed at prior to training and yes, I remembered the way back perfectly without having to wander aimlessly for kilometers.

We retrieved our friend at the train station, dropped off his stuff, and made our way to the zoo. It was actually quite cool. We only got there at 2:30 or so but spent all 2.5 hours we could there until it closed and still didn’t see it all. The highlights were the huge nocturnal house which was the largest I’ve ever been in by far and of course the giant pandas. They are named Tuantuan and Yuanyuan which if put together i.e. tuanyuan or 團圓 as it would be written in characters, means “reunion.” It’s the same word used for what families do during Chinese New Year when they all gather together back at their parents’ home. Why name a pair of pandas after something so silly? Do you name your dogs Thanks and Giving?

The pandas, like every giant panda everywhere in the world, are actually on a loan from China. And seeing as how “reunification” is a top priority for the glorious people’s republic across the strait, the names were chosen with obvious intent. Still, the pandas draw huge crowds and at least when you’re at the zoo, nobody seems to mind what the cute and fuzzy bamboo-munchers are called. Random side note: one of the bathrooms at the zoo was covered in fecal matter. Paintings, photos, and diagrams of how they harvest poop and what it’s used for adorn the outside of this bathroom. I didn’t use it and see the inside, though now I’m wishing I had.

The zoo closing, we took the MRT back downtown. After changing we went to the Brass Monkey, the most popular foreigner bar in Taipei. It’s really nothing that special and the beer is overpriced, but they had Eric’s favorite, foosball. I played against the friends I was with and for the most part crushed them. Then I played the locals, who were another beast entirely. As I said I think I’m pretty good at the game. I always did well in Thanksgiving tournaments. I played against an Italian and a local, and the games were razor-thin. Both I had to come back from; one I won 10-9 after being down 3-6, the other I won 5-4 after being down 1-3. Yet despite those wins, I don’t honestly think I was the superior player. I got the lucky bounces and amazing saves I needed. Still, it was a rush just to play. Then I ran into Tom.

Tom is an ace. He’s could be a better hustler than Terrence Howard. He had every facet of the game refined to diamantine perfection. The through passes from defense, quick goalie moves, and best of all, the quick-strike offense were all a clinic. He knew how to place the ball absolutely perfectly, and most impressively, he was just so fast. I knew what was happening. By the time it was 1-3 (my determination not to get skunked paid off) I already knew the drill, but I was helpless against the next two goals. He placed the ball so immaculately I couldn’t help but stand amused. After such a shellacking I walked off head held high, albeit in defeat.

From the Brass Monkey we went to Room 18, yet another club. After paying for cover and a drink, I opened my red envelope to discover three casino chips. They had a blackjack table as part of their CNY festivities. I played pretty close to optimum play, or at least as close as I could for having three drinks in me, no recollection of the blackjack card, and a burning desire to win. I didn’t do anything super stupid like splitting tens, and tried to hold off when the dealer had a low up-card. It didn’t help, and I never got higher than 5 chips before busting out. I honestly didn’t ever care however, since I still have no clue what the chips were even good for. All I know is they didn’t exchange them for drinks, so how useful could they be?

Three hours burned away pretty quickly at Room 18. Before long we were outside and on the way to Family Mart. Why pay a 5-10x premium in a club when there’s a perfectly good convenience store nearby? Around 3:30AM someone had the idea we should get bagels. I wasn’t about to disagree so I got in the cab. We got out at a KTV parlor. In the middle of the trip, I overheard a phone conversation that they were closed. I don’t know why this then meant we had to go to a KTV place, but 6 of us did anyway, and we stayed until past 7:00 AM. Truly, this was not my idea. It was made even more difficult by the fact that there were 3 Taiwanese, 3 foreigners, and one of the foreigners simply didn’t sing; he took the mic, danced, but made no audible sound. Now I swear to you I like KTV when of a sufficient BAC, but even this was a bit much for me. Thankfully as my voice died and the night turned to morning more and more Chinese songs were added to the playlist. I wasn’t complaining.

We exited KTV and immediately noticed Taipei was saturated by the glow of natural vitamin D. Not having slept yet, this was quite odd. My roommate and I flagged a taxi (new roommate and friend had retired at various points already) and shuffled over to our hostel rooms. Three and a half hours later, there was a knock on the door saying we had to get out. We did, moseyed over to the train station across the street, and bought our tickets. My heart sank as the ticket lady informed us “沒有位子。” No seats. Well damn, normally I can take a standing ride with the best of them, but I was not feeling at the top of my game. No one was. We boarded the train with dread in our eyes. Thankfully, Taipei was the first stop for this train. We got on and commandeered some still-empty seats, dreading the time they would be claimed by their rightful owners.

Miraculously, it never happened. I don’t know how no one badgered us, but all four of us rode on in tranquility to Hsinchu. It might be because we were foreign. Or maybe the people who had our seats took other seats and were never evicted themselves – I certainly noticed people checking tickets and looking at us. Whatever it was, it was heavenly. Ninety minutes later the loudspeaker announced some of the most comforting words ever: “新竹站到了。” or “We have arrived at Hsinchu Station.” We left, ate, and slept.

This was not the end of CNY, indeed it was only the beginning. The rest was less frenetic though, and while we went to a club in Hsinchu for a psy-trance party another friend had been dying to go to, everyone was very chill and it wasn’t a comparatively late night.

That’s where I stand. Short week this week since we started on Tuesday, but otherwise back to normalcy. I’ll try to get back to weekly updates, or at least every two weeks since I know these long posts are a lot to digest. But really if you think it takes a long time to read, remember how much longer the creation process is. I know pretty pictures break up the monotony and I do have a few pictures to upload, but I can’t be bothered to do that at 2:30AM. I’ll get some of my scooter up too at some point.

PS The scooter tow story is unremarkable, I just got the borrowed scooter towed then had to get a coworker to help me find it and pay the fine. Nothing special there other than my advice to not park in the handicap spot in front of the train station. Not a good idea, even if it did work once before.

下次！