Time is of the essence

I had to go to the immigration office today to apply for my ARC. I had to apply for a 60 day landing visa which got approved yesterday and I had to already pay fees for it. This is not the first time I had to quickly do errands in the morning. The following day after I arrived to Taipei I had to fill out all this paper work. This morning I got to the office at 10am. I took a taxi there and the taxi driver didn't know where I wanted to go even when I showed him the piece of paper with the name and address. He took me to a random spot on the street where the office was located. I asked him where the building is and he got confused but I showed him the paper again and he finally understood. I get to the office and I had to wait for about 45 mins. My number is finally called but the lady I had told me to make copies of my passport and my lease. I went to the copier machine and luckily this American guy lent me change since I didn't have any with me. I go back to the lady and she figures everything out and she tells me that it cost $3200 NT when I thought it would be $1000NT (about $30 USD). I didn't have the money with me and I told her I didn't have enough and she said if I didn't have the money, then I can't process my ARC. She wanted me to come before 12 since she goes on a lunch break from 12-1:30 or I can come after 1:30 since they close at 5. Well I was on a time constraint since I work from 2-6 and the head office wanted a copy of my diploma and I had to be there by 12 as well.

I told her I will make it by 12. I dashed out and got in a taxi. I first told the taxi driver to go to my apartment so I can get the money but I called Christine and she said she needs my diploma to make sure nothing will go wrong when I'm applying for my ARC. She said time is of the essence. I said ok so I told the taxi driver to go to her office. It's 11:00am at this time and I get there at 11:10. Christine copies my diploma and then I ran out and I got in another taxi. I'm freaking out just because it's almost 11:20 and I don't think I will have time to make it. This time I had a lady driver and I told her my apartment address since I needed to grab the money. She didn't understand me because of my accent and it was just annoying because I didn't want to deal with it at the time. This morning was the first time I realized that I can actually speak Chinese fluently while being angry. I wasn't trying to yell at her but I was telling her where I lived since she kept asking me and she didn't know where to go. We finally get to my apartment and I sprint there and got my money. I run out again to another taxi and this time he understood me perfectly and I got there around 11:40. Perfect timing! This taxi driver was amazing and I was complaining to him about my morning all in Chinese and he understood everything. It was great! I ran inside and I gave the lady my money and she started laughing since I was running. She kept saying don't worry..umm yeah how can I not worry when you tell me I need to give you this money within a hour or else I can't process my ARC? Whew..so I finally had time to spare and got home and ate a quick lunch and taught two classes from 2-6. I even ran tonight and did DDR and Wii fitness since Drew has it.

The good thing about teaching though is that when I have a good class with good students, it makes me happy. My first class was really slow and quiet but my second class was loud and funny. I asked them if they thought I was a strange teacher since one of their new vocabulary words is strange. They said yes haha It was great and it totally took my mind away from this morning! I know I'm a strange teacher...I will admit it! lol

-Chihchat