Happy Halloween-"Hot Garbage"

It's finally Halloween! I went out last night to a couple of bars with Drew and our coworker. I had a different out than that day. At school I was garbage lady but at night I called myself "hot garbage." I guess I could have been Lady Gaga too since she would wear something crazy like this. Anyway when we got to the hot spot, there were long lines to some places and there were people who dressed up although it's not a huge thing like in America of course. We saw some interesting costumes like Obama, Elmo, and a person who made their own carriage to carry, selling betel nuts. Those were the unique funny ones while there were a lot of other common costumes like police officers, nurses, pirates, and belly dancers. Drew was a big hit. He was a banana and we would hear people say banana in English and in Chinese. There were also some people who took a picture with him since he was a banana lol Drew was carrying around bananas and were eating them haha One guy yelled out "Peanut butter jelly time!" lol The bar we went to was pretty cool as it had some good Halloween deals and you can gamble there too. It also had a patio but there was no dance floor and although it was all nice and fancy, it wasn't the greatest bar ever. Pictures above are from last night and my night, scary version of my costume.

Today was a relaxing day. I just went with Cala to do some errands and we went to SOGO, a big department store, and had dinner and bought groceries since Cala has a craving to make chili, which by the way she is having the hardest time since it's not common that people here eat or make chili. I wonder if they even know what it is.. lol

-Chihchat

Halloween festivities

I've been blogging about Halloween, and although it's technically not even Halloween yet, it will finally be in a couple of hours. Today I worked all day and all of the foreign teachers had to dress up today to celebrate Halloween. It was a good day and the kids were distracted but it turned out to be okay lol Also there are a lot of October birthdays and although my coworkers already celebrated my birthday, I once again had a birthday celebration since we were celebrating all 6 October birthdays. I never knew so many October birthdays and it's crazy that most of my coworkers' birthdays are in October. Some people didn't know who I was and some called me the garbage lady. It was funny because I would use my outfit to help me teach my lesson like what color is it and I would point to one of my items on my outfit. Some of my students kept calling me garbage but it was okay lol I don't mind :)

Pictures above are just from today at work. The last picture my coworker wanted to swing my head quickly like a model lol

-Chihchat

Pre-Halloween

Today I went to work early to prep for classes and grade homework. There is a special Halloween parade event for the students that meet during half-day classes today which was this afternoon. My class didn't have to participate because they meet at a later time and they are older. They've done it before so they were happy that they didn't have to do it. My coworkers dressed up and now I'm getting excited for tomorrow.

I was thinking about it this now although it happened a couple of days ago but one of my students who is about 10 years old asked me if I had facebook and if we could be facebook friends. Then another one of my students who is about the same age also talked about it. I asked them how they could be on it since they are too young but they lied about their age. I just couldn't believe they know about facebook and they have it. I didn't tell her my name because I don't want her to find me. I think it's so strange. I wouldn't mind if I was a professor and my college student wanted to be my facebook friend but I can't be friends with my 10 year Taiwanese student! It's too crazy for me to think about it!

-Chihchat

Spatial retardation strikes again!

Cala and I went to Carrefour this morning, a Walmart like store, to buy some groceries and cleaning supplies. We were going home from the subway and going up the escalator. There are two lanes: one where you can stand and the other to walk. Cala and I were both standing in the standing lane and I was carrying a bucket of cleaning supplies and Cala was carrying a big bag of groceries. I was ahead of Cala and I wasn't balanced right and then this lady who was in the other lane all of a sudden decided to stand right in front of me but it's not like she just stepped in. She tried to grab on the railing and forced me to move back but I wasn't balanced on my step and I almost fell. The thing that was frustrating the most was that she never said one word nor cared to even look at me. I was sooo angry. I really wanted to say something or tap her on the shoulder but I bit my tongue. I just went "UGH" really loud but of course she didn't look back. I just couldn't believe it. It was weird too because while Cala and I were shopping in the import aisle (Western food), this girl with weird eye makeup (she had red triangles on the corner of her eyes) would get in our way and then just look at us. She kept looking at us and then get in our way while we were trying to find something. It was very frustrating and she kept repeatedly doing it and just look at us for 2 mins. Then after the subway incident, we were crossing the street and I safely crossed the street but Cala waited for the scooter to pass by but he instead just slowed down and stopped right in front of her so she couldn't walk. Then Drew went to McDonalds and some lady budged in front of him and my coworker saw it.

Besides venting about Taiwanese people, I mentioned a little bit about how Taiwanese people think Americans eat a lot (no brainer) but it was funny because last week Drew had a box of nerds from his U.S. vacation. Our Taiwanese coworker came over and we wanted her to try it so I poured a couple in my hand and she picks up one nerd piece. Drew and I looked at each other and we told her she can grab more but she said, "No I'm fine. Wow it's so sweet!" We were in shock and I poured a handful and ate it and she thought I was so weird to eat so many nerds. I don't even know how that one piece of nerd that was big as a period of a sentence could be satisfying but oh well haha

-Chihchat

Who is your father's wife?

In my K7 class today they had a party/review day which is the last day of the K7level. For the first hour you review the oral exam and the second hour they do final test corrections and then get to bring food if they want. For the oral review they wanted to play basketball. I just asked them a question and they had to answer the question then throw the basketball in the basket. It was funny because I asked, "Who is your father's wife?" They were competing against one another and they had to answer quickly and one of my slower students said, "My father's wife is my grandmother." Everyone was laughing and rolling on the floor and I couldn't help but I laughed too. I tried to say stop but it was way too funny and I actually couldn't stop laughing. I know he didn't mean it but at least he took it well and laughed too.

-Chihchat

Found a Halloween costume right at my own apartment

This morning I went to Ximending to look at some Halloween costumes. There are a lot of stores where you can rent costumes. It's pretty cheap to rent one, the lowest only costing about $6USD. But after much thinking, I decided that I don't really want to worry about renting a costume and I was debating about several "costumes" that I can make at home. My first idea was to be an Olympic runner. Honestly, it's just me being lazy but I was just going to wear my running shorts and tank tops since not that many people here wear them and I was going to have my coworker design a sign with the Olympic emblem, my name "Teacher Lilly," and my favorite number 7 that I can put on my tank top. BUT then I realized that Halloween is this weekend and I want to go out and wearing tennis shoes wouldn't be the best to wear. My other idea was to be garbage. I have a big black garbage sack and I can make an outfit out of it and just add, well garbage, to my outfit. After much contemplation at the Halloween store, I decided to become garbage lol I don't know why I've been stressing myself out about my Halloween costume since the students or my coworkers don't care but I'm glad I found one. I made my outfit tonight and I have two different tops, a jacket and a sash. I will wear the jacket at school and the sash when I go out. My hat is a gift bag that my friend gave me for my birthday. It was fun just adding garbage to my outfit. I decided to call myself "hot garbage" lol I'm excited for Halloween now but I will admit, it's a very fragile outfit and it definitely looks like a Lady Gaga outfit.

I was supposed to have my one-on-one tutoring tonight but the student cancelled since he doesn't feel well so I had another full day off today. It's getting colder and it's so crazy how Taiwanese people react to the "cold." It's been rainy and cold lately and today I was wearing a shirt, shorts, and flip flops. Granted I didn't see what the weather was like this morning but it wasn't too cold. I would say it was around high 60s, low 70s. People were wearing winter jackets and boots. One person was wearing gloves. I couldn't believe it. At the Halloween store there was a lady wearing a purple Columbia winter jacket, the same one that I have. I was in shock. Even while I was waiting at the MRT for the subway, the heaters were on and I was sweating. It is a lot cooler than the summer and tonight was pretty chilly after my run but it's definitely not cold enough to wear winter jackets! I know this winter it will get cold but I will not miss the snow whatsoever.

-Chihchat

Finding a Halloween costume...

Today was nice since I had a day off due to a school health inspection check. I work tomorrow but only 1 1/2hrs at night since the inspection will last all day tomorrow too. I decided to find a Halloween costume today since I have to wear one for work this upcoming Saturday. I was going to go to Xinmending where I heard people can rent costumes but I decided to check at a store where I passed by yesterday with my aunt and uncle. It was on the way to NTU, National Taiwan University, near the MRT station. I got lost again because I kept thinking that this one street is at this certain stop although I need to transfer to another subway line. I finally found the store but only to find out that they don't sell a huge selection of adult costumes. In fact, it's really hard to find one because not that many adults or teenagers in Taiwan dress up. I'm sure there are places but they aren't common and easy to find like in America. I went home and checked online and saw an article of how there are a ton of Halloween shops in Xinmending. So I guess I need to go there tomorrow. Oh well..I got some exercise today!

It was really hot this morning and during the afternoon I worked on grad school stuff and then Drew came home and said it was drizzling. I went out in the balcony and saw it was raining but whatever. I decided to run anyway since I didn't get to run at all last week because of the rain. When I went outside and it was sprinkling and barely raining so I was lucky. I got my workout for today and it was cool outside :)

-Chihchat

Great Aunt's birthday

My great aunt turned 80 today and we all had lunch in Taipei 101. Yes, Taipei 101 the tallest building in Taiwan, on the 85th floor. My great aunt (my grandfather's sister) came from a wealthy family and it's no surprise that she would have her dinner at such a grandiose place. My great aunt was close with my mother so I'm really glad I had a chance to share this day with her. When my mother was young, my great aunt didn't have children yet and she wanted a daughter. She took care of my mother for a little bit since my grandfather had so many children at this time and he let my mother stay with my great aunt. My mother was close with my great aunt's children and when I went to Taiwan the first time when I was 13, my great aunt cooked dinner for all of us and let us spend the night at her house.

The meal was fabulous as it consisted about 8 courses. The first course was extremely rich as it had a tomato bottom, sweet potato yam filling, and lobster meat placed on top. We had tons of seafood, two bowls of soup, steamed buns (red bean inside-picture above), almond tea soup with fried stick (youtiao-picture above), and cake that my aunt brought. It was a lot of food! We were there for 3 hours! I was excited that there were steamed buns since I haven't found a place yet where they sold steamed buns with red bean inside. I'm sure they're everywhere but I haven't come across a food stand/restaurant yet.

I met my cousins on my great aunt side and one of them has the same name as me only spelled differently, Lily. Anita, the younger sister, and Lily, the older sister own a clothing store in Taipei. I also found out that my great aunt's son, my mother's cousin, used to study in America and he went to Purdue. He also came to visit my family in Sioux City when I was born! The view from the room was incredible of course and I'm glad I was able to go. I was so stuffed from the meal that I slept for 2 hours afterwards haha

-Chihchat

GRE General Test: Check!

This morning I took the GRE test. I had to be at the test center at 8:30am but I was anxious this morning and woke up around 5am. I ate some small snacks at 7-Eleven and took a taxi to the campus since I was going to a different test center than last time and wanted to make sure I could find it without any problems. The GRE is split up into three different sections: analytical writing, quantative, verbal. I already took the analytical writing portion in August so I just had to take the quantative and verbal portions today. Since there have been numerous cases of cheating going on around East Asia, the GRE is only applicable in a paper-based test format instead of a computerized test like in the US. I was a lot happier when I found this out a couple of months ago because I didn't have to worry about time, however, the questions would be harder.

I got to the test center/campus early and it cost me $270NT which is pretty expensive considering I found out that I could have taken the MRT for a much cheaper price. Luckily NTU (National Taiwan University) was helpful and they placed signs on campus to help people find the building/test center. The university is #1 in Taipei and the campus is gorgeous! The first picture is one of the main streets and the second picture is one of the buildings. The gates were closed and lots of students were sitting on the stairs. I was there almost an hour early so I was just waiting. I know the stereotype that Asian families have as the parents are strict and want their child to succeed and do well on their tests. While I was sitting down, I saw how the boys who were going to take their tests were accompanied by their parents. Their parents were telling them that they will be fine and that they will do well. By just looking at these boys with their parents, I even felt pressured. One mother gave her son McDonalds as a good luck test charm. They weren't scolding them but it was surprising they were with them before the test and patted their shoulders and asking them if they were ready.

I realized as it was about 30 mins before I had to be in the classroom that I could enter the building by walking up the stairs. The GRE is only offered twice a year and surprisingly there were a lot of students taking the test. There were at least about 10 classrooms opened for the test takers. It was a much easier process than last time since I already did my registeration from before. I just had to find my seat since they assigned the desks and they look at your passport and registration number. It took forever to actually get started since the instructor had to go over the instructions and everything was in English. The lady knew how to speak English and it was a little funny since the instructions to fill out the test form was on a recording so she was playing the cd.

I'm surprised they didn't speak Chinese but it is an English test after all so they would speak English. I realized as I was filling out my bubble sheet that the test consisted of 4 sections, 2 verbal and 2 quantative. I don't know why I didn't realize this before but because I took the computerized test last year, I only had to take 1 verbal section and 1 quantative so I assumed it was the same thing this time. Since it's the paper-based test, I had to take 2 sections each, only for 30 mins. The good thing is that if you answer incorrectly, it won't hurt your score since it won't be counted so to maximize your score, the best thing to do is to answer all the questions even if it's just a guess. There was no break and it was pretty intense. It took 2 hours and it was non-stop as we would finish one section and then stop, then in one minute start the next section.

Before the test I could really feel the tension and stress. I think the students around me are incredibly smart though. The GRE is hard enough but to take it when English is not your second language is insane. When I was leaving, this American guy was asking the instructor when we would receive our scores and she didn't know and I tapped him on the shoulder and told him. He was really surprised I could speak English but yeah I just told him the information. The lady was surprised too that I knew the answer although she must know I can speak English well since she saw my passport and I'm from America. When I was taking the subway home, there were some people that took the GRE test standing near me and they were talking about it and one of the boys told the girl that he just wasted his money since the test was super hard. Two people in the classroom canceled their scores. I felt a lot more tension, pressure, and anxiety this morning since I was crammed in a stuffy classroom and the people around me were groaning and sighing but at least I know I'm not the only one suffering from the test lol

After the GRE, Cala and I ate hot pot since I took today off. I usually work 10-7pm on Saturdays so it was nice just to relax and eat. We ate a lot and we got home around 2pm and took a nap. I took a 3-4 hr nap. I'm still tired but I feel SO MUCH better that I'm done with the test!

-Chihchat

Can't wait until it's done!

I'm taking my GRE test tomorrow and after taking it numerous times last year, I'm going to take it again and will honestly say it will be my last time for awhile. I won't take it again unless I have to take the GRE subject test which is a totally different ballpark. My biggest weakness when it comes to standardized tests is that I have major test anxiety. I freak out and I lose concentration as I can't make a decision. "Is it A or B? But C looks like it could be right. Yeah right, they are trying to trick me. D is the answer!" I easily get frazzled and I'm not a good test taker.

This week I've been more high-strung because I've been juggling teaching with studying. Also it's been raining all week because there is a typhoon brewing around Taiwan so I couldn't run. At least I can say it will all be over tomorrow morning. It's nice since after tomorrow I will have a couple of days off because of a school inspection so I will have a 4 day weekend. That's exactly what I need after a long week!

-Chihchat

Inspection days

The rain is never ending! It's been raining for almost a week now and I hope it clears up soon. My umbrella from Iowa City finally broke down and I will now need to buy a new one lol I guess it couldn't handle the rain in Taipei.

At work this afternoon I found out that I will have Monday and Tuesday off this upcoming week because of a regular safety inspection at school. I'm lucky that I don't have a half-day class on those days so I don't have to work. I will still have my one-on-one on Tues. night though and although I will be losing some hours, it's nice to have a couple of days off!! =)

-Chihchat

Ice cream at the end of a long day

As I mentioned before, 7-11 has reward points if you spend a certain amount at the store. If you collect 10 points or stickers, you can get discounts on other foods or restaurants. One of the things you can get is a buy one, get one free ice cream at Coldstone. Weds. are my long and busy days and so after work Drew and I ate at Coldstone since we saved up the stickers. It was definitely nice just to sit and relax and eat yummy ice cream :)

-Chihchat

Trial class

Today my coworker who is a telephone teacher basically calls the students every week to ask them questions about what they learned that week. My coworker is now wanting to be a Chinese teacher (CT) and she has to go through a trial class only lasting about 20 mins which is teaching students "us teachers" a lesson. She had her trial class today and my boss wanted me to participate in it. Basically we have to be naughty students so it was fun to just goof around and what not. Some of the things we did were just plain silly and it really shows how crazy kids can be nowadays, for example yelling about something that isn't important at all, trying to attack the other team's sentence on the board, or saying I don't care lol

One weird thing happened today was when I was going to my class, some of my students in my Monday night class had a make-up class tonight and they were really excited to see me and ran out of the classroom to say hello. I was surprised since usually they never pay attention in class nor do they even say goodbye to me when I leave Kojen lol

-Chihchat

Rain go away!

Last night was awful. Kenny kept all of us up although Drew was home. He just kept meowing incessantly and I woke up 4x to yell at him but he kept meowing. I even tapped him on the head and yelled at him but he still kept making noise..urgh it was a rough night. Hopefully he will feel more comfortable sleeping in Drew's bed and won't have to walk up and down the hallway meowing lol

Today Drew brought to work some candy from the US that is hard to get here in Taipei like butterfingers and reeses peanut butter cups. My Taiwanese coworker just came back from Canada a couple of weeks ago and bought white chocolate mini cups for us too. I ate a ton of those but anyway so my other Taiwanese coworker was saying how big the reeses peanut butter cups were compared to the mini cups. They've never seen the regular peanut butter cups before. My other coworker was so surprised of how sweet and fatty they were lol And the reeses that Drew bought were the ones that were just individually wrapped, not the normal package that comes with two cups and so when we told them that,they were extremely astonished by it lol I was telling my coworker how I lost weight because I used to drink pop all the time back home and she was surprised that a lot of people in the US drink pop. In Taiwan a lot of people drink tea since they have a lot of variety to choose from. It's just interesting because you never think about how one thing is common in one place but completely strange in another.

The weather's been cool lately but that's because there is a megastorm in the Phillipines and so we are getting the effects of the storm. After work I wanted to go running but it was raining pretty hard. I usually run in the rain if it was drizzling but it was downpouring tonight. So instead I did some jumping jacks at the apartment haha Hopefully it won't rain as much this week and I can get more sleep. Drew suggested to squirt Kenny with water if he doesn't stop meowing. It's one thing if you are meowing loudly at 10am but to meow non-stop at 4am is not cool!

-Chihchat

MJ socks ^.^

Drew came back this afternoon from his 3 week vacation. He went to South Korea for a week and got me and Cala Obama socks. He said that socks are a huge thing in Korea. The socks were cool and then after a couple of minutes of unpacking his things he goes oh here are some Michael Jackson socks too. It's a picture of Michael Jackson doing his signature move, basically holding his crotch lol It was very sweet of Drew and I'm so happy I have MJ socks..if only they had Leo socks too...haha He also bought North Korean money and I'm happy I had the chance to see the money too. There were a couple of bills in a laminated folder and it cost him $40USD when the money itself wasn't worth that much. Oh well, he has North Korean money now which is pretty sweet.

-Chihchat

Hugs and Hearts

Next week I'm taking the GRE test so I was telling my A1 (advanced level 1) class that I won't be there next week since they took their unit quiz today and so they won't receive them until I get back. Some of the students were freaking out and asked if I was leaving. I said no, I will just be gone for one day. They wanted to know who their teacher will be but I said I don't know and it will be okay. It's only one day. I made a joke and said aww you will miss me! Then when they were leaving, two of the girls told me they will miss me next week. I thought that was really sweet of them. We were playing this game and for the punishment the girl who was the loser could either hug me or do jumping jacks. The girl decided to hug me instead since she was very shy so I hugged her lol

Then for my K7 class (normal level 7) they had a review of the whole level and I was playing this game where they had to say Teacher Lilly I love you, depending what box they hit. It was funny since a lot of them had to say the sentence and then later we were playing this game where again the punishment was either to do jumping jacks or hug me and she chose to hug me. I guess jumping jacks are really intense and scary lol

Tonight Cala and I first went to a eye glass store to get new glasses. Actually one of the workers could speak English. The coworkers were trying to speak Chinese to me though although Cala could understand them perfectly. Then we were on our way to Shilin night market but it was hard for us just walking to the MRT because we saw a lot of cute clothes on the street. I saw a shirt that had Nebraska on it. It was so weird and there were different colors all packed in plastic. That was pretty crazy!!

While we were at the night market I wanted to look at a store and it was funny because we thought it was a big store since we were walking in this hallway thing and it turned out to be an alley! lol It was a weird looking alley since we were walking on tile floors and it was like a store with many separated shops. When we got out of the alley, we ended up at the same road we were at once before but it was weird because we didn't even notice the alley when we were walking on the street. Tonight I finally found a shirt that had Chinese characters on it. English shirts are super popular here and it doesn't matter what the shirt says. The other day I saw a shirt that was gray with gold sparkles on it that said "Salvation Arvy." That shirt will definitely not sell in the U.S. LOL Anyway I haven't seen a place that sold Chinese shirts yet and it was awesome because there was this guy on the street specifically selling these shirts with Chinese characters on them. I got a shirt that says love Taiwan :)

-Chihchat

Will Kenny last?

Drew is coming home Sunday and of course I'm happy he's coming back but I'm even more excited because maybe Kenny will be quieter. These past couple of days have gotten worse since Kenny now just constantly meows. I was home more during the first week that Drew was gone but the last couple of weeks I had to do errands and wasn't home as much. Cala and I have been busy with work and I know we haven't been spending too much time at the apartment and with him but it's gotten so much worse. He just won't stop meowing and sometimes I think something is wrong but I don't know. I pet him like crazy but it's just never enough and my arm gets so tired from petting him lol My coworker says I should get a machine to constantly pet him 24/7 lol Actually it will be one more day if I don't count Sunday that Drew will be home so I really hope Kenny can be quieter when he gets home..hopefully!

-Chihchat

4th month mark

Today was my day off but I had a lot of errands to do. Ok, more like shopping and spending more money. I wanted to get a haircut but I went to the hair salon too early and it was funny because when I went into one of the salons, I went to a couple, the workers were having a meeting so it was really embarrassing since I interrupted them but oh well. Since I was too early, I then went to the post office. This time, it was the main branch post office because I received a slip yesterday to pick up a package. I figured it was because I sent envelopes with the wrong addresses and they were returning them. Of course I got lost trying to find the post office but the interesting thing is that I have to pick up the package next door to the post office on the second floor. It was really creepy because there were no sign and it was dark and dungey. It was just an open space and it was really messy and I found the guy who I was supposed to talk to. Apparently I gave my friends the wrong address so I picked up my birthday gift from my friend but the good thing is that the guy has my number in case I will receive more "lost" packages.

When I was in the MRT, this African guy came in the subway and he looked at me and then said hello. I said hello and he asked me how I was. I asked him how did he know I could speak English since I was just standing there and he said because of my smile lol He was nice. His name is Benjamin and he was just doing errands and is from the Gambia. I was wearing the purse that I got from Michelle which is also from the Gambia so I thought that was cool lol

I then went to Taipei Main Station and shopped in the underground mall. I got harrassed again by a couple of guys but I now know just to ignore it and don't think that they actually want to talk to me or need help lol I was trying on these pair of jean shorts in a store and it was funny because there was no fitting room but she was covering this section with a clothing rack for me to change. I also realized how all the stores are the same and that I bought a shirt at one store that was cheaper at another store. Oh well..it wasn't a huge difference in price. Also, in one store they didn't have my shoe size but another branch store in a different section had it. It's crazy how they all have the same brand stores in one area but shopping is exhausting. In these little shops, they like to cram all the clothes that they can in small places. It's really tiring to look through them if you have the patience.

After my shopping spree of spending almost $30USD getting a shirt, a pair of jean shorts, black sandals, and leggings, I dropped my things off at my apartment and went to get my haircut. Ironically when I got there I saw my coworker/tutor who recommended the hair salon to me. She was with her sister (my coworker too) and I'm so glad she was there because she helped me talk to the hair stylist. I know how to say haircut in Chinese but I'm definitely not good with my hair terminology. I just trimmed my hair and bangs and refined my layers but I will admit, I definitely look more Taiwanese now lol The hair stylist was pretty blunt and told me I should have my bangs styled in a certain way lol It's interesting how different a Taiwanese hair stylist is to an American one. The Taiwanese hair stylist was more blunt, telling me things I should do to take care of my hair, and a funny side note, I was offered black tea or milk tea, not coke or water like in America.

Today is Cala's birthday and we ate at a Mexican restaurant. The people who work at the restaurant know how to speak English but I still tried to speak Chinese to them for some reason. I didn't really know what language I should use although both are ok. The portions were huge but it was good, not the best Mexican food ever but I've been craving chips and salsa and cheese. The picture above is some of the food and Cala's huge portion of fish tacos (second picture). Cala looks so small compared to her food lol I ordered a virgin strawberry daiquri and our waiter came to get my empty glass and I was afraid he was going to give me another one but luckily he didn't. It was just funny because I was waving at a waitress to explain to her about it but then I saw our other waiter come back and just stand there smiling.

It's my 4th month mark today. I'm getting used to the ways of life here and practicing my Chinese more. I'm definitely seeing myself become more assimilated with Taiwanese culture although I'm of course an American at heart. It's crazy to think I'm 1/3 way in!

-Chihchat

A cheap, luxurious day

Since I got paid last week, I'm now able to spend more money eating outside and actually buying clothes. I only took out $60USD from the bank today. I bought a stapler, a coffee, two teas, lunch, and dinner. I lent $100NT ($3USD) to my coworker since he lost his ATM card. I then went to Shilin night market and bought 4 shirts (2of them were matching sets) and 2 shorts. All together I only spent about $1300 NT which is roughly about $45USD or so. That is so cheap but yet I ate good food and got cute clothes. The clothes might not be the best quality but it's fine since I will be here less than a year now and I can't bring everything back home.

On a side note, my appetite is kicking back up again and today I was adventurous and tried something new. I usually get this wrap that I've eaten before with lettuce, meat, and toppings. This time I ordered a fruit one with crab meat and it was actually delicious. I was scared at first because I saw her make it and she was adding such weird things like banana, crab salad, mayo, apples, and cucumbers. I was afraid it would be gross but it was actually really good! It's really going to be hard to go back to U.S. and have to spend about $5USD at least for a decent lunch when I pay about $1-2USD on a good meal.

-Chihchat

Hallelujah! Thank goodness for C.K.S.'s post office!

So I've been blogging about post offices lately but I guess I need to go there more often than I thought. Well this morning I woke up to realize that I might have messed up the addresses that I sent to my professors since I forgot to write "The University of Iowa" on the envelope. Just to be safe, I mailed another recommendation packet for them. Once again I went to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall to buy some postcards when I forgot that there is a post office located in the memorial.

No one was there but I first went to the counter to buy the western style envelopes and the guy was SO NICE! He let me speak Chinese, didn't interrupt, and was very patient with me. He also had a smile on his face lol So first I bought the envelopes then I wrote the addresses and went back to the counter to mail the three packets. He explained calmly about the mailing rates and I actually saved more money because it only cost me $33NT instead of $80NT at the other post office. Even when I was going to get my money out, he waited for me and he knew I was going to give him a $100NT bill because when I gave him the bill he quickly gave me $1NT coin. It only took me less than 5 mins to mail the packets. It was AMAZING! I'm always going to go there from now on. It's a little bit farther from my house and work but it's worth the travel lol I think the reason why he was also patient with me is because there are a lot of foreigners that go to the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial hall since it's a tourist place. Also, it isn't a small, localized post office like the one near my apartment with older Taiwanese people and their traditional views.

The weather has been strange lately because it was getting cooler but these past couple of days have been humid and hot. I just got done running and I went to a night market to get some dinner. I was buying fruit when the lady who I was buying from asked if I needed a tissue since I was sweating from running. I started laughing and told her no, I just got done running. She was really nice lol So today was a good day of encountering Taiwanese people lol

-Chihchat

The post office is not my enemy..

Today was a busy day since I had to prepare everything to mail transcript forms and recommendation letters to my professors. I got up early to try to buy some white envelopes when I noticed they didn't sell plain, white envelopes so I got the Chinese kind anyways. I planned to have lunch with my cousin who knows how to speak English. She used to live in the U.S. for a couple of years. We had a great lunch and she was really sweet because she was willing to go with me to the post office.

I was nervous since we were going to the same post office that I had trouble with last time and although I was with my cousin, I was a tad bit scared. I just wanted to mail things and get out! The only problem we had this time was that I used the wrong envelope since there is a "western" type envelope I need to use when mailing things to the U.S. The guy didn't understand why I was spending so much money on mailing a packet and my cousin made a really good point. She said usually Taiwanese people fold their documents and put them in small envelopes to save money so the worker didn't understand why my letter was so big and why I needed a big envelope.

I didn't want to fold it since it was a professional document but I understood his thinking. I know I didn't have any patience with the man since he was the one that critique me before but it was fine. My cousin helped me and I just had to rewrite the addresses on new envelopes. I got everything mailed out. I won't have to go to the post office until maybe a couple of weeks but I will admit, I will probably go to the one that is near my work lol I just need to realize that the people at the post office aren't trying to attack me. I know they mean well because they want me to save money but it's hard when there is a language barrier and you just want them to mail things and they just keep talking and lecturing you of how expensive it is to mail things to the U.S. lol

-Chihchat

Happy Birthday Taiwan~10/10/10

After my amazing 12 hr sleep from the night before, I felt alright to do some errands today. I went to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall to buy some postcards when I noticed how extremely busy it was traveling from the MRT to the place. I got there and I saw huge floats and loads of people. I knew that something was happening today since I saw it on my paycheck calendar about 10/10 or double tenth but I didn't know exactly what lol I realized it was Taiwan's 100th birthday as I saw the posters and I was really happy that I went to the memorial today. I saw a little bit of the parade and it was funny because it was windy and there were people trying to hold up enormous floats with strings. It was hard for the people to balance them up straight (first picture above).

Then when I was walking in the square, there was this couple who wanted me to take a picture of them. The woman lives in Australia and is Taiwanese and she was lecturing me about why I should be studying Chinese although the Taiwanese man was very friendly and didn't care. I know she means well but I've been getting that a lot recently. I either get people who tell me that my Chinese is good or that I need to study lol She could speak little English. I then left and was walking to get my postcards when I saw a huge group of officers (marines?) with their motorcycles. Lots of people were taking pictures of them, especially girls. I was going to see who I should take a picture with when I saw the same couple I just met and I asked them if they could take the picture of me with an officer. The lady started laughing and said I should pick a cute one. I didn't want to take a long time but I did find this one guy who was smiling and he looked really nice and friendly (second picture above). The lady wanted me to sit on the motorcycle but the guy said I couldn't. She was upset I couldn't sit on it and I said it's fine! I don't need to lol

When I was leaving, I saw a group of guys all dressed up in USA gear. I asked them why there were dressed up like that and I guess they are part of a club and they are representing their country. It might have been for the parade since there were other countries like Mexico, Canada, Thailand etc. So I took a picture with them (third picture above). My stomach started to feel much better so tonight I wanted to get popcorn and it was funny because the 7-Eleven cashier didn't know how to pop it and she was going to open the unpopped bag. Luckily the coworker told her not to but I'm glad she didn't open it. It took her forever to figure out what to do lol

Anyway it was a pretty exciting day considering I was just expecting to buy some postcards and it really made up from last night's exhaustion :)

-Chihchat

Trying to survive my birthday

As the title of the blog may make you all think I had a crazy birthday, I did, in the sense that I was trying not to get sick from just eating food. A couple of days ago I had food poisoning and although Friday I felt fine, Saturday was a different story. Usually I teach 7 hours but I subbed for my coworker so I worked 8 hrs. So yes, I worked from 10-12,1-2,2-4,4-6,6-7..and it was pretty tiring to say the least. I drank a lot of coffee and tea to boost myself up but as the day went on, all the standing, moving, and talking I was doing made me weak and tired. I didn't eat a whole lot either throughout the day since most of me and my workers didn't get a chance to order a lunch box so I just had a couple of tidbit things and because I was planning to eat a great dinner for my birthday. After work I was exhausted. I planned to have dinner with my roommate Cala and then go to Shida night market to shop. We went to this restaurant which we thought would be far away so we took a taxi to only realize it was just a couple of blocks away from our house lol Then we were ordering food and we were having trouble figuring out sizes and portions but it was good food. I got some dumplings and stir-fry beef (picture above). After we ate I was feeling a little queasy but not too bad where I needed to go home. We went to Shida and it was really crowded since it was a Saturday night. I got paid a couple of days ago so I wanted to buy some cute clothes. But it was so stuffy and people were pushing and shoving that I was feeling naseuous. I did buy a really cute shawl though so I'm excited but I had to go home early since I didn't feel good. We walked around the night market for a good hour so at least we stayed there for a little bit. We got home around 10:30pm and I passed out. I slept all night and it was nice :) I slept for about 12 hrs lol My stomach still hurts but I'm slowly recovering. Cala felt so bad that I was sick on my birthday but it's okay. I just wanted to eat good food and shop and I did. I'm just glad I got to sleep.

Ok besides that really pathetic story about my birthday..I had a great birthday surprise at work. I knew at work that when it's someone's birthday, my trainer Vera would do something like get a cake and surprise them or whatever. So I knew going to work yesterday that something was going to happen especially since she asked me if I worked at 1 or 2pm that day lol During the lunch break, I was just anticipating it and I wanted them to surprise me so I didn't have to wait anymore. The lights from the CT room were shut and they lit the candles of my cake and I thought they were going to come to me inside the FT room. Instead, they wanted me to go to their room so I did and I held my cake and they all sang happy birthday to me, also we sang in Chinese. It was nice too since the cake had two candles, one, #2 and the other #3. All of a sudden they told me to look and they opened the door and it was my coworker wearing a Leonardo DiCaprio mask!! HAHAHA It was just a picture of Leonardo printed off on a piece of paper but it was just hilarious. I was laughing so hard and I almost dropped the cake which I still didn't blow out the candles yet. Then my coworker Sean (who was Leonardo DiCaprio) was trying to hug me and got his finger stuck in the cake. It was priceless though and then someone else printed off a picture of him and wrote "Happy Birthday Lilly" <3 Leonardo LOLOL It was one of the best surprises ever! I guess everyone knows I like Leo but I mean I make it very obvious lol Then I was eating the cake which was awesome since my coworker Cat knows I like fruit and it was a vanilla cake with fruit (kiwi, mango, and strawberries). Well I couldn't finish my piece since I had class and when I came back up, someone covered my cake with another picture of Leonardo saying "Lilly, you are my destiny." It was classic!!

-Chihchat

Surprise gift

This afternoon my coworker gave me a gift since she saw me yesterday looking awful from the effects of food poisoning. She gave me a magazine and on the cover was Jay Chou!! It was a huge magazine and it has lots of pictures of him :) My coworker Cat and I discovered a couple of weeks ago that we both like Jay Chou a lot. It's surprising because a lot of the CTs (Chinese Teacher-Taiwanese teachers) don't like Jay Chou. I've recently started to like him since I knew about him back in the States but never really listened to his music until then. It was really nice of her to do and it's my first gift I received in Taipei. She said it was no biggie and she bought one for herself but still, she didn't have to get me anything.

I now started to meet with my coworker one hour a week to practice my Chinese and since the magazine has a big article about Jay Chou (in Chinese of course) I should read it to give me more practice lol

-Chihchat

Just keep going...

Last night's blog was just the beginning of the extreme pain I felt in the next following hours. I woke up at 2am to throw up again. Then I woke up at 7am because I didn't feel good. My stomach was really hurting me and I definitely did not have a good sleep last night. Luckily I don't work on Thurs. and so I woke up around noon and mustered up the strength to go to work to talk to my boss about my paycheck. Something got messed up with my paycheck so I had to talk to her before the bank closed since I wanted to wire money back to my U.S. account.

I talked to my boss and we got it figured out. The only thing she can do for me is that I will get reimbursed on my next paycheck but right now I'm out a couple of hundred dollars. She said I can get an advanced though which I might have to since I'm paying off some loans. Then I went to do some errands including getting an electronic Chinese-English dictionary.

While I was at Taipei Main Station trying to figure out which exit to get out of to get the dictionary, I got stopped by this guy. He looked like he was 18 or so and he was really nice and wanted to know where I was from. I asked him why he wanted to know but he said don't worry. I had him guess and it took him forever to figure out that I was from America. He was trying to sell these pens to me and I told him I didn't have any money but he pointed at my watch and said I had money. It's crazy because I had a lot of people compliment my watch and they think I have money because of my watch. It's a fossil but I bought it an outlet mall that only cost about $50-$60 or so. But yeah it got a little awkward but he finally let me go since he was harrassing me a bit. I felt bad only because he helped me figure out where I needed to go.

Then tonight I bought soybean milk at 7-Eleven. I barely ate anything the whole day because of my stomach. I'm sitting down in the living room trying to open up the carton but I couldn't. It got stuck. By this point I was just so frustrated lol Cala took a picture of me (above), looking at the soybean milk in disgust haha It's okay..I had a decent day and I'm glad I did some of the errands that I wanted to do. I just need to rest tonight since I work tomorrow and I don't want to keep getting sick!

-Chihchat

McDonald bag trick/Food poisoning

For my last class tonight they had a review day since they have their final test the next time they meet. I made them answer 20 questions and they all did really well so I let them pick cards out of a McDonald's bag. The students collect cards to exchange for prizes. They usually get 10 pts or so since the cards are in quantities of 1,10,50,100, and 500. There were only 100pt cards in the bag but they didn't know that. They thought the bag had a variety of cards. I had the students pick them out and it was funny since they would search and try really hard to pick a card. They would get 100 each time and would get really excited. One student was upset since he thought that by the time he picked the cards in the bag, all of the students would have gotten the good cards. Then at the end one of the students catched on and they were all freaking out when I showed them that the bag had 100pt cards. It was pretty funny to trick them and see their reaction lol

Today was payday and I wanted to splurge a bit by ordering food outside. Usually I eat instant noodles or something. I got jipai which is basically a slab of fried chicken, sounds gross but it's really good. I ordered it and I also bought a dessert. I ate it when I got home and Cala had her coworkers come over. About a hour passed and I really did not feel good. Yep, something was wrong with the chicken because I got food poisoning since I threw up :( I don't want to jinx myself but that's the first time I had to throw up here in Taipei because of rotten food. I got sick from eating the hot pepper soup the first week I was in town but I didn't throw up. I just hope it was just a minor case since my stomach is still hurting a little. I have to be careful when I order food since I bought the jipai close to 10pm and it might have been spoiled by then :/

-Chihchat

Lost Credit Card, Unpopped Popcorn, and Random Compliment

This morning I went to 7-Eleven to buy some popcorn. It's nice since they pop the popcorn for you. It was really busy since I went during the lunchtime but I waited to get my bag of popcorn popped. I noticed it wasn't as full but I figured it was just the bag. I went home and opened the bag only to find out that only about 1/3 of the bag was popped. There was barely any popcorn in the bag. Urgh..but it's okay since the guy was busy and I went during lunchtime. I just know now that I won't go around that time or I will make sure that it's popped all the way through.

When I was walking to work this afternoon, I was crossing this major intersection when all of a sudden I saw this lady's credit card fall out of her purse without her knowing she dropped it. I picked it up and called after her "miss" in Chinese but she was running. I was thinking to myself, "What the heck? Why are you running?!" I ran after her and she was getting in the backseat of a car when I yelled again and held the door and gave her the credit card and told her she dropped it. She looked at me strangely and asked me why I was following her. She was with other people in the car and they were laughing. I don't even think she said thank you since she just took it from me and looked at me weirdly. It's like ok, thanks? I just helped you from having your credit card stolen and ran over by tons of cars. I'm sure it was weird that I chased her but she wasn't even nice that I gave her the card nor was she happy. It actually seemed like she purposely wanted to drop it in the street.

Then later after work I was walking to the MRT subway station when this lady went up to me and said my bag was cute and she wanted to know where I got it from. It's the same bag that I bought from Michelle Gin that received compliments from other people. I told her I'm from America and I got it there. She was with her friends and she was bummed but said thanks. I thought that was really nice of her to compliment me. So yeah, I encounter many different kinds of Taiwanese people today.

-Chihchat

Coolness!

This morning Cala and I had a nice surprise in the kitchen. There was a cockroach lying on the floor :( Drew is gone for vacation and of course we have a cockroach. So I mustered up the courage to sweep it in the dustpan to only find out that it was ALIVE :( But it wasn't moving a whole lot so I sprayed it. Then I dumped it in the toilet but I didn't see it in the toilet. Cala came to check and she screamed when she saw it lying near the toilet. I screamed too lol So I had to sweep it up again and finally got it in the toilet. YUCK..but speaking of cockroaches, today the weather was really nice and cool. The weather is finally starting to show that it's fall and it was really cool outside. Hopefully that means that there won't be as many cockroaches now.

I could still wear shorts today but when I wore my jacket, I wasn't sweating like I usually do. I heard it actually gets really cold here because there is no insulation in the buildings. Then a nice surprise tonight was when I was getting ready to run, I found $100 NT dollars in my shorts. Yay! I wish it was $100 USD but I don't think that will ever happen haha

-Chihchat

Taiwan News

Cala came home this morning sopping wet because she forgot her umbrella. She said that a lot of people were looking at her but also she thought it was funny and cute since they would smile since they knew she forgot to bring her umbrella. I also got a lot of stares the other day while I was running in the rain. While we were walking to the market, we saw a police officer who was a girl and she was pretty. That's pretty unusual and the other day on the news they interviewed a girl that was a police officier that looked like a celebrity. This was part of Taipei's news so we were talking about how the news didn't really show anything too special. We said it was like an entertainment show and Cala suggested we should make our news show lol We were just kidding around but segments of our news can be "Foreigner sopping wet from the rain, why did she not bring an umbrella?" Or News Flash-Taiwanese girl running on the track in the rain, when questioned, she is American lol My favorite, "This just in, foreigner walks into 7-11 with Asian girl and when the cashier spoke to the Asian girl, they realized that the foreigner can speak Chinese. Again, the Asian girl was questioned where she was from." Cala piped in the last line haha

-Chihchat

*100th post*

This marks my 100th post. I've been in Taiwan well over 100 days but I didn't get to chance to blog every day. I'm glad I've been keeping up with my blog, hopefully I can continue it. So this morning was awful since Kenny woke me up at 6am and I worked from 10am-7pm. He is really spazzing out because Drew is gone. I hope he doesn't keep meowing crazily when Drew comes back. Today I taught all day and I used to dread my last class since I only teach one hour and they don't like playing games but they have gotten to be a lot more fun. We were playing this game where you create sentences and get points by using prepositions 2pts, nouns 1pt, or verbs 3-4pts. Linking words such as "although", "in addition," or "however" are worth more (5 pts) than the other words but it's fun to add them in since they haven't really learned those words and it makes the game harder. They also are only supposed to write one sentence. One of the students wrote this long sentence using the conjunctions and linking words and it was awesome because his sentence equal to 74 pts. Two students were writing a storylike sentence but since they weren't using the words on the board, they only received 31 pts. It was hilarious because they were freaking out and didn't understand why they didn't get that many points since they wrote a lot. They told me they want to play next time and that they are going to go home and look up the words they don't know. Oh the joys of teaching lol

-Chihchat

"別小我的看"

Tonight one of my awesome students in my A-10 class had an interesting sentence for one of the voc. words. The word was "strength" and he wrote "All of them have strength and one asked me 'Don't look at me little.'" I asked him during the break what it meant and he couldn't explain how to say it in English. He asked one of his classmates but they also didn't understand how to explain it. He asked if he could use Chinese and it was during the break so I said ok, yes what are you trying to say? He says, "別小我的看." I then thought about it and asked if he meant don't bother me since I have no strength. He goes no..then he said everyone is strong and I am not like them and they tell me this. I finally understood what he was trying to say and what the phrase meant. It means don't underestimate me. 別 means other, 小 means small, 我 means (I,me, myself),的 means of, and 看 means look. It makes sense that he would write "don't look at me" but of course it's used in a different context. Then he took out his electronic dictionary and showed me the defintion and the phrase was defined as "don't be light me." That didn't make sense at all and it was not a good definition by any means but I then understood it more clearly. I got out of the horrible definition as "don't belittle me." It's really cool how similar the two phrases are to one another because 小 is small and my own interpretation of underestimate means small and belittle has "little" in the word, also meaning small. I'm sure all languages have similarities but it's cool to think about it and how one phrase can mean a whole different thing!

-Chihchat