Not sleeping in for awhile

I've been subbing for my coworker these past couple of Sats. early morning since he's on vacation. Today was the last day to sub and I was happy that I was looking forward to sleeping in a little bit since I usually work at 10am since I sub at 9am. But when I was heading upstairs for my lunch break, my boss asked me to sub for my other coworker at 9am on Sat. morning. Ahh! I mean, I know they will sub for me once I'm on vacation and it's extra money but it's nice to sleep in :)

-Chihchat

Storybooks

For my half-day class their project is making their own storybooks. I let them work in pairs and they have to create a 8pg story. Each page is supposed to have 4 sents. although I've been pretty lenient if they only write 2-3 sents, depending how good the sent is. I read the stories and I'm really surprised how gruesome they are! They are about 9-10 years old and some of their stories they made up are about someone being killed or taken by pirates. It's pretty shocking and the details are pretty intense but it's still a good story. I'm proud of them though for writing a detailed story in English since Chinese is their native language but I wish the plots weren't so intense lol

-Chihchat

Haircut change?

Today my coworker went with me to get my haircut. She is Taiwanese and I wanted her to go with me because the last time I went to get my haircut, the hair stylist thought it was best to cut my hair differently and I wish I had someone to help me explain what I wanted. I got there first since my coworker had something to do beforehand and I did figure out what I wanted. She came and then talked to the hair stylist but the hair stylist suggested another hairdo because I would have to style my hair everyday if I wanted the haircut that I wanted. I ended up just doing regular layers with bangs but actually my hair wasn't too long or awful since I still had my layers intact. She styled it though and I definitely looked different if my hair is styled lol The haircut was so cheap though! It only cost me $9USD so I'm not complaining at all. I just don't know if it really was a big change unless I style it but I'm lazy and I teach everyday so I put it up anyways. Also, it's getting warmer so definitely my hair will be up more lol

On a side note: it's exactly 10 months since I've been in Taipei! I can't believe it. Only 2 more months until I reach the one year mark. I have to stay here until Aug. 1 because of my taxes and I don't really know what I'm doing next year for sure but I can't believe I've been almost here for 1 year!!

-Chihchat

New glasses effect

My students can be pretty silly but today they were sillier because I was wearing glasses. Some of them would start laughing or point and go "Teacher Lilly!" I had others ask me if I had contacts and some students would just look at me and keep laughing. I never knew how if I changed my "look" my students would react so much. It's one thing to say that I was wearing glasses but some would just keep laughing. They are strange, strange students lol

-Chihchat

Trying to wear contacts

I bought one day disposable contacts this past Sun. and this morning I tried to put them on but I failed. I tried for about 15 mins and I just couldn't do it. I don't know why it's hard for me to put them in. I didn't have that much time this morning but I will try this weekend when I have more time and don't feel so rushed. It's so annoying because I don't know why it's hard for me! I feel it's so much better to wear contacts so I don't have to wear glasses and when I drive my car I don't have to worry about putting my glasses on (although I'm not driving a car here in Taipei). Oh well..hopefully I will be more successful this weekend! lol

-Chihchat

New tea bottle

I stopped drinking pop when I started living in Taipei and I'm actually really surprised that I was able to do it. I drank pop most of all my life and I'm pretty much addicted in drinking Coke. One of the reasons why it's easier for me to stop drinking pop is because there is a such a great tea selection in Taipei. Tea is cheaper, tastes better, and is healthier. It's also easily accessible and it's real tea..not like Arizona tea that tastes more like juice.

I've been drinking green tea every day and only drink coffee when I need the energy. I usually drink two bottles but the most wonderful thing happened today. I went to Familymart and they now sell bigger bottles of my favorite tea. So now instead of buying two bottles, I can buy just one big bottle haha It's not really that big of a deal but I really wanted them to sell a bigger size and I didn't think they would. I only found it at Familymart though and I haven't looked at the other convenient stores. Hopefully they all start selling them :)

-Chihchat

I can see!!!

I've wanted to get glasses ever since I arrived in Taipei but I didn't have the money, time, or courage to get them. Although I would have gotten them a couple of months ago, Drew and I finally got them. Not only did I get just one pair of glasses, I also got another pair and contacts. I never tried using contacts before and I'm nervous to wear them. I bought the cheap, one day disposable kind just in case I can't handle it. The glasses were super cheap and it only took about 4 hours to get them. The deal was buy one pair, the second pair's frames are free. I only paid for two pairs of glasses, including my eye check-up without having to see my insurance card totaling up to about $70USD. I even got a cheaper discount because one of my glasses had a scratch on the frames. That's pretty cheap and Drew got one pair of his glasses for only $18USD!

I mentioned courage because the worker (salesperson) likes to follow you around and hound you to death. Also, my Chinese isn't the best, especially with eye terminology so I would have been nervous and confused if they were speaking to me in Chinese about my eyes. Between me and Drew, we can understand 95% of what the person is speaking in Chinese lol

It's insane how cheap getting glasses is in Taipei. My mom was afraid of me getting the glasses in Taipei because of the quality but she thought it was because I spent $70NT. Then I told her how much it was in US money and she thought it was expensive lol I'm pretty happy though because I got one pair, yes, purple colored with a cute design on the arms, and the other pair is black on the outside and lavender in the inside. Another thing I like about Taipei is that they have more styles, designs, and colors for glasses. Taiwan's fashion is pretty trendy and crazy and their glasses are just the same. Drew and I even saw wooden framed glasses! I'm also proud that I could do the eye exam in Chinese. The guy was very patient and he understood what we meant and were trying to say.

I used to hate putting on my glasses but now I'm excited to wear them and to be able to see clearly. My eyesight isn't that bad but I should be wearing glasses so I won't strain my eyes. I don't think I will put on my contacts yet because I want to wear my glasses tomorrow lol Our helper even gave me a purple glasses case and Drew a blue one which are both our favorite colors lol

Today was a busy day since Drew and I went shopping all day to buy many different, random things and we went to Guanghua which is called the digital plaza. Basically it sells mostly every electronic or part you can think of. I bought a USB plug-in adapter for my Ipod so on vacation I can charge my Ipod by plugging it in the wall instead of my computer. I had no idea they even existed! A funny thing I realized this afternoon is that many stores here don't really sell cotton balls. I need it for my mosquito balls and I only saw Q-tips. I heard you can only get it in the pharmacy stores. That surprised me though because I thought cotton balls are common.

-Chihchat