The people of 師大

大家好！
It has been a long two weeks. Going with the events of the pictures. I put up two of my favorites the night I walked out to see the 台北夜景 (Taipei's Night-scape) from the second tallest building in the world 台北101. I decided to go on my own with my Nikon camera to take about 100 pictures or more of the view from the top floor. I was truly happy to go alone and to explore the city scenery as I walked there and then to see it from the sky. I watched the cars go by and took pictures on a low speed so the headlights blurred together. I would love to do professional photography but know I am not anywhere near as experienced as I should be for it. But I often ponder the idea of traveling the world taking pictures and speaking in other languages to write articles for a travel magazine...or National Geographic. At least those were the thoughts running through my head while I was on my mission.

While I was walking around the top floor I had to laugh at all of the glamor and style that was put into the layout to attract tourists to buy expensive souvenirs. My eyes spotted one stand that looked very familiar and I laughed and took pictures. I didn't put them on this blog but it is a shop from a Taiwanese show I had literally just finished watching and it is so classic. It is a ice cream shop called Big Tom and the workers wear cow printed hats and aprons. It was exactly as it was in the show so I really enjoyed that moment. I watch Taiwanese dramas often and find my vocabulary and usage of words I learn in class expands quickly as I make connections. Just arranging and rearranging words previously learned there are new words. One word that isn't practical but funny is 草包 or "blockhead" which I learned yesterday when watching my new drama.

As for this week I was happy with my final test grade and I said farewell to classmates going home as was the original plan for me. But I found myself saying goodbye to some very close friends I have made here. I find that I can relate to people from other countries very well not only because there is so much to share about my own but we have so much in common about us all. We are the people that wish to explore and have an adventure. We are not the home-bodies. And to hear their reasons for being in Taiwan are interesting. I am meeting new people now too since a new semester is starting. I said goodbye to one good Australian friend that I promised to visit soon as possible and welcomed a new Australian! They are all very laid back and I decided, because I love linguistics, to make a list with my friend who just left of all the words he uses in his every day speech that I am not familiar with. I learned words like "Star-jump" (jumping-jacks) when we were in Judo class exercising. There are many words that end with "ies" too. "Sunnies" "Wetties" "Boardies" and the list goes on. I started saying "footpath" instead of "sidewalk" after awhile but I will never say "a-lu-min-i-um" instead of "alum-in-num." I also picked up Spanish terminology that I will not forget. My friend taught me great colloquial words from Spain such as "La chocolatina" for a guys six pack. Or "Tiene la cara del perro/la seta/el juez" for someone who has a serious face. I record them because these phrases were used at great times.
My Spanish friend is on her plane still and I am happy she left Korea before the fighting began. I received an email about the fighting going on and she had just left Korea days before it started. I am very worried about this and hope that the people of South Korea will be okay.

That is all that is on my mind at the moment. I hope to update again soon after I get back from site seeing with my friend in these next few days I have off.
I wish everyone well and hope that Thanksgiving was a great time spent with family and friends. It was my first Thanksgiving eating pizza with friends and not Mom's delicious Turkey!

A Wonderful Ordinary Day

I have lots of fun ordinary days that I want to record but especially today because so many different events happened today. As some people are aware of, I am trying my hardest to find work teaching English so that I may continue studying further with my Chinese. It makes me happy to partake in simple conversations at the International House such as yesterday and today and I know only time will help me and immersion.

So starting with yesterday, because this ordinary day lasted for no ordinary amount of time. I asked my good friend Emily who is JBC or CBJ depending on how you look at it. Either way her Japanese and Chinese are superb and her English is coming slowly. I always bump into her and she starts to sing to me in English with her cute accent in a joking serious manner that always makes me laugh. I promised her we would go to KTV soon just because she loves music and plays the guitar. She played once for me and my friends and she really is a comedian of sorts. But back to the story, I have been writing a list of terms that I believe I should know how to say in Chinese while I'm practicing Judo. I've been asking my Taiwanese friends here and there because the list is long,certain terms, such as "to throw, to pin, to push off balance, to choke...etc. I asked Emily for some words and she said she would try her best since her English wasn't so great. So it turned into a charades of sorts. I demonstrated on her softly even though she kept exaggerating my strength and holding out her arms saying I'm so strong. We got through the list and it was a success. Both of us learned new vocabulary all by demonstration and we confirmed it with my dictionary. That moment ended with her and I reading some of my Children's Chinese sticker book "Hansel and Gretel" which I read a page a day. The vocabulary is quite different from what I learn in school and it is helpful for colloquial terms. We had fun talking about the Chinese versus the English translation. In Chinese they call it 糖果屋 or "The Candy House." My next book is 白雪公主 "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
By the way,I plan to show these books to Erin so she can relearn her Chinese when I get back.

As for today, I had a series of thoughts run through my head that I would rather not forget. Today Kristyna did me a favor and showed me where I can print my resume and diploma to apply for a teaching job. We went and had some dumplings for lunch afterwards for 65 NTD or a little over $2 USD. This was special just because I don't often see her. She does intensive study and is always looking for more challenging things. She has had time to study in China previously and her Chinese is quite good. So today at lunch when I taught her simple things that I knew, it felt quite good that I was picking up the culture too and teaching others. I showed her how to order the dumplings in the Chinese style using the character 正. Instead of writing a number or using 4 slashes with a 5th strike they write this character by the stroke order for how many food items or which ever they are counting. It's very useful and I prefer this method. While we were at counting I showed her the way they count on their hand in Chinese and Japanese since I see my friends doing it all of the time.

After lunch I parted with Kristyna on the way to the I house in order to apply to a children's agency for teaching English. There are quite a few of them and at least three near where I live. I walked in with out a real plan and realized "oh, no!" How do Taiwanese people go about searching for a job? I went once with my Taiwanese friends to another agency but they did a lot of the talking and the lady seemed pleased but I never heard back. Although, I don't know if they called or not because whenever I bother to pick up unknown calls they are the wrong number... Ahh!

I was walking to the agency as the elementary school kids rushed out in their black and white plaid uniforms from across the street in droves towards me. I was almost intimidated when I saw a few walk into the agency and almost lost my nerve. But then I thought, "I want to do this. I really want to teach English to these kids!" and I walked in to talk with the man behind the counter. He seemed very friendly and gave me time to gather my thoughts in Chinese. I didn't know how to say, "I want to apply for a job," (now I know it's "to look for work!" how easy!) and I didn't know how to say "I have my resume for you to look at," and I felt a little frustrated. How could I apply for a job in Chinese after 6 months of studying! But we talked none-the-less. I was able to say how long I was here in Taiwan and how long I wanted to be here and where I lived in Chinese. Then we switched to English when he saw my resume and asked about prior teaching experience and why I had a B.A. in Spanish! haha! I didn't think I would be asked this and didn't have an answer. Only that I was currently working on learning Chinese and wanted to teach English. He confirmed with me the phone number on my resume and I smiled and rushed out the door! Phew! As I crossed the street looking at the children still going by... there are so many! I thought to myself, "damn I forgot to ask for any of their information for future contact!" I was so relieved to have done simple conversation and feel he was willing to consider me that I lost any thought of how to end the meeting. I hope I hear back but otherwise I plan on talking to my Taiwanese friends about certain phrases before going to the next few agencies.

The last memory, for today at least, happened after I got back from having dinner, "more yummy dumplings" with some I house friends. We said hello for a second time to a new resident that we spoke to earlier along with the owner of the place, who is 83 and still going strong by the way! He has a whole other story I wish to tell sometime. Truly fascinating! So for the new resident. He is from China... I can't remember the district but his name is Chun 春(spring) and is a journalist and a Buddhist and does Kong Fu! Yes, Dad I thought of you! He showed my friend Jan some moves since he wants to learn. But this man talked to us about his novels that he is writing about Tibet and about his experience living there for 3 years and doing research while teaching children. It is amazing hearing stories from the guys from main land China who pass by the I house to stay for a short while. They all seem disappointed or ashamed of the way their people treat foreigners "as a whole" and of the way the government runs the people. He, as a journalist writing about Tibet needs to be especially careful and I wish him well. I spoke in Chinese and English with him and found his accent to be so clear! Maybe it's because he's a journalist?

So that was my wonderful ordinary day and I'm sorry it doesn't come with any pictures. At the moment, I don't have any that would fit this story so I wrote it in great detail. ;)