Chinese Proverb: He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left.
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My Taiwan Adventure
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
234 - Don't mind me
Yesterday a couple of things were resolved in my workplace that has made me kind of bee-bop through my day today. I should be more stressed. I was late for work this morning due to my adventurous spirit.
I tried to take a new bus this morning. The challenge with that is that I can't read the bus signs. I have learned just enough of the Chinese characters to recognize some of the more important stops like the train station and saw that the 286 bus goes past the station I always take to work. What I couldn't puzzle out from the sign, and have now learned is that it takes over an hour to get there. I figured that out in about 40 minutes, hopped off the bus and flagged down a taxi only to arrive at the train station 40-50 seconds too late to catch the last train that would get me to work on time. (It's good that I always leave EARLY for work.) I ended up 12 minutes late. I'm a shmuck... don't mind me.
I was also agahst at yesterday's spelling error in my blog. I can feel my English turning into mush everytime I have to teach a class. It's pretty funny to watch my enormous vocabulary turn in to a sludgy puddle. Today I was reciting words in my head like a mental thesaurus to describe the heat of the early morning sun. The list started out with baby kindergarten words like hot and worked up to sizzling, then to words like scorching. Much to my chagrin the list was too short.
Today I also demonstrated, yet again, my ability to get sucked into an irrelevant and unimportant detail of a lesson plan and thereby trickle away the hours. It was painful to look up and discover I spent 3 hours researching the humble pronoun.
Currently I'm teaching my kindy students about the "moon festival" which falls on Sunday here. It's a big deal where you get together have a late night barbeque with family, look at the full moon and the kids wear pomelo hats. I'm not sure of the reasoning behind the pomelo hat, but I read up on the legends surrounding the event. I know that if you burn dried pomelo that you can keep mosquitos away from you. Given my recent bug episode I might try wearing a pomelo hat, even if it is just for the kids. Out of curiosity I counted over 15 bites in the last 10 seconds on my left arm only.
The kids are watching me type and are really amazed that I can do it while not looking at the keyboard. *grins* There's somethign amusing about me at last! Of course, the locals in the town drop by every other day to find out where the foreign girl is from. This week we've attracted 4 new students with my pale white skin.
Tonight I'm going to try to get together with one of my students from the University summer camp program. He needs to practice his English. I look forward to the company.
That's all for now.
Cheers.
T. Destiny
I tried to take a new bus this morning. The challenge with that is that I can't read the bus signs. I have learned just enough of the Chinese characters to recognize some of the more important stops like the train station and saw that the 286 bus goes past the station I always take to work. What I couldn't puzzle out from the sign, and have now learned is that it takes over an hour to get there. I figured that out in about 40 minutes, hopped off the bus and flagged down a taxi only to arrive at the train station 40-50 seconds too late to catch the last train that would get me to work on time. (It's good that I always leave EARLY for work.) I ended up 12 minutes late. I'm a shmuck... don't mind me.
I was also agahst at yesterday's spelling error in my blog. I can feel my English turning into mush everytime I have to teach a class. It's pretty funny to watch my enormous vocabulary turn in to a sludgy puddle. Today I was reciting words in my head like a mental thesaurus to describe the heat of the early morning sun. The list started out with baby kindergarten words like hot and worked up to sizzling, then to words like scorching. Much to my chagrin the list was too short.
Today I also demonstrated, yet again, my ability to get sucked into an irrelevant and unimportant detail of a lesson plan and thereby trickle away the hours. It was painful to look up and discover I spent 3 hours researching the humble pronoun.
Currently I'm teaching my kindy students about the "moon festival" which falls on Sunday here. It's a big deal where you get together have a late night barbeque with family, look at the full moon and the kids wear pomelo hats. I'm not sure of the reasoning behind the pomelo hat, but I read up on the legends surrounding the event. I know that if you burn dried pomelo that you can keep mosquitos away from you. Given my recent bug episode I might try wearing a pomelo hat, even if it is just for the kids. Out of curiosity I counted over 15 bites in the last 10 seconds on my left arm only.
The kids are watching me type and are really amazed that I can do it while not looking at the keyboard. *grins* There's somethign amusing about me at last! Of course, the locals in the town drop by every other day to find out where the foreign girl is from. This week we've attracted 4 new students with my pale white skin.
Tonight I'm going to try to get together with one of my students from the University summer camp program. He needs to practice his English. I look forward to the company.
That's all for now.
Cheers.
T. Destiny
Posted by T. Destiny in Taiwan at 5:11 PM 
