full moon, 3:38 PM

saturday night... the first week is finally behind me. i have a killer headache and feel like i could go to sleep right now--it's only 9! i've had two long days of teaching and am finding out how incredibly draining it can be! not only are you trying to convey information, but you're trying to keep their attention, and trying to entertain them, waiting for those moments when you can catch them off guard, and you see that they are engaging in the present moment, with you. it's not so easy!

yesterday i had three classes at the long-tan branch, and luckily another teacher from my floor had the same schedule as me, so i was able to take the bus with him--as i'm still unsure of where to get off. a note about the buses: they're not so bad! they are pleasantly air-conditioned, have pretty plush seats, curtained windows, and several flat screen TVs playing the news or soap operas. it's good they're nice because i'll be spending plenty of time on them! i didn't realize i'd be commuting so often... anyway, after the half-hour ride, we had to walk for about 15 minutes, down a narrow street filled with vendors selling fruits, vegetables, and meat. we walked by a fish stand and saw an enormous fish head laying on the table! it had to be at least 4 feet from forehead to chin, and its eyeball--still intact--was the size of a softball! its mouth was still open in a surprised-looking pucker. it wasn't like a shark or any kind of fish i would expect to be that big; it was shaped just like a goldfish face. i'm so sorry i didn't have my camera with me!

then we stopped for a cold glass of fresh mango juice--delicious! i haven't tasted such perfect mango since in a long time.

classes yesterday were... just okay. my co-teachers weren't as helpful as the others i've had, and time dragged. three 2-hour classes in a row completely sucked the life out of me. you can only try to get kids excited about english for so long before you feel that you'd rather be speaking chinese, too.

derek got done with class at the same time as me, so we took the bus back to chong-li together. we had to get off downtown and walk for about half an hour. we were both tired and hungry, so we stopped at a little restaurant called "tony's" where derek eats often. i ordered dumplings (they were the only vegetarian option--lots of pork in just about everything here) and he and i split a bottle of beer. ("taiwan's best"--the label looks exactly like a heineken bottle) within minutes we were surrounded by people greeting us and offering to buy more beers for us, and enthusiastically using any english phrases they knew. the conversation basically consisted of them saying "i love you!" and "very good" and "i am happy." stuff like that... and lots of high-fives and thumbs-ups. but it was cool, we tried to communicate with them as much as possible. one of the men had a daughter who goes to gloria schools, where we worked, so he insisted on buying our dinners. they said they were paying for the beer too, but then they took our half-full bottle away from us... so they paid and helped themselves, apparently! who knows. you can't go wrong with free dumplings after a long day!

this morning i woke up feeling a little down. it's so exhausting starting everything new and not knowing anything and not being able to communicate with people... not yet having an established schedule and for me, not yet having the time and space to feel satisfied with a regular yoga practice and dance classes. i am absolutely aching to dance and move and stretch. i've done yoga several times in my room, but it's so tiny, and i feel so compressed. i decided that i will go into taipei tomorrow to take a yoga class at one of the large studios there. i know how to get to the train station from here and will figure out the rest when i get to taipei! it's absolutely essential to my mental state, at this point.

i spent the afternoon at "harwana's" (aka "havana's) to work on lesson plans for the classes i was subbing this evening. i was dripping with sweat after walking 3 blocks to get there! it was boiling today... which i love, don't get me wrong, but hot+humid+pollution = really gross. it was nice and cool and clean in the coffee shop, and i sat down with a delicious iced latte and planned my lessons. i ordered a bowl of seafood risotto (for about $1.50!) for lunch. it came with shrimp... that were looking at me. they still had skin, legs, eyeballs, and ANTENNAE! do you know how LONG shrimp antennae are?!? there were at least six, 8-inch-long antennae entangled around the risotto. hmm. i ate around them as best i could and considered peeling the shrimp, but there were people around me and i wasn't sure if that would be impolite, so i left the shrimp to stare at each other in the bottom of my bowl.

walking back to the dorm, i stopped at a convenience store and picked up a bag of peanut M&Ms to save for later--a reward after my classes. as i walked, i kept my eyes down for the most part--the sun was too bright and the sidewalks are very uneven, so it's important to watch where you walk. during one of my brief glances up in the direction i was going, i was suddenly met with a shocking view--an old (very old) woman's unclothed bum! it took a few seconds for me to realize what was going on, and even longer for me to believe what i'd seen, but it was just that! a few other women around her were helping her pull her pants down, and she was relieving herself on the sidewalk, in broad daylight. the 3 other women with her were giggling and one of them was handing the old woman a wad of tissues. i walked quickly and did not look back. i have no idea what was going on, aside from the obvious.

the classes i subbed this evening were "junior elite" level--meaning the kids have studied english for a long time and are very competent, however, they really don't care and don't want to be in class at all. i got a lot of blank stares and silence every time i asked a question, and a headache that grew in intensity during the 3 hours. i was able to pique interest in class for a little while, during a discussion about tourism. they were instructed to write down three things they would expect to see if they visited new york city. as we talked about it, they were very surprised to find out that, as an american, i've never been there! i know it's a little bit ridiculous that i have been to alaska and hawaii, plus 5 of the 7 continents, but not new york city. well, nothing i can do about it right now. the kids said they expected to see a lot of mcdonald's everywhere. i told them that i'm sure there are plenty of mcdonald's, but that not all americans eat there. for instance, i haven't eaten at mcd's in probably at least ten years and they almost fell out of their chairs in shock. maybe they think that all americans have been nourished on a diet of hamburgers, french fries, and milkshakes since age 3--yet here i was, standing in front of them, alive and well at 26, despite the lack of golden arches in my nutritional history!

i told them how new york has smaller neighborhoods like little italy and chinatown where you won't hear much english spoken at all, and there are chinese grocery stores and they celebrate the chinese new year... they thought that was pretty cool! they learned the word "diverse." which... it really is... so many cities in the u.s. (los angeles, san francisco, chicago...) have ethnic subcultures where "white" or speaking english is the minority. i haven't found a "little america" here!

my head is feeling better after some post-class downtime, so i'm going to get some dinner with kirsten and helen, two of the other teachers. it could go something like this... "so a scot, a canadian, and an american walked into a bar..."

i'll tell you the rest later.