White Monster, Squatting Lover and Ikea

Well I will start off with what went on today at school then I can share about my sweet weekend with the gang!

So this week marks when I start teaching classes. To start the day we had a stupid staff meeting. I honestly do not see a point in being there since I understand nothing. During the meeting I counted the flowers on the tree outside, there were 14, i counted them about 50 times during the 40 minute meeting, waste of my time. After the meeting I headed to my first third grade class. They were so cute and very smart. I think they are smarter than the sixth graders. I was incharge of reviewing the alphabet and the sounds of the letters, rough! At the beginning of each class the students had a chnce to ask me questions, any question they could think of. In one class a boy asked why my eyes were blue and my hair was blonde. I dont really know how to explain genetics in English let alone have that translated into Chinese for third graders. So i just said lots of people in America have different colored eyes and hair. Then the kid was like are you some kind of white monster? He thinks my eyes are scary, haha. I got a good laugh out of that. I also had kids asking to touch my hair! During my third class I was observed by my pricipal and one of the directors. They told me I did very good, and I was like I hope so since I learned the alphabet in pre school! I only had 4 classes today and the whole afternoon to plan or in my case, surf the internet for hours! I cant believe I get paid to do this. I may never come back to the states, haha jk!

Last week I had older students in my classes and they asked lots of questions. Their favorite question was do you have a boyfriend. In the states the kids would ask me if I was married then ask me if I had kids and then would say what are you waiting for to get married. I like that they move slower here, just my pace. During one sixth grade class i sat in the back with Sans, the teacher becaue i have hung out with him a few times and during the lesson we were talking. He said the kids were saying all sorts of things about us! After the class the girls came up to me and asked if I liked their teacher and if I thought he was handsome, it was pretty funny, Sans and I got a kick out of it! I also had one of the young single male teachers bring an English- Chinese dictionary to school so he could talk to me. They are so cute! I love this place!

During my time here I have come to love squatters. They totally make sense. There is nothing to sit on therefore less germs and nasty crap. I am become a pro and today I found wearing a skirt makes it 100 times easier. The more days go by the more Taiwanese I become, minus eating their food. I still dont like it, but at least I am losing weight!!

So on to the fun stuff. This weekend Mary, Muoy and I headed to Taoyuan by train to visit Holly. The train ride was great, the seats are comfy and i was able to sleep for a bit. Once we all arrived we hopped in a cab and dropped our luagge off at Holly's then we headed to a local foreigner hangout. It was so weird to see so many foreigners, to bad all the guys were weird, weirdos seem to be a trend among the foreigners. Anyways we had a great time there and I had some amazing mot sticks, the first time I've had cheese since I dont know when. They were nice and fatty and cheesy! After we spent a while there we headed back to Holly's where we just hung out and talked until we feel asleep. It was so nice to be crazy and talk fast and use slang with them.

The next morning we got up and headed to starbucks and the train station. We got on a train and headed for Taipei. We sat in the ladies only coach, it was very nice with no stinky guys in there. Once we got to Taipei we met up with Jason and Jenn. From there we headed out to the Taipei Zoo. I was only 60$NT or $2US. The zoo was great, we got to see animals native to Taiwan and some really cool king penguins! The only dissapointment was they did not have an aquarium, boo. We plan on using the pics we took to decorate our boring rooms. After the zoo we headed to Snake Alley, I just cant get enough! Some of the people had not seen the excitment so Mary and I showed them around. We were the MRT navigators and the tour guides. Once again they had the huge snake out and the guinea pig next to it. I had to walk away quickly because I didnt want to make another scene! We did not spend too long there before we hopped on the MRT again to go to Shilin Night Market, the biggest and best in Taiwan!

We started at the market by getting some food to eat, then we fished for turtles at a game booth. We then headed over to the shopping parts. There were thousands of people here, I was crazy and little overwhelming. We walked along the narrow road looks and all differnt kinds of vendors. Mary and I found a place to buy designer purfume for 150$NT or $6US. I was actually real! She got gucci and I got lacosste. then we found some immitation abercrombie flipflops for 125$NT, we snatched those up cause they were super comfy and they fit!! We continued along then some lady got out attention by flashing a Louis Vuitton wallet at us and she asked if we wanted to see more. We said sure and grabbed Jason and off we went to a destination unknown. We walked about 5 minutes to what we guessed was her house and in this room she had tons of gucci and louis purses. We looked thru them and they were excellent copies and she also wanted a crapload of money for them. So we said we did not have that much on us and we tried to bargin but she barely budged. We left and returned to the group and found out that the police came so everyone on the street had to leave since it is illegal to sell stuff on the street. So we finished up our shopping and headed back to the MRT to go to a place called the Brass Monkey. It is a Taipei hangout for foreginers. Unfortunatly there was a rugby game on so it was kind of boring, but you know me and I can make my own fun! We got a table in the back and ordered food and drinks. I got the cheesiest pizza ever, it was amazing!! After we were there a while we headed back to Taoyuan by taxi and 6 of us spent the night in Holly's not so big apartment!

When we were walking around Taoyuan we discovered there was an IKEA somewhere in town, so we got directions and hopped in a cab and we were off. We arrived and it was like heaven! Something so familiar to us. I was great. We grabbed shopping bags and it was on! I first freaked out because of how much stuff there was and I am not used to so many choices here. But I eased back into my old familiar shopping habits and started grabbing things i needed and lots of stuff I didnt. I accumulated so much I had to find a cart. I got many things to decorate my apartment so it will not look so sad anymore. Once I finish putting everything up I will post pics. I barely spent over $100US, (thanks mom and dad) for a ton of great stuff! The only problem after that was how the heck was I going to get all of it home?? I had to some how carry 3 large bags on the train.

Muoy and I rode the same train so she helped me get on the train but getting off was a different story. People were laughing at me trying to get off the train but they did help too. I would have laughed at someone like me too! I made my way to a taxi. This was my first time taking a cab with out anyone knowing a little chinese. So I showed him my arc card and then I pointed the rest of the way and he got me right to my door step. I feel so independent now!!! They only problem was he ripped me off big time, 100$NT or 3 bucks for about a 3 minute ride, but oh well i wasnt about to carry all my stuff that far.

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