Time For an Update

I've finally uploaded my pics from China...well Beijing and surroundings... to photobucket. Anyone not sensitive to feelings of envy/jealousy should go check out what Steph, Steve and I got up to at the beginning of this month.

www.photobucket.com
Username: amandadonigi
Password: amandarocks

I had to choose a password that would be easy to remember afterall. n.b one word!

Dinner last Sunday with Nubia went smashingly. We made chicken cacciatore. That's what Nubia calls it, but I would've just said pasta with a chicken and black olive sauce. Was ultra-yum and we threw together a healthy salad, baked some garlic bread, and had banana cake for dessert. Was still eating leftovers for lunch on Thursday, and realised I really miss having leftovers in the fridge. I eat at school, and out so much, that it's never an option.

I had a migraine for the first time in ages on Thursday and couldn't go to work. Which means I'll either have to teach again on a weekend to make up the hours or just not get paid. Lose lose situation really. Plus I'm still unsure of which loss I'm at. My boss said the class was cancelled and I'd have to make it up, but my colleague said someone else subbed for me. Am still a little tender in the noggin, but using a computer, so can't be all that bad.

Ma's got a blog of her life in Port Moresby these past weeks. She leaves tomorrow for Brisbane which I'm sure she's upset about. (ha ha) Wouldn't want to leave PNG on bad terms though. I recommend reading her blog for stories on the city that don't include violence and crime and fear.
www.dianadonigi.blogspot.com

Peace

"Taxi!!"

I already for sure and mos def have too many pics on this blogsite. So today is a pic-free-day! Rebel!! - Taxi?
The last time i took a taxi in Taipei was Saturday night, home from a surprisingly fun house party. It was quite a non event in the whole scheme of things.. i mean in relation to most of the rides which are worthy of noting. I went through a good chunk of months here taking taxis early in the morning to get to work, with Jacki, my (british) boss. She speaks chinese fluently and frequently gets into conversations with the drivers. They want to know where she's from and why her chinese is so good.. you may be able to imagine.

But we've had some strange blokes too. The one who still comes up in convo's even when i'm not around, is a driver two months ago who had some very interesting comments.. Along these lines *just a footnote: it's often easier to say i come from Australia because no one knows where PNG is* geographically challenged lot..

(after quizzing Jacki)
Driver: Where is your friend (me) from?
Jacki: She's Australian.
Driver: Oh!? They have black people in Australia?
Jacki: Well- Yeah - there are black people in every country!
Driver: Oh, yeah, I guess Taiwan has black people too. *aborigines*
Jacki: That's right.
Driver: (after a pause) So, are black people in Australia savages?
Jacki: NO!! No, they're not savages!

The reason this comes up today is that Jacki came to work in a taxi this morning- sans moi, and was fortunate enough to get that same driver. AND he asked about me...but surprisingly not by referring to me as the savage.

I guess we english teachers- foreigners- are here to educate in every way we can, even when we're not in the classroom.

On a brighter beat, I had time enough, organisation skills enough and finally marvellously sunny weather enough to justify a trip to the beach between classes today. Yep. I have a 10 hour break in my day on Tuesday and Thursday. *nods thoughtfully* My friend Bradley has just returned from a month back home in the States and will be starting a new job on Saturday, so he was free all day, and volunteered his motorbike as mode of transport. So with him as driver and me trying not to fall off the back, we putted over Yangming Mtn and coasted down the other side to Jinshan (beach town). It was a stunning ride through the national park, and though I would never step onto the beach let alone swim at it, if it was in PNG or Australia *think-rubbish dump*, it had a good surf and made me laugh to think of everyone else at work in Taipei, while i bobbed between waves.

Hmmm.. Not a bad day.

Chinese-English, English-Chinese

This is Jasmine and me on our language exchange yesterday

Who needs a dictionary in Taipei, when there is such a thing as language exchange? Not me!
But then again...


who needs a camera when you have a phone?

Not Jasmine. She can take and send photos from anywhere, of anything, including...

her coffee

Life is becoming so "convenient" and city life seems to be the heart of all conveniences. Mobile phones a.k.a cell phones a.k.a handy's... the list goes on.. they are what was envisioned when someone breathed in before coming up with the term mod-con. They used to be used to make quick calls when you wanted to meet your friend in a crowded place, and send text messages to say you would be ten minutes late. (how many people have that message saved and ready to send just before they leave their house?) But now you can surf the net, download music and ring tones, and, as witnessed above, take and send photos. And i'm sure there's more that i haven't mentioned, and that i don't know about, and that will be released on the market tomorrow..

But these conveniences don't come without their problems. My phone is forever running out of either credit (cause i'm pre-paid charge card inhibited) or batteries. And when this happens it completely cripples my ability to function. I'm so dependent on the tiny little machine, that i can't think of how to contact someone without it. And even when i'm not trying to contact someone i just feel nervous that i might need to and won't be able to.

Anyway, back to the language exchange. I started meeting Jasmine about four months ago, during my energy high brought on by my 25th birthday, and realisation that i should be acomplishing more. We try to meet once a week, usually on Sunday evenings, but sometimes have to reschedule or just take a week off here or there... *slack* We do an hour of English and an hour of Chinese, and i'm VERY slowly starting to recognise basic characters around town. Jasmine's English is brilliant. We read newspaper articles and such together and i correct pronunciation and explain difficult words, which there are a lot of in journalistic writing. (sometimes i don't even know what a word means, or how to describe it). We gossip, drink tea/coffee and sometimes go shopping afterward if they're still open.

Jasmine works for EMI music, and a few months ago she scored free passes to a show when a company backed DJ was spinning at Luxy, a real club, with three areas to party to different music styles, and a place to see all sorts of fashion trends (and disasters..) It's probably my favorite night club in Taipei, though I've only been there once, and feel too daggy to go most weekends -and too poor. Next week we're planning to have our exchange in Ximending, a "cool" part of town with great shopping -for youngters, which we're coordinating with the Taipei Film Festival. We're planning to see a Japanese film called Install, about a ten year old boy who makes millions(?) selling porn over the internet. Hmmmm. Idea's man.


I've plans to cook today. Nubia and I are going to put her huge new kitchen and real oven to good use!

The Office

This is where i prepare my classes

The staff room looks very inviting - doesn't it?

Today post is The Office inspired. Steph, the brilliant sibling, sent me the box set for my b'day this year. I just watched a few episodes for the second time and besides all the rolling around laughing i noticed new things. As you do. For example the modern philosophies about the way we live and work, and where our dreams fit in with how we do so. I also began making comparisons between the show and my own life.

So the equivalent of The Office for me, would be our staff room. The character Tim is constantly frustrated by his colleague Gareth. Can you see where this is going with the picture above? Gareth=Table. perhaps.

Dawn has a dream to be an illustrator, however needs to have a job which actually pays. Her receptioning somehow turns into full time work, and leaves no occasion for her art. Illustrator=Director. perhaps.

Fortunately I have a boss who doesn't have a guitar or need to try and be funny or popular. She is however English. (hah hah). Where am I going with this? Amanda is frustrated and losing sight of her dreams. So that's what i've come up with so far. I guess i do this equivalency to understand media. I try to make sense of it by comparing it to my own circumstances.

Although, i get a kick out of teaching here, i already know it's not where i'll be forever and perhaps i'm rushing toward my future before it's necessary. I have to keep reminding myself that i'm going to study chinese again.

hmmph
some of my fave's from this dashing lad..
to david "i like your little beard"
and "you should wear tighter trousers"

Oral testing children

Today I tested my M7-61 class of 18 students. To give you an idea of what this means, these are my children who are learning about family members, different rooms in a house, what actions one performs in these rooms and what furniture belongs where. They're also learning body parts and the sentence pattern - His wrist hurts. - Her shoulders hurt. - etc..

I decided to review the more difficult vocab and sentence patterns for about 30mins of the 2 hour "show", then I took them outside one by one for the following hour and a half and asked them the ten questions. When I teach these 18 masses of out-of-control energy, they are catagorised into the fantastic, fine, or really need help departments of my mental files. The students who are well behaved and quick to answer (correctly) are of-course fan-blooming-tastic. Those who misbehave and don't know how to spell elbow or answer a What is it? question without a huge pause quickly fall into the need help file. This file also often overflows...

But today when I tested my little angels, only two students in my overflown file actually belonged there! I was merrily surprised, and one student Tim a little round fellow with spectacles and spikey hair - think - "Jerry, do you know the human head weighs eight pounds?" (or is it thirteen?) - anyway, Tim skipped into the testing room, answered my first question "I feel HAPPYYYY!" with overjoyed delight and a giggle, then proceeded to answer each question with perfect timing and a broad grin.

When he'd answered all the questions, I said "FANTASTIC! OK, can you tell Peter to come in?"
Tim sings "OK!" and skips back out.
Then 15 seconds later he skips back in and asks "It's Peter?"
How could I not fall in love with these children??! I even want to rig the test scores so the weaker ones get 100 too.

Bloggingness

Today I'm capitalising my sarcasm. I've been having a lot of FUN uploading photos from my trip to China. After ENJOYING many hours of fruitless clicking around on the weekend, i took my negs back to the shop where i'd initially gotten the pics developed onto a CD and picked out the pics i wanted printed. I'm gonna pick them up today. I wish it was as easy to share them over the net as everyone boasts. But at the rate i'm waiting, hunched over my laptop, undoing any benefits of asanas, questioning the profits IT companies have made over out-phasing the good old days of hard copies and real human interaction, and replaced it with stress and frustration, i'll probably lose steam before the week is up.

Never-the-less, when they are all up i'll post an address.

It stopped raining today after an endless downpour yesterday which had me wet up to my waist. The sun was out earlier when i was heading to school at 7am. The sky was strewn with cottonesque clouds and the air was fresh. But now, 5 hours later the air is heavy with polution and thick with humidity.

A candle just melted onto my underwear shelf and stuck to everything. Now i remember why i stopped lighting them.

My friend from Buffalo just got back from a month in Egypt so I'm looking forward to having tea with her this arvo on my way back to work. Though i'm sure i'll be jealous throughout the entire catch-up.

A student promised to lend me her Sex and the City complete box set when we had a class at the best pizza restaurant in the country - MARY-JANE'S PIZZA - on Sunday arvo, but now that i have to get up so early four days a week, i'll barely have time to watch them.

It's started to rain again. Good. So long as i'm indoors.

Roger Moore: Now look up at the ceiling. Isn't it MARVELOUS? 

June 3rd 2005

My first morning in Beijing, a trip through the forbidden city with beautiful blue skies

My first blog (Beijing inspired)

I just got back from a few days in Beijing.

not stressing. it's just my reading face.

You should see how many photos I took, in a reasonably short time. So I've been up late organising them on my computer, and sending a few to my mum, blah blah blah. Mum sent me the blogsite of my Uncle Dave and Aunt Julie and cousin Esther. They're in Europe, and having some great adventures. So I got to thinking I could save some time in the long run if I spent a little now, setting up my own blog. Now I can write to everyone at once.

So I'm going to put some photos up. Later.

I've had a fast week this week. Meaning I realise it's already Friday and I'm sure I just had a weekend. If the weather permits, a beach trip tomorrow will definately be in order. I have to work on Sunday though, to make up a class I missed last week to meet Steph and Steve in Beijing. Was well worth it. We saw the forbidden city, the great wall, tiananmen square...yadda yadda yadda, the best was the food and the people. They were really patient which I hadn't been expecting from the stories I'd heard. And we enjoyed a lot of sichuan food.

I even ran into my friend/old flat-mate who'd left Taipei two months ago and had been travelling around China since.

hao jiu bu jian
I had no idea he was still there, and reckon if we'd tried to meet up it wouldn't have happened. BIZaRRO.

My future became a little clearer with this trip. I definately want to keep studying Chinese and try to use it to my advantage during the Olympic Games in 2008.