it's happening

I decided last night in my class that I have been in Taiwan too long. Well, okay, maybe it has nothing to do with being in Taiwan actually, probably more of being a teacher for too long having to teach the way American's sound. I said "zee" last night instead of "zed" without a second thought and it felt comfortable.

Well, there must have been a second though however because I am writing about it today. But it felt so natural to say "zee" and I never, ever thought I would be a "zee" person. I think I need to get back to my Canadian "zed" roots. I take comfort in the fact that it is only my "zee" and "zed's" that this is happening too. I still have to make an effort to write without "u's" in most of my words: colour, favourite, honour. I always feel the need to explain the fact that I don't actually spell words that way. It is scary what I think about when I am teaching.

earthquake

so, in light of the earthquake that occured on Tuesday people have been wondering if I'm okay. Well, yes I am thanks! Even though the earthquake apparently "was felt throughout Taiwan" I didn't feel it, nor did anyone I talked to around here. In fact, I didn't even know about it until I read on a message board someone asking if I was okay. I did feel one on Saturday though. Maybe more because of was at a friends apartment on the 16th floor of the building, but regarless, I felt that one. Didn't seem to make any news though. I guess I only feel the weenie ones.

ah Christmas

Being in Taiwan you don't always get right into the proper Christmas spirit. This being my third Christmas, it was still hard but definately more manageable (got a little depressed, but I didn't cry at all!) I think it's due to the people I spent it with. I have said it before, and I'll say it again. I have the most amazing friends here in Taiwan. We have become a family here and I was glad to have spent Christmas with them.

I hope that everyone had the greatest Christmas and that you were able to share it with the people you care about most

Merry Christmas from my kids....

My kids send their best wishes for this holiday season...



we were on our way to the office thus the Merry Christmas teacher Elaine...aren't they the freaking cutest things in the world?

(if this wasn't working before, I changed the youtube settings so it should be okay now. Let me know if it's not working properly.)

the best Christmas movie ever...

watch, enjoy, Merry Christmas, happy holidays!

(psst...you might not want to let the kids watch)

the preliminaries...

I thought that I had done a post on here about how I have three kids in a speech and writing competition for work, but I can't seem to find it. Anyway, I had three kids in a speech and writing competition for work, Cynthia, Scott and Ricky. (I feel fine using their names as they aren't their legal names anyway, just their English ones) Well, actually four, but one was through HLS which my co-teacher really does most of the work.

For my other three who are in my treehouse class, it's all me. I help write the essays, I proof-read the essays, I help them with their presentation (2 nights a week after class) and I get to go and watch their competition. Two weeks ago we had the first round of preliminaries and all of them got through, I was so happy for them! Yesterday we had the area preliminaries. They all did so well, they had so much confidence (this is a 3 minute speech all spoken in English, having to have good pronunciation, intonation and fluency, eye contact and everything else that you need to have in a good speech) I was really happy with the way they performed and very proud that since they are actually only in grade 3 (yes, grade 3!!) They were able to get up in front of everyone and say a speech in a language that isn't their first language.

Scott won the competition. I was, not shocked because my kids were good, but I was surprised and very happy for him. So now I have to get him ready for the semifinals in January.

So shout out for Scott, Ricky and Cynthia for doing a great job yesterday and making me feel validated as a teacher (thanks guys!)

(I am under no illusions that it is my doing as to why they did so well...it is all their work, I just encourage and help with pronunciation really and make them practice twice a week)

something weird is going on with my blogger...yes, I mentioned in my last post that my Chinese is getting better, but having my whole blogger system in Chinese is a little ridiculous. Seriously, everything that I am looking at on my screen is in Chinese other than what I am writing at this moment. Perhaps it picked up on the fact that I wrote the word "Chinese" in my last post (is my computer THAT smart?)

Well if so,


I CAN'T ACTUALLY READ CHINESE YOU FREAKIN COMPUTER! GO BACK TO ENGLISH!!!





Do you think it will get the message?

the farm

So we went off to the farm today for our field trip. Let me just tell you again how excited I was...I WAS VERY BLOODY EXCITED! I had all my kids excited about seeing the cows. We left late because one of the kids mom thought it was tomorrow. I said we should leave without him (probably could have too because he wouldn't go anywhere near any animals) but we waited.

It took an hour, one of my kids threw up. Almost on me, but luckily being the greatest auntie in the world has prepared me to move fast when a kid is going to throw up. I won't go into details but needless to say, I wasn't feeling so hot after that.

So we made it to the farm, oh yeah, I was crazy excited and the first thing we got to do was this...

I even had to give Jac a lesson on milking, my skill was definately up to par and I think I impressed the guy that was running the whole thing (the farmer!) One of my HRT's wouldn't even go near it, so I got to help all the kids...

After that we went to where we got to feed the cows.

Yes, the cows were cool, but the highlight, the coolest thing was seeing these....

It was a great day, even with the hour long trip there and the hour long trip back and the kid throwing up (amazingly we had no such incidents on the way back...after the kids had eaten)

It really made me miss the farm and realize how much I appreciate growing up there and how glad I am to start all my cool stories, "back on the farm..."

Oh and I think I'm a bit of a goat snob. These goats were cool (mostly because they were goats) but my goats were a lot cuter, and they didn't have horns.

good things

good things to happen today...

1) I put my tree up...

2) I opened my Christmas package from my mom to find these from Fisher and Mackenzie...

3) getting a great school picture of the beetle (Bailey)

4) Getting these...

my mom knows me too well, I mean really...Chocolate and alcohol!! Pulleeeezzzzz!

5) Getting my kids excited about going to a farm tomorrow for field trip. Yes, a farm, with real cows that we get to milk and everything!! I mean, I can't express how excited I am!! I AM SO BLOODY EXCITED!!! I just hope my milking skills are up to par.....

Sunday meanderings

This is where I went today...

What did you do??

(This is Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, put up for this guy. I was suppose to be Christmas shopping, but spend most of that time here as you can see from the fact that when I got there it was daylight and when I left it was dark. The National Theatre is here too (one of the red very Chinese looking buildings) It is where I went to see Phantom. It is as impressive as it seems.)

I heart Christmas

I heart Christmas
I think I have finally gotten into the Christmas spirit. All of a sudden, the schools are both decorated and you can find (very limited mind you, like one stand) decorations in the grocery store. I still haven't gone shopping but I am excited now. We have decided not to go away since it's only three days (still grumpy about this, but I'm not going to go and spend Christmas alone) so we are staying here, but I've been promised that it will be ultra-christmassy. So to prove my Christmas cheer, I've decorated. Well, okay, so I haven't put up my tree yet, but really, my lights are so much cooler so they had to go up first!

Check them out!

The ones on my stairs twinkle and sing at me too...although one string just buzzes and it's hella annoying so it gets plugged in upstairs ;)

changing fast

It has gotten so cold here. I am sitting in my house wearing wool socks, pj's, long sleeved shirt and a sweater and I'm still cold. It's raining and everytime I go outside the bottom of my jeans get wet so then they are pretty well wet for the rest of the day. I just feel so cold and I hate being cold. This is just the beginning and it's not cool because it has started earlier than last year. Hopefully it will be nice for Christmas again this year though. Nice as in hot. So yeah, think of me in my freezing cold house with no heat.

Oh, and did I mention that the temperature outside is 20 degrees?

old and new

I got new glasses, I got new glasses. And the best part is, they only cost me $1900!!! That's $1900 Taiwanese dollars mind you....which is a grand total of $66.4093 CAD...oh yeah! Lenses and frames. Although, I suspect they aren't really the proper lenses since I am suppose to have a prism in mine and I'm pretty sure these don't but that's okay! I'm not blind enough for it to matter the prescription ended up being the exact same as my other glasses so if I am experiencing a problem, I can switch for a bit.
So you want to see???!!!!

Old

New

I don't know if you can actually tell, but they're blue and they're hott!!! and yes, I know the pictures look stupid, but that's okay, it's raining and I'm not really into doing nice hair when I'm going to work in the morning :) and I don't think I've ever noticed how big my forehead is!!!

happy hippo thanksgiving

A few weeks ago I went to the annual thanksgiving dinner put on for the bigshots at our compayny. (yes, mmmmeeee!!!) Since I bailed last year, I felt obligated to go, and since the head of the English department actually personally told me about it, yeah, you get the idea...I was suckered in. Anyway, here's a clip of the evening.




I am in the background of the clip with Adam saying he's thankful he doesn't have to give two speeches. I'm probably not on the actual video because as soon as I saw Moose come around with the video, I ran to the bathroom.

a warning

I was told that on one of my posts here that someone was reading (hi mommy) I used some rather foul language. (and that especially because I sent this to everyone one at my parent's church AND my grandparents, I needed to watch my language) I don't actually know which post she was talking about and I would have to go back and look, but I am warning you right now, I don't censor myself on here. If I use language you find offensive, well, I would apologize but I'm not going to because that's the way I talk sometimes and it is definately the way I write. Just chose to ignore it.

It's midnight, it's bedtime. I work afternoons on Tuesdays which is great in someways and not good in others because I stay up late on Mondays and then my clock is screwed for the rest of the week. Tomorrow I am going to go and pick up my new glasses. Oh yeah, I bought new glasses.

food, food and more food.

So the greatest thing about living in a country where food is such an important part of the culture is that you get to try so many different things. After a nice dinner on Saturday and a great evening, we went out again last night. For Barbeque.(if you are new to this space and unaware of how things work, click on barbeque and you'll be taken to where you can find backstory or information. Look out for this in my posts, I do it often) Jacqui, Tom and I have been there before but no one else had. We had wandered in there on the pub crawl on Saturday (no, it's not a pub, just a restaurant which sold beer) so we made a reservation for Sunday. You would have thought it was Thanksgiving in America the amount of food we were eating this weekend.

Normally, two terrific meals in one weekend does not occur, but oh man I'm glad it did. It was nice to go with foreigners and not all co-workers. Don't get me wrong, I love my Taiwanese friends, but they really do have different food tastes. We were able to order off of an English menu rather than having them order for us (of course, Piper did order a couple of things off the Chinese menu that weren't on the English one, but really, only one of two things) It made a big difference to what we were eating and how much we enjoyed it. I mean, we always get Fish Jaws when we go with people from work, and personally, not too fond of fish jaws thanks. This way, we actually knew what everything was and we were not afraid to try it.

Last night we discovered the greatness of beef, beef and more beef (it was really good, we kept ordering it) We didn't have fish jaws but we did try the Frog. The Frog was really good and honestly I think the strangest part of it was the fact that it was my suggestion. We even had cows tongue and it was really good...cut nice and thin and no weird skin with tastes buds involved.

seafood buf-fet

I was woken up by one of my students calling for a telephone test. I forgot the questions at school so now I'm going to have 4 more people calling me this morning. Since I'm hanging around having to tell all these kids what a big freak I am (instead of just not answering my phone, I'm nice like that) I am going to share my dinner from last night with you.

1) lobster (was covered in mayo though)

2) Sashimi!!!!

3) rice with shrimp on top
4) shrimp (this was amazing too)

5)fish meatballs, a little scary with the eyes looking at you, but really good!
6) scallops (see below for more info) Nice radish flower hey!
7) Johnny's vegetarian thing
8) Crab
9) lamb soup

It was soooo good. 10 courses of just amazing food. Well, most of it. Some was a little mysterious (sea cucumber) but everything was tried. Even the scallops with the mayonnaise baked on them (there is an obsession with putting mayonnaise on the seafood here. I love my mayo, but even I think it's a little gross. Could be due to the fact that it's not even the good mayo) with the mayo scraped off, the scallops were really good!
Favourite, the sashimi...I knew it would be and I was right. Even if I felt really bad after because one of the chefs went to get a fish, dropped it on the floor and proceeded to kick it into the kitchen. Then put a towel over it to stop it from moving. It was better than the sashimi we had at the last place, so even better. The lamb soup was really good too but I'm still a little confused how it's considered seafood.

Pub crawl after was great. The one drink max at each place was good, we were allowed road beers so it made up for it.

sometimes I just love Saturday mornings

Top five reasons I love Saturday mornings
1) The lie-in. God, I love the lie-in, even if it means only sleeping until 9 (this is rather early than normal I know) but just lying there reading crap books, it's great!
2) Cold pizza for breakfast, smoked Chicken and mushroom on thin crust....soooo good!
3) Hour long amazing talks on the phone with my sister who used to always call me on Saturday mornings but never does anymore since she moved to Calgary and changed phone plans (stupid telus) even if it was on my phone bill
4) being able to lounge around in my pj's watching stupid movies (and by stupid, I mean movies with some dog and leopard cubs with no dialogue which, really it's because I'm too lazy to get up and change the channel because my remote doesn't work) and not having to be at work until 12:30. Now normally I don't work on Saturdays, so when I do, it's just nice to be able to work later, you know? And I can't really complain, I'm only working for an hour and getting paid for two. Not much wrong with that.
5) Looking forward to big ass SeaFood buffet at the fishing harbour tonight so can expect massive amounts of incredibly fresh and amazing seafood, even if the sashimi does have mayonnaise and sprinkles all over it (don't ask, I'll explain more later, perhaps even take pictures)
(with a pub crawl to follow, even though I've cut back on drinking...luckily for me, it's a one drink limit at each bar, and very few bars in Keelung)

I have to start writing down the cool things my kids say. Twice today I remember laughing out loud and now I don't remember why.

Today has been a crazy day. We are in the midst of writing essays and practicing for a speech and writing competition that my company is holding. Let me tell you, it's a lot of work. Normally, as NST's (native speaking teachers) we only have to edit and proof-read essays that the kids have written and then our co-teachers have pretty well re-written. That was last year.

My Treehouse class (kids that went through the whole Kindergarten experience go onto a special English class because usually their English is too advanced to go into the language school) they have finally reached the age where they can enter this contest. So here I've been organizing, re-writing, editing, proofing, typing, practicing...everything that is involved in this process has fallen onto me. Yes, I'm tired (mostly because as I write this, I'm waiting for another essay I have to proof over email from my language school) but tonight we had our first real practice, and while yes, they don't really know their entire speech, I really think they could do well. It makes me proud to see them trying their hardest and this is just when we are sitting on the floor going over pronunciation. All this work is worth it seeing my kids having so much fun learning a freaking speech that they have to say in front of God-knows how many people.

The competition is next Saturday...I hope they do a great job, I really believe they will. I'll keep you updated.

blah blah blah

I'm tired, almost too tired to post anything. I wanted these posts to be something I could look back on and think, oh yeah I remember that. For some reason that is TOTALLY not what has happened. Maybe I should start that now, except it would all be totally mundane stuff. I'm getting annoyed by stuff at work and it has to do with someone who doesn't even work for me anymore. It's stupid because it's all just becoming a pissing match of things. Oh well...rule # 1 don't ever blog about work. Right, I need to remember that.

memories

in other words, I don't have any from the past 5 seconds. I signed in knowing what I was going to write about and now I've forgotten...oh wait I know...
007! Went to see Casino Royale, Royal? I don't know, anyway went to go and see it. (and it's Royale...figured it was, should have gone with my first guess..oh wait I did, didn't I) Personally, I didn't think it was half bad. It entertained me, I didn't think "OMG when is this going to end" (and it was a looonnng movie) but admittedly I did sleep through part of it. Okay, it wasn't even in the middle. I was so tired from the night before and we had just finished Indian Buffet so I was sooo tired and slept straight through the previews and the beginning of the movie. Good thing that I only missed action and didn't really need it for the gist of the story line, or at least that's what I'm telling myself :)

my school

I found this on YouTube and wanted to share...this is a clip that the tv show 5Takes (I don't know why it's all in Chinese) but anyway...they came to do a show at one of the schools in my company....

ah annoying!

I am trying to do my makeup for a function I have to go to and I keep sweating!! AH THE WEATHER HERE!! It will never make up it's mind! It has been cold the past few days so I thought, sweet a makeup day for me! (keep in mind, I never wear makeup...maybe the odd time if I know we are going out, but it's not a daily occurance) I have a meeting and then a dinner right after so I thought I'd try and look nice. Now as it stands, by the time I get to Taipei it will have all sweated off...I don't get how people don't sweat here. It seems like it's only me that always ends up in a huge puddle of wetness...okay, and some other foreigners too.

so sue me

I guess it's a good thing I'm not officially part of the nablopomo thing..I missed a day. I am trying to think of what I was doing yesterday to have made me miss a day but the reason isn't really all that difficult to come up with. I was working. It's back to long days again, but this time doing office work. I was able to shirk my responsibilities before but I guess now that I actually have less classes and more time on my hands, I have to fill it in by doing crap. Yes, that's basically all it is too, crap. All of us were in shit moods today so it didn't really help anything and as lame as this sounds...tfgif...thank fucking god it's Friday. Even if I do have a meeting tomorrow, all fucking afternoon/night, I can sequester myself away from everyone else and that's what I plan to do. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to it!

mcdreamy

I've been reading in blogland about how great Grey's anatomy is...my sister raved about it last year and so when I was home I bought the first season DVD...of course, as luck would have it, the show aired in Taiwan about 2 months later. We are now onto the second season, and while it is behind everyone at home, I am really enjoying this show. For some reason though, Meredith annoys the hell out of me though!

Of course the fact that Patrick Dempsey is in it has great appeal for me. I totally remember loving Can't Buy Me Love and ever since then, he's been a favourite. Of course, off the top of my head, the only other thing I can actually name that he was in was Sweet Home Alabama, but that's okay...I like him just the same.

it's done

So all my worrying about leaving in March was for nothing. I was told today that they really want me to stay and because of that, they are willing to have 4 brand new teachers next August if it comes to that. So now, I have no idea when I will actually be home because I plan to go traveling after...but I still have to figure out what to do with all my shit! If anyone has any travel advice for Asia, let me know....

oops

I caused an accident between a scooter and a taxi last night. I was outside Carrefour trying to get home. I flagged down a taxi and as he was changing lanes to pick me up, he sideswiped a scooter coming up behind him. The scooter came from no-where, I didn't even see it until he was right up beside the taxi. I'm assuming that both parties were okay because they both drove off, but I'm not actually sure because I walked away and was hiding behind a bus stop shelter.

blogging everyday

This blogging everyday thing is hard, especially when I'm not around my computer all day long. I always have ideas for what I can write when I'm not here and then when I get back to my computer the idea is gone. I try to think of interesting things to say, but usually, it doesn't work very well. So I will just tell you about my day yesterday.

We decided we wanted to do something and not just hang out all day and go drinking at night so we all met up at the coffee shop. J&T, D and P and myself. We headed into Taipei and went to the astronomical museum (on my suggestion I have to say because I've been wanting to go there for a while) When we got there we noticed that they had 3D and IMAX theatres. After much confusion we went to the 3D. It was really cool, and while all in Chinese, pretty easily understandable. They showed two shorts and the first one was great, the second one dumb, but good animation. My eyes were going weird at some points and I found it really hard to focus at the beginning, but I got used to it.

After that, we went around the museum an it was cool. There were lots of things that you could play, lots of buttons to push. I think it's time for the Science Museum next.

remember

It's remembrance day. Get yourselves to a cenetaph. It is weird to think that it is remembrance day. I miss everyone wearing poppies and the uniformed men and women. I miss going to the ceremony in the freezing cold, but I will still remember. I will always remember, I hope you take to the time to remember too.

so, I went beta

I went beta and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I know, I know, there were a few red flags...like I can't post on regular blogger blogs, and the fact that I absolutely can not go back. I haven't really noticed much of a difference other than the blogger search bar at the top of my blog looks different (the black menu at the very top) I am not really sure what it means to be beta, I guess I should find that out. I do know that I was in beta on both hotmail and yahoo and I switched back, but that was mostly because the browser at work didn't support beta so I couldn't check my email...annoying (because yes, we are allowed to check our email at work) Hopefully beta will work out for the best....I'll let you know.

it all changes

I wanted to have this great lovely blog about the US elections and how the Democrats have kicked some Republican ass, but I don't want to offend anyone and I can't actually be that witty about politics, it just doesn't work for me. I will say this...you know things are bad when this is the first time in 12 years that the Democrats have held a majority in the House. hmmm, does that say anything to you? (enter own random "you got yours" here...I had "you got your ass kicked" but then realized I had already written that...hate to repeat myself)
Donald Rumsfeld was fired too! Well, okay, he "resigned" but did anyone notice that the man Bush has nominated for his replacement was "visited" on Sunday. Coincidence? Think he knew it was coming? Poor Donald, guess who's the scapegoat now.

When discussing the change, this right here pretty much sums up the American President. (I read it here, in fact that's pretty much where I get all my information)
"Asked whether his announcement signalled a new direction in the war that has claimed the lives of more than 2,800 U.S. troops, Bush said, "Well, there's certainly going to be new leadership at the Pentagon."

Well, that's what usually happens when someone resigns (is fired) He's a smart one that George W. He can really state the obvious.

already a little lame

I have been waiting all day for inspiration to strike and I could have a great blog entry today. No such luck I suppose. I guess the day was too busy and too stressful to really have time to sit back and look at what is going on in the world (other than the U.S. election of course) Somethings I learned today? I am royally getting screwed because I am a nice person. Isn't life grand?

I love drunk Patrick

the things you miss

I have become accustom to missing out on vital information since being in Taiwan.
Grandfather sick: get told after the fact
This guy gets his house: parents tell me 4 months later (luckily I'm smart and found out when it happened)
Sister gets engaged: okay, I found out the day that happened, but regardless I had no clue her relationship was at that point yet and I haven't even met the guy yet, I mean really.

So I'm sure over the past 3 years there has been more but I can't remember...the point is, the real kicker in all this? I get an email this morning from my best friend who casually informs me that her sister is going to have her baby next week...like what the fuck? She's pregnant??!!! Keep in mind, my best friends sister is also a very good friend of mine. She's pregnant??!! How could I have missed that? How could someone somewhere not told me that??

On the positive side, I just talked to my mother. She claims she didn't know either which is dumb because hello, you live in the same town as these people. It's not that big of a town!! Realistically, she should have been pregnant when I was home last February but I had no clue and I'm sure I didn't just forget this. Man, I feel so out of the loop sometimes.

lunar birthdays

Last week was Piper and Tim's lunar birthdays. Needless to say we went and celebrated in Taipei. I discovered something important about me last night....I have really fucking small hands...


Paul

Piper Tom!!!
Tim
Jacqui
Michala

day four

After a week of being out too late on school nights, we stayed in. A Friday night and we stayed in. All of us. Of course, we are going out tonight for Piper and Tim's lunar birthdays, but all the same. We stayed in. We got pizza in (holy crap Domino's is so much better than Pizza Hut) and we watched Gremlins at mine. I'm sure my neighbours will complain, as they always do whenever I have more than two people here. That and the fact that Dan and Irene were outside talking. But oh well, for the amount of time I actually have people here, they can suck it up. So this post definately lives up to my blog name alright.

ah well

so I screwed up on the email for the nablopomo. Totally sent it to the wrong place and by the time I got the message telling me that, it was way after Nov. 1 11:59. So I didn't make that list, oh well, I'm still going to try and post everyday to try and give this blog a kickstart. Hopefully some good will come of it, I just might not have anyone reading it. That might be a good thing though.

So last night Jacqui, Tom and I went for sushi. Sushi express, it's like the McDonald's of sushi but they have pretty good sashimi so it was worth it. That was about all that was good though. It used to be so good but now, it's kind of crap.

Had the most random phone call in the cab on the way to Keelung though. Dan called. I was like what the hell! He was back in Taiwan after going back to the US and then to Japan. Not really sure why. First Paul and now Dan. It was really weird going out last night because it was such a mix of the old people and the new people, but it was great, I loved it, drank too much for a school night and was out way too late. On the plus side Buxiban caught on fire yesterday so I only have Kindy today.

it's always hard to say goodbye

Since I am doing the posting a blog a day and I missed yesterday, I will post two today. So here is my blog for today.

It was a sad, sad night on Tuesday. I don't think I am ever going to get used to the goodbyes that I've had to endure throughout my time in Taiwan. Everything is just so fluid and changing. It is hard to imagine that people who have been so close, I will probably never see again and I treasure every moment with each of them. They have all had a huge impact on my life. The latest, probably the most. It has been the thread throughout all of my friendships.

On Tuesday, my favourite bar in Keelung closed it's doors forever. Boo Hoo!!!

You are probably thinking, oh yeah, typical. Tobi is sad because a bar closed. Well, yes, it is one less place that I can go and drink but this place was special. It has really had a huge impact on my life in Taiwan.

I had been here for just over a month the first time I went to the Mariner's. I went with a couple of friends from training who came to Keelung to visit me. We had started at the Lucky Star (sailor bar, oh yeah) and after wandered over to Mariners because the owners were the same and we wanted to check it out. I will always remember it because Troy was making fun of one of the hostesses. Probably not the nicest thing in the world to do, but being drunk I thought it was the funniest thing ever.

I never really made Mariner's my home until Cheryl came to Taiwan. Yes, I had been a few times over the first six months I was here after drinking at the Lucky Star but it wasn't until Cheryl and I met Travis that we really started going there a lot. It was located right near the Keelung buxiban (we work in ChiDu remember) so it was a very convenient place to meet up with the Keelung people after they were finished work. Sometimes it would just be the three of us and sometimes Travis would bring people. Mariner's was where I met Patrick, Ben and Paul.

When my parents came to visit me, I even took them to the Mariner's. THAT'S how important this place is to my life in Taiwan.

By the time Tom and Jacqui came to Taiwan we had found a few more places. We spent a lot of time at the Truck because it was cheaper but we always ended up in Mariner's for the free pool and people that gave us hugs and cheered when we walked in the door (seriously, I felt like I was in Cheers some nights) The first night I was home from my great Canadian vacation, we went to Mariner's.

It was one of the friendliest bars I have ever been in and we are all sad to see the end of it. I have seen so many people come and go, but Mariner's has always been there and everyone that has been important to my life in Taiwan has shared the Mariner's experience with me. It is truly the end of an era. The end of my era.

nablopomo

nablopomo - It's national blog posting month. The idea behind this is to post every day in November. Okay, I've missed a day, but technically somewhere in Canada it is still November 1st and to my credit, I only found out about this right now. I have decided that I will take part in nablopomo here rather than myspace. That way I can write about anything including random crap that I really don't care if people read or not and it will be a good jump start for this blog. Maybe if I actuall write something that isn't completely lame, I will actually tell people about this blog. Oh, but then there may be pressure to actually write something that isn't crap. I may have to rethink this...

EDITED: for the record, I'm not actually a "registered" participant of nablopomo. I have sent an email in hoping to have my blog added (crap, people might actually come looking!) but I may have missed the deadline. I am having math issues right now what with the time change last weekend...grrr

life in general

I would love to recap my life for the last few months. I have let this blog lapse I know, but considering no one reads it, I guess it makes sense. I have been blogging alot on myspace. I'm not sure why this has become my blog of choice. More than likely because people read it. It's easier to blog there than here. I know, I should comment more and then maybe I would get more traffic...but then god forbid, people might actually show up and read me! I don't really know how I could take that haha

a little lame, a little rain

It's raining...no wait, it's not raining, it's fucking pouring! I could be cleaning, but it's raining. I could be doing stuff for work, but it's raining. Why is it when it rains, I let myself have the excuse to do nothing.

I guess my night of drunkeness and my day of sleeping hasn't really helped my motivation at all has it.

life that is work

it has been a crazy month. So much stuff I haven't done yet. We just got new assessment forms for raises at our company. They are completely complicated and stupid but the one thing that is definately new is that as older staff, we have to set professional development goals for us to complete in six months. Now, at first I thought this was a shit idea...what the hell! My job used to be so easy and now they actually want me to do stuff??!!! But after today, I realized I need to set myself some goals. Even if I am only here for another six months. My time management is shit and I'm lazy in my job. I do the least that I can to get by and it is really bad! I always have so much Head teacher stuff to do and I never get around to doing it. I have this weird little thing where I don't actually like people to see me doing work. It's the same as cleaning my house, if I have roommates, I WILL NOT clean when they are around. Everyone has to be gone, I have to by myself for me to do anything. Why is that? I think I am totally fucked in the head somedays.

again!!!

yeah, so that last post was suppose to have pictures and be this really cool little format...I uploaded the pictures but I have no idea what happened to them. Another thing for me to figure out on this blogger space place...it's not nearly as easy as myspace. Guess it just takes practice....but midnight is not the time to be fooling with all of that right now.

Taichung Baby

So we went to Taichung this weekend. I have been there one other time and it was a lot of fun. Well, I learned a lot about it this weekend, namely the fact that I'm probably never going back.

First fun fact - The Aloha bus is the only way to travel. Way faster than the train, and you get to ride in comfort, watch movies or play video games...


The greatest ride ever, I am seriously tempted to just ride it down to Kaoushung for a weekend and then come right back haha.

Fun fact two - I hate house parties. I have no photo documentation of this because I hate them so much. Especially when you don't know anyone and you have to take off your shoes and oh crap, you just bought new suade shoes that day that turned your feet black...yeah, fun! Didn't find out until later that my friend Ivy washed her feet in the bathroom when she got there. I don't think it would have worked with mine anyway, they are still slightly blue.

Fun fact three - Aston Mini's rock and I love the fact that they are all over Taiwan..they are sort of like Beetles in Canada.


Fun fact four - Doremon stamps are dangerous when in the wrong hands




Their hands are still that blue today.....

Fun fact five - glow bracelets rock, even if I am the only one that thought so (I kept stealing them from the bar, I thought I was pretty brave, but I'm pretty sure I was allowed to take them so I guess it doesn't really count)




Fun fact six - Goodbye Ki and Ivy, see you in Vancouver!!

Fun fact seven - always trust your good friends, they will never lead you astray....

Fun fact eight - always trust your new friends - they are just along for the ride



Fun fact nine - never trust your fucking evil friends -


they screw you over and steal your camera when you are completely drunk after going to an all you can drink joint and drinking white russians that I'm pretty sure weren't white at all, just russian. And not even a proper Russian...baileys, cream de cafe, vodka and god knows what else they were putting in my drink...they take pictures of you after you have puked down a sewer drain and passed out in the middle of the road....

(this picture has been deleted for the fact that people do not need to see me passed out in a gutter surrounded by my loving and caring friends.)

I keep forgetting that I'm not still 21....

***the pictures are all a little out of whack in this post...since it's in my archives, I'm not going to worry about it right now.