Love at First Web Site
Thursday, October 28, 2004
What I really want to do is be a professional bum. To support myself I could probably write best-selling books on how I got to where I am today.
Chapter One. Motivation!
Everyone can find the motivation within themselves to stop what they are doing, sit down in front of the TV, and eat some doritoes. It doesn't take much, all you need is the will power to do so.
Chapter Two. Where Do I Get the willpower to do so?
You, like I once did, will have to prioritise your TV channels. Knowledge has a poorly done doco on the modelling industry, but Hallmark is showing a Danielle Steel premier. What to do? Write a list of the pros and cons of each program. Of all the graduates of my prestigious course, the 3% of students who actually wrote theirs down, became more successful than the 97% of people who didn't... combined. The stats say it all!
Chapter Three. What Should I eat?
Take good care of yourself - your body is a temple. Cut out all fruits and vegetables and move the fridge closer to the couch. Corn chips, chocolate, cake, and donuts have all had impressive success rates when trying to become a professional bum. It worked for me!
Chapter Four. What about my commitments?
What commitments? Becoming a professional bum is all about learning to let go. ¶ 15:12 0 Comments
Chapter One. Motivation!
Everyone can find the motivation within themselves to stop what they are doing, sit down in front of the TV, and eat some doritoes. It doesn't take much, all you need is the will power to do so.
Chapter Two. Where Do I Get the willpower to do so?
You, like I once did, will have to prioritise your TV channels. Knowledge has a poorly done doco on the modelling industry, but Hallmark is showing a Danielle Steel premier. What to do? Write a list of the pros and cons of each program. Of all the graduates of my prestigious course, the 3% of students who actually wrote theirs down, became more successful than the 97% of people who didn't... combined. The stats say it all!
Chapter Three. What Should I eat?
Take good care of yourself - your body is a temple. Cut out all fruits and vegetables and move the fridge closer to the couch. Corn chips, chocolate, cake, and donuts have all had impressive success rates when trying to become a professional bum. It worked for me!
Chapter Four. What about my commitments?
What commitments? Becoming a professional bum is all about learning to let go. ¶ 15:12 0 Comments
Sunday, October 24, 2004
I went in the jeep parade today for international friendship day. I had never stood at the back of a jeep and gone for a ride before so it was all very exciting, we did the royal wave and made like we were the president.
Speaking of the president, then we saw Fareignheit 911 Oh shit I don't know how to spell farenheit. Hold on, it looks like I just did. I wonder why I put a G in it. Maybe it's because I'm so used to the word Foreign.
It was entertaining but it went for way longer than we expected and well to be honest I wish he would stop making cringe-worthy interviews with rednecks. It's just boring and tedious now. And the decent interviews seemed to be more with people who were eager to talk to him rather than people he was going to argue with. But dude I didn't know Bush got booed and egged when he got driven to the White House, ouch.
The Pig Pen last night was hai hao followed by the Soundgarden where we argued with a New Zealander about which country was best. He said that like France gave America the Statue of Liberty, New Zealand gave Australia Russel Crowe. And this:
...An Aussie guy is visiting his cousin on the South Island when they are driving along a country road and see a sheep with it's head stuck in the fence unable to get out. They stop and get out to have a look. The New Zealander goes up to the sheep, pulls down his pants and well whatever. The Aussie guy goes up to the sheep, pulls down his pants, and sticks his head into the fence aswell.
I think I laughed coz I was flirting with the guy that told it. ¶ 23:42 0 Comments
Speaking of the president, then we saw Fareignheit 911 Oh shit I don't know how to spell farenheit. Hold on, it looks like I just did. I wonder why I put a G in it. Maybe it's because I'm so used to the word Foreign.
It was entertaining but it went for way longer than we expected and well to be honest I wish he would stop making cringe-worthy interviews with rednecks. It's just boring and tedious now. And the decent interviews seemed to be more with people who were eager to talk to him rather than people he was going to argue with. But dude I didn't know Bush got booed and egged when he got driven to the White House, ouch.
The Pig Pen last night was hai hao followed by the Soundgarden where we argued with a New Zealander about which country was best. He said that like France gave America the Statue of Liberty, New Zealand gave Australia Russel Crowe. And this:
...An Aussie guy is visiting his cousin on the South Island when they are driving along a country road and see a sheep with it's head stuck in the fence unable to get out. They stop and get out to have a look. The New Zealander goes up to the sheep, pulls down his pants and well whatever. The Aussie guy goes up to the sheep, pulls down his pants, and sticks his head into the fence aswell.
I think I laughed coz I was flirting with the guy that told it. ¶ 23:42 0 Comments
Oh by the way the party was hai hao. The WHOLE WORLD was invited, but only about 0.000000000000000000000000002% of it turned up. This was not bad considering the population of the world is about 5 billion. It turned out that we still haven't become A-List celebrities yet but thanks to the expensive haircuts we got earlier in the day, we were already at least feeling like B-lists. :-)
I'm being dragged to the pig pen right this minute. No stop! Ahhh! ¶ 03:59 0 Comments
I'm being dragged to the pig pen right this minute. No stop! Ahhh! ¶ 03:59 0 Comments
Rehearsal was fun last night. We have to spend five minutes looking like we're about to cry, and it has to make the audience want to cry too. I wonder how that will turn out. Yuren gave me a script too. Even though it seemed like we were literally never going to get our act together, things have become a little more concrete and there is a 99% chance I will be displaying my fancy rolling around on the floor dance techniques in public before I exit the building in January.
I turned up to class on Friday, and today I started working on my newspaper article. I'm so proud of myself because all of this week I have been anti-what I'm doing with my life now and of the persuasion that Chinese can go and screw itself.
It was my turn to choose one. I picked this article from the Liberty Times with a diagram of Taiwan and mainland China and a graph of how many and what type of fighter jets each side has. It was politely vetoed by the teacher so I picked a new one with a picture of Bon Jovi playing a guitar. I've plowed my way through three paragraphs so far but it's only been about Kerry and Bush with not a word about Bon Jovi as yet! Maybe he did a concert or something. Whatever it was, I will not be finding out for a long time because the article is hard. Funnily enough though, the quote from Bush was quite easy to read and it didn't take alot of hard work to know he was just talking shit as usual.
One thing that the dude I had a beer with on the rooftop of a disgusting hostel in Taipei on my first ever night in Taiwan told me about was the transient nature of the expat community in Taiwan. I miss the people that were here last year and wish they were back but as an official 'global citizen' albeit one that is prone to making stereotypes, it's impossible to dismiss the likeliness of my seeing them again or just finding out what they ended up doing, and whether they could one day look back on their memories of Taiwan more fondly than not. ¶ 01:59 0 Comments
I turned up to class on Friday, and today I started working on my newspaper article. I'm so proud of myself because all of this week I have been anti-what I'm doing with my life now and of the persuasion that Chinese can go and screw itself.
It was my turn to choose one. I picked this article from the Liberty Times with a diagram of Taiwan and mainland China and a graph of how many and what type of fighter jets each side has. It was politely vetoed by the teacher so I picked a new one with a picture of Bon Jovi playing a guitar. I've plowed my way through three paragraphs so far but it's only been about Kerry and Bush with not a word about Bon Jovi as yet! Maybe he did a concert or something. Whatever it was, I will not be finding out for a long time because the article is hard. Funnily enough though, the quote from Bush was quite easy to read and it didn't take alot of hard work to know he was just talking shit as usual.
One thing that the dude I had a beer with on the rooftop of a disgusting hostel in Taipei on my first ever night in Taiwan told me about was the transient nature of the expat community in Taiwan. I miss the people that were here last year and wish they were back but as an official 'global citizen' albeit one that is prone to making stereotypes, it's impossible to dismiss the likeliness of my seeing them again or just finding out what they ended up doing, and whether they could one day look back on their memories of Taiwan more fondly than not. ¶ 01:59 0 Comments
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Just when you finally finally decide you are over someone you were in love with for years, they make their way back onto the radar. The only time I'll ever be in love again is when I've got a chocolate fudge ice-cream in my mouth with a packet of doritoes and a McChicken waiting for me on the coffee table. Or when I'm a mega-famous movie star and in love with myself. It's too late. I really couldn't give a stuff what he needs now.
Oh I caught some of an old Hong Kong movie with Chow Yun Fat in it, it was great. I've decided to be an Industrial Designer in Hong Kong, hao bu hao? I'm so excited.
¶ 21:02 0 Comments
Oh I caught some of an old Hong Kong movie with Chow Yun Fat in it, it was great. I've decided to be an Industrial Designer in Hong Kong, hao bu hao? I'm so excited.
¶ 21:02 0 Comments
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Career of the Week this week goes to Industrial Design. Can you imagine it? Designing bars, phones and ergonomic chairs... Apparently I will end up designing kitchen bins for an anonymous manufacturing company but I don't believe this. But I think that's why it's not that hard to get into a course. I knew, at the age of ten, when Mandy and I drew that picture of a car shaped like a pair of scissors, that I wanted to do it forever.
Glasses VI
Got them repaired, same old shitty mainland China lenses that break the first time you drop them, and can now finally take out my contacts and leave them out.
Asia-Pacific
Australia
A kangaroo saved a baby from a koala today near a small country town outside of Adelaide.
Taiwan
Young student gets fed up with being ripped off and starts to pack up her shit.
New Zealand
New laws permit sheep to make donations at sperm banks.
¶ 22:13 0 Comments
Glasses VI
Got them repaired, same old shitty mainland China lenses that break the first time you drop them, and can now finally take out my contacts and leave them out.
Asia-Pacific
Australia
A kangaroo saved a baby from a koala today near a small country town outside of Adelaide.
Taiwan
Young student gets fed up with being ripped off and starts to pack up her shit.
New Zealand
New laws permit sheep to make donations at sperm banks.
¶ 22:13 0 Comments
Monday, October 18, 2004
I went to Gu Guan on the weekend. We stayed in a nice hotel with nice food and got bombarded with a pack of about 10 teenagers whose father was constantly drunk and taking photos of us like the paparazzi. It got disturbing once he started trying to hug me and his kids told him to stop it.
On the way there there's this condemned footbridge over a river that we stopped to try to climb onto. It looked dangerous and fun Indiana Jones-style and we crept into the overgrown bushes to find a way on. It began to look a little dodgy but I figured seeing as though I had come this far I could not turn around now. I jumped on to the end anyway but once I was up there I realised it really was quite dangerous and I could give it a miss.
Coming back out of the bushes I walked through a section of those weeds that leave spurs all over you clothes so I reemerged looking like a hedgehog. Great fun.
Then after we got back I went to dinner at Fatty's for a birthday and had crappy pizza so I won't be ordering pizza there again but I had a good time and hope there are more birthdays to come. ¶ 15:30 0 Comments
On the way there there's this condemned footbridge over a river that we stopped to try to climb onto. It looked dangerous and fun Indiana Jones-style and we crept into the overgrown bushes to find a way on. It began to look a little dodgy but I figured seeing as though I had come this far I could not turn around now. I jumped on to the end anyway but once I was up there I realised it really was quite dangerous and I could give it a miss.
Coming back out of the bushes I walked through a section of those weeds that leave spurs all over you clothes so I reemerged looking like a hedgehog. Great fun.
Then after we got back I went to dinner at Fatty's for a birthday and had crappy pizza so I won't be ordering pizza there again but I had a good time and hope there are more birthdays to come. ¶ 15:30 0 Comments
Saturday, October 16, 2004
Glasses IV
They fell off during rehearsal and broke. So much for not getting the cheap glass lenses from mainland China. I just do not want to talk about it.
Rehearsal was good. It's as if I've actually joined a little dance troupe and I get to do cool and weird shit like roll around on the floor and wiggle my butt.
I'm going to Gu Guan tomorrow. I skipped class again today... It felt great though. Last night I tried a 'melatonin' from the jar that a friend brought for Christine and I slept well, not that I was having trouble anyway, and woke up quite normally, it's just that lying down had suddenly never felt so good, especially on my psycho hard mattress. And that's what motivated me to skip class again. If it feels good, just go with it. One day my lazy study habits here will come back to bite me on my dimpled arse. I migrated to the couch and then there was a really long earthquake. It was the second I had ever felt so I was a little freaked out anyway, but this one went for goddam ages and it got stronger and stronger till I started wishing I had bothered to get dressed in case we had to get out of there. We held our breaths the whole time and then when it subsided we realised we actually have no idea what to do in an earthquake.
¶ 03:39 0 Comments
They fell off during rehearsal and broke. So much for not getting the cheap glass lenses from mainland China. I just do not want to talk about it.
Rehearsal was good. It's as if I've actually joined a little dance troupe and I get to do cool and weird shit like roll around on the floor and wiggle my butt.
I'm going to Gu Guan tomorrow. I skipped class again today... It felt great though. Last night I tried a 'melatonin' from the jar that a friend brought for Christine and I slept well, not that I was having trouble anyway, and woke up quite normally, it's just that lying down had suddenly never felt so good, especially on my psycho hard mattress. And that's what motivated me to skip class again. If it feels good, just go with it. One day my lazy study habits here will come back to bite me on my dimpled arse. I migrated to the couch and then there was a really long earthquake. It was the second I had ever felt so I was a little freaked out anyway, but this one went for goddam ages and it got stronger and stronger till I started wishing I had bothered to get dressed in case we had to get out of there. We held our breaths the whole time and then when it subsided we realised we actually have no idea what to do in an earthquake.
¶ 03:39 0 Comments
Thursday, October 14, 2004
My New Obsession with Political Correctness
I finally got my new glasses. And I got my haird dyed red too. A friend and I got star treatment at the salon. We went to a good one where you have to make appointments but they let us in straight away and fought over who got to do us. My friend who doesn't speak Chinese was a little rude to them though and when one girl asked "has she had her hair washed yet" then other one said "let her go swimming" and they didn't do it. This is a little anecdote. Things like this have never happened and will never happen again, it's a completely isolated incident.
This morning I skipped class and watched the third presidential debate then went back to bed. Adrian asked me who I thought won and well I reckon they are so different they are hardly even playing in the same league you know. All the dumbarses will vote for Bush and all the people who didn't lose concentration when Kerry related the minimum wage to consumption will vote for him. A friend of mine said that the only questions is, what is the ratio of dumb to dumber in America haha. It's not funny. I wish my friend would stop making stereotypes.
Someone said that a culture can't be described because then you would be stereotyping people. I think then it's incorrect to say that you are going somewhere just to learn about the culture coz technically speaking, there is no culture. I have found that in Taiwan I am constantly swapping and changing what I thought I knew and understood about things. Things are different here, and there is a definite PATTERN to what is different here, but it's incorrect to say that the pattern will continue with everyone. It hasn't, but when I do see things I have seen before, I am used to it, and attibute it to the culture, and dare not say that it is like that everytime. But when I talk to my flatties about my experiences here, giving 'em tips and stuff, I begin every sentence with "generally speaking" or "most of the time."
¶ 18:14 0 Comments
I finally got my new glasses. And I got my haird dyed red too. A friend and I got star treatment at the salon. We went to a good one where you have to make appointments but they let us in straight away and fought over who got to do us. My friend who doesn't speak Chinese was a little rude to them though and when one girl asked "has she had her hair washed yet" then other one said "let her go swimming" and they didn't do it. This is a little anecdote. Things like this have never happened and will never happen again, it's a completely isolated incident.
This morning I skipped class and watched the third presidential debate then went back to bed. Adrian asked me who I thought won and well I reckon they are so different they are hardly even playing in the same league you know. All the dumbarses will vote for Bush and all the people who didn't lose concentration when Kerry related the minimum wage to consumption will vote for him. A friend of mine said that the only questions is, what is the ratio of dumb to dumber in America haha. It's not funny. I wish my friend would stop making stereotypes.
Someone said that a culture can't be described because then you would be stereotyping people. I think then it's incorrect to say that you are going somewhere just to learn about the culture coz technically speaking, there is no culture. I have found that in Taiwan I am constantly swapping and changing what I thought I knew and understood about things. Things are different here, and there is a definite PATTERN to what is different here, but it's incorrect to say that the pattern will continue with everyone. It hasn't, but when I do see things I have seen before, I am used to it, and attibute it to the culture, and dare not say that it is like that everytime. But when I talk to my flatties about my experiences here, giving 'em tips and stuff, I begin every sentence with "generally speaking" or "most of the time."
¶ 18:14 0 Comments
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
The translation job at the magazine magically turned itself into an 'office job' overnight so that the pay would go down to a third of what I earn now. What to do? I went in and he said that technically I'd be earning the same because I 'd be doing less running around! The proposal is to quit kindy (which would be nice) and work there for twenty hours a week. It was so tempting because he put forward such a good argument. I get to work at a magazine, put it on my resume, oh shit... maybe I should take it. No, it would only be three solid months of being ripped off but all in all, the guy was a prick, his final argument being that his ex-girlfriend is now the executive something at Adidas. Right. It's a hard one, coz it would be relatively relaxed work and yes it would look super fantastic on my resume (especially applying for that media course!) but no.
What should I do? Please leave your vote in the comments box!!!!!
I had "coffee" with the language centre director yesterday. I got in trouble for asking a friend who was Indonesian to teach me Indonesian because I wanted to learn more about Indonesia etc, but I was in fact stereotyping by approaching him solely because of where he was from, so ladies and gentleman, you are reading the blog of someone who makes stereotypes.
I did remember to take her phone number, so that next time some Amway pscyho comes up to me in a book store and says she wants a foreign friend, I will call the director and tell her that someone just stereotyped me, and make her get in trouble.
It is up to you whether you should continue reading or not. You may be exposed to too many stereotypes. Sometimes I wish I was wearing a t-shirt with a big up-yours printed on it, so that before anyone can piss me off, I am already giving them the up-yours.
¶ 17:55 0 Comments
What should I do? Please leave your vote in the comments box!!!!!
I had "coffee" with the language centre director yesterday. I got in trouble for asking a friend who was Indonesian to teach me Indonesian because I wanted to learn more about Indonesia etc, but I was in fact stereotyping by approaching him solely because of where he was from, so ladies and gentleman, you are reading the blog of someone who makes stereotypes.
I did remember to take her phone number, so that next time some Amway pscyho comes up to me in a book store and says she wants a foreign friend, I will call the director and tell her that someone just stereotyped me, and make her get in trouble.
It is up to you whether you should continue reading or not. You may be exposed to too many stereotypes. Sometimes I wish I was wearing a t-shirt with a big up-yours printed on it, so that before anyone can piss me off, I am already giving them the up-yours.
¶ 17:55 0 Comments
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
I'm applying for a media degree that is almost as hard to get into as law. It's up to the Universities Admission Centre to decide my future, which means I don't have to haha. Ah bless the UAC.
John Howard is back. I'm bored of him already. I want to pluck his eyebrows or something.
Are you guilty of stereotyping? Are you being stereotyped? Are you being stereotyped as someone who stereotypes too much? Is life just too unfair?
http://www.psc-cfp.gc.ca/publications/monogra/mono3_e.htm#who
¶ 15:54 0 Comments
John Howard is back. I'm bored of him already. I want to pluck his eyebrows or something.
Are you guilty of stereotyping? Are you being stereotyped? Are you being stereotyped as someone who stereotypes too much? Is life just too unfair?
http://www.psc-cfp.gc.ca/publications/monogra/mono3_e.htm#who
¶ 15:54 0 Comments
Friday, October 08, 2004
I'm doing poetry with Petunia, one of my private students and she's heaps good.
We have taken the initials thing further and started a list of things we could dress up as for. I accidentally brought it up again last night so we spent another hour thinking up new ones. My new one is a Laughing Stock and for some reason Adrian thought that was the best!
I went to the doctor yesterday and they made a big deal about how I was a foreigner and then during my private and confidential consultation one of the receptionists walked in and stood there and watched. Then she went back out to the desk and had a good discussion about it with the other lady. Dude, the things you take for granted.
I saw 2046 last night. It was frickin brilliant, Wang Fei can really act and Andy Lau is a babe!
¶ 15:16 0 Comments
We have taken the initials thing further and started a list of things we could dress up as for. I accidentally brought it up again last night so we spent another hour thinking up new ones. My new one is a Laughing Stock and for some reason Adrian thought that was the best!
I went to the doctor yesterday and they made a big deal about how I was a foreigner and then during my private and confidential consultation one of the receptionists walked in and stood there and watched. Then she went back out to the desk and had a good discussion about it with the other lady. Dude, the things you take for granted.
I saw 2046 last night. It was frickin brilliant, Wang Fei can really act and Andy Lau is a babe!
¶ 15:16 0 Comments
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Our Rooftop Soiree is definitely on. Last night we discussed logistics at the bar and we are going to line the whole edge of the roof with tealight candles. There won't be a theme but for our Christmas party you have to come as your initials. I said I would come as an Egg Sandwich. The plan is to not shower for three days and then wear two slices of bread. Or Easy Sex. Adrian is going to come as an Awkward Moment, and Christine is going to come as a Conscious Thought or a Camping Trip. They voted against playing the orange game, and pass-the-parcel didn't even make it to senate, but I'm going to buy an orange anyway and test it out.
I went to a little trial for the translation job. It was awful. They said don't worry it's not an exam but basically said I had half an hour to do this little passage, and of course I had to look up about 2 million words in the dictionary. Before I did it, the lady grilled me about uni, asking me what street Sydney Uni was on and what is was near, as if she thought I was lying about it, and whether it was close to Crowes Nest by train, and I'm like Crowes Nest doesn't even have a station. Therefore, judging by the ultra-friendly, trusting and laid-back atmosphere of the place, I still really want to work there. Huh! I can't wait to see their next dodgy sub-standard semi-professional translations in the next issue. "The bar is fulfilled with joyful air and cheese nachos will not go astray as long as you sit on the patio with the back-laying owner, Xiao D to make a scene of blue and green nonsense."
Disclaimer... if they do give me a call, I take it all back!
I'm becoming increasingly tempted to stay longer in Taiwan just because my family is paranoid that I'm going to, even though if I do I will probably never end up graduating and then what shall become of me? It's gonna be so boring back at uni. No scooter, no $30/hour jobs... I guess I could get a motorbike license. How cool!
A rough itinerary is shaping up for China. First stop, Beijing, to go see everything there is too see. Then off the Hubei or Yubei province, I don't know, where a friend will be teaching English, and then off to Xi'an which is nearby or something! I'm so excited I could wet my pants.
Oh another thing, I registered to go in the speech competition. It's only a week away though. So there is a 60% chance I will decide I can't be bothered (you can't use notes!) and pull out. You can basically talk about anything that has to do with learning Chinese, Taiwan culture... Content is more important than language and I don't know what I'm going to talk about so I may just give them my life story for the past four years. "Ni ganma xue zhongwen a?" "Yinwei aiqing de guanxi!"
¶ 15:04 0 Comments
I went to a little trial for the translation job. It was awful. They said don't worry it's not an exam but basically said I had half an hour to do this little passage, and of course I had to look up about 2 million words in the dictionary. Before I did it, the lady grilled me about uni, asking me what street Sydney Uni was on and what is was near, as if she thought I was lying about it, and whether it was close to Crowes Nest by train, and I'm like Crowes Nest doesn't even have a station. Therefore, judging by the ultra-friendly, trusting and laid-back atmosphere of the place, I still really want to work there. Huh! I can't wait to see their next dodgy sub-standard semi-professional translations in the next issue. "The bar is fulfilled with joyful air and cheese nachos will not go astray as long as you sit on the patio with the back-laying owner, Xiao D to make a scene of blue and green nonsense."
Disclaimer... if they do give me a call, I take it all back!
I'm becoming increasingly tempted to stay longer in Taiwan just because my family is paranoid that I'm going to, even though if I do I will probably never end up graduating and then what shall become of me? It's gonna be so boring back at uni. No scooter, no $30/hour jobs... I guess I could get a motorbike license. How cool!
A rough itinerary is shaping up for China. First stop, Beijing, to go see everything there is too see. Then off the Hubei or Yubei province, I don't know, where a friend will be teaching English, and then off to Xi'an which is nearby or something! I'm so excited I could wet my pants.
Oh another thing, I registered to go in the speech competition. It's only a week away though. So there is a 60% chance I will decide I can't be bothered (you can't use notes!) and pull out. You can basically talk about anything that has to do with learning Chinese, Taiwan culture... Content is more important than language and I don't know what I'm going to talk about so I may just give them my life story for the past four years. "Ni ganma xue zhongwen a?" "Yinwei aiqing de guanxi!"
¶ 15:04 0 Comments
Monday, October 04, 2004
The weather was absolutely superb today and I was in a super rare I am at peace with the world mood this morning in class. I love my classmates they are the best and i think i want to go to Japan now and learn Japanese. I don't know what I ate/drank/snorted/injected today but I'm feeling quite fantastic.
I also love my flatmates. Last night I asked Christine oh Christine I don't think I'm going to become a superfamous movie star anymore! And she said well, what have you done about it? And well, such simple questions are often the best.
I consulted a friend about the going rates for translation work, and he pointed out that the ratio of Chinese-speaking foreigners to non-speakers is quite small, small enough to push the pay level up to Lucrative. Yes! Hopefully if I end up getting the job and I can diss my buxiban shift.
You little bee-yoo-tay!
One of my teachers likes to make references to students' personal lives when practising new vocab with us which is fine coz it works but sometimes it makes you feel uneasy. Today we learnt the word for 'grasp' as in to grasp time or opportunities while you have them and her example sentence was "Liz needs to grasp the time she has left here in Taiwan because she only has a few months left", thereby sending shivers down my spine and tempting me to look back on my time here and question whether I could have done more. No, I couldn't have, but my teacher really knows which buttons there are to push.
Today the weather is neat,
Lots of breeze and little heat,
Chinese was great fun,
I really like Zhe Zhang,
Bu juede hen fanmang,
Bi yiqian na-me bang
qing ni bu yao rang
wo hui jia!
¶ 18:50 0 Comments
I also love my flatmates. Last night I asked Christine oh Christine I don't think I'm going to become a superfamous movie star anymore! And she said well, what have you done about it? And well, such simple questions are often the best.
I consulted a friend about the going rates for translation work, and he pointed out that the ratio of Chinese-speaking foreigners to non-speakers is quite small, small enough to push the pay level up to Lucrative. Yes! Hopefully if I end up getting the job and I can diss my buxiban shift.
You little bee-yoo-tay!
One of my teachers likes to make references to students' personal lives when practising new vocab with us which is fine coz it works but sometimes it makes you feel uneasy. Today we learnt the word for 'grasp' as in to grasp time or opportunities while you have them and her example sentence was "Liz needs to grasp the time she has left here in Taiwan because she only has a few months left", thereby sending shivers down my spine and tempting me to look back on my time here and question whether I could have done more. No, I couldn't have, but my teacher really knows which buttons there are to push.
Today the weather is neat,
Lots of breeze and little heat,
Chinese was great fun,
I really like Zhe Zhang,
Bu juede hen fanmang,
Bi yiqian na-me bang
qing ni bu yao rang
wo hui jia!
¶ 18:50 0 Comments
Sunday, October 03, 2004
The second most significant event in my life after getting new glasses was going to Maolin... Wuling Farm decided it could wait so off we went down to Pingtung County deep in the mountains and went to the hot springs, right next to some rapids, where you could hold on to a cable and swim right in the middle of it. I loved it. We stayed in a cute little homestay and sang a bit of karaoke with our new friend. She said we shouldn't be galavanting around the mountains just the two of us without a local to take us around, basically saying that it was like walking into someone's house and making yourself at home without being invited. There is no backpacking in Taiwan, no siree! She also said that if our families are still at home and we are here by ourselves, and get lost in the mountains, "who is going to cry for you?"
A good friend is leaving in a couple of weeks, off to China.
There's a comment from a guy who wants me to plug his website. It has a good picture of Brittany Spears with a cigarette in her mouth (what a shame, really) and a whorey one of Christina Aguilera. It links to porn sites though so I'll have a think about it.
I talked about when I was going to graduate today, whether I was going to ask for full credit for my studies here. I don't want to graduate because then I'll have to look for a job and pursue a career and all that. I don't even know what I'm going to do, I still want to be a mega-famous movie star but it doesn't seem to be working out. What does one do with a language degree anyway... I can totally see myself teaching Chinese at Gossy High, taking sick leave from nervous breakdowns induced by shitty kids who won't shut up. Sitting here in my comfy little student status pondering the future is fine with me. Maybe I can hang out and half-do a phd before I decide I'm too lazy and drop out and then become a crabby employee at the arts office and be rude.
¶ 23:46 0 Comments
A good friend is leaving in a couple of weeks, off to China.
There's a comment from a guy who wants me to plug his website. It has a good picture of Brittany Spears with a cigarette in her mouth (what a shame, really) and a whorey one of Christina Aguilera. It links to porn sites though so I'll have a think about it.
I talked about when I was going to graduate today, whether I was going to ask for full credit for my studies here. I don't want to graduate because then I'll have to look for a job and pursue a career and all that. I don't even know what I'm going to do, I still want to be a mega-famous movie star but it doesn't seem to be working out. What does one do with a language degree anyway... I can totally see myself teaching Chinese at Gossy High, taking sick leave from nervous breakdowns induced by shitty kids who won't shut up. Sitting here in my comfy little student status pondering the future is fine with me. Maybe I can hang out and half-do a phd before I decide I'm too lazy and drop out and then become a crabby employee at the arts office and be rude.
¶ 23:46 0 Comments
