Another Week Another Typhoon

So Taiwan was hit by yet another typhoon this weekend. It actually felt bigger than the last one. Needless to say I didn't do a whole lot this weekend. I did get to catch up on my movie watching. I made it though: The Snow Angel (good but depressing), The Stone Angel (kinda dull but some parts were good), Graduation (eh), Meet Bill (quite good) and Superbad (not quite as bad as I was expecting but not overly good). I also watched the first 3 episodes of a new tv show called Fringe which was well impressive. It's being pegged as a new X-files...you know before it started sucking. The lead woman is an Aussie.

So yeah the week kinda flew by which I guess is good. Sunday was Teacher's Day here, dunno what that really means except that some of my students wrote me little notes etc which was sweet.

Because I spend so much time in the office doing basically nothing I have lots of time to chat with students outside of class. Sometimes we listen to music, sometimes I help them with homework other times we just play games. Two students in particular I spend a lot of time with. One is Sophia, she's in my Oral GEPT class and is one of the smartest and most dedicated students I have. We were discussing her schedule the other day and quite frankly I could never do it. Sometimes they stay at school til like 9.30 at night after starting at 9 in the morning or 8 or something stupid like that.

I will never understand the huge push for education that goes on here. Education is important but it isn't the end all and be all. Teachers like to give homework and tests here as well. A good memory is a prerequisite in all kids here it seems. I would have so failed if I was a student here.

The other student is Winston, he's basically my main source for learning Chinese here. He says I'm a bad student and it's totally true, I always forget the words he tells me. But then he isn't a saint of a student either, he reminds me a lot of myself as a student.

I got taken to a really nice Italian cafe last week. The pasta was the best I've had here. I just wish I weren't allergic to some of the seafood here because it is so stupidly fresh and cheap here. Although they serve mussel like things with green shells which seemed odd to me. After some experimentation I think I'm actually slightly allergic to the prawns here which I don't undersand cause I don't have that issue in Australia. It's quite depressing as I've become quite fond of prawns. Now I only eat seafood when I know I don't have to teach for at least a day that way if I do have an allergic reaction I have a day to get over it.

The weather seems to have calmed down slightly for the time being but it's still raining and slightly windy. The water comes in through the window a bit, I've got towels wrapped up next to the window sill soaking up as much of the wetness as possible. I considered moving the laptop far away from the window but I really dunno where to move it so for now it stays and I just hope the window doesn't break or something and let all the water in.

I managed to do my washing again this weekend. It's becoming a tradition to do my washing in a typhoon. I even bought more coat hangers so now there are no clothes in my suitcase and the only clothes laying around the place are drying after being dragged from the washing machine. I'm quite impressed. Yet it still looks kinda messy here. Eh, it's my weekend.

Typhoon 1 Jade 0

So it seems I underestimated the typhoon my last post or at least I had figured it was over when really it was yet to start. Sunday it pelted with rain all day...I mean all day. I decided to do laundry as my internet went down quite early and I was housebound due to the typhoon. Unfortunately my washing machine is on the balcony...still can't complain at least I have one and don't have to use a laundromat. So I had to put a raincoat on just to open the balcony door and quickly try and stuff my clothes into the washing machine. It was actually quite amusing, I'm glad there was no one on the street to see me.

The rain and wind persisted last night as well and while there seems to be a slight break now I don't think it's going to last (in fact as we speak the rain has started up again). I guess I may be housebound again today.

I did catch up on my movie watching yesterday. I ended up watching "The life before here eyes' which I really enjoyed, sure it was actually easy to see where it was going and it got tedious in some parts but I loved the way they told it. It's about a woman who was in a Columbine like massacre which killed her best friend. 15 years on she's happily married with a kid but her past still haunts her. It's apparently based on a book which I think I will have to hunt down.

I then watched The Last King of Scotland, the first part was actually a lot lighter than I expected, it was nice to see Gillian Anderson in something other than X-Files. The second half was the serious part I was actually expecting the whole movie to be. All in all it was ok, the fact the main character had trouble keeping his thing in his pants got a bit tedious though.

Lastly I watched Freedom Writers, yet another based on a true story inspirational teaching movie but I actually really liked it, it was much better than Dangerous Minds and I'm a fan of Hilary Swank anyway.

So that was my Sunday. Sitting around watching the rain pelt the windows and trying to fill in the hours. I have a feeling if the rain doesn't stop that is how today will be as well. I think the novelty of these typhoons will get old very fast. In fact it may already have.

Anyway that's pretty much all I have for now. I don't feel like doing any teaching stuff today, it's my weekend there will be no work done on my weekend! Well at least until tonight.

Jade 1 Typhoon 0

So the typhoon didn't really hit JhuShan, I mean there was rain and a lot of it but that was the extent of it, the wind really more than a breeze. Although I saw on the news that in other places the damage was a lot more severe.

Today's classes were pretty easy, one of them got cancelled as none of the students wanted to go out in the 'typhoon'. I think my GEPT classes are coming to an end at the end of this month which is a shame as I'm actually kinda liking them....well the oral one at least the vocab one there is just too much stuff to get through that I really can't play games it's straight drill then cd work which kinda sucks but it's easy for me to prepare.

After work Amy invited me to her husband's parents place for a barbecue which I jumped at the opportunity for as they are so revered here. It was actually pretty cool the food was great although it seems maybe I'm allergic to more than clams as I once again had a slight swelling of the lip this time I think maybe from the shrimp.

The thing that interested me the most though was the size of the barbeque they were cooking on. I'm used to the barbies in OZ which is the bigger the better, here though the bbqs were well nothing more than like portable grills. Itsy bitsy little things that we might take camping...actually some people take bigger things camping than these bbqs.

I had a moon cake...a proper one which was a little like mince pies except I'm pretty sure there was some actual meat in it...still it wasn't horrible, although I prefer the other festive desserts better.

So now I have experienced a typhoon and a moon festival bbq..quite an achievement I think.

Typhoon

So I've heard there's a good possibility of a typhoon hitting today. For some reason David who is about 40 minutes away gets the day off because of it while I still have to go to work meh. Still it doesn't look too bad outside I mean it just looks like a normal dreary day, hell the trees are barely moving.

I'm quite excited at the prospect of experiencing a typhoon. At least the sun won't blind me today.

I don't get though how Nantou and Taichung can have the same risk probability of getting hit and yet I still have to go to work and David gets to well...actually if I weren't going to work 1 I wouldn't get paid and 2 I wouldn't have anything to do. So maybe going to work is a good idea.

Anyway I need to go get ready.