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.

Almost Legal

So my health check came through and apart from having abnormal skin (tattoos) I got a full pass. Thus the mammoth mound of paperwork began. Now I understand why Amy was hesitant to start anything before hand. Firstly we are both inexperienced with the forms. The office girl started only 2 weeks before me so she had never done the paperwork needed thus Amy and I had to slog through it. Actually any part that wasn't in Chinese I had to do.

Tonight I actually saw my contract for the first time and it was in English so no need for a hissy fit there. Everything seems above board which is a relief. The only thing that could have been better is she considered my employment started from Sep 1 so my contract doesn't end until August 31. meh but still a few extra days won't hurt me and hopefully my arc will be for a year so I will still have time afterwards to do a little bit of travelling in Taiwan before moving on.

During the conversation Amy asked what my plans were after the year...I told her I had trouble knowing what tomorrow holds let alone a year from now...which isn't really a lie. The fact I'm almost certain it doesn't involve Melody School is something I kept to myself.

I have to attend a meeting in Taichung tomorrow morning at 9 am which means a 7am start here MEH. Of course once again I got told late this afternoon and actually it was by a fellow teacher not Amy.

Yesterday I was dragged out of my class to interview a potential new part time teacher. Why I was interviewing I have no idea, I guess to test fluency. As far as I was concerned her fluency was good. It probably could have been better but I was impressed, although I think I marked her too leniently (I gave her a 9/10...she was standing right behind me when Amy was asking).

I had some strange Chinese guy knock on my door today and he was saying stuff in Chinese to me. Eventually he left but he did keep trying to see into my room. I wish I knew what he wanted.

My pilfered internet has been down for a couple of days hence the nonposting. It sucks when it is down but I'm coping better now than I would have before.

I watched Speed Racer the other night and was actually kinda impressed. Yes it got bad reviews but really I think for what it is it's pretty awesome and honestly I don't think anyone could have done it better. Yes it was predictable and yes the visual was quite odd but it was based on an anime tv show so the visuals were quite apt (imho).

I also watched Harold and Kumar 2 that I was less than thrilled with, it had it's moments but really if I had to choose between the 2 movies Speed Racer would win hands down. Next on my viewing list is Street Kings.

Ok like I said early start tomorrow so I must go try and get some sleep.