Build up to Hallowe'en

Sun. Oct 21
This weekend has been really good. Fun and productive. Friday was another day at school. It’s all getting to be pretty routine, now. After school I spent 3 hours in the office trying to write my evals for my adult class. I didn’t quite finish, but I’m close. Then Katy and I went into Taipei for dinner at a Thai restaurant. Then we wandered the bookstore, where I bought nothing, before coming home.
Yesterday I got my regular call from home before meeting K in Taipei for lunch. After lunch we took a long walk across the city to get to a street with lots of seasonal stores. I was looking for my hallowe’en costume. On our walk, we stopped at this place that has amazing ice cream. I had a waffle with mocha-chocolate ice cream on top. I was also successful in my search for costume pieces.
We wandered around a bit more before meeting Corrie and some of her friends for dinner. We ate at a little Italian place. The food was good, and cheap, but the service was ridiculously bad. It took us 3 hours. After dinner we went to a bar called Oldies Goodies. That was super fun. The house band played a lot of old American music. And during Proud Mary, the singer put the mic in front of me, so the whole bar heard me sing a little. We met some other foreigners and had a really good time. Around 2 the rest of the girls went to meet their boyfriends, and I came home.
We were supposed to go para-gliding today, but I don’t know what happened. I had a productive day anyway. I finished my book and did all of my laundry. The last of it is drying on the line as I type. That’s all I did, but it was a beautiful day.

Tues Oct. 23
Today was fantastic, which was nice because yesterday was not. Yesterday, my allergies were so bad that my head was swoopy and my throat was sore all day. But thanks to Benadryl I woke up today in a perky mood and my day was great.
At school, I didn’t quite get everything prepped before class, so I was finishing at play time. I was colouring in something that I wanted to use for a display and found myself surrounded by about 5 or 6 different girls, from 3 different classes. And they all sat very nicely, and never said a word except to name the colour of my new marker when I switched. It was eerie, because they just sat there for about 15 minutes straight. None of them are that well behaved in class and I was just colouring.
Today was another park day. I love seeing the kids get a chance to really be kids. The little princess in my class loves Sam. She was trying to run with him and his kids, but she was wearing heels (literally, 1.5 inch heels, with no straps around the ankles - cute as hell, but on a 3 year old to go to school?) and couldn’t keep up.
After school, Emily took me to the library and I got my Library card. I found myself watched there, too. While I sat at the desk, filling out the paper work, this little girl stood right at my elbow and watched the whole time. Every once in a while she asked Emily questions in Chinese, including if I spoke Chinese. She was really cute. At one point a boy stood beside her, but he got shy and left when I said hi.
The trip to the library was my first ride on a scooter. There’s a spare helmet in my apartment, which I used and Emily’s a good driver. It was a little scary. But I just kept telling myself to relax, because I know that being overly tense is just as likely to cause an accident as anything else. And I did relax and I didn’t die. The library has a great kids section. In both Chinese and English. I got out a book of old nursery rhymes and a giant copy of Chicken Licken (which is exactly the same story as chicken little) with pictures that my kids will love. There’s also an entire floor of English books, which I didn’t have time to check out, because I had to get back to school to teach.
And I taught my second last adult class tonight. Only 7 of 12 students showed up. And they’re all the ones who are already strong. They’re the fun ones, though, so it wasn’t too bad. Plus they’re planning a party for our last class and remembered that I only eat chicken. So I think we’re going to end up with some sort of chicken pizza, which could be delicious.

Fri Oct. 26th
I teach the cutest kids in the world. Our Hallowe’en party was today and the kids were all dressed up. I had 8 different princesses, 2 dinosaurs, a panda, a pumpkin and half of a ladybug (he wouldn’t wear the wings). The rest of the kids were cute too, and I have pics of them all. Interestingly enough, I didn’t get any pics of the teachers’ costumes, including my own. But the kids were astounded by my black lipstick.
The party was super-fun, if a little stressful. 10 minutes is not enough time to do an activity with small children. By the time you’ve explained what they’re supposed to do, they have to leave. But everything went fine, and the kids were great. It was a decided step up from yesterday and wasn't nearly as weird as Wed.
On Wed I bought and read a new book. It was one of my cute, funny romances and it was really good. But while K and I were in the bookstore, the weirdest thing happened. Some kids came up and asked to take a pic of me, which is actually not as unusual as it seems (I’m white and blond, which is rare here). So I say yes, they take their pic and I go back to browsing. Next thing I know, another kid comes up to me in the same uniform and asks for a pic. So I say yes, same deal. Next thing I know, K and I are surrounded by about 20 kids, all in the same uniform, staring at us and whispering. I was really uncomfortable. Finally someone else got up the nerve to ask me for a pic and I was like "fine" but I grabbed K and made her be in too. That time I counted 6 cameras. When that one was finished I took off for the shelves of books where I could hide. I have a whole new sympathy for celebrities.
After the bookstore, I met Jackie and took her to Hallowe’en Street to help her find a costume and get the finishing touches for my own. I decided to go vamp, so I bought teeth. But when I got home and put them in, they looked awful and I realized that I couldn’t talk at all. So I went without teeth today. Jackie’s costume is really cute, though. She’s gonna be a hula girl.
The full moon yesterday wreaked havoc on my mood and my allergies were killing me. I was a harpy. And the kids were all crazy (I know what you’re thinking, but it wasn’t just my class). I literally spent the last half hour of the day walking my kids from the classroom to the bathroom and back to the lineup in silence, because they had disturbed Sam’s class in the library the first time, in spite of me telling them repeatedly to be quiet.
My adult class went very well, though. Probably because it was the last one. So I did 2 activities with them and then we played a game. We had to go downstairs for the official Kojen "Thanks for giving us your money, please come back for another session" spiel, which lasted about half an hour. Then the last hour was a party in our classroom. The class had ordered pizza and chicken, which was really good. And they taught me a card game called Big or 2, which is very similar to "Donkey". They were amazed when I picked it up quickly.
After work today I went for drinks with Sam and Corrie. We played rummy 500 (which Corrie thought was called Gin Rummy until I set her straight). I ended up losing by 15 points, but the game wasn’t actually over, Corrie just had to leave. Sam and I stayed for another drink, which pushed the limit of my tolerance, so we left after that.
I was already completely sober by the time I met Diana, Jackie and Ty at the 24 hour place. We just grabbed a bite to eat when they finished work at 10. Robert met us there and hung out for a bit. I was actually there twice today. The girls from work and I have been going there on our lunch breaks. We’ll each order a pot of tea (and if school lunch was meat, I grab food too) and then sit and read our own books, with occasional chit chat. It’s so great to spend time with people who don’t expect me to be "social" and actually prefer to read, as I do.

Sun Oct 28th
Yesterday I went shopping. I got a new zippered hoody and a long sleeved shirt. I was hoping to get shoes, but the one pair that I liked didn’t come in a size big enough. So I comforted myself when I got home by buying an e-book that I’ve been waiting for. It’s the third in a series and it was SO good!! I finished it last night, even though Katy and Di and I went into Taipei for dinner.
We ate at this place called Rice Café. It was pretty good. And I had the best tea. It had some spice in it, I think maybe cloves, but I’m not sure. Anyway, I’d go back to the restaurant just for the tea. Then we walked for a bit and came home.
Today we’re going to KTV dressed up for Hallowe’en. It should be super fun. I mean, I love dressing up and karaoke. I figure there’s no bad here. First I think I’m going for lunch and grocery shopping with Katy.