dreit cards accepted

i saw a shirt on this girl today that said 'dredit cards accepted' and i was thinking about it on the way home on the bus and i looked out the window and there was a girl wearing the same shirt right as i was wondering what exactly it said. how's that for cosmos in action.

today is the first day i've felt a twinge of unease about being here since my major freakout at the beginning. we were on the roof tonight talking about our friends from home and how people are settling themselves. one of my friends from middle school just got married this weekend and my best friend will be engaged soon and part of me feels like i'm behind sometimes.

the other part of me wakes up in the morning to see that i've moved myself to taiwan, i'm surrounded by interesting, adventurous people, i get to experience a culture that not many north americans get so up-close-and-personal with, i'm teaching kids who i've started to adore and if not, who i can tell i'll eventually bond with, people look at me like i'm a movie star every day, and i'm stretching my comfort zone and what i thought was possible for myself by leaps and bounds. aside from not being crazy about all of the food or the general smell of the country, every night i feel more secure with myself and my abilities, and i feel like coming here was an important step for me. so that is that.

today i found out my second class was being evaluated 2 minutes before it was supposed to start. the kids were very well behaved, but it just felt weird. no one was talking. she had a miiiillion criticisms but some of them were helpful to me. we played some really fun relay games and the kids got more into it than they've been with anything else i've tried, so i was happy.
derek and i went for sushi right after on his giant motorcycle from the '70s. that was interesting. i think a million people on the street saw what color my underwear were before i had properly secured by dress :P

tonight a bunch of people from the dorm went to wednesday night dinner as has become the tradition. we went to this japanese place called Watami. they have a giant menu with pictures of everything which is golden. i had cream cheese rangoons and rice, miso soup and pickled vegetables. all for $6 US. then we came home and hung out on the roof (on my new roof blanket) because it's about 20 degrees cooler up there than our un-airconditioned living room. it was nice.


this is that thing i keep eating that i took a blurry picture of. it's a weird pancake with egg and bacon.

these are some kids playing the shrinking circle game in my first class today. they had the same genius idea to go piggyback. it was extra funny though because the kid on his back weighs like 70 lbs. he's super tiny.

sunset as i was waiting for the bus to take me home tonight around 645