Tuesday, August 12, 2008

and i might not have said it, so i'll say it now

not much happened today but there are a few updates and a few cultural observations:
happenings..
1. you know how on wednesdays i used to have 2 classes and the second one had the same kids from the first one, plus 12 other kids? they dissolved my first class and permanently combined it with the second one which is going to make my life easier. now i don't have to come up with an extra game every week and i can spend 2 less hours with my coteacher of doom.

2. they gave me another kindy class. dangit! but it's right after my first one and it's the same kind of class so i can do exactly what i did with my first one which will be nice. and i've been tolddd that kindys can be really wonderful once you bond with the kids. so we'll see.

3. today i decided that i wanted pork in addition to my pea pods and carrot thing at my corner lady in da chu. she thinks i'm a vegetarian because i usually get the veggie option, but one time, a long time ago, she gave me pork.. so today, i tried to say 'remember that time you gave me meat? i want that again please'. she speaks no english so she went to get her husband, who got someone who was sitting in the 'restaurant' and the 3 of us tried to communicate. we eventually got it right and they learned how to say 'rice' and 'just rice' in english and i learned how to say 'pork' (ju rou) in chinese. anyway i think we bonded in a new way.

4. fruit lady had been price gouging me and i think today, upon my 4th visit, she decided i was going to be a permanent fixture and so she lowered the price. she used to charge me anywhere from $150 to $120 for 2 bell fruit and a mango. todayy she charged me $50 for one bell fruit and one mango. there's no possible way one additional bell fruit makes it go up $100. so we're making progress.

observations..
1. every time they give you a drink, they put it in a plastic bag and you drink out of it while it's in the bag. i don't know what the reasoning is

2. stamp/key shops have little boxes of something (probably stamps or keys) all lined up on shelves and it makes me think of the wand shop in Harry Potter.

3. people drive like bats out of hell. today, the bus i was in made a righthand turn from the left-most lane. it was ridiculous. one of the teachers, steve, got t-boned on his motorcycle by a car and he has a big hole in his foot where part of his motorcycle gouged him.

time for bed!

5 comments:

William King said...

Two and a half things:

1. Please buy me an Engrish T-shirt. I will wear it everyday.

2. A parcel has been sent for you. I don't know how long these things take, but it's coming from Asheville, North Carolina.

2.5: I'm still very happy that you're having such a good trip. Just think what you'd be doing right now in Texas - sweating heavily.

megan said...

ooh yay thanks willbo! i'll be on the lookout for the shirt. they are plentiful.

Anonymous said...

Meg-
Got you some goodies at Trader Joe's in San Diego today. Most of the stuff started it's life closer to you and now will be returning closer to home! hint... Remember the hot ginger candies from our Santa Fe trip?

Back to Austin in the am. Hope my Prius makes it back to the airport!

Love,
Faj

megan said...

"remember the hot ginger candies" is not a hint, it's an outright giving it away. but YUMMM. i had some ginseng root candy yesterday and it was disgusting.

how's driving a prius? i'm trying to decide what i'm going to spend my stacks of cash on when i get home.
did mom tell you about the cooking lessons in italy? want to comeee?!

Anonymous said...

I got multiple goodies... I was unimpressed with the Prius. The first one had issues and I had to return it and they gave me another one. They go through a wierd starting process. I valet parked it at the beach last night and the guy said he was familiar with the wierdness. I think I prefer the Majmobile for power and similar mileage.

Faj