Sunday, January 18, 2009

bring you yellow flowers

it's lateee so this will be the quick version. below is a picture of the dice we use for almost every game at school. there are 2 in each classroom.
i was craving creme brulet this morning and then when i went to the coffee shop this afternoon, what was the first thing i saw on the menu? creme brulet. and i never even look at the dessert section. it was magic.
the creme brulet itself wasn't magical. the custard was really gelatin-y and there was no crusty sugar on the top, just burnt sugary tasting liquid.
i was laughing at myself today because we were talking about going to the hot springs and danielle, who went last weekend, tried to warn me that everyone would be staring and taking pictures of me. at the time, i was thinking "whatever, i've gotten used to getting lots of attention here. that won't be a problem."
but then tonight i was subbing a class downtown so i brought my camera so i could get some pictures of taoyuan downtown, and when i took my camera out i got reaaally self conscious. i felt like i was the only foreigner for miles and everyone was looking at me because my camera is really conspicuous, so i chickened out and didn't take many pictures.
it was pretty funny tonight when all of us had gotten home from teaching and people were cooking dinner, jerry started playing a red book drinking game. you had to recite a lesson line by line and drink when you screwed up. it was pretty entertaining.
hippie josh had brought his new taiwanese girlfriend over and we were laughing because we've never done that before but it seemed like such an english teachery thing to do.
around midnight, i went bowling with steve, josh and noe. steve and i made a bet that if i beat him, he would go to the hotsprings with us tomorrow. i was ahead of him up until the 8th frame and he beat me even thoughhh i got a spare in the 9th frame and then 2 strikes in the 10th frame for a total of 131. i think he got 147.
no one will go to ali baba's with me anymore because it's a little expensive, so i went to get food to go after class and i took a picture while i was sitting there. they brought me a lassi while i was waiting. when i went up to the register to get my food, the indian guy who i've seen a few times asked if i was russian.

4 comments:

missris said...

so a friend of mine was telling me that he and his girlfriend both taught abroad for a year (maybe in thailand? taiwan? i can't remember) and he had no problem getting hired because he's a red-haired white guy. she, on the other hand, is filipino and no one would hire her. is this a common thing? do they only hire americans who look white to teach english?

Anonymous said...

Next time if you want to take some pictures you may consider to call me, I can be company with you, and you will feel safe to take as many as you want. And I won't see you as a foreigner ;)

Anonymous said...

Ok, to answer missris,
yes, it's quite sad what you decribed is truth,
but let me put this way,
a white American look teacher is more persuasive to attract customers to attend their classes.
Because white people look quite "foreign."
As for darker skinned people look common in here, so it has less economic benefits,
yet if you go to bigger city like Taipei capital, what you actually have inside maybe more important than how you look outside.
But generally, what you mentioned happens often I think.

megan said...

to follow up on what cheng said :P
people who don't look like foreigners have a much harder time getting hired. there's a girl here who's of japanese descent though and she got hired without a hitch, but her accent is completely north american because she was born in canada.