some people i want you to meet

these are the people that i look forward to seeing every week. funny they're almost all food related. i guess when you don't cook, the people who make your meals become very important to you.

tsong dra bing lady who always sees it's me and then just nods and makes my food because she knows how i like it.
the people who make my stamps in guei shan
tea people in guei shan. there's one more woman but she works when the other 2 aren't there. i see them every monday and friday
linda, my chinese teacher
tina coffee ladies
ching xin tea shop people where i pick up green tea almost every day
ji dan gao woman in carrefour. we always smile and wave when i go to/leave carrefour, regardless of whether or not i buy ice cream or cakes from her.
..you've seen these three before. look how cute bobo's haircut is!
grandma of grandma's
fruit market ladies. the grandma gives me a new fruit to try every week.
time to go to dinner with allen but i have about a million more pictures to upload tonight if i can find a spare moment. halfway down the to-do list!

goodbye tuesday

alex and i picked up the stuff we made at ying ge this morning and i just realized i never managed to get a picture of it! the glazing job they did was amaaaazing. they're blue and silvery with all different shades. i gave the mug to the kuo's even though they saw my blog from when i posted the pictures. they liked it a lot.
they also said they stayed up until 2am last night translating my blog into chinese with babelfish! i would kill to be a fly on the wall for that.
after ying ge, alex, dawn and i went to tina coffee for lunch. this is my favoriiite tina coffee woman. she always sneaks me little things and we chat about her daughter and our lives. she asked if my friends would still go there. i said yes but they really want an english menu!
my fav: a waffle, fruit, panna cotta, a pot of milk tea and a scoop of the most delicious strawberry gelato. $7.

tonight was my last night at school in taiwan! i love my tuesdays but today the vibe was a little bit off because i have the flu so i couldn't be really loud. they were all kind of calm since i was being so calm. not our usual crazy selves, but still fun.
we had a nice last day in my first class. i wrote them all messages in their QA books, which i've been doing for all of my classes, and helped them translate them. and they all got double stickers today which was a big deal for them.
so cute.

my second class was a little off tonight. we just lost our old native teacher and they don't quite know what to make of the new teacher. she doesn't have a mean bone in her body, so they're pushing her limits. i couldn't really do anything today since i was so ill, so i just gave them the disappointed mom speech. 'you guys are so fun, please leave me with good memories of you. i don't want to remember you misbehaving'. and it worked. i think it took them half the class to realize that they'd never see me again.one kid wrote 'megan you is a good teacher' at the top of the page in the book i've been asking them to sign, so a bazillion kids copied them and now it looks like all of my kids are dummies! ahhhh!!! it's kind of funny though. if you aren't their teacher.
right at the end of class when we were getting ready to leave, kevin 2 (below, front middle) blurted out 'megan you are pretty!' like it was his dying sentence. it was so sweet. it's funny how you can't help but get to know the kids who sit in the front a little better than the others.
the kids who smile biggest in all of my group pictures are the smartest ones in the class, and vice versa. jeffy and i were chatting earlier and he said next time i should just take a picture of my classes on the first day and i would know who's smart and who isn't. space cadet kids. in any language, if someone is taking a picture, don't you know you're supposed to smile?
goodbye front desk ladies!
mrs. chan gave me some chinese medicine stuff for runny noses and headaches and it worked like a charm. my kids were pretty amused when they saw it.
i am so busy tomorrow. i'll post a bazillion more pictures at the end of the day once i finish my million errands.

p.s. happy 25th anniversary, mom and dad!

can you grill a turkey?

spent an hour or so at the kuo's this afternoon because mr. chen and mr. wang were there. mrs. chan made fried pumpkin thingies and she taught me how to make them. i took a picture that i'll upload in the morning. she made enough for me to bring some of the extras to the dorm, and they were a big hit.

jimmie and i explored the fruit and veggie market and we did the little night market down the street. now she has a fruit lady and she knows where the tea shop is. i need to teach her the numbers soon so she understands the prices. as we were waiting for my cong dra bing to fry, this woman who was also waiting was asking me a bunch of questions. jimmie looked at me and said 'i can't believe you're speaking chinese.'

things i forgot were weird in taiwan..
long green bell peppers
long, skinny eggplant
the millions of food stands with all sorts of brown animal parts
many varieties of tofu
jelly consistency
old people riding those little 4 wheel chairs down the street
fructose syrup instead of granular sugar
tomatoes being included with other cut up fruit
sidewalks with loose tiles instead of concrete slabs
the lack of 'american style chinese' food

we went to tina coffee for "dinner" if you can call a waffle, fruit, gelato and tea dinner. the super nice woman from the first time i went was there. she told me she gave me a special deal on the gelato but not to tell anyone :X i'm not the best secret keeper there ever was.

i still haven't seen/spoken to keith. hopefully i can meet up with him some time tomorrow or early in the week. time for bed, it is laaate.

watch the speech.

man it was nice not to wake up at 7:15 this morning for class! what a nice saturday.
this afternoon tess, bobo and i went to song shan to hit up the cheap clothing shops. we found a lot of brightly colored stuff this time thanks to bobo. apparently last time tess and i went, the street we went down was mostly clothes from korea which are all cream, dusty pink and gray.
i found a couple of dresses and a top i couldn't live without. i'll show you pictures after i've washed them in our newww washer. our old one was dying a slow death, so now we have a new one with chinese buttons. one of the secretaries labeled it in english this evening.
after shopping, i went over to bobo's because i haven't seen the girls in weeks and weeks. joyce's hair is longer every time i see her. we colored up a storm and played about 20 rounds of hide and seek.
when we couldn't take any more hide and seek, we headed for the big park. now every time we go, the first thing they want to do is cartwheel. people always watch us play.

this evening i went to this place called tina coffee. all of the teachers have been going there lately because they have a sandwich/coffee or tea deal for $150. i brought my chinese homework/flashcards and camped out at the counter for 2 hours tonight.
[you have to click to enlarge that pic to fully appreciate how adorable joyce is. i would leave all of my possessions here in order to fit her in my suit case if i didn't think she'd get all banged up in the cargo area.]
one of the women working there helped me order something, since the menu was all in chinese, and we chatted for a long time. i think i might become a regular there in my last month.
tomorrow i'm headed to the zoo with allen and i'm all excited because i get to practice the zoo animals.