My New Year's was a bit different from what I'm used to this year... of course. For one, again, I had to go to school, but that wasn't so bad because I only had 4 classes, one of which was spent in the library, one in actual class and two in a yoga class. That was pretty interesting apart from the teacher yelling at me, Julie and Imme in Chinese. My legs hurt from that. One of the last moves she made us do was laying on our backs and placing our feet above our heads. She said if we couldn't do all the way to our heads, it was okay, but we were doing it and we weren't hurting, so we ended up surprising everyone with doing it the whole way! I had no idea I was so good at yoga.
After school I had Chinese class, which ws weird because we had already taken our exam and we were back in our old classes yesterday. Turns out Rotary thinks we cheated so we had to retake the exam. Well, I can say honestly that I didn't cheat, but there were some languages going around the classroom that could have been sharing answers. Unfortunately, we didn't get to redo the speaking part. But this exam was a lot better than the first one, I actually knew most of the answers.
After that, I went to Taipei 101 to get a good seat to watch the fireworks with my friends Alyssa (USA), Josette (USA), Boyce (USA), Miguel (Mexico), Corinna (Germany), Rebekka (USA) and Aurelia (France). the MRTs were already packed and it was only about 5:30! We managed to find a good space and kill 6 1/2 hours of time until the fireworks started at midnight. I think someone told me it was the biggest fireworks display in the world, they used 22 000 fireworks, it was pretty impressive! I have a video that isn't on my computer yet, but hopefully I'll get my facebook videos and pictures updated this weekend. We have today off school which is great because I didn't get home until 3:00 this morning. Miguel took us to the bus stop, but the streets were so packed that no busses were coming so me and Rebekka took a map and tried to walk to an MRT station closer to our homes. Ugh! It was like arguing with Chelsea! We found one on the brown line which is like an hour ride from where we live and we didn't want to experience Zhongxiao Fuxing and Taipei Main Station, which are the busiest stations anyway, on the most crowded night of the year! So we found a bus stop where our bus stops, but the bus never came and after some arguging, I told her we ahd 3 options: 1) We wait for the bus 2) We go back to the MRT station and brave the transfer stops or 3) We find a taxi to take us home. After about 5 minutes, she finally decided to try to find a taxi, but most of them were full and even when we found empty ones, greedy Asians jumped into them before we could reach for the door.
In the end, we decided to go to the MRT, by then it was almost 2:00. In the end, it was a bit later after the fireworks so it wasn't as busy, but Zhongxiao Fuxing was pretty bad. We ended up meeting Dan (USA) at Taipei Main, he lives at the same stop that I live at, so he made sur we got on the train and off at our stop. Like I said, It was about 3:00 by the time I came home. My host mom left a little nightlight plugged in at the door because all the lights were turned off so I could see my way to my room. My host dad came out of his room to make sure it was me and that I had a good time. I have to say, I only have 1 year in Taiwan, I don't regret going to 101 at all. I think I would have regretted it if I didn't! My first New Year's in a big city! Haha, when it's midnight back home they might show the other New Year's celebrations in different countries, look out for Taiwan!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
Christmas/School Birthday/Exam
Hello again. So, I promised I'd write a little about Christmas, so here it is: Christmas Eve was pretty uneventful. I went to school, as usual, then went to Chinese class after. We only spent half the time actually learning Chinese and we had a party for the other half complete with bubble tea and secret Santa. We drew names about a month ago and I got Chris, from Germany. I had absolutely no idea what to get him, so the day before, I ended up going to Carrefour and getting him a nightlight, erasers shaped like peanuts with smiley faces, candy and a bar of soap. Oh, and he said he wanted a bracelet, so I got him one of those too. I used what German still remains in my brain to write him a card. He actually liked it, so that was a nice surprise. My secret Santa was a USer named Dan. He got me a notebook and a pen. As if I don't have 8 other notebooks. Oh well. He explained later that he had no idea what to get me, so he asked another American, Cory, for ideas and Cory said I was the only person in the class harder to buy something for than Myles, who is the Hawaiian. Enough said. Then he suggested he get me a notebook because I like to write. Sheesh. I write them one play and all of a sudden I can't stop writing. So I lied and said I loved it. But let this be a lesson to you all. I don't need anymore notebooks!! I also got to talk to my real parents, sisters and Taiwanese girl, Lisa, that my family's hosting back home.
Again, I had school on Christmas Day. We were supposed to have a sports competition, but it was raining, so that was cancelled. I was allowed to hang out in the library with Julie and Imme, then we all brought chocolate from our countries to bribe the head librarian to let us go home early. It worked and we were allowed to leave at 3:00. I watched Vicar of Dibley Christmas specials until my host dad came home. It's kind of funny. I always know when my host mom's away when I see what's for breakfast. For instance, Christmas morning there was cake on the breakfast table when I woke up. When I got home from school, I ate some chocolate, then got full and my host dad came and told me it was time to eat and I told him I was full, but he said that he made hot dogs especially for me. Which is so cool because back home when my dad's in charge of dinner, it's hot dogs or KD. So I ate one to humour him. That was my Christmas dinner.
The next day was my school birthday. My class was selling waffles, chow mein, dongwa tea and pop. They also had a game which was a big piece of cardboard covered in big hole and supported by some desks that my classmates went under and stuck their heads through and the person had a whack them with an inflatable baseball bat. Kind of like mole whacker, but with people. It was kind of funny, I got a video that I still have to put up on facebook. I helped make the chow mein and sell waffles. It was a lot of fun, but I was so tired by the time I got home at 3:00 (I had been there since 7:30am) I was so tired and I fell asleep. I woke up at 6:00 because my phone was ringing, I felt bad because it was my friend Yuen who wanted me to come to the church for their Christmas service that started at 6:00 and it takes me about an hour to get to the church, so I had to say no. I ended up staying at home and watching Hairspray with my host mom.
Monday was the Chinese exam. This determines which class we'll be in for the second semester. But what bugged me was that the exam wasn't written by our teachers, it was written by the university. So I assumed they would stick with the first 6 units, like they said they would. They didn't. There was a comprehension part and a writing part and they both had words I had never seen before. So that was hard. Then there was a listening part that went completely over my head and an oral part. The teacher I was talking to obviously didn't like me. She kept telling me to say more. We had to read a sentence in Chinese, then say what we like and why and she kept telling me to say more and then we had to describe a picture and I must of told her my life story in Chinese and she still wasn't satisfied. She said my pronounciation was very good than gave me 7 points. Out of 15. Not even a pass. We don't find out the results until Thursday. I was talking to other exchange students and they all thought it was ridiculous too. So maybe there's hope I won't be in the dumb class yet. Ugh, I'm freaking out a bit. I'll be glad when I know which class I'm in. The first exam we took, we knew the results by 8:00 that same night.
Oh a happier note, I'm really bonding with my classmates. There was a situation with some Japanese students that visited and they were paired with everyone in our class except me and this other girl, Se-Ming. She was upset because she wouldn't get to know any of the Japanese students and I said it was okay because I'm from 10 times as far as the Japanese and I'd hang out with her and we had a lot of fun! She sits next to me in class and she's one of the only ones who talks to me in Chinese which I like because I'm tired of being treated like a baby and being spoken to in English all the time by my classmates. Also, when I leave the class to go to the library for my free classes, they all say 'Bye, Mo-Li!' and today one of the guys said 'Don't miss me too much!' I just smiled and waved. And also today during naptime, one guy started belching and then someone else did and we were all laughing, it was so much fun! Because they wouldn't stop until the teacher came in to start class!
Anyway, that's about all I have to report. I'll let you know of my test scores when they arrive. Fingers crossed!
Again, I had school on Christmas Day. We were supposed to have a sports competition, but it was raining, so that was cancelled. I was allowed to hang out in the library with Julie and Imme, then we all brought chocolate from our countries to bribe the head librarian to let us go home early. It worked and we were allowed to leave at 3:00. I watched Vicar of Dibley Christmas specials until my host dad came home. It's kind of funny. I always know when my host mom's away when I see what's for breakfast. For instance, Christmas morning there was cake on the breakfast table when I woke up. When I got home from school, I ate some chocolate, then got full and my host dad came and told me it was time to eat and I told him I was full, but he said that he made hot dogs especially for me. Which is so cool because back home when my dad's in charge of dinner, it's hot dogs or KD. So I ate one to humour him. That was my Christmas dinner.
The next day was my school birthday. My class was selling waffles, chow mein, dongwa tea and pop. They also had a game which was a big piece of cardboard covered in big hole and supported by some desks that my classmates went under and stuck their heads through and the person had a whack them with an inflatable baseball bat. Kind of like mole whacker, but with people. It was kind of funny, I got a video that I still have to put up on facebook. I helped make the chow mein and sell waffles. It was a lot of fun, but I was so tired by the time I got home at 3:00 (I had been there since 7:30am) I was so tired and I fell asleep. I woke up at 6:00 because my phone was ringing, I felt bad because it was my friend Yuen who wanted me to come to the church for their Christmas service that started at 6:00 and it takes me about an hour to get to the church, so I had to say no. I ended up staying at home and watching Hairspray with my host mom.
Monday was the Chinese exam. This determines which class we'll be in for the second semester. But what bugged me was that the exam wasn't written by our teachers, it was written by the university. So I assumed they would stick with the first 6 units, like they said they would. They didn't. There was a comprehension part and a writing part and they both had words I had never seen before. So that was hard. Then there was a listening part that went completely over my head and an oral part. The teacher I was talking to obviously didn't like me. She kept telling me to say more. We had to read a sentence in Chinese, then say what we like and why and she kept telling me to say more and then we had to describe a picture and I must of told her my life story in Chinese and she still wasn't satisfied. She said my pronounciation was very good than gave me 7 points. Out of 15. Not even a pass. We don't find out the results until Thursday. I was talking to other exchange students and they all thought it was ridiculous too. So maybe there's hope I won't be in the dumb class yet. Ugh, I'm freaking out a bit. I'll be glad when I know which class I'm in. The first exam we took, we knew the results by 8:00 that same night.
Oh a happier note, I'm really bonding with my classmates. There was a situation with some Japanese students that visited and they were paired with everyone in our class except me and this other girl, Se-Ming. She was upset because she wouldn't get to know any of the Japanese students and I said it was okay because I'm from 10 times as far as the Japanese and I'd hang out with her and we had a lot of fun! She sits next to me in class and she's one of the only ones who talks to me in Chinese which I like because I'm tired of being treated like a baby and being spoken to in English all the time by my classmates. Also, when I leave the class to go to the library for my free classes, they all say 'Bye, Mo-Li!' and today one of the guys said 'Don't miss me too much!' I just smiled and waved. And also today during naptime, one guy started belching and then someone else did and we were all laughing, it was so much fun! Because they wouldn't stop until the teacher came in to start class!
Anyway, that's about all I have to report. I'll let you know of my test scores when they arrive. Fingers crossed!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Chinese Talent Contest
Hello, it's been a while! but I've been super busy. Life as an exchange student, it's kind of ridiculous. So, as some of you might know, this past Saturday was the Mandarin Speech Contest and I wrote and helped translate a play abou a Taiwanese exchange student at Hogwarts. I have to admit, I was glad when Satuday finally came! I was tired of bribing everyone to come to practice and having them treat me like I was pulling their fingernails out. I got to the theatre and found out that, against their promise, there was not a projector to project the English version so the exchange students could understand what we were saying. So that was frustrating.
So, imagine my... shock when 9:00, starting time, comes and my Dumbledore, who has the first lines in the entire play isn't there. The first act was the girls from, my class, we were singing the Chinese alphabet and dancing. Luckily, we managed to switch with Imme, the Dutch girl, and ended up going later. Harry Potter: Act 1 was the 5th act and the dance was now the 7th. By the time we had to get ready to go, Mari (Dumbledore) was still not there! So I ended up being Dumbledore. Luckily, she showed up in time for the alphabet and I restrained myself from strangling her. I mean, c'mon! That was the only scene she was in and she blew it! You know what her excuse was? She slept in!
The second act went okay, until we the scene with bubble tea where Ron tries to puncture it and it explodes, but we couldn't do that because it would make a mess. So we changed it and he ended up stabbing his arm. But the guy, Andrew, who played Ron has acted before so he got all into it and fell on the floor and dropped the tea and it ended up exploding anyway. Me and Dan ended up cleaning it all up while they kept acting.
The third act went better. Beforehand, I covered Chris's, the German playing Voldemort, face with talcum powder so he looked a little like Voldemort. It actually worked better than I thought, he looked really scary! I was in this act as a Super Junior guy. It went pretty well. I ran out of memory on both memory cards, so I couldn't film the whole thing. But other people did, so I'll try to get it from them and put it up on facebook.
At the end of the show, they gave out awards, which was pretty disappointing. Instead of giving awards out to entire acts, they gave them to individual people. We all had to wear numbers and they picked who was best. Malfoy and Ron from Harry Potter got an award each. They gave 5 of them out. And awards to the 2 best acts. The boys from our class did a song and dance and they won first place for best act. The other awards went to the people from the top class. Still, it was a little disappointing. I don't mean to sound selfish, but I put a LOT of work into that play, and the only mention of me was when an American girl was introducing our play and said it was written by a Canadian and sort of gestured to the Canadian girl standing next to her, which was not me. Another American girl, Josette, did a dance to a Chinese song by Super Junior and sang along with 3 of her classmates. They put a lot of work into memorizing the lyrics and doing the dance and they didn't win anything. Rotary told us there would be an award for fluency, best costume and creativity plus best 5 acts would get awards. Josette mentioned to me yesterday that they top 5 awards went out to the best looking people. I don't really agree with that, but it's true that the Taiwanese people are pretty shallow and all the judges were girls. Oh well, I did my best and it obviously wasn't good enough. I'm over it. Until next Speech Contest!
We have to take out Mandarin exam next week. This will determine if we stay in our current class or get either promoted or demoted to another class. I'm in the middle level class. I like it, but there are an excess of Americans. Christmas is also this week. I can't believe it. It doesn't feel like Christmas, but I have to say that the temperature has dropped considerably. Yesterday was really cold and I had to go mountain climbing with my Rotary club. Then I went out with Josette, Aurelia and Quentin, both from France and Miguel from Mexico for dinner. It was a lot of fun! I'm actually wearing a scarf and jacket now and my hands are freezing! I should have brought gloves. And I'm inside! The thing with schools in Taiwan is that they're practically outdoors. There are windows surrounding the class and the halls are a floor, a roof and open space. I'll have to take more pictures I don't really know how to describe it. My fingers are so cold, I'm sure I've made a typo somewhere in here. Also, the apartments here have tons of AC, but no heat! So I'm pretty cold at night and it's hard to get out of bed in the morning. Aurelia said last night that you know it's cold when the Canadians are feeling cold. Surprisingly, I'm the last Canadian to feel cold, and I'm from the most southern part of the country!
When I meet Taiwanese people, they always ask either one of 2 questions: 1) Where do you come from? and 2) Did it hurt? (pointing at my nose) I've also had, Is it real? (also about my nose) then they scream when I pull it out and show them. But when I tell them I'm from Canada, they answer with 'Vancouver? I've been to Vancouver before!' or 'My (insert relative here) lives in Vancouver!' and then I say no, I'm from the other side of the country, I've actually never been to Vancouver. I actually had one lady that asked where I came from, I answered Canada and she said 'Montreal?' and I said no, it's closer to Toronto and she said 'Montreal?' and I said no, it's sort of close to Montreal, kind of close to Ottawa. And she said 'Montreal?' and I said yeah, I'm from Montreal.
So, going back to Christmas, I'll be at school for Christmas. Christmas Day is my school's sports competition because Boxing Day is the school's birthday. So I need to be at school early on Saturday. I haven't had a proper sleep in so long. Since over a week ago, I've been going to bed at 11:00ish and waking up at 6:00. I couldn't sleep in this weekend either because of the Speech Contest and mountain climbing. And next weekend is my school's birthday. I'm not sure what my class if doing. I think we're selling food and they want me to help them out, which I'm happy to do. Thankfully, I don't start until 11:00. I'm also making them cards that say Merry Christmas in both Chinese and English and taping some hershey's kisses and hugs that my parents sent me to them and some candy canes whichI found here for really cheap. I'll distribute those on Friday.
Well, it's almost time to head back to class. Sorry this took so long. I'll write again to tell about Christmas and my school birthday. Happy first day of winter!
So, imagine my... shock when 9:00, starting time, comes and my Dumbledore, who has the first lines in the entire play isn't there. The first act was the girls from, my class, we were singing the Chinese alphabet and dancing. Luckily, we managed to switch with Imme, the Dutch girl, and ended up going later. Harry Potter: Act 1 was the 5th act and the dance was now the 7th. By the time we had to get ready to go, Mari (Dumbledore) was still not there! So I ended up being Dumbledore. Luckily, she showed up in time for the alphabet and I restrained myself from strangling her. I mean, c'mon! That was the only scene she was in and she blew it! You know what her excuse was? She slept in!
The second act went okay, until we the scene with bubble tea where Ron tries to puncture it and it explodes, but we couldn't do that because it would make a mess. So we changed it and he ended up stabbing his arm. But the guy, Andrew, who played Ron has acted before so he got all into it and fell on the floor and dropped the tea and it ended up exploding anyway. Me and Dan ended up cleaning it all up while they kept acting.
The third act went better. Beforehand, I covered Chris's, the German playing Voldemort, face with talcum powder so he looked a little like Voldemort. It actually worked better than I thought, he looked really scary! I was in this act as a Super Junior guy. It went pretty well. I ran out of memory on both memory cards, so I couldn't film the whole thing. But other people did, so I'll try to get it from them and put it up on facebook.
At the end of the show, they gave out awards, which was pretty disappointing. Instead of giving awards out to entire acts, they gave them to individual people. We all had to wear numbers and they picked who was best. Malfoy and Ron from Harry Potter got an award each. They gave 5 of them out. And awards to the 2 best acts. The boys from our class did a song and dance and they won first place for best act. The other awards went to the people from the top class. Still, it was a little disappointing. I don't mean to sound selfish, but I put a LOT of work into that play, and the only mention of me was when an American girl was introducing our play and said it was written by a Canadian and sort of gestured to the Canadian girl standing next to her, which was not me. Another American girl, Josette, did a dance to a Chinese song by Super Junior and sang along with 3 of her classmates. They put a lot of work into memorizing the lyrics and doing the dance and they didn't win anything. Rotary told us there would be an award for fluency, best costume and creativity plus best 5 acts would get awards. Josette mentioned to me yesterday that they top 5 awards went out to the best looking people. I don't really agree with that, but it's true that the Taiwanese people are pretty shallow and all the judges were girls. Oh well, I did my best and it obviously wasn't good enough. I'm over it. Until next Speech Contest!
We have to take out Mandarin exam next week. This will determine if we stay in our current class or get either promoted or demoted to another class. I'm in the middle level class. I like it, but there are an excess of Americans. Christmas is also this week. I can't believe it. It doesn't feel like Christmas, but I have to say that the temperature has dropped considerably. Yesterday was really cold and I had to go mountain climbing with my Rotary club. Then I went out with Josette, Aurelia and Quentin, both from France and Miguel from Mexico for dinner. It was a lot of fun! I'm actually wearing a scarf and jacket now and my hands are freezing! I should have brought gloves. And I'm inside! The thing with schools in Taiwan is that they're practically outdoors. There are windows surrounding the class and the halls are a floor, a roof and open space. I'll have to take more pictures I don't really know how to describe it. My fingers are so cold, I'm sure I've made a typo somewhere in here. Also, the apartments here have tons of AC, but no heat! So I'm pretty cold at night and it's hard to get out of bed in the morning. Aurelia said last night that you know it's cold when the Canadians are feeling cold. Surprisingly, I'm the last Canadian to feel cold, and I'm from the most southern part of the country!
When I meet Taiwanese people, they always ask either one of 2 questions: 1) Where do you come from? and 2) Did it hurt? (pointing at my nose) I've also had, Is it real? (also about my nose) then they scream when I pull it out and show them. But when I tell them I'm from Canada, they answer with 'Vancouver? I've been to Vancouver before!' or 'My (insert relative here) lives in Vancouver!' and then I say no, I'm from the other side of the country, I've actually never been to Vancouver. I actually had one lady that asked where I came from, I answered Canada and she said 'Montreal?' and I said no, it's closer to Toronto and she said 'Montreal?' and I said no, it's sort of close to Montreal, kind of close to Ottawa. And she said 'Montreal?' and I said yeah, I'm from Montreal.
So, going back to Christmas, I'll be at school for Christmas. Christmas Day is my school's sports competition because Boxing Day is the school's birthday. So I need to be at school early on Saturday. I haven't had a proper sleep in so long. Since over a week ago, I've been going to bed at 11:00ish and waking up at 6:00. I couldn't sleep in this weekend either because of the Speech Contest and mountain climbing. And next weekend is my school's birthday. I'm not sure what my class if doing. I think we're selling food and they want me to help them out, which I'm happy to do. Thankfully, I don't start until 11:00. I'm also making them cards that say Merry Christmas in both Chinese and English and taping some hershey's kisses and hugs that my parents sent me to them and some candy canes whichI found here for really cheap. I'll distribute those on Friday.
Well, it's almost time to head back to class. Sorry this took so long. I'll write again to tell about Christmas and my school birthday. Happy first day of winter!
Monday, December 7, 2009
Going's On
Hello again, it's been a while. Well, just over a week. I'll give you a little update on my life here.
On Saturday, I went to my friend Aurelia's school birthday party. She's from France. It was a lot of fun, but I got there late because I wanted to sleep in. It started at 7:30 and if I wanted to be there on time, I'd have to leave at 6:00 which is what I have to do everyday during the week! And I really needed sleep. So I got there at about 11:00. By then, it was mostly done, so we only stayed a while then me and Aurelia went to Xi-Men for the afternoon.
Sunday I went to Reuifang with Imme, the girl at my school from Holland, her host brother, Bob (not Bobby, Bob, he told me many times), and our host parents. It was pretty fun! We had to take an actual train to get there, not just an MRT, a real train! When we got there, we went to Gold Ecological Park which used to be a mining town, but not anymore. And as soon as we got off the bus that we took from the train station, we heard this high pitched whining. It was awful! We kept walking and found the source- a musical saw. That's an oxymoron if I ever heard one. He had CDs and everything. He even had a microphone as if the natural noise wasn't enough!
We climbed Teapot Mountain (called teapot because there's a rock that looks like a teapot at the top) and when we got to the top, we could still hear him! I made a video, I'll upload it to facebook later. Then we got back down and went to market. It was a good day! But I never have free time anymore! I'm just going all the time! My weekends are officially booked until the new year.
This morning, our school hosted 300 Japanese students. I kid you not, 300 Japanese students!! We had a welcoming ceremony at 8:30, then our class hosted 41 of them. We made cookies with them. Every Japanese student was paired with a Taiwanese student. Seeing as there are 44 students in my class, 3 people were left without a Japanese partner. One girl was so upset, she was crying! but I told her she could hang out with me because I didn't have a partner either, and I'm much cooler then the Japanese because I'm from much further. She laughed and we had a good time. I helped teach some Japanese students how to do the Sorry Sorry dance, they were so surprised I could do it! And I was also needed to help decipher their accents. Between the Taiwanese couldn't understand Japanese and the Japanese couldn't understand Chinese, so everyone spoke English. Mostly, people wrote notes to each other.
We had to use very dangerous looking knives in cooking class, and my classmate, Dicky (not kidding, that's the English name he picked for himself) , was washing one, then he brought it to the counter and started drying it with a paper towel. I said 'xiao xing!' which means be careful and he said 'Ah!' I jumped and he went to tell my other classmates that Mo-Li had just spoken Chinese. It's so funny, I felt like a baby saying my first word. I told them (in Chinese) that I've been here over 3 months now, it's inevitable that I'm picking up on the language.
Then we had a dance party while we waited for the cookies to bake. It was a lot of fun! The Japanese students didn't really talk to me, and I now I know why: they thought I was American! I'm sure most of you remember from Grade 10 History that the USA bombed Japan at the end of World War 2 and I'm sure they're not too pleased with the USA. Come to think of it, I only told 2 people I was from Canada, and when I did, they burst into a smile and said oh! So cool!
Our Chinese play. Oh, you do not want to know. But I'll tell you anyway, I need advice. So, about 2 weeks ago, 老師 or laoshi (teacher) finished translating my play into Chinese. Actually, I helped her so we could speed it up and start practicing as soon as possible. Let me remind you that when I first read the script , everyone loved it and was so enthusiastic about it! Before I handed them the translated, Chinese version, I asked them if they were willing to put the effort into working on this play and I warned them that they would have to stay after Chinese class and Culture class to get it ready on time because we only have 3 weeks to get it done. They said yes, they were willing and I asked if they were sure and they said yes. Then I asked if anyone wanted to switch parts because they had too many lines or not enough and everyone said they were okay with the way it was and elected me dirctor. I made the biggest mistake every when I said yes. Then I asked them to at least look at their lines before the next class.
So we started the next Chinese class. I brought snacks to thank my classmates for putting time into this play. Already, Myles, from Hawaii who's playing Goyle, decided he didn't want to go because it was American Thanksgiving. I let it go because he recited his lines to me right before he left. Then I had a hard time getting everyone together for practice. But I did after about 20 minutes and we ran through scene 1 out of 6. The next class went a little better, everyone stayed and we went through scenes 1 and 2. Then things started getting difficult. People weren't looking over their lines and Alyssa, who's Harry Potter, was putting up the biggest fuss about practice. I bought snacks every practice, which I should remind you was coming out of my own allowance, and that was the only reason people were staying instead of going to Dongwa or bellydancing or kickboxing.
Last Thursday, 老師 wanted us to read through the script so she could time it at the end of class. Right after we finished, everyone got up and started to leave and I had to fight to get them to stay because we hadn't actually acted it out, we just read. And everyone was complaining and interrupting me and being stupid. Instead of running through all of Scene 4, which is the longest, I gave up and let them go halfway through. Mia, from USA, Ju, from Brazil, and I went into Xi-Men afterwards and I cracked. I just burst into tears and then, once I had calmed down, explained to Ju and Mia that I had put all this effort into writing the play, translating it and now directing it and everyone hated me for it and was taking advantage of it. They assured me that they loved the play and they ran through their lines between practices, and it's true, but most people weren't. We wanted to find scarves with the Slytherin and Gryffindor colours for the play, but we couldn't. Instead we found a lady that made ties for NT$100, which is about $3 Canadian. We told the class about it on Thursday and 4/6 people gave me money, so we ordered them and found out that the lady had lied to us, the ties were actually NT$150. Which is no big deal. We payed her what we had and promised to get the rest to her on Monday.
Yesterday, practice was just for the dancers because we needed to get their dance worked out, and that turned out okay. But when I told the class I needed NT$50 extra for the ties, everyone started moaning like I was asking for their life's savings and tried to pressure me into bargaining with the lady to lower the price. I almost snapped at them then, but I didn't. I bit my tongue and told them it's not the end of the world, NT$150 for a tie is actually really good. They're just a bunch of babies. And it's the beginning of the month, so I know they all just got their NT$4000 allowance.
Now I just found out that the Australian guy, Breff, is having a goodbye party during Culture class tomorrow and that's when I wanted to have our next practice. I just know taht people are going to try to sneak away and I don't know if I'll be able to take anymore of Myles and Bailey's whining. I'm worried I'll break down and get mad at them. Any advice? Should I give them a piece of my mind or should I just say forget it, they're obviously not interested in this play anymore so why should I make them do something they don't want to? Anyway, email me with any answers, plus I'd love to hear from whoever's reading this!
Other than that, things are going okay. Christmas is coming! I'm so excited even if no one here celebrates it.
On Saturday, I went to my friend Aurelia's school birthday party. She's from France. It was a lot of fun, but I got there late because I wanted to sleep in. It started at 7:30 and if I wanted to be there on time, I'd have to leave at 6:00 which is what I have to do everyday during the week! And I really needed sleep. So I got there at about 11:00. By then, it was mostly done, so we only stayed a while then me and Aurelia went to Xi-Men for the afternoon.
Sunday I went to Reuifang with Imme, the girl at my school from Holland, her host brother, Bob (not Bobby, Bob, he told me many times), and our host parents. It was pretty fun! We had to take an actual train to get there, not just an MRT, a real train! When we got there, we went to Gold Ecological Park which used to be a mining town, but not anymore. And as soon as we got off the bus that we took from the train station, we heard this high pitched whining. It was awful! We kept walking and found the source- a musical saw. That's an oxymoron if I ever heard one. He had CDs and everything. He even had a microphone as if the natural noise wasn't enough!
We climbed Teapot Mountain (called teapot because there's a rock that looks like a teapot at the top) and when we got to the top, we could still hear him! I made a video, I'll upload it to facebook later. Then we got back down and went to market. It was a good day! But I never have free time anymore! I'm just going all the time! My weekends are officially booked until the new year.
This morning, our school hosted 300 Japanese students. I kid you not, 300 Japanese students!! We had a welcoming ceremony at 8:30, then our class hosted 41 of them. We made cookies with them. Every Japanese student was paired with a Taiwanese student. Seeing as there are 44 students in my class, 3 people were left without a Japanese partner. One girl was so upset, she was crying! but I told her she could hang out with me because I didn't have a partner either, and I'm much cooler then the Japanese because I'm from much further. She laughed and we had a good time. I helped teach some Japanese students how to do the Sorry Sorry dance, they were so surprised I could do it! And I was also needed to help decipher their accents. Between the Taiwanese couldn't understand Japanese and the Japanese couldn't understand Chinese, so everyone spoke English. Mostly, people wrote notes to each other.
We had to use very dangerous looking knives in cooking class, and my classmate, Dicky (not kidding, that's the English name he picked for himself) , was washing one, then he brought it to the counter and started drying it with a paper towel. I said 'xiao xing!' which means be careful and he said 'Ah!' I jumped and he went to tell my other classmates that Mo-Li had just spoken Chinese. It's so funny, I felt like a baby saying my first word. I told them (in Chinese) that I've been here over 3 months now, it's inevitable that I'm picking up on the language.
Then we had a dance party while we waited for the cookies to bake. It was a lot of fun! The Japanese students didn't really talk to me, and I now I know why: they thought I was American! I'm sure most of you remember from Grade 10 History that the USA bombed Japan at the end of World War 2 and I'm sure they're not too pleased with the USA. Come to think of it, I only told 2 people I was from Canada, and when I did, they burst into a smile and said oh! So cool!
Our Chinese play. Oh, you do not want to know. But I'll tell you anyway, I need advice. So, about 2 weeks ago, 老師 or laoshi (teacher) finished translating my play into Chinese. Actually, I helped her so we could speed it up and start practicing as soon as possible. Let me remind you that when I first read the script , everyone loved it and was so enthusiastic about it! Before I handed them the translated, Chinese version, I asked them if they were willing to put the effort into working on this play and I warned them that they would have to stay after Chinese class and Culture class to get it ready on time because we only have 3 weeks to get it done. They said yes, they were willing and I asked if they were sure and they said yes. Then I asked if anyone wanted to switch parts because they had too many lines or not enough and everyone said they were okay with the way it was and elected me dirctor. I made the biggest mistake every when I said yes. Then I asked them to at least look at their lines before the next class.
So we started the next Chinese class. I brought snacks to thank my classmates for putting time into this play. Already, Myles, from Hawaii who's playing Goyle, decided he didn't want to go because it was American Thanksgiving. I let it go because he recited his lines to me right before he left. Then I had a hard time getting everyone together for practice. But I did after about 20 minutes and we ran through scene 1 out of 6. The next class went a little better, everyone stayed and we went through scenes 1 and 2. Then things started getting difficult. People weren't looking over their lines and Alyssa, who's Harry Potter, was putting up the biggest fuss about practice. I bought snacks every practice, which I should remind you was coming out of my own allowance, and that was the only reason people were staying instead of going to Dongwa or bellydancing or kickboxing.
Last Thursday, 老師 wanted us to read through the script so she could time it at the end of class. Right after we finished, everyone got up and started to leave and I had to fight to get them to stay because we hadn't actually acted it out, we just read. And everyone was complaining and interrupting me and being stupid. Instead of running through all of Scene 4, which is the longest, I gave up and let them go halfway through. Mia, from USA, Ju, from Brazil, and I went into Xi-Men afterwards and I cracked. I just burst into tears and then, once I had calmed down, explained to Ju and Mia that I had put all this effort into writing the play, translating it and now directing it and everyone hated me for it and was taking advantage of it. They assured me that they loved the play and they ran through their lines between practices, and it's true, but most people weren't. We wanted to find scarves with the Slytherin and Gryffindor colours for the play, but we couldn't. Instead we found a lady that made ties for NT$100, which is about $3 Canadian. We told the class about it on Thursday and 4/6 people gave me money, so we ordered them and found out that the lady had lied to us, the ties were actually NT$150. Which is no big deal. We payed her what we had and promised to get the rest to her on Monday.
Yesterday, practice was just for the dancers because we needed to get their dance worked out, and that turned out okay. But when I told the class I needed NT$50 extra for the ties, everyone started moaning like I was asking for their life's savings and tried to pressure me into bargaining with the lady to lower the price. I almost snapped at them then, but I didn't. I bit my tongue and told them it's not the end of the world, NT$150 for a tie is actually really good. They're just a bunch of babies. And it's the beginning of the month, so I know they all just got their NT$4000 allowance.
Now I just found out that the Australian guy, Breff, is having a goodbye party during Culture class tomorrow and that's when I wanted to have our next practice. I just know taht people are going to try to sneak away and I don't know if I'll be able to take anymore of Myles and Bailey's whining. I'm worried I'll break down and get mad at them. Any advice? Should I give them a piece of my mind or should I just say forget it, they're obviously not interested in this play anymore so why should I make them do something they don't want to? Anyway, email me with any answers, plus I'd love to hear from whoever's reading this!
Other than that, things are going okay. Christmas is coming! I'm so excited even if no one here celebrates it.
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