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.