Summer is usually the time that foreign teachers have a lot…

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Posted by: BrysonMC Original: 8/23/2007 9:34 PM Views: 6 Comments: 0 eProps: 0 Read Comments Post a Comment Back to Your Xanga Site

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Summer is usually the time that foreign teachers have a lot of time on their hands, but I chose to work my butt off, making sure I had a full schedule taking advantage of the vacations of the others as well as a need for teachers around the city. In less than a month and a half of this full schedule I have already paid off the new laptop. I only have a week left of my summer schedule, but I have a pretty promising demo tomorrow for a kindergarten position, so I'll just be in a different part of the city for the mornings if I get it.

In the Miso Soup... I wish I could write a review of it somewhere. It was really good, but not what the book cover and reviews make it out to be. They compare it to American Psycho and Silence of the Lambs, but having read both I fail to see the similarities other than a somewhat violent and brutal murder scene. the book is really good, but would be lost on anyone who is not a part of, or interested in Asian culture. It plays on the drastic differences between America and Japan, and their respective thoughts and ideas on sex and violence, taken to the extreme. It only took me two days to read it, and like a lot of Douglas Coupland novels, the ending was like poetry in it's simplicity and depth. Man, I sound like an English Major or something.

I feel like I may be here for longer than I thought. It's just the feeling I have right now. No need for alarm... I feel at home walking the streets, entering the night markets and waving to the noodle guy on the corner as he greets me each day. It's a nice feeling.

I started Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez last night before bed and finished about a quarter of the book today on my commute(s). The way he writes I come out of each page feeling drunk on his use of the English language. I love that feeling.

Sometimes the simplicity of someone turning in a grocery line, tucking her hair back behind her ear and saying hello to you with a little tilt of the head and a (not so) innocent smile an make your day. Seeing her again at the stop light and catching a small smile before she drives off on her scooter... nice.

I feel like peanut butter and jam sandwiches, potato chips and root beer tonight. Luckily... I have all three. Not a bad score for Taiwan!

They sell Fanta here in cans. I never knew Fanta existed outside of 1981. I bought a can of Grape Fanta the other day and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was, and reminded me of swimming at my friend Daryl's pool in the summer, drinking pop out of the old cans which had to small holes in the top you had to push in with your finger.

Only four more classes with my little hell children angels. The teacher taking over the class in September is great so it eases my mind a little on what will happen to them, but I still want to keep (some of them).

Probably going to a special Ghost Month Lantern Festival this weekend in Keelung if the weather holds out. No more typhoons would be nice, although the last one was all blow and no bite (I had an ex-girlfriend joke here, but I kept it out so my mom can still read this post).

I am addicted to the following albums right now... 5th Gear (Brad Paisley), Costello Music (The Fratellis), Straight Outta Linwood (Weird Al Yankovich) and Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Giftshop (Stone Temple Pilots). Weird mix...