A week has already passed me by since I tried to look over The Strait of China and see China. A week and a half has passed by since I watched my shadows spin out from under me in the alley ways late at night. I feel my time here in stinky Taipei (said affectionately because of stinky tofu) winding down, or winding away, however we say it in English. English, whatever that is, a tangled mass of broken rules, that's what it is. As for Chinese, I think that languages were never meant to be learned, only absorbed by children through a mysterious natural process. It's a miracle to me that information of any meaning is ever transmitted from one human to another. It only seems possible for one to understand the meaning of a sentence if they already know the meaning of the sentence. But maybe that's what makes it so fun to learn.

I'm not sure how hot it was today, but I think it was in the mid 80s today, some of my classmates also commented on how hot it was today. The body gets used to it though, I think my body will complete it's final stage of acclimation December 24, 2008, the day before I leave for home. Maybe my body will never be the same, I'll forever be one of those people who can't stand the cold, forever trying to close windows and doors and adjusting heat knobs.

Today I successfully Twittered from my cell phone which you should be able to see to the right on the side bar, I guess the message I sent is already gone, it said that I was blogging from class and not paying attention. Just what the world needs, another way to interact with people electronically. Someday we'll be able to send smells to each other electronically, or maybe a Internet heart rate monitor so people can check to see how excited we are at any given moment of the day. If we could get restaurants to cooperate we could have an electronic public record of each meal we've eaten. I guess I already have that here. I don't need no new fangled mealblog.

Other than my quick little Twitter during class I can't say that there was anything special about class today, or this week. The first hour we learned new words, the second hour we were tired and drowsy, and the third hour we were obnoxious and rowdy. My teacher asked me, due to my trying to do an exaggerated Valley girl accent in Chinese to Jason across the room, if it was "showtime." I think today was especially chaotic in class. Maybe it's because it was Friday, maybe we're all just getting to used to each other. Maybe the teacher student dynamic is just all messed up when half the students are adults, even if they don't act like adults, or at least that American student who never knows what page we're on...

I guess I'm running out of things to say about Taiwan, things to blog about. I no longer notice the narrow sidewalks or the animal part shops selling animal parts, cut anyway you'd like. I don't hear the hustle and bustle of the street below my bedroom window. I don't smell the cancer causing incense wafting down the street from the innumerable temples on every block in this city. I don't notice Chinese faces anymore, I notice foreign ones and wonder where they are from or what they are doing here. No nowadays I'm in my own world, disrupting classes, watching my shadows, trying to write as small as I can with my 0.28mm tipped roller ball green pen in my New Intermediate Chinese Dialogue textbook, I can write entire definitions in the white spaces between lines of text! Using green instead of black helps it to not blend in with the other text.

Yes. I guess I can say that I've successfully conquered Taiwan, by spacing out. What country shall I conquer next? Will I one day find myself in Africa drawing eyeball pupils in all the letter o's? Or will I find the perfect way to arrange and align the contents of all my pockets somewhere in South America? (edit 476) Permalink