When are you absent-minded?

The past week has been insane.

Saturday night we went out for Angela's birthday. Of course we went to our usual club — Search — but this time Angela reserved tables. That put a nice twist on things and we all had a blast. (Except for when that super creepy Taiwanese guy kept following me around the dance floor and literally tried to kiss me at one point...)

Every time we go to this beach we go all the way down to this old war bunker to set up camp.

Do you go to sleep when you go to bed?

Monday I had my first Chinese class. It's hard. I'm not sure how great I will be at it. But it will be a relief to actually know what is going on around me once I start to learn a little.

I'm already picking up a bit.

I've been doing a lot of subbing this week. Most of my classes have been great, but there was one that was really boring. The kids were just slow at everything not to mention there were a million of them. It made it really hard to get anything done, so we didn't have time to play many games.

I've decided that I really hate when the Taiwanese co-teacher starts speaking Chinese to the kids. We try to treat our classes as a whole-English environment, the idea being that these kids have no where else to go to practice their English for the most part.

Sometimes we'll ask them what something is in Chinese just to make sure that they actually understand what the word is in English, but most of the time, we look for English definitions. I had this co-teacher yesterday who just kept talking to the kids in Chinese.

At first it was to explain a concept, apparently the phrases for "go to bed" and "go to sleep" are the same in Chinese so the kids didn't understand the difference in English. Then she just kept talking in Chinese and made a few jokes, etc.

This ended up with me getting uncomfortable. It's hard to have control over a class if you don't know what's going on. It's not that I think she was talking about me. In general, the Taiwanese are fairly non-confrontational. It was more about the fact that I looked like an idiot up there in front of those kids. This does not help with the whole respect factor.

Things I've learned so far in Taiwan:

Maybe it's just the ones here, but I'm getting this impression that Canadians have a pretty negative perception of Americans. It's a number of things, and they won't necessarily come out and say it to your face — although I suppose some might — but there has been a lot of America-hating in the dorm. Of all the people in the dorm, I think about 5 or 6 of us are American; everyone else is Canadian. It's not like they have a problem with me in particular or something, just with the way they think most Americans act or our general (capitalist) attitude toward things.

On that note, it is pointless to try to change a Canadian's mind or to test them on what they think they know. They seem to have a very unwavering perception of us.

What do I think about Canadians? I can't decide yet, though I have come to realize that I don't know anything about Canada. Does anyone remember learning much about Canada in grade school? I think this may have something to do with their disdain for us.

Next, Taiwanese people's English will probably always be better than my Chinese if for no reason other than they would rather speak English to me than have to suffer through my Mandarin.

Also, foreign men here are not interested in the foreign women here. It's a little frustrating at first, but one I am already quickly hurdling over. It comes off more annoying than anything at this point. Also, it's not such a bad thing to not get a lot of attention. Fading into the background helps me just see things for what they are.

Lastly, I have more respect now than I ever did for all of my grade school teachers. While I am only in the beginning of all of this, I realize that this is a hard job. I'm sure it's harder by at least 10 back home where kids don't care and have zero respect for their teachers.