busy

hi,

just a quick one to say i'm still alive, i have my own (cheap) computer now, xmas was relatively uneventfull, and i hope to have some more time to post something this weekend.

naming rights

one of the things that you occasionally get to do as an english teacher in taiwan is to give a kid an english name. i started a new class last night, and as i prepared i noticed that several of the kids had no western names listed. i thought about all of the good names - i have thought about using names from the nba here in basketball crazy taiwan, but my boss told me to make the names normal. i love the idea of having a student named Lebron (i could call him 'bron 'bron!) but it would be a little weird. besides, at some point i may be given a chinese name so i don't want to create bad name karma. i really like my grandfather's name - Marshall. It's a good southern name, it sounds very American to me, and it's possibly coming back into vogue thanks to eminem. but when it came down to it, these kids didn't look like Marshalls. Ultimately, I had two boys to name, and i named them Mark and Kevin after my good friends from college. I now feel kind of protective of these two - as i teach them ABC i really want them to do well. So far, mark is doing fine, but kevin is a little bit slow. there was also a girl with no name, and the moment she walked in i knew that she should be called Sarah. As it turned out, she had already been named Sarah. i guess someone else agreed with me.

christmas

oh, a little bit about xmas here. people keep asking me if i'm doing anything to celebrate, so i guess i'm supposed to care. but with limited $ and no interest in the holiday, it doesn't mean too much to me. kojen is going to force me to teach the students some ridiculously simplified versions of carols (and their choices are bizarre for little kids - little drummer boy but no frosty the snowman), and apparently i have to go caroling in the night market on xmas eve. as part of a freakish band of foriegn dumbasses i expect some odd looks. on the plus side, i have been asked to dress up as santa claus which gives me an excuse to work on my billy bob thornton impression. i need to make sure i have the hip flask filled with whiskey handy - isn't it funny how drunken santa has become a cliche? anyway, at least i don't have to deal with the xmas shopping season in the us.

busy

working and going to chinese class have reduced the free hours that i can devote to this blog. also, sleep is extremely important because i work around children who are, let's face it, festering disease carriers. my coworkers are all sick, and if my first experience of taiwan flu is any indication, they are all suffering terribly. smokers seem to have a continuous flu from october to may. anyway, i'm taking multivitamins and trying to sleep 7 hours minimum (not always possible). getting run down is a very bad idea.

in addition to my chinese class, i have started a language exchange with a taiwanese teaching assistant from work. at the moment, because my chinese is limited, most of our time is spent on english grammar and conversation. i go over my textbook and homework with her and she helps me with my tones. she is very nice - i told her i was interested in tea and she bought me her favorite convenience store jasmine tea. we meet in mcdonalds.

today after class richard and i went out with our teacher and one other student for shui jiao (fried dumplings). she knew a good place, and we had wonderful shui jiao, steamed dumplings, and hot and sour soup. yum. now i'm exhausted and about to drink a lot of tea - i seem to have developed a mild caffeine dependence. today is my day off (for now - it seems likely that it will change soon) so i will study chinese this afternoon, cook myself some dinner, and get to bed early. did i mention that i'm tired?

rip dirt mcgirt