First quiz; Famous Artist Yu Peng; First Tutoring Session; Homework Assignment

So I had my first quiz today and I think I did really poor...I got home around 11:30 PM last night and then I took a shower and some laundry and by the time I was settled and ready to study it was past midnight. So I didn't get to bed until nearly 3 AM as I had to finish my homework and study the 40 vocab words. It took forever because I had to keep looking up traditional characters that I couldn't figure out. Well, I wasn't the only one that did poorly on today's quiz..during the break the French girl went up to look at the posted answers to the quiz and she started to cry...no joke. She broke down and sobbed for at least 20 minutes. It was awkward, so I got up and went to the bathroom. When I came back she was still wiping her eyes and her eyes were bloodshot. The teacher told everyone not to worry (dan xin) that it was the first quiz and everyone's still getting accustomed to class and the teacher and etc. She also looked over at me and said that some people have never learned traditional either and that it will take some time to get used to.

After class I went to eat with my classmates, except the guy from Pusan, S. Korea went off with his Korean gf (I think?). And the French girl decided to eat at the cafe in front of the MTC instead of getting a real substantial meal at a restaurant in the night market (her loss).

We went to Stone Bowl, a Korean restaurant, the second time I've been there. They have a 99 yuan lunch special (that's $3), and there's free barley tea and xian cao dessert. I got a ma la huo guo (numb and spicy fire pot) w/ beef and dong fen (vermicelli noodles). It was so spicy it made me cough, even though I requested zhong la.

During lunch, after realizing what was happening I set the ground rules. I established that only one universal language was to be spoken-Mandarin Chinese. Since prior half the table would break out into Japanese and then Jimmy and me would start speaking in English. Oh yeah my class is basically comprised of Japanese students, plus one French girl, one Korean, one Thai girl, and two Americans (Jimmy is from Kansas U.). Maru, Masao, and Nico are Japanese but Maru is half-Taiwanese and he lives with his aunt in Yonghe district.

We agreed to go to Ji ling (??) ye shi (night market) on the weekend and we traded #s and MSN addresses. The Japanese girl lives in Xinhai Lu which is really close to me and Jimmy is the second closest, living by Daan Park.

I told them all about foreigner's night at Wax Club (all you can drink with a 350 NT cover) but they said we have a test on Thursday...I forgot...so now I'm not so sure. Maybe I'll go next week but I want to do well on my first test. I don't want to lose my scholarship (if you get below an 80 average you lose your stipend for that month).

_________

Oh this should have been posted with my blog on Ho Laoshi's mei mei (Ho Chun Li) but this will do. She works for the National Science Foundation (but the Humanities department) and she is married to a famous Taiwanese artist. NYC's MET is having a contemporary E. Asian art exhibit and his work is shown there. Apparently all of the artists are from mainland China except for him.

I took some photos of the booklet she gave me. These are some I liked:






Yu Peng. (I think these are his...there are two artists featured in this booklet...).

Oh yeah and speaking of her reminds me that I have to meet up with her son tonight to tutor from 7-9 PM...sigh...then I'm going to take the MRT to gu gong stop to pick up my glasses and then photocopy my passport (I have to get it from my aunt) and other materials for the scholarship process.

I also need to e-mail/call her to set the price and the process of payment. I'm told that the normal charge for one-on-one English tutoring is 700-1000 NTD/ hour. I feel awkward calling her and saying that so I'm going to e-mail it first...

My aunt said I have to settle the price and payment process before I teach her son...
_______________________
This is completely unrelated to Taiwan or anything but...the beginning of the new Britney Spears song, "gimmie more" cracks me up. Go listen to it. "It's Britney, bitch. I see you....::retarded laughter::"

It's hilarious. (I didn't realize how creepy that really is until Jess pointed it out). I still find it hilarious. I heard another song from her new album I forgot what it was called but I stopped it after 7 seconds because it was horrible.

UPDATE 6:03 PM

I called my 21 yr old student and told him I could only meet for an hour tonight bc I was so busy and he said next Tuesday then. Thank G-d!

That's a load off my chest. Taking the subway over to some random place would have wasted over an hour too. This kid is so lazy...he was sleeping when I called..and he refuses to switch trains so he wants to meet at that far place bc it's closer to him...

Anyways, I have to study grammar patterns for the quiz tomorrow, where I will have to write out sentences w/ traditional characters...YIKES! (I could barely handle writing phrases in traditional...).

We also have an oral report tomorrow on a tv episode we have to watch tonight. She wants us all to buy a newspaper and then choose a show we would like to watch.

I have to say this is the most challenging (tiao3 zhang4-that's a new vocab word from Ch. 17!) Chinese class I have ever taken in my life...and I think it is highly effective. I am learning a lot every single day. I learned a lot of new grammar patterns today and I think I'm getting better at recognizing traditional characters.

The teacher is firm but nice. She helps you a little but she doesn't let you give up...when I couldn't figure out many words in this one sentence I wanted her to just read it for me so I could answer the problem but she would just give me hints and wait for me to figure it out. She really makes you think.