Lunch with Angela

After my haircut we went out to eat. Decided on a Japanese restaurant that turned out to be really really good. You had your own skillet thing built into a table for 4 people. And then the waiters cooked your food right there in front of you. It was awesome and yummy!!

Angela, all ready to cook! Our table
Before - pork, noodles, sprouts, lettuce, spices
After - delicious!
Before - hamburger, potatoes, butter, onions, and some other things

The middle and after - so yummy!! It was cool to see and hear him chop stuff up so fast.

Because it's more soupy, chopsticks won't work so you get a little stick/spoon thing to eat with.

Potatoes and butter, yum yum. They were really soft, I thought Megan and Dad would enjoy these a lot.

My Asian Haircut

I decided to chop all my hair off again.  It's always so cute in this country when it's short.  I think the humidity and water makes a big difference, plus a lot of people stare and complement on it since they never see curl like this.  I sort of forgot about the whole haircut ritual here.  It wasn't actually that expensive considering everything they did. 

For about $25 I got there at 12:30 and started off with a neck and shoulder massage.  My first massage ever (in any country) and very painful, I have extremely sensitive skin so I was cringing, but after the stressful/emotion week of a lot of overtime and Gretchen leaving I kept telling myself I needed it.  Then I was taken behind a wall to sinks where I was put in a massage chair and the girl shampooed and conditioned my hair, during that time giving me a head massage.  She put something else in my hair too, but I don't know what it was exactly. 

After the massages were finished, another girl came, she was the one actually going to cut my hair.  After Angela helped me explain I wanted it all chopped off, she started looking and found the little curls at the nape of my neck and preceded to say "so cute" (in Chinese) about 5 or 6 times during the actual hair cut process.  Also during this time, 4 girls that I'm pretty sure worked there would stop near me and watch her cut my hair.  It was a very interesting experience.  After the cut was finished, they rinsed my hair out, styled it and dried it.  Full service!!

My camera woman and translator, Angela!

The before shot.

 

The picture I brought in to give the hairdresser and idea of what I wanted.  She was worried I wanted the same curls, Kari Russell has bigger curls, but I said not to worry, the more you cut the curlier it'll get!

Cutting it off!

Halfway finished, the back is so short I love it

 

We made a mess!

 

Finished and stylin!

Maokong Gondola

After the Dragon Boat, Gretchen and I had a few hours of time to kill so we went on the gondola because she had never been.  It was my second time, but just as fun.

This doesn't do well with my small fear of heights, but I get over it quickly with the awesome views!

 

She wasn't really expecting this picture, haha.

 

A little cafeteria like area.

 

We got yummy fruit drinks there!

 

Tea houses, Maokong mountain is famous for its tea and many tea houses.

 

I finished my drink quickly, so yummy!

 

This is probably one of my favorite pictures with Gretchen.  We had to get a pic next to a giant teapot, wouldn't you??

Dragon Boat

June 6-8th was the Dragon Boat festival. I big international boat race. All three days have continous races between groups of all ages and some other activities. Not as much going on as week expected, but it was fun for a couple hours.

A race just finished so everyone's getting out of the boats.

I'm pretty sure this was a high school team.

This is a Filipino team, not sure if there was a specific US team, but saw a lot of foreigners that could have been American/Canadian.

The entrance to the festival. The walkway behind us is full of vendors. It kind of reminded me of a carnival or fair, only much smaller.

Corn dogs!! This was Natalie's first one ever. It was pretty good!

Here's a video that I took just because it's interesting to hear the drums and whistles for them to keep the rowing beat.

The game continues...

There's a tag game going around the blogs, and it finally got to me through Megan. I have to give you three things in certain categories and then tag 4 other people to do the same thing.

And don't worry, there will be more blogs this weekend about stuff going on with me.

My joys:
1. Family and friends - I put the two together because the friends I have are like family to me
2. Books
3. My "Children"

My fears:
1. Living/dying alone
2. Scorpions - don't ask
3. Making people around me unhappy

My goals:
1. Have my own family
2. After another year in Taiwan, find a lasting career that suits me
3. Always enjoy life

My current obsessions/collections:
1. Books :)
2. Music
3. Little random Taiwanese knickknacks that have bad English on them

Random surprising facts about me:
1. I love office supplies
2. I have a dozen notebooks of different sizes filled with the randomness in my head because I think if I write it down it'll clear up my brain a bit lol....I was wrong haha
3. I like to organize (alphabetize, categorize) but my room is always a mess

I tag:
1. Gretchen - because I miss her
2. Chris
3. And Kelly
4. Scott - Megan already tagged him, but I don't know that many bloggers and it's been so long since he's posted anything maybe getting tagged twice will get him motivated!

What's in a name?

I saw this on another blog and decided to try it. You type in your full name and they tell you what it means and the numbers related to it. I'm not happy that my name means bitter (thanks mom and dad haha). I hope I'm not bitter...but the rest of it is so true.

You entered: Marisa Leigh Rose

There are 15 letters in your name.Those 15 letters total to 78
There are 7 vowels and 8 consonants in your name.

What your first name means:
Spanish Female Bitter.
Latin Female Variant of Maria.
Hebrew Female Variant of Mary: Wished-for child; rebellion; bitter.
English Female Variant of Maria.

Your number is: 6
The characteristics of #6 are: Responsibility, protection, nurturing, community, balance, sympathy.

The expression or destiny for #6: The number 6 Expression provides you a truly outstanding sense of responsibility, love, and balance. The 6 is helpful and ever conscientious, making you quite capable of rectifying and balancing any sort of inharmonious situation. You are a person very much inclined to give help and comfort to those in need. You have a natural penchant for working with the old, the young, the sick, or the underprivileged. Although you may have considerable creative and artistic talents, the chances are that you will devote yourself to an occupation that shows concern for the betterment of the community.

The positive side of the number 6 suggests that you are very loving, friendly, and appreciative of others. You have a depth of understanding that produces much sympathetic, kindness, and generosity. The qualities of the 6 make the finest and most concerned parent and one often deeply involved in domestic activities. Openness and honesty is apparent in your approach to all relationships.

If there is an excess of the number 6 in your makeup, you may exhibit some of the negative traits associated with this number. There may be a tendency for you to be too exacting and demanding of yourself. In this regard, you may at times sacrifice yourself (or your loved ones) for the welfare of others. In some cases, the over zealous 6 has difficulty distinguishing helping from interfering. You may have difficulty expressing your own individuality, because of involvement with responsibilities and causes. Like all with the Expression of the number 6, it's quite likely that you worry much too much.

Your Soul Urge number is: 9
A Soul Urge number of 9 means: With a 9 Soul Urge, you want to give to others, usually in a humanitarian or philanthropic manner. You are highly motivated to give friendship, affection and love. And you are generous in giving of your knowledge and experience. You have very sharing urges, and you are likely to have a great deal to share. Your concern for others makes you a very sympathetic and generous person with a sensitive and compassionate nature.
You are able to view life in very broad and intuitive terms. You often express high ideals and an inspirational approach to life. If you are able to fully realize the potential of your motivation, you will be a very self-sacrificing person who is able to give freely without being concerned about any return or reward.

As with all human beings, you are prone to sometimes express the negative attitudes inherent to your Soul Urges. You may become too sensitive and tend to express emotions strongly at times. There can be significant conflict between higher aims and personal ambitions. You may resent the idea of giving all of the time and, in fact, if there is too much 9 energy in your nature you may reject the idea. You may often be disappointed in the lack of perfection in yourself and others.

Your Inner Dream number is: 6
An Inner Dream number of 6 means: You dream of guiding and fostering the perfect family in the perfect home. You crave the devotion from offspring and a loving spouse. You picture yourself in the center of a successful domestic unit.

Enterovirus

(Mom don't read this :P)

From an online news site:
Taiwan has barred children aged under five from going to public play areas in a bid to contain the spread of a highly contagious virus that has killed seven so far this year, officials said Sunday. Playgrounds at fast food outlets and hospitals in northern Taipei county were shut down from Saturday, as officials raced to sterilise hundreds of kindergartens and elementary schools.
The highly contagious enterovirus 71, or EV71, can lead to acute hand, foot and mouth disease, which is most dangerous to the young. Dozens of children have died of the illness in mainland China this year.
In Taiwan, the latest victim was an 11-month-old baby from southern Chiayi county who died on Friday, just four days after he was found to have contracted the virus, health officials said.
A total of 192 children in Taiwan have developed severe symptoms after contracting the virus this year, according to official data. — AFP


This week my class roll has gone back up to the full 14 students. But last week, most days I had a maximum of 10 students show, the beginning of the week having only 6-8 students. I finally asked someone and found out children were dying because of this. It's very scary and parents are worried, some thinking of taking their students out of school for awhile. Our ball pool/play room is closed this week for cleaning, and a lot of Chinese teachers stay a bit later to clean classrooms. 5 years ago it was SARS, this time it's enterovirus. Although this is really only harmful to children, most adults have developed immunity to this and related viruses through exposure.

I worry because my ongoing cold/sinuses obviously aren't helping the children, but I hope I'm not spreading something else too. Apparently this isn't the first time they've had an outbreak of this, there was a really bad one in 1998 with 78 deaths, and smaller occurrences in 2000 and 2001. Lets just hope this is a small outbreak too.

Creative-less

I'm tired of art!!! I'm hoping when I find a new school to work at that either: A) I never have to teach arts and crafts, B) they supply numerous art ideas, or C) they ALWAYS have materials for art. I think if I had supplies available or knew that when I asked for something I'd get it, I wouldn't be complaining as much. But when we've only had one color of paint available for the last 3 months, it gets annoying. Especially since I have to teach art to 2 year olds, that makes it even more limited. And I feel bad when I have to repeat similar things, like coloring two days out of three, or even all three days because I have nothing else. The creative part of my brain has shrunk and it's tired :P But I still come up (or find online) some of the best art projects out of all the teachers. Mine always get displayed in the reception area. Which again just puts more pressure on me to come up with good stuff! I think it's also more stressful because now instead of the 10-12 babies I'd teach the beginning of this year, it's up to 20...in one 30 minute class!! Even if I come up with a good project that needs extra materials, I need 20 sets of materials. 3 times a week....le sigh. Does tomorrow have to be Monday??

Hip Hop....Doritos??

 

Doritos have been coming out with a lot of new flavors.  When we had our baking party the girls brought over a bunch of snacks, this bag of chips was one of them.  Yes, the picture on the bag is mozzarella sticks and marinara sauce, like something you'd get at a restaurant as an appetizer.  Apparently, they've put those flavors into these chips, I'm not kidding you, I could taste it.  They were actually good, but very strange.  I don't know if new product ideas get tested here before they end up (or don't end up) in the US.  But I've seen (and eaten) some strange stuff! 

Chinese Homework

I've been wanting to work on my Chinese some more.  But I can't afford classes at the moment and it's hard to practice my speaking when I work at a school that requires English only and when I go out I'm mainly using the same phrases over and over.  So I decided to work on my writing until I have better opportunities.  So I asked a co-teacher if she'd check my homework once a week (usually on Fridays).  I told her to use a red pen and don't be nice!  It's been going well and the other Chinese teachers help me out too.

 

Why I don't clean...(pay attention mom!)

I need to clean my room, I'm actually in the process right now.  I hate cleaning, mainly because I get so distracted while I'm doing it.  Not that I'm necessarily trying to procrastinate, but I just find things I want to look through or organize. I actually believe my room gets a lot messier while I clean. If I have an OCD, it comes out in full speed when I clean.   

 

I do start cleaning with good intentions, but eventually I'll decide to alphabetize my books, or reorganize my closet, or, as the case was today, sort through my hair accessories.

This is what ended up happening.  I completely moved everything and had specific spots for it all.  I guarantee you in a week it'll be a mess again, but for now it looks nice :)

It mainly started with a need to organize my hair clips.  I have so many just thrown into a box that I never use them because I have to dig to find matching ones.  I came up with a way to keep them all separate and organized.

 

This is obviously a pointless blog, and I'll be waiting for the comments from my sister calling my a dork!  I just find it interesting to pick out my weird habits.  Next time I'll show you my bookshelves and explain how their organized by number of pages and titles!

Shopping :)

Yesterday (Saturday) Gretchen, Natalie, Melanie and I went into Taipei city to see Indiana Jones (it wasn't bad by the way).  We had some time to waste before the movie so we went to some nearby stores to do some shopping.  For the longest time I've wanted a purse like I see so many women have.  They're huge!!  My first thought when I see them is how many books could I fit inside?!?  Finally, I found one that I liked and got it.  It wasn't too expensive and it's orange.  I haven't tested to see how many books I can put inside, but I am excited to find out ;)  I may be a nerd, but I'm a nerd with style!!

Once in a lifetime...

I'm fairly certain this will be the only time in my life that my bank account will have a balance of 109,978 dollars.  If only it was US dollars!!!  This happened in May when I didn't spend much money and got taxes back, of course my account isn't like this anymore because I wired money home and had to pay bills :) but it was fun to say I had a 100,000 dollars.  And even when you convert it to USD it's still nice to have that much!