Studying and Dancing

Classmates: Abe, Cheng Zhong (who has a Vietnamese name I don't know), Me, Ian, Satoshi

I've finished two weeks of classes in my intensive Mandarin course, and it's been great! I'm learning a ton - there's a lot of homework, a small test everyday, and a big test every three days. My teacher is also not much older than I am (I think... maybe she just looks really young), and is really nice. There are only five of us in the class - 2 Japanese guys (one with a Taiwanese father, one with a mainland Chinese father), a Canadian guy, a Vietnamese guy, and me. We usually go to the cafeteria after class for dinner, which is great practice for our Mandarin, because that's the only common language between all of us. The other students look at us kind of funny because of our sub-standard Mandarin, but it's all good. One of the Japanese guys has also now acquired a ping-pong paddle, so we're going to start playing at the student gym next week.

My life also seems to have gotten exceedingly busy these last few weeks. I'm not technically allowed to work in Taiwan, but an English teaching school wants to hire me, so I've been working on changing my visa... a process which has included too many chest x-rays for my liking. I also have private students that I tutor, and have been learning a lot about English grammar to prepare for my lessons! I will also hopefully be performing a lindy hop dance piece on Valentine's Day with another local dancer, which will be awesome (assuming it actually happens)! With all of this "not working", I'm not losing money yet, but I think I may be going dancing too often to actually be making anything... Maybe when I start working at the real English school then that will begin to change...

I went to my first ballroom dance competition (to watch, not to dance) last weekend, and it was amazing! People here seem to be really really good at what they do, and these dancers were no exception. Evidently, one of the latin dance couple's there was the number 4 dance couple in the world (in some category), and they were amazing to watch. They were from mainland China, and there were also a few other guest couples from mainland China and Japan. The Taiwanese dancers were also fantastic, and my harmonica-playing dance friend seemed to know all of the winners.

I also went to my first milonga (tango dance) here last night, and there the dancers were, also, amazing. Unfortunately, dancing doesn't seem to be a good way to make friends with girls, but all the guys I danced with were really, really good. The Taiwanese guys had also learned tango all over the place - one in Paris, one in Italy (he kept trying to speak to me in Italian), and there was even a guy there from Buenos Aires who said my Spanish sounded Argentinian. :) There is a ton to learn here, and a lot of people who seem eager to teach me. At another of the latin dance clubs, one of the singers is from Paraguay, won some music competition in Buenos Aires, and now plays music in Taipei... very cool, and my Spanish certainly comes in handy!

My homestay sister and I also language exchange twice a week - on Tuesdays she teaches me Chinese, and on Thursdays I teach her English. So, to teach me Chinese, she's been taking me all over Taipei pointing at things and telling me what they are, and feeding me all the street foods that she thinks are the tastiest. Not a bad way to learn! It also gives me a lot of time on the back of her motor-bike, and I'm glad she has an extra helmet for me! In Taipei, there are a lot of night markets - concentrated street vendor areas with all sorts of good-smelling things to sell. I live right between two of the biggest universities in Taipei - Taiwan National University (TaiDa) and Taiwan National Normal University (ShiDa), both of which have a lot of food vendors and cheap shops around them. The ShiDa night market is also famous, and it's only a few blocks from my house.

Also, the new Taipei mayor is from the KMT party - who feel more closely related to China. Last Saturday (election day) I hung out with some friends, one of whom supports the KMT party. We got food at the night market near their house and then watched the election results on TV, with my KMT friend squealing whenever the numbers got too close for comfort. There's of course scandal at the election results, but I'm not sure if anything will come of it.

Off to do homework and learn the rumba.

mmm... Chinese tests...