4 day weekend

Its Saturday afternoon and I'm doing the same thing I've been doing for this entire 4 day weekend. Sleeping in as late as I can, eating cereal, drinking coffee, tooling around on the computer and looking forward to meeting up with one of my new friends in the evening.

I arrived in Chiayi, taught 2 classes and then it was time for a 4 day weekend because of Dragon Boat Festival. I'm not going to lie, I feel like a bit of a loser because I haven't done much all weekend. It would have been a really good time to travel to a new city or visit some of my friends from training. Despite the losery feelings, I think I made the right decision to stay around Chiayi. I have made major progress in cleaning my apartment and making it feel like my own place. Yesterday I bought plants from the nursery across the street. They are different than any plants I've seen in the states, so I hope I don't kill them!

Since I move in here, I've had the worst time sleeping. Every morning I wake up around 5 am and then sleep fitfully for a few more hours until I give up and get out of bed. Since I don't go to bed until 12 or 1, this makes for some very short nights. Plus, when I'm trying so hard to sleep, I start having all kinds of unpleasant dreams. Including, birds attacking my head just like in the movie The Birds. Susana, one of my new friends, suggested that I get some dark curtains to block the sun. For some reason, I never considered that the sunlight was the problem. Susana took me to the fabric store and helped me buy dark fabric, and yesterday I pinned it up. I would like to say that last night I slept like a baby, but unfortunately I had accidentally watched a movie on HBO about a psychopathic killer and was too scared to fall asleep for a long time. Luckily, the exhaustion beat out the paranoia and I did sleep last night. But I also had the typical dreams in the early morning, this time it was about being in the airport and saying goodbye to all my friends and family, again!

Considering my sleeping problems, and the fact that I'm scheduled to teach 14 classes next week, I don't think it's a bad idea for me to take it easy and chill for the weekend. Plus, I have gotten to hang out with new friends and that is really great.

On Wednesday night I met a bunch of people. First, I went to a game night at my neighbor's house and met Susana. She took me out to the pub where I met almost all the other foreigners in Chiayi. Apparently, Wednesday night is the big night to go out and drink because its all you can drink for $250 NT, which is about $8 USD. Susana is really cool, she's from Germany and Spain and is married to a guy from the US and Spain. They haved lived here for about 4 months and took a Chinese class so they know a little more than I do.

Thursday, Susana took me around Chiayi on her scooter to help me learn the streets and point out where the good shopping places are. We also got our hair washed, which took an hour. Hair washing is wonderful, I love discovering things like this in Taiwan. You go in to the shop and they lather up your hair and massage your scalp for about 30 minutes, then rinse the soap out while you lie in a massage chair, then rub your neck and shoulders with lovely mint lotion. Lastly, they dry and style your hair. Ahhh. All for the low low price of $110 NT, which is about $3.25 USD. Then we ate delicious Vietnamese food. Chicken and cabbage salad, beef noodle soup and spring rolls, which also cost about $3.25 USD.

Friday night I met up with Rachel, who is a Chinese teacher at my school. She gave me a ride on her scooter and I was actually a little nervous. She drives fast! We went to the night market and tried all kinds of food. I had grilled corn on the cob with all kinds of seasoning and spice. Quail eggs, which taste pretty much like a tiny version of a chicken egg. Chicken butt actually tastes good too, because they skewer it on a stick and grill it with good seasoning. Then I had the best chicken of my life. Its a "chicken steak" in Chinese, I don't know what to call it in English because I've never seen it before. I think they must pound the chicken breast down so its big and flat. Then they batter it and deep fry it, then they grill it on the bbq with sauce. Yum yum yum! Definitely the best thing I tried the whole night. We got watermelon juice to drink, then sat down to eat an oyster omlette. I don't think I've ever had oysters before, but the omelet was pretty nice. It came with a slightly sweet sauce. Lastly, we tried stinky tofu. After my first experience with stinky tofu, I vowed that I would never eat it again. Rachel was enthusiastic about the idea, so I decided to go for it. This time it was prepared differently and it was much drier. It came with some kind of soy sauce and pickled cabbage on the side. Overall, it wasn't my favorite dish of the evening, but I ate my half of the portion, so it was much better than my first experience.

Tonight, Jenny, another neighbor, invited me over for dinner and a movie. She is from Michigan and has lived here for a couple years, so it should be nice to talk with her about Chiayi and her experiences.