Schedule

I found out what my new classes were today. My first class is "Modern Chinese Conversation", which I think is just a spruced up name for Chinese 101. My second class is "Audio Visual Chinese". That seems a misnomer, because the first lesson is about living in the dorms. I guess I'll figure it out. After I bought my books, I went home to watch some TV. At first I liked to watch the news, because they're talking almost all the time, so I think it helps my listening comp. Now I've taken to watching baseball games. I like the baseball games, because the announcers use Chinese, but I don't have to understand what they are saying to figure out what is going on. You know what I realized with all this baseball watching? Those catchers can squat. Seriously. I think most people's knee get tired from squatting within the first minute or two, but those guys squat for ages and ages. They do get breaks, but it's still an impressive feat.

Ai Jin and I went out to a Thai place for dinner. When they brought our food, I was surprised to see that they served his with a flame underneath. His soup really started to boil after a second, and he blew out the flame. I couldn't read the Chinese menu as well as he could, and was mainly trying to order something without meat. Subsequently I got rice and veggies, which were good, but not fantastic.

After dinner we walked around the Shi Da night market some more. I bought a rice cooker. It and my electric wok combined ought to be money in the bank, both figuratively and literally. After a bit we saw some people running around in a square, playing what looked like musical chairs, but without chairs or music. At some command, they would all run around, and change places. Ai Jin wanted to know what they were doing so he went over and asked. We played one round with them. We were given name tags with Chinese equivalents to teletubby names. I was lala and Ai Jin was didi or meimei or something like that. We were formed into groups so that we had one of each teletubby. Then a woman would say a sentance like "lala went to the store". Then all of the lalas would run and change places. It was challenging for Ai Jin and I because they spoke Chinese, but everyone else playing was Taiwanese, so I don't know where the challenge was for them. After the game we talked to two of the other players. I heard again about K TV. Apparently it is a big karaoke megalopolis. You have to pay to get in, and there is food provided, but no one drinks really. Everyone just sings karaoke. It sounds intense. Anyway, I also found out where a local grocery store was, and on the way home I got a six pack of Taiwan beer. I thought it was the same as Taiwan Gold Medal, but indeed I thought wrong.

I take back what I said about Taiwan Gold Medal having a meaningless award. PBR's award may be meaningless, but Taiwan Gold Medal is significantly better that regular Taiwan beer.
After that little discovery, I went to bed.