Saturday
1/11/03
Met YuJung at 11:30, she was taking me to lunch with free tickets she got from her airline. It was a huge buffet in a really nice hotel-looking place. At first she instructed me not to eat a lot of things because of my cough, but I looked so sad and the food looked so good, she said to go ahead. Then we stopped in Guess where again I was blown over by prices and she contemplated getting a rabbit fur jacket for what I agreed was a good deal at US$90, 50% off.
Then
taught Stephanie for 3 ½ hrs. Her
mom had recommended me to ANOTHER student, Steph’s piano teacher Kristy. Steph was in a good mood today, I read
about wild animals to her as she painted puffy neon faces on my nails. When Kristy came to meet me I hid my
nails behind my back, but Steph yelled, “[Look at her hands!]”. I left with my hands covered in polish
and stickers.
I
could barely eat the dinner Erica made me, then just as I got home, exhausted,
my old friend from home Amy called to hang out, I’d almost forgotten. I’d found out she was in Taipei since
Simon saw her on his flight over.
We went to Jpop Café in Bistro98, it was same here as the one I went to
in Tokyo—all about the décor and music videos, not the food. We had bad tea and noticed lots of
customers complaining; it was pretty empty too. We talked and laughed like no time’s passed though it’s been
maybe years. We strolled down
ChungHsiao window shopping until her bf picked us up and dropped me home.
Friday -Saturday 1/17-1/18/03
I’m
teaching every day Thurs-Mon. It’s
tiring. Money doesn’t seem like
enough when I get it, though I know it’s a lot for not really hard work.
Friday
went to see Hero with Gin and Tricia, it was an interesting old story of the
Qin emporer but I thought too overdone and over the top with the slo-mo and
effects. Tricia had said there’d
be “lots of colors” and after seeing it I understood what she meant.
Friday
night US was the big Lakers/Rockets game but I was teaching during it and I
still don’t know what channel bball games are on here. Gin said a big crowd was watching in
front of McD’s and they turned it off with 20 secs left in OT (SMS: “OMG that
was SO wrong!”)
Then we
went to TungHua nite market them where I got toys for Lucy’s kids, and the
8Mile CD. Ate a Fan Tuan, a Jua
Bing and was instantly really full and several pounds heavier for 55 NT. Then at a juice stand ordered a
strawberry kiwi. I said no milk,
watched her cut the fruit into the blender, add lots of water, shaved ice and
some sugar syrup. She was wearing
gloves, I pointed out to Gin, impressed.
But then she asked for my $$ and took it, still with the gloves on. I looked at the drink thinking of her
handling my fruit and handling all those people’s money too. I was so thirsty I had to get over it
and drink, but it was psychologically nauseating.
We passed
the evil AnHo Rd and Gin wanted to drink I could tell, exclaiming we’ve been
good 2 nights in a row. Tricia
insisted Ginger take a picture of us so she could be on her “healthy pics” page
instead of only on her “party pics” page.
Then we split for home.