First Two Days of School

My first week in school was composed of only two days - Thursday and Friday. The school really made it hard for me, I tell ya!


First Day

In my previous post, I said that I was intimidated with the book that would be used for class. The night before the first day, I studied for 4 hours! I basically copied all the text into my notebook and made sure to understand each and every word. I also checked the pronunciations for the words that I'm not sure how to read.

I woke up at around 7am and continued studying until lunch time (my class is from 2pm until 5pm.) I was really nervous the whole time I was waiting for my class to begin.

So class finally begun and the teacher (lin2 lao3 she1) asked everyone to introduce themselves. I almost fainted from all the unknown words that I heard that day! My 5 classmates (it's a small class) are from Poland, Holland, Japan, US, and Thailand; and they speak like pro's! I can detect their accents, and I catch some words that are a little off in terms of tone, but they knew what they were talking about!

Come self-introduction time, I wrote my Chinese name on the board (like everyone else); and read it out. My teacher made me repeat my name a lot of times because she says that I pronounce it incorrectly. Then, she went ahead and corrected each and every phrase and sentence that I said. She also asked me what I was doing in her class.

In my almost two weeks in Taiwan, that was the only time that I felt like crying! Don't get me wrong here, the teacher was not nasty and mean. I would describe her as more direct-to-the-point than evil, but that didn't really made any difference to how I felt.

The 3-hour class started after the small round on introductions, and this is when I realized how unsuited I was for the class. I talked to the teacher during the break, and we both agreed that I should move to a different class level. Woot!

I asked the teacher to put me in the beginner level and then I'll just work my way up, but she insisted that I belong to a basic level class because I already know a handful of things. She got my number and told me that she will call me if she finds a class for me - which was a really really nice gesture. :-)

After class, my American classmate Michelle made friends with me. I found out that she's a 2nd generation Filipina living in the States and that she speaks zero Tagalog/Filipino (except for tsinelas and twalya). We decided to have dinner together to talk about the class from hell.

I initially wanted to show her the dorm canteen and then introduce her to Shida canteen food, but Shida canteen was closed when we got there. I also wanted to introduce her to An-lie and Ah-ming (my housemates), but they were planning to eat dinner at a later time.

We ended up visiting Michelle's hostel, and eating Japanese food that was recommended by the Hostel staff. I also made new friends - Jamie from UK and Pin who's local Taiwanese.

When I got home, everyone had stories about their first day! It was the only time I was able to see all my housemates in one room, and it was awesome! We were all conversing in bad mandarin except for Aimee (because she's Taiwanese) , and I really like how I was able to practice my Mandarin during that time. :-D

I'd say that was a good way to end my first day of horror school. :-)


Second Day

I went to school early just because I might be needed when my teacher moves me to a new class (and schedule.) I also saw Heidi so we talked a bit in the office while waiting for her 10am class to start. A few minutes before Heidi was due to go to her class, my teacher saw me! She then ushered me to my new class so that I can check if the level was right for me.

The class was perfect; not easy, but not too hard. My new teacher was so nice; my classmates were very friendly (not to mention that they were at the same level as me). A few minutes later, Michelle also joined the new class (my previous teacher thought that she's not fit for her class, as well.)

We met up with Jen and her Japanese classmate for a late lunch at Subway, (Sub of the Day is $69 a pop, baby!) then Jen and I decided to go to Xsimending to meet up with other scholars.

We met up with Diet, Bea, Suzette, and Heidi. We basically just walked around the place, tried new food, and talked about money shortages. Hahaha!

When I got home, Neung invited me to go to Ikea and Daiso with her. I've never been to the two so I'm so keen to see the stuff they're selling.

Anyway, I'm off to sleep because it's already 2am here! Not good! I still have an adventure tomorrow! :-)