Printing Woes D:

Today I went to print out my fliers. Most convenience stores have printing and copying so I went to the local Family Mart (where I was referred to by the OK Mart 'cause they couldn't print from USB). The cashier helped me out with the printing machine, but they didn't have B6 paper, so all my fliers were printed on A4. And he didn't hit colour for one of them, so the sculpture cake flier looks kind of terrible. And pixelated. >.< Colour printing is expensive though! NT$10 for colour, NT$2 for b/w.

So then I came home and redesigned the fliers for A4.

And made chili. Kind of. We don't have oregano or cumin or jalapeno peppers or black beans or kidney beans or tempeh or garbanzo beans...so it's just black-eyed peas and tomato sauce and onions and garlic and Korean peppers (which are my new favourite spice -- they're super-red and not-very-spicy :D)

Now I will go hang out with Gracie at Taipei 101 and look for Jason's, a grocery store that purportedly has distilled vinegar.

The end.

Making My Own Way

Spent the last 2 days setting up websites and stuff for tutoring! The owner of the DIY shop down the street said he'd let me put out fliers if I had any, so of course I had to make some! And then set up a website so it looks more legit. Website requires pictures, which requires digging through all my online places looking for them, and then figuring out how to use GoogleSites and Picasa and why are Picasa and Google+ Photos the same thing but set up differently?! WHY REDUNDANCY GOOGLE?!

Anyway. Oh, and not being able to type in Chinese on account of my lappy being dead (I 'typed' everything in GoogleTranslate -- not recommended). It works again, by the way. It decided to work this morning after I inserted a flash drive with the new Ubuntu on it, but I don't think that actually did anything, since it didn't install the new Ubuntu. It just worked. Thank the lords. So I got to set up my language tutoring site with the super-helpful aides of Chinese language input, GoogleTranslate, and Perapera-kun.

So yeah, here are the sites:

DanDan DIY for U.S.-style home-made desserts.

DanDan Language for tutoring in American English or Japanese.

/shameless self-promotion. _{I don't think anyone reads this blog anyway, so it's probably not a very good place to be shamelessly promoting oneself ;P whatever}

Finding ALL the Cram Schools Ever & Being All-The-Way Fired Let Go

And having the computer crash.

All in the same day.

On the bright side, Maggie took me out for lunch, and it was delicious. Yay!

Relationship Fulfilment Class Support and Other Things

First up: Other Things.

Hankyu is having an event where you get NT$500 department store credit for every NT$5000, or NT$200 for every NT$2000 you spend on most items (excluding lingerie and I think electronics, but I'm not sure.) Since we just got a bedding set and pillows, we met the min. and got a credit! Along with tickets to a fashion show, which we couldn't go to since it was on the day of class support.

Yeahhhhh! We get stuff for spending monies! Shout-out to my dad for helping us with the bedding!

I guess it's a popular type of event, since I just saw a similar thing being advertised on the television at the MRT station, but for a different department store.

Mommy's Birthday was on Saturday~!

I'm still waiting for Gracie to upload cake pictures, but we got her a cake from How Sweet 幾分甜 and it was filled with pudding and strawberry mousse and even though the topping was whipped topping instead of real whipping cream it was pretty darn tasty. I had three pieces :D Also, my mom made the hugest feast in the entire world and my maternal grandpa and cousin and uncle and 2 twerpy nephews all congregated at her house for dinner.

BaDa Art Supply 八大美衝社

BaDa Art Supply 八大美衝社 (lit. eight big vigorous art society)
台北市大安區龍泉街87弄6號
On GoogleMaps

Items of note:
SuperSculpey doll clay in 3 shades
COPIC markers & refill cartridges
Xuan paper, ink, brushes, etc. for 'Asian' painting
Giant size acrylics for big paintings
Japanese brush pens with REAL BRUSH NIBS -- I don't know why they have to be Japanese, but this is the only place I've found that has them. Most normal bookstore-type places only have the felt-nib kind, which are fine if you're just making cards or something.
Tools for ceramicists (but no ceramic clay, as far as I could tell O.o)

Other: They have a giant black dog who's a real sweetie

Getting [Partially] Fired and Other Things

So instead of actually training me my work decided it would be best if they had the former teacher go back to teach the classes I can't handle (which, honestly, were doing pretty dismally under my tutelage). Honestly, I am actually very glad. I've still got 8 hours at the kindy, but those are just 20-minute general English classes which are MUCH easier to deal with. This puts a bit of pressure on us financially, but we've got enough saved up from last month and our start-up fund that this month (and probably next month) will be alright if we really scrimp (no more peanut butter! Or almonds, which I've been secretly saving up for).

This actually comes at a fairly convenient time, since my dad and the whole boatload of relatives just came back for 2 weeks, and preparing for the Relationship Fulfilment class support has been mad crazy, on top of which it's my mom's birthday on Saturday @_@ I'M SO SAD I CAN'T MAKE HER CAKE!!! Even steamer cake recipes require a mixer T_T

So yeah, life goes on and I am SUPER BUSY :D

The Happenings of the Week

Friday: Long day at work. I think I might actually get some training, now that I've been working my job for a month. v.v

Pro-tip for first time teachers: DEMAND CLASSROOM OBSERVATION BEFORE you start teaching. I guess at most places it's mandatory and part of the training, but at smaller schools they might not do it, and that's fucking dumb. It is SO much easier to just copy what the experienced teacher does, as opposed to being told what you have to teach and how you're supposed to teach it, but without any real demonstration.

Also, ask about classroom management and discipline. I wasn't told about ANY of that shit before I started, and now I have a bunch of rowdy kids who won't listen unless the principal or former teacher pops in. Ugh.

After work came home, worked out, took shower.

Saturday: 和氣照顧 for Wei-Chun's Dad at General Veteran's Hospital.

^{Public art at the hospital. It was SUPER-windy that day! But it didn't rain very hard in the afternoon, just sunny showers, which are my favourite!}

There were like...13 of us, and some Chi-mates even came from Hsinchu and Taoyuan!!! I am awed by their generosity and dedication. After the hospital we went to a vegetarian buffet for delicious delicious lunch!


^{Check out how colourful my lunch was!!! THOSE EGGPLANTS WERE AMAZING. The veggie-meat was mediocre. Not shown was this delicious lightly almond-y tofu dish. It is, quite unappealingly, called 豆腦. If you can't read Chinese, do not GoogleTranslate until after you're have it. Knowing the name will ruin it for you FOREVER.}

Then Maggie invited Ingting and me to have coffee by her place so we could talk about the day-care volunteering we're doing for the Relationship Fulfillment class this coming weekend. @_@ We went to Mr.2 which was FANTASTIC.


^{The exterior and interior of the store is abound with these figures in various sizes and positions. I like them!}