Song Lyrics are Funny

I've heard many people complaining about having lost an hour of sleep due to daylight savings, but, as I've mentioned before, we don't adjust our clocks for daylight savings time here.  I am, however, joining you in losing that hour of sleep, it is just a personal choice, not a country-wide choice.  I had forgotten how bad my procrastination tendencies can be, but tonight has been a good reminder, since I have sat here all night avoiding my "homework" as well as my blog.  What's this? Homework? Yes, even though I am a teacher, I am still given assignments.  This current assignment was to write a children's story at the level of one of my classes, to help model creative writing for the students.  The problem with this, in my mind, is that modeling writing for foreign language students almost always limits their creativity (since they take the sample's grammar, and word order, and replace a minimal number of words in it until it can pass as "their own").  I'm a little confused about the purpose this story I have written, because I have already done my writing workshop with all of my classes (and some of my students have produced some amazing stories without having had anything to), but it feels great to be done with that assignment.
This week was hectic at work, partially because one of my co-workers was on vacation and there were lots of schedule changes and substitute teachers to cover his classes, partially because there were lots of side assignments, but mainly because I had my second observation with Shane Head Office.  On Tuesday I was observed teaching my CE01 class, and it went really well.  I was told by my observer that I am a thorough planner (which is interesting since in most things I am very spontaneous), very knowledgeable about what is happening and what could have happened, engaging,  and all-around a good teacher!  It's always nice to get positive feedback.
This weekend was wonderful, but in words it will just sound like a normal 48 hours.  On Saturday a few of us teachers went on a 4-5-hour "hike".  It wasn't the traditional type of hike that involves lot of trails and nature, though it was intended to be like that (though it did involve a mountain, so that is a start).  After walking up the road into the mountain we never managed to leave the road, and before we knew it we had walked the expressway straight into the neighboring city.

Off on a hike with Buddha

After our hike it was time for some food, so we caught a train and went to the Feng Chia night market in Taichung.  This night market was unique compared to the other night markets I have been to because instead of being off-the-beaten-path in a field or parking lot, this night market took over a daytime shopping district.  Behind all of the street vendors were stores to visit as well.

The Feng Chia night market in Taichung

Today was also low-key.  We spend all day singing karaoke at the Holiday KTV.  We must have gone at the right time because we were given the VIP suite, which was a lot of fun because the room was huge.  The exciting realization of the day at KTV was that in the song selection is "The Phantom of the Opera", so I was a happy camper.

Thought of the night: song lyrics are funny.  This week I was sitting in my room when outside my room I heard the David Guetta rap song "Sexy Bitch" slowly approaching.  The accompanying fireworks quickly signaled my attention to the fact that there was a parade out my window, and sure enough I looked down to see cars, percussion, dancers, and dragon costumes, and I thought to myself "Why is this religious parade marching to 'Sexy Bitch'".  The assumed answer is that whoever selected the song did not actually know its meaning, they only knew that they liked the beat.  It made me start to worry about the meaning of all the Chinese songs I have come to like here.