On a Non-Superbowl-Related Note

Today is Superbowl XLVII, and you know what that means for Taiwan...absolutely nothing.  If it weren't for the wonders of social media, and the bombardment of statuses regarding this event today, I would have completely missed it (as it is, I fully intend on sleeping rather than watching it, since it will be occurring in the middle of the night here).
I'm getting so sick of 'departure season', I would like to propose a ban on flights out of Taiwan until I too am ready to leave.  This week another one of my friends (Sarah) packed up and moved on from Taiwan, and a strange trend was spotted: the last four teachers who left my group of friends all have had a connection to Ohio (either because they live there or they are dating someone who lives there), which I wouldn't have predicted to be such a popular state out here.  It will be weird not having Sarah around anymore, she was essentially my roommate on weekends (my bathroom will be so bare without her toothbrush and contact solution).

Goodbye Sarah

While not being far out of the ordinary, I felt like this was a particularly productive week.  For starters, I took my first lesson with a Chinese tutor (it is about time I started making strides outside of my Rosetta Stone to learn the language here).  I seem to be doing fairly well with the basics (most likely because I have been using them for the last several months), and my pronunciation is supposedly decent, which are both great compliments which will certainly aid my acquisition.  In an update on my guitar lessons, I'm still pretty awful with the instrument (namely because I don't practice enough), but I've been learning a palm mute technique, which has resulted in Taylor Swift's song Love Story being on constant loop in my head.  I ate a warm chicken foot (the last time I ate chicken feet they were 'jellied', which jokingly translated to 'cold'), which has been on my 'to do' list since Christmas to see if there is a taste difference (if ever you find yourself brave enough to eat them, go for the warm chicken feet, they are significantly better).  I bought my first articles of clothing in Taiwan (thus proving to myself that my size does exist here).  I got my first Taiwanese haircut, which was amazing because for 500NT (approximately US $15) I got a 15 minute shoulder/neck massage, 15 minute head massage/hair washing, and my hair cut (every salon should spoil you like this, it was so relaxing).  Disjointed as this list may be, that was my week.

Thought of the week: names.  What is in a name? That which we call a rose by another other name would smell as sweet? Wait, no, those weren't my words (Sorry Shakespeare).  I meant to talk about Taiwanese people's English names, and how strange some of them are, its like meeting swarms of the Hollywood celebrity babies.  Among my favorite student names (from the selection of students that I teach) at the moment are Bobson, Adward, Levis, Vito, Batty, Jeter and Yuson.  Some names I can understand come from the sound of their Chinese name, like Yuson (this makes a lot of sense, especially considering this is how most foreigners are given their Chinese name), and some names come from popular culture topics like music and fashion, but sometimes parents just wont accept that the sounds they have selected aren't an actual English name.  To an extent, a child's English name doesn't matter, and this is a good way to express individuality (after all, this is a secondary name, and only applies in English-speaking settings), but names like these can potentially lead to puzzled looks and snickers from native English speakers (which may come as a surprise to the students if no one has ever explained the uniqueness of their name before).