Another day, another dollar (spent)

Just kidding, the only thing I spent money on today was food (like always). I just didn't know what title to give today. So, woke up, went running with Kaylene and Nancy. Nancy and I stopped off to get chicken burgers for lunch on our way home. Those were not appetizing, because there is no way that that was real chicken. I got ready for class super quick because I had to get stuff ready for my lessons because I didn't have my normal lunch break.

Classes went okay today, I need to work on being more patient. I think that the problem is that the first couple days, I some how got them to be quiet with very little work, and so I thought that's how it should work every time, but now those tactics aren't working to get them to be quiet and listen to me.

Any who, the reason I didn't have my normal lunch break was because Nancy and I went to volunteer at a Buddhist college during our lunch break. The name of the college is Tzu Chi (pronounced s-oo-t-ch-ee) and we went there to talk to a group of students about BYU. Apparently, in September, there is a group of student delegates going to visit BYU and learn about our school and share about their school. So, the students needed to practice their English and learn about our school. We should be going there to volunteer every Thursday during our lunch break. It was fun, but we had to wear these HIDEOUS volunteer outfits. We had white pants with an elastic waist band that had to be pulled up well beyond my belly button, and then an over sized grey collared shirt that had to have every button buttoned up, and it had to be tucked into the boob-high pants. Oh, and don't forget that I had to wear a black belt to top it all off. It was not a pretty sight, but luckily I was not the only one wearing it.

We were fed lunch there, and because they are vegetarians, we had a vegetarian meal. There was a large chunk of tofu (which I think I've mentioned before that I actually do like- go figure), a tater tot patty thing, and then fried rice with egg.

After volunteering we came back to class and taught the afternoon class, and then I had a half hour break before tutoring. Class and tutoring went well, but there are no amazing stories to share. After tutoring, I went up stairs to meet up with Nancy and Kaylene so we could go down town to eat. Nancy didn't have the super late tutor times that she usually does, so we had time to go some place farther then around the corner. Nancy and Kaylene had those dough dumpling things that are really good, and I had a corn chowder type soup that was topped with a really buttery pastry roll. It was pretty good, but there was some serious drama getting it. I went up to the lady at the store and pointed to the soup, and asked how much it was (in Mandarin), and she told me it was 55. Okay, not the cheapest thing, but I'll take it. So I shook my head yes, to let her know that I wanted it, and she starts talking to me in Mandarin like I know what she's saying. After a minute or two she got frustrated and went to the back room. I thought she went to get someone who could speak English, but it turns out that she just didn't want to talk to me, and so a man comes out and he starts talking to me in Mandarin too (okay, it could have been Chinese or Taiwanese too, I really don't know, but let's just say it was Mandarin). I point to the thing I want, he pulls it out, tells me it's 55 dollars, I hand him the money, he takes it, puts the soup back and walks into the back room. Okay, that's all I needed the lady to do. Apparently they were making more in the back and so it took a while for it to come out, but she just needed to go and make it, not get frustrated at me. Granted, she every right to not want to talk to me, I don't speak her language, but I did try, so I've got to give myself credit there. Oh, the other thing we all tried tonight were some pancake-ish things filled with different stuff (great description, right?) I got two, one was filled with a custard and the other was filled with chocolate (remember, chocolate here is not like chocolate in the states). They were pretty good, and super cheap, just 10 dollars each (so the approximate equivalent of 3 cents each).

We ate dinner down town and then when we came back, I chatted it up with Nancy for a little bit and then I kicked her out because I remembered that I hadn't blogged yet.

Oh yeah, I told Dad to check my blog to look at all the weekend plans I have while Nancy's still here. We talked about it last night and modified somethings today, but this is tentatively how things are going to go for the next two months:

May-
10: Hike Taroko Gorge (funny that Aunt Leslie would mention yesterday that I should take the time to go there, when I am going in two days)
17: There is a Relief Society activity where we will learn how to cook some authentic meal, and depending on how long that takes, we might hop a bus to take us to a beach we can actually swim at.
24: Weekend trip to Green Island where we will ride scooters around to check out the Memorial (a converted prison), snorkel, and sit in a salt water hot spring (there are only 3 known salt water hot springs in the World).
31: Trip to Taipei to go to the Temple, and visit the sites
June-
7: Shopping trip (probably just locally) or possibly go to the beach (if we don't make it there on the 17th of May)
14: Preschool Graduation ceremony
21: "Free" as of yet, but we can't plan anything too strenuous because....
22-27: THAILAND- we'll be riding elephants, para sailing, going to "Dream World" which is kind of like Disneyland, I guess, and other stuff. I'm SO excited for that!!!
July-
1-3: Possible white water rafting trip as long as I'm okay with missing out on 3 days of pay, AND can convince Kaylene to teach for me those days (and convince Yuling it'd be okay to let Kaylene teach those days-seeing as they are the second, third, and fourth days of the new semester, I don't know how comfortable Yuling will be with that).

Yeah, so we're definitely living it up. I hope things are still going to be this exciting when Natalie and Beth come. I don't want to slow down, but I know I will if no one else will want to come with me.