Heavens to Betsy!

There are three things of which you must be made aware!

1: I had my first day of work today! It was awesome. I work with about 6 other people, and we all take turns teaching in various location-themed classrooms. So, today, I taught (on my first day, no less...eeeww) the bookstore, and it was pretty sweet...in a weird way. I'll have to expound upon my feelings about teaching in a future post. I also have tons of pictures, which I'll gladly share later. Actually, the picture to the left was on the first worksheet I handed out (it was made my someone else, don't worry)--the kids were supposed to find the title and the author of said book...anyway, really the funny thing was that I had a hard time explaining why it wasn't a real Dr. Seuss book. Rosie (an awesome new co-worker of mine, who helped me find my way home on the train) didn't believe me at first--because it's a pretty good photoshop job. Anyway, in the end, we decided by the end that it wasn't 1st grade appropriate, even if no one really knew what it said. ULTIMATE IRONY: They already have about 2,000 of these copied. Other people will probably keep using them.

2: I had my first day of substitute work yesterday! It, too, was awesome. Cash in hand. Take that, two-month long waiting period for a paycheck in New York City. KA-POW.

3: I had an enormously expsensive meal yesterday for dinner...took Andrew, the other guy who's just started, with me. We paid $NT 500 ( 500 / 33 = $US 15) each for all we could eat veggie soup, seafood, poultry, and Kobe-beef steak right off the barbecue in the middle of our table...and most of it was prepared by the waiter. Freakin' delicious. AND, lest I forget, they gave me a complimentary pack of Wrigley's chewing gum on the way out. Score. Yes, it was more expensive than the $NT 50 lunches, the $NT 100 dinners, and the $NT 30 beers. But I'm willing to suffer.

Mandarin character of the friggin' day (with clues to help you figure out what it is):

羊 -- Pronounced "Yang" -- and to get the tone right while saying it, you should raise your eyebrows while saying it! That's called the second tone (there are five tones...one that stops short, one that is steady, one that rises (like this one), one that dips and comes back up, and one that falls.)

Clue 1: This character is for an animal.
2: The animal looks like the symbol.
3. Pay particular attention to the two lines on top. They are the animal's distinguishing feature.
4. The animal can have a beard.

Okay, fine, it's a goat. It looks a little like a goat, yeah? It's funny, actually. I learn a lot every day, but choose to remember only the most random stuff. I don't know how to say "no" (perhaps this is meaningful), but I do know how to say the name of a fish whose English name I don't know, because I ate it for the school lunch today (which is $.75 a day, by the way).