diet coke and mentos

Ugh, I'm so neglectful of my blog already. It is the last week of school and so, so busy and I'm so, so tired of being busy and I just want to sit very, very still and do nothing. Ughy mcugh.

However, I did find time to dick around on the internet and find this fabulous short film! Watch it! It will make you smile! It's great and probably was very sticky for the people involved!

http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/php/showmovie.php?id=1

Now that I'm home from work, I'm going to sit in front of my air conditioner and drink wine and eat cheese and watch this film again. Mmmm, pepper gouda. It's so good-ah!

I'm so tired.

Bridget

The droll CBC

This was on the CBC website today. Oh, those CBC reporters, what cards.




British army goat demoted after head-butting drummer
Last Updated Sat, 24 Jun 2006 18:32:41 EDT
CBC News
A British army goat has been demoted in disgrace after it head-butted a drummer's rear-end during the Queen's birthday parade.

Billy, a six-year-old goat that is the mascot for the Royal Welsh Regiment in western Cyprus, was demoted to fusilier from lance-corporal Saturday after his superior officers ruled that his disruptive behaviour ruined a regimental parade at the British army base in Episkopy.
The parade included several international dignitaries who had been invited to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's 80th birthday.

Billy allegedly darted from side to side, throwing soldiers off their stride. But his worst offence was "trying to head-butt the waist and nether regions of the drummers," said Capt. William Rose.

British army spokesman Capt. Crispian Coates told the Canadian Press: "The goat, which has been the Royal Welsh Regiment's mascot since 2001, was supposed to be leading the march but would not stay in line… He was reported for insubordination, and after consideration the commanding officer decided he had no option but to demote Billy."

The demotion was all the more shocking because Billy comes from a long line of British army blue bloods. His bloodline traces back to 1746 when his ancestor was donated to the Welsh regiment from the royal goat herd.

It wasn't immediately clear what impact the demotion would have.

daily dancer

I saw this on Dale's blog and had to include it here. Check out http://www.dailydancer.com/ he's from Newfoundland and now lives in Vancouver and films himself dancing to various songs. You can request a song for him to dance too. Man, why didn't I think of that? All the good ideas are swept away from me. I need more free time.

Friday stuff

Beautiful weather today. I might walk to work.

Not much going on lately, there's about 2 weeks left in the school year and the students are squirrely.

I don't have cable - I don't see the point as I'd only get about 6 English channels and they're mostly bad movies....anyway, so I rent a lot of movies and stuff and I just finished watching the first season of Desperate Housewives. So sucked in now and annoyed as the first season is the only one available at Blockbuster. Mark and Grant had ranted about it and now I understand.

Going to be busy weekend as I have to be at the Taichung Culture Centre at 8:00am tomorrow for the school's kindergarten graduation ceremony. I'm supposed to be a backstage manager. Have no clear idea what this entails. Probably keeping a huge number of 5 year-olds quiet. Then a few hours later I'm going to see the new Xmen movie and then going dancing Saturday night. Boogie.

I'm getting really excited about going to Thailand on July 2nd, I'm planning on going to Koh Tao and learning to scuba dive. Hope I don't meet anything with big teeth.

ze students

I only have a few weeks left with my classes, so I finally decided to get off my ass and take some pictures of them. These are my grade threes, in my very messy reading corner. Notice how they are all smiling like they're up to someting.

Check out Mimi's(the one in blue, front right) Natalie from "The Facts of Life" hairstyle. Her hair looks like that every single day. Poor child.









These are my grade fives. Johnny (leaning against the wall, trying to avoid cooties) is the only boy. Poor bastard. They'll be starting grade six soon and are already beginning to get a little hormonal. Moodiness and b.o are on the horizon! Ah, it's great to be an adult and mock puberty. Suckers!

Rained out weekend

So far, this has been the most intense rainy season I've experienced in Taiwan. It has been raining for 2 weeks and will probably rain for another week or so. I hate complaining about the weather....but it's nuts, it has been a steady, torrential downpour all day and most of last night. The rain was so loud last night it keep waking me up, it was like being in a boat in the middle of storm (I was dreaming I was in a boat, in the middle of a storm. No George Clooney or Marky Mark around though). Anyway, I was supposed to go to an outdoor music festival up in the mountains, but it's been postponed instead. So I'm about to go out to a Johnny Cash tribute night. I'll try not to get too soaked on my way there.

apartment details part 2 - ze patio!

So big patio. The flower pot thingys were gifts, I have to figure out how to attach them to the sides. Those hoola hoops were there when I moved in. Seriously, they're not mine.

This is what is looks like when you look down (I'm on the 7th floor). There are a couple of restaurants and pubs downstairs. I invited a bunch of coworkers over for my housewarming party and they were flicking lit cigarette butts over the side and on to the unfortunate people below. Dumb-ass coworkers need to discover ashtrays.

Zippy

This is one of my grade threes, Zippy. Yes, Zippy. What an unfortunate choice for a name. Most students take an English name in kindergarten, usually chosen by their parents. I'm still not completely sure why they're so pressured to take an English name, I'm assuming it's to make it easier on the English teacher and for an easier transition if they move to a Western country. Anyway, because of lack of knowledge of English names, you get a lot of titles like Zippy, or Simba (like the lion, one of the kindergarten students) or Diamond (in the same class as Simba) or S-White or Iron.

Of course my name, translated phonetically into Chinese means "clean pure cloth." So it's kind of like being called "Sterilized Towel" or something. I remember Darryl told me his name in Chinese is "da roh." Da means big and roh means meat, so then his name was "Big Meat." Goodness.

Incense addicts and movies

There is this wicked shop down the road where they sell a lot of Buddhist supplies and must have every kind of incense in the world. I bought some really nice stuff, then noticed a statement on the box that says it is "non-habit forming." Since when is incense addictive? I googled it and apparently there's a herb called Kratom that sometimes gets used in incense. In Thailand, some people use Kratom to prolong sexual intercourse. Or to treat diarrhea. I think it needs further investigation. Anyway, I guess I'm glad I won't get hooked. I have enough friggin' vices already without becoming an incense junkie.

I saw "The Squid and the Whale" this weekend, it was really good. I knew nothing about it, just that Laura Linney was in it and I like her. It's hard to browse around at Blockbuster when all the blurbs are written in Chinese. So much fun being illiterate. Anyway, Jeff Bridges is in it too and it's set in the 80s, it's about this family going through a divorce and how it affects the 2 boys, one sides with the mom and the other the dad. I know it doesn't sound that exciting, but it was really well done. People are so nonchalant about divorce these days, it's refreshing to see a movie that shows how nasty breakups can be.

At home and have to teach in 30 minutes, better get back on the scooter.

Bridget

My new view - apartment details part 1

The best thing about my new apartment is my patio. It is huge. I have a picnic table with an umbrella. And deck chairs. At my house warming party, 21 people fit comfortably out here. I'm considering getting one of those inflatable pools.

What's also nice is when there's a good bit of rain and a bit of wind, I have this lovely view of the mountains way off in the distance.

Anyhoo, I realize that you actually can't see my patio that I've been boasting about here, but I assure you, I am standing on it. Will post new pictures of current living arrangements in the next few days.

Had a nice day at the Taichung Botanical Gardens. From right to left, Pay-she (I have no idea how to properly spell her name in English), Kristy (from Alberta) and moi. It's the midst of the rainy season here, hense my frizzed out hair. I wish I was the kind of person who paid more attention to details, because I forgot to get the name of the freaky purple alien plant above. I love my new digital camera. Folliage settings rock.