Writing
I am currently looking for a full-time job in Taiwan. One of the jobs I'm applying for is for Acer Computers. They've charged me the task of writing an advertisement for a laptop after being given the specs. In my usual habit of procrastinating, I do my normal Facebook-checking and Fark-reading when I decided to do a Livejournal post. I forget what I was originally going to write about, but I started reading all my old entries instead. Here's what I noticed:
The people who've been reading my LJ has changed a lot over the years, too. I like keeping the readership relatively small, since it gives me chances to experiment with things, say what's really on my mind, and be myself. Just so everyone who reads this knows, you're getting a pretty direct look into my train of thought.
I start getting pretty retrospective here, so bear with me if you will.
I'm doing a lot of looking back, but there's looking forward to be done too. And how about some looking at right now, too?
Tonight my girlfriend May (I don't think I've talked about that much, but yeah, I've got a Taiwanese girlfriend) and I met up with some of my foreigner friends at a French restaurant. (I went expecting a wine bar with a killer deal. I was misled.) After the restaurant we went over to Ael's uncle's house (Ael is a French friend of mine; I went to Singapore and Malaysia with her). In our group was Ael, Albert (who's currently dating Ael), David, Janine (another two of my friends I went to Malaysia with, who are also dating as I've discovered tonight), May, myself, and Ivan (my language exchange buddy). I thought it was pretty ridiculous that Ivan was seventh wheel. I've been fifth wheel before and it was pretty unbearable, so I wanted to explain the situation to him, but I think the humor of it would probably be lost.
It's really interesting to see all the relationships springing up now. I expected some to pop up when I was in China in 2005, but I think in the first three months of being mixed together with a group of people you barely get to understand each other. (One relationship did, but it was more of a combination of sexually frustrated people.) Now that we've passed the figuring-out-everyone-else stage, we can all figure out who really has a personality that matches. So far four intra-foreigner group relationships have popped up in the circle I hang out with. There are probably a few more I'm not aware of yet. I'm definitely not scoffing at them; I just think it's an interesting insight into how people react, especially when in a foreign culture.
I had a great night with May. Afterwards I chatted with her online. We had a pretty heavy conversation. She mentioned the L word. In this case, it isn't Love or Lesbian, it's Leaving. According to my original plans I am leaving in June, and May said that she doesn't see us staying together if we leave. Her saying this wasn't all that depressing for me; it was always digging in my mind and putting it out in the open was a relief. Another thing it did was it made our relationship seem mortal. Since the time is limited, it makes everything more important and more valuable. As cliché as it sounds, I've got to take every moment I get.
On the other hand, it also makes me want to stay in Taiwan longer. That isn't the only reason, of course: I want to be in a job that puts my Chinese skills to use, I enjoy the climate here (the summers might be too much for me, but it can't be that bad...right?!?), and I've made some good and maintainable friendships here. My one main hurdle for staying here longer is that if I do I need to find a job here, and I don't want to teach English (which takes up about 90% of jobs among English speakers around my age). However, after this job actually got a response (unlike the others I applied for), I think I might have a chance.
Speaking of English teachers, I decided that I want to move out of the place I'm living right now. Sure, my place is huge, secure, and has a great view, but it has its downsides: it's far away from where I take classes (MRT costs add up), it's far away from all my friends at school (who live near the school), it's not as cheap as I initially thought it was, and my roommates' lifestyle is different from mine in a rather dramatic way.
To expound on that last point, here's how that becomes a problem: we don't really hang out much together, our social groups are nearly mutually exclusive, they have a lot more money than I do, and they tell a lot of stories how they basically play the role of stupid foreigner whenever they try to do anything. One of my roommates bothers me in quite a few ways. Mainly, he reminds me a lot of a previous roommate of mine who had anger issues, although he hasn't snapped on me. A lot of times he'll communicate other roommates' issues with me, but I've suspected it's his way of saying "I pissed off because of this but I'm going to use my other roommates to try to put it to him politely." (I think my main motivation for doing housework is fear that he'll flip out.) He also takes care of all the bills, which I also suspect we end up losing out on because of his inability or unwillingness to speak Chinese.
All in all, I don't really feel very at home here.
So basically, I really want to move into an affordable place near my school in a single-person apartment. While I'm wishing for things that will never happen, I'd also like some Wisconsin micro-brewed beer in Taiwan. I know you think, I'm more than half way done with my trip why don't I just stick it out? Well, that's still three more months in a place I don't really want to be. Albert (the one from before) said he knew of a few apartments that aren't usually rented to foreigners but they would probably make an exception to someone who can speak decent Chinese. I really want to figure it out soon so my roommates would have a month in advance to figure out what to do with my room, so I should think quickly.
I'm up entirely too late. Big day tomorrow: Class where I'm presenting a conversation with a classmate (basically an interview where I play an ancient Chinese poet, Li Bai), hike near Xindian with Liz (again, a Malaysia friend), choose between kickboxing or a party that my friend Melissa is putting on. (Kickboxing is winning in my mind right now.)
Oh, and I have to do that writing thing sometime, too. Shit. I'm way too good at procrastinating.
- I'm funnier when I'm not actively trying to be funny.
- I occasionally get struck with moments of brilliance, and those are pretty darn good.
- I can't believe I used to use simplified Chinese characters. 真的難看.
- Keeping this journal for the past five years (well, it will be five years in June) has honed my writing quite a bit.
The people who've been reading my LJ has changed a lot over the years, too. I like keeping the readership relatively small, since it gives me chances to experiment with things, say what's really on my mind, and be myself. Just so everyone who reads this knows, you're getting a pretty direct look into my train of thought.
I start getting pretty retrospective here, so bear with me if you will.
I'm doing a lot of looking back, but there's looking forward to be done too. And how about some looking at right now, too?
Tonight my girlfriend May (I don't think I've talked about that much, but yeah, I've got a Taiwanese girlfriend) and I met up with some of my foreigner friends at a French restaurant. (I went expecting a wine bar with a killer deal. I was misled.) After the restaurant we went over to Ael's uncle's house (Ael is a French friend of mine; I went to Singapore and Malaysia with her). In our group was Ael, Albert (who's currently dating Ael), David, Janine (another two of my friends I went to Malaysia with, who are also dating as I've discovered tonight), May, myself, and Ivan (my language exchange buddy). I thought it was pretty ridiculous that Ivan was seventh wheel. I've been fifth wheel before and it was pretty unbearable, so I wanted to explain the situation to him, but I think the humor of it would probably be lost.
It's really interesting to see all the relationships springing up now. I expected some to pop up when I was in China in 2005, but I think in the first three months of being mixed together with a group of people you barely get to understand each other. (One relationship did, but it was more of a combination of sexually frustrated people.) Now that we've passed the figuring-out-everyone-else stage, we can all figure out who really has a personality that matches. So far four intra-foreigner group relationships have popped up in the circle I hang out with. There are probably a few more I'm not aware of yet. I'm definitely not scoffing at them; I just think it's an interesting insight into how people react, especially when in a foreign culture.
I had a great night with May. Afterwards I chatted with her online. We had a pretty heavy conversation. She mentioned the L word. In this case, it isn't Love or Lesbian, it's Leaving. According to my original plans I am leaving in June, and May said that she doesn't see us staying together if we leave. Her saying this wasn't all that depressing for me; it was always digging in my mind and putting it out in the open was a relief. Another thing it did was it made our relationship seem mortal. Since the time is limited, it makes everything more important and more valuable. As cliché as it sounds, I've got to take every moment I get.
On the other hand, it also makes me want to stay in Taiwan longer. That isn't the only reason, of course: I want to be in a job that puts my Chinese skills to use, I enjoy the climate here (the summers might be too much for me, but it can't be that bad...right?!?), and I've made some good and maintainable friendships here. My one main hurdle for staying here longer is that if I do I need to find a job here, and I don't want to teach English (which takes up about 90% of jobs among English speakers around my age). However, after this job actually got a response (unlike the others I applied for), I think I might have a chance.
Speaking of English teachers, I decided that I want to move out of the place I'm living right now. Sure, my place is huge, secure, and has a great view, but it has its downsides: it's far away from where I take classes (MRT costs add up), it's far away from all my friends at school (who live near the school), it's not as cheap as I initially thought it was, and my roommates' lifestyle is different from mine in a rather dramatic way.
To expound on that last point, here's how that becomes a problem: we don't really hang out much together, our social groups are nearly mutually exclusive, they have a lot more money than I do, and they tell a lot of stories how they basically play the role of stupid foreigner whenever they try to do anything. One of my roommates bothers me in quite a few ways. Mainly, he reminds me a lot of a previous roommate of mine who had anger issues, although he hasn't snapped on me. A lot of times he'll communicate other roommates' issues with me, but I've suspected it's his way of saying "I pissed off because of this but I'm going to use my other roommates to try to put it to him politely." (I think my main motivation for doing housework is fear that he'll flip out.) He also takes care of all the bills, which I also suspect we end up losing out on because of his inability or unwillingness to speak Chinese.
All in all, I don't really feel very at home here.
So basically, I really want to move into an affordable place near my school in a single-person apartment. While I'm wishing for things that will never happen, I'd also like some Wisconsin micro-brewed beer in Taiwan. I know you think, I'm more than half way done with my trip why don't I just stick it out? Well, that's still three more months in a place I don't really want to be. Albert (the one from before) said he knew of a few apartments that aren't usually rented to foreigners but they would probably make an exception to someone who can speak decent Chinese. I really want to figure it out soon so my roommates would have a month in advance to figure out what to do with my room, so I should think quickly.
I'm up entirely too late. Big day tomorrow: Class where I'm presenting a conversation with a classmate (basically an interview where I play an ancient Chinese poet, Li Bai), hike near Xindian with Liz (again, a Malaysia friend), choose between kickboxing or a party that my friend Melissa is putting on. (Kickboxing is winning in my mind right now.)
Oh, and I have to do that writing thing sometime, too. Shit. I'm way too good at procrastinating.