Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2004 - 1:28 a.m.

Hwy 11 on the east coast of Taiwan. Wood carving of a man and his dog. Funny enough, his dog was sitting a few feet(oops, I mean meters away)

Just had the realization that the first 4 months of this journal (not currently available online) are saved ONLY on some disks. Oh shite. I like having three copies: one online, one on disk and one printed out. Printing is a HUGE issue here if you dont have a printer, so I thought I had covered the two other bases. Guess not. Now I am wondering if something happens to these disks (swiped clean somehow) at the airport what will I do. Panicing, but breathing somehow. I have a month to figure this out, and can beg and plea with someone to let me transfer the info. Oh goddess I hope so. I dont even remember whats in much of those 4 months, but I know I wrote a buttload and I would hate to lose all that. Oh shite.

Oh a less panicky note. Had another nearly painless eye day. Think this is the start of my eyes remembering how to lubricate themselves. Bright lights still an issue, but I dont care about that. The pain of dryness was my main concern, and now that this seems to be clearing up, I feel so much better. Whew! Things are working out quite well I think.

On a sad note, my new female partner in crime is leaving the country for a couple of weeks starting this weekend. Sad. She is the first person that I really feel like I have clicked with here, really clicked. Oh well, we still have 2 weeks to torture Tainan between when she gets back and before I leave. But who will sing Corey Hart's "I wear sunglasses at night" when I walk into a room while shes gone. Any takers?

Still having issues wiping up the mess of the CT I was having major problems with months and months ago. Every now and then (or often) he teaches the kids something completely wrong.And when I review or quiz them they scream and yell "But ____ said..." Yeah, ok. Today it was teh symbol for a sound in KK (international phonics language). I have been dealing with this and him for months now, and he is not a stupid man, nor is he fighting me in class anymore either (a smart choice on his behalf). So when it happened today I just told the kids what was the right way to write the symbol and what wasnt. It was just a small variation, but if you write an international symbol wrong, whats the point of learning it at all. Oh, call me a bitch if you want, but they will thank me later. If they even remember me, that is.

(small note: the computer behind me in this cafe is playing "Joy to the World" as its accompanying music. Over and over and over. This is the music for the video game this guy is playing. oi! Thanks goddess for my headphones, I can drown most of that crap out.)

I also had a class of 4/5 year olds today where the assistant teacher was sick. Usually there would be an temporary teacher filling in. But for the entire first 50 minutes it was me and the kids. All 9 of them. They are one of the class I have had for a few months, so it wasnt a nightmare, but it was hard still. This is a class where one of the worst discipline kids is. Ugh! I made him stand in a corner he got so bad today. And with just me and no Chinese under my belt it was interesting. oi! But I was so excited about my eyes I just did what I could. I think it was my worst class in terms of getting the info across, but with all of the challenges in those 50 minutes, I was in survival mode. Tomorrow if my long day,three classes and I start about 3 hours earlier than the rest of the week. And here it is almost 2am. Oops. Gotta go. I'm gunna go scratch my new teacher balls, cause I certainly CANT scratch my damn eyes!