01.06.2007 - Back in the MMI

Happy June everyone! Hope people have been behaving themselves and the UK is just how I left it. June means that its coming up to a year in Taiwan which seems to have gone so fast. I remember celebrating my last birthday in a tiny punk rock bar in a attic somewhere in Shibuya, drinking real Asahi and trying to come to terms with the fact that real life was upon us. Lucky for me I stayed in Asia and the odd adventures seem to have continued.

Although, much like the first year of University (lots of cash, new places to spend it) things are starting to wind down now and get a little more sensible, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It means I have the means to save a little cash, pick up some more Chinese, venture further afoot than my own front door and generally explore this Island with a sense of security. I no longer fear the fact that I understand little of what goes on around me, I have learned to embrace it somewhat. And when you find friends, you can laugh about it together which makes it much easier.

So next year I will be staying at the same school I am at now, moving to a new classroom but teaching the same group of kids and perhaps a few new guys. The system change and having to deal with the closure of my old class took a long while to get over for me. I guess I was more torn up about it than I thought which meant for a long time I didn't commit to making a connection with the new children. But all that is behind me now, our class is actually great and I couldn't be happier as their teacher. They have made huge progress over these few months and I look forward to the next year. Assuming they don't mess us about again.

About the biggest update to add is my purchase of a Wii. I really didn't imagine myself buying a console, I had mulled the idea of buying a PS3 over ever since it hit these shores but they didn't have any games back then and they still don't have any now which strikes me as really stupid. I guess it was Super Paper Mario that sold the thing to me, the game just looked so much fun. Having bought the thing I quickly realised I was going to have to get a wireless adapter and a composite cable for my TV box. I already had a 1G SD card with my camera and that seems to be enough for now. Actually playing the thing is often really intuitive and sometimes really tiring although as a machine to play together with about seven people it has no equal.

Ive been playing guitar a whole bunch recently and I'm thinking of putting a cd together of all the children's songs I have written and recorded over the last year. Based on the fact that I have recorded a song to cd every week for the last eleven months means there is a whole truck load of songs which I would like to collect together in one place. I write poem's for school every week too, just a shed load of resources I have either pooled or created in order to do my job here. So maybe I'll just make a Year 1 DVD of my work.

Besides the playing I do for school, Ive been strumming away at an open mic night on Sundays outside a nearby bar along with a friend of mine. At the moment there are only about three or four people doing it but hopefully it will really get good. It's just great to watch people playing on a Sunday evening a really relaxed atmosphere and if you sing a song you get a free drink! I'm still kicking around a few ideas for this Sunday I'm aiming to add two songs to my rotation every week until I get about ten songs I can do pretty easily. Last week I played "Rock and Roll Suicide", "Where is my mind" and "Creep", It went down pretty well so we will see how it goes.

Well, It's Friday and all my work for this week has been done. The weather was fantastic this morning but I can feel a tropical storm coming. This weekend I have to pay another visit to the dentist who is on a mission to fill every cavity in my teeth. She has already drilled and filled six, yes, six! of my molars and it going for the full set tomorrow afternoon. The last appointment took an hour of drilling to get done but I figure after she has finished with the other to there is no more places to drill! and I'm not the type to be afraid of the dentist but it's just so tiring to go through the pain for such extended periods of time. As part of my Visa renewal process I have to make another visit to the hospital for my medical examination. It's a little drawn out and a little invasive but once it's done, its done for the whole year.

At the moment I am without transport, although I'm working on that as soon as I get paid. I'm also still working on where I'm going to be living after July. All unavoidable crap that has to be done, unfortunately even odd adventures like mine are still dotted with mundane tasks.

Till next time,
This has been MMI

05.05.2007 - Extreme pokey trauma

So last night I clocked off, walked home and got back the abode. Ive decided to honour my contract untill the end of july and then, with any look ill be able to pick up a house in the same building i looked at when that time comes. So after making the call to the incredibly nice landlord of said building informing him of the delay I parked my ass infront the computer and picked up the coments from the last post. in response to the query, yes I cut my hair about two weeks ago and its effectivly serving as my summer coat. The only downside is that coupled with a clean shave, I look about 17 years old again.

Rooound about 7:30 I headed out to Bollywood, and indian movie themed curry house about five minutes trot from the SOGO department store. Since last week was incredibly expensive because everyone had shared, plus I got a bad stomach, I opted to sit in a corner and eat my own Tika Masala and enjoy a corona or two. Good choice it seems since I saved about 600 dollars in change because of the separate bill. There were bats circling wildly outside the restaurant and another British guy way playing with a parrot which I guess was owned by the restaurant. All in all a good friday night. It makes me want to eat curry again right now. I think I might.

Till next time,
This has been MMI

03.05.2007 - What the world needs now is MMI

Omatase shimashita! I know I have been gone for a while but really I havent been in the frame of mind where I wanted to blog. This could be because I've been too busy or just too lazy to put into words the hazy blur that is my Taiwan life. Well Im back and about time too, It feels good to revisit these dusty pages and let folks know how I am. Life is all about big changes at the moment, work has changed, friends have changed houses will soon be changing, the year has changed and will soon be restarting and even my hair has changed. It really feels like grown up life now too, whereby no shred of similarity with my university life remains save the TV shows and the clothing (Yes I still troll around in the NERV tshirt) and things have no clear direction. But for the first time in a while thats not such a bad thing.

Things I do know: Im going to be out here for at least another year teaching at the same school. Also I am negotiating a month long break during July in order to clear my head and get a well earned holiday. I've already begun saving for that break, that it may come to fruition. I also know that I will be moving house either before or at the end of my contract since Im sick of my apartment. It may look nice when clean, but something about that place just sucks the life force out of you and makes you instantly tired. This could be down to the strip bulb prison lighting which has to be turned off at all time. Because of that I am living by lamp lights when the sun goes down, a kind of coma inducing yellow glow. I actually look forward to being at work since it gets me out of that house, I never get anything done there, just crash and feel depressed. No wonder I havent blogged recently, its all the house's fault. Im blogging from school now and I feel fine.

Enough of that jabber. Work is really coming into its own now, and its helping me grow as a person. The challenges it presents on a weekly basis coupled with the infinite patience it required keeps my brain super active. Two days are never the same and although sometimes it feels like hardest job in the world and sometimes you have a terrible fruitless day, there are equal amounts of great days to keep you in it. So it looks like I will be sticking around and getting better at what I do.

As for life outside of school. I no longer have any extra curricular activites since I have just been too flippin busy. Drum lessons finished, I couldnt make time for Japanese and I havent been to the gym in weeks, I think my trainer has given up on me. I need my free time, and in it, I need to do absolutely nothing of value. Ive found I can socialise at my own pleasure at weekends but as far as scheduled activities are concerned, the amount of work I do at school just doesnt allow me the energy for anything else. Even watching TV, reading, listening to music have all been put on the back burner of late. I do listen to alot of podcasts though, thats pretty much all I do in my free time, listen to podcasts, play taiko occationally when I get outide and find interesting places to eat. Today I went to eat bad ramen for the second time because I didnt want to eat lunch at school. I wont be going back a third time.

So after work today, I going to check out a prospective new dwelling and try and get to the dentist since I have a huge hole in one of my back teeth. Not looking forward to that much. After that Ill go back to my energy sucking abode and feel tired as always, damn you house!

Till next time,
This has been MMI