A little less what's going on, a little more musing

Tonight my school had a Christmas party and an accompanying talent show. I must say that I have some talented classmates and some not-so-talented classmates. Anyways, the discussion transitioned to activities for the evening and the only one that really came up was Luxy. I've mentioned Luxy before here, and while it's a pretty durn fun club, it's also really expensive. Seeing as I somehow went through NT$5000 in the past week (a few grocery store visits, a fancy dinner or two and refilling my MRT card will do that to you), I thought I should probably save some money and have a quiet night.

That led me to the Internet, and the Blogosphere (I feel stupid for using that word). After catching up on my friends' blogs, I realized (especially after reading my humorous and fantastic writer friend Erin's TV Blog) that I can write more about what's going on in my life. Thus, a new feature to my blog: MUSINGS.

The topic for my first musing is drinking fountains (if anyone tries to correct me by calling it a bubbler, there will be retribution). At Shida, the drinking fountains are rather high-tech. After my visits to China, I used the fact that in Chinese hotels they have boiling water machines instead of ice machines as evidence that China is kinda backwards. Well, in Taiwan, the machines at my school give boiling water, cold water, AND lukewarm water! (In Taiwan a lot of people prefer lukewarm water since it gives the impression that it's been boiled.)

That's not all. The machines also have digital readouts that say what temperature the water is. In addition, the machine talks! It will say what kind of water you're pouring out and if you get the boiling water it says, "開水很燙,請小心使用" ("boiling water is very hot, please be careful"). So basically, I think they're really awesome.

Now, since I usually need a caffeine fix in the morning to keep me occupied during class, I started out by stopping by Seven-Eleven or another convenience store and buy a Coke Zero or an iced tea. This semester I noticed that not only is it probably not very healthy (especially in the case of the soda), it's also quite expensive (less than US$1/day but it adds up!). So, I bought a little mug and some tea bags at RT-Mart and I've been making my own cup of tea in class. Although I've gotten a few weird looks (including one from a teacher who thought at first glance it was beer) it's been working out well.

Well, there's some musing for you. I have a few more topics stored away, so I'll try to throw one of these in between postings. Later!