A lot of stuff!

Yeah, I haven't updated in a while. Suddenly, things got a lot busier then they have been! For example:

NEW YEARS:

Ooh. Aah.

I saw the Taipei 101 fireworks from about 2 city blocks away. It was ridiculously crowded (人山人海). It only lasted 5 minutes, but considering that fireworks shot off 8 different places on all 4 sides of Taipei 101, it was a spectacular show.

After the fireworks we started flooding out of the place. I got upset that no one sang Auld Lang Syne so I took out my harmonica and played it. I was with a bunch of kickboxing friends at the time; they didn't know the lyrics but they were loaded so they hummed along.

We found our way out and decided on a club rather far away. It was near impossible to find a cab; it ended up taking until 2:30 and we had to share with a guy. We ended up at a club and they wanted $1000 NT (about $32 US) for the door, and seeing as I hadn't had much to drink yet and I needed to think about cab fare as well, I decided not to go in. Luckily I checked down in an MRT station and the trains run 24 hours on New Year's, so that saved me a bit of money!

SPEECH CONTEST:

I decided to participate in a speech contest. The speech must be 3 minutes long and on the topic "If I was president of Taiwan...". The first prize is $50,000 NT (about $1600 US), so I want to win. Instead of trying to talk about real things I'm just going for a really lighthearted "I love Taiwan" style speech. I might have to perform this Sunday (if there are enough performers), and the finals are the following Sunday. Wish me luck!

Also, a friend of mine is having issues with the people running the speech contest. While I by no means condone what they're doing, I am still going to do the contest and if I win I'll dedicate my victory to Kyle.

TUTORING JOB:

I picked up a tutoring gig. My kickboxing teacher gave me a call, saying he got offered a tutoring job but he didn't have the time for it. He gave them my number and called me on Tuesday. Wednesday I met with them and had my first tutoring session. I am tutoring a 17 year old high school student in mathematics. He's a smart kid but has a few issues that I think I should be able to iron out with him. The family used to live in Canada and the kid goes to a Christian school so the entire family speaks fluent English, which makes things a bit easier. It pays well, too.

Being truly busy has been a little strange for me, since I've been coasting by with ten hours of class a week since I got here. It's taken me a few days to adjust, but I think I should be in good shape. Catch you guys later!