for some reason i haven't been able to get a memory from yesterday out of my mind, and i'm surprised i forgot to mention it in last night's entry. when joan and lin were driving around our neighborhood, showing me how to get to my various workplaces, there was of course a jay chou CD playing on the car stereo. joan and lin, like pretty much everyone else in taiwan and probably most of the rest of asia, are massive fans and were proudly showing off the albums of his they had in their car, which were in DVD size cases with the most ludicrously gaudy album art i've ever seen, and that's saying something. i don't particularly mind jay chou's fluffy pop-r&b, but i did hear several of the songs between three and five times. writing this makes me wish i knew any of the songs' names; there was one particular track (that i happened to recognize) that i must have heard about six times because, as i deduced from the lyric sheet lin had in his lap as he was driving, my host father was trying to memorize all the lyrics to that song, presumably in the interest of performing it at KTV some time in the future.
i love my host parents. they are quintessential wealthy taiwanese people who absolutely adore being wealthy taiwanese people, with their gleaming, palatial apartment suited to meet the needs of all of its current inhabitants to mathematical precision, and their family sedan with its tinted windows, leather seats and state-of-the-art climate control system; everything in their lives strikes a perfect balance between luxury and pragmatism, the ultimate chinese capitalist ideal. they are also completely wonderful people, welcoming me without hesitation and treating me with unconditional respect and hospitality, even willingly conversing with me at length, which can be a problem for anyone. did i mention i have an entire freaking bathroom to myself? seriously, this is probably the most comfortable place i've ever lived in (objectively, that is) and i get to enjoy it as a part of the greater experience of being in taipei seeking my fortune. it's hard to imagine being any luckier than i've been.
moving on from sentimentality, today was my first day at both of my jobs. my day began by misjudging what constitutes a proper breakfast (hint: it's not milk bread) and taking the wrong bus twice, resulting in being ten minutes late for my first day at the law firm. did i mention i'm interning at a law firm? you might not know it, because i forgot to bring a belt here and i still only have my red converses, so i must have been quite a sight on the elevator ride up this morning, and anyway at the job itself i so far have received literally no work to do. the most taxing part of the work day (besides passively beginning my study of the taiwanese phonetic alphabet) was my introduction to my coworkers, who by and large are around the same age as i, if maybe a few years older altogether. apparently, in taiwan the legal system works differently in such a way that a law degree is an undergraduate degree, one's course after receiving which is determined by associateships and various examinations. in other words, you have kids who've just finished their undergrads going pretty much straight into legal practice, and other kids who pass the exams to become judges before they turn 30, with no need to practice as a lawyer beforehand. naturally, this has engendered a host of colorful personalities. after awkwardly stumbling through my initial self-introduction, the first question i received (from the absolutely adorable IT girl named lala) was a curt "girlfriend?" when asked why i came to taiwan, i jokingly replied that i was searching for a wife, which sent a ripple of titters around the lunch table; marie warned me against such remarks in view of the different dating/marriage practices prevalent among young professionals on the island. she was totally kidding, but she also wasn't. (as far as i'm concerned, if the twenty dozen corner stores per square mile here are selling every variety of condom right out there on the racks, i don't think i need to give incredible gravity to the issue.)
as for the class, i had my first meeting with my seventh graders tonight (of course after a fiasco with the bus route and another near lateness), whom i like and i think it's safe to say like me. there were some setbacks, the main one being that i didn't get a copy of the damn textbook and had to improvise literally every second of the two hour lesson, but i think i did okay with winging it and the kids seemed to enjoy it. being an already strange person under duress who's out of practice with regards to addressing young english language learners i can safely say the kids thought i was a total weirdo, but i think i came off as the sort of weirdo they should respect, and the class went off without incident. i really missed working with kids, in large part because they say such funny things. case in point: when asked to describe a female bus driver named ms. black, one little boy said she isn't married because she (apparently) works all the time; at another point, when asked to describe a gardener, one little girl said that he's very good at his job because he is smiling and "looks very focused" (in the simplistic drawing, the man in question is staring intently, if blankly, at the ground); when asked to describe me, one little boy said i was very handsome. pretty astute, eh? seriously, though it was nice but a little awkward, and i sort of hope he doesn't tell his parents that he said that. i have to say though, there's a unique feeling of satisfaction explaining to a group of young english learners what a beret or a tulip is and seeing them studiously note the information in their textbooks; the looks on their faces when i told them how to spell "beret" were pretty priceless.
if i stay up any later i'm going to die. tomorrow will find me possibly trying to pitch myself as a guitar teacher for a local rock music school (all the way from america! it is best rock and roll guitar professor!) and my first random foray into taipei's underground nightlife.
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