Monday, April 02, 2007
For Example
It's a cold rainy Monday night in Taipei. The highlight of my evening is an almond steamed milk from the new Starbucks. That's right, a brand new Starbucks opened this weekend really close to our apartment (for Carole: beside Angelina's). It's hard to explain how happy that makes me, let's just say there's something about life here that makes the little indulgences crucial to survival. Carole has a good philosophy about it: maybe she'll comment and explain further. I have a lot of "regular" places where I'm recognized and I feel like the people who work there are my friends (or pseudo-friends, I guess; as close as it gets for me in Taipei). For example, I was so excited to visit the new Starbucks for the first time yesterday. I walked in and there were six women working. The first thing I heard was "Hi, Kathy!" One of them was Jennifer, who used to work at the Starbucks by school last year, and she remembered my name !(I use Kathy because it's harder for people to say the "l" sound in Kathleen- it always sounds like Kas-a-leen).I also wanted to explain about one of my frustrations last week. Thursday was a half day, but I decided to go back to work later around 3pm because we had a lot to prepare for the anniversary celebration. I found a note on my desk from David, who I co-teach grade ten novel class with. The Taiwan "Excellence in Education" professors were visiting the school to evaluate the English program the next day (Fuhsing won last year). And of course, they were going to observe our class. The principal, all the school deans, my supervisor and the professors. And David asked me, "So what activity are you going to do?" I was at school until 8 that night just working on anniversary stuff, so I ended up having an hour or so to prepare on Friday morning (coming up with an idea, a worksheet, etc.) I was the closest I've ever been to a panic attack. I ended up blabbering on about utopia, and even though I don't think half of the students understood me (I talk fast and use big words when I'm nervous) but no one else knew that- it's all about the bluff!
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Yay for the Starbucks! I definitely understand that certain good feeling of belonging that comes with being recognized. As for the "small indulgences," you're preaching to the choir. I would like to hear Carole's theory, though.