Root Canal in Taiwan :o(

I have never gone a year of my life without some form of major tooth or gums problem, and Taiwan brings no exception! Last week my back tooth really started to hurt and so I planned to go to the dentist the first chance I had, which was today. This, apparently, was a bad decision as I found out today that I had a cavity which severely worsened with time and I had to have on-the-spot root canal. I was in so much pain lastnight, crying to all of my dorm-mates and scaring my mom back home with a hysterical phone call. This morning I went to the dentist here, recommended as "English and normal", where I got a 2:30 appointment (ironic shout-out to the joke about the time being "tooth hurty") and an X-ray revealed severe root damage. I started to cry, of course, and Lee held my hand the entire time I was operated on. Multiple injections of anaesthesia later, I was set free, only to return again in 2 days to have the filling completed. 45 minutes later I was back in the classroom, teaching. On the bright side, it barely cost me anything! Except, of course, hours of excruciating pain.

A Wild Weekend!

Ni hau and hello to all! Just a friendly weekend update - hope that you all had a fun one as well!
Friday night was chilled; I surprised Lee with a really old movie that was one of his favourites as a kid, I hope you ALL know and love "La Bamba!" Saturday I worked until 5 which went well, except that one of my classes was so loud I actually had a headache from them :o( But then at night Lee and I checked out the Night Market here, and it was awesome! We walked around for 2 hours, checking out the shops of shoes, clothes, CDs, animals and had delicious BBQ dinner! Then at night we all came back to the dorm for some serious in-house drinking - my bottle of wine was the LEAST to get drunk! Everyone was off their rockers as we decided to hit up a bar around 1am; where the night took a very different turn...
We ended up at a Taiwanese karaoke bar! 6 of us were immediately greeted by a small yet friendly croud, serving us snacks and rounds of beer as we each took turns embarrassing ourselves on stage! Old 50s love songs had us crooning the night away, until an older man decided to take things a little too far with my friend Mychal. He would not leave her alone, and aggressively tried to get with her even after she pushed him away so hard that he fell down to the ground, twice! I ended up moving him out of the way as we left the bar, while Lee and the others joined us later. Back in the dorm at about 3am, some people passed out while others continued to drink the night, and most of the next day, away.
Sunday was tons of fun! Lee and I scooted our way over to the next little city and spent the afternoon shopping; I got two new beautiful sweaters in preparation for the cold weather coming, and we met up with some people for dinner at TGIFriday's!! It was a lavish and delicious dinner :o) Back home, I am currently missing my brother turn into a VERY OLD MAN of 27 years!!!
On my way to bed now, I look forward to hearing from all of you soon about your weekends too! Here is a picture of me, randomly, with the peel of a pamelo on my head! It is like a bigger and sweeter grapefruit, and this is actually the tradition here! As they say, when in Taiwan...!

guess what!

I have a hematoma!!

Over a month ago, Lee and I were involved in a scooter accident - when I made my first and only attempt ever to drive a scooter here, and, well, I hit another scooter... So anyways, ever since then I have had a severe bruise on the bottom of my leg and an aching pain whenever I touched it. I assumed it would go away with time, like any other common injury. But here I am, weeks later and my leg has a hard, soar bump on it and the bruise has not gone away. So I finally went to the hospital today and had it looked at, to be diagnosed with a subcutaneous hematoma: a break in the wall of a blood vessel, aka a blood clot. So I have to put a heating pad on it every day and rub this funky gel over the area in order to get the blood soft and flowing again. If this does not work within one month then I have to go back and have the blood removed with a giant needle :o)

Good times!

a Random act of Awesomeness!

So Lee and I were teaching at the high school today, and when we came back from our lunch break none of our students were in class. We waited ten minutes but still, no-show. Then two of the kids came to class to let us know that they were involved with a presentation for that period, and did we want to come see? A free period off from teaching! So we agreed to check it out for five minutes, thinking we would then leave and go home early :o) However, when we got there, set up before us was a gourmet-restaurant-looking room, with white table clothes and everyone in the craziest costumes! A farmer theme had all the kids dressed up either as chefs, farmers, or farm animals! These were our students with Cooking as their Major, and they were getting ready to put on a demo for a group of teachers and parents; we just happened to enjoy being a part of it! They proceeded to set before us a refined 3-course meal of mushroom chowder in a bread bowl, duck, and a fruit parfait - it was the most delicious food I have had here so far! We dined and hung out with the kids, and then took some pictures with all of them; so here they are for you to enjoy! It was the most random and delightful hour of teaching yet!

Wo shu Jia Na Da ren!!

Ni hau everyone! As you can see, the Chinese lessons have begun, and I have entitled this with "I am Canadian!" So how are you all doing, how was your week?
Last weekend was pretty chilled out, working, rented a movie and Sunday night went to a friend's roof-top bbq which was really nice! This week was filled with work - Thursday night was my last time teaching a class before the students switched to a different one, so I threw them a party! We watched X-Men II and ate popcorn, what a great job eh! I have also picked up a few more new classes, making my weeks now that much more filled! In other news, Lee was bit by a street dog :o( Don't worry, he's fine! No bloodshed, but we went to the hospital to give him a tetanus shot just to be safe. The street dogs are rampant and scary and everywhere!
I blew it big time at bowling on Wednesday, but made up for it this weekend! Saturday I substituted in the afternoon and then at night Lee and I got our game on with the crew of Canadian teachers here in an intense bowling tournament! Thanks to the points system, I placed 5th! :o) Then when the tourny was over at about 2am we all went to the local bar here, The River, where we drank and played pool until almost 5am! Good times! Sunday was a perfect day of relaxing, shopping, and watching a movie. I have posted 2 pictures from Thursday afternoon when Lee and I spent the morning on our scooter, coasting through the mountains an hour away; they are so beautiful and peaceful, it is the perfect place to escape from the city once in a while. What can I say, I'm a country girl at heart!

Trick or Treat!

Here are some pics of my kids dressed up on Hallowe'en, as promised!