Leah Got Her Visa! or Metallica Knows No Cultural Boundaries

So after quite the scare, Leah is on her way to Taiwan. Ahh bureaucracy...its like being forced to listen to a drunk girl sing Mylie Cyrus songs at karaoke night while watching The View on mute and having your toenails ripped out with pliers. Except, I imagine Barbara Walters is polite when she robs people of 140 dollars.

Things here are coming along swimmingly. I found a church I am going to try out tomorrow morning (church in the morning? Weirdos.). Hopefully I can find it without getting lost. Streets are slowly starting to make sense. Does anyone know any good Lutheran jokes?

I taught my first English class Friday night. I am quite sure they are terrified of me; and I went out of my way to try to be really outgoing and fun. There are 9 kids in my class, and they barely said a word. One of the boys started talking to his friend while they were supposed to be doing a writing exercise; all I did was look at him and raise an eyebrow, and he didn't say ANYTHING the rest of the class. Anytime his friend would say something, he would just shush him and continue working. What a difference from teaching in DC.

In other news, this place is full of South Africans. And by "this place" I mean the two bars I have frequented the most, which both happen to be cricket/futbol bars. I actually had a conversation in which a South African tried to convince me that cricket's beauty is in it's simplicity, and baseball is too complicated to understand. Has anyone ever seen a cricket game? No. The answer is No. Because its weird. And it can take 5 DAYS to play a game. As residents of two former British colonies, we agreed to disagree, and make fun of the German guy for liking soccer.
Later that night, the owner of the bar came up to me and pointed to the computer, asking me to pick a song. This may have been because I was way too into "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi. So I found some old Metallica and played "Master of Puppetts". He got a big smile on his face; "Good?" I asked, "Is very good!" he replied and gave me a cheers. And we are now bonded together for life by 80's metal.

I used to listen to this tape on my walkman while cutting the grass with a push mower in 8th grade.

I am going to try to borrow a camera, or else I'll just have to wait until Leah gets here. I am not sure why I forgot to bring it with me. Probably because of the soul-crushing stress. I am hoping Leah has now escaped the worst of it and can take a few days to relax before getting here and jumping into the fire. She starts her full time job (Hooray! Full Time Job!) 3 days after getting here. So be sure to pray for her and buy her a drink or two. Or bring her sushi. Or all of the above.

Well, probably another night at the batting cages, trying desperately to hit 80mph pitches ( I am so rusty). But its a good work out. Its been hard to find a consistent work out routine here; found a little park to run in today, but our apartment is in a really dense area, and the air quality is awful.

I am off to watch more Scrubs (5 seasons down since I left) and maybe nap. My sleep cycle still is a wonky.

Interesting Things:

Stray dogs almost always cross the street at crosswalks
Bad teeth are considered sexy on a girl
There is a pastry shop here named "Donuts". It does not sell donuts.
Sandwiches are often odd mixes of egg or tuna salad plus ham or turkey. They are pretty good.
August 24 th commenced Ghost Month. People put out food and drink as an offering to the ghosts, who have been released from hell for the month. Apparently, ghosts really like Pringles and Supua (Gatorade...kinda).