Tuesday 9/24:              A Musical Welcome Party

 

            My PC keeps screwing up at home.  It’s going to die any day and at least that’ll give me an excuse to get a new laptop.

 

            Dave didn’t call last night or this morning.  Briefly thought of calling him but decided to see how long it’d be before he calls.  Thinking it must be as cool as yesterday, wore long pants and 3/4 sleeve sheer blouse over one of the new 100NT tops from Esprit, since there was newcomers’ party at work today, and figured I should look nice.  

 

In class we had our quiz, then for our grammar lesson had to go around the room and each make a sentence with a different form for “Le”.  I had to do “Verb-Object Le, then I want Verb2 Le.”  Debbie went before me and said “[I drink coffee and then I have the energy to go to class.]”  The teacher said that was wrong because having energy wasn’t a planned action.  For my turn I said, “[I drink too much alcohol and then I want to throw up.]”  There was a silence and she gave me a strange look and said this was wrong like Debbie’s—was throwing up something I wanted and planned to do after I drank?  I muttered, “Yeah, sometimes,” and Stella snickered.  Debbie whispered “Grace!”  and I tried to explain I meant IF I drink too much alcohol I then want to throw up, but the teacher patiently explained that the word for want in that case was Xiang, not Yau, and Yau was to be used for something you really wanted/were planning to do.  Then the bell rang for 11AM break and I told the teach I had to leave for work business.

 

            Grew old again waiting for the #15bus which only comes every 3^rd blue moon, or for every 6^th #235 bus.  The #235 buses come all in a row like a procession, I don’t get it.  I timed it and the bus took 35 minutes from ShiDa to NTU MC, so I’ll try timing using the MRT and see if it’s worth the extra walk and 5NT.

 

            I found the welcome party which was a much bigger room with many more people than I expected, and an actual “emcee” in front with a mike talking and everyone stared as I walked in.  YuJung waved me over to sit between her and Dr C and JiauJu brought me food; there was quite a spread: XiFan, almond brittle, 2 kinds of almond jello, sponge cake, 2 kinds of dumplings, fish cake, iced tea, red bean soup, squid jerky, kiwi, papaya, and cream-filled buns that were delicious.  Everyone was done eating and I felt a little self conscious, and as I started to dig in the emcee said, “[Ah, it’s not yet 12 but the very pretty Grace Wang is here], and repeated “[We have with us Grace Wang!]”, saying my name like I was some kind of celebrity, and something about me being Cinderella because they thought I’d get here after 12.  He introduced me as a Fulbright scholar and told them if they want to apply the deadline’s coming, and that I was doing research w/Dr C to which everyone twittered, I didn’t know why.  He asked me something rapidly and I thought he asked if I got something to eat, so I pointed at my plate and said “[Yes, I do thanks.]”  But then he repeated himself and he was actually asking me to introduce myself.  Oh.  I said I just graduated from Yale (heard “ooh”), and then thankfully he went on to introduce the new Masters students and YuJung said I could relax and eat, which I did.

 

After introductions they asked, what should we do now?  How about sing?  So one of the professors who has 3 PhDs (one from Heidelberg) got up and sang some songs they all learned when they were kids, and everyone clapped along.  They then convinced ChiYuan to get up and sing because everyone knows he’s head of a rock band.  He stalled and looked totally embarrassed and said he was unprepared (the MC asked “[Who prepared for this?]”) so a couple people told jokes (one of them I actually got) and finally ChiYuan sang one of his band’s rock songs, “Alive and Kickin” (“[Grace knows what it means]” he said).  He belted it out and transformed to the long-haired rocker I’d seen on his webpage instead of the awkward research assistant with glasses, and suddenly was pouring out English when it usually takes him 10 minutes per sentence.  It was amazing. 

 

As people kept getting pressured to sing, students kept slipping out discreetly until the party broke up.  I kept trying to picture Betsy Bradley and Will White and Yale EPH singing and doing all this, what a riot.  Americans must really seem like a bunch of stiff duds in these settings. 

 

I loaded a small plate with more food and back at our office told JiauJu I noticed Taiwanese people love to sing, and that I should tell the Yale faculty to do these kinds of parties.  She said all their parties are like this, and Taiwanese have a lot of KTV around and go Karaoking a lot, that’s why they like to sing.

 

            At 2:30 was the Tuesday tea party, I said [“We’re still having it?]”  She laughed, [“We keep eating]”, so we had more of the same food plus ice cream!  I made a beeline for it, but again it was icy and not so creamy, argh. 

 

A woman asked me how much Chinese I knew and that to learn I should get a Taiwan boyfriend.  The MC guy said “[Yes, like your son!]”  She giggled and said her son’s a pastor.  She said a lot of internationals come here and find Taiwan bfs/gfs.  It’s hilarious that when people meet you they right away just start talking about these personal things. 

 

JiauJu and ChiYuan came over to my desk later and said Dr C told them I didn’t know ANY Chinese so when I came and could speak some they were all very surprised.  They also said my handwriting is excellent, because they saw me sign my name.  I said that’s because when I got here I had to sign so many things, so I’ve learned to write my name really well, but only that.

 

            Since I was there early (it was still only 12:30) I said Hey online to Dave, to let him know I could talk.  He said OK, he’d talk then go to bed pretty soon.  But he ended up barely replying to anything I said and was still working on his essay.  I was annoyed and said, “When you’re home, it’s because you have to work and therefore can’t talk.  When you don’t have work, you go out, so therefore we can’t talk.”  No response.  Frustrated I logged off. 

 

            That night around 10 he called and asked what I thought about his essay that he emailed.  I asked, “Did you not get my messages?”  Apparently he hadn’t.  He said he’d call again at 12-1.  As usual I said, “You don’t have to if you’re busy.”  He said OK.  So he didn’t.