"Dear sir, may I borrow your phone to make one call? Just one."

Ha! That's fresh!

This morning, due to academic reasons (cough, cough), I have to take the CAPITAL BUS back to Yilan. Just as I boarded the bus and settled in a seat, a passenger walked up to me. He said, "Dear sir, may I use your phone to make a call? Just one call. My phone's out of battery." One would never know what purpose his/her phone is used for, especially by a stranger, so naturally I refused his "plea".
He approached me again during transit, seeing that I was using my cellphone, he said, "How about this? I need to call my company so that someone will pick me up upon arrival to Yilan. I will give you $20NT as a compensation of your airtime."
"My phone's running low on battery, sorry." was all I said. And I wasn't lying, either. That guy then walked up to the driver and asked him for a phone. I was thinking: this whole thing is happening again. But the bus driver tactfully send him back to his seat with "Company policy prohibits us to carry cellphones to duties." ......

Stage Performance

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Worst one hour of my week, and the week's just started...

What would you say to a Hongkongese who decides sit right behind you, talks loudly and burps non-stop for a whole hour?

This morning, as I boarded the bus from Taipei to YiLan, I was greatly annoyed by another passenger, the encounter was so... disgustingly engrossing that I was on the verge of puking multiple times during transit.

It was seven-thirty-five, I was anxiously waiting for the bus heading YiLan to arrive. My three-hour Chinese Language course starts at nine-ten, the transit time is usually a slight bit over one hour, so I have to catch the next bus to YiLan no matter what.
At seven-forty-five, the bus finally came. As I boarded the bus, I noticed a group of about five Hongkongese females trailing me to my seat. I didn't give them much thought. They were quite quiet for foreigners when waiting in line for the bus, I need some rest so I can be focused in classes today, perfect.
But, as the bus started rolling, my suffering started. A really loud and contiguous burping noise started behind me.
'Maybe she had too much for breakfast, at least she's not puking.' I thought.
However, the burping sound did not seem to cease, in fact, it's gradually getting louder over-time. I started to regret not bringing a headset from home today... It may be that her companion felt embarrassed, because she started to converse with the 'burping girl' (in Cantonese, of course). To be honest, her doing so only lead me to discover a even more disturbing 'talent' the 'burping girl' had: Now she's still burping, but she manages to converse with her friend during each short intervals of her burping. Her disregard for other passengers REALLY started to piss me off! To top that off, her decision to sit right behind me in a filled bus basically made me her most 'intimate' listener. I felt ill to the point that I was in the verge of puking my breakfast out several times.
I felt the urge to ask her to sit all the way to the back of the bus, if stop burping wasn't an option, but I didn't. Luckily, the lot of Hongkongese got off the bus at JiauXi, so I had time (20 minutes until arrival to YiLan) to recover from the extreme discomfort I felt since I sat down in my seat back in Taipei.
My impression of Cantonese-speakers from that point on... 'Not pleasant' is all I have to say.

"Would you like to stay at National YiLan University for another year?"

As title suggests, that's what I've been asked by the teachers this week. Tim was the first to make a statement similar to that. He said, "You have been absent from this class so often, you don't deserve to be with the rest of the class." , which pretty much sums up that it would be a SIN to give me a passing grade in that course.

The second teacher to make similar statement was Japanese teacher Chiu. To prepare her class for the Japanese Certification Exam Level 3 in the winter, she dedicate two nights per week help her students preview the exam using test banks from previous years. I attended the one on Tuesday, but because of my tardiness I was declined taking the practice test from the test bank. I could only review with the class. So, I attended the Wednesday evening training again. After the answers have been reviewed, Chiu spoke to me in front of the class... "Why are you here again instead of studying for the Japanese final exam!? Is there any way that you can make up your Japanese course credit in another school near your home? You are bound to stay in NIU next year if you don't have a decent grade for your final exam. Do you really love this department SO MUCH that you still want to stay?" ............

Well, there you have it. Two mandatory courses, one answer. That's code red for me...

Weekly World News...

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