Sorry guys, this is an all-text post. I've been working in the shop the last week, so there isn't a lot I've been photographing.
I've had the pleasure (and energy-suck) of teaching, lately. We've had the two groups of "Sewing 101" students in the shop this week. There are 16 freshman students that work to produce the spring show, and we get 8 of them, but it was requested that we train all 16 of them (in case there's anything new and specifically American that we do in our shop). I gladly stepped up to do this training, when my peers deferred to me. It was really fun and exciting to work with new stitchers, and also really tiring being "on" for 3 1/2 hours. Seriously, even more props to the teachers of the world from me.
Teaching especially tiring when there's no strong coffee in this place! There is coffee, but it is quite weak, even by my standards (those of you who know my taste for coffee would probably call this coffee "coffee flavored water").
Speaking of beverages and food, I've been craving American junk food like crazy after this Hualien trip, where everything was so green and healthy, haha! I'm not talking chips and cookies, either--they have all of that here, but rather fried food, like french fries, and cheeseburgers, and pizza--real American pizza; they make "pizza" here, but it is more like a calzone of pretzel dough with toppings and a sprinkling of cheddar cheese. There's no tomato sauce! Tragic, really. ;)
I met up with the other foreign students (Louis, Cheena, and Barra, who we met in Hualien) tonight for someone's birthday. We went to the Pauliner, a fancy restaurant on campus where Christine works. There must have been 20 foreign students there, from all over the globe. Nellie and I were the only Americans (I think, I didn't get to meet everyone 'cause the table was huge). Everyone I met was really nice, and very interested in American laws and music. I got quizzed about cowboys, Dolly Parton's bra size, New York City, American TV shows (particularly True Blood from one Taiwanese boy), Kenny Rogers, and American laws and current debates. I hope I was a good ambassador, because I possess no more than a passing knowledge about most of those things!
Many of the students were entirely transfixed about how many guns Americans owned. One of them didn't believe that you could buy a gun in every state. Several of them thought everyone in America must have a giant gun collection. They were all shocked when I told them that I owned a gun and hunted. A few of them thought that was really cool. None of them openly passed any negative judgement on the issue, but they were clearly surprised at the availability of guns in the US. It makes me very nervous to be the representative for our country to others; I always make sure to say, "That's my opinion, not the whole country's opinion," because we are a very diverse and opinionated, and frankly, currently divided nation.
I got a little personal chuckle at how many delightful cliches there were at the table, tonight. The beautiful French girl looked utterly, flawlessly spectacular, complete with matching lipstick, and was smoking and drinking wine, the blonde-haired blue eyed (I assume German, based on accent) boy was actually wearing leiderhosen (I'm sure to be funny), the Polish girls were wearing many scarves and jollily trying to feed everyone while singing songs, and the South American students were just carousing and teasing each other about sports and politics. Everyone was so nice, and so happy to get to know each other. It was a great evening!
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