mid-autumn festival

it's been two weeks since my last post. in the meantime, school is going along pretty nicely. we're about halfway through the quarter and starting to do more conversation in class. we're also starting to learn more interesting sentence patterns besides "i am..." and "i like..." and "i want...". as we learn these new patterns, i'm tempted to think of how i would say something in english and then try to do a direct mapping into chinese with the usual result being that the way i'm saying something is entirely too complex. the pattern seems to be omission where possible.

the rock band club has kind of been a bust. they seem more focused on guitar lessons than getting bands together. besides that, i found out that they don't have any dedicated practice rooms available, at least for new members. instead, i've been playing drums in one of two practice rooms which are open to all students. the first time i played, the drumset i sat at was the most pitiful one i've ever seen. the next week, the staff put new heads on and replaced the crumbling cymbals with new ones. i played on them for about an hour last week while someone in the next room was practicing their flute. hope i'm not making enemies...

i've also joined one of several kung fu clubs here with my classmate amanda. the style we're learning is northern shaolin long fist (長拳) which includes qin na (擒拿). we meet on monday and friday from 6:30pm to 9:30pm. we do a lot of good stretches for maybe 30 mins before we get into the main session. the main session so far seems to be sets of punches, kicks, then learning a section of a long set of movements named liu he quan (六合拳). when i showed up on monday, the class started doing some of this set and i couldn't really keep up. however, on friday, we were given more detailed instruction on the first movements for the set. finally, at the end of class, we learn some 擒拿 techniques or some two person fight drills. i've learned two ways for taking someone's wrist and putting them on the ground. i've also learned three two-person block and attack sets. i'm really enjoying the meetings. it's a lot of fun, good exercise, and a nice way to make new friends. many of the members are electrical engineering students, so at least i can chat with them a little bit about that.

besides clubs and school, the mid-autumn festival (中秋節) was yesterday. i spent yesterday and today staying home, trying not to aggravate the chest cold i have. the weather is starting to cool off and it's been raining lightly for the last two days. i also experienced a minor tremor last night. i was sitting at my desk when i felt the building start to swing around. the best way i can describe it would be like being on a small boat in light chop. at first i couldn't tell if the building was moving or if i was just going to collapse suddenly.

what else? that's been about all the excitement i've had so far. i've done the first extension of my visitor visa so that i'm good until the end of the quarter. after that, i'll need to extend it again until the end of the winter quarter. i'm still looking to take a trip outside of taipei one of these weekends. my language school is having a field trip in two weeks, although i don't remember where to.

that's it for now. until next time.