Protests

Not sure if it's made any Western or European news outlets, but therehave been nightly protests directed towards the President since my 2nd night here. They have gotten increasingly worse too. Intially they were innocous and just chants and whatnot. Recently they have become somewhat violent and more widespread. Every friday as I walk to school I see guards and troops constructing and staging barricades and barb-wired fencing to protect the Presidents House and estate. Both are only two blocks from my school. The protests are in regards to apparent money smuggling and bribes accepted by the President and family. Most say this will die soon enough, and as a democracy the protests are basically pointless, though interesting nonetheless. Something unheard of in the US. Went out to eat again with Liu and his brothes and his family last night. They took me to a place called Las Vegas. It was a huge buffet with seafood, steak, and local dishes. All you can eat and drink. I had the equivalent of a bottle of wine and remained sober as Liu watched in awe. Wine is so $$ (12-15 for a cheap bottle) I needed to get a fix. He was amazed at how much I could drink and eat while remaining sober, also at how I could drink it warm sans ice. It was an obscene amount of money per plate and again he treated. His wife also gave me a water boiler-perfect for cheap noodle bowls here. Afterwards, and by that I mean 3+ hrs. of eating drinking and schmoozing, they make an event out of dinner here, I met co-workers at a bar. There was about 15 of us, Americans, Canadians, Chinese, and an Aussie with his sis and mum. We decided on a local "dive" bar. When I say dive bar, that cannont be understated. It was a good time though, and afterwards some of us went to a proper British pub on the other side of town. MRT shuts down @ 12 so it's all taxis. Luckily, taxis are cheap, four of us paid about a buck fifty for the trip. It was nice to drink a proper pint of Stella and watch the premiership. The aussies mum got drunk, made for an interesting experience. She is a novice traveler who has absolutley no tolerance for anything foreign, but a very nice lady as she bought drinks most the night. More oddities: there are no dryers here, anywhere. Even the rich use clothes lines. Much to my disdain, there is also no cheese, and the rare sour milk you can find is prohibitively $$. The sun ceases to exist. It's cloudy everyday, though the temp has fallen and it doesn't rain too often anymore. The great race is to learn English. There is almost a cultish obssesion with the people here to speak and learn english. I've gotten approached numerous times on the MRT and other various places by mothers/fathers who want me to speak english with their kids, as though to show them off or something. The seafood here is rare unless your willing to pay for it, though on the flip side the bakeries rival there counterparts in France and Italy. They are ubiquitious, cheap, and delicious. Half the time I go in I just pick something that looks tempting w/o the faintest idea whats on top or inside of it. Have yet to be dissapointed. Ciggies are dirt cheap, about $1/2 a pack. Of course that means that almost everyone my age and slightly older smokes, not a good habit. They have a lottery here, though not in the traditional sense. Every receipt you get has some #s at the top. Every two months they draw #'s and you can win $$ based on correlating #'s on your reciepts. Thus everyone keeps their receipts. Apparently it's done as a means to ensure that stores keep their books properly. Also it's quite common to win. Some of my co-workers won last time, albeit a small amount 400NT (15). Went to IKEA last week, lots of things I want to buy when I start to make $$. People love it too, place was a madhouse. Not much else, settling into a rythym of sorts, trying to pick up Chinese, though largely in vain. I seem to pick something up but then that displaces something else I've learned. Very weird phenonmenon. Has this happened to anyone else learning trying a foreign language? Again, thanks for the post, must get off here and grade some HW.