Take that frown and break it

It's been a pretty action packed two days. I was at the Taipei campus both days, and have been doing lots of talking with the Education professors at the campus. Dr. Liu, a psychology professor, was nice enough to spend several hours talking with me about education, Taiwan, religion and life in general. Dr. Yang and I spoke about American education (she's a recent Penn State grad and a lover of Penn State football if ever I've met one). Today I spent with education students visiting Taiwan civil courts and the Presidential Residence. Rundown:

1) Dr. Liu was so insightful about religious life in Taiwan and in general. The highlight was when she related her observation that so often, we hide parts of ourself in order to practice our religion with the people who we are with. She was so wonderful to talk with, and we'll have coffee again sometime next week.

2) Dr. Yang and I talked a good bit about student-teacher interaction in Taiwanese education and how she sees that as different from the typical American interactions. From her point of view, there's much more distance between a Taiwanese professor and student, but I haven't observed that so far. Maybe the Education department is much smaller though.

3) I rode on and then drove a scooter Monday night. I only drove in the hills, away from traffic so I can't speak to driving on the crazy streets but riding the scooter in the traffic was a hilarious and amazing experience. Driving the scooter was addictive, so I'm pretty sure I'll be trying it again.

4) Today I talked with several of my Taiwanese student friends (Maya, Eileen, and Eric mostly). Eric is still shy about his English, but I learned quickly today that there is one thing Eric is perfectly fluent in: American Baseball. Luckily, so am I. We had a great conversation over lunch about his favorite team (ATL Braves) and mine (STL Cardinals). Some playful ragging and general ranting about the NY Yankees. According to Eric, the Yankees are "selling the soul of baseball." Get it, Eric.

5) I may have inadvertently introduced "get it" into Maya, Eileen and Eric's English lexicon today. I feel alright about this, especially since they seemed to think it was funny. By the end of the day, Maya wanted a bubble tea and Eileen told her "Get it!" 

6) I get to sleep in tomorrow, after a few days of waking up at 7:00 am. Life's good!

I'm going to try to start saying what song the blog titles are from, because I've gotten a few emails asking. "I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You" by Tom Waits