Always an Adventure...

I'm here in class this week, and my brain is going into overload, filled with words like rheme, prosody, and discourse semantics. But speaking of fun words, our prof (who was teaching at Briercrest last semester - small world!) shared this website as a teaching tool or just for fun at www.wordle.net Here's a sample of what I got by inputting text from this blog, enjoy!

I know the MRT (subway system) here is fast, reliable, clean etc. I know which stops to get off for most of the places I want to go. I know the station in Dazhi is complete but will NEVER actually be ready to ride. But I had NO idea that you could put MRT money in your watch! Apparently Swatch sells an "easy card" watch that you can recharge at local convenience stores. So for about $50 dollars (an investment?), when going through the MRT gates, you just swipe your watch instead of fumbling for your card, or buying one of those easy-to-lose tokens. It's freakin' amazing!

Nothing too dire or serious, but sadly, I forgot my cell phone charger in Taipei, where it sits somewhere near my my back up cell phone charger (also in Taipei...). Why do I do this to myself?? After about 30 minutes of running (ok hobbling) around to various 7-11s and cell phone stores yesterday, I found that no one was able (or willing) to let me charge it in-store. Most places said "Only Taipei has this kind of service" well if I were in Taipei before THURSDAY I wouldn't NEED the service. So anyways, I had to dig out my old cell phone and charger and switch back for the week, not so bad, I suppose. I also discovered last night that my air conditioner doesn't get cold anymore............. It made for a grumpy and uncomfortable night.... I called around to see if I can get it fixed asap. Right now I'm just using a tiny doraemon fan that someone won out of one of those claw machines. Anyways, I'd better get ready for camp this afternoon! Me +40 kids.... will b...

Yesterday I went to a training session for a new toy one of my schools has decided to buy: a computerized whiteboard! What is it, you ask? Well after an hour of demos and getting to try it myself, it's simply amazing! It functions as a regular whiteboard. You can use whiteboard markers on it. BUT you can also project your powerpoint screens or websites (anything you have on your computer actually) onto it. BUT the coolest thing is that once you have a screen projected onto the whiteboard, you can use a special computerized pen to interact with it! So you can use the pen to go the next or previous slide, and to go from a powerpoint slide to something else (like a website). No more being stuck behind the computer for the whole class. In addition, you can use the pen to write stuff on your screen! So you can underline, circle, or point to certain parts. You can also write words. You can choose to record all the screens and pen strokes you make, and can even add voice recording. You c...