Do I Really Look Like This Guy?

The Great Muta is his name and he is a big time wrestler in Japan and people say I look like him.  Hehe, back in Tokyo I was mistaken for him quite often.  I thought it was kind of funny at first when the checkout lady at the local store I went to swore that I was him.  Then it just kind of happened, people mistaking me for Muta.  Now it has happened here, in Taiwan.  I was kind of strange at first when Edo mentioned it, that someone posted on facebook that I was a wrestler.  I was confused at first and found out about it when I went over to Annstudio.  He showed me the post.  It seems that the manager of the Queen of Tea, posted my picture and Muta's.

I cant escape it!  haha!  I have to meet Muta now, it is on my Bucket List.

I am not pissed off...

... anymore.

They cut my hours at the cram school I am subbing for.  The thing is I didnt even get to teach the Thursday class.  Now I waited an entire week before I wrote this because last Wednesday I was pissed off.  They said the higher ups werent sure if I could handle it.  Higher-ups?  They werent even in the classes to check on me.  The whole situation was quite strange and "M" wasnt too sure because she changed the story when I questioned her.  Sigh.  The only reason I could think of was because I didnt look white enough.

Yeah, thats right.  Not white enough.  It is something that I have noticed for the time I have been here.  I dont have the classical European features, so people people dont want me to teach.  Laura, the girl who lives at the share house with me got a job teaching, private lessons to group of really smart kids.  She didnt feel confident in teaching them, for her English isnt that good.  But the mother kept on saying that she was amazing with the kids and did everything in her power to keep Laura.  Now I am teaching Laura English, so I know how good her English is.  She wasnt good enough to teach them.

So I said I wasnt mad anymore.  I had to just get it off my chest.  I am not going to talk about it anymore.

No to more fun stuff.  Tuesday, I went to Qijin beach with Laura.  It is a black sand beach and was rather nice.  The sand was so fine however that it blew with the wind.  You could see the wind blowing, all you had to do was look for the mini sandstorm blowing in.

Laura's first coconut.

I want to walk the entire length of Qijin now.  I am thinking of next week.

Aunts, uncles, cousins, papercraft, New Years and new friends...

This is only a fraction of relatives that have I met on Saturday.  There were a couple more but they had to leave.  This was taken at my uncle's shop and he does some AMAZING papercraft.  I will just cut to the chase and put up some pictures of some stuff that he has worked on.  Keep in mind that most of what you see is done from one sheet of paper.  It is amazing.

C'thulhu commands you to release me!

It is fricken' amazing what he does.  He had a bunch of pictures that he has put together that show how he does it, from beginning to completion.  The yellow fish that is pictured above is from a single sheet of paper.  Except for the dorsal and ventral fins, it is one piece of paper.  And oh, did I forget to mention that the body can be moved.  This is only a small sample of what is available.  I have to get my uncle some more exposure.  Then we went out to eat and we found a little lamb restaurant nearby my uncle's and it was good.

New Year's Eve came and went.  At least I didnt injure myself by falling down the stairs.  Stino, Sebastan a guy form China (ack, forgot his name) and I stayed indoors and watched the FailArmy on YouTube.  Laura had a date and she was looking mighty fine.  Then went outside to sit with the gang at the art studio.  AnnStudio is a local artist.  Ann, or Anthony is a Hakka, Taiwanese gentleman who has opened up his shop.

Laura, my adopted daughter.  hehe

Now as it turns out, I met purely by accident I met another foreigner by the name of Mike.  Seems that he and his wife are doing what I am doing, travelling as much as I can.  It seems that we have become friends.  He had invited me to dinner at his place that he just have rented for the month.  It is a nice place with a full kitchen.  He has many pictures that he has taken around the world so get to know him.  Well worth it.

All and all it was a pretty good week.  Made some new friends.  Got to meet my family and I was kinda apprehensive about that.  It has been over twenty-five years since I have been here and I lost most of the Mandarin when I had my stroke.  They welcomed me with open arms and special thanks goes to Tristan and Joann.  Cousins of mine who were born after the last time I was here.  Gasp!  I feel old.  hehe.  Good week.