Then we arrived at the Nangang Exhibition Hall, and after getting stocked with some beer from the Hi-Life next door. We were ready. Getting in to this concert was nothing like entering concerts in the US. Usually they scan your body, check your bags, no liquids. Well we walked in the door drinking a beer, wandered around, found the entrance to the arena area, they did say we had to finish our libations before entering, but little did they no we had more in our purse, because they didn't check them. Victoria says "Geeze I could have brought a bomb with me!" The security must not have understood it, because they didn't even glance at her. Entering the arena was ridiculous. It was like a high school gym, with folding chairs set up! Am I at prom or a Lady Gaga concert?! Our tickets had assigned seats, and the chairs were numbered, but there were no ushers around making sure you didn't steal other's spots. So we took the closest open places and joined the rest of the crowd standing atop the little tin chairs and danced the night away. Pretty dangerous to have drunk rowdy fans dancing on folding chairs, and some security did come by a few times telling everyone to get down, but then que her next big hit and we were all right back up there.
The show started at 7 30, and there was supposed to be an opener, Zed I think? Something I'd never heard of. So we didn't go inside until like 7 45, but she had already started! So we missed probably a song or two, but oh well. It ended a little before 10, it didn't go on for as long as I thought it might, but it was pretty spectacular! Rumor was that since it was such a smallish venue, she couldn't do her full stage set-up and have a very big Monster Pit, but she did bring a full size castle that she weaved around in and out of during the night. Naturally there was a lot of strange things going on, like before singing Alejandro she came out on a couch saying how it was made from parts of all of her ex-lover boyfriends. She also wore a meat looking outfit (again) and there was a rotating meat rack in the castle at this point. She talked to the crowd a lot, which was cool and took about 15 minutes to talk about people who are gay and how to be accepting while tying a rainbow flag together with a Taiwanese flag. Then later she asked how to say the word "pussy" in Taiwanese. Also, her butt was exposed about 80 percent of the time.
I'm pretty sure there were equal amounts of guys there as girls. Next to me was a Taiwanese guy, by himself. But don't feel bad, he was drinking his beer and rocking out and having a good time.
The Monster Castle. And look at the alll those glow sticks!
Just a bunch of thugged dudes, with glow stick bunny ears, at a Gaga concert.
This was a weird "magic mirror" of herself and the lips would move and talk, it was kind of scary. 
Getting emotional about gay people and Taiwan.
Getting emotional about gay people and Taiwan.
Once the concert finished, and it wasn't as late as we had anticipated, we decided to go out for a bit. I mean, we all had subs for our early morning Kindy classes the next day already.
A lot of Taiwanese people stopped us and asked to take our pictures, they liked our outfits and said we were cute :)
On the MRT to the Brass Monkey, we were laughing about this guy holding a Hello Kitty bag. Victoria told him she liked his bag and he was like "ohhhh I LOVE my Hello Kitty!" Then we asked to take a picture.
Luckily, Thursday night means Ladies Night at the Brass Monkey, a bar in Taipei. So we went, got in for free, had some free drinks and continued dancing dancing. Victoria started talking to some guy from Canada who was in town for a friends wedding this weekend. Around 1 we decided it was probably time to go, and Greta and I still had an hour cab ride back to Jhongli. This guy was either super wasted or just insanely nice, but before we left he kept trying to give us money to pay for our long cab ride back. We said no, but he kept shoving it at us, and, well, we ended up with a "free" ride back to Jhongli.
Now sometimes it's challenging to find drivers in Taipei that will take us all the way to Jhongli. When it's so late and there isn't much traffic, it only takes like half an hour. We lucked out and the first cab we tried was willing to, and somehow Victoria managed to tell him that first we needed to go to her apartment, because all of our things were there, and for him to wait outside for us, and then we'd go to Jhongli. We got our stuff and were headed home. Greta and I fell asleep once we were out of the city, and I woke up to the driver trying to talk to me and probably saying something about being lost. He didn't speak any English, I didn't know what to tell him. Greta and I surveyed the surroundings, we had no clue where we were, or if we were even in Jhongli. Shit. Well good thing there was a man standing outside the OK Mart at 2 am, so the driver pulled up and asked him for directions, he just hopped on his scooter and led the way! We made it hooome!
My Gaga shirt.
On Tuesday as I was driving home from work in the afternoon, I went over a larger bump, and began hearing a scrapping noise. I pulled over, and what do ya know. My exhaust tail pipe thinger was dragging on the road. The screw that holds it up clearly fell out. I tried to continue on just driving slower, in search of a scooter shop, and pulled in to the first thing that resembled a repair shop. Well they didn't do scooters, but pointed me down the road, then I stopped at the next place, and they pointed me down too, but this guy got on his scooter and led me to the place and then spoke to them. No one spoke English too well, but it was pretty apparent that my exhaust had detached and needed attention. When the guy looked at it, he took it completely off and showed me that it was cracked all down the middle, not so repairable. So he put a new one on, and it cost me 1,000 NT (about 30 US).
My old nasty exhaust, now I have a splendid new shiny one, but not a picture of it at the moment.
Wednesday we had another field trip for Kindy. This time we were going to the hospital/clinic! It makes sense as our Theme this unit is My Body. However, we spent a lot of time on the roof of the hospital looking at the garden and learning about the flowers and plants. Or I can only guess that's what they were saying, they were all talking in Chinese. So I just hung out, stood around, got paid, helped lift the kids up to the sinks in the adult bathrooms so they could wash their hands.
Learning about plants and herbs that smell nice.
My Kangaroo's chillin' in the clinic. Deacon looks like he's not doing so well.. haha
Now today is Friday, and the only really interesting thing that's happened to me is that I forgot all of my rain gear in my apartment. Usually I keep it in the seat of my scooter, but it was really pouring Thursday morning when I got home, so I brought it inside to dry. I left this afternoon without thinking about it, and was like "uhhhhhhh" when I realized it once I got to my scooter. I didn't want to walk back to the building and go upstairs to get it, so I just hoped I would be lucky. The sky was dark and cloudy, it wasn't looking good, but I made it to work still dry. Then an hour later the torrential rains started. This season is called Plum Rain Season. I decided this is because it will be nice out, and then BAM heavy heavy rains for just a little while, and then it's fine again. But really it's because this is the season that the plums are growing, and the rain helps them. Anyways, the huge Plum Rains had started, and I was not looking forward to driving home in it. I figured I'd have to stop at a 7-11 and get a little plastic poncho. BUT when I got done with class, it wasn't raining anymore! Yippee.
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