Damn. You know, it's so hard for me to sit down and make a decision and commit to something. I had a really good feeling about the one school I mentioned that I looked at for studying Chinese in next year. Now, I'm not so sure. They displayed a real lack of professionalism in our last conversation. I sent another email in order to find out if I would need to go abroad to extend my visa or if I could just switch to a student visa without any issues. The good news is that I don't have to go abroad (means more money I have available to me). The bad news is that a woman told me the price I was given in one of their offices was wrong and the actual price was almost 4,000 yuan more. You kidding me? How unprofessional. Right? Right? Right. I sent them an email expressing a similar attitude. They must have got the message because I haven't heard back yet. It basically stated that and also that I would now consider other schools due to their stupidity. I didn't use the word stupidity, but that's what it is. Let's be real.
Here are some dogs out wandering with their owner.
I mentioned how Chinese people love putting little outfits on their pups in a much earlier post. Here's a matching pair.
So now, what will I do? I have no idea. I heard back from them and the woman was very apologetic. I'm still considering their school. I just don't know, yet. I sent her another email questioning total prices and text books and all that jazz. I then sent another email before even receiving a response to that one about the website. Even the website lists a lower price than what this one gave me. Granted, it does say it's for the 2011 academic year, but if that's the whole price listed on the website what else are you supposed to go by as a prospective student? Again, very unprofessional of them. I don't know. We shall see. If I kept teaching, I could make almost double of what I'm making right now or exactly double (through my current company) if I get my own apartment, which I plan on doing regardless of what I end up doing next year. Decisions, decisions.
Had a really enjoyable weekend.
I went to this restaurant on Sunday that I've been to many times, just haven't been in a while. I had company and we tried a dish that was unfamiliar to me. First off, the dish was huge. In typical Chinese fashion, we over ordered. In our defense, the size of the dish we ordered was questioned prior to ordering. Besides the size, I normally wouldn't eat the red peppers in this dish. The dish was already super spicy. The dish contained these little ball things, almost like very small nuts or something. They come opened and non-opened. They're quite small, maybe a quarter of the size of a raisin. These things will make your lips tingly and numb. Seriously. They're crazy. I've had them many times. Well my company was eating these red peppers no problem. Well, I'm bold and don't mind some stupidity now and again. Probably more often than not. Anyways, I declared that I would eat one and then did so. Big mistake. My mouth was on fire. I can handle spice, but Chinese spice is a whole other thing, especially this food because the restaurant's meals are fashioned after a province's food that is known to be quite spicy. I chewed up the pepper real good. Bigger mistake. My tongue was the worst part. It was so unpleasant. I was crying from the spice for a good 10 or 15 minutes. Literally. Cold drinks offered no relief. Despite the tears, I was laughing at my own stupidity. It was quite amusing, even for me.
So as usual, I'm going back and forth with what to do for next year. Now, I'm fairly positive I will continue teaching here in the same school. It just makes more sense for a lot of reasons. For one, money won't be so tough. I already live comfortably and then some with my low teacher income as is. I can also still go to the school I was interested in and attend a few days after school every week. It's not a difficult job, and I have lots of free time. With extra income, I can attempt to get some more travelling under my belt, and lay a better financial foundation for my future. Money would be very tight if I just attended school. I would be scrounging for extra work all the time. It probably wouldn't be that hard to obtain, but still. Besides, even going to the school a couple days a week will help me tremendously. I'll move forward almost just as quickly as I would if I was going there 'full time' because that would only be 4 hours a day 4 days a week anyways. I'd have so much free time on my hands. I won't mock it too much though because nothing is decided yet. Sticking with teaching will allow me to maintain my gym membership too. Not a necessity, but it's a nice luxury. I can also stay in the area I'm in, which I really like. It's so convenient for a lot of things and it's just a good area in general. In my opinion. Anyways, nothing is set in stone. I'm weighing my options. Not 100% thrilled about teaching for another year, but it most definitely wouldn't be terrible. It's not a hard job by any means. I'm now starting to search for other schools because getting more money isn't really a problem, especially with a year's experience under my belt.
We were getting some snow last week (Week of 12/4) on and off for a couple of days. Amazingly, it was actually real snow as opposed to government created snow. Didn't amount to much, but check out these pictures of my backyard. So you have an idea what it looked like during the summer, I included one from then followed by the first snowfall we got.
I thought this was a cute photo. It's a grandfather (most likely - Chinese grandparents are kept around to watch their grandchildren). They're out battling the snowfall.
I've had a cold now going on two weeks or so. I just can't seem to shake it no matter what I do. I even stayed home a day last week. I needed the rest. I took a few days off from the gym as well, but now I'm done missing days so I'm back in there. I'm drinking tea, drinking orange juice, and eating pomelos like they're going out of style. That's impossible. I'm in China. I even napped a couple days during my break, which I never do. Pomelo is a citris fruit native to Southeast Asia. It's quite common here and it's delicious. Like the dragon fruit dwarfs the kiwi, the same goes for the pomelo compared to the grapefruit. It's like a grapefruit on steroids. I love them. They're so much easier to eat. I usually just drive a knife in fairly deep because the outer skin is really thick. From there, I can just use my thumb and then the rest of my fingers to take the whole outer shell off. Once inside, it's easy to just peel the membrane/skin right off from the sweet fruit within.
Pomelo - Southeast Asian Fruit
School has been going decently. Sometimes it drags on, but most of the time it's not bad. Come to think of it, the weeks have been just cruising by. I can't believe my birthday has past and it's already the 8th of December. Christmas is right around the corner. It will be a lonely Christmas indeed. I scoped out some mini fake trees I can snag one of these days. Really small. At the very least, it will add some amusement to the holiday and give me a false sense of holiday cheer. I'm acquiring Christmas movies and I've got hot chocolate from Mama Bear, so I'm set.
There are some funny things that have occurred in school life that I'd like to share. Hilarious, actually. First off, I'm sure I've mentioned this before. When starting off class, I always call two children up to come and greet one another in one way or another. I teach more greetings and they get more difficult depending on the age. I just like to have some kind of child to child interaction. For example, in my baby classes, I have one child ask the other what their name is. The other one responds and then poses the same question. If they are better, they can progress to add nice to meet you and nice to meet you to. This particular class hasn't gotten there yet. I may start with them next week, but we'll see. Anyways, there's cute little girl in the class whom was already one of my favorites. She's quite bright, loud, and funny. She has recently solidified that last quality even more so. Before I continue, you need to know that 'na ge' means that one. Pronounced, it sounds like 'neiga' or 'negga'. Now, if you say that out loud, it's going to sound a lot like the "N" word (with an 'a' on the end, not 'er'). Well, little Bonnie comes up and ponders for a second with 'uh' followed by 'Negga, what's your name!?' and '…..Negga, my name is Bonnie.' Haha. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with that. It's so funny. I laugh everytime. When she heard me laughing on Friday, she continued to repeat it; "Negga, what's your name? Negga what's your name? Negga what's your name?" Bonnie, you are precious.
I got this other kid named Steven whom I've mentioned before. He's one of my geniuses. He's funny. It always takes a few minutes to get started in his class. Prior to, I'm usually messing around with some kid(s) or doing whatever and waiting for the class to settle down. When Steven senses I'm about to start, he likes to throw in 'Alright, good morning.' and maybe even 'What day is it today?' or 'How's the weather outside?' Haha. Funny guy. A little smartass. Literally. He says those because that's usually how I end up starting the class. I laugh every time.
Another kid I'll mention in this post is John. I taught him last semester as well. He's not always paying attention and listening, but he's a sweet kid and I love him. He's funny and has a great laugh. I've been moving on through topics normally every week now. Just about every week, John will cling to his knowledge of one card and wait for the opportunity to be the first one to shout that out and get some sort of praise. The amusing part about that is even when he's not first, he'll still wander up for that card and try to get a hand slap from me. He's just so proud that he managed to remember that one card. It's better than nothing I suppose, so I don't have too much of a problem with it. I'll continue to encourage him. He rocks this big blue jacket with a bear head on the hood. Yes, it has ears. (China has the coolest winter jackets for children. So many of them have something crazy on the top of the hoods – ears and faces, horns, and other cool things. One kids hood folded down to reveal built in goggles. Why didn't I have a winter jacket like that? I've stated before that I like to put the hoods on the kids. With cool things like that, it makes it even better and even more amusing.) Well one day, I put John's hood on him. It's got this extra padding in the front, so it's ideal for playing the drums on his skull. He thought it was hilarious and now asks me to do it if I fail to do so. I also like to pick him up and place him up on this high ledge in the school. Sometimes, I'll say bye bye and walk away for a time before returning. Afterwards, I stand back a bit with open arms and encourage the kids to jump into my arms. It's not that dangerous. I'm there and wouldn't drop them, so don't worry. Some are more reluctant to do than others. John was at first, I think. Now, no problem at all. He barely sits on there for half a second before he's jumping/falling to be caught by me. If I put him back up, he immediately jumps again. Oh, Johnny boy.
Then there's Daisy. Sweet, lovely, super cute Daisy. I miss her. If I'm lucky enough, I'll run into her when she's heading to the bathroom (her new classroom doesn't have one in it) or when she's in the hall for some other reason. I usually see her a couple days a week. She always screams my name, with the rest of her classmates because I taught most of them last semester. Daisy sticks out, though. She runs up with her arms up in the air, wanting to get picked up. Of course, I'm then forced to pick up most of the other kids nearby as well because they all want to, and I can't be showing too much favoritism. But the fact is Daisy and Julia will always be two of my favorites. I see Julia for tutoring still so I'm happy about that. I'm planning on getting her and her family something for Christmas if I can figure out something in time. I always pick Daisy up and tell her I miss her in Chinese. She always repeats it back to me. Today, I asked her if she really did. She confirmed that she did. I then told her how to say it in English. She either already knew it or she's just that quick. Love her.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Even in China. I walk in the mall's supermarket and hear Christmas songs. I was hearing them before Thanksgiving even came about. I think I forgot to mention my Thanksgiving. It's really not worth mentioning. I wanted some duck since it was the closest thing to Turkey other than chicken. The duck was cold and mostly bones. Jerry Seinfeld freaked me out in one episode of Seinfeld stating that he didn't like duck because the skin was almost too human. That didn't help. The rice dish I ordered was nasty. It was just an all-around terrible meal and terrible Thanksgiving. There's always next year!
Special thanks to Mom and Pops. Been reading the first book of the series (Game of Thrones – yes, I watched the TV series and loved it.) I was dying to read the books before seeing the show and they're proving to be just as excellent as I was told.
-Jeff
