So I’m bored sitting in the KL airport. I’ve been here three hours already and can’t check in for at least another 90 minutes, so it’s time for some random observations!
-There are many police officers here at the airport. Most of said police officers are carrying submachine guns. I have no clue why so many officers need to be here carrying such guns, it seems like overkill to me, but I’m also not head of national security so I guess I’ll leave those matters to the adults.
-Continuing a trend of many Asian cities (and I guess some American ones... I’m spoiled by Logan), the airport here is nowhere near the city center, which is annoying as hell. As a consequence of it being so far away, I needed to get here before midnight for a 640 am flight (taxis are pretty much not even an option here. Malaysia has the worst taxi system in the world- there was even a study done to prove it! Drivers refuse to use their meters. Being here two weeks, not one was willing to use a meter. Whenever the subject of a meter was brought up, they laughed and said no. Refusal to use meters means we were at the mercy of drivers to charge us fair rates. Anyone who’s read this blog before knows where this is going. We were repeated over charged. Most fares within city limits should be 10RM or less, considering taxis start at 3RM. The cheapest fare we paid the whole trip was 15RM. Ridiculous. Last night we were charged 20RM to drive less than a kilometer. I don’t even want to think about how much a taxi to the airport would cost...). Anyway, no taxis mean I had to rely on the bus system, which stops running at midnight. When I first arrived, I landed at 230am and was wondering why so many people were camped out at the airport. Now I know. The place is crawling with people because if you have an international flight before 8am, you pretty much have to spend the night at the airport, which sucks. Huzzah for no sleep!
-So I’m going to start a new series on the blog (which means that I’ll write two or three specifically themed posts then forget about the whole ting.. like ‘Only in China’ or my Turnpike Memorial Series). The new theme will consist of times I probably should have died. This may seem morbid. However most of these stories are actually pretty funny (keeping in mind that I didn’t, in fact, actually die) and should be shared with the world. This also means that the infamous Popeye’s story will finally make its way to the interwebs to be shared for posterity’s sake.
-I just went up to order some McWings (which are the balls) and some guy in front of me ordered the last batch. They won’t make any more tonight. I’m incredibly steamed about this development because McWings may be the best part about McDonald’s in Asia. (Yes, that makes me a fat kid. It’s not as bad as the gorging that took place twice in KL because we found Wendy’s, which does not exist in China. I’ve never felt so heartbroken in my life as last night, when after a day of travel and looking forward to eating Wendy’s, finding it to be closed. I seriously need some help).
Ok well my mind is officially mush from lack of sleep, so for being a post predicated on being long and rambling, this is actually short by my hefty standards. Anyway, more new stuff in the near future.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Sports Post
Once again, we're kicking it old school with something I wrote back in September. It's an absolute fucking mess of a post. I think I wrote it after talking to Alex on the phone, I can't exactly remember. Anyway, the gist of the post (if you aren't inclined to read the whole thing or get thrown off track by all the tangents in it, is about missing sports in China. I still don't have internet in my apartment (or heat, or hot water for more than five minutes, not to mention the mold problem...) so I get all my sports in through highlights online when I'm at the bar, which kinda sucks. The post is somewhat relevant today since the Super Bowl just occurred (damn the stupid Steelers...) though alot of the references are a tad dated...
This one is kinda going to be weird post and possibly somewhat personal (or at least as close to personal/inner workings of my head as I’ll allow). So aside from family and friends (obviously), the thing I feel like I’m missing the most right now is American sports. I can replicate American food well enough here. There’s McDonald’s, KFCizzle, TGIFridays, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Subway (possibly, I haven’t seen it yet), and many other restaurants that can give me a fix of the good stuff (and by good stuff I mean chicken fingers and french fries, not heroin). If I could get the internet (hopefully soon!), I can see American news. I brought a TON of DVDs with me. I’ve been watching alot of the Simpsons lately, and I have some Family Guy, AD, Office, and a bunch of movies (on top of what I can buy here. I’ve found a few DVD stores so the selection should be decent throughout my stay here). And I can get into the Western part of town easily enough by cab or bus. However, there is no outlet for American sports here. CCTV has been replaying Olympic events and the Paralympics started last night. The Western bars here (as they did in Beijing), show more English/Australian sports, so alot of rugby, soccer, and Australian Rules Football (I watched that last night for close to two hours. I kinda understand it now, but not really. What I don’t get is what possesses people to play that. I mean seriously, go to Google or something and look up some clips. That shit is just violence for violence’s sake. I saw so many people get helped off the field. Like rugby, there are no pads and it just seems like a bunch of violent collisions. You can literally see people being concussed as it happens. Nothing like watching brain damage live!). Back to the point, no baseball and no football. There’s no way in hell there will be hockey when that starts up. As for basketball, I imagine alot of Rockets games (because of Yao), Nets (I think Yi got traded there...), Lakers (as Alex mentioned on his blog, Kobe is popular here. Real popular. I guess no one here seems to care about rape charges), and maybe possibly hopefully Celtics, with them being the defending champs and all (I saw a kid with a Celtics championship shirt on today. I wanted to give him a high-five, but didn’t because with the language barrier it probably would’ve been a 5 minute process...).
So if you’ve managed to keep everything straight (which considering half of that last paragraph was me going on random tangents, kudos!), my two favorite sports, baseball and football (in that order), are not covered. That sucks. I haven’t seen a Sox score in probably close to the 10 days. They could be in first or third at this point. I wouldn’t know (same goes for my fantasy baseball team. I apparently made the playoffs and didn’t know until three days after they’d started. Awesome). It’s not like baseball is interesting this year, what with the Rays in first, the Yanks possibly missing the playoffs for the first time since 1993, the NL West still a giant clusterfuck, and Centerfield Guy throwing things at Mets fans (one of these days I’ll tell the story of my magical day at Citizens Bank Ballpark with Colleen.... if I haven’t already. I honestly can’t remember and have no means to check). So yea, missing baseball sucks. However, I’m now (finally) going to get to the impetus for writing this: as I type, the Patriots season begins in 3.5 hours. Yep, Week 1. Apparently it started on Thursday. I think the Colts played? Or maybe the Giants? I really don’t give a fuck. Hopefully each of those teams’ quarterbacks have torn ACLs already. I hate the Mannings (seriously how the fuck have they won the past two Super Bowls? I’m getting sick just thinking about this). So yea, the Pats. Week 1. First real game since the Super Bowl. Confession: I didn’t watch any preseason games. I wasn’t ready and couldn’t bear it. You’d think the Celts winning would take away some of the sting, but it didn’t. Or maybe the Sox being in playoff contention. Nope. The feeling I have in the pit of my stomach doesn’t go away. Part nerves. Part fear. I’m not really sure if that properly explains it, but anyone else who has it knows exactly what I’m talking about. On the one hand, I can’t wait for the season to start. The Pats are stacked again on offense (hopefully the line holds up better than it did at the end of the season and Brady’s foot injury is a non-issue), they got younger at linebacker, and it seems like the only real soft spot is the secondary with Samuel gone to the Super Bowl contending Eagles. Pfft. They’ve won 16 regular season games in a row (at least, I’m fairly certain the streak also goes back to two years ago, but I’m not 100% on that), and have the easiest schedule in the league thanks to uniform scheduling. However, part of my is dreading the season and kinda happy I’m so far removed from things. I have class at 8am every Monday morning, which means I have to be up at 630am, so I can’t really stay up late on Sundays (plus I have back to back classes, so I’m working until 1130, meaning I can’t suck it up, stay up all night, then crash after a class). After last year, I’m not sure how ready I am for football again. The Super Bowl was that painful (before people dismiss sports as not mattering, imagine caring about something for half a year, planning your week around that one thing. Think of all the great times and happiness and hope it brought you, then imagine it being smashed to pieces in one night [or more accurately about 15 minutes]). Bah. Sports suck sometimes. Anyway, the point of this rambling inner monologue is I miss sports, especially with Week 1 starting up now. This is the first football season in probably close to 12 years where I’ll be lucky to watch games (then again, if I ever get internet, we all know I’ll most likely not sleep on Sunday nights and catch up the rest of the week because I’m awesome like that). In conclusion, GO PATS!
P.S. As a quick addedum to the point, I almost vomited when I saw the hit on Brady's knee and I was able to see a few of the Sox playoff games on weekends when I'd wake up at like 7am to get my ass to Starbuck's so I could Sling the games. Good times.
P.P.S. I have one more post for tonight that will be new material, so get yourselves ready for that. It's a posting marathon brought to you by the wonderful free wifi at the Air Asia terminal in KL and the wonderful people of McDonald's staying open all night!
This one is kinda going to be weird post and possibly somewhat personal (or at least as close to personal/inner workings of my head as I’ll allow). So aside from family and friends (obviously), the thing I feel like I’m missing the most right now is American sports. I can replicate American food well enough here. There’s McDonald’s, KFCizzle, TGIFridays, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Subway (possibly, I haven’t seen it yet), and many other restaurants that can give me a fix of the good stuff (and by good stuff I mean chicken fingers and french fries, not heroin). If I could get the internet (hopefully soon!), I can see American news. I brought a TON of DVDs with me. I’ve been watching alot of the Simpsons lately, and I have some Family Guy, AD, Office, and a bunch of movies (on top of what I can buy here. I’ve found a few DVD stores so the selection should be decent throughout my stay here). And I can get into the Western part of town easily enough by cab or bus. However, there is no outlet for American sports here. CCTV has been replaying Olympic events and the Paralympics started last night. The Western bars here (as they did in Beijing), show more English/Australian sports, so alot of rugby, soccer, and Australian Rules Football (I watched that last night for close to two hours. I kinda understand it now, but not really. What I don’t get is what possesses people to play that. I mean seriously, go to Google or something and look up some clips. That shit is just violence for violence’s sake. I saw so many people get helped off the field. Like rugby, there are no pads and it just seems like a bunch of violent collisions. You can literally see people being concussed as it happens. Nothing like watching brain damage live!). Back to the point, no baseball and no football. There’s no way in hell there will be hockey when that starts up. As for basketball, I imagine alot of Rockets games (because of Yao), Nets (I think Yi got traded there...), Lakers (as Alex mentioned on his blog, Kobe is popular here. Real popular. I guess no one here seems to care about rape charges), and maybe possibly hopefully Celtics, with them being the defending champs and all (I saw a kid with a Celtics championship shirt on today. I wanted to give him a high-five, but didn’t because with the language barrier it probably would’ve been a 5 minute process...).
So if you’ve managed to keep everything straight (which considering half of that last paragraph was me going on random tangents, kudos!), my two favorite sports, baseball and football (in that order), are not covered. That sucks. I haven’t seen a Sox score in probably close to the 10 days. They could be in first or third at this point. I wouldn’t know (same goes for my fantasy baseball team. I apparently made the playoffs and didn’t know until three days after they’d started. Awesome). It’s not like baseball is interesting this year, what with the Rays in first, the Yanks possibly missing the playoffs for the first time since 1993, the NL West still a giant clusterfuck, and Centerfield Guy throwing things at Mets fans (one of these days I’ll tell the story of my magical day at Citizens Bank Ballpark with Colleen.... if I haven’t already. I honestly can’t remember and have no means to check). So yea, missing baseball sucks. However, I’m now (finally) going to get to the impetus for writing this: as I type, the Patriots season begins in 3.5 hours. Yep, Week 1. Apparently it started on Thursday. I think the Colts played? Or maybe the Giants? I really don’t give a fuck. Hopefully each of those teams’ quarterbacks have torn ACLs already. I hate the Mannings (seriously how the fuck have they won the past two Super Bowls? I’m getting sick just thinking about this). So yea, the Pats. Week 1. First real game since the Super Bowl. Confession: I didn’t watch any preseason games. I wasn’t ready and couldn’t bear it. You’d think the Celts winning would take away some of the sting, but it didn’t. Or maybe the Sox being in playoff contention. Nope. The feeling I have in the pit of my stomach doesn’t go away. Part nerves. Part fear. I’m not really sure if that properly explains it, but anyone else who has it knows exactly what I’m talking about. On the one hand, I can’t wait for the season to start. The Pats are stacked again on offense (hopefully the line holds up better than it did at the end of the season and Brady’s foot injury is a non-issue), they got younger at linebacker, and it seems like the only real soft spot is the secondary with Samuel gone to the Super Bowl contending Eagles. Pfft. They’ve won 16 regular season games in a row (at least, I’m fairly certain the streak also goes back to two years ago, but I’m not 100% on that), and have the easiest schedule in the league thanks to uniform scheduling. However, part of my is dreading the season and kinda happy I’m so far removed from things. I have class at 8am every Monday morning, which means I have to be up at 630am, so I can’t really stay up late on Sundays (plus I have back to back classes, so I’m working until 1130, meaning I can’t suck it up, stay up all night, then crash after a class). After last year, I’m not sure how ready I am for football again. The Super Bowl was that painful (before people dismiss sports as not mattering, imagine caring about something for half a year, planning your week around that one thing. Think of all the great times and happiness and hope it brought you, then imagine it being smashed to pieces in one night [or more accurately about 15 minutes]). Bah. Sports suck sometimes. Anyway, the point of this rambling inner monologue is I miss sports, especially with Week 1 starting up now. This is the first football season in probably close to 12 years where I’ll be lucky to watch games (then again, if I ever get internet, we all know I’ll most likely not sleep on Sunday nights and catch up the rest of the week because I’m awesome like that). In conclusion, GO PATS!
P.S. As a quick addedum to the point, I almost vomited when I saw the hit on Brady's knee and I was able to see a few of the Sox playoff games on weekends when I'd wake up at like 7am to get my ass to Starbuck's so I could Sling the games. Good times.
P.P.S. I have one more post for tonight that will be new material, so get yourselves ready for that. It's a posting marathon brought to you by the wonderful free wifi at the Air Asia terminal in KL and the wonderful people of McDonald's staying open all night!
The Realities of Life in Wuxi
So when I say I'm going to post then I'm going to post. I mean business. This blog guarantees satisfaction, and I fully intend on delivering the goods. Anyway, this post was written my during my first week of teaching back in September and I found it pretty interesting since some of my impressions/thoughts still hold true, while others... not so much (see the last sentence or two and you'll know immediately what I mean). Anyway, without further ado, here is 'The Realities of Life in Wuxi' in its pure, unedited (is there any other way for me?) form:
So perhaps the title ‘the realities of Life in Wuxi’ makes this sound alot more dour than I’d anticipated (or at least that’s what I’ve been thinking since I titled this post...). Anyway, to expound upon the title for a moment, before I go into the main post, my life here isn’t hard. In fact, it’s pretty much the exact opposite. I’m paid a premium (or at least a Chinese premium. I know it America a salary of less than $1000 a month isn’t going far, but here that more than covers living expenses and should allow me to travel frequently (that is if one of two things would happen 1) I get the internet back so I can research places to go [Now I feel I should state I’m writing this before I’ve regained the internet, so it’s just a document in Pages until I find a way to get this online] or 2) I had a Chinese guide book. Yep, that’s right. I managed to come to China without a guide book. That, in itself sounds bad, but of course it gets worse [doesn’t it always?]. Not only did I forget my Lonely Planet that CET gave me, but I also managed to forget the Frommer’s guide I bought the week before I left. Yep, I managed to spend $30 on a guidebook that’s currently sitting back in Milton. I’m awesome. I know [after this, I think everyone who deals with me should know I’m a moron and should not get mad at me anymore for forgetting things. At this point, if you associate with me, you know what you’re getting into]. Ok back to the topic, I’m paid alot to do little. I thought I was going to have 20 class hours a week. Right now I have 14. The most I’ll have this semester (if I’ve counted correctly) is 16. Or maybe 18. I’m not sure. The schedule here is kinda fucked up. I’ll go into that later. Anyway, I’m basically paid to speak exaggerated English in front of a class of students who are either 1) completely indifferent (i.e. every single boy I teach) or 2) could do the work I ask, but prefer to speak Chinese. I’ve been given free reign in my classes, which makes no sense to me since I have no clue what I’m doing. I’m good at wasting class time, which is probably a bad thing, but there’s no one to call me out on it and I don’t write lesson plans out in advance (because they don’t ask me to. They also didn’t tell me I needed to write lesson plans until 3 days after classes started. It’s also been a week since classes started and I still don’t have an official roster for any of my classes, which makes it harder to call on people since I don’t really know their names...), so I can always cover for myself and pretend I didn’t intend to finish the lesson. I’m not required to be in the English teacher’s office at all and I was 10 minutes late to class on the second day and didn’t get in trouble (it wasn’t even my 8am class. It was my 1:30. I’m a moron and for some reason thought it started at 2 even though I wrote down 130 the day before. Embarrassing takes on a new definition when you enter a class of 29 Chinese kids telling you you’re late in English. Eesh.
Anyway, I’m going to get myself back on track with this post. So while little is expected of me, there are some things I face every day which I guess are somewhat interesting/weird/maybe some other adjectives. First off, today is Saturday. I have spoken less than 30 words today. 3 of those were English (when I told the waiter at the restaurant/bar I went to for dinner). I spend alot of time in my room here, which would be much better if I had internet. But I don’t. And I don’t really like the CCTV English station since it just has boring Chinese propaganda news. Maybe if I could compare it with Western sources, it’d be of more interest to me. So when I’m in my room, I watch DVDs (who already owns Tropic Thunder? O yea, this guy does), try and catch up on some Chinese, and I read (I’ve finished 2.5 books since I left America, almost my total over the past 4 years. I’m going to need more soon, I’m running out of material. Fast.). However, being alone in the room is weird (by the by, for those of you I spoke to before I lost internet, I did finally get AC, so I no longer sweat myself to sleep every night). It’s like being in a bubble, to the point where I forget I’m in China, which is bizarre, especially when I leave my room, and I only see Chinese people and they stare at me like I have 5 heads.
This brings me to another point, while Wuxi does have a Western district and it has lots of Western food and some Western people, I still get stares wherever I go. I hear people talking about me all the time. Whenever I go to a restaurant, I’m given a seat next to the door and in front of windows so more people can look at me. Even the kids on the campus here stare and talk about me, which confounds me since I’m not the first white foreign teacher here and I feel like they should’ve seen a freaking wai guo ren (foreigner) before. It gets a little annoying because I’m constantly self-conscious. No matter what I do, I always feel like people are looking at me. The other day it was raining. I wear a raincoat. Apparently no one in Asia likes raincoats. This happened in Seoul and it happened here. Everyone looks and points at me using a raincoat because they all have umbrellas. I’m sorry. I don’t like umbrellas. In Boston they often break because it’s so windy, so I’ve never bought one in my life. Bah.
Also, I am the only teacher here who speaks English as a first language (unless there’s someone I haven’t met yet). There are 5 teachers who live on campus, in the same wing of a dorm. Two Japanese girls, and two Korean girls and me. The two Japanese speak English very well to the point where I can forget they aren’t American, but the two Koreans have limited English, so I speak to them in Chinese. Last night we went out to a bar. At the bar, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and English were spoken. If I spoke a bastardized version of Chinese before, I have a feeling by the time I leave here, I’ll just be speaking my own jumble of four languages. I should note they all are great people though, and the language barrier rarely gets in the way, because even if someone can’t quite articulate something, usually someone can be used as a translator (sorry I’m watching the Paralympic opening ceremony right now, and there’s some Greek/Trojan dude who just looks creepy. Imagine the ‘lust’ sin in Se7en and you’ll get what I mean...).
I would also like to say I am not in the city of Wuxi itself, I am in a kinda suburb. I don’t really know how to describe it. The city itself is fucking massive. Like seriously, this place is fucking massive. I want to come back here in 5-10 years because there is so much construction going on here, I have a feeling the population could double from the 4.5 million it is now. Anyway, getting into the city is easier than I thought, but still not terribly convenient. There is a bus stop outside campus with a route that takes me into the center of the city. It’s cheap (like 30 cents) but the ride is kinda hellish. It’s around 30 or so minutes, and the driving here is terrible. I can’t believe I haven’t seen someone die on the road in the week I’ve been here. It’s ridiculous. I don’t often get carsick back in American, but every time I’m in a car here, I just want to vomit. It’s horrid.
The last point I would like to make (though I’m sure I’ll have more on this subject later...) is that I somehow have the biggest room even though I have no experience and I’m pretty sure they know it. Everyone else has a single room wit ha bathroom attached. I have a living room and my room is large enough that I have a double bed, which hardly seems fair. The Japanese teachers have each been here a year. I’m not sure if I get paid less because my room is larger (though I certainly hope everyone else makes more than me...), but I don’t understand why I get the big room. Anyway, I’m going to watch another bootleg DVD right now, but I’m to attempt to continue these posts so when I finally get the internet, I’ll have a ton of fresh material.
P.S. Since I just thought of this, I also go to bed earlier here. Alot earlier. Some of that may be in part due to the fact I don’t have internet but most nights I’m in bed and sleeping before midnight. It’s weird. I’ve become the anti-me. Even last night (a Friday nonetheless), I was in bed by 11 watching a movie. Tonight is Saturday, I’ve been home (still weird to call it that...) since 9, and, once again, I’m in bed, typing away, and about to watch a movie. I didn’t get drunk last night, and unless I decide to hit my baijiu bottle hard after I finish typing this, I won’t get drunk tonight. I don’t know what the hell has happened to me....
So perhaps the title ‘the realities of Life in Wuxi’ makes this sound alot more dour than I’d anticipated (or at least that’s what I’ve been thinking since I titled this post...). Anyway, to expound upon the title for a moment, before I go into the main post, my life here isn’t hard. In fact, it’s pretty much the exact opposite. I’m paid a premium (or at least a Chinese premium. I know it America a salary of less than $1000 a month isn’t going far, but here that more than covers living expenses and should allow me to travel frequently (that is if one of two things would happen 1) I get the internet back so I can research places to go [Now I feel I should state I’m writing this before I’ve regained the internet, so it’s just a document in Pages until I find a way to get this online] or 2) I had a Chinese guide book. Yep, that’s right. I managed to come to China without a guide book. That, in itself sounds bad, but of course it gets worse [doesn’t it always?]. Not only did I forget my Lonely Planet that CET gave me, but I also managed to forget the Frommer’s guide I bought the week before I left. Yep, I managed to spend $30 on a guidebook that’s currently sitting back in Milton. I’m awesome. I know [after this, I think everyone who deals with me should know I’m a moron and should not get mad at me anymore for forgetting things. At this point, if you associate with me, you know what you’re getting into]. Ok back to the topic, I’m paid alot to do little. I thought I was going to have 20 class hours a week. Right now I have 14. The most I’ll have this semester (if I’ve counted correctly) is 16. Or maybe 18. I’m not sure. The schedule here is kinda fucked up. I’ll go into that later. Anyway, I’m basically paid to speak exaggerated English in front of a class of students who are either 1) completely indifferent (i.e. every single boy I teach) or 2) could do the work I ask, but prefer to speak Chinese. I’ve been given free reign in my classes, which makes no sense to me since I have no clue what I’m doing. I’m good at wasting class time, which is probably a bad thing, but there’s no one to call me out on it and I don’t write lesson plans out in advance (because they don’t ask me to. They also didn’t tell me I needed to write lesson plans until 3 days after classes started. It’s also been a week since classes started and I still don’t have an official roster for any of my classes, which makes it harder to call on people since I don’t really know their names...), so I can always cover for myself and pretend I didn’t intend to finish the lesson. I’m not required to be in the English teacher’s office at all and I was 10 minutes late to class on the second day and didn’t get in trouble (it wasn’t even my 8am class. It was my 1:30. I’m a moron and for some reason thought it started at 2 even though I wrote down 130 the day before. Embarrassing takes on a new definition when you enter a class of 29 Chinese kids telling you you’re late in English. Eesh.
Anyway, I’m going to get myself back on track with this post. So while little is expected of me, there are some things I face every day which I guess are somewhat interesting/weird/maybe some other adjectives. First off, today is Saturday. I have spoken less than 30 words today. 3 of those were English (when I told the waiter at the restaurant/bar I went to for dinner). I spend alot of time in my room here, which would be much better if I had internet. But I don’t. And I don’t really like the CCTV English station since it just has boring Chinese propaganda news. Maybe if I could compare it with Western sources, it’d be of more interest to me. So when I’m in my room, I watch DVDs (who already owns Tropic Thunder? O yea, this guy does), try and catch up on some Chinese, and I read (I’ve finished 2.5 books since I left America, almost my total over the past 4 years. I’m going to need more soon, I’m running out of material. Fast.). However, being alone in the room is weird (by the by, for those of you I spoke to before I lost internet, I did finally get AC, so I no longer sweat myself to sleep every night). It’s like being in a bubble, to the point where I forget I’m in China, which is bizarre, especially when I leave my room, and I only see Chinese people and they stare at me like I have 5 heads.
This brings me to another point, while Wuxi does have a Western district and it has lots of Western food and some Western people, I still get stares wherever I go. I hear people talking about me all the time. Whenever I go to a restaurant, I’m given a seat next to the door and in front of windows so more people can look at me. Even the kids on the campus here stare and talk about me, which confounds me since I’m not the first white foreign teacher here and I feel like they should’ve seen a freaking wai guo ren (foreigner) before. It gets a little annoying because I’m constantly self-conscious. No matter what I do, I always feel like people are looking at me. The other day it was raining. I wear a raincoat. Apparently no one in Asia likes raincoats. This happened in Seoul and it happened here. Everyone looks and points at me using a raincoat because they all have umbrellas. I’m sorry. I don’t like umbrellas. In Boston they often break because it’s so windy, so I’ve never bought one in my life. Bah.
Also, I am the only teacher here who speaks English as a first language (unless there’s someone I haven’t met yet). There are 5 teachers who live on campus, in the same wing of a dorm. Two Japanese girls, and two Korean girls and me. The two Japanese speak English very well to the point where I can forget they aren’t American, but the two Koreans have limited English, so I speak to them in Chinese. Last night we went out to a bar. At the bar, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and English were spoken. If I spoke a bastardized version of Chinese before, I have a feeling by the time I leave here, I’ll just be speaking my own jumble of four languages. I should note they all are great people though, and the language barrier rarely gets in the way, because even if someone can’t quite articulate something, usually someone can be used as a translator (sorry I’m watching the Paralympic opening ceremony right now, and there’s some Greek/Trojan dude who just looks creepy. Imagine the ‘lust’ sin in Se7en and you’ll get what I mean...).
I would also like to say I am not in the city of Wuxi itself, I am in a kinda suburb. I don’t really know how to describe it. The city itself is fucking massive. Like seriously, this place is fucking massive. I want to come back here in 5-10 years because there is so much construction going on here, I have a feeling the population could double from the 4.5 million it is now. Anyway, getting into the city is easier than I thought, but still not terribly convenient. There is a bus stop outside campus with a route that takes me into the center of the city. It’s cheap (like 30 cents) but the ride is kinda hellish. It’s around 30 or so minutes, and the driving here is terrible. I can’t believe I haven’t seen someone die on the road in the week I’ve been here. It’s ridiculous. I don’t often get carsick back in American, but every time I’m in a car here, I just want to vomit. It’s horrid.
The last point I would like to make (though I’m sure I’ll have more on this subject later...) is that I somehow have the biggest room even though I have no experience and I’m pretty sure they know it. Everyone else has a single room wit ha bathroom attached. I have a living room and my room is large enough that I have a double bed, which hardly seems fair. The Japanese teachers have each been here a year. I’m not sure if I get paid less because my room is larger (though I certainly hope everyone else makes more than me...), but I don’t understand why I get the big room. Anyway, I’m going to watch another bootleg DVD right now, but I’m to attempt to continue these posts so when I finally get the internet, I’ll have a ton of fresh material.
P.S. Since I just thought of this, I also go to bed earlier here. Alot earlier. Some of that may be in part due to the fact I don’t have internet but most nights I’m in bed and sleeping before midnight. It’s weird. I’ve become the anti-me. Even last night (a Friday nonetheless), I was in bed by 11 watching a movie. Tonight is Saturday, I’ve been home (still weird to call it that...) since 9, and, once again, I’m in bed, typing away, and about to watch a movie. I didn’t get drunk last night, and unless I decide to hit my baijiu bottle hard after I finish typing this, I won’t get drunk tonight. I don’t know what the hell has happened to me....
Apologies
Ok so I realize I've been absent for a while, to the point where multiple people have actually commented upon my lack of posts, which at least makes me feel better that this whole blog isn't just an online masterbation session... so I have that going for me. Anyway, there's a ton of stuff that obviously needs to be written about. I have a Hong Kong and Macau trip that happened several months ago that needs to be expounded upon. I'm currently sitting in an airport in Kuala Lumpur and I'm sure everyone's dying to hear about the rash I got here... Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's were all my first away from home, they need to be explained. As do several stories from Wuxi that I'm sure everyone will find vitally interesting. Instead of going into all of that right now though, I'm going to post a few things I wrote back a few months ago, get them out of the system, then new stuff will enter the pipeline. I hope to start getting at least a post a week through February and March to start getting everyone up to speed with my total disconnect with reality in China (was there a presidential election or something a few months ago...?) So yea, posts galore starting now!
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