things I learned

Chinese motorcycle taxi drivers are unbeatable at games of chicken. Don't even try it. They have nothing to live for, and will take you down.

I also learned I'm good at swerving

I understand the Amish

Been a week of technical glitches and human error.

My camera has finally been returned. shame she took out the memory card to swipe my pictures. So, someday I will have more pictures, including the few birthday ones.

Bought a Wii. Unfortunately, didn't think to buy an adaptor. The plus is an odd shape, and my outlets are a different odd shape, so finding a way to bring the two together is proving challenging. Gives me something to do I guess. Might have to change the plugs, which would be fine if I had an ounce of handiness about me.

The seat on the motorbike isn't locking most of the time. Free batteries for any curious person. Need to drive across town and get it fixed. Hopefully tomorrow that can be combined with shopping for an adaptor.

Rather annoyingly, my phone line at home is more or less down. Tons of static. So my apologies to those who have taken the time to call, just to hear hissing and shrill beeping. If you call for anything important and can hear me answer, blurt out the important news! I am lucky if I get 30 seconds a call that are clear.

otherwise, things go well. The school wants a syllabus. I want to know when classes end and how long we are off for MayDay. Seems to be a standoff developing. I should win, as I can't really write a syllabus without knowing how many classes I'll have. Also don't know if i have the day off for the Ching Ming Festival

Classes remain great. My painfully shy class is stil uiet, but some progress has been amde. Most of the others are a blast.

dude, where's my camera?

On my birthday, I gave my camera to a friend who was going home, knowing the night would continue. The batteries had died, so there was no point to keeping it. She had complained we don't see each other enough.

The next day, she said she was busy until Friday, when I'll be going to Hong Kong. So, there may be photos Sunday.

If you chip away at the ide in the lowest level of dante's hell, eventually you reach a student run English corner, where no one has any idea what they're doing. I'll be having nightmares for weeks.

Time passes

Months ago, we were talking about political protest in class (I didn't choose the textbook) and I mentioned that my birthday is the day after the US invaded Ira, so for several years my birthday plans involved marching, candllight vigils, or something similar. They remembered and looked it when the invasion was, and yesterday I was serenaded by my students. They were really sweet about it, and gave me what I really wanted; students talking in class. Gave my sore throat a needed rest. Neither class I had on friday liked what we were reading, but they worked pretty hard to understand it. Did a preview of the next reading, which is about first loves, and they find it interesting, but seem to be signalling they will deny having ever been attracted to anyone or feeling any longing for any young men (or young women, for the couple of guys I have). This will be rough.


Mentioned the girl who wept while singing "I Try" when I left. She's normally very busy with work and being a mom, but told me i was spending my birthday with her. Turns out she was correct, at least for a few hours. She is fuuny. She's never free when I call and doesn't respond often to messages, but is worried i don't call enough. I guess it's possible we'd stay in touch for 7 years and then lose touch when I move back here, but I'd not recommend betting that way.

After a dinner with a woman who is all sweetness and light (at least with me), went to Friends. Someone from facebook wished me a Happy Birthday, which led to one of the bartenders providing me with food and beer for a bit, and arranging for the band to sing Happy Birthday and a song of my choosing (Right Na na Na, if you're curious. I love the new Akon). I enjoyed the food and drink much more than being sung at.

The same bartender (some of you also teach English. Is she a bartender, or a bartendrix? Is there a greater possibly real word in the English language?) has made it clear I'm too much at home there. I haven't been going much lately, heading out with Chinese friends, staying home, or heading to the irish bar for foreigner bowling night. On St Patrick's Day, I was in the Irish bar, and got a few text messages from her, as she was bored. Apparently when every foreigner heads to a differen bar, Friends is a dull place on a Tuesday. She alternated between telling me how boring it was and trying to convince me that i should go there, as it would be fun. Eventually, she realized the simple way of getting me to switch bars was to offer me a few free drinks, which was enough to get me to head over. That, and i do like Betty. The staff there is always cool and often underappreciated by their clients. I've talked to enough of them that they seem like real people, and not just a way of getting beer from across the room. Still, I'm kind of worried. We've established that she can write me when bored and lure me to the bar with beer. I'm not sure that's a good relationship between her and my liver.

things I learned

If you are battling the flu and more forgetful than normal, leading to you forgetting to plug the electric razor into the adaptor before you plug it into the scoket, you will get an amazing shave from a really high powered razor. At least until the smoke starts coming out of it.

Photos from the haunted lake

Things I learned

The song "Happy Birthday to You" has a surprisingly complex history and is only about 100 years old. There is a version of it in Chinese, as there is in several other languages. There are other birthday songs in Chinese. Oddly enough, I asked a friend about this years ago, and she was kind enough to sing one for me. I have no idea wy I was curious about what Chinese people sang to each other before Happy Birthday arrived here. I think Li and I probably just had spent enough time together we had run out of things to say.

Anyway, I knew there is another birthday song in Chinese, so I asked if anyone knew it, assuring them that person wouldn't be forced to sing. Out of 5 classes and about 200 students, only one knew the song. She offered to sing it, and a few classmates recalled having heard it somewhere, but no one else knew the words.

random songs

started playing music between classes. They get random picks. today it was

Heavenly- P.U.N.K. Girl
Lily Allen-I Could say
De La Soul- Me, Myself and I
REM-White Tornado
The Doors- Riders on the Storm
The Vindictives- Circles
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds- O'Malley's Bar (demo)
The Specials- War Crimes
The Smiths- Girl Afraid

The first two got a fairly positive reception. De La Soul was very well received by most. The Specials seems to have won a few fans.

So, who did they immediately recognize? The Vindictives. Yeah, the little known Chicago punk band. Last week, they had to listen to a conversation about music, which mentioned punk. Unlike the sections on the Carpenters, Happy Birthday, and Celine (ugh) Dion, there was no sample of what punk is. This seemed unfortunate. I'm not just a guy paid to play dvds in class, I'm a teacher. It's why I was put on the earth. I will not send my poor students off into the world with gaping holes in their knowledge. They will benefit from the totality of my experiences in life.

So, I was able to play The Vindictives in class. For the curious, it was "Bonnie's Rampage," chosen in honor of a young lady who, if she's not my favorite sista-in-law, is at least in the top 5

why she hates me

Today in the av class, they heard two people talking about songs that remind them of other people. they were then asked to describe a song that makes them think of someone else. The answers were pretty weak. Nothing wrong with them, but they were clearly just going through the motions. So, they heard about why I had to delete "I Try" by Macy Gray from my mp3 player.

In 2001, when I was preparing to leave China, I was invited to a friend's house for karaoke. Not a big secret that I don't really like karaoke, but i like drinking and talking, and enjoy watching my friends sing. I just can't sing myself. So it was a decent enough time.

At one point, she asked me to pick an English song for her to sing for me. I chose I Try. It was one of the few songs I new and liked on MTV karaoke vol 16 or whatever it was. So, she sand a song about a person unable to say goodbye to someone else. Our feeling for each other were not romantic, but we were very close, and it dawned on her that she was singing a song about an inability to say goodbye to someone who was walking out of her life in a few days, and it was rather likely she'd never see me again. As she sang of a person choking as she said goodbye, she teared up, and as the song continued without her, with the singer trying to walk and stumbling, she tripped over to me, unable to see clearly. In a broken voice, she told me she'd miss me, and how much she hoped i'd be back one day, but that if I wasn't she'd remember me, and hoped I'd always be happy back in the States.

so, ever since, whenever i hear that song, i think of her, and how close we were and how much it hurt to say goodbye. particularly for her, as she didn't hink anyone would be dumb enough to fly that long just to see some friends.

So, after that, my students began giving more detailed answers, and some that were far more personal. Songs of old boyfriends, friends who moved away, songs their grandparents taught them, and other things that really moved some of their classmates. They sometimes forgot to be nervous and awkward as they spoke, getting caught up in the excitement of what they were saying. it worked.



In about 9 days, I'll be gathering a group of friends together for karaoke. One of them will be getting ready to sing, and as usual, I'll ask her not to cry. She didn't think it was funny when I came back to visit in 2002. Or 2004. Or 2005, 06, 07 or 08. Since i moved back into her life, it's gotten less funny. Apparently when i told her husband that she cried when I left, it was less than hilarious to her (though he and i found it pretty amusing). As much as she hates it, she keeps coming around, maybe because she knows she has a trump card. If I annoy her, she knows she can make me cry by singing one song.

things I learned

When you are driving through heavy traffic on a little scooter and stop to get a drink, you may notice the type of mop you have been looking for. Before buying it, figure out how you will drive and transport a mop.

factory or school

Some know I was contemplating leaving my current job over some problems between the school and me. My visa situation improved, my pay has been arriving on time, even early, and my schedule is better than last time. still have a lot of small complaints about my home, but they're bearable.

So i just turned down a job offer in Dongguan. Someone start a pool on how long before I start complaining about that.

So, for now, I'm staying in Zhongshan at the college, hopefully not losing my mind in the process.

ghost town

I live just outside a fairly big town by US standards. Being from a city of several million, it sometimes seems tiny, but it is still a kind of big place. I'm frequently laughed at by locals who find it hilarious I am fascinated by chickens (or goats) wandering around frreely, but there are still factories, busses, and thousands of people.

So, a few nights ago I met up with a few friends to barbecue. We met at the market by my house, which was crowded with motorcycles, vans, people, chickens, and bad disco music as usual. We then drove about 5 minutes into a place I'd never been.

Up in the hills is a lake thought to be haunted. Apparently some people disappeared there before, though I'm not sure if they are the ones haunting the place or if something haunting it is thought to have taken them. Many Chinese seem to believe in ghosts, and most are extremely uncomfortable with anything involving death (The Chinese word for 4 sounds similar to the word for death, so it's a very unlucky number. The floors in my building are 1, 2, 3, 3a, 5, 6..). This made the land cheap, so a developer built a small hotel and a bunch of houses. Looks like they might have been nice if any had ever sold. All lie empty, with grass and trees growing wild.

So, you can drive to my house in about 15 minutes from downtown (if there's no traffic), in the process passing thousands of people, surrounded by car horns, loud music from shops, jackhammers where the street is being worked on, etc. Then drive 5 minutes more and reach a place where you won't see a soul or hear anything other than the wind and lake.

No classes today, so I might drive back and take some pictures. or go back to sleep. I'm unpredictable that way.

pictures