the good and the bad

D neglected to go to work yesterday, and by 9:30 rumor had it that he was leaving. I wouldn'ttalkaboutit,only making cryptic commentsthat we might leave soon despite our fondness for our students.The support we received from the students is amazing. Not surprising perhaps, as I believe we are bothexcellent teachers and rather likable, but still feels pretty good.

As a resultof no showing, the schoolpaid us today,only 4 days late. I'm sure we should have been on our knees, showing gratitude, but somehow we retained our self-control.

We have been e-mailing since before we arrived about some things, and they still haven't been resolved. A few thingscan be resolved by the school alling others and making them do their job, but it hasn't happened yet. Neither of us has cable tv working. My doorbell cannot be answered,so anytime it is rung, it continues to ring for about 5 minutes. We can't get the bastards to buy a pot. Oh, and my visa expired last week, meaning I'm here illegally. I also haven't seen my passport in a few weeks, greatly restricting my mobility. To those who know how badly I wanted to come back here, consider i could wind up deported due to the incompetence of our liasion.

Quick note to prospective teachers worldwide: do not, under any circumstance, work for the Guangdong Radio & Tv College or the Guangdong Polytechnic college. Dishonesty and incompetence will stopyou from getting much of what the contract calls for, and you will be labelled ungrateful for not being thankful for what you do get.

How comfortable is my bed? I slept about 10 hour last night, and have bruises to show for it. I've been limping all day due to back pain, made worse by the flu.

Question of the day: what is a 10 x 10 foot room with a window and a few boxes in an apartment? Is it a bedroom? An office? a dining room? a wine cellar? Or is it nothing until it is furnished and given a purpose? Apparently, a room with no furnishings is a second bedroom.

Again, I am loving the classes, and it's nice being back. Its awkward in some ways, as you feel bad not being able to see friends because you haven't been paid, hate having people over because your home looks like a doctor's waiting room (Minus the pictures and magazines), and I can't travel easily as I have no papers and am here illegally, but I still wouldn't goback to the States.

So, to answer the obvious question, I will be talking to people about switching schools after the winter break. It is much more difficult than it was years ago, but now i have e-mails that more or less say the school does not intend to live up to its half of the contract, so i shuld be able to get out pretty easily. I also have no intention of submitting a lesson plan or copy of my final before things get resolved, so I may be let go anyway.

So, how are things going?

Won't be posting much for a fw days. I'm attempting to switch jobs, which is time consuming. Visa problems and not paying me will do that

a quick lesson on English & culture

read the following and state the second person's main idea:

1. "Can you come to our English Corner Saturday morning at 9:00?"
"I'd like to, but I doubt I can come. It's too early. Maybe I'll come next time, but I think I'll miss this time."

2. "Can you ask any friends to come?"
"I would, but I doubt I'll go, so my friends won't. Besides, none of my friends are going to leave their house at 8:00 on Saturday to help people they've never met practice their English for free. Maybe saturday afternoon someone might come, but not saturday morning."

Bonus question: At what time Saturday morning should the first person begin calling the second? How many times should she call, and what is the maximum amount of time she should wait between calls (answers should be expressed in terms of nanoseconds)?

On an unrelated note, to the friend who stopped by yesterday afternoon to buy drugs after our conversation about how I was asleep, not a drug dealer, and not interested in helping you buy drugs at 3pm, thank you for the vivid lesson on the perils of ketamine. It's much appreciated.

stupidity is apparently a top import and export

Monday

Had a quiet weekend. Not much money, so I stuck around. Did some more reading, graded a bunch of papers, planned for the next few weeks, and did some thinking about the finals I need to write.

We're kind of isolated here. "Here" is Wuguishan. In English, that's 5 Goat Mountain I believe. When I first lived here, this was empty countryside. It's now mostly empty countryside. It seems there are 3 foreigners living here, including me & D. Of Course, we're from 3 different countries.

We faced a serious problem Monday; neither of us had any beer at home. We were on our way to the little convenience store across the street when we decided w could just start exploring the little side streets. About 2 blocks away, we found a convenience store with a few pool tables, and cold cheap Harbin Beer. A few hours passed, and we were a bit tipsy. The Canadian decided he needed meat on a stick, and we set off looking. We took the most convoluted possible path to the main market area. No meat on sticks, which was fine by me, as they had spicy boiled veetables on sticks, which is infinitely better.

Nearby was a loud club, so we wandered in to take a look. Turned out to be karaoke only (KTV from this point on). Nothing but private rooms. Fine for drinking with friends, not so great to meet people. Unless someone opens a door to go to the restroom and is surprised to see two foreigners asking the staff where a club might be found. This led to us being whisked into a room and givn beer at a young ladies birthday party. My ability to sing Happy Birthday in Chinese was much admired. That w could speak some Chinese amazed everyone. Photos were taken, and friend called in the hopes they could come meet us. We rediscovered the unpleasantness that is beer and birthday cake together. Ultimately, we left, after promising that if we were ever to go back, we would contact them so they could join us, perhaps in the hope I'd sing "My Perogative" again.

So now we like living in the sticks

new week.

that was quite a week. High points included being robbed, replacing my missing phone, changing my locks, finding out we were applying for a visa incorrectly and needed to begin the process again, a friend going into the hospital (he's fine now I hear), and having a really drunk friend take a swing at me. Oh, and I found a Papa Johns in Guangzhou.

So I'm glad that's over. I'll be writing more whn times are good.

On the whole, it's a blast. Seeing old friends and teaching extremely motivated hard working students seems to agree with me. Hopefully my luck improves this week.

Oh, and my students now believe me. I can't sing. At all. Will the rest of China hed their warning?

further adventures in wifi

For 30 seconds earlier today, i had a decent connection.

Soon, there should be a web connection worthy of the name.

hmm

I seem to have an internet connection, but I'm at home. It's rather slow, but nonetheless it exists. full of existence, this connection. Unless it disappeared again. Let's see what happens tomorrow.