Tuesday Sept. 9 2008

Well its been a while. Let me think what I did last week.

Wednesday I don't remember doing a whole lot, other than playing poker and again making some money. My white, soon to be pollution-colored, Red Sox hat has proven itself a totemic luck charm. Nate, Rick and I got xao kao (BBQ) after the game and then went home.

Thursday I think I was also pretty lazy, I think I watched a couple movies and went to bed pretty early.

Friday I met Ken (the translation guy) at a job and we did about three and a half hours of work on the Tibetan horse racing video. He then took me out for lunch, we had some really good Sichuan food, and talked about his business, Chinese generational differences and a little bit of politics. He has become a good contact and I look forward to doing work for him in the future.

Friday afternoon I came back home and relaxed, hung out with Alex and Rick a bit. We went out for dinner with Eli, who has lived in Chengdu for a while and will be working in Kunming for 3 months as Captain Morgan. We went out to Dave's Oasis for a drink and then went to Cafe Paname, where I tried to meet up with a Chinese girl I met a couple weeks ago. She was busy so I hung out at Paname until way too late, it was the most crowded it's been that I've been there.

Saturday I slept really late, was wait-listed for soccer and it was really hot and gross, so I ate at Pete's Tex-Mex, which was better than I expected, about the same quality as an airport burrito. I went home and watched some Trailer Park Boys and took a shower. I basically wasted the afternoon waiting to go to Kevin's party at his place. I went over to Alex's and chilled with Eli, Callum and Alex for a while, then met Rick and Kari to grab a cab to Kevin's.

The party was on the roof of an apartment building that houses the foreign English teachers. There were quite a few people there and the breeze was nice on the 7th floor. There were some pulled pork sandwiches, a large bowl of punch and we all brought beers. After socializing for a couple hours, Rick, Kari and her friend and I went to meet Eli and Callum at Zoo, a club that Eli's girlfriend works at. We hung out there for a while and everyone else was going to go home so I called Dwayne and had him meet me out for another drink. Another late night, in large part because I knew it was the last weekend I had before school started.

Sunday I woke up tired and laid around pretty much all day. I had some Western food delivered, watched some more Trailer Park Boys and did some laundry. I met up with Alex and Eli and we got Rick on the way to the bowling alley. Alex and Eli have a deep-seated rivalry in bowling and it was pretty fun to watch. Rick and I played a few games (on our own lane) and bowled pretty average. I broke 100 one game. There will be more bowling in the future. We went back to Alex's house and chilled after that and I noticed it was 1 so I went home.

Monday was my first day of school and work. My class has six students, including me, 3 Americans, 1 German, 1 Philippino and my friend Andy from Scotland. Monday I had class from 10 to 12 and then from 2 to 4, so I walked to school (about 25-30 minutes), had reading and writing class, walked to Alex's, ate lunch, walked back to school, had listening class, walked to work (about an hour). I work in downtown, on the 25th floor of a huge building. I taught three classes, one of them was a one-on-one, the other two were 3 and 5 students. The kids speak English well, and are between the ages of 16 and 40. After work, I took a cab home and talked to my parents for a little while before falling asleep.

Tuesday I walked to school, class from 8 to 12, reading and writing then pronunciation class (very difficult, a real task-master of a teacher), then Andy and I walked back to his apartment (just down the street from me). We ate some jiaozi, played winning eleven for a while, then I talked with Dwayne about his bike and tried to unlock it. It appeared rusted shut, so I had the bike repair guy add some oil (ja yo! Ja yo! - same as the cheer for Chinese teams), which also didn't work, so he offered to cut it off, borrowed an electric saw for cutting metal from next door and had the lock off in about 3 minutes, then he sold me a new lock (35RMB), pumped up my tires and off I went. I went home for a bit, Rick came by and we chatted for a while, then I rode my bike to work. Riding to work takes 20 minutes, riding in a cab takes about 15. The bike riding was really fun, tons of two-wheeled traffic in the bike lanes, it also helps to get to know the streets. Classes are good, I really enjoy the teaching, getting better at it already, etc. I biked home then met up with Eli at Middle Bar for a drink. We had some beers and chatted about music, listening to my ipod on the bar stereo, then went to Zoo. Rick came as well and we had a couple beers and then ate some shao kao (Rick corrected my spelling on this one) then slept.

It's good to be busy, I really love my life in China right now, a good balance of learning and teaching. The old adage about living abroad (you learn something every DAY) is proving true. Chinese is improving, social life is great, etc.