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Asia » China » Guizhou » Zunyi » Tongzi
September 29th 2009
Published: September 29th 2009
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1: My Apt Video 362 secs
Babies on bikesBabies on bikesBabies on bikes

Love this guys facial expression.
Hey.

So after I bought my plane ticket to Chongqing and I prepared to leave. Unfortunately I had to leave at like 7am. Why do I always have to leave so early? But I was very upset namely because I came back to China with the understanding that I was going to Hunan and now here I am flying to Chongqing and I have way too much crap that is overweight. So after investigation (More talking to the employee's that have no idea about the answers to my questions when they are very typical questions and it's their job to know the answers) I discovered the plane only allowed to check 1 bag at a max of 20kg. Crap. My bag upon coming here was almost 23kg. So somehow I had to lose 3kg in one bag while freaking out b/c I have two bags. So I rearranged a lot of crap and got it figured out. I figured i'd just pay for the other bag to check.

Luckily Owen called the school and told them to come pick me up on Chongqing so I didn't have to worry about getting lost there trying to find the bus station
Babies on bikes 2Babies on bikes 2Babies on bikes 2

This is the most common. So safe.
which was likely. Also, I didn't want to worry about dragging all my garbage all over the city again basically begging people to rob me. So I got a private car to Guilin airport and I got to the counter, checked my one bag, and the dude says "that bag is a handbag." pointing at my other suitcase. Oh crap. There's no way i'm carrying this + my big heavy backpack onto the plane. My external hard drives were in there and I would have had to dig them out for the security checkpoint which would have been a huge hassle. But the dude kicked me out of line. Crap. So I went to the VIP desk and after yelling at the girl that all I wanted to do was check this other bag, she finally let me. I had to pay like 180RMB. The other bag was like 17kg or something. So China allows 20kg total, so I was 17kg overweight, in which case I had to pay 1.5% of my plane ticket cost per each KG overweight. Interesting way of calculating this but w/e. So I paid and went. Little did I realize the flight was like 30
Hot Air BalloonHot Air BalloonHot Air Balloon

In Yangshuo. I wanted to go, but it was like 600RMB.
minutes. What a waste of money. Oh well.

So I found my headmaster and we took off to the school. My school is in Tongzi, Guizhou. Tongzi is a scrub town.......it's not even a city, it's just a tiny midget Copeland town. Ok it's a lot bigger than Copeland. Tongzi is about 30 minutes (driving, 1 hour by bus) from Zunyi. Zunyi is a big famous city in China, famous because it's the city in which Mao zeDong was elected Chairman of the Communist Party. It's funny whenever I say Mao zeDong's name because people always correct me and say "Chairman Mao" like I am saying his name wrong. I guess it's like if I said Barack Obama and some weirdo corrected me with "President Obama!" like i'm standing right in front of Obama disrespecting him by not acknowledging his presidency. I just think it's humorous.

Anyway, we drove to the school which takes about 2.5 hours from Chongqing > Tongzi. Along the way we stopped for lunch and my FAO/Vice Headmaster was really strange. He seemed really shady, but later I found out he's just very busy which makes him kind of a ditz. Not really interesting to talk to at all. But he reminds me of someone that I still can't quite put my finger on who. Oh well. I basically slept the entire way to Tongzi and woke up at my apartment. This time I do not live on the schools campus (And I don't have a roommate...../drool) instead I live in some kind of goverment building or something. It's about the same, I have a gate and some guards and junk to protect me from the virtually nonexistent dangers. But at least I have a key to the gate this time. 😊

My apartment is way too big. I'm on the 5th floor and it's really laid out strange. Basically, think of a hotel, there's a hall way which is outside, then there are 3 different rooms in a row. Each room is numbered just like in a hotel. The rooms are pretty big. One room is my bed room, which at the moment ONLY has 1 bed and a little night stand. The rest of the room is completely empty which sucks. It echos in there and it's so horrible to walk into this big room and just see one bed. In
Claire and IClaire and IClaire and I

My friend Claire. Uni student in Shaoyang. From August.
that room is also my bedroom. Lets call that room 501. 502 is my living room. It's got a loveseat, a nice chair, two desks (one computer they gave me, and I use the other desk for my laptop and junk) and next to the desk is the refrigerator. It's like a dream come true! I can just reach over from my computer and grab something to drink. Now I just need to modify my computer chair into a toilet and i'm set. Also the water dispenser is right in front of the fridge, so it's convenient. Of course there's the tv and a coffee table and junk. There's also my dresser which is really strange to wake up and have to go to the next room to get dressed. But the room is pretty big, so it's not really cluttered at all. There's a lot of space. Room 503 (yes I have 3 big rooms all to myself) has nothing. That's like my storage room. There's the other bed for my apt which is broken, there's a big couch which is also broken, and a table with a bunch of random junk. That's it. Outside, the "hallway" is just
EmilyEmilyEmily

My other friend in Shaoyang. She was the first person who said they would cook for me, and actually did.
like how our windows are in the living room in Fort Pierce, except easy to open and not made of a million annoying to wash glass panels. At the end of the hallway, in front of room 501 is my kitchen. The kitchen is small, but pretty nice. Not a lot of room to move though. To go between room 501 and 502 there is a door connecting the two, so I don't need to go outside every time I want to go to a different room. I basically just leave all the doors open though. The weather here is really nice so I don't need to use the AC or anything yet and it's not too hot.

My apt overlooks the park which is really nice. In the background there are mountains. On the other side of the park is the school. No. 1 Middle school. So it only takes about 5minutes to go to school or so. The city is much cleaner than in Shaoyang, but there is something lacking that just makes it so I can't get super comfortable here. Shaoyang was just more convenient in every way. The city here has a gay setup that
GarfieldGarfieldGarfield

Yangshuo Student Garfield after his first experience with Hot Cupping. He said it didn't work.
I hate. It's just a grid. I hate grid cities. All the streets look the same and I get lost b/c i'm half retarded. There isn't really much to mention at all. There is no KFC, No McDonalds, yet there is more amenities than in Shaoyang. The other foreign teacher here lives in the apt under me. She is the same age as me, from Washington DC. She's cool. Her Chinese is better than mine, she can say useful crap whereas I only say random nonsense that is really in no way applicable. She also has teachers 😞

Anyway, her name is Shana. She teaches Senior 1 and I only teach Senior 2. I can already feel how lazy i'm becoming since I only have one grade. 16 classes per week, it's not so bad. My students are considerably better at English (on average) than my students in Shaoyang. The difference is in Shaoyang there were more standout students with fantastic English and here everyone is more or less on the same level. Now is National Holiday, so I have 10 days vacation to do nothing. I have no idea what i'm going to do. I still don't really
Yangshuo ObamaYangshuo ObamaYangshuo Obama

I called him Fat Obama. It's not so bad, everyone called him Fat Obama.
know my way around the city, so I need to become more familiar with it.

I've met a few teachers. One guy named Beyond is ok. He studied under Li Yang (Crazy English) and he knows him personally. last night he took me to a massage place for a 2 hour massage. Yes a 2 hour massage. It was good, not great. My girl got up and left at one point, I was on my stomach so I didn't know what was going on. Then she came back with a bag of hot rocks and began bludgeoning me with them. It felt pretty good. It was rather odd though, i've never seen a bag of hot rocks be used as a massage tool before. Needless to say my back is burnt now. But it was worth it.

I've had a few big dinners with the teachers. The first night I was here of course they tried to get me drunk. I drank so much rice wine. But in between every shot I just started downing as much food as I could to counter it. So I ended the night fine. There are some bars here but I prob
Beautiful SophieBeautiful SophieBeautiful Sophie

Works at Owen College.
won't go seeing as it's just me and I don't feel like getting stabbed right now. The other thing about this city I don't really like is that there is a HUGE population of dudes. It's like a German Bratwurst Convention. All my classes seem to be filled with dudes, it sucks. Shaoyang at least had mostly chicks. But I still don't know how the year will work out or if i'll stay here the whole year. The problem I have now is that there really isn't a consistent place to eat. The students are allowed to leave school to eat, so at lunch it takes forever to get food b/c there's so many people. After lunch the restaurants shut down and it's difficult to get food. Same with dinner. One restaurant I found is expensive and I don't wanna eat there every day, their specialty is fried rice and I figure that probably isn't good to eat every day. So I just gotta find a nice friendly place to eat every day or start cooking for myself. If I cook for myself it just means I have to go shopping all the time which I am way too lazy
Ellen and JoeEllen and JoeEllen and Joe

Students in Yangshuo. Joe hurt his head when the power went out in a restaurant and he smashed his face on one of the lights.
to do. Ok i'm tired and I have to finish cleaning my apt. So until next time!


Additional photos below
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My hallwayMy hallway
My hallway

To my apt. That's the kitchen straight ahead obv, the 3rd room is on my right (not shown)
BedroomBedroom
Bedroom

The bed w/ my crap on it isn't there anymore. I moved it out, so that space is just empty.
Living RoomLiving Room
Living Room

Best room in the place. I'll UL a vid so you can see the apt better. This pics don't really show everything.
View out my windowView out my window
View out my window

I have a nice view.
More viewMore view
More view

Stuff.
Some kind of templeSome kind of temple
Some kind of temple

I dunno. I'll go there some day.


30th September 2009

Glad you have something
Andy, I am so happy that you at least have something to do because otherwise you just might have to come home. Thank you so much for the update. Stay positive and on top of things. You are doing great! Mim

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