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Our apartment!!!
Yes, that is Sof waving a yellow towel out the apartment window! A computer at last (with emphasis on AT LAST). It has been many a phonecall in chinese regarding various unknown computer terms, landlords and computer technicians visiting our house and general anger in the vicinity of the laptop, but we're here.
We don't have heaps to say ("that's a change" we hear you all say) but we do want to show off our apartment!
We have learnt our lesson about english-teaching companies in China. If you get offered a job with a chinese company - dont sign a contract. Keep your employment as flexible as possible! Whereas a western-run company will be well-organised, pay better and generally be easier to deal with! The chinese companies do deserve a little cred though, you are able to walk in, present them with a resume that they probably cant read, and pretty much get a job on the spot! We are both working half-half, chinese and western companies. A mixture of 1:1 teaching and classroom stuff. The best thing about teaching is going around the classroom asking them all what their english name is. The best so far is: viola. Or Simba. But he spells it Sinba. Maybe he couldn't choose
Daisy, Vinny, Zac and a Duck
Our cool english friends, who were our guests for our housewarming! (yes, the only guests - but we'd only been in the country 1 week) between Sinbad and Simba so he went for a happy medium. Or maybe he thinks that the Lion King is a typical cross section of reality outside china. More likely.
It is rewarding work, and can be a lot of fun, especially playing shop, simon says or when for a break on the textbook we look at the relationship between structure and agency and try to translate Foucault into Chinese. It's fun for Zac.
The weather over here is absolutely bonkers! One day it will be blue sky (though not that often) and the next it turns as dark as night at 2pm as a huge storm rolls in, then rolls out as fast as it came! Coping with this weather according to the locals is to just not do anything. If the weather is crap, classes are cancelled or hardly anyone turns up to class. Today, the answer to "Where is everyone?" was "Well, it might rain today, so they aren't coming to class". (And quite possibly, a chinese person riding a bike and holding an umbrella at the same time, is more dangerous than riding and talking on the phone!)
THE BIKE SAGA CONTINUES
Well, it
Cooking with gas!
The best invention ever... fried potato strips with a fried egg on top!
wouldnt be a beijing blog without one would it? There is now a new bike in the family. After spending at least half the cost again of Zac's original bike on repairs (if not more) we said bugger it! He now owns "The Tank". This name depicts the overall gigantic size of the bike, as well as the speed. Probably the biggest, heaviest and fastest bike in the whole city. It's like a 15 speed bike, but minus gears 1 through 14. A bugger to get moving, but once it does - whooosh! It is unlikely that any BJ-er would actually be tall enough to ride it, the bike shop was probably waiting for a nice tall foreign man to come along (note: we did not return to the original bike seller). We didn't think that you needed anymore photos, so await til next time to see a picture of THE TANK, and see how funny it is compared to the picture of the last piece of shit that we called a bike, and if you laugh really hard or find that at all interesting then it means that you really really should get out more.
We now have
Our bedroom!
Furnished from both IKEA and FAKEIKEA. Beautiful flowers courtesy of the lovely Daisy and Vinnie for our housewarming. 24 hour free delivered booze. Nice. But that still doesn't beat the $A8 cartons of yanjing across the courtyard (3/4 duck). And we haven't tried the delivery booze yet cos we're too pov. But we will, bring on that paycheck. Damn being paid by the month. I tells ya, the 10th of July will be the biggest pissup that this apartment has ever seen. Except our housewarming. Huge.
Stay tuned til next time where you can find out just what the grandparents in the courtyard talk about....
Z+S (having exciting times)
ps. now that the computer is fixed, can anyone suggest how we stop our toaster from ejecting the toast so violently that it flies up in the air, down the back of the shelf and onto the floor? (and you all learnt the lesson about the floor in the last blog) We're sick of losing toast! It's like waiting in ambush trying to catch a very fast seal wearing a yellow bowtie.
pps. Come to think of it, I don't recall there ever being mention of the speed of that seal in a yellow bowtie. Probably slow. But fast enough to eat Buster's hand.
ppps. So slow. Yes.
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Nat
non-member comment
hello hello
Hi Guys. Im finally in front of a computer! Brilliant to read all of your adventures. Keep it up, ive been giggling the whole way through. Yes, I am in Alaska, Im based in Glacier Bay National Park, in the south east. It's inbcredibly beautiful and so chilled out. Although, the chinese food would be great. Crap gotta go Ii have been summoned. Ill be here for about another three months. So Ill be in touch. have a blast, dont let the bikes get you nat