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Published: December 7th 2009
G'day.
I'm sitting here drinking hot chocolate. I haven't drank this stuff since I lived in Iowa, it's awesome. Thanks to the last foreign teacher for leaving here for me. It's probably so old and expired that it's just making hallucinate which makes it seem much better than it actually is. Anyway, so i've been a little busy....oh dude.....Hues Corporation - Rock the Boat just came on. So a few weeks ago I had some kind of long holiday or something. I can't really remember the occasion, anyway, I took the opportunity to go to Chongqing with Shana and another friend Elaine so we could see the city. Frankly, I wasn't too wild on the idea of going there because I know there is absolutely nothing there tourist wise. But whatever. So we left at like 7am or something ridiculous. The city is only 2.5 hours away by bus so it's really close and it's such a massive city I feel like I guess I should go there to check it out. It wasn't very impressive. Really the city is just big buildings and pollution, there's nothing terribly exciting to see but if you're a club and bar person then
Chongqing tourist area
Dunno what to call this really other than a tourist alleyit's great. Unfortunately that's not me. So we went there and met up with some random girl that Shana met briefly the last time she was there. I can't remember this girls name now, it was something weird though. Some band name. Anyway she was there with her friend who was a little feminine (a dude) and his name was Recluse. He didn't seem like a recluse but he insisted that he was. He was in the Chinese army for awhile as a sniper so that's pretty awesome.
Anyway all we did was drive around the city for a long time because Elaine wanted to do all these errands which was very rude I thought since these people were driving us everywhere. After a long time we decided to visit some junk. Some alleyway which was like super touristy and crappy because it was just wide enough for like 3 people side by side and there was 50trillion people there. We went to some temple over there which was just the same as every other temple you can imagine in China. That's one thing I grow tired of: temples and churches. In Europe it's just churches upon churches, and
temple
on the steps to the temple. Barely can see me :( they're all essentially the same crap. Same with temples. Just to update you on the song now it's Phil Collins - Another Day in Paradise. This is some old school music.
So before we left we went to some walking square which I guess is super famous in China and anyone who goes to Chongqing has to go to this square and take their picture in front of this clock. Seriously this clock is nothing special at all.....it's just a clock tower that doesn't even look cool. In fact, I wouldn't even notice it if people weren't screaming about how famous it is. It's not even very tall! It's the most pointless tourist attraction, and it seriously just goes to show how little Chongqing has to offer in terms of tourism. I'm sure someone will disagree, maybe it was the company I was with, maybe it's because I didn't stay there for 6months.....but I also wouldn't want to.
So we took the train home which took like 5 hours. That's what sucks about China. The trains are so freaking slow but they're like the primary mode of long distance travel. Getting a bus from Point A to Point
random people
some random girls we met on these stairs B is a huge chore as there's never a bus that actually goes anywhere useful. Flying is just expensive, most people figure you can either pay 1000RMB and fly or you can just ride a train for 24 hours and spend 200RMB. I guess i'm the same.
A week after Chongqing my school announced that there will be a sports meeting. Sports Meeting is just a athletic competition between all the classes. It only really covers running, long jump and high jump or something. So it's less of an athletic competition and more of just a track meet. So I wouldn't have school from Weds - Friday. Sweet I thought, time to gtfo of here and visit Shaoyang. I've had enough to Tongzi and i'm getting sick of all the lazy students who really don't care at all about talking to me or trying to learn English. So I am starting to not really care what they think since they aren't going to listen to me regardless. So on Monday I started making arrangements so I could leave after school on Tuesday. While walking to class Monday morning a teacher stopped me and said "Oh! I want to ask
Temple
That's what this is if my students can use your class so they can practice for sports meeting which is tomorrow?" ..........uhhh......what? I thought it was on Wednesday? "No it's tomorrow" oh great. Fine whatever don't come to my class, just means I don't have to do anything. Then I got to school another teacher asked me the same thing.........uh.........wtf.......then ANOTHER teacher asked me. So I had 4 classes on Monday, 3 of them asked for leave so they could "practice" for sports meeting because one days worth of extra practice really improves your abilities and times so much. So whatever, I was peeved and I left. I knew all the kids were just going to go outside and play, but I can't really say no when their head teacher is asking me.
So after this I went home and started checking train times to leave on Tuesday now. Then my FAO called and said there's a train at 3 if I want to go today. It was 1pm at this time. I was like..........yes.....ok bye. So I seriously threw a bunch of clothes in my bag and was out the door. 20 hours of travel later I was in Shaoyang....ahhhh so happy.
Pollution
Welcome to another big city of China, visibility almost zero The FAO made sure to call me and say "Oh since we have sports meeting on Tuesday you will have class on Friday, so you have to be here." I said ok but in my head I was saying mmmmmyeah i'm not going back on Friday. So I got my hotel in Shaoyang and headed right out to visit everyone. Went to the school and immediately found the new foreign teacher there. He was nice. Now I said before that No3 middle was looking for a teacher ASAP from Buckland. And Buckland told me they wanted a woman. So I knew for a fact this new guy here was here for a year, there's no way they were gonna have a woman go there because they only have 1 apartment. So he says "oh the new ft is here, you can meet HIM" ....hmmm him eh? I knew it. SO I go there and it's the freaking teacher trainer from Buckland. I knew this guy already. So I was disappointed they sent him to MY school rather than me. Yeah yeah I already have a school but I already said i'm not happy here and want to leave. So after
Building
Some kinda building talking to him he said he's only there for a week just to sub before the new new teacher gets there. However, the school didn't know this. They thought he was here to stay. Great public relations guys. Trick and disrespect your schools by sending a teacher they think is theirs but he's just a sub. Silly.
Anyway I had a great time in Shaoyang. I judged an English competition, saw all my great friends and met new people. But there was also some tragedy there as well. When I first came back to Shaoyang at the beginning of this new school term I met the new foreign teacher at Shaoyang University. He just arrived in Shaoyang and I introduced him to the city and showed him around and everything. Well a few weeks ago he passed away at the University. He apparently died in his sleep peacefully but it's very horrible. In 2007 the university also had another foreign teacher die while under contract with them, but apparently the last guy was like horribly obese. The new teacher (Mark) wasn't morbidly obese. He was a big guy but most of that was natural bigness, I wouldn't have thought
incense
BUDDAH he was so unhealthy. So now they are without a teacher for their 10th grade students, most of the students that I know. So I decided that I will give it a shot. I went in for an interview. The interview was strange, I basically just sat there a long time without saying anything. They were concerned with two things: getting out of my contract and my ability to teach university students. I thought the last one was pretty stupid. I've taught middle schoolers which is much worse than uni kids. The uni kids I pretty much know anyway, so it's just going in and essentially treating it like English corner with a little bit more direction from the textbook. I'm also excited because I get to give them homework and exams that ACTUALLY MATTER. Plus I get to give them grades which is amazing for motivation. And these kids are English majors so of course they are going to try in class. Complete 180 from what i'm used to in class. The problems is that it's 8 classes, twice a week, and the classes are back to back. So for example I will teach class 1 for an hour
Pounding
I forget what this was they were pounding, but it's some kind of candy that requires the use of Acme Mallets and a half with a break in between classes so technically, each class is 45 minutes. I guess they just do that to bolster the number of class I teach a week to make it seem like it's hard work. I dunno. It's gonna be difficult tho adapting to an hour and a half classes when i'm used to 45 minutes with kids that don't know anything so it's a lot of explaining.
So they made me do a practice lesson. I pretty much did what I always do and went in there, did fine whatever, then the Dean of the English dpt said she wanted me to use the book for the lesson. I was like wtf you gave me an hour to prepare for this. Whatever. So they said I can have the job if I can get out of my contract. So I went home and immediately sent Owen an e-mail and told him what's going on. I am not about to go behind his back to do something like this so I straight up told him what was going on. He was disappointed but understanding of my situation. He also let me know that the
Recently build tourist area
Just finished, this place is seriously surrounded by modern structures reason he wouldn't let me go back to No3 middle school is because the school apparently doesn't want me back. They are afraid that if a FT is there for over a year they are more likely to develop a relationship or sexual relationship with a student. I think that's so retarded. If I was going to do something like that I would have done it a lot when I was there, then I would have ran away. I wouldn't want to come back, i'd just look for my next victim school. So I don't understand their retardedly flawed Chinese logic. I just realized that I say "so" a lot. 😞 In fact, I pretty much begin every sentence with it. Oh well.
Oh, so I met .........crap I said it again........the other FT at the university who is a good guy. He's an older gentlemen, not like really old but 50's so to me that's old. I dunno. Anyway he told me that he's seen my blog before which makes me really happy. When he saw me he said he recognized me from it. I think that's so cool that other people have read this and I really
Tourist area
You can see the modern buildings. It's really nice but stupid that it's here for no reason hope that it helps to shed some light on these smaller remote places that lacks information on the internet. Especially like Shaoyang which I think is a marvelous place. He's now the 2nd person I think that i've met in China that has read my blog without meeting me first. So cool.
On Sunday I took off to Loudi to the train station to go back to Tongzi (ugh). Upon arriving in Loudi I got to the train station and they told me they didn't have any tickets for my train.......crap....so that meant I wouldn't get back in time for school on Monday. Whoops. So I bought a ticket for the next day which was the next train available to get home left at 7am and thought long and hard about wtf I was gonna do. A) Stay in Loudi......somehow find a hotel which I had no idea where to go for that and sit around all day doing nothing because I don't know anyone in there. Or B) Go back to Shaoyang and hang out with people and have fun and take the earliest train I could or bus to get back to Loudi in time. I opted
Elaine and I
In front of some kind of wall thing to go back to Shaoyang. Good thing too because I had fun that day. My friend told me I could get a train at 3:30am to Loudi which was perfect. Train to Loudi took 3 hours so i'd get there in time. But takes 1.5hours but there was no bus that early. 😞 Stupid buses. Come 8pm I decided I should probably buy a train ticket to Loudi or at least make sure it was at 3:30am. Good thing too because there wasn't a train at 3:30. I misunderstood my friend and the train ARRIVED at 3:30 but left at 12. Crap. So that meant I had to sit around in Loudi in the middle of rape hour by myself for 4 hours. Fortunately, after a lot of convincing, I got my friend to go with me and just sit around in Loudi with me haha. Looking back it feels and sounds really messed up but I had no idea what to do. I paid for his tickets and junk so it wasn't so bad. We got not sleep. Slept 3 hours on the train there, then went to an internet bar and hung out. Pointless.
The train back
BATTLE TANKS
I forget what this building is for, but it looks cool was horrible. I was on the bottom bunk which I HATE because everyone just looks at me there so it's weird to sleep. Plus the Chinese people are rude and just sit on my bed while i'm sleeping. Such was the case this time. They decided to sit there and play cards the whole time on my bed making all kinds of noise and being horribly inconsiderate to me. But that's what the Chinese do. Then I woke up and this random kid asked me if I wanted to eat. He didn't speak any English tho 😞 So after telling him no a lot he finally just dragged me away. Great.....now i'm gonna get robbed and my crap stolen. He took me to the dining car where we ate and everyone said I was a Xinjiang person. All of China thinks i'm a Xinjiang dude. Then they found out I was American and started bombarding me with intelligible questions. Got back to my bed and amazingly enough none of my crap was stolen. Whew.
Now i'm in the process of sending in all my information to the university so I can go to teach there. Hopefully, I can go
ASAP. Owen is already looking for a replacement teacher so soon as the new teacher is ready i'm getting out of here. I"m tired of all the students that never talk to me and don't care about me and don't listen to me. Just sick of it all. Unfriendly and rude people in this town. I should probably NOTE: This is my experience, your experience may differ and if you choose to come here try to make the best of it just like any other city in China. Don't let one persons opinion change how you think. The other FT here loves this city, so different people like different things. For me, i'm just ready to close this chapter of my China experience. So next time I write, I might now be in Tongzi 😉 I sure hope not.
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GamsD
non-member comment
Good stuff
Andy.....it's always fun to read your blogs (Interesting, too !) Thanks for the update. Love, Gams