The Truth of the Story

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I called my father tonight. He told me that it seems like Camillo and I are switching between him being my boyfriend and him being my friend every time we talk to each other. I asked him what he thought I should do about my situation in China. After all there are three real reasons for me to stay here - Chinese, calligraphy and Camillo (henceforth called the 3 C's). Of course if I were to stay here there are a couple more job types that I could follow but those are secondary as I could do those anywhere. Dad said that basically he couldn't make up my decision for me but that he could see from how I've been writing that it seemed I should stay in China (somewhere). Dad also wanted me to make sure I had somewhere to stay when my contract ended as he doubted I would be able to stay in the same place and even though I told him I could stay with Cam he didn't want me to not have a place to stay and told me as such.

After this conversation things changed that I never expected to see change. Camillo, Eason, Leason and I went to meet Craig and Kelvin at a bar we normally go to that's got a nice Tibetan feel to it. A bunch of Craig's English friends were there (Paul, Duncan and Derek). We hung out with them for a while and got a good laugh out. I was the only girl there the whole time. At one point I turned to Cam and asked him about the place. I told him that no matter what happened I needed a place to stay - even if he couldn't stay there. I either needed to find my own place or he needed to find a place for the both of us. He told me, "don't worry, I'm looking for a place with two bedrooms. What price range are you looking at?" This phrase shocked me to begin with, after all I was just assuming he was going to get his own place and I was going to stay on his couch for a while or something like that. But as it turned out what Dennis said the other day about him looking for a place for the two of us was really true. I asked Eason if he was telling the truth and he said that Cam was serious. Then I thought about it for a little bit. "Cam, you should just get a place for yourself" I thought to myself. After all if I even wanted to continue staying in Dalian I would have to get a new job and that job would more than likely include a place to stay. If I didn't want to stay in Dalian all the more reason for him to get a one-bedroom place for himself. Then I continued to think about it. "Hey guys, can I ask you something for a minute." After getting teased for a little bit about trying to make things serious when everyone around me was drinking I finally got to say my piece. "If I were to get a job would they make me stay in a place or give me the money for the place?" "They would definitely give you the money for the place. After all that would make it easier for them, they wouldn't have to find a place themselves." The English boys teased me for a bit "why don't you just get a one bedroom place. After all ya'll don't need a two bedroom place if ya'll are a couple." I took the teasing with a grain of salt. After all this was a HUGE step for Camillo. Moving in with me in a two bedroom place would come first, then a one bedroom place later. I knew that as much as Cam did (in the back of his head). I continued to think about it a while by myself. Cam was again being very touchy feely. He insisted that I translate some of our western jokes (even though they can be extremely inappropriate at times). I was in the middle of translating a really crude one when Cam got a phone call. He took it outside and after a while I joined him. When he finally got off the phone he said to me "that was my girlfriend". I laughed at him for a little bit (teasing him cause I knew it wasn't) and then we both went back in to sit with each other. After a while when we were inside he said to me "would it help if my bank account said I had 300,000 kuai?" "and how would you pull that off?" "i have a friend who works at the bank" "you'd still have to explain how you had that much money" "i've owned a hair salon for a long time" "okay, maybe." We all decided to go out for barbecue and then Leason and Eason left extremely tired. Cam stayed and chilled with me for a little bit before complaining that he was also really tired. The two of us decided to go home and we left the others some money. We walked arm in arm the entire way home even though almost every Chinese person walking by us was staring at us (half because Cam was falling over from tiredness and half because of me, obviously). Cam said "I'm drunk" "No, you're not drunk hon. You're tired" "Okay, you're right, I'm tired. I'm three fourths tired and one fourth drunk therefore making me feel really drunk." "True." Then I told him what I'd been thinking about that night. "Cam, if I find a job I'll tell you to get a place with two bedrooms. If I don't find a job then you have to find a place with one bedroom." He complained for about two seconds "Why?" but then he gave in and I think he half understood (if not fully). He really liked the idea I brought up a couple months ago of me working at Gymboree. After all it's right across from where he works. Not only could he keep an eye on me but we could spend more time with each other (or at least that was the feeling that I got). He brought it up again tonight, "you should work there". I may actually, after all even though I've heard a little bad publicity from the place the pay is extremely decent and it's a place that seems to be teaching exactly what I want to do - not only teaching English but teaching it to a much younger age and also doing a sort of nursery school tactics to the whole thing (which is again something that I've been looking for).

I love little kids. Even when I was thinking about it today. My K2 class was being a little out of hand today. One of my kids, Teddy, was being an absolute nut-case and causing the whole class to be a little loud but the one good thing about K2's is I don't actually have to teach them for very long (as their attention span isn't very long) so I end up having to deal with them as crazy nuts for a little bit and getting to hang out with them as kids for a bit afterwards and before. They really love me, and I them. They're so cute. I'd really love the opportunity to work with them for a longer period of time. Maybe that is my next step. Who knows.

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