Xi Gua - University Teacher

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Sup everyone. It's been awhile but i've been busy. As most of you know I got my job teaching at Shaoyang University. I'm pretty excited as I can be back in the city I really enjoy where most of my friends are as well as start teaching university. Not bad for a 23 year old I think. Granted it's China and it's not that hard but American employers don't know that 😉. I'm happy because I actually have authority and more responsibility. Teaching high schoolers, if they are bad there's really nothing I can do about it. Going to the head master only gets me responses like "You don't need to worry about this, just try your best." thanks. So it doesn't matter that no ones listening to me in class and you're paying me a ridiculous amount of money to just stand there for 45 minutes and not really do anything. Good to know. I really don't like that feeling. So now at University i'll be in charge of everything. Grades. One thing i'm particularly excited about. Uni kids won't be much of a problem in terms of discipline. At least not at this school. The school is mostly girls (Lucky me) and they want to try, so i'm not going to have the stupid Chinese boys in the back of the class trying to make jokes and make everyone feel uncomfortable for trying. Also I get to give them homework and junk which is cool. I might prefer teaching uni because I can do what I want in the classroom and not just babysit like i've basically been doing this whole time.

So I moved here on like January 15th or something. Basically as soon as I found out when school was over in Tongzi I went to the head master and told him i'm not coming back. I like my FAO's and I liked my school but the students kinda sucked, the teachers sucked, the Tongzi people sucked, and the town of Tongzi sucked. So yeah, not much to stick around for. After the term was over I got my money, packed my junk and took off as soon as I could. I didn't really ask Shaoyang University if I got the job, I kind of just called them and TOLD them that i'm coming, so they should get an apartment ready haha. I was tired of waiting for a definitive Yes or No so I just told them I was going there and if they didn't like it I imagine they would have told me. But they said ok. I was prepared to live in Mark's apartment, they were still cleaning it and preparing it and junk so I said I could stay in a hotel for awhile which wouldn't be a problem for me. However, they decided to fire the other foreign teacher here Ian. Ian was here for like 3 or 4 years. Although he constantly complained about China and Shaoyang and the University, I guess he was content on working there. I personally never met Ian which I do actually wish that I did because i'm sure he isn't as bad as some people make him out to be. Although I was told he hates Americans.......I only saw him one time at an English corner, and when it was over I was still talking to some students, rather than introducing himself he just went home. I thought it was kinda strange. But anyway, apparently he was involved in a big car accident in Guangzhou and the school was afraid of his age and his health. This school has had 2 foreign teachers die here, both due to natural causes, so they are afraid about having another teacher die. So with me, they are taking a lot of noticeable precautions.

Since they fired Ian, they rushed to clean his apartment and they gave me his place rather than Marks which is good I think. I don't really know just HOW I would feel living there knowing that I knew him and he died. I like to think it'd be ok but I don't know really. So now his place is next door. The new apartment is ok. It's pretty small. Much smaller than the one in Guizhou, I think even smaller than the one at No3 Middle School. It's ok though, I don't need a huge place and it's good enough for me. Although it's smaller than Guizhou, I think overall it's better. Guizhou's was big, but everything inside sucked. The water heater only had enough hot water for like 5 minutes. I could barely get a shower before the water turned cold. The kitchen was outside as you know, so in the winter yeah.....it sucked to go out there and wash dishes or something, at the end the AC was dead so it barely worked, when the repair dude came to fix it he was like "oh yeah it's fine" and left. Here the kitchen is indoors, the water heater is gas powered so it stays long and hot forever. The water pressure is amazing, the AC is huge, however, it's only in the living room which I never use so it's difficult to heat my office and my bedroom. Internet is a little worse here but it's good enough to do what I need to do I guess, view is worse, security is much worse. I think it's better. Living on campus I have a ton of friends that can come visit me whenever and they love to cook for me so it's great! :D

So since I moved here I've just been hanging out with my friends here. I won't start work until like March 1st. Chinese New Years is Feb 14, same as Valentines. I currently have no plans to celebrate it. I wanna travel somewhere but I have no where to go and I have no one to go with me. Chinese people take this time to all to go their hometowns, so the university campus is a ghost town and most of my friends have gone home. So now i'm just trying to hang out with whoever I can. I haven't been able to travel until now. I've had to go through contract negotiations, health checks, registering at the police station and all kinds of crap that takes 2 seconds but prevents me from leaving. I had to get ANOTHER health check as I said. Cept this time I had to go all the way to Changsha to get it. It was easy and it took 20 minutes but still I had to do it. AT least I didn't have to pay.

The school also scared me with news that MAYBE I have to go to Hong Kong again to get a new Z Visa. Oh crap. I pleaded with them to find some way to get around it. This is China. Money and gifts and friendships can get you out of anything. My schools FAO is new. She's been teaching there for like 10 years, but she's new to the FAO job. The old FAO got fired because when Mark died it took her forever to do something about it. So she handled the whole situation horribly. So the new FAO doesn't really know what she's doing. I shouldn't have to go to HK because I have a valid residence permit in Guizhou. Granted it's canceled as soon as my contract is terminated, but as long as the school doesn't terminate it I can get the visa. So after a lot of negotiating and bollocks we can finally get the Z Visa and RP without me leaving the country. Thank god. I've seen almost everything in Hong Kong. There's no reason to go back. The only thing that would make it better is another FT Riky has to go, and ANOTHER FT has familiy there or something so I'd have people to hang out with but meh. I still don't wanna go. Plus it would have been at my expense. Forget that.

The only problem i'm having now is that i'm getting back into my sleeping pattern I had at home. Going to sleep at like 4am and waking up at like 2pm. It's so cold now I don't wanna get up because i'd have nothing to do and there's not many people to hang out with. So I just sleep. Chinese New Years is really a boring time for foreigners. It's the best time to travel and it's also the worst. It's worst in that prices of everything go sky high, hotels, restaurants everything. Trains are sold out, buses are sold out, you have to buy tickets days in advance. But it's the best because we have over a month of holiday! So we can see a lot. My problem is I don't wanna go alone because it's dangerous and I feel like there's really no memory to visiting somewhere if you have no one to share it with.

So I don't really have any pictures. There hasn't been much to take pictures of cept my new apt. So I have a video of it and some pics and junk. Please don't mind that in the end of the video when I almost puke my guts out due to whatever strange animal was stuck in my throat.

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Photos

Drunk Laowai
Right to left, Top to bottom: Mike, Welson, Me, Drew, Drews Uncle.
I don't even like beer :(

Bedroom
Ugh, it's so messy! I just threw everything out to find my camera

Bedroom again
I have a coat rack! w00t!

Living room
Yao Ming sized AC

Entry to the Kitchen
Yeah

Kitchen
That fridge is so tiny

Office
Computer set up

Empty space
Most of the office is empty atm

Comments

[Angel]

Andy, Glad you got to go back to Shaoyang. Thanks for the info, pictures and video. Not bad, hope you remain safe and have your friends back to run around with soon. I think it's great your teaching at the University, congratulations. Enjoy your adventures.