Joshmac

Face I had learned somethings in Thailand that have become more and more helpful as I travel again thought south east Asia. The concept of "Face" is the most glaring of these. I guess it basically translates into social standing. Let's do an example: Bill catches some squid this mornin and happily brings it back to his wife. His wife, seeing his tiny amount of squid throws a fucking hissyfit on the front lawn (she wanted more obviously) and screams bloody Mary at the still smiling Bill . Meanwhile, across the road, a beach restaurant full of people watch this scene unfold. Who loses the most face here? Well Bill and his wife defiantly are the ones but his wife more so because she's screaming and bill is smiling. In most of Asia people don't show ... read more

So, I get off the train after 8 hours and it's not raining. I'm stoked, I'll I've heard is that Beijing is fucked with rain. I get out a cig for victory and bam! Starts to down pour and I don't have an umbrella or jacket and my bag holding laptop and other shits is starting to get soaked. I run to the taxi line with 1000 or so other wet Asian people hoping a shit load of taxis will shows up and save us all. This doesn't happen and after 20 min I'm drenched and the line hasn't moved. During all this time you have dudes who drive normal cars offerring you rides and crazy inflated prices cause "A" your desperate and "B" your a foreigner and "C" they think your retarded. They assume you ... read more

I'm upon my finale four months in Changchun and am starting to prepair for what is next for me. Yeah im jumping the gun a bit but when your almost done a race it's hard not to look at the finish line. At the end of this leg ill begin my mini trek down through china for a few weeks...after that there is talk of vietnam but who fucking knows. I've been thinking alot of what im going to miss about this place. The people in Changchun are, for the most part, extremely friendly. In the entire 8 months I have been here, I can honestly tell you, I have difficulty counting the real probelms I have had interacting with people. Yes there are language barriers but, as my dad once told me, smiling is a ... read more

Before I started writing this blog i was reading others. I'd always wonder why there were big gaps of time between entries with people. I get it now. You lose track of time. Not everyday is exciting, and most are mundane. One day bleeds to the next. Teaching English is a wierd experience. You speak the language your whole life and then suddenly start selling that ability as a commodity to be gained by people. I feel, more often then not, like im some sort of actor with a lesson plan as a script. Teaching grammer has got to be one of the biggest loads of shit out there for someone like me. I know what to say, how to spell it and how it should sound....but if you ask me what present continuous tense is ... read more

As it turns out, strangely enough, my days off here are exactly the same days off that i had back at home. Around the world mondays and tuedays seem to be the days that i was given to relax and enjoy the world. This last "weekend" i decided it was about time i did some adventuring around china and booked a ticket to see the great wall. The place i picked was Shan Hai guan, a place best known for where the wall meets the sea. I had seen this on the TV show ''An idiot abroad"where carl goes to china. I had a desire to walk in this awkward man's footsteps. I got the first ticket i could get which was a "hard sleeper'' train there, at midnight, and a ''hard seat'' train back and ... read more