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Published: September 17th 2006
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Not really difficult. Just a lot of things have been happening, but not really that interesting to write about! A lot of shopping for things, a lot of spending hours in people's offices trying to get residency permits sorted out whilst Chinese people come in and out and shout a lot, then getting sent to another office to drink hot water while they try and find the contracts and things. Very exciting. And not that frustrating, unless you have class in ten minutes. The dean of the school, and most of the teachers, are lovely. Just don't ask questions, because you won't get an answer, but probably something else completely irrelevant repeated at you several times. They try!
Living up six flights of stairs really makes you think about how necessary it is to buy heavy things.
Have also joined the gym. It’s really good, brand new, with more machines than I’ve seen in any gym at home. There’s one scary trainer who hangs around, and tries to tell you how to use the machines. But he’s a bit pudgy, and I think the only weight he’s lifted in his life is a pint of beer, so there isn’t
a huge amount of trust there. And apparently there are two fat lads who hang out in the changing room in towels, smoking. It appears their wives told them to join the gym and get fit. At least they’ve made the first move! There are hot yoga classes, dance classes of all types, including belly dancing, so am going to learn Chinese really quickly so I can take part.
Started teaching. The schedule isn’t too bad, I have Thursdays off, and only one hour on Friday. And am sure I can swap class with someone if I want to take a long weekend to go somewhere. I’m teaching third year undergraduates Public Speaking and British Culture and Society. The Public Speaking classes are really fun, the level is pretty high, and so we can have fun in class, there aren’t any basics that need working on particularly. The Culture class is such a waste of time, as they normally are. They already took an intro class, and so know all the basics, holidays, food, things like that. So I’m going to use it as more public speaking practise, to get over the shyness and reluctance to talk and ask
questions. The only downside is that those classes are out on the North Campus, a thirty minute bus journey away. Some of the other teachers we’ve met got asked to do those classes, but they refused, as it would cut into their drinking time after school! I am also teaching graduate students, who are taking English as a minor. If I was just teaching them, I would seriously be questioning the validity of my presence here. They really are rubbish, and apparently most only turn up to the first and last class, in between the class of 48 gets down to about ten. On a good day, four. But at least those who turn up later want to learn, they might be a bit more attentive. At the moment, people are just sitting in class chatting, I did have to get a bit stroppy and tell them not to be disrespectful and to listen to other people when they were talking. So, am a bit worried about what I’m going to do in these classes, it would be very easy to slack, but I’d bore myself, let alone the students.
The other teachers I've met are pretty nice, there's a really cool Glaswegian who's been here for seven years, and so can help with finding things like salt. There is, of course, a bug in the ointment, a 60 year old American bloke (why do they follow me?), who likes to 'test' people by being really rude and ignorant. He's a bit scared of me now though, because I poured a beer on his head, and he has now stopped insulting me. I think he'd be better off being nice to people, beer is cheap here, and people don't mind wasting it.
Joakim the Swede has got into the movies, and has been 'acting' a lot recently, he's going to build up his connections and start asking if they have non-speaking parts for other foreigners.
What else? Oh, yes. Got a puppy. She's called Artemis Q. O'Squiggleson the Third. And is such a gorgeous ball of fluff. And pretty bright, she's already house-trained (to an extent), and is getting really fat. It was fun buying her, there's a puppy market a few minutes down the road, which consists of lots of people with baskets trying to flog lots of little balls of fluff to people for three quid. Got rather stared at, being giant foreign people. And when I started bartering for Artemis, I thought the woman selling her was going to fall over. What a boon, to sell one to a westerner, she'll be living off that story for months now. Also got a little harness and lead for her, though she can just step out of it at the moment, being a little bit on the small side. She'll grow. Though not too big, I hope.
I think that's about it. I shall be more vocal next time. Still no broadband in the house. Maybe in the next two weeks. Maybe. But will be online properly soon, and will do better at updates and emails.
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Emma
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Where did you get the name for that dog???