12/10/03

Has been a while since I’ve written an entry, mainly due to not a whole lot happening. But I’d figured if I put my head to it I could conjure up something! It’s Sunday night, I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out what to teach this week, after much consideration I’ve settled on “describing physical appearance” and have been trying to find pictures to find examples of just about every type of person. The week itself has been fairly uneventful. School started Wednesday and everything went to plan. I showed ER to each class, for the most part it was pretty popular. Thursday night’s class actually stayed around for 30 minutes after class to watch the end of the episode. My next goal is to try and find the first season on DVD so they all might be able to get some kind of clue as to who’s who and what the hell is going on!

Everything on the home front is good. Money came along with her cleaner Tuesday to offer ‘Hygiene service’ as it is called. Having just cleaned the place myself I politely declined, much to Money’s shock. I don’t hold anything personal against Money, but as Adam and I decided the other night, they problem is she represents almost everything bad about living here. Namely it being impossible to get anything done. I’m sure she would understand if she were in our shoes, and so if she did happen to overhear one of our many ‘Money’ jokes, wouldn’t take it personally. Home sweet China...... On Thursday she showed up with her whole crew of contractors to measure the gap underneath the door to the shower. I’m pretty sure it was just to get me back for refusing the cleaner (actually I’m positive it wasn’t, but it makes this seem all the more interesting).

I went in to stay with Les Monday night so I could hit up Walmart the next morning, picked up a few off the rare western items you can only buy at Walmart (Bacon, Peanut Butter, Orange juice). I then hit up the copy DVD stores, which are one of the best things about living in China. 7 RMB a disc. Yes, that’d be about $1.20. Buying copy DVD’s is actually a fine art, as if you are not well educated you will end up watching something which strangely resembles nothing. Being slightly educated I picked 10 or 11 and went on my merry way. When I got home, only 1 dud, not a bad percentage. So far I’ve watched The Italian Job (great), Narc (great), National Security (okay) and Basic (jury still out), all perfect quality. For those of you wondering how you can actually get a poor quality DVD, go to your local cinema with your digital video camera, record a movie, and burn the recording onto a DVD, and you’ll have a better idea of what I’m talking about. To understand the meaning or really bad quality, make as much noise as you can while recording, and ask the people in front of you to walk around as much as possible during the movie. If it’s a comedy, loudly laughing will also give you much success in driving me insane. Thankfully I think I’ve sussed out which brand is the best to buy, and am looking forward to my next adventure. Please don’t tell the police.

Everyone else here is doing well, a few of the foreigners are having some adjustment issues, I think what they call culture shock. I don’t really understand the concept that well, could be because I’m a bit of a prick but. If you are going to move to somewhere like Shantou, in my opinion you should be mentally prepared for the change of lifestyle. To me anyone who isn’t is, well, an idiot. People have been living here for a hell of a long time, and they are still alive. The Chinese way of life is actually pretty effective, and in a lot of ways better than the way people live in the west. If you take a job here, and expect to come over here and live your pretty little western life, then you are probably one of those people who believe that people are all lovely, or who believed that Collingwood actually had a chance in hell against Brisbane in either of the last two AFL Grand Finals! When in Rome.... (and if you don’t wanna do that, then don’t come crying to me when the white substance which someone told you was milk causes a nasty rash, because I will probably just laugh, and then call my friends and tell them about it).

That’s enough ranting for the moment. I went down to the newly built (and strangely named) “Any Bar” the other night with Ian and Adam, it’s basically a little internet cafe that serves snacks, drinks and is furnished with brightly coloured chairs that would encourage someone with the slightest hangover to jump of the nearest bridge. It was a good night, a few drinks and then back to the apartment to watch England vs. Turkey. This was all after a trip over to the east gate with Adam and the English Corner Committee for dinner, was a good night. They decided to trick us by talking Cantonese instead of Mandarin to throw us off, didn’t really work, I speak about 5 words of Mandarin, and although Adam speaks a bit more, it wasn’t all that obvious. Interesting attempt at humour, can’t say it was all that funny in hindsight.

Well I can’t really think of a whole lot else to report on at the moment. I’ve finally been joined in my apartment by a few other friendly creatures. Saw my first cockroach yesterday, and first lizard the day before. I think we’re going to get along just fine, well, now that the cockroach is dead. So far the lizard and me haven’t had any major altercations, so he gets to live, so long as he continues to eat all the flies and mosquitoes around. I’ve actually been pretty lucky in the animal regard. The folks on the lower floors have had major cockroach problems. Poor bastards (the roaches).

Alright, I’m going to finish this lesson plan, and hit the sack.

- Sam