24/10/03

It has really been one of those weeks. Actually it’s been two in a row. Hopefully that means I get a break from them now, but I’m not holding my breath. The weekend was actually pretty good. Played badminton Saturday afternoon for the first time in god-knows-how-long, was good fun. Badminton is a great sport, I think one of the reasons I like it is because it has quite a bit in common with squash. After that we went downtown to a bowling alley. This bowling alley was pretty impressive. It had to have had 60 lanes and looked brand new, I was told later that it had been there for four years. Of particular interest was the decoration along the back wall.... American flags. I’m guessing it was a do it yourself bowling alley kit with compulsory decals. All very amusing. It was a fun night, Adam and I slugged it out, me going down in flame on both occasions. Afterwards we discovered the reason the place looked brand new; we were charged 40 kwai a game. That’s not much in western currency, but it’s a fair amount for a local here.

I spent Sunday preparing for the week, and then jumped into things Monday morning. I have been showing the students the movie “Medicine Man” with Sean Connery. It’s quite a good film and provokes a fair bit of discussion, and of course as soon as you mention ‘movie’ the mood brightens immeasurably. I started testing on Wednesday, a written paper followed by an oral conversation. They were all pretty good. I think I may have been a bit generous with the oral marks, but it was the first test. I can knuckle down next month, watch them squirm!

Up until this point the week had been pretty average. My lower neighbor is a paranoid freak. She is a Romanian girl who lives with her mother, she has a strange sense of humour and apparently has insomnia. I am of course the reason for it. First she complained one night a couple of weeks back because my TV was too loud. Fair enough, first time no worries. Then late last week she dragged me into her apartment and gave me a tongue lashing about not wanting to hear me (quote) “walking around, and pissing” in the middle of the night. This tirade was laced with what she thought was humour, but was just rather awkward and inappropriate. I politely informed her that I could not help my bodily functions. Last night she called and complained that she could not sleep because she could hear my desk chair rolling on the floor. I told her I would stop my desk chair rolling party at once, and hung up on her. I make sure I roll all over the apartment in my desk chair every night, and urinate at least several times an hour to maintain out relationship.... is this wrong?

Wednesday night I met Les for dinner at Hayley Cafe, things have been a little stressed around the office. We got to talking about tests when he expressed he was surprised that my students understood the words I was teaching them, because the students of his I see once a week are using words they don’t know the meaning of, apparently thanks to me. The only problem with the picture being that in the class of his students I take, I don’t teach vocabulary. It’s all beginning to wear a little thin. I moved on, and we got to talking about other things, and he mentioned that he was planning to go to Zhuhai on Friday for the weekend. My heart jumped into my mouth. I had a ticket for Guangzhou booked for Friday morning, and was under the impression that he had agreed to cover for me. Apparently I had told him I would be getting another teacher to cover for me. I was trying to figure it all out, and actually didn’t until I got home later that night. I had discussed with him having another foreign teacher come and monitor my students while they take a test. Somehow this had gotten to sound like I wouldn’t need Les to come in at all. I figured it wasn’t worth arguing about, and have been lay in bed awake last night trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do. Les told me he would call me when he found out whether or not he would be going to Zhuhai. I asked Maggie to get the class rescheduled, I don’t think it’s gone over all that well. To say I’m annoyed would be an understatement. I am having serious trouble communicating, and I’m beginning to think it might not be all me. Add this to the fact that some of the news I get from a few people back in Toronto is just really hitting hard, it has just been one of those weeks. I will be glad to get to Guangzhou!!

The teaching is going really well still, I really couldn’t care less about what others think. The students are great, but a few things are getting on my nerves outside the classroom. I just hope it all doesn’t get too much worse. It’s a huge relief to have the other younger folk downstairs, it’s good fun hanging out with them....

Sam