Random
weirdness: In my e-mail the other day, I got an ad for a “pocket hose” – one of
those curly garden hoses that are so compact.
What’s weird about it is that for some strange reason it made me
homesick! Go figure! A couple of days
later, I really WAS homesick – certainly not for Oklahoma, per se, but after spending a year+ there and hanging out with my
family, I was missing them. It didn’t
help that I was feeling like shit with sinus headaches and a REALLY sore throat
thanks to the pollution here and their mold-spewing air conditioners. Finally
broke down and got a bottle of vinegar on the advice of a Disney teacher who dealt
with the same thing after she’d arrived in Guangzhou. A shot of vinegar in the
morning and the evening eventually cleared it up. And luckily, since I found
some not-so-strong apple vinegar, it’s actually not too bad.
I’m still liking my apartment, like the location, etc. Found a good and cheap Chinese
place (surprise!) around the corner where I can get enough food for almost two
meals for less than $3. Woot, woot! Also, a couple of good grocery
stores and fruit/vegetable markets nearby. On the down side, they recently
started renovating the place next door – COMPLETELY gutting it and re-building
it so there is a ridiculous amount of noise.
It actually sounds like they are fucking jackhammering over there. Sigh.
Back
to the bright sides: there’s an Irish Pub downstairs! J Actually, this area I’m in – Zhujiang New Town – has a fair
number of western places and expats. You
generally pay through the nose for Western stuff/food here, though. While I can
get a good meal, as mentioned, at some local places for around $2, I generally
pay at least $10 - $15 for a decent “western” meal – and that’s pretty high for
China. Although, to be honest, on the
whole, China is not as cheap as I thought it’d be. Of course if I lived in the countryside or
some small town it would no doubt be cheaper, but as I’m in the “big city”, it’s
more expensive. I’m actually paying
more, when the money is converted, for my studio with loft than I was for a
2-bedroom house in Oklahoma. But, again,
the real estate maxim is still, everywhere, location location location. And I’m paying about a third what I’d pay for
the same thing in San Francisco.
Speaking
of “western” food, I hit the one Mexican restaurant in Guangzhou with some
Disney folks a couple of weeks back: Tekila’s.
It was decent, not great, but I’m sure the longer I’m here the better it
will seem. J
I spent about $10 for a couple of enchiladas that had SOME cheese in
them! Cheese is VERY expensive
here. The Irish Pub downstairs has a
great pineapple margarita and during their happy hour, it’s “only” about $5 –
cheap for western stuff in China.
Another
fun food note: as I was wandering around, nearly lost, in one of the
gargantuan, maze-like malls here, I passed a McDonald’s where a local was
eating French fries by using two straws as chopsticks. I’m sorry, but that’s just sad – and more
than a bit ridiculous - on several levels.
The
number and size of malls here is amazing.
I know part of it has to do with just the sheer number of people and
needing to ‘accommodate’ their shopping needs, but honestly, it boggles the
mind. Both here and in Shanghai, and
with others or alone, you get lost in the malls they’re so big and byzantine. Particularly the ones in the metro
stops. Most every large metro stop has
at least something of a mall connected to it.
My boss at Disney told me about a Magic: The Gathering shop at a mall
here in the Martyr’s Square metro stop mall so I had to try and find it. HA! No
way. She warned me ahead of time it was
one of the more ‘challenging’ malls even by China standards. And indeed it was. It actually ends up connecting to another,
separate, multi-level mall. I ended up
laughing at myself for getting so lost.
But it’s still fun to wander around in them, see the bizarre shit for
sale, and snicker over the, um, “interesting” translations when they put stuff
in English.
Speaking
of Chinese/English fun, some of the kids here have comical and/or sometimes
quite tragic names. Some of them are
simply Chinese names that have “unfortunate” connotations in English: e.g., one
of my favorite students is named Du Du.
She is THE sweetest little girl you would ever want to meet and it pains
me to say her name every time. Then, you’ve
got the “Anglicized” names folks have picked for their kids. The best/worst? In Shanghai, I had a little boy in my class
whose name was…..wait for it….Hymen.
Sigh. They even told the mother
what it meant, but in typical dismissive/arrogant Chinese fashion, she said, “I
don’t care. I like it.”
I
have to say, though, as fucked up as China is, after hearing the Zimmerman
verdict – coupled with the black woman who got 20 years and couldn’t use the
same “stand your ground defense” for firing a gun in the air to scare off an abusive husband – I am shamed by the
U.S. “justice system” and kinda glad I’m not living there right now. Seriously, it’s an embarrassment.
As
it’s still early yet in my stay, I go back and forth over how long I’ll
stay. I will definitely do one year, as
that’s what my contract is for. I think
anything beyond that, I would need to move into an admin. job. It’s not that I don’t like teaching, but it
is wearing. And the schedules are
screwy. Yeah, I get to sleep late for my
M-F classes, but then need to be up at 7am for the Sat/Sun classes. But if I’m able to adjust, I may renew and
teach for another year as Disney
just added a pretty cool benefit for renewing your contract: they will
reimburse you to get SELTA certified, which is basically the
"premium" certification for teaching English as a foreign language
and allows you to teach adults. I did just finish my TEFL-C which
formally certifies me to teach English to kids so if the weather here starts to
get TOO bothersome, I could look elsewhere. I also heard from one of the
other trainers here that will be doing it that they offer a SELTA course in
Bangkok, Thailand that's a month long. Another benefit Disney recently
added is a 28-day unpaid vacation break if you renew your contract, so come
next May/June, I may head off to Bangkok for a month and do the SELTA.
Kill two birds with one stone by getting to see Thailand and getting the
SELTA. Disney will even continue your housing allowance so you don't have
to worry about losing your apt. while you're traveling. Pretty cool. Apparently, they're making more of an effort
to keep Foreign Trainers coz there's a lot of turnaround. Dunno if I
mentioned this previously, but the group that trained after us lost HALF their
folks during training (5 of 10).
Finally did my first real “tourist
excursion” the other day: Samian Island.
As noted at their entrance marker, “The Island has great historic
significance. From the Song and the Qing Dynasty, it served as an important
port for Guangzhou's foreign trade. It became a strategic point for
city defense during the second Opium Wars (1856-1860). In 1859, the territory was
divided into two concessions, given to France and United Kingdom (of which 4/5
went to the British and 1/5 to the French). It was then embanked and provided
with streets, drainage, and imposing buildings and became home to a prosperous
foreign enclave. After 1949, the mansions became government offices or
apartment houses and the churches were turned into factories. But later they
were restored, in many cases to their former splendor.” I’ll be posting pics on
Facebook. It was really interesting/cool
to see the architecture and note the history.
A bunch of funky statues dot the island, too, showing various populations
and lifestyles on the island throughout its history. To read more, check out:
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