Normal life goes on...
On friday I got a call out of the blue to teach an afternoon class at an elementary school. I had done this once before and it had been ok. So, because I needed the money I went. I walked to the elevated train station only to see a train go by right before I got there. When I finally got to the platform, I had to wait another 10 minutes to get into a crowded, smelly train. Then I transfered at Xizhimen and again at Fuxingmen until I got to Wanshoulu. In all, this took me about one hour. One hour in which I could not sit down. One hour in which I was constantly surrounded by crouds of people. When I finally got to the school, things went well. I played games with the kids and before I knew it, the two 45 minute classes had passed and I had earned my RMB200.
After the class I went for dinner with Alex, Catlyn and their friend who also worked at the school. It was nice to see them and to catch up. They are leading good lives as English teachers. They are busy and they are making tons of cash. We talked about the usual things, that is the more recent fuck ups of the communist party. This time, we talked about bird flu and Harbin. I told them that I had seen an article that 300 people had died in Hunan but the government had been able to largely cover it up from the outside world. Of course, this has chilling paralells to both the SARS outbreak and current fiasco in Harbin.
After that dinner, I went to a second dinner with my classmates. Again, it was a birthday celebration but this time it was for three of my class mates, none of whom I would consider friends or even associates. These meals are becoming more of a symbolic obligation than a pleasure as all we ever do is spend money on food and force light conversation. This time, I couldn't even get drunk because I have a cold and I did not want to aggrivate it. I went home after dinner and did the usual internet surfing before finaly going to sleep early, before midnight.
I woke up bright and early today. I did not want to wake up so early, but once I was up, there was no going back to sleep. I watched my roommate get dressed up in a suit and go off to an ad shoot and then I resumed my long neglected reading of "Atlas Shrugged". I am proud to say that I am half way through the book, but I am beginning to wonder if I will ever have the time to finish it outright. After 500 pages both the story and the characters have become rather predictable and the main theme of the book, namely that captalism is a powerful creative force and is the best system for everything, has gotten a bit old. Part of me wants to finish the book out of the sheer pride of finishing it, but part of me wants to move on to more relevant reading material.
Chris called around noon. We arranged to meet at the cafeteria where he told me about his latest female frustrations. I won't get into it here, but he always seems to prevent himself from ever getting with the girls he likes. For his sake, I hope he can change this. After lunch we went on a walk through the beautiful campus of Bei Da (the best university in China) and then down through Zhongguangcun (Beijing's "high tech" park) and Carrefour. Carrefour is always always an experience. It definately has the best selection for lots of different items but because of this it is always packed full of people. The best strategy is usually to get what you want quickly and leave. We did this. After getting my electric toothbrush replacement heads and some darts for the dart board, along with the stuff Chris got, we left.
We had to hurry getting back to campus because I had arranged to meet David and Christin for dinner at 6:30. In the event I showed up at 6:50 only to see Simoneta (an Italian classmate of mine) waiting there alone. Ten minutes later David showed up and we walked off to the restaurant. On our way we ran into Christin (David's Korean girlfriend) and Kevin (an American classmate). It turned out that the restaurant we wanted to go to was full so we walked another 20 mintues to go to another one which, as luck would have it, was also full. Thankfuly, there were lots of Korean restaurants in this area so we didn't have to go far to find another one. When we finally got to eating, the food was good and I had a good time.
Not much else to report...
Rae is coming soon...
Marc
On friday I got a call out of the blue to teach an afternoon class at an elementary school. I had done this once before and it had been ok. So, because I needed the money I went. I walked to the elevated train station only to see a train go by right before I got there. When I finally got to the platform, I had to wait another 10 minutes to get into a crowded, smelly train. Then I transfered at Xizhimen and again at Fuxingmen until I got to Wanshoulu. In all, this took me about one hour. One hour in which I could not sit down. One hour in which I was constantly surrounded by crouds of people. When I finally got to the school, things went well. I played games with the kids and before I knew it, the two 45 minute classes had passed and I had earned my RMB200.
After the class I went for dinner with Alex, Catlyn and their friend who also worked at the school. It was nice to see them and to catch up. They are leading good lives as English teachers. They are busy and they are making tons of cash. We talked about the usual things, that is the more recent fuck ups of the communist party. This time, we talked about bird flu and Harbin. I told them that I had seen an article that 300 people had died in Hunan but the government had been able to largely cover it up from the outside world. Of course, this has chilling paralells to both the SARS outbreak and current fiasco in Harbin.
After that dinner, I went to a second dinner with my classmates. Again, it was a birthday celebration but this time it was for three of my class mates, none of whom I would consider friends or even associates. These meals are becoming more of a symbolic obligation than a pleasure as all we ever do is spend money on food and force light conversation. This time, I couldn't even get drunk because I have a cold and I did not want to aggrivate it. I went home after dinner and did the usual internet surfing before finaly going to sleep early, before midnight.
I woke up bright and early today. I did not want to wake up so early, but once I was up, there was no going back to sleep. I watched my roommate get dressed up in a suit and go off to an ad shoot and then I resumed my long neglected reading of "Atlas Shrugged". I am proud to say that I am half way through the book, but I am beginning to wonder if I will ever have the time to finish it outright. After 500 pages both the story and the characters have become rather predictable and the main theme of the book, namely that captalism is a powerful creative force and is the best system for everything, has gotten a bit old. Part of me wants to finish the book out of the sheer pride of finishing it, but part of me wants to move on to more relevant reading material.
Chris called around noon. We arranged to meet at the cafeteria where he told me about his latest female frustrations. I won't get into it here, but he always seems to prevent himself from ever getting with the girls he likes. For his sake, I hope he can change this. After lunch we went on a walk through the beautiful campus of Bei Da (the best university in China) and then down through Zhongguangcun (Beijing's "high tech" park) and Carrefour. Carrefour is always always an experience. It definately has the best selection for lots of different items but because of this it is always packed full of people. The best strategy is usually to get what you want quickly and leave. We did this. After getting my electric toothbrush replacement heads and some darts for the dart board, along with the stuff Chris got, we left.
We had to hurry getting back to campus because I had arranged to meet David and Christin for dinner at 6:30. In the event I showed up at 6:50 only to see Simoneta (an Italian classmate of mine) waiting there alone. Ten minutes later David showed up and we walked off to the restaurant. On our way we ran into Christin (David's Korean girlfriend) and Kevin (an American classmate). It turned out that the restaurant we wanted to go to was full so we walked another 20 mintues to go to another one which, as luck would have it, was also full. Thankfuly, there were lots of Korean restaurants in this area so we didn't have to go far to find another one. When we finally got to eating, the food was good and I had a good time.
Not much else to report...
Rae is coming soon...
Marc
2 Comments:
It sounds like you had fun in Hong Kong with Neal. I hope you enjoy Taiwan.
Visit my blog in
www.nezo.thb.blogspot.com
Post a Comment
<< Home