Hello From The 11th Floor of Chaoyang Gardens

Well, I guess this is the first blog of the rest of my life. I haven't been too faithful in the last two months. I've been trying to adjust to my new life and erratic work schedule. I have had a few chances to go out and have a little fun but those chances have been few and far between. It seems as though I am a working man, not that it agrees with me.

I have been working six days a week since I began almost nine weeks ago. I work a half day on Monday and a half day on Wednesday. The one full day I get off is Tuesday. Now, I know China is quite different from the USA but a few things remain the same such as Tuesdays being crap. To celebrate my 'weekends' I usually head up to The Goose and Duck , a watering hole I have referred to in previous posts (most notably as the location where I was able to watch the NCAA tournament last year). At the new location, not too far from my apartment, they have a batting cage and a nine foot basketball rim. On most Monday nights I head up there and impress only myself by dunking and ripping line drives.

My work day is from 1pm to 9pm during the week. On the weekend I work from 9-5 like a normal person, except it is on the weekend. I rarely get to see my friends outside of Bryne. The 'grind' is starting to wear on me. Not that everything is terrible, I get paid well, although at times I feel like I am in some sort of Greek play. I get paid more money than I need in China but I have no time to spend it. It took me two weeks to get a bathmat.

I do like the students at my school. I teach four different types of classes: Encounter, Social Club, Communication Class, and English Corner. Encounters have no more than four students and this is where they are assessed through as series of exercises based on material they have previously been taught. After the hour long class I have to grade each student and give them help with chronic errors (gender errors are most common as Mandarin has one pronoun that is used for men, women, or anything else, ta). Social Clubs revolve around a weekly theme such as interviews, movies, or, as I taught in a very unsuccessful class, Mayan culture. There are 12 students in these classes and they are basically given a little information or a few activities and they communicate with each other. The teacher does very little in these classes. The next type is the communication class. These are essentially the same as the Social Clubs except there are eight students and the activities do not necessarily center on a theme. In communication classes the teacher does a moderate amount of error correction. English Corners are great. They are open to all students so sometimes you have 60 students and sometimes you have two ( I had an English corner with only 2 students during the National Day holiday). English Corners are great because the teacher picks a topic and speaks for about 10 minutes about it and then the students just have independent conversations about it in their groups of four. Recent topics I have chosen are How to be a Hobo, Happiness is a Warm Gun, Material Culture, and Food is Awesome.

I know I shouldn't do this but I had a funny response from a student. I think it is ok because we all got a laugh out of it. I was teaching a lower level class and trying to elicit clothing vocabulary. I said, "What is an item that you wear around your neck?" The students were silent for a moment before one began gesturing. We want the students to speak in full sentences and this girl was a good student so she finally said, "Crap, I wear crap around my neck." I paused, hard. Her eyes widened. All four students erupted simultaneously. She meant scarf.

The other week we had a Halloween party at the center. All the teachers dressed up as did some of the students. I went as a Mexican wrestler with tights, a title belt, and an awesome mask (thanks Rebekah). We had face painting, card reading, and a movie room which showed horror movies all night. The students loved seeing their teachers dressed up. I must have posed for about 100 photos. I think it was the tights.

A couple of weeks ago I went to a Champagne brunch with my friends Steve, Cromwell, and Colm. Cromwell and Colm have great jobs and make boatloads of cash. Steve and I make a teacher's salary. This did not prevent all of us meeting at the Intercontinental Hotel in the new Financial District of Beijing (this newly constructed area is Beijing's answer to Shanghai and Hong Kong. Beijing is trying to redirect the economic expansion through the capital as the southeastern provinces are where most of the investment and wealth is concentrated). This champagne brunch came on the heels of my first weekend day off since returning to Beijing. I woke up early on Sunday morning regretting getting after things the way I had the night before. A big brunch cures all ills, however. The spread was amazing. Three different kinds of lox IN ADDITION to a whole smoked salmon. There was more sushi than I have ever seen before as well as four kinds of caviar, Crab legs, muscles, and oysters. That was just the seafood table. Other highlights include surprisingly good bbq (KC style), Beijing roast duck, curry bowls, and cooked to order meats. As I said, it was a champagne brunch, so we kept our designated pour man busy. It ended up being a bit on the expensive side but it was well worth the five hours we spent dissecting the buffet with a surgeon's precision. Afterwards we decided we would have to make this event a once a month endeavor. Too bad I don't get weekends off any more.

Note: I didn't even mention desserts.

In China news, the pollution seems to be worse than ever. I heard form some of my friends and family that this is being reported in the US. It is mad. It is quite strange because it is not always smoggy. Some days are crystal clear. Some days have a haze. Other days look like the sun does not appear and everything is bathed in an ambient light that is quite post-apocalyptic. At any rate, Beijing is going through its annual dry out and the combination of cold, dry air and pollution is uncomfortable. My lips are quite chapped (Kevin).

Random Facts and Thoughts

-Housing prices in Beijing have skyrocketed over the last couple of years. One area that seems immune to this problem is the south side. Apparently, no one wants anything to do with the south side because it is where all the state executions took place, how far in the past I do not know.

-Red devil horns with flashing lights were all the rage during Halloween with 3 out of 5 girls going as 'a devil'.

-Hooters opened a restaurant in Beijing about a month ago. From what I've heard, less than 100 percent of the business model is in effect here...red shorts instead of orange.

- If one Yuan = 12 cents US, how can there be so many things that cost one Yuan here? Why are there no 12 cent stores in the US?

- Beijing's new opera house opened recently. It looks like a spaceship. Mao is encased in glass and formaldehyde not 150 paces from this interesting piece of architecture.

- The street DVD's I enjoyed so much last year seem to have vanished almost overnight. Since the national day holiday in the first week of October there has been a crackdown on all things counterfeit. Also, there are a lot fewer beggars in the streets and on the subway. They probably all got high paying jobs.

- I think Indian food is the best food in the world.


I am planning on visiting Vietnam during December. I will be meeting my mom and Garry there. We are still trying to iron out the details but I think it will be four days in Hanoi and Hulong Bay. That should be a nice little vacation for me. The warmer climes come a calling in late December and who am I to ignore the call of a clime?

This is my day off, a Tuesday, so I better get my business in order. Take care all. Dsai Jian.