Hong Kong

I'm going to Honk Kong tomorrow to get my work visa. Being that I have the week off for National Day, I'll likely be gone for a few days exploring. Take care.

Happy National Day

A year ago some roommates at a Venice Beach hostel and I were having lunch and they started going off about the level of flag-waving and patriotism in America being a bit unsettling to them. I found it hard to believe then, but I'm begining to understand. Other countries are proud but they just don't display it as openly. This is very true of China. I've had adult teachers seriously tell me they think China might win every gold metal in the 2008 Olympic's, but I don't think they would ever have thought to display the Chinese flag on a pin, shirt, or bumper sticker*.

National Day has to be the most anti-climatic holiday I've ever experienced. I was expecting people to come out for some kind of public gathering with massive firework displays and maybe even some MiG's doing acrobatics in the sky for The People. I mean... this is THE day of the founding of the People's Republic, right? So what has it amounted to? A week off and flags on lightpoles in the street. That's it. No fireworks, no parades, no laser light shows at Stone Mountain. People were just chilling out walking around with their families and playing badmitton..

I was really looking forward to fireworks! The Chinese invented them!

In any case - all those kids, all those classes, all those noon naps on chairs in conference rooms, and soar throats all paid off with paycheck twice the normal size and a week off for National Day. All the teachers went out for dinner and hung out last night at our apartment in celebration. It was nice. A lot of the negative vibes from previous weeks have subsided. I even went out and bought a guitar with my new wealth. I leave you with a photo of me learning some Nirvana songs while knocking off some beers after dinner with other teachers.



Brendon [Australian], Me, and Tom [British]

* bumper stickers aren't as popular here, but vinyl stickerwork on the sides of SUV's is common. You'll often see a map of China with a superimposed flag on the same Toyota Prado's that have snorkels coming up the side of the windsheild.

Arrgghhh

Shenzhen is the "bastard child" of my company. I was told that when I first got here. The branch has been open for years, but it seems like it just opened yesterday. I like all my supervisors, but I think it's something about the collective whole that's flawed.

Next week every teacher is off for National Day. A few of us were planning to hit up Guilin, the city famous for the gumdrop mountains and beautiful misty lakes. I was gung ho. I've been working 28 classes weekly [part of why my posting has slowed - I'm tired], which is 13 more than the average Chinese teacher does. I've been racking in the overtime covering for the girls who quit. That's, at minimum, 840 students.

On top of just discovering yesterday I'm supposed to do 32 classes this week, I just found out I need to go to Hong Kong on Tuesday. My visa expires on the third and they've waited - as always - until the very last minute to do anything. I wasn't even working my first two weeks in Shenzhen. I pestered them constantly about doing it then so they wouldn't wait to do during National Day week. There's no one person to blame, of curse, it was a collective failure.

This isn't some barometer of my overall feelings of teaching here, but this particular incident really, really makes me angry. I don't mind putting in the hours, I do mind of being deprived my travel plans because of incompetence.



I leave you with a photo from the side of a preschool in the alleyways around my neighborhood. I think it says something about my mindset teaching those little devils tomorrow and now Saturday too.