Trials and Tribulations

Wow what a busy week I've had! The kids have returned to school so now when they come to DD Dragon in the afternoons they are not as excited... well some are but most are tired, bored or a combo of the two. So I've had to become strict in dealing with the kids: yelling, blowing my whistle, tapping them with my stick (WTF that does not sound good). Teaching is definitely a lot easier now, I no longer make a lesson plan, it takes me about 5 min to get ready for class.

A few days ago an incident occurred with my TA Doris. There are 4 kinds of cards at DD Dragon that can be redeemed from prizes. Yellow=1pt Green=5pt Pink=25pt Blue=250pt. Well, they only have the Yellow and Green cards at Pudong and then I asked Doris for a pink card and there were none in HongKou. So I was a little annoyed and I'm sure I gave her a nice face. She took this as me being mad and yelling at her. She went and had a casual convo with Susan another TA and Susan broadcasts to the school that I yell at Susan and we are having problems. WTF I didn't need drama, Ben was like Henry you can't yell at the TAs you should be a team, they make your job so much easier. I was like Ok... In my head I'm like wtf why am I being talked to about this. So I went to Doris and was like, if you have a problem you tell me first then if we can't work it out you go to someone else. It kind of hurt my feelings that she thought I would yell at her. I then went upstairs, ignoring Susan's calls. So Doris came up to our classroom to get ready for our class. Susan follows trying to fix the situation that is totally non-exsistant. I'm like Susan, Doris and I don't have a problem we were messing around laughing, having fun like 2 young people do ;). So I was like Susan, thanks for your concern but you're making something out of nothing. Then last night in Pudong, Mickey and I were butting heads. There was a new student and Mickey thought I should let her do what she wanted even though the girls mom talked to me and was like make her sit down, raise her hand etc. She kept wanting to go to her mom and Mickey would run over and hold her and talk to her in Chinese while I'm trying to teach. I was like Mickey, can you stand over here, you're distracting the students. She said I should be nice to the girl so she signs up, but keep in mind there are 3 other students in the class that are sitting there behaving. But I don't care, I won....

Monday was my day off so I went out and walked around, went to the store and got some things.
I also started volunteering with an organization called Shanghai Heart 2 Heart or 上海心连心. The organization was founded by a British women with the goal to help poor Chinese afford the heart surgeries their children need. They have paid for over 130 surgeries for the children. I thought this would be a good organization for me to try out. So I sent in my info and was to meet an American woman Julie at the hospital. I found the hospital alright and the first question she asked me was if I had a driver... I was like haha no. She does and every other biatch there lol. Anyways there was a Chinese woman with her that she failed to introduce me to so I introduced myself and her name was Spring, she volunteers with the organization too. Another woman came while we were setting up the play room, that is what you do at the hospital, and she was also American. Well these two women seemed nice on the surface but they were actually very racist and they thought they were better than the Chinese and couldn't stop talking about how Chinese women are whores that try and take Western men from their wives. They knew of 10 marriages that were split up because of this. One was fat, one was ugly, they would be nothing in the States. They just had some power in China so apparently it went to their head. Spring is sitting there the whole time while they are talking about how they could never take a taxi, subway, or any other form of public transit because its just beneath them apparently. After we left, I was walking with Spring and was like they were kind of rude. She said it was only her 2nd time going and she felt totally unwelcomed. I would have to agree, she said she might not go back, she might just donate money. She is just as rich as those Americans... She's opening a coffee shop that will have cultural lessons for free and those rich &#*$^ should attend ;) lol sorry for the vulgarity, on we go!

Ben had told me he was having a BBQ so around 6 he sent me a message asking if I was coming. I was like sure, free food what the hell... I didn't know where he lived so I took the taxi to the wrong end of his road, then got another taxi to his house lol. He lives on the 31st floor so he has an amazing view of the whole city. But his house is in the middle of nowhere and my apartment is a lot nicer, plus he has 3 roommates. So there were about 8 people there. Some British, Canadians, a Zambian, and a Swede plus a Chinese girl that was one of the Canadians girlfriends. He was drunk to the T and stumbling around and decided to cook some pork for her. He tried giving it to her 80% raw lol and I'm like DON'T eat that. He said you can eat raw pork, I've been doing it all night lmao. He broke a few beers, I was glad I wasn't the mess of the party. After this we went to this place that caters to ex-pats called Zapatas. They had MENS NIGHT!!!! Free beer for men from 10-11 lol women had to pay! So I was tearing up those free beers and we met up with some Germans, another Swede, and an Indian(it was his bday). I was gesticulating, as I tend to do when consuming alcohol and knocked a beer out of the French guys hand. He was like good thing its free but what about my shoes and shorts!! We were all like whatever, %$#@ French. But every time he went by I made sure to talk to him lol. By the end of the night we were cool. After the free hour of beer, we hit the road because that places drinks are expensive! So we went to this bar called Windows which has 15rmb Rum and Cokes. I had a half a dozen or so of those and the drunk ass Canadian even bought everyone a flaming drink! It burnt as it went down, pretty sweet. Erin, I saw tons of Filipinos and made sure to tell each one I knew they were Filipino lol. Sometime around 2 or 3 we went across the street to some restaurant. Ate some food, not sure what I just remember a green veggie. Got more beer and I knocked mine off the table xD. We then left, I got in a cab by myself and ended up at home, don't know how lol I know I told the cabbie XiangDe lu but I don't know how he knew which apt was mine. The cab cost 35rmb and I looked in my wallet and had 25rmb lol So I ran upstairs and rummaged through everything but couldn't find any money! So I grabbed a few coins I had and 8 US dollars and brought that to him and was like 不好意思 like I'm embarrassed and he was like its OK. So I went upstairs turned on the AC and passed out, when I woke up the window was wide open, and it is like 5ft by 3ft lol.

So yesterday I saw a few funny things. On the way to work, a motorcycle was sitting in the middle of the road, a car had bumped into him. His turning signal on his 1980 motorcycle was bent a little and he wouldn't move it out of the road and was making a HUGE scene. Typical Chinese style, the cop went and looked at the bike and was like, there is nothing wrong, and just turned around and left lol! Probably because he didn't want to have to fill out paperwork and actually work. Then on the way home from Pudong on the subway this dumb middle-aged woman was wearing heels and wasn't holding on to anything and the subway went to stop and she busted her ass right in front of over a hundred people LMAO people all up and down the train were staring. She was on her chest and hit pretty hard, she sat there for like 5 sec and then finally stood up and looked at her shoes like they were deformed HAHAHAHA I didn't laugh out loud, only on the inside hehe!

So if you take anything from this post, remember when in heels on the subway hold on to the fucking hand rails, duh!

I'm having visa issues because I'm so young, or so they say. So I'm going to have to extend my tourist visa and then probably work on a business visa till the new year. I was really worried about this because I was reading about deportation and banning from traveling to China, but at the BBQ another teacher that has been here a year said he had to do the same thing, and so had a bunch of his friends so this helped alleviate some of my worries.

Ok chao for now :)