China day

Weird, wacky and sometimes just a little bit bad days - nowhere does it better than China. I say 'China day' it's been more like a China week, closing in on two weeks, and it's really been spreading its China-ness out. Some people - either those who have never lived here, or never known someone who has - may not know what a China day is. I would say there is no exact definition, everyone's experience is different, but the closest I can get is 'a day or series of occurrences that can only be summarised by the phrase: "This is China"'.

In one day I was interrogated by some students about my relationship status (a class that had miraculously gone from my naughtiest class to a group of angels, which was weird enough), got hit in the face by a bus door, made someone miss the bus just by being on it (apparently, even in the small town of Xindu, there are some people who still haven't seen the foreigners), and was almost unable to discipline a student. Note the use of 'almost'. It was the second time I had to get angry in Chinese. Not impressed. And that was just Tuesday.

WHEN CHINESE SCHOOL-CHILDREN GIVE ME ATTITUDE

I did actually make him leave the classroom after a serious
ABW talk down. In Chinese. What up.

I'm mostly unimpressed because, for the second week in a row, I only have a one day weekend. Seems legit. Oh no wait, no it isn't. Lemme ask you 2 questions China: 1. Why do you feel that holidays are a sin, and have to be made up for with weekends? Just keep your f'in holidays, I don't want them. 2. IF SPORTS DAY IS NOT PART OF THE CURRICULUM, WHY DO YOU EVEN HAVE IT? That is all.

Also, my light fixture literally fell off my ceiling, almost killing me, and somehow took half a week to fix.

It also seems to be the week that people need my help, for one reason or another. I've been roped into doing a bi-lingual speech AND make-up for a class meeting, as well as trying to remember all the different games that one might play to facilitate English learning, not to mention giving advice to a teacher who must have been teaching for at least 25 years on a class that is going to be televises on national TV, even though I've been at the job for about 3 weeks. For some reason the teachers think I'm great, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it means getting asked a lot of questions about things I think I'm wholly unqualified to answer. Everyone apparently thinks I'm 'easy-going' though, including the students, which is nice.

It doesn't help on a normal day that most of my kids are a bit weird. It's partly a mix of being 11-12 and being Chinese. No offense. But Chinese people can be a bit strange sometimes. I'm sure they're not strange in their own country - after all, if everyone's acting in a certain way, how could it be out of place for you to do the same. But children shouting 'Foreign teacher!' or actually gasping and jumping out of my way when I walk down a corridor - or even worse, giggling - is getting a bit old now. It's been a month now and I know they're children and I know that this is the first time most of them have ever seen a foreigner in the flesh let alone spoken to one, but when the teachers continue to point out the fact that you're a foreigner too, you start to realise that maybe this isn't even a passing phase. Oh, and if you want to know if I can speak Chinese, just ask. Although I do enjoy it when people make comments about me when I walk into a room, assuming I won't understand. Please, even the kids know I speak Chinese now.

By the way, I also have a job. I wake up at sometime between 5:45-6:15 most days. China really does know how to make you work for it sometimes. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and figure out what my dreams are so I can give a speech about them. No points for guessing what won't be on the list.