And then it was November

Time's really flying here, so quickly in fact that I didn't even realise that it's been 3 weeks since I posted anything. Time may be passing rapidly - we're already halfway through the first semester - but things here in the 农村 (nongcun, village) remain as routine as ever.

It was Andre's birthday recently, and I was happy to have finished knitting him the scarf I had been working on since the beginning of term. He seemed pretty happy with it, and it's getting cold fast here so I'm sure my hard work won't go unappreciated.

Maybe if you're lucky, I'll knit you something too.
But not Kishan. That's what you get for insulting knitting.

School goes on - the children are getting ever more used to me, although some classes have completely forgotten my name, and to be honest they're usually the ones I don't like that much, so I don't really care. It seems a bit harsh to say that, but I now understand why my teachers would get angry so easily (well, some of them) or just get fed up with us. Children are stupid, and they're extremely annoying. Especially when they don't care, but don't even make enough of an effort to avoid being noticed when they're doing something else. Imbeciles. Oh, and I have a bike now, which means I can cycle to school. It's the girliest, probably most useless bike ever, but i love it, and in my defense, it was very, very free.

Pink bike as given to me by Ms. Zeng. For some reason she likes me enough
to have lent me her bike for an entire year. I'm not complaining.

I've started business Chinese lessons in town - I don't know why I call it town, as if it's London, but I do mean the centre of Chengdu. My teacher, Sherry, is excellent, and it gives me an opportunity to practice my spoken Chinese to a high level, as well as giving  me a reason to get out of the village on the weekends. I also get to see Charlie, my interim China-lover, which is a huge bonus of course.

I've started applying for jobs again - I applied for one I didn't really want that much first to get back in to the swing of things.... hopefully I don't actually get it, because I feel that would be quite awkward. I'm currently writing up a list of all the companies (mainly law firms) that I want to apply to, I'm on 20-ish now and I want to get it up to 50. Yes, it seems like a lot, but I would actually like a job for next year, I have to start taking this seriously. I continue to watch too much TV, and have also begun to get addicted to a website called memrise, which is essentially a really creative flashcard website that's really good for language learning. Unfortunately, I'm falling behind my fellow teachers, which my competitive nature is starting to smart at. Essentially, I'm doing everything I can to stave of the monotony.

It's almost a pity that China can't go this long without it's annoyances/just being ridiculous. I have two days off this week. Where's the complaint, you ask? Oh believe you me, I'm not upset because I don't have work, I'm upset at the way in which I found out that I didn't have work. Because I did have to find out, you see, I wasn't told. Last week while Chris and I were sitting in the staff room, I happened upon a piece of paper that detailed mid-term exams for the junior school students taking place this Wednesday and Thursday. Obviously, as the exams were scheduled to take place all day, we wouldn't have to teach, and so we rejoiced. But a week passed and no one told us what was going to happen. Giving them the benefit of the doubt (lord knows why), I thought the school would tell us at our weekly meeting this Tuesday - a little late, but informed nonetheless. Nope. Kathy knew nothing about these planned exams, and only after several phone calls, discovered that 'Oh yes the foreign teachers don't have to come in'. So basically, if I wasn't able to read Chinese, and hadn't had the minimum required initiative to ask about it, Chris and I  would have gone into school at 7am, only to find that we don't have work, but maybe we will, so don't go anywhere. Thanks for that, China. I'm planning on writing a letter in Chinese to the headmaster about this - we're teachers too, not ornaments, please treat us as such. It's just rude, you know? It's not as if common courtesy is a cultural difference.

And that's the village newsletter for these 3 weeks. Stay tuned...