bike

So this morning i woke up early went to fet the food i will need for the weeek and then went to buy a bike. Thats right people I am highly mobile and I am not afraid to use it. I got a used bike for pretty cheap. I was simply torn as to what to do, you see there is a used bike shop here in beijing and i went in and looked around they had some ok bike but nothing that blew me away. Then upon leaving the store I was approached by a shady character that wanted to sell me a bike. He wanted to know what kind of bike I wanted, now we all know that he was trafficking in stolen goods and if I bought a bike from him I would be contributing to bike theft in the city I reside. But his prices were really good, like silly good, like how can you say no good. Alas I walked away from him and went back to the used store and bought a bike i dont love but it is ok and it isnt stolen. I have had too many bikes stolen to contribute to that cycle, I just couldnt do it. I know that my refusal to buy a stolen bike will have little effect on the overall crime in this city, but if you have a bike be glad that there is at least one person who wont buy it if it gets stolen. I could have saved a few hundred RMB but it just didnt seem worth it to me. I rode my new steed home and now I have to get a bit of work dsone on it at the bike shop around the corner from my house. It should be ready at the end of the weekend. Look out world I am coming to get you.

PPT

So I have been using powerpoint presentations in the classroom now for a few weeks and I must say I really dig them. They make the stories of history so much more interesting and it is really nice to have a map handy when there is some war or other thing that happens. The only real issue I have about the job thus far is that I never get to reteach any materials. I have only 14 hours every week but there is almost never a time when i get to use the same presentation or lesson plan. I went from planning lessons one time every two weeks to planning 5 lessons every week. I used to teach oral english only which required at most for me to make some handouts and prepare a few questions to making 3-4 presentations with images, bullet points and graphs. It is a real shift in responsibility. I feel like this week I finally got my groove and the rest of the semester will be ok. I am only not looking forward to the research papers that I assigned for the students. I am going to have to read about 100 different papers and correct them all. Should be a grading nightmare. But I did it to myself and I am actually pretty interested to see what these students write. I am actually done work for the week though I have to plan the lessons for next week. I may go out tonight and have a few cocktails but if not I will surely get to work on the PPT so I can play some soccer tomorrow. My school has a mini field that I have been aching to kick around on and it finally got a bit warmer here so I think it is about time to ply. Game On.

so tell us ...

What do you think about China? This was the lead in question from the group of adults that I am teaching here at the school I work for. Humm ever seen a bear trap? Or anything that is meant to catch and maim you? Well it didnt take a genius to figure out that there was not a real good and honest answer to that one. So I went with "I think a lot about china, some of the things I think are good, some of them you probably dont want to hear and some of them I am not allowed to talk about." Polite smiles and knowing nods of the heads from many in the room, though the one who asked seemed unsatisfied at my vague answer and looked as if she would press the issue but fortunately I was asked another question by another of the students. I think if she had really asked I would have told her about all the issues I have living here. That the people are generally apathetic to the work that is required of them to improve their society. If you ask the average chinese if there is corruption in china they will freely tell you yes it exists at every level, if you ask them why it isnt eradicated by the state they will hem and haw and finally get down to its too hard to stop. Shit like that drives me nuts, the government here can censor movies and news and websites but ask it to do something useful, and it is suddenly too hard. I have asked why the people who have to bribe their way to get permits for building and health licence dont turn in the corrupt official and I am always told that it would do no good. The person who reported it would be bankrupted, the official would be transferred but not jailed, and the person that replaces him would be just as corrupt if not worse. So why bother? And I just think to myself, thank god some people have done things even though they are difficult, or at least tried. Improvements are not given to us, they are earned through sacrifice and determination. Instead I got to talk about "Do you like chinese food?" Lucky me the food doesnt piss me off as much.

sorry about that

IP address conflicts. So no net for a few days.

So I chatted with my sister the other day and she was telling me about her new found fun in Muay Thai fighting. What is wrong with her? I dont mean the fighting, I mean she is like 100 years old, she must be because I am old and she is even older. And she takes up the fighting sport for fun, arent people supposed to mellow with age? Shouldnt she be like I dont know bowling or playing tennis? I probably would think different if she were still like 17 but that train left the station 20 years ago. What else happened? I had the first class of teaching the college administration. Thats right bitches I teach the University administrators english. Talk about an odd feeling I have doctors lawyers, deans , department heads, and others in the class. Today I had to give an assessment test to them so I could divide the groups up, we shall see how that goes. I can see a conflict in the future with the classes. When I lived in mexico there was conflict whenever coworkers had to become equals in a classroom, stupid petty things like the fact that a lower level worker could not have better english than a boss. And in an exercise the boss could not be corrected except by the teacher. I can see the same thing happening here. It will at least be interesting to watch the power dynamics play out in the class. I hope of course that it doesnt happen but if it does at least I am prepared.

epic failure

So with all the problems that google has had in the last few days I am not sure if the fault lay with them or if the blogger site was blocked by a more nefarious institution. At any rate that is the reason for the lack of recent posts. Thats right people I am using the old dog and homework routine. Anyways not too terribly much has happened in these last few days. I went for a run in the park across the street yesterday. Only 30 minutes but it felt good to exercise again, I havent had the time to in a very long time and I was beginning to feel the sloth. Also went to a show last night, a benefit for greenpeace, some of the bands were ok some were pretty lame none really blew me away but it is good to be in a city where there is stuff happening and I can actually judge for myself if it is good or not. I am still enamoured by the big city after two and a half years in a village it may take a little while for this feeling to wear off. I also had an argument with a cab driver. I told him where i live and he didnt know it so I told him the intersection and he didnt know it either so he eventually told me another street name which is the same as my street and I said yes and when we arrived I asked him what the intersection was and he said his street name even though the street sign was just outside his car. Some people are just retarded.