making paper

As the new school year approaches and I prepare to start teaching a new set of subjects I have a new and daunting task in front of me. The school when it hired me told me that I would be teaching Intro to Western Civilization. That was cool as it was my major in college and teaching history is something I actually really enjoy. Now when I got here they told me that there was no book for the course and that I would need to consolidate some other books into one book for teaching. Crazy people. I now have six american college textbooks that I need to read, organize, get copied and prepared to teach. I have no idea what level the english is of the students, I have no idea what they have learned in their high schools, I have no idea what the chinese standards for college students is. I have no idea. I am doing it anyways trying to make a 15 week course that would interest me if I were a student while touching on the main themes that helped to shape and define what western civilization is all about.

shows and snow

Last night after exploring the neighborhood I went to a show by a guy called jose gonzalez. It was a good show lots of people and good music. It made me think about some things though. How is it best to live life? I get paid enough money that I can afford to go to shows or to dinner now and again, however if I go to dinner every night or go to a bar every night I will not have enough to really enjoy any of those times. In essence is it better to save a little everyday in order to go out big now and again or is it better to go out small more often? These are new questions for me as I used to live in a village where going out was not an option. Anyways back to the night of music, after the set and compulsory encore jose left and the lights came up, I was close enough to take three step, mount the 4 stairs up to the stage and pick up the set list. It was cool, afterwards ea few of the fans asked to take a picture of it. I left the venue and went outside to one of my favorite things in all the lands, white cold flakes drifting and swirling from the sky. It began to stick and as I write this there is still more falling though now it is much less. I get a snow day from school. Not that I am working but I am going to act like it.

coffee

The world is getting better. I had my first cup of coffee this morning in my new apartment. I havent had coffee in maybe three weeks. I had forgotten how glorious the taste, smell, process, and product it is. I am not sure if there is anything I enjoy in the morning so much, a bloody mary is nice as are a few mimosas, but really coffee is king. Also yesterday I finally got around to getting a coffee mug. I went with a light blue one with a dark brown interior, kind of a fluted shape, holds a whole bunch of coffee. Aah..also it snowed last night and now the city is cloaked in its winter shroud of white. That will make for some fine exploring. Speaking of which the world calls, I am all wired on caffeine and I have lots to see.

im back.

Well you all thought that you could get rid of me that easy. Ha fat chance. I am safe and sound in beijing, after spending a few days settling in tomorrow i am off to explore the neighborhood. What I have learned about beijing so far is that there are a fuckload of people here and most of them love to shop. I made a huge mistake yesterday and went to the store to buy somethings that I need for work. Dont worry I am still trying to live with as few things as possible but a man needs an iron for his clothes right? Well the mistake wasnt going to the store but going on Sunday. Ugh. what a teaming mass of humans that was. Anyways I really like the new house, its comfortable, convenient and free. I know where to get most of the food I love already and am looking forward to sleeping in the rest of this week and starting back at school next week. I promise you I will have an interesting story for you tomorrow but right now I am exhausted I want to soak my feet, drink a few beers and sleep like it is no ones business.

ram-a-lama-beer-pong

You all out there in the world may or may not realize that there is a great amount of joy to be had by going to sleep. I dont say this in jest, but for the last few weeks I have been traveling and doing all kinds of sleeping on the most random of beds. Last night was the first time in a long time that I could lay my head down on my pillow and allow the dark calm to overtake me. The bed I have is no splendid nor even great its pretty hard and basic, but when I turned over in the middle of the night, the shadows were familiar the sounds known and the room itself was one I recognized. This was made all the more pleasant as I was exhausted from the previous nights accommodations. A cold hard metal bench at terminal B in shenzhen. You see the flight from bangkok to shenzhen arrived at 11 pm and the airport is 45 minutes from the city and the flight in the morning left at 8 so I would have traveled an hour and a half in order to sleep for about 3 hours and would have been miserable anyway so I bit the bullet and slept hobo style. The best part was at about 2 in the morning two police officers walked by and checked my passport, took down some info and then went away. A little surreal, I didnt know if I was doing something that was a serious violation of some rule or if they were just keeping tabs on the bench sleepers. I guess I could have asked but I almost never want to start a conversation with a police officer, why invite trouble. Anyways it is good to be sleeping in my bed, though it will be great to have a new bed tomorrow as that is when I will move to beijing.

pack it up pack it in

Let me begin. I am back in the long hu, but only for a day or two, then beijing bound to defend from the front lines. I have been reading a lot about the troubles that china has recently encountered, and I am not one that portends to know the future but this could be a very interesting and pivotal moment in the course of china. Not the least of which is that the capital will be blessed with my presence. There is much to do in the next few days get moved, settle in, get all tore up with those that I still know here. There was some very good news from the new job in beijing, it turns out I will be getting a two bedroom apartment after all, not the smaller one bedroom. So if you hanker for hunk of something more than a chunk of cheese, drop me a line. If the east wing of the property isnt occupied you will be invited to come dine and dance in the great halls of the permissible palace. They already have a "forbidden" palace and that just aint my style.

relax

This is the last day I get to have outside of china for a few months. Today I will fly back to shenzhen but as the flight is not until late I will have to spend the night in the airport at shenzhen, then the next morning early I will fly to zhengzhou. Lets hope that the heat has returned to the apartments. The shit thing is that I cant take advantage of the duty free as I usually do because I have only one full day to pack my house and get everything posted to the new school. It isnt that I can not drink a bottle in a day but I wouldnt want to mistreat the good stuff. Kind of pointless to slug back bombay sapphire if you know what I mean. Alas reflecting on the vacation it was good it wasnt nearly long enough but I just have 16 weeks of teaching then I get another 8 weeks of vacation. Where oh where shall I go next?

shopping and dirty bastards

In the last two days I have gone to two different markets here in bangkok and while I hate to shop I needed to buy some gifts for those friends and coworkers back in beijing. So here is what I noticed, we collectively as americans are absolutely terrible representatives of our home. I walked through the market listening to people talk and looking at how well dressed and clean the people were. The italians on the whole were well dressed and clean those who were speaking spanish the same. The americans however were fucking dirty and generally looked like shit. I know that it doesnt mean we are bad people, but come on americans we are representing our country weather we asked to or not, and you not shaving or showering for a week, never changing your clothes and generally being slovenly doesnt help our cause. It really got to me today as the thai people put a special emphasis on cleanliness and hygiene. Other than that did in fact find the things that I was looking for. Didnt pay too much and tomorrow I head back to china.

if you dont know me by now

And if you do you will surely know that I am no great fan of children. In fact I am much less than a fan I have found no reason at all for me to like them. And yet the reasons not to like them just keep piling up. So the island part of my vacation has ended, I'll get up those photos as soon as I get to my own computer again. And after a three hour ferry back to the mainland I had to wait for about 5 hours for the sleeper train to arrive, not that I am complaining about the wait, I knew well in advance what time the train would arrive and was thus prepared. However, when sold the ticket, I was not informed that the train car I was in would have a screaming, shrieking bundle of joy. I boarded the train at midnight and it was due to arrive to bangkok at 8:30 so I had 8 and a half overly joyous hours of that infernal thing screaming and crying. It wasn't constant mind you, that I would have been able to filter into constant background noise. Oh No this was silence interrupted every 45 minutes or so by the wail of a banshee being scalped. So I couldnt sleep as you may have guessed. And bangkok is still bangkok, big and dirty and without any place to get a reprieve from the noise. I will be back to zhengzhou in 3 days then in two more days my tickets are fixed for the train to beijing. I will take the day train and hopefully the "one child policy" will work in my favor and I will encounter none.

lions and tiger and sharks

oh my. I made it back from the kayak expedition. I didnt make it all the way around the island but did find a stunning beach with fantastic snorkeling and a great tree to lounge on. I also went out for a snorkel by myself, no tour no guide nothing . And I was tooling along, just minding my own business looking at the fish and coral when I see a huge shark, fucking christ it was terrifying. The thing was massive like 5 feet long and so calm and powerful just swam right by me it couldnt have been more than 3 feet from my face. So I followed it for a while and then headed back to the beach for some sun. Other than that I have been drunk almost every night eating lots of fish and generally relaxing. I highly recommend it to everyone.