New Place

Hello again from the other side of the world. I have now officially moved into my new place. It is literally across the street from the place I was staying in temporarily. It's a bachelor with a bed, TV, couch, desk and cabinet. It's kinda small but I like to think of it as cosy. It's very safe and clean with several locking doors between me and the outside. There are also infrared cameras everywhere which is kinda cool. The best part is I have cable which means I actually have English TV stations. I get CNN and several movie channels including HBO which show English movies. It's about a 10 minute walk to the school so the location is just about perfect.

On the school front I'm settling into my teaching routine. The kids are generally great although you get the odd kid who just wants to be a shit disturber in class. Kinda reminds me of myself. But anyway they generally listen to me, especially when they get loud and I have to yell to get them to quiet down. There are only 3 male teachers in the school including me and they're all foreign teachers. All the Chinese teachers are female so is the rest of the staff. I figure that's a good thing for me cause the kids are unprepared for my hard assedness. Oh and the teacher monkey moniker I've acquired doesn't look to be disappearing anytime soon. I had to substitute for a sick teacher at another branch of the school and the first thing the kids said when I arrived in class was teacher monkey. You see all the teachers are called teacher (first name) by the students. Oh well I'm playing it up with the students and acting like a monkey outside of class. I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm actually enjoying teaching. When I was in school, especially high school, I never thought in a million years I would teach, let alone actually enjoy doing it. My how things have changed.

On the food front I'm enjoying most of the food I've tried. Stinky tofu really is stinky. There is a stand right near my place and every time I pass it I have to hold my nose. It's really not that good and the smell makes my want to eat it even less. I have also tried the black chicken and it's not bad, kinda flavourless though. I do however enjoy the amazing amount of noodles here.

On Saturday night the school took all the staff up to a resort in the mountains for an end of the year party. There must have been at least 15 different hot spring pools there. Most of them were outdoors which was good because it was a cold and rainy day so the contrast between the hot water and the cold air was amazing. Some of the pools were so hot you couldn't spend more than 5 minutes in them without having to get out. Some had sulphur in them and I'm not quite sure the exact medicinal reason behind it but I think it's supposed to be good for your skin. Anyway afterwards we were served a banquet. Some of the food was good and some not so good. I tried sea cucumber for the first and last time. It was pretty much flavourless but the texture was slimy and downright disgusting. I actually managed to find rye at the bar and just had to have a glass on the rocks. Ahhhh a little taste of home. I have yet to find any bottles of rye since I've been here.

I have also now experienced the Asian fascination with karaoke. The bus we took up was fully equipped for karaoke with TVs and speakers and microphones. My god it was loud and most of the songs were in Chinese so it was painful to listen to. On the way back I was very thankful I had my mp3 player with me cause I just couldn't take it anymore.

Well I guess that's about it for now. Catch ya later.