Another long day

I am getting real tired of this circus bear act real quick. I don't know if the attention is this bad in bigger cities, but it's about to send me medieval on some poor unsuspecting Chinese English student. You can't go anywhere in public without two dozen Chinese people yelling "HELLO!" from across the street, inside of stores, right behind you, above you on ledges, underneath the ground, inside your soul, etc. And if you say hello back, which I normally do, they get so tickled you make their day. I guess one half of these hello's are the Chinese being friendly, but the other part is a game the Chinese play to see if the waigoren will say hello back. I know it's innocent, but I still can't shake the feeling that I'm an animal in a zoo that keeps getting pelted with peanuts just to see if I will move.

(what's that scene in Dumbo? Where dumbo is being harassed by a group of young boys and then mama Jumbo gets mad and comes in and goes loco on their unsuspecting tails, but because she does it she gets incarcerated and separated from Dumbo and every time you watch the movie you know it's about to happen and your like "NO MAMA JUMBO DON'T DO IT!" But you know she's going to do it anyway and all she is trying to do is protect her baby [I mean that's all she is trying to do man!] but you know if she protects her baby she could possibly never see him again so you are screaming at the T.V for her not to do it, but you know she is going to do it and nothing can stop her, and the entire time your thinking that maybe this is the time that Mama Jumbo won't get mad and Dumbo and Jumbo won't be separated and everyone can avoid all the pain, but she does it every time and the separation takes a piece out of your soul even though you know they will be reunited at the end on the train with the blackbirds singing "When I see an elephant flyyyyiiiiiii!" And that Walt Disney was a genius and would you believe I haven't seen this movie since I was ten?)

Oh, and did I mention that this happens every time you go out in public? Yea. Everytime.

One of my favorite people in the whole city is the girl who works at the dumpling place I frequent every day. She gives me as much attention as a brentwood soccer mom; it's great. I don't think she knows I'm an American. I paid her for dumplings a couple of days ago and she looked straight through me. Didn't even smile. Made my day. No joke.

I've just had another long day, and that's probably the reason for the negativity. The school has the start of a sports meeting tomorrow, and I don't have to teach class until next Monday--unless it rains. It's raining now, but I think it should stop by tomorrow morning. I have also lost control of all my classes, they've started to get up and leave the room like it's a coffee shop. I'll have to turn into a disciplinarian, which is something I wanted to avoid. Believe me, I started this whole semester with the "Start tough and ease up" ideology. I went into my class and tried to scare them into thinking that I wouldn't take any misbehavior from anyone. Then I discovered later that the "scary" section of my first day lecture hit the language barrier going about 90 m.p.h. and died there on the spot. They didn't understand a single word I said. It took the wind out of my sails. Oh well, I'm really starting to hate this whole teaching thing.

Wow. This has been an uplifting one. At least I left the part out about the bordello.

"I'll see you in the morning if nothing happens."

p.s. Sorry, I couldn't resist. It's a little known fact that there is a bordello across street from our college. Funny story actually. This bordello looks like a nice Chinese hotel. One day I was walking with one of my students and thought I might inquire about a possible place for my parents to stay if they were to come visit me. So I pointed to the Hotel and said:
"How much does it cost to stay there?"
"What?!" My student said.
"How much does it cost to stay at that hotel?"
"Nononononononononono."
"What?"
"Nononononononononono."
"Huh?"
"Bad place. Don't go."
"Bad place? It sure looks nice to me"
"Nononononononononono."
"Huh? Alright, if you say so. Are you sure that's a bad place."
"Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes."

It took a student with a much better English to finally tell me the place's true identity. I'm glad I didn't go in and inquire myself. Also, besides the two or three people working behind the counter (just like a hotel), no one ever goes in or goes out. I guess buisness is bad. Which is a good thing, or there is a back entrance, which makes you wonder why there is a lobby and three people working the front desk if no one is ever going to use the front entrance. Anyway, one thing is for sure. We're not in America anymore.

p.s.s. this is not the food post, sorry. Give me a few more days.