A Miscellany of Information

Here are some tidbits that aren't big enough for their own posts. They're random but interesting things that I want to write about.

Letter of Resignation

On Monday I handed in my official letter of resignation. My contract stipulates that I must give one month's notice before I quit teaching, and since the last day of school is on July 4th, I needed to get it done soon.

It was no surprise to anyone, since I've been talking about Kirsten arriving in Hong Kong and then going to Indonesia with her. But, now it's official...I have only one month of teaching left!

I Just Gave Up My Long Weekend

Today Feline (the woman who interviewed me in Ontario, and works in the office here) came into one of my classes, and asked if I would be willing to take part in a YIHE Education promotion on Monday.

She said we'd go to a community centre or something, and play games with the kids, and I figure do other promotional things. I liked the sound of it, because it would mean I'd get the day off teaching. I signed up, and was happy to see a few other teachers would be there as well.

Turns out that Monday is a holiday, and I didn't know. So now I'm commited to working on a rare long weekend! Curses!

I Haven't Been Mugged Yet

I've been in China for quite some time now, and I haven't been mugged yet. Still, whenever I'm out with the other teachers or friends, they always remind me to guard my bag and keep it infront of me.

I wonder if people don't try to steal from me because they're afraid of my height. Or maybe they're scared of my fists of fury, which are always twitching and ready for action.

Jimmy, one of my students, grew up in Hong Kong, since his father is from there. His mother is from Shanghai. One day while she was still living in Shanghai, she was walking and carrying her bag as anyone would. A thief on a motorcycle drove by, and suddenly snatched her bag.

Jimmy's mom didn't let go of it though, since her bag had everything important in it...money, ID, and whatever else women carry around. She let herself be dragged 100m to the next intersection, where the biker let go and rode off without her bag. Quite the sacrifice!

Just before I arrived in Guangzhou, the city banned motorcycles in the downtown area. A major reason for this was to cut down on motorcycle robberies, like the one Jimmy's mom experienced. I live quite a ways north of downtown though, so there are a lot of motorcycles in my area.

If it happened to me, I think I'd let go of my bag. Don't worry Mom!

Er Ling Ling Ba

I bought some Er Ling Ling Ba merchandise today. Er Ling Ling Ba means two zero zero eight, or 2008. Whenever the Olympics are mentioned, I hear "Er Ling Ling Ba" somewhere. In my ignorant opinion, (since I don't speak Chinese,) it seems that the Olympics and Er Ling Ling Ba are synonymous.

The day before the torch relay came through Guangzhou, there was a t-shirt stand making brisk sales selling Torch Relay and Olympic shirts. I asked how much they were selling for, and I was told 90 RMB. On Saturday, the stand was up again, and they were selling them for 39 RMB. Today, the price had dropped to 15 RMB! What an excellent deal! The shirt is ill-fitting, but that's OK...it only cost about $2.25.

TV

I think I overdosed on TV in May. After Carol left, I pretty much only watched DVDs when I wasn't teaching. I found a DVD set of three seasons of House. It's a show about a Dr. House (he's Dutch!) who is grumpy and makes edgy medical decisions. It's pretty good actually, but after watching all three seasons in a row, I got a bit sick of it.

I got sick of all TV actually, and recently started reading again. It's a nice change, except now at night I dream about the books I'm reading. Right now it's King Rat by James Clavelle. The book is set in a 1945 POW camp in Singapore, and the people are getting fevers and malaria and dysentry all the time. I dreamed I was coming down with the same things. Scary!

But then I also dreamed I was back in Canada. I was standing across the road from Family Housing at UVic, and I remember thinking in my dream "Ahhh...it's so familiar! I love it!" I remember being happy to be back in the motherland, and then waking up in China. Drat. Still here.

Mosquito Tennis Racquets

As I sit writing this, mosquitoes are landing on my legs and trying to bite me. To combat them, I have a mosquito tennis racquet. It looks like any small tennis racquet, but it's actually not.

Instead of strings, it has a grid of thin metal, like chicken-wire in a way. On the handle, there's a button. When you press it, the grid of metal gets electrified, and any mosquito you swing it at gets zapped immediately. Often, they make a popping noise like an ember in a dying fire, and sometimes smell like one too.

It's quite efficient.