That's a wrap folks

That's it. All finished. Yesterday, at 3:15 pm, my career as a Rockies English School teacher came to an end. It felt bittersweet, saying goodbye to my students and fellow teachers. There have been plenty of rough, difficult times, but so many good memories too. I will miss it here. Some of my students have emailed me already, which makes me soooo happy! One of my favourite girls has emailed me twice and it is just the cutest thing ever. Seriously, tears started to well up. Here are her two letters:

 

 

 To;Amanda
       Hello,Anmanda.I'm Cathy.I miss you and Idon't want you to go back to Canada.When you go back to Canada,I'll E-mail you everyday.When you go back to canada,will you miss me?I love you,Amanda.I will miss you,dear Amanda.I will study English harder and one day i will go to Canada and visit you,ok?

 

 To:Anmada
last night,Idreamed of you.we went shopping together.We bought many things.We were very exhausted,so you went to my home.My mother gave you the cookie,tea and some friut.you were very happy.oh!what's the matter?oh!I have to get up.What a pity!!!

I have some question ,can i ask you:where are you living now?(in dalian) why do you want to go back to Canada???

 

Is that not the sweetest thing??? She's 9 years old and she wants to be a diplomat. Crazy!

 

Anyway, I can't bear to write anymore right now. My keyboard is still behaving badly and the top row won't work. I am using an on-screen keyboard and it is taking a million years for me to click out every damn letter individually. Never has a blog been so painstaking or time-consuming.

Arghh!!!!!

poopypants

At school, feeling grumpy. For the past too many weeks I've been forced by time constraints to eat McDonald's for Saturday lunch. Well I just can't stomach it today. Unfortunately that means I must wait til after 5 before I'll have a chance to eat anything. Something is wrong with my right leg. The skin on my calf is really sensitive, and every tme my pants brush against it, it feels like a billion little needles prickling me. Argh! What the hell is it?

 

Boss needs computer. Adios.

more clothes!

Picked up my other outfits from the tailor's today. I think I'm pretty happy. Not 100% sure about the pants, the bum area could be improved. Sigh... or perhaps it's just my bum that needs the work. Anyhoo, here are the new items.

 

      

 

What do you think?

Oh gee, someone said I look offal. Did she mean I look like offal? Isn't that mashed up animal parts or something? Man, that sucks. She's pretty mean, especially using her soaring intellect to attack me with words like "offal". Boohoohoo, whimpers my crushed spirit.

A night out at the talkies

Theran and I decided to treat ourselves and go to the movies. We've only been to one movie in the last year - Star Wars. I know we can buy DVDs for ridiculously cheap, but I love going to the theatre. So we went to see War of the Worlds, the only English movie playing. It was so nice to sink into the big, comfy chairs and stare up at the huge screen. The lights dimmed and it began. If time had dulled my memory since the last outing to the movies, this experience refreshed everything and it is now indelibly etched in my mind. I will NEVER go to the theatre in China again. Okay sure, I leave really soon, but I would stand by this even if I had to stay here another year. It just isn't worth it.

 

TALKTALKTALKTALKTALK!!!! The people in the audience just wouldn't shut up. I remember that it annoyed me when we saw Star Wars, but I forgot just how bad it was. People leave their cell phones on, and then when they get calls, they don't go in to the lobby to take them, they just talk right there. I don't stay perfectly silent during the film, but if I do want to say something to my friend, I whisper it!! Does nobody know how to lower their voice here? And this wasn't just one annoying couple or group, like we occasionally get at home, this was everyone in the damn theatre! Yapyapyap. yakkityyakyak. So rude and inconsiderate!

 

Honestly, one thing I'm looking forward to about going home is that, generally speaking, people have good manners. Most people hold the door for others behind them instead of letting it slam in their faces, most people will hold the elevator if they see someone running to catch it as opposed to repeatedly pushing the close-door button, most people won't sit on the aisle seat of a bus and then refuse to scoot over or even move a squidge to let someone else sit down, most people don't push their carts into you impatiently while you're waiting in the check-out line, and most people don't talk at full volume throughout an entire movie!!!

 

Okay, just had to vent. Don't get me wrong, I still have more fond memories than bad ones, but I most definitely will not miss things like this. It really makes me appreciate the standards back home, where the majority of people really do uphold Canadians' reputation for being polite.

2 days left

I can't believe I'm so close to being finished. I have a 7 1/2 hour day on Sat, and 4 hours on Sunday. And that's it. Finito. No more. I'll be unemployed.

 

I've bought our tickets to Shanghai and booked our hotel. Now I just have to pack up the apartment. Ugh, really not looking forward to that. I am such a packrat, I want to save everything! But I'll have to be reasonable. I'll have to send some stuff home ahead of me, but hopefully not too big a box. Theran bought another suitcase to bring stuff back. But he's only traveling for 2 weeks (and he's just going to store the suitcase at the Shanghai airport), there's no way i want to lug around piles of dvds, books etc while I traipse across Russia.

 

Anyhoo, packing shmacking. I've got more important things to think about. Like going away parties!! Yippee!!!

tentacles suck

One of my students was telling me about all the different kinds of seafood she's eaten: the usuals like squid, and shrimp, along with things like jellyfish, sea cucumber etc. I thought I had her beat because I had eaten all the above, as well as shark, which she had never tried. But alas, she topped me. She soared passed me and I have no desire to try to catch up. She described to me a kind of seafood that looks a bit like a squid, but only with 3 legs and about the size of your hand. It's a Korean dish where they eat the thing raw and alive, still kicking. She said you cut it up but the tentacles still wiggle around, I guess a bit like chopping an earthworm in half. And as if it's not gross enough to eat squirming squid legs, apparently the little suckers grab hold and stick to the inside of your mouth! Ugh barf gag!!! I don't think I've heard of anything more unappetizing. I'd take silkworm over that anyday!

 

Here is one talented artist's rendition of the fearsome squid-like creature.

the idiot box

This entry was supposed to be titled The Boob Tube, but damn msn deemed in inappropriate. Yeesh.

 

I've been watching an obscene amount of television lately. Whipped through season 1 and 2 of Nip/Tuck in about a week, finished off season 4 of Alias, watched all we can download of the current season of Six Feet Under (oh my god, I can't believe what happened!!!) and now I've gotten into Queer as Folk. I think it's because soon I'll have to leave this magical land of the 80¢ DVD and then what'll I do?? We're taking all the DVDs back home, but apparently not all of them will work, it's just the luck of the draw. It's funny (strange, not haha) because I never watched that much tv back home, only now when we're buying series after series. I've decided I love tv. I know there are loads of shitty shows out there, but there are some really good ones too, shows with witty dialogue, interesting characters and stories that really suck you in. Unfortunately, those are often the shows that get inexplicably cancelled.

 

Anyhoo, i'm in China and all I'm talking about is American television. What a lame-ass blog. Here are some of the options I have if I want to watch the Chinese channels instead of DVDs.

      

 

       

 

Whoop!

My passport came back today with my Mongolian and Russian visas! Yay, I'm really going!!

 

Lalalalalalala. This calls for a change in tunage. Now playing: some Chinese song that I don't know the name of, but I call it Green Light.

the video

A friend told me that he thought this was something I would do.... heh heh.... it is  my sense of humour, that's for sure!

 

It's working now, right?