Can I Just Chill Please?!

Finally, an uneventful day!

We spent Monday on a bus from Shanghai to Lianyungong. Sure we had no place to live and no phone to call the people that were going to show us where we were going to live, but hey, that's been the whole trip! The bus ride was pleasant, no big deal. We said goodbye to Ginsu once we got off the bus, no problem. We walked to the school where we teach and met a man who called Agatha, the sister of Laverne, no problem. We picked up our bags and went to Laverne's (Mrs Fu) house. Then we played with her 2 1/2 year old daughter for hours. Everything was great. She listened to our requests for working with us and everything was fine and dandy.

Then Abbott came.

He wouldn't give me the small amount of money that I asked for AND a train ticket. It was either a train ticket and less money, or the money that I asked for. I flipped out.

I talked it out with Sherkhan and then got the story from Agatha. Evidently, I shouldn't blame Abbott for getting fucked by the General and stutter-step. So I apologized. I don't like Abbott at all, but he's not as bad as the other two. I hope.

Tuesday morning I woke up in Ms. Fu's house to Abbott (who doesn't live there) screaming at me to hurry up. Apparently, we only had 2 more hours to get to school, which is about 15 minutes away. That ass!

I taught class and it was all good.

That evening I was sitting in an office of another school. A young Chinese man was talking to me. He told me in choppy English, "I have a secret. Can I tell you my secret?" I said sure. He told me that he was gay. I was thankful that he shared this secret with me and not Sherkhan.

He described the lonliness that he faces being gay in China and the sadness that he feels from being treated as an outcast. I tried to console him.

A little bit into our conversation, some more people came into the room. One was a 7 year old girl named Amanda. She spoke the best English of any Chinese person that I've come in contact with. The young man starting talking to her in Chinese and then to me in English about his hopes and dreams and his pain. Then I realized what was happening. This little girl was translating a very deep conversation about being gay. The situation made me want to laugh, but for the young man's sake I didn't.

About an hour into talking to these two, I realized that I was teaching a class. There were two other girls listening to the three of us talk. They were about my age. They could understand English, and write it, but they couldn't verbalize in English. I wasn't sure that I was supposed to teach them until it was too late. Oh well. Hopefully I can catch most of ther NBA Finals tomorrow (morning) but since everyone's English is bad, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do tomorrow.