Riding on the back of Abbott's moped to school is now becoming a habit. Almost dying on the way is now old news. My class today was at 8am. I'm not exactly sure why I had to wake up at fucking 6am and why Abbott had to bring me to school 45 minutes early, but whatever.
So I was tired. The class I was teaching was very difficult. There were two execptional girls in the class, a few decent English speakers (decent has a much different definition here), and a whole lot of kids who just don't care. Since no one was speaking up, I talked with the two girls, because I knew they wanted to learn.
During the break, the normal teacher wanted me to get more students involved. What he didn't tell me is that most of the students have been taking the English class all year and do not know a single word. I'm not equipt to teach someone who knows no English, because I don't speak Chinese. Plus, I can't teach someone that doesn't want to learn. No one can.
So I had the two smart girls ask the dumb kids questions and help them along the way. One kid (when I say kid, I mean they are between 17-20 years old) knew absolutely nothing. I got frustrated. I asked one of the girls to translate, "I don't care if you learn English, it's up to you." What I really meant to say was, "It doesn't matter to me if you learn English or not, but if you want to, I'll be happy to teach you. If not, don't waste your classmates' time." But I don't care, I was frustrated.
I requested another kid, who was sleeping in class, to ask me one question. I gave him 1 hour and a half and he couldn't do it. Not one! So I made him stand in front of the class until he asked me a question. A little bit into it, he decided he wanted to sit down and not be made a fool of. Maybe he should have thought about that while he was sleeping in my class. The regular teacher and I both yelled at him to get back up there and listen to my directions. The other teacher was less polite about it than I was. These kids have an opportuntity to succeed and some of them just won't take it. And by this age, they should realize how important school is. Like I said before, I can't teach someone who doesn't want to learn.
I don't go shopping, never have, never will. But today was Buyin' Shit Day for me. On our way home from my Buyin Shit Day, we walked through a very peaceful park. We were both enamored by the kites flying high in the air. Then as we walked by, I heard "bla, bla, bla Lo-i, bla, bla" the derrogative term for foreigners, if you remember. So I turned and glared. Some fucking old dude flying a kite in a beater then began to point and scream, "LO-I" at us repeatedly. I wasn't all too happy about that. I started pointing at him and screaming, "Asshole" repeatedly. By now, the whole fucking park was staring at me yelling at an old Chinese man in English. A few yards later a motorcycle rider (many motorcycles are taxis here) honked at us. No big deal, it literally happens all the time. Then he honked again. Then again. Then one long honk. I was again displeased. I started gently yelling at him and screetching "BEEP!" at him.
During the evening I played with the family's 2 1/2 year old daughter, Yo Yo or Ya Ya or some shit. She loves me. It's great fun to play with her. Great fun, who the fuck says that anymore?
Then the five of us (Mrs. Fu and Mr. Huang and their daughter Yo Yo and us) went for a nice walk. Today the pollution was so bad that I could hardly see because my eyes were burning so intensely. My mouth and ears also became scratchy. The pollution has always been present, but today the fabled Chinese air appeared for the first time.
Best of all, I got to see most of Game 3 of the NBA Finals! Luke Walton was on CCTV5 at halftime, because he's here in China. Go figure.
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