End of the First Semester

Wow. Here we are at the end of our first semester. Six months into our China... I wanted to say trip there, but clearly this is a bit more than a trip.

The past six months have been some of the most interesting, fascinating, fun, dirty, head-scratching, hilarious, difficult, bizarre and all around adjective filled months of my life. And I wouldn't trade them for anything. I've got high hopes that the next six months should provide more of the same insanity and I'm looking forward to it.

The work I've been doing at school has been some of the most fun and fulfilling work I've done, and it's been great watching the kids (slightly) improve their English. I should reemphasize slightly. But still, I get how hard it is for kids this young to master a language so difficult to their own, so I appreciate even the subtle improvements.

The job hasn't been problem free, but for various reasons I won't go into detail about the down side at this moment. Suffice to say the good outweighs the bad, and I'm looking forward to the start of next semester come September 8th.

Until then, I have a few End of Semester blog things planned, the first of which is a repeat of the activating activity I had during the semester midterm postings. I'm opening up the comments section (not that they aren't always open, it's just that I so rarely get people writing in there) for any questions, comments, concerns, suggestions, grammar corrections and job offers people would like to bestow on Corey and I. We promise to respond to them as soon as possible.

My next post will actually be something suggested last time I did this: Our First Semester Chinglish Awards. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you're in for a treat.

I'm going to stop here by going back to the part where I talk about school, because I'm going to leave you with some pictures of Corey and I with our classes.

Catch you in the comments section,
Shawn

Abusing John's Legacy

Two weeks ago, John (one of our foreign coworkers) had to unexpectedly return home to Ireland, leaving a gaping hole in the teaching schedule. His classes were divided up among those of us with free time in our weekly schedules.

I missed him when he left, but as soon as I had to start covering his classes the feelings of fond memories turned into those of venomous hate.

It's ok though, because I have since taken to abusing his kids, and forcing them to endlessly run around in circles for no good reason.



Cheers John, we miss ya over here.
- Shawn

Beer Festival Closure... Sort Of

Last afternoon, I got a strange phone call from Tommy telling me all about the Beer Festival incident I detailed about two posts ago. It was strange because he was telling it to me as if I didn't know what happened. Also odd was the fact that I never told my boss what had happened at the Festival. After some prodding, I found out that people from Budweiser were at the school wanting to apologize to me for what had happened. I was a little surprised to say the least, but Tommy informed me that they wanted to apologize to me in person, and I told him that I'd be at school for class the next day (which you'd think he would know being the one who just gave me my new class that started today). Before I hung up, he mentioned that they had brought beer.

I had thought a free t-shirt, hoped for a key-chain, but never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be free BEER.

I waited at school the next day and was surprised by who showed up. Turns out, it was the actual waitress from the first night's incident!

Getting a better look at her, I realized that she was not in fact the same waitress as the second encounters antagonist, but regardless, I was pretty surprised that they had sent her. She apologized as I watched her coworker bring the beers up the stairs. After she had finished apologizing came the tacked on "explanations" as to her behavior. Insisting that Corey verbally assaulted her first (lies), and that Aaron was just very drunk which is why he was so hard to deal with (lies - he was stone cold sober, and hadn't had a drink all night). Against my fighting instincts, I just ignored her babbling and didn't say anything. I wanted her gone and out of my school before I got annoyed enough to say something.

She had me sign a paper that said I accept the Beer peace offering, and as I was signing, she whipped out her camera for what I'd assume would be proof that I accepted. I of course saw a golden opportunity and grabbed mine as well, insisting on a picture as soon as she asked if she could take one with me. She tried to weasel out of it, but I wasn't going to let her slide on this one. She wants to snap photos of me for unspecified reasons? I want one also.



There was one small problem though that I didn't mention earlier. The beer they brought? It wasn't even regular good 'ol fashioned Bud. It was Bud Ultra. The sissy's brew. And two cases of it no less. What am I supposed to do with 24 Bud Ultras?



Maybe I'll have to complain again.

One last funny annecdote before I finish here, on their way out, I was informed by the Budweiser entourage that the guy they had carrying the cases of beer up the stairs was planning on taking classes at our school soon.

Just in case he winds up in one of my classes, I'm gonna save a Bud Ultra for him.
- Shawn

CT Pre-End of Semester Dinner

The other night, a healthy chunk of the Future 2 teaching staff went out to dinner at our local restaurant here in the DMZ. With almost 80% of them leaving next semester, we figured it would be a nice gesture of our appreciation to take them out to dinner, and force them to eat dishes off of the lists they gave us at the start of the year.

Fun was had by all as we ingested far too many dishes, and several spoons of corn too many. No real story here, but just a good excuse to throw up a nice group shot:




Also, we wound up playing Truth or Dare (as most dinners with the Chinese strangely turn out) so I've been dealing with the harsh reality of what happens after you down a giant plate of corn. Also worth sharing is this great video of Winnie, one of our Chinese Teachers, singing a Ricky Martin classic:




- Shawn

Beer Brawling

I know the blog has been in a bit of a dry spell, and I know that that is my fault. There has been a lot going on here, some of which will be detail in this post, some in future posts, and some that I should be able to talk more about soon. (Ominous hype!)

Today though, we're here to talk about Beer...



Anyway, over the last two weeks, the Dalian International Beer Festival was in town, converting Xinghai Square - the self proclaimed largest square in Asia - into a festive ode to Beer. The square was covered in tents representing the finest beers China has to offer (and some of the not so fine ones), and in an effort to back up the claims of being an "International" beer festival, some foreign beers were present. Asahi from Japan, a few tents peddling Germanic Brews, and the old reliable: Budweiser, representing home.



The idea of cold Budweiser on tap was appealing on many levels, not just to the Americans among us but everyone looking for something different than Chinese Beer. We had a good time, meeting a few new people along the way. As the night went on, some of us ventured off to other tents, others stayed.

About two hours later, I realized that Aaron hadn't joined us at the Bavarian Beer tent. Bianca, Corey and I went back to Budweiser when Bianca said that when she left Aaron was arguing with the wait staff at the Bud Tent. What had happened was a simple misunderstanding when Aaron ordered a single pint (for 10 RMB), and gave the waitress a 100 RMB note expecting change. Instead, she brought him a massive Beer... thing...



No harm no foul, right? Just swap out the beers and bring the change. Of course, somewhere along the way the waitress decided this was a big deal and started arguing and screaming, refusing to refund Aaron his money. By the time we had arrived at the Budweiser tent, Aaron had been arguing for almost two hours. The management was their, and for some reason, no one wanted to give him his money.

The three of us went to go and see what exactly was going on, but out of no where, we found ourselves caught up in the arguments. We were being verbally assaulted, asked why we want their Chinese money, if we want to do their jobs, and other ridiculous lines. We want your Chinese money because we get paid Chinese money and we're living here. We want your Chinese Money because we don't like being cheated. Then, a waitress started cursing at Corey, unprompted. I butt in, asking what she thought she was trying to say here, and quickly found myself surrounded by four large Chinese men, pushing me away. I backed away not wanting to be leveled by Chinese bouncers.

Eventually Aaron did get his money back when he started asking for names of the managers and wait staff.

We came back to the Beer Festival two nights later, forgoing the Budweiser tent for its neighbors Asahi. It's strange to think Budweiser tastes significantly better than Asahi, but it could be all in my Americanized head.

A few days later when we returned to the Beer Festival, Corey and I decided: Hey, T.I.C., I'm sure the Budweiser thing must have been an isolated incident. It was at the end of a long night, I'm sure putting up with drunken Chinese for a day would get anyone cranky. Let's go back and have some more Ice Cold Bud. We're Americans, Brand Loyalty is instilled in us at an early age, it's futile to try and fight something so deeply ingrained. Plus, Asahi is just too bitter.

We sit, chat and have a good time. A few hours later, Bianca and some of her friends show up, and we order another round. The next thing I know, a waitress is leaning over and whispering in my ear.

"Can I help you?"
"No, it's ok, we're being helped."
"You will need to pay 500 RMB to keep sitting at this table."
"Excuse me? What did you just say?"

The waitress was trying to extort 100 RMB a head, for no reason at all. There was no such charge to sit and drink at a table, and in the impossible event that there was, it wouldn't be charged two and a half hours after we got there.

Also interesting is how none of the Chinese around us seemed to be subject to the same ummm... cover charge.

I refused, and we argued for a bit. She told us if we didn't pay, we'd have to leave. I told her I'm not leaving until I finish my beer. She just walked away.

Bianca recognized her as the waitress from the other night. Either she just didn't like us, or... well, I can't really think of any other reason.

We finished our beers, and left (in no particular rush). But I just couldn't figure out why the only American tent at the festival was working so hard to piss off foreigners.

We went back to the old faithful Asahi, and had a good time. The girls found themselves in a drinking contest, and I got to compete in a Dumpling eating contest (too bad the camera was dead by then). The beer still sucked though.



Since then, I wrote to Budweiser. They expressed great "concern", and said they would like my address so they can send me a free gift. Nothing helps buy out distressed, racially harassed customers like a free t-shirt. Although, I COULD use a free t-shirt.

Man, I really am American.

I need a beer,
Shawn