January 6th, 2015

6:01am

I think I figured out the reason why yesterday and the day before the house keeping didn't fix up my room and deliver two new bottles of sweet, sweet water. I must have left the sign on the door flipped to "do not disturb" instead of "please make up room".

No, the sign isn't in Chinese, I'm just an idiot that forgot to check whether or not it was flipped right before leaving the premises.

Yesterday I heard back from Jordan that he sent me a moneygram, so all my problems were over!- is not entirely accurate.

I did get a message from Jordan, and he did send the much needed moneygram. He was told that, instead of being delivered to one of the specific addresses I anticipated, I could pick it up at any bank: CITIG, ICBC, BOC (Bank of China, that one was easy), CGB, or Bank of Communications. Hey, Bank of Communications is my new bank!

I walked over to the local Bank of Communications with Vicky to translate, but they had no idea what a "moneygram" was. Umm... wait no, the person that did that was on lunch break. Right.

We returned to Web where I met this older guy Chris. I was worried that I was saying hello to Tom but maybe he shaved or got new glasses or something such that I was saying hi to someone I already knew. Nope, I was unfamiliar with him because he was new. Good.

I went to lunch with Alona and Vicky at a sushi place in the basement level of the Roosevelt Center. I hadn't been down there yet, but there where plenty of places to eat, and it smelled, you know, like a food court, but good I mean.

Speaking of smells, I wanted to tell you for the last few days. Outside of my hotel, maybe starting a half block away if it shifts, but definitely by the time I walk under a Gardner like street there's a smell that I have identified as a cross between melon and gasoline. Just wanted to share that.

The sushi place was great, I thought for sure I was going to pop one into my mouth and get grossed out by something but everything I tried was the tops. There was some confusion on my part when I was asked whether or not I wanted hot water or tea, I just kept asking "what's the difference?" and they answered "what do you mean, what's the difference, one's hot water, one's tea" well, yeah, they were confused too, no getting around that, I definitely managed to confuse them. But come on, I get hot water, it's like, great, I've got hot water, oh, you know, maybe I'll throw in a tea bag now, oh, now I've got tea. Like, just pass the hot water and throw a tea bag at me and I'll figure out which of the two I want.

The different options travel next to you in covered plates over a conveyor belt, and your total number of plates gets tallied at the end, and that's how you get charged. The menu didn't seem to have any prices and... no where seemed to have any prices. So I just kept to a plate less than my companions (4 in this case) and waited to see what the damage was. Which was awkward because everytime I'd take a new plate I'd, you know, swallow the whole thing in one go, so the sequence would go like this:

Waiting to see if the others take a new plate. New plate is taken, that's a go on new plate. Look for something desirable to try on the conveyor belt- woah, that's coloured a radioactive red, gotta try that- takes off covering, chop sticks it, and gone. Chop sticks the companion piece if there was two. Gone. Repeat the process. Make small talk.

Afterwards, the two ladies told me not to worry about the bill, they covered it. Again, can't say I don't need it. But I didn't even find out how much I owed for future reference. They're foiling my intel gathering process.

Returning to the Bank of Communications with Vicky NOW they didn't know what the moneygram business was. Right. Vicky also didn't know, but she doesn't work in a bank, so it's forgiveable.

Okay, new plan. I get the addresses for all the moneygram locations I told Jordan about in my last e-mail to him, and go there. Create a map so I can get to the area, that's key.

First problem- the computers at Web decided today was the day that they needed to upgrade my internet browser to access my e-mail. Which is something that you can't do (as far as I can tell) with this under the radar-sketch browser that lets me check my e-mail and facebook and etc. etc. GOOGLE! You know, good web sites.

Oh, I could still access my e-mail, but in a sort of limited mode that didn't appear to let me check my sent messages i.e. the message I sent Jordan with the list of moneygram locations. Of course.

So, googling those fresh. Okay. Next problem, after finding their addresses, google maps couldn't figure it out... until it did? So I'd input the location, and the map would just be generic north america with a "can't find it message" so I scroll over manually to Dalian, zoom in to the city, zoom in to where I am, scroll over to where I need to be, and draw my own map from there. The easiest place I WAS able to find was the Bank of China (which it turns out, to jump ahead, was the best place to list)

Oh, and also my original conception of what is north-east-sout-west was correct, so I don't know what happened before.

Anyways, the path as written goes like this: Roosevelt Center is on the corner of Xi'an Road(Lu) and Huanghe Rd(Lu). Follow Huanghe until it stops at Changjiang Rd, which curves southward a bit but generally keeps going east. I needed to hop a street south via "Victory Square" which seemed like a good road to take if it was in english (spoiler: I never saw the words "Victory Square" anywhere) to another main east-west road Zhongshan Rd which goes all the way to Zhongshan Square. Hang a left just before Zhongshan Square at Tongxing St and there should be the glorious People's Bank of China. Easy as you'd like.

It did indeed look pretty far, and I was finishing up getting the map info I needed at about 2:18pm. I remembered the moneygram places said they closed at 4, so I grabbed my stuff and hopped to.

There aren't really sidewalks in China. There are streets, and then there are parking spots, and if you're lucky there'll be a row of empty parking spots. There was this one long stretch that must have been some kind of government building- they had some sort of mounted police patrolling there, they even had swords hanging off the side of their saddle, that was cool- anyways, there, perhaps, cars were discouraged from parking. But that's about it.

I listened to my music for the first little ways, but then I was getting worried about the time, and it was bugging me how the earbuds were sort of clinging to me as I needed a bit of freedom of movement to get around these cars. So I jammed the i-pod (the sight of which encouraged some guy to approach me and offer to sell me an iphone. Very sketchy, no english, I was gone) into my pocket and switched to a long distance running mode. Likely through a combination of restricted diet and lack of overall exercise lately, my calves down to my ankles felt like they were doing a lot more work then they usually have to do. But it was okay, I was surprised how okay it was. My left foot still has something wrong with it, it's been that way for some months now, but it's only an issue if I land on it wrong, which only happened a couple of times.

I found another branch of the Bank of Communications, which counters the information I thought I saw on the internet that suggested there was only the one location. Inside was a very nice woman who didn't know what a moneygram was, but told me there was a bank to the left (south) of here. She kept saying "left" like she was't sure if that was the correct word. And considering I didn't see any other bank that way... I actually wasn't going to go that way, I was going to stick to my map, but I didn't want her to see me ignore her advice, so I took the detour south and crossed my fingers for an earlier than expected arrival at Zhongshan Rd. Success. Down the block and through this sort of archway, there was Zhongshan Rd. And, yes, that motorcycle just drives straight onto the sidewalk and through the archway. Right, no sidewalks here, silly me, I keep forgetting.

I followed Zhongshan east, but I kept getting worried anytime it sort of curved- did that curve indicate I was at Zhongshan Square? If I go past Zhongshan Square I'm at "Here There Be Dragons" territory on my hand drawn map. Which would be bad.

A deep curve brought me to this crazy nice mall called the "Pavilion". There was a sign for an HSBC (I think that's it- some bank I've seen in Canada) and I decided to go find that- if it's an international bank, chances are better there's some English speakers there.

This mall is practically empty (post Christmas burn out? Unlikely, not as big a deal here..) but it's clearly a Yorkdale analogue. Wide open spaces, a cinema, at least 5 floors, and-no-map. I travelled clear on to the other side of the mall before I saw my first store directory, actually I saw the bank I was looking for before I saw the directory, but I couldn't get in that way, the doors were closed. Wrong door, or did my walk take longer than I thought, and the bank was closed? I motioned at a besuited supervisor of some sort to check the time on his watch- about 3:30, so it wasn't too late. I exited and came around the outside to the bank, where a friendly security guard opened both outer and inner door for me. I had to wait for a bit, but I got to sit in with a helpful employee that did speak english, no, they don't do moneygram here, but she had heard of it. I asked if she could give me a chinese word to explain moneygram to people that didn't know what that was, but it seems THAT question she didn't really understand.

Which is crazy.

She brought up a map and showed me where I was, basically still on Zhongshan. She said I was still about a 20 minute walk from my destination, and it was 3:40 now. I thanked her and got on my way. A 20 minute walk of course translates into a shorter run, so this was still possible. The crossways were becoming less forgiving(!) and now there were underpasses to go through. Under and up and on my way. I made it to Zhongshan square, which meant I'd missed the road I needed... it must have been before Pavilion that I took a turn that could have set me dangerously off course. I think somewhere I found a "Tonqing" st, and I thought I heard somewhere about Q's and X's getting used almost interchangeably here, so that could have been Tonxing street. Anyways, whenever that happened, it led to nothing but me going off the beaten path. Well, I was on the weather-beaten path, because those back streets are ROUGH.

Regardless, I made it to Zhongshan Square, whic is definitely Bay-street like with its banks all over the place, just in a circle around each other, with an ICBC beside me. I went inside, but they didn't do moneygram- the ICBC on the OTHER side of the Square was the main location, and they did moneygram. The woman at the front pointed the building out "1-2-3 to the left" okay. Underpass, cross, cross.

Yes, this bank does moneygram, please take a seat here at the, I don't what it's called anymore. Foreign person desk. Something.

So they do moneygram here. My reference number checks out. But they don't give cash, the Bank of China would do that (which was, of course, the place I was aimed at on my map) BUT my name in my passport doesn't match the name on the moneygram. The moneygram is addressed to "Isaac Aaron Andrew Mills", or rather, family name "Andrew Mills" first name "Isaac Aaron". You need to get who addressed it to change the name.

Ho ho ho, I was getting pretty mad. 

I tried the bank next door, it was another Bank of Communications. Once again, they had no idea what a moneygram was. I'm signed up with a real winner, I am.

I tried the Bank of China. They had a form I could fill out and everything, these guys were all over moneygram. I sat down and waited for them to see the naming issue. They were awkward in telling me that the name wasn't correct. I didn't offer any information beforehand, one, because I wanted to see whether they'd let the name thing slide , and two, because I was frustrated and didn't plan on making things easy on anyone.

These guys wouldn't hand over the money either, which I get, but they wouldn't even tell me in what way the name was wrong, which I also get, just saying that it was "really wrong". In that sense, I'm grateful to ICBC for, perhaps making the mistake of, telling me how the name was wrong, so I could specifically tell Jordan what needed to change on his end.

In a perfect world I'd have a functioning phone to text Jordan this bad bit of news immediately. Instead I'd have to return to the Roosevelt center and hop into one of those computers that didn't always feel like going to western sites.

I followed Zhongshan Rd back. Once I got to the archway that had been my original gateway to Zhongshan I decided to travel a bit longer on Zhongshan to see if it would take me all the way to Xi'an. Huge mistake. I eventually thought better of it, and turned left to go north and look for Huanghe, but Zhongshan veers south after a while (I re-checked the map later) so it took much longer to find Huanghe that it originally took to get off of it and onto Zhongshan. It was dark by this point, so that was worrisome, too. Not to any great extent, but it wasn't a plus. I was getting a little unsure of my directions, but past history has shown me that it isn't when you start to feel unsure of your directions that you get into trouble, it's when you start actually deviating from your course in search of that sure feeling. THAT is when you lose your barings for real. 

I kept doing the north-west thing and finally found Huanghe again. From there it was an easy straight line to the Roosevelt Center and familiar stomping grounds.

I, exhausted, dropped into the chair and sent Jordan the requisite message about my name over facebook. I checked on the map how far exactly I had walked- assuming I hadn't taken any detours (which I did) the one way trip was 5.5 km. 

That's a lot.

Vicky had left for the day, so I got set to e-mail her to advise about my situation, only remebering I could call her with a landline at Web. Shelley pointedout Vicky's number on the board, and then dialed for me- which I'm not sure was entirely necessary, but on the other hand maybe it was- and I think their "it's ringing" noise sounds a lot like the "no dial tone" noise. Fortunately I stuck on the phone long enough for Vicky to pick up (what, you thought I was going somewhere?)

I told her I'd make the trip the next day to get the money I needed, and when were we meeting the next day to go get all the last apartment stuff in order.

10am.

And when do the banks open?

8am.

Okay, do-able.

I hung up, realizing too late that I'd need to get a new reference number from Jordan, which meant a trip back to Web in the morning, a place that doesn't open until 9am.

I e-mailed Vicky that I'd be heading to Web in the morning to get this reference number, then taxiing over to Zhongshan Square (for those following my detailed excursion above with baited breath, had I actually gotten lost a taxi rescue was always on the table. Eating into my ever precious food budget.) then returning for 10am. All still do-able. 

I guess I'll leave my luggage at Web when I check for the refence number? Check out at the hotel is today, so... you know... "you don't have to bring it with you, but it ain't staying here."

That's... not a real quote from anything, I was sort of playing with "Closing Time"- "you don't have to go home, but you can't-stay-heeeeere."

If there's any justice in this world, when I check for the reference number there will also be an e-mail from Vicky saying "oh, don't worry, you can get it tomorrow after you've left your luggage at your new place, no worries".

But that isn't going to happen.

You know, I'm sure I'll have some definite advice for everyone about preparation for life in China when this is all said and done, but I think I've got some really good ideas right now. Would you like to here them?

I think, for anyone coming to live in China, it would be a good idea to have a device that translates the language.

And a map.

And a phone. 

And a watch. (perhaps a device that is all in one?)

And I really can't recommend being restricted to $300 Canadian at the outset. For the purposes of living and getting a place to live I'd say about $3000-4000 would do very nicely.

Well, let's hope that Wal-Mart up the street has a debit machine that will accept my foreign cards, yes? That'd be super.

8:01am. I'd better get all my things packed up. I really liked this hotel room, it's too bad I can't just stay here. The mattress is very firm, which I'm a big fan of. My mattress at home, she's a not-a so firm. If I hurt my lower back at all it just stays hurt forever on that thing.

I had some interesting dreams last night, but after two hours of writing about my yesterday, I've mostly forgotten them. If I want to do any dream journaling it seems I should do that right away instead of writing about my real day. I am really pleased with the amount of time I've invested in writing so far on my trip. I'm looking forward to transitioning that energy into creative writing. I think I said that yesterday.

From 8:01 to now has been six minutes. That's incredible, isn't it? I think Hemingway said if you could get a solid page of writing done in a day, you were doing well.

I'm not promising a solid page has been written, but it's a reassuring time scale.

Okay, I have a lot to do today, plus my days off are over, I have classes to teach again! Yay!

Wish me luck, have a good day

January 5th, 2016

7:01am

Finally slept through the night here, so maybe I'm adjusting. Alternatively I was just too tired to wake up earlier. I think that's how sleep is supposed to work.

Yesterday was, in theory, my first day off, but I feel like I did more work yesterday than any day since the plane ride.

I met with Vicky at 10am yesterday morning- well, I got to Web International at about 9:30 so I could grab some breakfast at Food Bazzar, but it seems evenhalf an hour after the door open the place isn't open for business yet. My breakfast situation here is sub-optimal. So I waited for Vicky (again, this is who hired me to work here... so, I guess she's my boss? I'm not sure at all about the structure here) in front of a computer so I could, you know, have the time.

The last time I was without some kind of personal clock like this was my first year of university. I'd lift up and put down the receiver to every pay phone I walked by to get an update on whether I should be worried about being late or not.

Vicky arrived a few minutes after ten- I feel like, even as I don't want to be late for things myself, that this place may be more forgiving in that area- we had a few things to take care of today: bank account, apartment, and phone. I was asked if we should get the phone first but I said let's wait on that, because I'll NEED an apartment, I can live without the phone. I was feeling really unsure about my financial situation. Justifiably, it seems, but I'm getting ahead of you.

We walked what I think of as north through the Roosevelt Center (looking at a map later, I think that may actually be east... I'll definitely have to check on that) and I talked about how I felt I had done a good job yesterday with my students. Vicky replied that she had talked with some of them yesterday and they did in fact report that I did a good job.

At the Bank of Communications we opened up an account- it took a long time because they had to restart the process every time they got my name wrong. "MILLS, ISAAC AARON ANDREN"

Andren is actually a pretty cool name. After that I got an "ISSAC" but that was to be expected. After my name was finally correct and I seemed to have signed off on deleting the other faux accounts- I know that sounds weird- I was asked to confirm if "that" was my correct passport number. We'd been there so long that I didn't want to repeat the process anymore, but I didn't really know for sure if that was my number or not. My passport was with the attendant on the other side of the glass! YES, fine, yes, that's my passport number. (I checked later, it was indeed my passport number, so that's good.)

From there we walked "West" (actually North I suppose) to a realtors office. Vicky and I talked about the driving here- she actually used the words "crazy Chinese drivers"- and she told me about another foreign teacher that had gotten hit by a car on her first day in the country. "Uh, is she alright?" "Oh, yes, she's fine, her knee just hurts still when it's cold."

!!!!! Yeesh.

There was a bunch of honking going on (of course) and I asked if Vicky had ever heard of the concept of a "Pet Peeve". No. I explained it was something that personally bothered just you, that maybe other people were okay with it, like for a lot of people it was when others chew with their mouth open- for me, honking cars. Then I told the anecdote about that time, on a narrow stretch of back alley road (just south of Bloor and Yonge) when a car was honking at an old lady trying to park to get out of the way, the zoomed forward only to be stopped 30 feet later by a mail truck. I walked along the sidewalk until I became parallel with the drivers door, looked in, and made a "pressing a car horn" motion until the guy opened the window, when I incredulously asked "what are you doing? You're not going anywhere!"

Arriving at the realtors office, a smoke filled box of a room stuck onto the side of a larger building (but with a fold-in bike, that's cool!) staffed by two... what's the plural of androgynous? Androgynes? Well, whatever. They were nice, even though the mole on the one guy's head was distracting. He scratched his forehead NEAR his mole and I'm thinking "AH! AH! CAREFUL!". Anyways. He walked us over to an apartment building, the exterior of which was crumby, but the apartment itself was pretty good. It needed to be cleaned, but everything was a friendly orange colour. There were large steps up to a sort of second floor where there was a mattress hanging out. I thought that was iffy. And the bathroom was a fairly small room consisting of a sink, toilet, shower head, and device I'm told was a washing machine. I said the place was nice, but was okay with checking out somewhere else, preferably someplace with "shower stalls". I'm a big fan of shower stalls.

We met up with the landlady for an apartment apparently two bus stops "North" (so, East) of the Roosevelt Center- it took a long while to get there, which has me wondering about the "bus stop" as a unit of measurement. The entrance to this apartment building looked like the entrance to an apartment building, a good sign. They use a biometric device to allow access to beyond the lobby- a fingerprint checker thing- and if memory serves... no this must have been for the first apartment, there's no way this place ALSO required a card to scan to get the elevator to work (like at my hotel). The apartment here was nice- REALLY nice. Shower stall nice. Didn't have a wasing machine, but I never expected one in an apartment. No stove or anything, but seeing as I don't have the funds for pots or pans or dishes I can't see as I'd need one. There's a place for a tv- won't be needing that- and there was a phone, uh, jack, for internet I guess. Or a phone, what do I care, I'm not going to be using it, whatever it is. 

I kept waiting for the catch. This has to be more than my housing allowance, right? I was assured it was 2000 RMB each month. I agreed to take the place. And here's the point when I probably should have backed out of the whole thing: it seems they don't ask for first and last months rent here. They ask for THE FIRST THREE MONTHS PLUS DEPOSIT. 

Guys, you're killing me! Seriously? How did this never get brought up before? Come on, man! This probably would have been a dealbreaker if I'd heard about this back in Canada. 

I expressed my concern via the hugely shocked look on my face.

At the time I couldn't think of anything else to do, 3 months plus deposit wasn't going to get any easier somewhere else than it was for this apartment, but I could've done the plan A thing of hitting up the youth hostel... except I'm not sure if that would've been okay, because I'm going to need to extend my visa for the full year, and I may need an address here to make that happen. I don't know, I'm trying to rationalize it after the fact, but there's one key bit of information I didn't know yet. I'll get to that in a second.

We headed over to a local police station to register my name to the address- everyone was on lunch break, so we'll come back tomorrow. Okay. Then we headed over to a bank (not the Bank of Communications) so I could finally finally withdraw some more money from my chequing account back home... and you know it didn't work. Of course it didn't work. What is the point of asking the dudes at CIBC if I can access my money overseas if, in fact, I can not. That was a lot of time spent waiting in bank lines back in Canada for nothing. I should Count of Monte Cristo it when I return, just utterly ruin the life of the guy that screwed me over.

So the point was moot, I needed Jordan to send me money either way (and THIS is how I can rationalize getting the apartment, because the amount itself barely mattered since the housing allowance, once I get it, will cover it... eventually... you know, after three months, so really it's the housing allowance from my last three months working here that will zip back to Jordan to pay for this) UGH anyways Vicky loaned me the deposit, and so I've got about 5 days to contact Jordan for some green. The contacting of whom I set about planning right away.

Oh, also, I asked about laundromats- it seems they don't really have those here, just services where you hand over your clothes to be cleaned by some jerks and it costs more. Maybe I should have stuck with the first apartment if that was a legit clothes washing machine. I do not even know if it's for clothes. I'll ask my co-foreign teachers what they do about laundry.

Vicky took me to a hot pot place for lunch- little stove, pot of water getting boiled, and a variety of whatevers, foods, conveyor belting it in front of us. You take a stick of food to put in your pot, put the stick in a cup, and the number of sticks is how they charge you.

My biggest mistake here was putting noodles in my pot. When will I realize that me and chop sticking noodles isn't going to happen? I know I don't need any help to look incompetent, but yes, trying to fish out noodles is a good way to raise the bar. It was good, but man was it a lot of work.

There was a dipping sauce station near the door (I should say that this was a restaurant that enjoyed more length than width, with all the chairs situated around the single conveyor belt) from which I took soy sauce and sesame sauce. I wanted a red looking potential ketchup, but a woman grabbed the ladel (is that how that's spelled?) and stuck it right near her nose. NOPE!

I asked Vicky what the red sauce was after the meal, I forget what she said, but it wasn't tomato based.. oh, she said... tofu something? I don't know man, it was a long day.

I asked about Chinese pop culture, expressed my appreciation for the works of Ben Stiller, and explained the concept of a sell-out before naming the one Chinese actor I could really think of. Sorry Jackie, but I gotta play to the crowd.

Vicky paid for both of us, which I was very okay with.

Returning to Web International I set my plans in motion to contact Jordan. First, I needed to make sure the guy checked his e-mail, so I turned on my cell phone (hey, a return text from Simon, hi Simon!), got the LOW POWER CHARGE PHONE" message again and quickly texted something alarming like "Jordan, need money, check your e-mail for instructions, I'm fine" or something like that. I'd check my phone for exactly what I texted in the interests of accuracy, but it is deader than dead now. I know I said it was dead before, but yeah, that's all she wrote. I actually checked my luggage again for the charger when I got back to the hotel last night, I was all "listen, I don't even care if it's embarrassing that I THOUGHT I lost it, but it's really been here this whole time, just be here..." but no, that charger be in Canada, dawg.

Next I tried to call him- working security at night, so it was, I don't know, something like 3am for him at that point- but according to the phone, I had the wrong number. I added a "1" for long distance, but that didn't do the trick either... there's probably some international thing needed to get out of China. It occurs to me I haven't actually called anyone the entire time I've been in China, all the while I've been looking at posted phone numbers and thinking "umm what" so, yes, I'll have to figure that out sometime.

Tried to write down Jordan's number (I've got it here in my laptop, but at the time I didn't have it with me "you didn't have which with you? The laptop or Jordan's number?" Either, both, take your pick.) so I could try calling with the landline in Web, but my cell phone conked out before I could get it. That's okay, I sent the text, Jordan will check his e-mail. So now I need to focus on accessing my e-mail.

I'm not entirely sure why, but today I didn't have any trouble- I opened my yahoo e-mail, opened a tab for my hotmail account, pressed the button to send the confirmation number to my yahoo mail, received it, entered it into hotmail, boom, I'm in. That was easy, finally.

Messages from Dad, Cool Geoff, and Jordan- I responded to Jordan first, adding that instructions for sending me money will be in a forthcoming e-mail. Also, sorry. I said sorry a lot.

I spent most of the rest of my afternoon listening to my ipod shuffle device while researching global money transfers. I gathered all the info I needed about my bank, well, I had trouble with getting the correct address, I had a couple of options to choose between, but the whole issue was, once again, moot. When I accessed me canadian account to attempt a money transfer to myself so I could see if there were any issues Jordan would run into on his attempt, I found that on the pull down menu of places one could send a global money transfer China was NOT on the list. I see.

I determined instead that the most efficient way... oh, well, uh, practically only way, at this point, was to send money to me specifically care of "Moneygram". All Jordan has to do is go to a location near him, tell them the address for where it needs to be picked up (I sent a list of three candidates which may have been a mistake compared to just saying "send it here"), and my name. Also, give them the cash... and in amounts sufficient so that after the servicing fees I've got what I need to not financially implode. According to the site it takes less than a day to do this, because of course, why shouldn't it, why should it ever, at this point in time, ever take longer than an e-mail takes to circumnavigate the globe to send money?

Okay, well yes, it is pretty impressive that we can send a message circumnavigating the globe in bare seconds. Gotta hand it to humans for that one.

The computer at work has a browser option that lets one check out google and facebook, so I checked up on some lives over there. It seems people haven't caught on to the fact that Rey isn't so much a character as a pastiche of empowered woman tropes. Which is fine if that's what you're after, and in retrospect Darth Vader was always more symbol  than character as well... maybe she's like a light side Vader and the character arc we're supposed to be invested in is Kylo Ren? That could be something...

Okay, okay, you didn't come here to read me bagging on Star Wars, and I probably can't afford to lose any friends over my opinion on it (manipulative paint-by-the-numbers emulation of the feel of Star Wars, though it couldn't figure out how to make us invested in the space battle... or "Star War" at the end) and I definitely hope it breaks that Avatar box office record because Avatar was absolute garbage. Yes, fine, pretty, headache inducing, garbage.

Okay, um, sorry, where was I? Ah, messaged Jordan, hung out for the rest of the day at my workplace, which is pretty, pretty lame. Observed an "English Corner" which is the last area of my job that I haven't done yet and am slightly nervous about.

I went for dinner with the two foreign teachers Alona and Adeel. I splurged a bit and got, beyond the rice and a weird carmalized hot dog sausage thing (I believe I mentioned it yesterday or the day before) and thing of fish that was chock full of bony goodness and very spicy. I ranted for a bit about M. Night Shyamalan. (That's spelled as accurately as he deserves to have his name spelled. Unless I spelled his name correctly, in which case he deserves to have his name spelled less accurately.)

I chatted with this nice guy who I think is named "Heaven" or possibly "Hevin". Or "Haven". Or something. He told me his Chinese name, which I motioned that I'd try and lock into my head. Also, I asked him for the Chinese word for the escalator in front of us, again, motioning that I'd try and lock it into my memory.

Both are quite gone now. Augh. I have great respect for these students.

Shelley also introduced herself at the end of the day. I think that was her name, it definitely started with an 'S'- it seems she teaches a sort of large form class similar to the English Corners, and usually uses "Friends" (the tv show) for examples. She also used the Apprentice. Well, why not, it's gotta be good for something.

After leaving for day I wandered around for a bit. I saw a Wal-Mart earlier that I wanted to check out in hopes of finding a cheap watch- oh yeah, I've basically written off getting a phone anytime soon, but I didn't see any watches in the entire place. It may be a good source of toiletries and whatnot. 

I explored the entrance to the subway, stopping once I got near what looked to be a metal detector at the entrance. Scary. It's actually a fairly long walk underground to get there. Like walking inbetween Spadina and St. George stations.

I flipped through some of the tv chanels when I got back to the hotel, but even if there wasn't something interesting on I was too beat to stay up.

Okay, 9:42am, I've caught you up and need to start my day. I'll copy out these files and see about posting them today. Two hours and, oop, 43 minutes- am I taking too long to write these? I imagine there'll be less minutia and scary surprises in the future. It'd be very good to take some of this same chunk of time and do some creative writing work.

Wish me luck, have a good day

January 4th, 2016

1:18 am

Once again, I've just woken up early after going to sleep around 7 something-8 something pm. Hopefully I won't take 3 hours to write this like I've done the last few days- seriously, why (how?!) do I take so long?

Happy to report that I woke up a little sweaty- so I've regained the ability to sweat. Which is to say, I've been introduced to a water, um, dispensary at work that I repeatedly filled my cheapo hotel water bottles at. Another consequence of returning to near my usual water consumption is that my urine is getting back to that clearer colour I love so very very much. Still slightly stronger smelling than I'd prefer. I'm looking forward to increasing my fruit and vegetable consumption levels to pre-China levels.

Too much information? Too bad- the health and maintenance of my body is one of my chief concerns, and you'll definitely be hearing a lot about it. Minus certain details. Ladies choice, amirite? (in this instance, I'm referring to myself as a lady)

Along a similar vein, I'm very glad I didn't pursue a job in Shanghai, because even in Dalian with its relatively superlative air quality I'm still neurotically thinking "how's my breathing? Am I having trouble breathing? Aughh I am, aren't I?!" Psychosomatic? Self-fulfilling prophecy? What's the word- nebbish? I'm certainly not the classic choice for someone you'd expect to wander into China- which I find hilarious.

I'm greatly enjoying the mental exercise (and arguably, the freedom) of having to rely on my own abilities to spell check myself and dig through my own head for my vocabulary, instead of always zipping to Google to check if I'm using a word right or spelling it correctly. I had to spell Ottawa in class today, and you know I had to write it as "Ottowa" to see which one was right. So sue me, it doesn't come up THAT often.

In related news, I still have had no internet access. In theory I'm connected to the hotels wi-fi right now, but I clearly need a password to navigate beyond the main page, and I could barely communicate with the staff here enough to get the room I pre-paid for, so I've given up internet in the immediate future as a lost cause.

The computers at work have internet access, AND they don't require any login password- but the internet there is so slow to be on the verge of useless. I tried to access my hotmail account, but it asked for an additional code to verify I was me, because it thought it was hinky that I was accessing it in China- I could either get the code texted to me (nope, remember my phone charger is in Canada, so my phone is dead) or I could get the access code sent to my i_zak@yahoo.com e-mail. I went to yahoo and I was able to login without any issue (should I be worried about the security standards at yahoo? Based on my garbage e-mail in that account, definitely) so great! I clicked on the option to receive the code in that e-mail account, got it, and entered it int the hotmail account... "incorrect code".

UUUMM! That's a problem. I don't know why that didn't work, so that's messed up.

My co-worker Adeel offered to let me phone home using his device, but since all my phone numbers are on my cell phone I had to pass...

I'll let you know now, when I returned to the hotel this evening I turned my cellphone back on, it immediately flashed "LOW BATTERY RE-CHARGE" or something along those lines and I quickly copied out my family's phone numbers, followed by a quick text to Simon along the lines of "Hi Simon, forgot charger at home, almost out of power, no internet yet, I'm fine" or something similarly alarmingly cryptic. But it sent, and I will surely get hit with a high roaming fee, and it's better than nothing.

Push ups wise, I did 20, took a knee, finished the last 5. I know that sounds lame, but I'm not planning on doing mutliple sets until I'm spending more than 20 RMB a day on food. Have to conserve energy. I'd have this mindset even if I didn't watch "The Martian" on the plane ride over, but it certainly reinforced that tendency.

I was told to report to work for 9am. I arrived a little before 8:30 (there is a digital clock flashing at the entrance to the Roosevelt Center's underground parking on the west side of the building- I didn't have a watch for myself, because, again, my cell phone has no power), as I said in my last post, I want to start a reputation for being on time. So naturally all the doors are locked tight with sort of... what do you call those devices you affix to your cars steering wheel to prevent theft? They were popular in the 90's, but now people are mostly "ugh, fine, if you break into my car just take it" THE CLUB! Is that it?... all the doors are locked tight with a club looking lock on the inside of the doors, or a heavy chain wrapped around the outside, and more often than not there's a security guard standing by inside (those poor saps) waiting to open up... at 9? At 5 to 9? I don't know!

I wandered around the perimeter of the Roosevelt Center, happy to find the one clock to tell me when it was time to go in, thinking maybe I should have worn my touque, maybe my coat (it's been really nice here, temperature wise, but maybe not quite "standing-around-outside-for-half-an-hour-in-a-button-up-flannel-shirt-and-scarf-only" nice) I saw one guard approach his doors from the inside and I thought "Yes! He's about to open up!" But then he just added a chain to the already clubbed up locked doors. And I started laughing, because that's hilarious.

I weighed my options about whether or not I should get breakfast at McDonald's before 9. I understand it's expensive to eat western food, and I kind of wanted to stick to eating at the Food Bazzar where I've got my prepaid card all ready to go... but if the doors are only open a 9 then I have negative time to get food, and breakfast is, I hope you know, the most important meal of the day.

Obviously I decided to go without.

There was an entrance on the north end of the center that workers were allowed in, after flashing some kind of employment card. I have no employment card, and I certainly don't speak the language enough to make a case for why they should definitely make the exception and let me in. I'm told even the veteran language teachers don't have an I.D. card like that, so that entrance isn't going to be an option for me in the future.

A woman said a friendly "Hello" to me before switching right into Chinese, and didn't quite seem to understand my shrugging motion of "I don't know what you're saying". I'm not sure if she's mentally all there, based on the quality of her voice and expression. As I walked away she walked in a circle always stepping onto her right heel before clicking it flatfooted. It was a sort of eccentric, free-spirited thing to do.

Returning to the western side of the Center to look at the clock again, 8:49. I waited for the 8:50 change then started counting seconds, walking around the perimeter until I found a main entrance with people waiting to go inside. I reached 7 minutes before they opened the door. Most stores had a representative employee waiting in front of their doors to greet prospective shoppers, and their was a song playing that struck me as "national anthem"-ish. I was assuming it was okay to continue walking to work based on the fact that I could see other employees inside the stores working at getting things ready for the day.

Entering Web International, I went into the staff room to see the time on the clock-in device- 9:02. But I don't actually have any kind of login to use for it yet, so trying to log in before the 9am mark was a futile effort anyways.

After some confusion I found my schedule of classes for the day, and the lesson plans I was to follow, though some leeway with the material was encouraged by my fellow teacher- something I noticed while observing the day before. Reading through I saw that I was asked to get some in class materials ready- "Hey man, it says I'm supposed to have some strips for this class, what's that about?"

"You have to photocopy that page and cut it into strips for the class." *Looks at time* "You should do that now."

Ah, photocopiers. How I hate you. At least this one if fairly straightforward (I'll curse you, Visa Application Center photocopier, until the day I die!)- I needed three copies of 4 different pages. I only ended up using 2 of the pages, because it was for a tough exercise of putting the strips of a story (Little Red Riding Hood) into the proper order, which ended up taking all of the class time. Also I didn't have enough time to cut up the latter 2 pages which was for a Beauty and the Beast story.

It wasn't until that evening that I noticed I copied the wrong second page for Beauty and the Beast, I re-copied a Red Riding Hood page, so that was never going to work out anyway. Whoops. CURSE YOU PHOTOCOPIERS, THIS WAS IN NO WAY MY FAULT! (totally my fault)

So, about my classes- uh, I think I may be amazing at teaching? I had an absolute blast all day, though I was often a couple of minutes late to each class (not my fault, each class ostensibly runs to the hour mark, with another class starting immediately at that hour mark- once I get my hands on a watch I won't have an issue ending class a couple of minutes before the hour and getting to where I need to go. I definitely felt dumb always asking my students how much time we had. Oh well.) the classes after a break in-between I was on time for.

I took some liberties with the material, but people seemed to be enjoying themselves. I always asked at the end how they liked they class and they responded positively- very positively, actually. Naturally I'm not sure how much is kiss-assery, but even unprompted I was told it was a very good class, and this one guy at the end of the day gave me chocolate-y (or something) bubble tea, which of course I accepted because this is the Wild East and there are basically no rules about boundaries and propriety between teacher and student at this English Center and also because I'm not in any kind of position to turn down free calories.

For one class I was supposed to print off a page for each student to fill out- sort of a form to create an imaginary business with- but when I hit up the photocopier I got a paper jam. With some assistance the jam was removed, but it didn't proceed to print, so I was all "whatever man" (PHOTOCOPIERS!!) and just drew the blanks on the clear-white erase board (all the wall is a board to draw on here, it's awesome) and made it a group exercise. That was actually my toughest class, relatively low levels of class engagement, but even then it wasn't too bad, though this one girl at the front definitely did a lot of the heavy lifting for the group as far as answering. When I asked for a hypothetical business to design around (I didn't use the word hypothetical... uh, I think) she offered "Internet Company" and I'm all "Yes, we can work with that" and so I coaxed them into coming up with a list of requirements for applicants. Experience with internet. Good. New ideas for the company. Cool. University degree in computers. Yes! Experience at other computer companies, over a year, more is better. Yes, very good!

People eventually started feeling more comfortable and began offering answers more freely- and this was the toughest class! How great is that?! 

The last class of the day was about shapes, sizes, and relative positions- I was supposed to photocopy some pages of random drawings for an exercise where, in pairs, one student describes an object to the other purely using the shape/size/relative position words and that student has to draw it. Obviously I didn't photocopy those pages (I kind of forgot, I didn't even check whether the photocopier was functional again...) so instead I picked two students to work as a team, and let them more or less choose their "victim" to go up to the board and draw what they describe. They'd always catch themselves when they instinctively tried to describe the item by, you know, what it is, or slip into Chinese, but I'd give them the "hey now-" thing and get them back on track. When the student drawing finished, then they partnered up with someone and they got to choose their victim. When this second group was looking around at the remaining students this girl at the front was doing this sort of looking-away-hard-enough-to-hopefully-become-invisible thing, which is why I was so happy when she volunteered to be the last draw person for the day! Awesome!

Also, I  got to draw a pyramid (triangle) with a man beside (next to, to the right of) a camel (also next to and to the right of) a mummy digging up in front of the pyramid (out from under) and a bird (on top of) which people seemed to get a kick out of. I certainly drew a lot today. My Einstein and Mount Rushmore's could use some work. Basically wild hair and a sticking out tongue, and blobby circles on a fingers crossed mountain range. My illustration of "dignified" was on point though.

The concept of "dignified" wasn't actually on any lesson plan, but after my class of the day was over no one really seemed in a hurry to leave, so I just talked about myself (something I'm exceptional at- I'm so sorry) and I talked about "sparing my dignity", so I explained "dignity" and "dignified" and pretty much how I'm completely lacking in it, and also I tought them about the classic "collar pull" when you're unsure of yourself, or had a close call or something. And also fingers crossed in front of you is to hope for something "I hope I get a million dollars!" versus fingers crossed behind is like "oh yeah, I'll give you a good mark on this test" *reveals crossed fingers behind back* "Oops, crossed fingers!"

(I don't have tests to mark, really, I just mark on the attentance sheet whether a student "passed" or needs to be "referred"- I've passed everyone so far, I hope I'm not being too lax, but honestly these people, to have the skills they do, all amaze me, because I'm a practically monolingual ignoramus. With "un petite peu" of french. 

Man, I hope I got that french right.

But yes, this teaching gig is so great, security jobs can suck it.

And I found out where these guys get their English names- they just make it up here! What! They apparently get help from people at the Center here, but yeah, it's their choice. Most of the names are pretty conventional, but I did have a "Queenie" today and my last class had a rascally older fellow named "Shark"- YESSSS!!!!!! You know I told him that was an awesome name.

For lunch/breakfast I picked up some (red bean?) rice and a uh, meat looking thing. Surprise, Isaac! It wasn't meat at all, it was like a cross between a honey crueller and caramel popcorn! Cool! Interesting! Tasty! In no way nutritional for myself!

For dinner I had the rice with bits of corn and ham(?) in it, with some bits of green thing that are probably a type of onion- pretty sure that's what I had for dinner yesterday as well- and then I picked up a hotdog/sausage/Hot Rod thing on a stick. It seemed to be slightly carmelized or maybe just fried (I mean, it was definitely fried at one point, let's get that out of the way) and fine, maybe I don't know what I'm talking about when I say carmelized, you may or may not know that I lack the experience and vocabulary to be the clearest food experimentor or "foodie". Anyway, it tasted great, had to be some kind of source for protein, and though he didn't say hi to me or just didn't notice me, sitting on the other side of the food bazzar was Shark, appropriately tearing into his food. Wonderful.

I returned to the hotel, tore any of the leftover papers I'd had or photocopied into tiny shreds just in case that was an issue, then threw it in the garbage that has yet to be emptied by the staff here. Like, whatever, I don't care, as long as you keep me in water bottles, you can do anything else you like. Um, also don't steal my computer, you can't do that.

I reclined on the bed watching some Chinese basketball on tv- both teams had a black guy that did a lot of work for their side. A lot more 3-point shots were attempted and scored versus an NBA game. Also, by the end (I think it was the end) the score was roughly half what you'd expect from an NBA game. 

Flipped over to some show that seems to be about a woman that is getting pursued by a handsome dude and a goofy dude. She also seems upset that she doesn't spend as much time with her son and possibly father. Riding in a convertable with the handsome guy, she finds a wrapped condom I think from the glove compartment and, alarmingly, throws it in the air. The whole set up seems to be a fictionalized "The Bachlorette" scenario, since she's being followed by a camera crew, and gets mobbed at her home. After she rejects both the handsome guy (who has a boat, but on that boat was some other woman's bra, the cad) and the goofy guy (I have glasses with the flip-up sunglasses attachment, I also have to be about a decade older than the other guy... or at least, I hope so, otherwise get it together man) in favour of spending time with her son, she's immediately on a date with some new guy that starts to get a little aggressive- cue Handsome and Goofy charging in together to duct tape Aggressive into a table with wine corks stuck in his mouth. Handsome and Goofy are laughing and drinking wine, the Bachlorette is kind of like "what is happening" and then Goofy has to go and take things too far by stabbing Aggressive-- except it was a prop knife, oh Goofy! But Bachlorette is upset about the joke and leaves.

Clearly I was getting into this, but I was too tired and had to sleep.

Speaking of which, it's 3:39am, and I should try and sleep some more before tomorrow's bank trip and apartment hunt. Plus I basically covered everything from today, yeah, pretty much.

Wish me luck, have a good day

January 3, 2016

1:38am, I've been awake and laying in bed for about an hour now I think. This is after coming straight back to the hotel after an observational day at my new place of employ, Web International, and falling asleep around 6pm. I'll write something here quick then try to get back in bed- I'm due at work at 9am and I'll be teaching my first classes today.

So yesterday I had to figure out food. The floor above Web International has a "Food Bazzar" where I'm told the cheap eats are. I'd already purchased the requisite food card the night before on Tyler's advice, 100 RMB prepaid onto the card, which I estimate to be about $30 canadian (I did a lot of fund estimation yesterday, which I'll share with you later). Armed with this card, and being aware of my limited budget, I was keen to find a sustainable but low cost diet. The cheapest stuff I saw were these pre-made sort of bowls with relatively indeterminate contents. I bought one that looked like it may have been chicken but could have been mushrooms (it was mushrooms) fingers crossed either way for protein, and then another dish that had a sort of glowing see-through noodle (not literally glowing) with a little chopped up carrot, celery, and... mushrooms. Like, it was mostly mushrooms. Like an idiot, I bought two things of mushrooms for breakfast.

I placed the items on a tray, brought them over to the register where there is a boxy device with a series of chopsticks poking out parallel to the ground. You just pull them out, and voila, chopsticks. Didn't think to look for napkins though, I still don't know if there are any around. The person working the register just takes your card, inputs something into the register, swipes the card, and you're good to go, with a new receipt and your card given back. I don't see any kind of scanning device, so I can only think the cashier input my order manually, which suggests a huge knowledge base of the prices of everything in the foodcourt. Or they just guess and good luck to me, I can't confirm based on the receipt what I ordered.

I don't know which item on my receipt is which, but the one item went for 5.80 RMB and the other 3.80 RMB, less 10% on each item for having my prepaid card, becomes 8.64 RMB which was then rounded down to 8.60 RMB, leaving my card with 91.40 RMB remaining.

The spicy mushrooms were alright, a little tingly around my mouth which is worrisome. Spicy, or allergic reaction? Only time will tell! (It subsided, but still..) and the other... blargh. A man can only have so many mushrooms. I really had to force myself to finish. When done, you just leave the trays on the table for a quick removal from a highly effecient cleaning staff. They have to be, because once you move on, there will immediately be someone wandering around looking for your spot. I know, i know, I'm just describing any cafeteria/food court during lunch time.

I went in search of a bathroom, not because I needed it, but because I wanted to be prepared to find one. There's a small step into the room (there are small steps everywhere, I'm probably going to trip and break my neck here. So. I didn't expect THAT to be how I die.) and the first thing I see is a no-smoking sign with a guy standing in front said sign smoking. What a badass.

Also, smoking is gross.

The faucets have a good water flow, and are of the press down variety that turns off on its own. There is no soap. The toilets are squat down, and there are urinals. I forgot to check at this point, but I returned later to see whether or not the reports I had been given about there not being toilet paper in public bathrooms were true. They are true. So the public bathroom situation is basically a nightmare. 

Headed over to Web International for about 12:30- for once in my life I'm going to establish a reputation for being early (I was due at 1). But seriously, I'm living 15 minutes a way or so- hour long commutes on TTC have a way of breaking down ones potential for punctuality, get off my back world.

Met Vicky, the woman who interviewed me and had been my contact here for lo these many months. She broke down the different levels of student- 8 levels from "icebreaker" up to "advanced" where the first two levels are run by Chinese teachers alone, and the final six are foreign teacher led. Classes last an hour, with three different class types: private (4 students max.), salon (10 students max.), and english corner where the teacher presents to a larger group on some topic and there's necessarily much less back and forth. It's a good mix, and after spending the next three hours sitting in on one of each type of class I'm happy to report that I can totally do this.

In order I sat in on Tom's private class (Tom is an older guy from Australia that's only been here a week himself, he seems to already have some mandarin under his belt, and has an electronic dictionary to cover the rest. He told quite a few jokes during his lesson, mostly logical stuff: "Spell your name" "Y-O-U-R-N-A-M-E". "Imagine you're driving a bus, X, Y, Z happens. Who's driving the bus?" "I am!"), Alona's salon (Alona is from the Ukraine and, interestingly enough, is not herself a native English speaker, rather studying it in post secondary), and finally Adeel's English corner (I'm not sure where he's from... but in talking with him after the fact I can tell you that this guy has been all over. He was familiar with the geography of Toronto because he has relatives there who he has visited, he lived in Chicago, and studied medicine itself I believe in China- yup, a doctor taking a breezy year teaching English)

The most interaction I had with students was in Alona's salon, where everyone was directed to ask me a question at the beginning of class. The question I remember the most was from this guy who asked me if I was single, which I feel like I cleverly answered with "If I wasn't single before, I am now!" That got a laugh, while also keeping my innate lameness to myself.

They discussed different word pronounciation, asking me whether "Often" had a noticeable "T" sound in it or not. I told them either was fine, and then explained about part of the plot of Pirates of Penzance revolving around orphans and how "orphan" sounds like "often". I drew a terrible little pirate head on the board. Bad hat, eyepatch, scruffy beard and a frown. Hats are hard to draw, especially when you're trying to not waste everyones time. It was more scribble than hat. Ghastly.

I was also asked about my current living situation, hotel with an eye on apartment hunting soon (I'm scheduled to go do that with Vicky on Monday). This girl Amy said she was looking for someone to stay in her apartment when she left for some reason that I don't know/remember. So she gave me her contact info which I forwarded to Vicky. It'll be good to have a number of options, but this place would have to be furnished, so that would be amazing.

The English Corner was the lesson that I had the most trepidation over, so seeing it in action was a relief. Adeel spoke with great familiarity to the students about New Years, and then showed a music video about a guy that lost his leg in a bike accident on the road, but came back to biking after healing, getting a prosthetic, and designing a magnetic bike pedal. Words of the hour were things like "amputee" noun, "amputate" verb, "prosthetic", and "stuntsman".

I've never heard "Stuntsman" before, but it's close enough to "stuntman" so whatever.

At 4 Vicky asked me to go north to the "Bank of Communications" to open an account. I was assured they'd speak English, and eager to get some access to more of my funds. I took my leave of Web International, not noticing a small step that gave me an unexpected drop. I caught myself and hoped no one saw the awkwardness. The good news is that I found the Bank of Communications easily enough. The bad news is that there wasn't enough English to get me going. The Bank of Communications and we can't communicate. Irony. Yeah.

I returned to Web International to report my failure to Vicky, but she was teaching a class of her own, so I gave my hotmail address to this woman who needed my contact info (I have yet to access the internet in China) and chatted with Adeel about his history and the help I'll need getting a smartphone. He said he'd help me do that during lunch the next day so that may be good, though I'm a little worried about the prices he was quoting at me.

I returned to the food bazzar and had some rice with a few peas and corn mixed in, as well as some actual meat... though whether or not it was chicken or pork, I can't tell you for sure. As I'm sure you know, mine is the most unsophisticated of palettes. So, it was something. Had a sweet and sour-y sauce. It was good! Based on the price discrepancy on the receipt I can assume the rice came to 4 RMB and the meat was 9.2 RMB. Each item was dicounted 15% this time, perhaps because of the non-peak hour, 4 something versus lunchtime? The total came to 11.22, rounded down to 11.2, leaving me with 80.2 RMB on my food card.

I did some rough estimates based on what I was given at the Pearson Airport foreign exchange- $300 canadian got me about 1000 RMB, I spent 10%, 100 RMB, on the food card, so that's about $30 canadian, and I spent almost 10% of the food card, 10 RMB, on each meal, so that's $3/meal, so $6 total for the day. Boy I hope I got that right.

When I was running these numbers all scientific and whatnot back at the hotel I, for some reason, only figured in spending the 10 RMB, so I was like "okay, $3 for meals a day, great" 30 days in a month, 90 RMB/month. But yeah, duh, I spent twice that amount today, so it's 180 RMB/month.

OOOOOH!! I just looked at my notepad, I didn't make any mistake after all. Wow, you can pretty much disregard the entire last paragraph, I was looking at the 3 RMB on my notebook, thought it was dollars, and tried to, I guess reverse justify it, but no, that's just my potential transit budget! Just above THAT number is 20 RMB/day for food number. Man, I'm trying to give myself a heart attack.

Alright, time to scare you- a breakdown of my finances, as best as I can estimate with the $300 Canadian= 1000 RMB benchmark. Fingers crossed I don't mix up my numbers again.

For a 30 day month (so already I'm way off by a day for January, whatever) I'd need approx. 600 RMB for food (yes, I will be hungry), an apartment at 66 RMB/day is approx. 1980 RMB, transit costs... for some reason I'm thinking 3 RMB/day. I absoltuely forget where I got that number, but I haven't ridden on the transit system to get any hard data on this, so let's assume I got it from somewhere legitimate even though I forget where- 90 RMB/month.

My hypothetical phone costs, and my upcoming laundry costs are undetermined.

From what I've got so far I'm looking at 2670 RMB needed for living expenses in China for a month, plus phone, plus laundry. I had $1100 in my chequing account back home before going on this adventure, $300 of which I took out and converted at the foreign exchange at the airport giving me the 1000 RMB. Let's say I've only got $1000 to start for the month, because that's easier to do the math with, it gives me a little wiggle room after the fact, and because I feel I got hosed so much by the taxi guy getting here from the airport (he charged me 300 RMB, ouch, that's like $90, right?) So 1000 (Canadian dollars) times 1000 (RMB) divided by 300 (Canadian dollars) = 3333 repeating (RMB)

I believe that's how you do that, cross multiply and whatnot.

So I have to make the month work on 3330 RMB. Actually I get paid on the 5th of February, so it's a little worse than that. 2670 RMB-3330 RMB= 660 RMB leftover to cover phone and laundry. And there's going to be some amount of bank fees when I ATM money from my account back in Canada.

Aye-yaaah this is going to be tough. I may have to borrow some more money from Jordan back home, I really don't want to do that. And this isn't even allowing me to spend money on my credit bills back home.

For reference sake, I'm trying to make do for the month on 3330 RMB, which includes rent for the month. Once I get paid, it'll be for 6500 RMB (just under double), and I'll be getting a housing allowance that takes care of my rent. That'll be easy street once I get there. 

And then after my probation period of 3 months is over we're looking at 8000 RMB per month. An even easier street.

3:55am. I'd better see if I can sleep some more before work tomorrow.

Wish me luck, have a good day

January 2, 2016

Woke up in hotel room after a good nights sleep. I couldn't help but have a good one,  had stayed up for so long leading up to the flight(s), and could only lose consciousness a few times on on those flights- nothing steady. Man, that Detroit to Seoul-Incheon was a nightmare. It felt like my entire life was just sitting in that chair, helping the old woman beside me order food (she was too quiet to be heard) and trying to watch some tv. Amongst others, I tried to watch "What We Do In The Shadows"  think that's what it's called. A faux documentary about vampires in New Zealand, but I couldn't stay conscious enough for it.

Will Arnett's "The Last Man in the World" kept my attention though.

There was a lot of English in the Korean airport, enough that I didn't really feel uncomfortable at all. There's a lot less English in China.

The checkpoint going into, I suppose you'd call it the Chinese terminal, had my passport and visa getting checked again, as well as my backpack getting the once over. It was a very cursory look, checking the tiny top zipper with my house keys, chapsticks, and various pins that have no back and are therefore a sharpness hazard, as well as, in the larger pocket, checking my toiletries bag. The gentleman dug through wanting to see all my nailclippers and whatnot, handling everything with his bare hands- no protective gloves or anything. Unsanitary. But whatever. The glovelessness is the only negative, otherwise the process was far less invasive than the Pearson aiport experience- do we really need to ditch our shoes? Come on guys.

Flying into China itself took longer than I had expected- the plane dropped some screens and started showing "The Martian" (which I just watched on the flight between Detroit and Seoul) which freaked me out because I KNEW how long that movie was. Fortunately the screens stopped playing around the time Matt Damon gets stuck on Mars. So, ok.

Over Dalian I saw fewer lights on than I'd expect from a city. There was a section that was almost like a fork of land, jutting into the water, and on each block (or tine) was a long block of city. It was odd, seeing these tall buildings surrounded on three sides by water, with its brother buildings a water jump away. I'd really like to explore that area sometime.

Landing at the airport, both here and in Korea but emphasized more so here, are signposts advising of health screenchecks. I wasn't feeling the best after, you know, the 22 hours or so of travel, but I'm glad I didn't leave two weeks ago when I actually was sick. They'd probably have turned me right around and sent me back.

I was given an arrival card of some sort, where I had to write my information, name, visa and passport number, where I was staying, etc. etc. I hadn't looked at the card to fill it out before I wondered into the checkpoint that wanted it completed. Everyone at this checkpoint is dressed in a military garb, contrary to a security guard I saw a moment later that basically looks the same as any security guard in Canada. The man at the desk sort of grunted at me to take the arrival card over to a side area with some pens (and other arrival cards written in various languages) I took awhile to find the address informaton in my folder, so a nice woman came over to see if I needed any help. I didn't really, not at this point, but it was appreciated.

Using the bathroom I see the first instance of the famous "squat-over-a-hole" toilets. The urinals were basically the same as anywhere, so score on that front. Good luck, ladies!

The sink had automatic faucets as well as a sign about conserving water- once activated every single sink only dripped a tiny amount of water. Half drops to wash my hand. That sucked. I'd already lathered up, so it was like washing a car with a squirt gun. I stayed for a few minutes before I resorted to paper toweling the rest of the soap off my hands.

My luggage was waiting for me on the last conveyor belt, spinning around by its lonesome. I was just glad it was there- I thought I heard something about me needing to transfer it manually at some point, which was information that didn't make sense to me, but I still just crossed my fingers that my bag would end up where I did.

Toddling off to the exit, there was yet another checkpoint for me to drop my luggage and backpack off to get x-rayed or something. I hope these x-rays don't negatively impact my computer, like erase files or give it cancer or something. Nearing the doors I was on the lookout for my contact, a man named Tyler who was supposed to have a sign with my name. Two problems arose: my phone couldn't get a signal once we'd hit the korean airport, so I had no idea what time it was once I'd landed in China, and there was no one standing around with a sign. The exit wasn't at all crowded, the entire airport was sparsely populated, so I should have been able to spot him immediately- or he should have been able to spot me immediately, the only white guy with a red sweater that says "CANADA" on it. Possibly he could have seen me by my stink lines, I'm not sure, I didn't ask.

I was approached by a man who immediately offered to drive me from the airport. I told him I was waiting for someone to meet me here, which he may have understood from the context, but he clearly knew very limited English. I pointed to the phone number I had for Tyler, which he called and didn't get an answer. I felt like that was enough of a good faith effort on my part to find Tyler, at least, again, without knowing how far behind or ahead of schedule I may have been, and decided to go off with this stranger in his car. Maybe he'll have some candy with him!

In case my joke wasn't obvious, yes, of course I was aware of the potential for danger here. I feel like I have to explain my thought processes here, otherwise, as usual, I'll get the side-eyed look that says (assuming you dn't flat out tell me this) "wow, you are a naive idiot". Well, I needed to get to my hotel, that was the immediate concern. I didn't find this person to be a threat physically. I had studied the map enough times to have a good idea of the route a taxi would take, any deviation of which could set off my mental alarm bells. As usual I stayed friendly, asking his name, but he didn't understand the question, so I layed off with the asking, focusing on my surroundings and any surprises from him. He played straight, got me to my hotel. I feel like he overcharged me a bit, but it was within the realm of fairness, so better to leave well enough alone.

The road to the hotel was pretty straightforward, as I had anticipated, what I hadn't anticipated was that my driver must be without a licence and blind in one eye or something. Outside the airport were a series of dividers about a foot high, which I assume were meant to direct us to some other entrance onto the main road- my driver immediately hits one, and then course corrects, not to find some actual entrance onto the road, but navigating his way THROUGH these obstacles. I thought for sure we'd be trapped between roads, but we made it through okay, whereupon my driver proceeded to favour driving inbetween two lanes, fighting for the right of way with other traffic and buses, and nearly running into some two dozen pedestrians. And, although my driver seemed to be an extreme case, EVERYONE was driving like this. And there was jaywalking as far as the eye could see. The roads here are dangerous, is, I think, the main thing I'm trying to communicate right now.

We passed by the Roosevelt shopping center, with its giant English lettering, and was relieved to know everything was on the right path.

My hotel, the "Home Inn", has friendly, uniformed staff, that also do not know much English. I showed the paper printoff about my reservation, but realized 99% of that page was English, so that was unfortunate. The main source of embarrassment on the part of the hotel people was that I was on the 6th floor, that it has a sloping roof, and that the elevator only goes to the 5th floor- all of this was communicated with a smart phone translating device, something I need to get as soon as possible. I waved all those concerns away as nothing, because, you know, whatever, it's all good. For some reason though there was still an issue- a newly guest translated that they wanted me to pay an amount now that I would get back after I left the hotel-- OH, you guys want a deposit! Cool, that's fine.

There's a man, possibly a security guard, sitting at a couch in the lobby, smoking. Smoking is gross, by the way. The 6th floor, if no other floor, has a no smoking sign. I've also got an ashtray in my room. I'm getting mixed signals here.

My room requires my electronic card key to sit by the door in a slot on the wall to activate the power in the room, which is also cool. There's just a bed, tv, desk, bathroom (I immediately checked the faucet, which had a good flow, no drips. I was immensely relieved.) If I get a new phone that can take pictures I'll have to take a picture while I'm here.

I wanted to do some reconaissance, so I took a shower in preparation to step out fresh. The shower stall was filling up with water, I pretty much just finished my shower before my cup runneth over, so to speak. I figured out that what looked like a clear drain was actually some kind of drain cover, so that was an easy fix. While showering, the room phone kept ringing. I decided not to zip out and pick up, and finished showering. I kept getting called so I didn't have to wait long for a chance to pick up again. And it was Tyler! And he was sorry we missed each other! And he was glad I was safe! We decided to meet in the hotel lobby, so down I went. I didn't want to wait for the elevator, so I stayed on the stairs until it got dark and spooky and it was going to lead me outside instead of to the lobby. I didn't want to end up outside and loose my bearings quite yet, so I decided to return to the inside of the building proper and find the elevator-- which took forever, man I got turned around. And I kept seeing this one room with an elevator like doorway, but nope, there's a knob right there. That was dumb.

Found the elevator (which, by the way, only activates with a door key swipe) and hit the lobby. I wanted to keep cool, so I waited outside the doors (I was only wearing my blue sweater, it was pretty warm last night, something like six degrees? It actually felt much warmer, a really nice night, comparable to Toronto as of a week ago)- the hotel clerk waived me back in, I had a phone call- of course the person had hung up before I could pick up. But a minute later there was Tyler coming out of the elevator with his girlfriend Lilian. I suppose they had tried to meet me at my room? I told them I was going to the lobby...

Tyler and Lilian were really nice and friendly, and neither of them currently work at the Web International English center that I'll be working at. They both used to work there, and Tyler was conscripted to get me despite working at another location. I guess he lives in the area? I wanted to walk over to the Roosevelt center and check things out, so we walked over. I ended up walking into some sharp branches sticking out of the fence of what may be a school, which was embarrassing. Tyler and Lilian were the first to admit that the drivers are crazy here, so it isn't just me. Tyler held up his arm to keep me off the road, he thought I was about to get run over by this car driving up like I'm Mr. Magoo, but I was actually staring at the driver the whole time. Despite notions to the contrary, I can cross a street.

Right at the corner of Roosevelt Center and whatever (not the actual street names) is a statue of fishes flying up in a screw pattern. I commented on having seen that picture when I looked up Dalian online.

Entrance to the mall is blocked by heavy matts that keep in the warm air- it's fun, sort of like I'm about to walk through a car wash. The Roosevelt center is standard, very much like the Eaton Center. It's nice, but not particularly different. There's a McDonalds right by the entrance.

The place where I'll be working is very nice- bright lights, open concept classrooms with glass walls. Very quasi futuristic- it's why I signed up with them after my interview, I saw how nice it looked even back then. Obviously part of the glass walls thing is to keep on the teachers at all times, making sure they work to maximum efficiency. But let's pretend it's just for the good vibes. Apparently my class sizes will generally be 4 people, adults. That's amazing- but even so, I'm starting to worry about whether I'll do a good job here. I hope so! The pressure is really there.

Tyler and Lilian took me up a floor to a cafeteria type place and we toured around looking at the different options. It should be interesting. As of this moment, and for the sake of convenience, I'm expecting to take all of my meals there. You purchase with a card that you pre-load money on to. I put on 100 yuan (pretty sure there were no other options, but how would I know?)- items I saw ranged from 7-16 yuan, which should be okay, though I haven't been brave enough to do the mental budgeting just yet. I skipped off eating just then, as I'd had plenty to eat on my various plane rides. I'm definitely going to slim up some on this trip, which I think I could use. Fingers crossed I don't go too far.

I parted ways with Tyler and Lilian at the subway, assured them that I could find my way back to the hotel (again, almost a straight line) and walked back. Noticed the degree to which the city is not accessible by wheel chairs.

Back at the hotel I got to work going through my bag looking for various chargers and attempting to connect to the internet. I don't see my phone charger, so I must have left it behind. I figure I've got about a day of charge before it becomes useless- and it's actually connected back to something, so I've got the time again, at least untl it runs out of power. I could even make calls, though at a high cost. I set an alarm for 10am the next day, though, as I'm writing now, it's 10:18am and I've been up for a couple of hours now writing this.

Attempting to use either of my two plug adapters while my computer, with its old battery, was chugging away felt like trying to defuse a bomb with half an hour on the clock. You know, there's time, but you're worried. I'd almost given up on the adapters after it seemed like neither of them fit- and that was when I got scared. On the other side of the world, no local language skills, no map, no phone, no clear indication that I can access my bank funds and I've got limited cash on me.

But I didn't give up on the adapter. It seems I just needed to be a bit more forceful than I was comfortable with to get the thing in, to get it to work.

That's what you'd call a metaphor for my situation.

I flipped through some tv channels for about 5 minutes, but wouldn't you know it, none of my favourite shows were on. I turned in for the night at just past 9pm Dalian time, and again, slept really well.

Woke up, did some push ups- I'll have to get back into the push ups habit, which will be good for me. Housekeeping came by and dropped off two fresh water bottles. I didn't drink either of the two that were here when I arrived, so I'm collecting quite a collection, and will therefore not die of thirst (I'd been warned off drinking straight from the tap here). I suppose I'll have to use a portion to rince my toothbrush and mouth after brushing my teeth.

It's a little hazy out, which I'm not crazy about. The weather is cool, but I think just the sweater will be fine again. There was a bird outside my window that looked like a pidgeon but with a longer tail-end, and with brighter colours, like a muted blue.

I'm not sure when I'll be able to post this, nor am I sure whether I'll be able to write as much as I have just now. I wrote a lot, right? Yeesh, it's 10:40. I'm due at Roosevelt at 1pm, and I need to find some food and whatnot.

Wish me luck, have a good day

The end of 2014

Since I started mentioning my Christmas toy donation tradition on this blog I've appreciated it as a record of which toys I've picked up- depending on the toy it tells me what kind of message or value I'd like some kid to pick up: responsibility, hope, diligence, etc. etc.

This year I donated a Spider-Man, specifically "Blitz Board Spider-Man"

I, and I assume most every kid, was never a fan of the various alternate costumes they gave figures- I always wanted to play with the character as seen on tv or the comics. So part of the reasoning behind this choice was that the Spidey figure itself is a regular costume.

Also factoring into the equation was the fact that the container wasn't in the best shape. Oh, it was fine, just that the glue that held the plastic on wasn't quite up to snuff. A kid could easily rip into it at the store and score a free Spidey. As a result the toy was half off.

If you've talked to me at all lately, you know I'm broker than I've been in years. Everything has been getting dumped into school, while I've also been working far less because, duh, I'm in school. A part of me is worried I cheaped out on the kid to get this deal, but the other part of me knows I need to be really smart with my money.
It would be super great if at some point I wouldn't need to use that sentence any more.

As for my Christmas haul? Jordan got me season 5 of the Venture Brothers, Simon got me the complete 80's Ninja Turtles show, which is amazing, and Cool Geoff got me the Shakespeare Star Wars collection, which I hadn't even mentioned to anyone how I wanted that. Thanks guys!