"I don't want to go," said the 10th doctor (aka David Tennant), and with that he regenerated into the new doctor (aka Matt Smith).
I don't want to go," said Fang Liu (aka Laura). She was perfectly happy living in Beijing. However, her father rung while we were eating an Italian lunch one Saturday and, with the backing of the wider family she felt pressurised into returning home to Xinxiang and a bank job in Zhengzhou, Henan.
And with that, she regenerated into a new language-exchange friend, Liu Xiaomeng (aka Mandy) although it may not work out quite as well as Laura.. as she speaks very little English. And she is even younger than Laura, at 23!
I spent Laura's final night with her, first in the bookworm and then in the reggae-influenced 31 Bar, in Houhai. We walked along the icy-cold promenade between the overpriced bar strips to one side and some twilight ice-skating on Qianhai Lake to the other. It was the completion of a tour of tourist hang-outs for me, the last area of often namechecked areas of the capital, which I hadn't previously visited. It will be splendid, albeit heaving, in the summer, I am sure. We smoke the hookah - Arabic-style pipe, full of safe apple-scented aromas and watched a Uyghr flamenco band from the autonomous and contentious region of Xinjiang.
Over at CAFA, the vultures have been circling again, trying to rip off the rest of the meat from a dying corpse of a so-called 'Foundation Course'. The goalposts have shifted so much since I started work here and now the groups have been hastily rearranged, at CAFA's request. Those with sufficiently good IELTS scores don't even have to turn up for lessons, something they were unofficially avoiding anyway. The rest of them have to suffer a different teaching arrangement for just 3 weeks before the end of semester one. It looks like I will be busy filing reports and pushing students into writing half-decent personal statements between now and then as well as inventing stuff for the classroom. My boss will then leave at the of the month but not before she has regenerated into a Director Of Studies from New Zealand. He arrives on Friday 15th.
I am hoping that February will bring a less chaotic situation and indeed, with the spring festival approaching, very few students to teach. I don't know at this stage if I will actually have to teach anyone in the first 2 weeks of next month. Contractually I have a 40-hour week, with 20 hours contact time.. but it is never been that high in reality. Although all the students with scores of 4.5 or less in the IELTS exam are compelled to attend an 'intensive' course' at Bell for 2 weeks, I can't see it happening. They have difficulty getting out of bed and into lessons when they live on campus so getting them halfway across the city will prove impossible, I believe. A week off (13-19 Feb, incl.) is definitely guaranteed, however and I am making tentative plans for that. I want to seriously studying Mandarin, which will only truly happen if my hours are drastically cut down. I have a book which promises to give you all the knowledge you need in 30 days (or your money back). Except, I borrowed it from the Bookworm, so I won't get anything back as such... but any improvement on my current woeful Mandarin ability will be welcome. I don't think I will learn much Mandarin from Mandy (hey! I just noticed the interesting play on word possibilities there!) but we might "eat food and have fun".. beginning with a trip to the cinema today and ice-skaing in Xidan next Saturday.
My other female interest has been and gone it would seem. The skype-only 'Lisa' relationship, which boded well, has bitten the dust, once she found out my living situation. It appears to have put her off because she doesn't like 'complication situations' - neither do I, but it is difficult to convince someone that I have no 'relationship' with Coffey anymore and no 'relationship' with her aunt, short of a practical situation where I teach her son and I get to live in 1603 rent-free. That hidden agenda, those unknown family links, those unsaid conversations remain elusive to me... so i will continue to plead ignorance. Ignorance is bliss!
Check you later!
TP
postscript:
One day after writing this blog, I found myself, unexpectedly, having a heart-to-heart with my landlady over my future and my feelings towards Coffey. For the first time, I expressed my thoughts and feelings about the situation. I have explained how I will return to the UK in late June and that I have no plans yet to return to China, or to travel to Shenzhen before I leave. I do need to contact her if only to find out how she feels, but the lack of communication between us has caused a division. Apparently, there is no great discussion going on between North and South and my current domestic situation is not dependent upon a future with Coffey. So, I will make contact before the Chinese New Year and then make some decisions about my future.
I am hoping that February will bring a less chaotic situation and indeed, with the spring festival approaching, very few students to teach. I don't know at this stage if I will actually have to teach anyone in the first 2 weeks of next month. Contractually I have a 40-hour week, with 20 hours contact time.. but it is never been that high in reality. Although all the students with scores of 4.5 or less in the IELTS exam are compelled to attend an 'intensive' course' at Bell for 2 weeks, I can't see it happening. They have difficulty getting out of bed and into lessons when they live on campus so getting them halfway across the city will prove impossible, I believe. A week off (13-19 Feb, incl.) is definitely guaranteed, however and I am making tentative plans for that. I want to seriously studying Mandarin, which will only truly happen if my hours are drastically cut down. I have a book which promises to give you all the knowledge you need in 30 days (or your money back). Except, I borrowed it from the Bookworm, so I won't get anything back as such... but any improvement on my current woeful Mandarin ability will be welcome. I don't think I will learn much Mandarin from Mandy (hey! I just noticed the interesting play on word possibilities there!) but we might "eat food and have fun".. beginning with a trip to the cinema today and ice-skaing in Xidan next Saturday.
My other female interest has been and gone it would seem. The skype-only 'Lisa' relationship, which boded well, has bitten the dust, once she found out my living situation. It appears to have put her off because she doesn't like 'complication situations' - neither do I, but it is difficult to convince someone that I have no 'relationship' with Coffey anymore and no 'relationship' with her aunt, short of a practical situation where I teach her son and I get to live in 1603 rent-free. That hidden agenda, those unknown family links, those unsaid conversations remain elusive to me... so i will continue to plead ignorance. Ignorance is bliss!
Check you later!
TP
postscript:
One day after writing this blog, I found myself, unexpectedly, having a heart-to-heart with my landlady over my future and my feelings towards Coffey. For the first time, I expressed my thoughts and feelings about the situation. I have explained how I will return to the UK in late June and that I have no plans yet to return to China, or to travel to Shenzhen before I leave. I do need to contact her if only to find out how she feels, but the lack of communication between us has caused a division. Apparently, there is no great discussion going on between North and South and my current domestic situation is not dependent upon a future with Coffey. So, I will make contact before the Chinese New Year and then make some decisions about my future.
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