Chronology part II: titanium cupie dolls in a moving scene and the motto of this blog- anything can change at any time!

So, i am sorry if i have not been posting much. This week was a bit rough. I am still working out the kinks of teaching, and i have been very tired. Today marks my first month in China. It is very hard to grasp that, as time has gone so fast, and i still have very much to learn! This week has not been the greatest week for me, as it is very hot and muggy, and i am still trying to learn how to be a teacher. I have also had some minor personal problems. but everything is OK... However, you will have dips in mood and luck, that is life anywhere. I still love china!

So the long awaited continuation of the Chronology. I stopped with the arriving in Dalian. When i arrived, i was put into a crowded hallway that was essentially a shoot( in the cattle sense, not the wrestling sense!). I was a little shocked at the amount of people. This was my first taste of the fact that everything in Dalian is usually crowded as hell; you get used to it. Then i got my luggage, in which people would just push you out of the way. I thought that this was isolated, but it is another part of china. I will probably discuss this further very soon. I was extremely tired from the long plane ride. At the gate waiting for me was Ed and April. Ed is an American teacher from Indiana. In his twenties, but very level headed and cool. He is an interesting mix; He loves to drink, and is very laid back, but still is very responsible and gets things done. He works for the company as the Human resource director or some such thing. He teaches also, but he helps us with many things that are part of getting used to being in china. I have ( and still do) call) called Ed with the most ridiculous questions and he never gets annoyed. April is Chinese and also does similar things. The Chinese staff are all very hard working and help us out alot. They work very long days and often weekends and are payed relatively little. They are all very nice and helpful. They all speak some English, and some speak very well... although language can be a problem sometimes. However, they have to look after eight teachers here, plus others in other cities and also various other programs that the company runs. They do an amazing job. April does alot to make sure that we are legal, happy and safe, as do all of the others in the company. I really like April, btw, but i think she is taking some time warming up to me, which is the usual case.... Ed and i get along really well, i think.

Anyhoo, so they have a sign for me, which is good because it was just starting to dawn on me that i was in a foriegn city and would have no way to know what to do if i could not find them. They were waiting for another teacher, Stephanie, who did not show up, her plane was detoured due to a hurricane somewhere in Asia and she ended up staying in a hotel in Seol or Hong Kong, i forget which. we waited for her for awhile and then figured out that she was not coming. We left the airport when Jonah showed up. Jonah is the boss of this branch of the company( There's a head boss, Frank, but i rarely see him) and she is a true entity. A Chinese fashionista, a very hard working business woman, and a strong Chinese woman, she is like an American businessmen put in the body of a Chinese playboy bunny! Amazingly pretty, sexy and charming, she has also focused that Chinese will and ability to get things done, in other words, while she is nice and looks like a doll, she is not the lady to fuck with! That is kind of a vague cliche, but its the closest i can come at this point. We leave the airport and cross the street. Now, this does not seem like an important event, but it was! They just walked between moving cars while I waited for cars to stop. Cars in china rarely stop. I have a whole entry that I want to devote to this one subject. Eventually, Ed helped me cross the street and we got into the car. I don't remember much of the details because i was getting sleepy again. I remember going through the city like it was a series of tunnels. I tried to get an overall impression of it but i could not. Ed said many important things, but most of them did not register really. We got to my apartment. Oh, it should be stated that until i talked to ed I was under the impression that i was going to be sent to another city. My first choice was Dalian, simply because Xiarou had talked it up so much, and i was sad to simply be training there. Well, the first lesson that i learned in China is that anything can change at any moment. I was told that I was going to stay in Dalian and that i had an apartment waiting me. I was very happy about that. When we got to the apartment, I took my bags in. I will continue this tomorrow....