Halloweeeeeennpartduex----

a note: i know my grammar and spellling suck on this thing, basically becuase i am lazy. I can wrtie like a motherfucker, but I don't have the time or patience to self edit. plus, i think its kind of charming. of course, some people won't get this, but the great thing about being me is that i don't have to give a crap. this is my little corner of the internet and i think the way i write this is pretty honest and representative of me.... If one doubts my abilty to write, consider that I never recieved anything except A's on my college papers( with the excpetion of a few Bruce papers, which involved techinical linguistic shit that i fucked up) anyway, being defensive, but the entry is pretty light toned, so read on, mistakes and all...Ok, so my Halloween week at school was pretty interesting. I did some cultural crap about the history of the holiday and told the story of Jack O'lantern. We then pretended that they were going to go trick or treating, and what costumes they would wear and such. I showed them a book with pictures of kid's dressing up. I think it blew their minds! They have nothing like that. Some girls screamed at the pictures; Chinese girls can be quite dramatic! Then i made them leave the class and knock on the door. and say trick or treat. Each of my students got one piece of candy, which added up to a hell of a lot of candy ( i have around 700students!). Some of their "costumes"where inventive: Toilets, the universe, and me! most were cats and other animals. but it was fun and i can say that i let around 700 Chinese kids celebrate Halloween, something they may never do again in their lives. not that it makes me a saint or anything, but it was fun. of course, now, the little bastards expect candy every week! I will write more about this later, but i am starting to get very attached to my students. They are not always good for me, but they have such personalities! I just feel such a bond with all of them, i am not sure why... My primaries and some of my 11th graders even dressed up. the sixth graders are poor and made little paper masks( although one kid wrapped toilet paper around himself and could barely walk!). it was fun. Two of my favorite students at sunshine, Rachel and Cecila, wore plastic mask. As a whole, the Chinese don't really know what Halloween is, so their wasn't many things around. The younger generation is taught english, so they have a bit more of a clue. Our culture is slowly seeping into theirs, but it will probably take a while to make a huge impact( although many of my kids LOVE the NBA and know more about it than i do).Halloween itself was fun. Since their is a small amount of foreigners in Dalian( most who drink like fish, it seems), a couple of the bars had Halloween parties. I wore a cheap mask ( which fucking broke about five minutes in). The Bar was JD's and it was mostly full of Chinese, some who wore masks and costumes, which was nice. They had a open bar deal, which was quite cheap( 30 rmb, which is almost nothing in American) and we actually had a few bottles. Needless to say, We got very fucking drunk, but it was fun. At the clubs, i always see two of my sunshine students, Russian girls. One is one of my best students! The Russians are a bit darker than the Chinese students, smart, interesting, but somewhat more... I am not sure of the right term. they certainly like to drink. There is no drinking age in China, so They can get into clubs and such... Thats another thing, in the clubs, i have no clue how old some of the Chinese are! Unitl a certain age, its very hard to tell! Anyway, Halloween night was drunken but fun...
My birthday was on November 3rd. I received many greetings and such electronically and they were very appreciated! I turned 39, a weird stupid age ( like all of them) which just seems to be the retarded herald of 40, but i can still cling to my thirties. I don't feel almost 40, and my natural immaturity keeps my seemingly young. It just seems like everything has happened so fast. But I thought about my past, quite a bit of it dubious and infamous, and contrary to prior confessions, i don't regret a god damned thing. I did say and so some stupid things that i probably shouldn't , but i also did quite alot of good things. I think i have lived alot, and have much more to live. I always felt things would change quite a bit around 40, and that seems to be true. The main thing, to me, is that I am living life; I am dong things and trying to take advantage of this unique experience. And a bonus, the way i live my life pretty much pisses all the right people off! I received a nice pen from Fairy and a cake from one of my teachers, Mrs. Su. It was a quiet birthday, but it was nice. I talked to jessica; my only regret about that day was not spending it with her. Its hard to be away from everyone that you love, but it would be foolish to not take advantage of the fact that i am in china and enjoy my birthday just simply being here...
The next day was election day. I am pretty apolitical right now and generally feel that entire system needs to be restructuring. too much corruption, too much bullshit. That being said, I felt that out of the choices, America made the right one. Only time will tell, but hopefully things will improve. at the very least, America has broken out of its tradition of only electing old white men. I hope that Obama will be a good president. America is a great country with many great people, it doesn't deserve to go out being bled dry by greedy old men who already have more than they can deal with. Of course, there is no guarantee that will not still happen, but we can hope. Overall, I thought it was a positive thing. I did not vote, which i usually do not. Americans always say that if you don't vote you can't bitch. the great thing about being an American is that you can bitch whenever you want, and i will probably not break that tradition....
that next Sunday, i did a lot of little things around the apartment and then went to English corner. It was cold in Dalian! You would think coming from snow,ice, freezing oswego that i would be pretty immune to the cold, but no..... In china, the government controls the heat, which is a very strange concept for us Americans. on Nov. 15th, they turned on the gas to everyone and have heat now. but at that time it wasbearable but cold in my apartment. its a strange thing, but it was only for a small period... anyhoo, English corner was fun, but cold. Fairy was there, being fairy. I seem to have attracted a following of kids, mostly girls. the adults can't really get to talk to me because the kids dominate the show. but the adults talk to the other English teachers, so i guess i am the kid guy, which is really ok with me, they are interesting and fun. Some talk very much, some just stand there, afraid to talk, some stick their tongues out at me or try to steal my stuff( as a joke). the we encountered Grandma, which is the subject of the next entry!