Teaching Harry Moore to be a Gurkha Teacher.

I have told Harry he will have to teach like a Gurkha.  For after all, most plans (lesson plans) do not survive first contact with the enemy (students).  To get Harry on "his toes" and to get him to always be able to instantly adopt "Gurkha teaching postures", I am always sneaking up on him, startling by my unexpected appearances and sudden loud noises.

 

This is the first morning of not having a maid in the apartment.  I will have to do some cleaning myself but what?

 

I watched the Titanic movie and survived.  In fact, many did, but just barely.  These thoughts come to mind as I read news that the last Titanic survivor has passed away.

 

I spend my evenings waiting for Tony to get to sleep.  Before, he actually does, he can be very violent.

Wuxi Tony Update #343 is now online on Vimeo!

You can watch it here:
http://vimeo.com/4926496

Wuxi Tony Update #343: http://vimeo.com/4926496 .

I was hoping to put this video on a Chinese video site so I spoke Chinese.  The Chinese location for WTU 343 is here.

Sunday Morning.

You can follow me minute-to-minute on Twitter.  I am tweeting instead of doing much blogging these days.  I got to keep busy.

 

Previously, I wrote a complaining entry about being the last to know about a wedding of a staff member at my school.  Talking a little more about this to some of the Chinese staff, I did learn that it was only natural that I would not have known.  Even with each other, the Chinese do not speak directly - they leave clues.

 

Shame on me for making hay of it.

 

The wife fired the maid on Friday.  I think that this time, the firing will stick.  The wife had tried to fire the maid before but she just came back.  The wife was not happy with the lady's work.

 

I couldn't imagine teaching in Seoul which is so close to the border with Crazyland.

 

 

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A new breed of Dissident.

The Wall Street Journal profiles a full-time protestor from Eastern Jiangsu (where I live).

Last to know.

One of the girls who works at  our school got married yesterday.  It was only by happenstance that I learned of this.  I went to the lunchroom to eat my lunch and heard the word baijoe mentioned.  I made a comment about it to a girl named Ida who told me she drank only a little yesterday at a party.  I asked what party? and she told me Nancy's wedding party.  Knowing several Nancy's, I had to ask which one.  I then had to confirm that it was the one I thought Ida said because I couldn't believe it.  Anyway, at this party, most of the Chinese staff had been invited.  One foreigner went.  My reaction was surprise mixed with a feeling of "why wasn't I told!".  Talking to the other foreigners, I learned that I was the last to know.  Several of the other foreigners also happened to learn by happenstance I found out. 

 

I shouldn't complain about this sort of thing happening in China because it has happened several times before.  But still, you feel like a person apart when they do.  Laowei are the last to know.

 

 

It reminds me of the time that my niece was born prematurely.  I learned of it a week afterwards again by happenstance.  Being told in a casual by-the-way manner, when I phoned my sister, by the father of the birth, I found it hard to say congratulations.  I felt very insulted like I had been dealt a rebuke.  It may well be that they were busy and things slipped their mind.  Still, the sourness of the memory lingers with me.  What happened brought that memory back.

Can China ever be a modern country?

John Derbyshire asks this questions as he reviews a book about doing business in China.

Wuxi Tony Update #342: Dragon Boat Festival

You can watch it here:
http://vimeo.com/4881174

Wuxi Tony Update #342: Dragon Boat Festival http://vimeo.com/4881174 "Wuxi Andis tells you what he did on Dragon Boat Festival Day 2009."

Wuxi Tony Update #341: Starring the Great Wall of America, and the Cultural Revolution Redux Singers.

You can watch it here:
http://vimeo.com/4865074

How I spent the Dragon Boat Festival Holiday

For me, DBF meant Walkies with Tony.  This morning we went to the Hui Shan City IT park that is under construction near the White House and Olympic Village apartments.  There were workers hard at it even on what is supposed to be a National Holiday.  In the afternoon, the K Boys (A and T) went for another walk.  Along the way, A had an idea to take one of the local buses as far as it would go and walk back home.  We would take the bus in the opposite direction from downtown Wuxi.  The first bus to come to the stop was the #610.  We took that and it took us further than I had expected.  We went to the next town called Qianzhou.  The place must be happening, it has a KFC.  We went to the KFC where Tony had fun at the playground.  Earlier, he forced me into paying coin so he could ride a hobby horse.  Then, we went back to home.  Not familiar with the area, I had no idea where to go other than the KFC.

 

In China, things are definitely planned top down.  Projects are impressive in scale but when you look close up, everything is shoddy.  A park we went to this morning was full of paths and playground equipment.  But it seemed like little maintenance had been done since the park had been built.  Tile was missing.  Some of the playground equipment had been busted and so fallen into disrepair.  An artificial pond had a promenade deck built beside it which had many planks already pulled out leaping gaps and nails sticking out.  The park was also strewn with garbage and the pond was filled with weed.  Surprisingly, some young boys were swimming in the scum-filled pond.

 

On the bus to Qianzhou, three girls were taking photos of Tony were their mobile phone cameras.  Tony can wow them, for whatever reason, but he dislikes the attention.  To get to Qianzhou from Yangqiao, the bus crosses a canal, a large rice paddy, and a freeway, and also passes a large plant with a tall smokestack. 

 

In Qianzhou, a girl with very good English came to talk to me.  She of course asked me about Tony.  I learned that she was Rita, a tutor from Web English downtown.  She has a longer commute to work than I do.