>Originally, I was supposed to visit Hangzhou and then spend a month speaking to teenagers there afterwards, earning about 7500 RMB.

Then today I got this email:

“hello william
i am sorry to tell you that the July20-Aug.6 Camp is cancelled. because of swine flu, the local government donnot approve summer camps to open .they are worried about that lots of people togerther in public tend to spread the disease . so it is a pity .
i have been told that many of camps in other province are also cancelled.
i hope to get your understanding.And wish that donnot cause more trouble and loss.”

Oh well. The only thing that’s changed is a) I won’t be 7500 RMB richer and b) I’m not free for the July 20 – August 6 period.

>”Did he used to be a woman?”

– my girlfriend’s reaction at hearing Chris Tucker speak while watching the movie Rush Hour.

>

Girl: I do not like children. I do not really want children, but I must.

Why?

Girl: It is my duty to bare children.

She feels an obligation to continue the family line? To give her parents grandbabies?

>

I went to the English Corner last night.

It was my third time. To give you an idea of how much I enjoy the experience, this was the third time I’ve come. In nine months. Twice in October.

Once in May.

Three of us came, up from the usual one. When I arrived, Mary, one of the student organizers, noted this fact.

“None of the foreign teachers want to come. We don’t know why.”

Let’s see…you hold it on Friday night on a campus far away on the outskirts of the city, a bus that doesn’t return until 10 at night.

And you wonder why no foreign teachers are coming? Really?

Besides, I haven’t even begun to mention the spiritual anguish that is an English Corner. That’s coming next.

>Oh Elise, Elise, Elise…whatever shall we do with you?

As usual, Monday morning she tells me that I am teaching a different class. Class 11 and 12 instead of my usual Class 3 and 4. I inform her calmly that I have already made plans for class 3 and 4. In addition to this, the students know me.

Yeah, the students being familiar with their foreign teacher may help the classroom. What a weird idea.

Anyways, what ensued as a yes-no match, with No winning out and Elise pouting and ranting about it in Chinese.

A bus ride to the New Campus later, Elise informs a foreign teacher that he wasted his time. You see, he’s supposed to teach a double class Tuesday morning. So he can go him.

Since she tells him this AFTER he got up, AFTER he took the bumpy twenty-minute bus ride over, he’s non-too-pleased. What ensues is another argument, at which point I interject.

“You know Elise, why don’t you just tell us this more in advance? It would be easier.”

I did this in full view of another Chinese teacher. Elise grew nervous and said, “My computer…it is broken.”

She lied. If the pathetic excuse did not betray her, then her body language did. She lied. That’s one perspective.

Another perspective: she was saving face. This is likely, seeing as how another Chinese was standing near her. Face is to be preserved at all times. Why, it’s not that Elise is scatter-brained, perhaps even incompetent.

Oh no. It’s that her computer is broken. Yes, the computer’s fault. An obvious lie to us, but to them…well, it saves them face, right?

A little strange for me to wrap my mind around. I see it as a lie, but she did not truly intend it as a lie. Just as a way of saving face?