Mike In China

Saturday we woke up and went to Chi's dad's house outside the city. He and his brothers own a shipyard in Hong Kong and it used to be where they built the new Disneyland so because of some deal with the government they got some space outside of Zhuhai also so he has a house there. I was a really nice place and it was a good day for all of us to just hang out inside in air conditioning and watch all our pirated movies. It was cool driving through the countryside again and seeing how rural Chinese people live. I guess that in the area we were in there were a lot of shrimp farms and that was interesting to see. Saturday night we had dinner with all the TEFL people in our program. The difference between them and us is that they are just here for the TEFL program and found it on their own through the internet or something so they will be with us for the remaining four weeks of training. The original six of us are also here for the TEFL program but we got to this TEFL program through the LanguageCorps and that included our first week of Chinese and field trips and then extra support services and guaranteed job placement (TEFL people have to find their own job). I am really glad I did the whole LanguageCorps thing for the main reason that we got to spend the first week becoming friends and having adventures. The six of us have a lot in common, we are all from the states, recently out of college, just here for a year to avoid getting a real job and have a fun adventure in the process. The plain TEFL people are a little "different" (as are most of the other teachers at our school). Most of them are older, at least in their 30's and all the way through I'd say their 50's. Its the kind of of thing where you ask yourself, what are they doing here? Shouldn't they have lives back home by now? They seem like very nice people but just the type of people that would be your "Crazy Uncle Larry." Its funny because when I saw my eye doctor before I came he made a comment to me about how he was glad I was going because everyone he knows that went to China for a year was kind of "weird" and he is worried that the Chinese are going to start getting the wrong impression about Americans! I didn't understand him at first, but now I definitely do! Saturday night we just went to a tea house and played some cards. Today we got lunch together and then decided to check out a massage parlor. It was only 20 kuai for an hour massage (about $2.5o US). I know what you are thinking, and the answer is no, there was no "Happy Ending." We were all in the same room with five beds (Will wanted to have no part in it and just sat in a chair watching the whole time) and it was funny because afterwards Michele started laughing and we asked her why. I guess in the middle of the massage the woman that was massaging me said to the other women, "I don't know what to do, I've never done someone this big before." And then I guess all the women started talking about how they were having the same problem. I got a kick out of that and I could definitely feel that she couldn't push hard enough. At one point in time she got up and was standing on my back (and butt) walking around. The funny part is that Will said her head didn't even touch the ceiling. Mind you the ceilings in this room were maybe 7 feet tall, tops, and I was on a waist high table and she could stand on me and not touch her head on the ceiling. I believe I am now caught up on my blog and I will try to update it more frequently (I already got some nasty emails about not writing often enough). Keep in touch and keep the emails flowing.