Phil and Red's Excellent Adventure

Nothing huge happened last nite, just went out for some dinner and walked around. Today thought was really cool. I was supposed to accompany two of the other teachers that live in the house to the head school and sit in on some of the lessons. It was fun and interesting. So, the three of us foreigners head out about 8am and walk to where we are to be picked up by Sparky. So we drive to the local school to pick up Lyn, who then informs us that I have to get out becuase they have to pick up another teacher. I was like, we can put 5 people in this Volkswagen, if these locals can cram 5 adults onto a motorbike we can do it in the car. Apparently that is illegal though. Lyn said it was ok because there was another teacher that would pick me up in 3 minutes. So i sit down and wait...all the while being stared at by the locals. About two minutes go by and Rich shows up. He just seemed to appear outta nowhere and said he just woke up and was told to take me to the school. Soo...this is the cool part.....
We flagged down two motorbike taxis and headed to the bus station. This was sooooo kewl! We were hauling ass thru town on motorcycles. Granted the traffic was still freaking me out, but I am very surprised at the skill of these motorcycle drivers. It was such a great way to start out the day. We got to the bus stop and hopped on the next bus headed for our destination. On the bus, Rich and were helping each other with the languages and i noticed about 5 people staring at me. "Its not polite to stare...didn't your folks ever tell you that?"
We finally reached the school after a traffic jam backed us up for a bit. When I arrived I sat in on a kindergarten class and a middle school level class. The students seemed eager. I was surprised, but I do know that this isn't always the case. These other guy, Larry from California, actually ended his contract early because he hated what he was doing. He told me a bunch of horror stories and made me feel really bad. But when I brought this up with some of the other teachers, they were like..."Oh....Larry....yeah." They went on to explain that he came into this with a closed mind and not a good attitude. He was basically a kill-joy from what I understand. So that alliviated some of my fears right away.
I hung around the school talking to the kids and showing them things. I taught this one kid, Julius, one of those..."urban" handshakes where you snap your fingers and point at the end. It was pretty funny. I enjoyed myself. Then Peter and I hitched a ride with Sparky back to the bus station and headed back to the city. We then took a long, awesome motorbike taxi ride thru the whole city back to the house. It was great. I didnt realize just how huge and beautiful this city was until I got to ride thru about 3/4ths of it on a speeding motorcycle. Really cool. When we got to the house, we exchanged some language software and I needed to photocopy my VISA for the management. We scanned it in and printed it out. I then headed out alone to the local BOND school to drop it off. This bike ride ruled as well. The guy took me thru all the back alleyways and we were zig zagging all over the place, it was like outta a movie. The area around the No. 1 Middle School (where the BOND school is located - and it doesnt mean the #1 Middle school, its just a bizarre naming system they got) is absolutely beautiful. I will try and take a foto.
I took care of the business and asked Mountain and the other people in the office about gung fu and they said they would try to find a place. I sure hope they can. I need to get some exercise. Then I headed back to the house. I felt pretty good as I walked down the street to the house. As I was walking, a man on a bike hauling wood was driving by and staring at me. So I nodded and said hello and he proceed to yell at me as he rode passed. He said about 5 words but the one that stuck out was "gweilo". After the insult I arrived at my door and went in. And here I am. later.