Phil and Red's Excellent Adventure

Well, today was a good day. Darn good day. Classes were...interesting. There were a couple upsetting events, but nothing killer.
First Event:
At the end of my 5th grade class right before lunchtime, I was saying goodbye to the students and everyone was waving, but I spotted a kid in the back row throwing down and giving me the "Double barrels" - he was giving me the middle finger on both hands. Just throwing it out there. He was doing it in a way that seemed to show that he knew what he was doing.
So I rushed towards him with demonic speed. I was all happy one second waving "bye" to the kids and switched to the "stern face" and intent walk the next second. I think it scared the entire class. I picked the kid up by the arm and dragged him to the front of the class and made him face the blackboard. Lily, the teacher/enforcer, didnt know what happened and I didnt want to show or explain it in front of the kids. Later she told me that she yelled at him after I left. She knew he did something bad.
Some of these kids learn these things from TV or the older brother/sister who tells them to do it. They may not know what it means. But this kid definitely had the body language that seemed to me at the time he knew what was up. The 4th grader from yesterday, its possible he didnt know what he was doing.
I tried explaining it to Lily the same as I did yesterday to Lucy and Anna. But, she didnt quite grasp it. I had to explain it to her by telling her what word it substitutes for in English by telling her the chinese equivalent (which I know). She didnt seem to care.

Second Event:
Today is the day of my 6th grade class right after lunch that just does not participate at all. The students just don't pay attention and I have tried everything to get there attention. Sometimes it works, but as soon as I get it, they stop paying attention. Its very frustrating. Today, I turned around to write something on the blackboard and I said under my breath in my best Cartman impersonation, "I hate you guys."
There is one child near the front who, for about the past 3-4 lessons has been acting up - making inappropriate sounds, not paying attention, and disrupting class even more. He was never doing this before. So, today was the second time I had to pull his desk up in the front of the class and stick him in front of the blackboard. I also took away his markers that he was coloring his book with.
After class I go down during the break between classes, I walk into the office, and all the English teachers see me flustered. So, I tell them....and they say, "Aaaah...they are bad students." But then, Ivy comes in, she is the English Teacher/Enforcer for that class. She told me, "That child, don't be hard on him, he's not right...." while she is saying this she is making the international symbol for retarded - circling your finger around the side of your head. Everytime I see one of the teachers do that motion, I just get horrified that they are describing the student that way, but then again, its China...and they dont have the best common sense...or the P.C. that we have been bombarded with in the States.
So, not only am I shocked to see the teacher doing this again but the fact that I have been here teaching in this class for the past 1.75 months, and no one told me that this kid was mentally challenged. DAMNIT! So I told every English teacher in the room, "Tell me which students are dealing with this dilemma!" And their blank-faced response was, "Yes." And then they smiled and went back to their work. Not having people understand you sux.
I find this strange though, because he never was actiing up until about a couple weeks ago. What gives? Maybe I just didnt notice it before. Who knows.

Third Event: It was my "10 Kid Spaz Class" again today. Today I had Mountain as my Bond Assistant/Enforcer for reasons i will explain later. The class went better, it was more in control...because Mountain speaks loud and is able to control the kids. The super spaz kid that reminds me of myself wasn't on crack today for some reason, maybe it was because Mountain was there. No, my little issue in this class revolves around the fat kid again. We were playing "Duck Duck Goose" and he was going around slapping kids on the head. I mean, whacking them hard on the head. So I said loudly, "STOP IT!" pointing the STERN FINGER at him. Immediately his eyes began to water. He asked to go to the bathroom, Mountain said sure. He ran off. He returned a minute later fine. So that was ok. But it was still and issue.

Ok. Back to the rest of the day. After my morning classes ended, I headed to the Xiaolan Office to see if Mountain or Lynn was gonna go with me to the Travel Agency to give them my letter of complaint and try and get a refund. As I walked there, I came upon a chinese guy selling baby ducks to children. These ducks were soooooooo adorable. The freak had dyed them bright yellow, green, and red. It was kinda creepy. He was selling them for a couple bucks and putting them in plastic bags. Again, I was horrified...to see living ducklings wrapped up in plastic bags with them trying to get out. It was freaky to say the least. I took a couple fotos of the ducks. Super cute. I wanted to purchase one and raise it as a pet so it wouldn't be treated terrible, but I remember that my friend in Beijing did the same with some birds she bought and they hadn't been raised by their mother enuff and they wouldnt eat anything she put out for them. They eventually starved to death. Kinda sucks. I figured that these ducklings wouldn't last a long time. So I decided against it. This guy would soooo get busted in the States.
I get to the Office and I tell Lynn and Mountain about this. And Mountain tried to tell me that they were robots. I was completely dumbfounded by what he said. "THOSE AREN'T FUCKING ROBOTS! They are living ducklings!" This caused Lynn to bust out laughing and gave Mountain a sheepish smile. He said that when he was a child, someone sold him a duckling like that and he was amazed at the fact that it was damn near impossible to kill. He said he threw it to the ground as hard as he could, it got up and started running around so he stomped on it....and it was still fine. This is what led him to believe that it was a robot.
Dude, if China had the technology to building a lifelike robot of a duckling, then I can't possibly fathom just how incompetent they are that they aren't ruling the world. Unbelievable.
Mountain said he would accompany me as my Assistant/Enforcer today because we would head to the Travel Agency to speak with the manager and give the translated copy of my complaint/demand for refund letter.
After Kindergarten we headed ot the Travel Agency. We got to speak with the manager. We gave the letter to them and the pictures I took of the hotel room. It seemed at the time that we have the upper hand right now. We would hear from them in two days because she had to speak with her company superiors on the issue. If we dont hear in two days, then we will go in there again or call.
If things dont go well, all the foreign teachers are going to protest with me...and it will be legal. Something like this is ok to protest and we could do it for something to do on a Friday. That will bring the newspaper around. If that don't work, we can try lawyers.
So after this good news, I was happy. I was then supposed to meet up with Sean and John so we could be totally gay and go get our hair cut together, but plans fell thru. John had some dinner thing for school and I ended up meeting up with Sean and Suzannah to go get a haircut. Then we were all supposed to get together to watch a movie.
Ok....China does not have barber shops. They just have over the top salons. You would think its totally gay, but thats something they dont understand in China. I mean, dudes and dudettes hold hands here and walk arm in arm and hang on each other all the time....and they are just..."friends". A little bit of suppression there? hmmmm.
Anyway, we get to V2000 the hair salon. First, we get our hair washed + a head and neck massage for about 30 minutes. They give you facials and they also clean your ears for you...whcih is freaky. As they were washing my hair, they moved down to my ears and the chick gave me dual Wet-Willy's. I jump. I jumped many times during this head massage. They were doing some odd things. I got my hair cut and they poofed it up like I was a French Poodle. Damn.
Suzannah did have a haircut, she just got it washed and blowdried. She looked like a Labrador Retriever. It was sooo damn cute. She asked us, "Do you want to stroke my coat?" I responded, "You need to start eating eggs to keep your coat shiny." It was really funny. It was all fluffy n stuff.
Sean's haircut looked hilarious as well. It made him look like he is 10 years old again. As we left one another, I was like, "See you later, Dennis" (as in Dennis the Menace) and these to Limey bastards understood what I was saying.
We were supposed to all get together to watch a movie, but Sean and Suzannah copped out. I met up with John and we ended up watching "The Hills Have Eyes" It was damn funny.
Oh well, its late and I need to sleep. Goodnite.