Scarred for Life.
There are two parts to this one. First, the funny one and then I will mention the irritating one. After my long Friday schedual which was 6 classes, i chilled a few moments before I ran off to Chinese lessons.
John Irish called me while I was at home and said he and Toby would show up for lessons. They never did. So, I got to have a private lesson. I was having fun. This whole day was great. It was terrific. I couldn't believe it was this good...
Before we began the lesson, we were just chatting and somehow got on the topic of irritation. I asked, "Do I irritated you Lynn? With all my questions I mean? i just want to understand the language." And she shyed away from responding to that. LOL! But then she asked, "Do I irritate you?" My response, "You haven't in awhile. Things have been good for the past couple months."
She said, "Aiya! Why do you have to be so honest?" And then she gave me the evil, but friendly eyes. I responded to that with, "Hey, I don't lie. Since I was raised properly, I don't lie alot and I don't participate in domestic violence. Maybe the chinese should learn a lesson from me." This got another stern look from her. Speaking of domestic violence, I need to mention that later.
Lynn had me work on a song called, "The Shining Moon Represents My Heart". Some crappy slow Chinese Pop music. It was ok to practice on though. It was slow and easy to understand. I was trying to get the translation, and it was tough, because Lynn kept changing what the words meant. STICK TO IT!
So, I got along well. Lynn said I was hitting the stuff properly. The one major question I had was this, "If Mandarin uses tones, how do you sing in Mandarin? If you are on a note and you use the tones, you change notes. What's up with that?" I guess its all context in this case. She couldn't really answer the question, but thats the most obvious answer. And since all chinese music revolves around sappy love songs, you can pretty much guess.
This is a love song so I asked Lynn, "So...is there a reason why you chose to practice this song....with me? Are you trying to tell me something?"
So about the time class is over at 9pm, John shows up. I was like, so...was the pizza that good that you couldn't come to class. We learned a song.
He was like damn. Yeah. I wish I came. I got into another arguement with Toby. That guy just totally gets on the wrong side of conversations. I have no clue how he does it. Yeah, Toby, Tiannamen Square 15 years ago was justified. Whatever.
Anywho, John proceeded to tell me a story about some of his students....
In between classes, John went to the restroom and he was washing his hands as some of his students walked in. The students saw him, got all inquisitive and began to ask, "Let me see it! Let me see it! Let me see it!" Yes. They were asking to see his junk. After the initial shock and fluster of the question John rebounded with, "Nah, I don't think so. It would scar you for life." He then left while the kids kept begging him to show it to them. Thats freaky.
After I laughed a good long while I told John that I was gonna head to HK to do my VISA monday morning and come back monday nite. He said, "you sure you can do that? Things have changed apparently. And apparently the change is really bad for Americans."
What changes? How do you know about these changes and I don't?
Then Lynn went to the desk, yeah, here's the sheet. The sheet that was on top of about 30 other sheets that were supposed to be handed out to the teachers. WHOLLY CRAP, LYNN!!! WTF! THIS IS DATED 1 MONTH AGO!!! WHY DID YOU JUST GIVE IT TO ME NOW!!!!!!! The new regulations are practically racist to Americans. Here's the new regulations:
IT WOULD HAVE HELPED ME IF I HAD RECEIVED THIS LAST MONTH, LYNN! Damn you and your chinese incompetence! I am calling Richard. "Hello, Richard, yes, goodaye-mate to you too. I was just calling to let you know that I need to get my VISA taken care of this weekend and I just received the info on the new regulations that you wrote a month ago from Lynn..."
-"You JUST received it now? How is that possible, I sent it up there a month.......fuckin' 'ell. ugh.
This is exactly the type of thing I was trying to avoid by sending that up there. hmmm...well...I will
give you a call tomorrow. Let me talk to Lynn."
I gave the phone to Lynn and I think Richard said something to her.
During my VISA discussions with Lynn and John, Toby showed up and piped in his assinign opinion of President Bush so I told him to shut his english pie hole because I didnt want to hear his drug-inhibited babble. By the time Lynn got done talking to Richard, John and Toby had headed out to grab some more of the gang to go meet up with Antwoine, the french dude. I hung around to talk with Lynn when she got off the phone. On the way to the gate after we locked up the office I said, "Hey Lynn..." in my dry tone, "Do you remember what we were talking about at the beginning of class?...."
She look at me, lowered her head just a bit and said "Yes". She then asked if I would go to HK on Monday. I said i would wait to hear what Richard had to say tomorrow. I then added once more before I left to meet the gang, "I prolly could have taken care of this stuff weeks ago if someone had passed out those sheets like they were supposed to." And that was the last thing that was said between us that nite. Did I get a sorry from her? No. I didn't. I swear, that girl. Man. I can't figure her out.
We get along great for awhile, and then she goes and pisses me off royally. Then she is nice and things get better since I have Christian Forgiveness and then she goes off and does it again. AAAARGGGHHH!!!! CUT IT OUT!
The chinese way sucks.
I then headed to meet up with Antwoine. that was interesting.