2nd to Last Day of Bowen Crappy Winter Camp
Well, the drive was the normal drive to camp. We picked up David and his wife for some odd reason in ShiQi. Dunno why. We just did. Classes were bleh. I kicked two kids out withing 3 minutes of each other for not doing what I instructed and goofing around. They then sat outside the doors and looked thru the windows with dead-to-the-world Chinese puppy dog eyes. After about 10 minutes later of them just sitting outside, Miss Li finally decided to grace us with her presence. She spoke to the kids outside and I noticed one had started to cry.
During lunch we got Amanda to agree to having Bond go in 50/50 for ordering 4 Pizza Hut pizzas for our lunch tomorrow. YES!! I have to say that Pizza Hut in China is the only place to get decent pizza. Its like a gourmet restaurant here in China. Its expensive by Chinese standards, but its soo sooooooooooo worth it.
Lunch was eh.
Afternoon classes were a joke. The children were not paying attention. No Chinese teachers. I tried to teach and some of it was good but after about 20 minutes, the kids just didn't care. When class was over, I headed to the teacher’s office and Amanda came with stacked bundles of orange plastic coats. They are pretty cheap. On it says “Bond Happy Winter English Camp”. But it was anything but. We are planning to cross out the Happy part and replace it with either Unhappy or Angry or Crappy. We handed them out during class and I used that to teach the kids, “May I please have…”
After that I allowed the kids to go to Peter’s class where he was showing the Gogo DVDs. After that we had some time to kill before we had the activity class. I had the kids do the Hokey Pokey, Simon Says, and I taught them the Chicken Dance. I also got Amanda to join me in trying to teach them how to Swing Dance. You think they would like it, but the kids just went off and paid no attention. After trying everything I had them go watch a cartoon Peter was showing.
This is how bad the kids don’t want to pay attention. It has gotten to the point that the kids are watching Chinese movies instead of English Language films. Its so pathetic.
Then before everyone had gone to dinner, except for me - I ate an apple, Amanda got into a cellfone argument with someone. I was on my computer listening to Terry Gilliam’s commentary of Brazil. Its quite interesting. I am learning a lot about camera work from it. I looked up and saw Amanda talking on the fone. Something I see every waking moment, so, you know, nothing out of the ordinary. Her voiced started to get louder. I was beginning to hear the voice from the other end as well above my computer. And I guess I have been in China to long, but I stopped my computer and watched. I feel terrible about that. She began shouting into the fone for a good long while. Of course I looked at some of the other English teachers, primarly Dan and Henry because their Chinese is better than mine, and I know Peter's chinese ain't worth anything...just teasing. (Peter is reading this journal entry right now). Dan and Henry both shook their heads with that goofy, "I don't know whats going on" face while they waved their hands around like Robby the Robot....DANGER! DANGER! She then threw the cell-fone down onto the desk and stormed out of the office. I got up for the little boys room a few moments later and she was standing alone in the stairway looking off in the distance. Visibly upset.
I didn t bother going to dinner since I knew it was gonna suck. And apparently it did. According to Peter, he said Amanda was still really upset. She wasn’t answering her fone and I was told that her fone wsa going off a lot. We then headed out.
Got back to Xiaolan around 730pm. I prepared to go to Lion Dance practice and I was about to head out and I thought to have Amy call my Sifu to see if there was practice tonite. Its Sunday and I didn't want to ride my bike thru rain just to show up and have no practice. She chatted with him for a few minutes and laughed a bit. She told me after hanging up that the Lion Dance troop had a meeting around 6pm and that they had a little election for the upcoming festivities. Election? So democracy does exist in China...to some extent. Speaking of Chinese Communism...the other day Henry saw a Mercedes and said, "Welcome to Communist China." Quite humorous at the time.
Anywho, the troop had an election. Though I wasn't in attendance, I was voted most active member of the troop. What that means for the upcoming festivites, I have no clue. I think Amy said they were electing people for performances and stuff.
Since I didnt have practice, I was gonna do some stuff. I was quite bored. I am tired and I want to go to sleep, so I will. So there. However, before I leave you all, the weather has been quite chilly the past few days. And a layer of fog has been hanging about for three day straight. So, I hit the button on the space heater to start working. It was going fine for about 30 minutes. All of a sudden it just conked out. Great. So I called Jolene and she said she doesn't take care of that anymore but because she loves me she called the appropriate people and I need to take it in tomorrow or Tuesday. However, after chatting with Peter online about some camp issues and our Pizza Hut Party tomorrow, I got up to take out my contacts. As I returned, i thought, "Hey, i will try the heater again." I turned it on...and it worked. Great. It was getting cold in here. But then about a minute later it fuzzed out again. I walked towards it and it went back on again. As I sat down it shut off. Ugh! So I stood up, went over and hit the buttons. Nothing. I turned it back on. I hit it and it started working. Ugh. Here is the AIM conversation:
irmenudo@yahoo.com: my heater just fuzzed out.
Peter: that sucks
Peter: i just ordered a 160 G hd drive
irmenudo@yahoo.com: nice
Peter: yeah....now i can get all the files from you
irmenudo@yahoo.com: well, when you get it\
Peter: i get it tuesday morning
irmenudo@yahoo.com: we forgot to tell Amanda how to go about getting Pizza
Peter: we can tell her in the mornng ...she was not in the mood to talk about it I am sure
irmenudo@yahoo.com: have it ordered then have Joe/David drive out to pick itup
irmenudo@yahoo.com: or would we just drive into town?
irmenudo@yahoo.com: that would be the best
Peter: fine with me
irmenudo@yahoo.com: koolio
Peter: i am going to give adobe premiere pro a try. see how it works
Peter: I have heard good things about it
irmenudo@yahoo.com: well, my heater's working again
irmenudo@yahoo.com: i have heard its confusing. but oh well.
Peter: wierd
irmenudo@yahoo.com: Adobe products are good.
Peter: i have a tutorial
irmenudo@yahoo.com: the mac stuff is quite user friendly...and the heater just gave out again.
irmenudo@yahoo.com: then came back on
Peter: hehe
Peter: has a mind of its own i see
irmenudo@yahoo.com: again. damnit
irmenudo@yahoo.com: i just hit it, it went back on.
Peter: strange
irmenudo@yahoo.com: chinese
irmenudo@yahoo.com: just letting you know I am copying the convo about the space heater onto my journal right now
Good nite all. Sleep well. God bless.