I do have power.
Today was interesting so far. I woke up after having a real bizarre dream. From what I can remember, it starts out like this:
Setting: China
Time Period: Start of and during the Cultural Revolution
Plot: I am a naive idealist chinese-english interpreter/translator for the Chinese Government infatuated with the possibilities that theoretical communism has to offer. But its only theory and soon I am caught up on the negative side of the Cultural Revolution..(well, there was no real positive side to it)...i was being made an example of and people were out to get me.
What I remember: I was a young naive english interpretter for the government and I really liked communism and I was really into the Cultural Revolution and the change it was bringing for a better world. I was speaking with a fellow foreign interpretter about the positive aspects of what we were doing and apart of, yet, I expressed that if the Chinese government could live up to communism in theory, things would be perfect. This is where my trouble began. The fellow co-worker asks me if I really believe that, and I said yeah, and then he said, "Well, you should have no problem with me letting the Mao listen to the tape I just recorded you with." I realized at that moment what he was gonna try and do. He was gonna try and turn me into an enemy of the state by saying the chinese were doing the right thing. So, I immediately went for the tape and in doing so I accidently punched a chinese woman in the face and that escalated into an angry mob of Chinese people upset and trying to mess me up. The rest of the dream was me hiding out in safehouses and trying to avoid authorities. I then woke up when my alarm went off. Strange stuff.
Today was my super busy day. 5 De Xing classes, 1 kindergarten, then Chinese lesson, and Gong Fu. I was on my way to class when Coco called me at 830AM, 10 minutes before first class. She said that the students will have an examination today so I don't have to come for Class 1 or 2. I just have Class 3. Ok. Well, thats good. I can run some errands that I needed to take care of ASAP. I had to wait till 900AM before I could go anywhere though. I needed to go to the Bank to transfer some money for a deposit to the Hotel in Shanghai since I will be getting in super late on May 1st.
I asked Amy if she could accompany me but she said she was busy at the time I needed to go. She said that I could take it myself. Just give them the money and point to the paper faxed to me by the hotel. Its pretty obvious apparently. She said there should be no problem. When is there never a problem ? So I decided to try it. The first bank I went to, Industrial and Commercial Bank, there was a problem. I needed to have an account. She was all like, "msec". So I was all like, "well, gai wo wode (pointing to my stuff)" She had an embarrassed laugh and gave me my things." I left.
I then headed over to "Bank of China". And they would do the transfer for a 5RMB service charge. One lady that wasn't behind all the windows filled out the forms for me and stuff and then I went over to a window where she filled out more forms and sent it out. I got the receipts and headed home. I then had to run to class. My time was eaten up at the banks.
This class was ugh. First of all, I get to school and there were visiting english teachers viewing Ivy's class. So Coco had to attend this viewing and meeting. Great, I will be alone. It doesn't bother me being alone but it gives the kids the idea they can get away with not paying attention. Very frustrating. Coco did a check up about half way thru. Whenever a teacher approaches the class on days like these, the kids all shut up and I give the crap. "OH MY GOD! The teacher shows up and you all close your mouths and sit pretty!" Its as much as a scolding to the kids as it is a dropping of hints to the chinese teacher, but the teachers don't catch it. When the teacher leaves, they go back to their shenanigans. Irritating. Well, today a few were going wild. The usual ones in this class. There was about 4 kids missing from the classroom and whenever a couple kids are missing, it shows. It makes the room look empty. Anywho, this kid kept doing stupid stuff. Most of the boys were being bad and a 3 girls were brought to tears. I sent to kids to the doors and had their backs facing the class. One of these was the real bad kid of the class. I did this around the first 15 minutes. After about 10 minutes in the doors I sat them back down. Later on in the class he was screwing around again. For example, running around the back of the class like a monkey and jumping around, crawling from his desk to the door and back just because he thought he could. This was disrupting class and pissing me off so I made stand in front of the class and hold a stool with his arms stretched out. He bagan to make a game out of it. Class ended 5 minutes later. And I decided to take him down to the headmaster. I am sick of this. If kids upset me anymore, they go straight to the headmaster. I started leading him out of the room and he started screaming, "NO!!! I'M SORRY!!" over and over again. He was doing all he could to not be moved by me. I tried to Fireman carry him but he sat on the ground, so I lifted him up and he was sliding across the floor and then he grabbed the door so as not to be led out the room. This whole time mind you, all the students had gathered around laughing at him and staring. GET YOUR RUBBER NECKS OUTTA HERE!
Finally, he relented and I took him down nice and quietly. Of couse, I said something to him that made him come with me. I don't remember what it was. And when I say he came down nice and quietly, I mean, he was wimpering, crying, and saying "I know. I'm sorry." You had your chance to learn ,but you wanted to test my wrath. Don't make me destroy. Thats what I love about no one understanding you, you can say stuff and they have no idea. "Don't make me destroy you!" It ruelz.
I led him around the offices looking for the headmasters but I couldn't find any and Coco was in a meeting. A couple teachers were pointing at him. One teacher started to scold him until Coco came out. I didn't let him leave my site, I took him to Coco and she said some things to him. A bunch of his classmates had followed us down to watch and I shooed them away. I had to shoo them away a couple times. Crazy kids. Coco took him to the headmaster's office and as I was leaving, he was walking up the steps. The last kid I sent to the Headmaster was very well behaved the next time I had him in class.
I went to the Bond office to send out the fax of the Receipt to the Hotel. I got good news while I was there. Toby is leaving for good April 28th!!!! YES!!!! WHOO HOO!!! No more drunken, anti-American bashing rants spouted out by this drip who has no idea what he's talking about.
I then went shopping for a mouse for Daisy, but only came up with a Stuffed Animal Minnie Mouse. Oh well. I tried. On my way home I ran into Robert walking home the same way. I helped him carry some heavy stuff back. We chatted about our friend Damon, who is teaching him Chinese, and who is a party member. Its odd to have a friend who's a communist. But truth be told, its one of the only ways to get ahead in this country and Damon is ambitious. Since, we were on the subject, I told him of my real wierd dream. And he did nothing but giggle at it. When I told him what it was about, me being an english interpretter in China during the cultural revolution and infatuated with idealistic ideas behind theoretical communism, he laughed out loud.
Afternoon classes went ok. I had two 3rd grades. No problems. A bunch of kids had chinese fans out. Kindergarten was good to. I tried teaching them "Where do you live?" "Where are you from?". It was tough. There is this one kid in the class, one of the boys, who has an interesting thing going on with his ears. I never noticed this until I turned around from the chalkboard and I see Lynn playing with his ears again. I was like, "uhhh?" She was all excited. "LOOK AT THESE! THEY ARE SO COOL!" Basically, this kid's earlobes are like 2x the normal size. They remind me of Buddha. They are either naturrally like that or they are that long from his parents pulling on his ears whenever he is bad. They are flappy and velvety smooth. Its really interesting. Freaky cool. Now that I think about it, I have seen Lynn touching his ears before, but I thought it was because he was doing something bad and she was yanking on them. Awesome.
After kindy, I headed home to wrap up Daisy`s present. As I was leaving for class, I came out into the living room where Robert was watching "The Prince of Egypt". Moses was out in the room and I heard some conversation going on. As I walked out, I was all like, "What you two fighting about now?" Nothing. Just teasing each other. I mentioned to Moses that a few years ago they had found proof that, given enough wind power, a very shallow path in the Red Sea could be uncovered. There were also some claims of people looking for equipment and weapons n stuff. Moses was like, "I heard that." Then he asked me, all upset like, "Have you ever heard of anyone attacking the Koran or other religious scriptures. They only seem to attack the Bible." "Well, if American scientists attack the Koran or anything else they are labeled racists. As far as the muslim world goes, its the back bone of their entire culture. So, no one attacks it." Why does he always ask me these stupid questions. I ain't all knowing. He's supposed to be the wise one. After that, I rode over to Daisy's place and Yumi said she would meet up with us at the resturant. We were heading to the Household Chinese Resturant. That huge place that I went to when I first got to China. Food was sooooo good. Dinner was really good. However, Daisy and her cousin kept running around and shrieking. The parents hardly doing anything. WHat a shame.
FOOD COMA!