Day 82

01/07

First day of July. Had three hours of teaching today. It’s always nice to teach new students. I had some new faces in my two classes for Longwin. Then, I had an English Corner class for some middle school students. In the last two weeks, I’ve only had the two kids in that class. And the class is usually 5pm – 6pm, which on a Sunday afternoon, I have the least energy. This time, since it’s Summer Holidays, a few more kids had come and I found myself having more energy to teach – despite the new kids not wanting to speak. Summer holidays should be a time to relax and let loose, but for Chinese students, there’s not much rest time because they have to prepare for next year’s classes. English classes ramp up. Students will take any extra classes to get ahead of their classmates.

Today, I forgot my keys before I left home – you can’t open the door from the outside without a key. Luckily, I gave some spare keys to my uncle and aunty so that I could collect them in case something like this happened. So, I collected some keys from my aunty’s restaurant, had dinner and decided that I wanted to exercise and shoot some hoops. I usually like to shoot hoops on my own because it’s a bit of ‘me’ time and I want to improve my skills. I should probably start playing with strangers and being more social.

After a sweat session, some mates called me out to Arcano. Rory, a fellow Aussie was also there, and it would be the last time I get to hang out with him before he leaves for Saudi Arabia permanently. We chatted about Melbourne, played some darts and watched Russia upset Spain in penalties. If it couldn’t get any worse, my mate Chris told me that Arcano was about to close in two weeks.

Apparently, management want to rebrand the bar into something more classy (which in business means upping the prices of beers). It wouldn’t make sense for my mate to continue running this bar because most of his business comes from the expat community who are about affordable drinks.

Arcano was like my one constant every week. Quiz night. Footy. Mates. It was something I looked forward to. Now quiz night has officially ended for the summer. It’s about to be shut down. One of my very few mates here is leaving. It’s not the best situation. But then I thought, this is a great chance to get out of my comfort zone and meet new people and hang out at new places. There are a lot of bars that I haven’t been to. In fact, I felt like I could do everything within a 10 minute walk from my place – I got comfortable real early. Hopefully, I can have some new experiences in the future and get off my lazy ass to go to new places.

Day 81

30/06/18

Woke up early yesterday morning so I decided to put on a film. The Dark Knight Rises. One of my favourite films of all time. The narrative. The music. The one-liners. The pit. My favourite scene is at the very end when Batman has to take the nuclear bomb over the bay to save the people and Jim Gordon wants Batman to reveal himself so Gotham knows who its hero is. ‘A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a young boys shoulders to let him know that the world hadn’t ended.’ And that’s when Jim realises it’s Bruce Wayne. So. Good.

Afterwards, I watched a bit of the footy. My boys Carlton were playing Port. Kade Simpson, a Carlton legend was playing his 300^th, so I had to show him some respect by putting on the TV. Only lasted until about half time before I called it quits on the game. We always have a great first quarter but it goes downhill from there. 

Taught three hours of classes. Back to back. I enjoy teaching public lectures because it’s usually very interactive and people are engaged.

Dinner at a hotpot place with a friend of mine. I was able to get a 20% discount using my long-expired student card, which was a bonus. Caught a Didi in a taxi. Business is rough. Taxi driver got me to download another app so he can earn an extra 2 RMB. It’s a struggle for taxi drivers. Their business is being eaten up by the ride sharing apps. On the way home, it just started bucketing down with rain. I had the World Cup to look forward to. France v Argentina was a cracking game. 4-3. Lots of goals, lots of drama. Had a two hour break after the game until the next one so I started rewatching Suits and realised how good it is. Uruguay vs Portugal. Fell asleep half way through only to wake up 2-1. Messi and Ronaldo both out of the World Cup tonight. Shows that it’s truly a team game and one man can’t do it all.  

Day 77-80

26.06.18 - 30.06.18

I'm unable to recall in detail what happened during these days. I'll give it my best shot.

I had some classes. My Wednesday class - I just chilled with my classmates because we had nothing to cover and they have a test next week that I have 'helped' them prepare for. My Thursday class is declining in numbers every week and this week, my class was all females. The class is at 530pm to 730pm so people tend to be more disengaged and tired. We decided that the book is super uninteresting and instead, I'll show a movie or TV show and we can analyse that for the next class to make it a bit more exciting.

There was a funeral proceeding for Helen two days after I found out. I decided not to attend. It was still too raw for me. I will honour her in my own way when I'm ready. I went to get a haircut in the same area as Helen's place but I couldn't get myself to walk into her neighbourhood.

Some time in between, I started learning how to cook some Chinese cuisine from Baidu. My goal is to be able to cook some decent dishes for when my mum comes down in a few months.

I also went to a popular bookstore called Libraire Avant-Garde on Guangzhou Road near Nanjing University. It's located in an old carpark, and has a pretty cool vibe about it in terms of interior design. Although every book was in Chinese, I couldn't have left this bookstore without buying a book. Luckily, I found the business and economics section and found a book called from 'Made in China to Created in China'. This was a topic that I was deeply interested in. The rebalancing of China's economy from a low-cost manufacturing country to a knowledge-based economy. It might take me a whole year to read this book but I have to start somewhere right?

Day 76

25.06.18

I was eating lunch by myself downstairs when I received a WeChat message from my friend Helen's account saying that Helen had passed away. This is was in response to one of my messages asking her how she was going.

I froze. I went empty. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't even eat anymore. It was only a couple of days ago when she came over to my house to chill and got me some ice tea because it was a hot day. We talked about her situation. She was still super depressed but I always convince myself and try to convince her that she would get better. I told myself, at least she was leaving the house and away from thinking really bad thoughts. At least she was distracting herself and having a laugh around me - which wasn't the case when I first saw her. She had been on medication - to regulate her emotions, to stop her from doing unthinkable things. Now, the unthinkable has happened.

I'm struggling to come to terms to it. It was just so sudden. And I thought to myself: why does this happen to me? 23 year old kid, who initially just wanted to catch up with a woman that I had met a couple of months ago, who was the daughter of my mum's good friend. Initially, it was just supposed to be a catch up. I've just moved to Nanjing - she's from Nanjing. Makes sense to catch up,

Then, I was thrust into her situation. She told me about her depression. Is it fair for me to know this? I'm just a guy, who doesn't really know her, now she's told me something very personal about her life. Could I have not cared? Maybe. But as anyone would do, you want to try to give some support. You don't want to think yourself as the saviour but someone who can be there when others can't, because if you have hope, you think that even the smallest bit can help.

So I got to know her a bit more and found out a lot about her personal life. She told me that the first time we met, she was putting on a show - she seemed happy and she brought her son along. In fact, she had already decided to divorce at that stage - her mood was far from happy. I would check up on her often, whether it was via WeChat, or in person.

I felt like I was one of very few people who actually knew and understood how she felt before she died. Maybe I was the only one to know. She said she felt uncomfortable speaking about her true feelings to her friends because she'd feel embarrassed and lose face. Since I'm almost a stranger, she told me everything. She told me her mum couldn't understand her too, and there were some details that she'd left out when speaking to her mum. She had lost all hope. It was a personality issue. Someone who had had a relatively comfortable and smooth-sailing life and never dealt with serious challenges, faced a challenge that was too overwhelming for her to handle. She wasn't mentally strong enough. She couldn't control herself in the end.

It's weird because I feel separated but invested at the same time. Separation because I don't really know her and I never will. Invested because I knew her in her final state and the state that she died in.
So back to my own question: Why me? It will forever be part of my experience here. It's something that was put in front of me and something that I have to learn from. It is what it is and we have to move on from it. Let her be an example of how not to handle adversity. Let her remind us that we need to confront our own demons instead of trying to avoid and escape from them.

RIP Helen 23.06.18.

Day 75

24.06.18

Long day of classes today. 9am to 6pm. Accidentally taught a kid for two hours instead of one - at least he gets his money worth. Surprisingly, I wasn't so tired after class so I decided to pick up some Sichuan special meat on the way home and have a healthy dinner at home. There were still some vegetables sitting in the fridge so I cooked some of them and made some congee with my rice cooker. It was a nice change having dinner at home - I've been eating out 99% of the time here in Nanjing.

Day 74

23.06.18

Chilled with my friend Joy for half the day before having classes in the afternoon. After grabbing some dumplings for dinner, I went to Arcano to watch the footy and World Cup. It was busy that night so I did my bit behind the bar during the busy periods. A crowd of people had come to the bar after the wedding so lots of traffic. Some people thought I looked like a high school student. I get that a lot here with how casually I dress and how young I look.

Day 73

22.06.18

I honestly don't remember what I did on Friday. I would have set up my rice cooker. Bought some groceries. Went to the bar to watch the World Cup. There was a prom after-party at the bar - full of 18 year olds who had just graduated high school, having their final drinks together before everyone parts ways. It's different here in China. Everyone in the class came to this celebration. The classmate relationship is much stronger here than anywhere I've been. You would never have this in Australia - maybe it's because we change classes every year so it's more difficult to build bonds that run this deep. So many of these guys already smoking and drinking as well. They start them young here.

Day 72

21.06.18

Went into the office in the morning because I was bored. Rode the bike in 30 degree weather in my chinos. Not the greatest idea. Chatted some shit with my colleagues then had to jump across to my other school to teach a class about maturity. Chinese people's concept of maturity is different from Westerners. Chinese people think you've reached maturity when you hit 30 - most students in the class had that idea.

Usual class on Thursday night at another factory. Boring topic for the textbook. Polished it off in 40 minutes. Second half of the class decided to get the students to pair up and have a conversation about their ideal professions. On my one hour cab ride back to the city, I had Australia vs Denmark on my phone. Australian National Anthem was belted out at the stadium. Decent result though (1-1), still a chance to progress!

Day 71

20.06.18

Had class first thing in the morning. My VIP student, who I went to watch the game with the other night, wanted a final lesson with me before he left to his hometown Shanghai. He wanted to know about the slang of Western culture, which I'm very well-versed in, so it was a productive lesson.

Then, I had lunch with Shirley, one of my first friends here who I haven't seen for a while. She has her graduation ceremony tomorrow for Nanjing University and has found work in Suzhou. Almost immediately after graduating, she will transition into full-time work. And to think that I took a gap year because I didn't feel 'ready' to work. Chinese people are just bred differently. She said she officially starts in August but her manager told her to come early to 'adjust' to the company - I suspect so that when she officially starts, she can add value. It took me almost 3 months to settle in to Telstra before adding any kind of 'value'. So she's telling me about her boyfriend who she just started dating and he's already talking about future plans and she's feeling a bit freaked out because their relationship is still quite raw and her life is undergoing some big changes. They're going to have to do long distance as well - after only dating for a month! It's crazy how this guy is already thinking quite ahead given the situation - and I think it's common in Chinese culture to do so.

After my class at Jiangning, one of my students was kind enough to send me closer to the city. During the car ride, I found out that her little sister is living in Melbourne and is a professor of actuarial studies at the Faculty of Business and Economics at Melbourne University. What a coincidence!

When I got to soccer training, I was glad to see my friend Andrew who I hadn't seen in a long time, rock up. The weather was perfect for football and I sweated a river running around, which was good since I've been a bit lazy the past two weeks during the time my brother came over.

Day 70

19.06.18

Today was my brother's last day in Nanjing. I was really happy to see him here despite maybe not showing it in person. We've had our differences in the past and we're completely different people but we had some good quality brotherly bonding time during his stay. He got to see how I live my life here and met some of the people that I surround myself with. It was important for me to show him what I was about because sometimes he doesn't fully understand.

After seeing my brother off, my uncle, aunty and I went back to my place to check out what was wrong with the light in my living room. Basically, it hasn't worked for the last few weeks and I really haven't been bothered to fix it (as I have a desk light in the living room that works fine). Turns out it is a LED light that I need to get replaced.

The weather today was shocking. Raining and hot. There's a season for this type of weather - Huang Mei Season and it's usually in April and May, in the middle and lower reaches of the Chang Jiang River but this year, it has come late according to the locals. Expect more of this type of weather soon.

I ended up just chilling at home until I had class from 7-9. I ordered takeaway dumplings because they're one of the few foods that doesn't really lose it's taste when delivered. For my classes tonight, we talked about our personalities and the second class was about food and cooking. Following on from that theme, I bought myself an electric rice cooker on Taobao. Originally 599, reduced down to 159. Absolute bargain. Part of the 618 promotions. First year anniversary of JinDong or something.

Day 69

19.06.18

Woke up surprisingly without a big headache. Today is a public holiday - Dragon Boat Festival. My brother wanted to eat pork skin noodles for the final time, so I ended up taking him to a joint I used to always eat at. I completely forgot that it was a public holiday and the place was a family-run joint so it was closed for the day. We ended up having shitty dumplings next door but had a great chat about my life in Nanjing and my plans for the future.

At night, we had a dinner with my aunty's family in Gulou. It took ages to find a cab at 6pm on a public holiday because of the high demand and limited supply. Dinner was in a big private room with about 12 people. The tradition is to eat 5 red foods on this day: Crayfish, Salted duck eggs, Amaranth, Eel? can't think of the rest. Definitely felt red though with the red wine bottle that I polished off. It felt good to have this family-like atmosphere outside of home.

Post-dinner, I wanted to take my brother out for the last time before he goes back tomorrow. So we went to Arcano to watch Sweden vs Korea, played some darts and I got to try a Coopers Session Ale that's just come in to China. Afterwards, we went down to Tap Planet to watch the Belgium game on the big screen. 0-0 at half time and I felt absolutely fucked. I think the constant night drinking and the lack of sleep these past few days finally caught up to me.

Day 68

17.06.18

Today, I took my brother to eat at the stall in my neighbourhood - trying to give him the most authentic experience as a local. Then, we went back to mine to watch some footy before I got a call from one of our friends asking us to meet him in town. So I used this opportunity to give him another authentic experience by getting us some bikes and riding into town. He wasn't used to the lack of traffic rules and the recklessness of e-bike and bike riders on the roads. We went down to Golden Eagle to buy some snacks for my brother to bring back to Melbourne. He spent around 500RMB as if it was nothing.  In the afternoon, I had to take an English corner class. Two kids, about 13-14 years old, Year 7 and planning to go to Australia in 2-3 years. Their English speaking skills were great and we talked about their hobbies and sports in Australia.

At night, we had hotpot with my aunty and cousin. Although my uncle and aunty are divorced and my uncle remarried, they still have a practical relationship. Later, that night, one of my students invited me out to 1912 to watch the Germany vs Mexico game. When I got there, it looked a lot nicer to the last time I went (2014) but it still felt shady as shit and there were still people harassing you to go to their bars. The bar we went to required a 600 minimum spend. My student and his friends ordered Hoegaarden, absolute rubbish beer. The game was also absolutely rubbish. Ended up just smashing the beer and darts because the game was so shit. When the game was over, I was drunk and tired. It was 1am. I just wanted to go home. Check my Didi app, and there's 90 people in front of me in the queue with an estimated wait time of 50 minutes. Fuck that. Got myself a bike and rode home with no regard for any road rules - just wanted to get home as soon as possible.

Day 67

16.06.18

Today, my uncle took us to visit my grandma's burial ground in Jiangning. The cemetery was massive - biggest in Nanjing apparently. There was barely any space between tombstones because there were just so many. The average price of the tombstones on the higher ground was around 90,000RMB. My grandma's tombstone was at the highest ground on the cemetery. She had chosen her burial ground on her last visit to Nanjing. She wanted it to overlook the mountains and nature. We bought some flowers on the way to the cemetery and cleaned/sweeped the tomb. We picked apart the flowers and spread across the tomb so that the workers there couldn't reuse our flowers.

After lunch, we drove to the area where my brother grew up - Sanpailou Main Street. Uncle took me to eat some fried dumplings while my brother got a haircut. Helen came over to chill out. That night we had dinner with family friend Uncle Chen in a private room on Level 10 of Litchi Plaza overlooking Catherine Park. Most occasions, he'll take people to this restaurant, where he has his own waiters and waitresses. The dinner was amazing as usual, except for the fact that it coincided with Australia vs France, which meant I missed out on the opportunity to go cheer on the Socceroos with my Aussie mates, despite the disappointing result. 

Day 66

15.06.18

Uncle Ken invited us out to eat some Zhejiang cuisine (very popular right now). Waited about 1 hour to eat at this Zhejiang place in Deji Plaza, the one that always has long as lines. To be completely honest, I wasn't the biggest fan of it - not worth the wait. They had some good rice wine though - very easy to down as it tasted like sweet water.

After lunch, I made my way to the office to do some work and kill some time until dinner time when my uncle would be taking us to Jiangning to have dinner with one of his army mates (whose 50th birthday I attended last week).

To show a bit of respect, I'll smash the cigarettes and alcohol with the uncles, despite the bad bowels. The red wine came out. I think I've had more red wine here than in Australia. I don't particularly like it but I prefer it over baijiu that's for sure.

Day 65

14.06.18

Candid chat with a rich Chinese mum
I spent 2 hours this morning meeting with the mother of one of my students, who wanted to talk about schools in Melbourne. We really had a good conversation, talking about her son's education and upbringing, her hopes and dreams for her son in the future, to talking about how easy it is to buy ecstasy in Chinese clubs... Oh, and she reminds me of Karlie Kloss!

What else did I do today?
- Took my bro out to lunch at the famous noodles joint near work
- 2 hour interview class with Daisy - she's improving and I'm confident she'll do well!
- 2 hour class at another factory - I got my students to create the perfect date and present it to the class
- Got my brother to come to quiz night at Arcano, where he met most of my mates in Nanjing and got to witness some of the tomfoolery that happens there every Thursday night

Day 64

13.06.18

New hospital experiences
You really get to experience the crowdedness of China in one of its local hospitals. People are running around. Queues at every window. I had booked an appointment to see a specialist at 10am. Didn't see my name on the screen for 45 minutes. Realised that I had to swipe my card in first to check in, then they'd be able to take me. Otherwise, the next spot goes to the people without a booking. So I had this sample of shit in my bag lying around for 45 minutes without even knowing. Had to go downstairs to another level to get my shit sample tested and wait for the results. Specialist tells me to take 'some' meds. I go downstairs to the pharmacy and give them the prescription: in return I get boxes of pills and powders that I have to take 3 times a day. Not really what I was expecting for 'some meds'.

What else did I do?
- Had lunch with Helen
- Two hour interview class with my student Daisy
- Two hour class at the factory where I brought my students some TimTams! They liked it very much! I told them that they had to do a test. They told me that if they don't pass the test, they don't get back their 2000RMB deposit from their company. In that case, I'll make sure everyone passes!
- One of my students gave me a lift back to the area, which was very nice of him.

Day 63

12.06.18

Back to classes again!
So I got a request from my school to take on a student who needed urgent help to prepare her for an interview with a college called Xi-An Liverpool Jiaotong University. It's a group interview with 7 other Chinese students and they're asked to discuss a topic and come up with a conclusion without the help of the examiners. Unlike typical Chinese group interviews where the most impressive is the one who can convince his peers that his opinion is the best, this Western style interview is all about finding a way to work as a team to produce an outcome. This should be an interesting class!

• Took my bro to eat at Nanjing Impressions with one of the aunties
• Showed Aunty Xi how to use WeChat Pay and took them to Maan Coffee Chic Hills (best and largest cafe I've been to in Nanjing)
• Visited my best mate Doc at the hospital again. I feel like I've been hanging out at the hospital more than anywhere else these last few days...
• Enjoyed a classic Nanjing meal - pork skin/ pork kidney noodles
• Taught a few hours of classes and rode back home

Day 62

11.06.18

Finally a day of doing nothing

My brother's coming up to Nanjing tonight so I'm looking forward to seeing a familiar face. I spent the afternoon watching the Queen's Birthday clash between Melbourne and Collingwood at Tap Planet. Weather was peaking in Nanjing. Was a good match for the first three quarters. Then, I went to the hospital to catch up with old mate Doc and get some more antibiotics for my bowels. Then I rode my bike to my aunty's restaurant and went with my uncle to the railway station to pick up bro bro. We gave him a tour of the restaurant, my place and then his hotel. 

Day 61

10.06.18

7 out of 7 in the week.
7 consecutive days of teaching. Grindin'. Sunday mornin'. 9am. Rode the bike to work. Good weather. Sweat all over my back. Ready to teach. 2 hour session. 1 kid. Smashed through the lesson.

Gaokao
We had about half an hour left before the session finished. The kid, Jack, a year 10 boy, said he was preparing for finals in a few days. The school had organised classes this Sunday afternoon to prepare them, so he was about to go to class after mine.

Talked about the Gaokao - the college entrance exam that stops the nation. It's been happening the last few days actually. We talked about how it works.

Three main areas: Chinese. Maths. English.
Highest possible score respectively: 160. 120. 120.
Highest total score: 400.
Highest score attained: 390.

Top 20% get into Level 1 universities.
Next 20% get into Level 2 universities.
Rest get into the lower universities. Or something like that

Nanjing's best high school: Foreign language school. 90% of students get admitted to colleges before the gaokao. Therefore, gaokao is not required for those kids. It is also the hardest school to get into. Year 9 entry. There is an associated middle school in Year 7.

The Jiangsu exam is probably the hardest exam: Nantong High Schools have some of the best students in China (the culture is crazy - students have classes every day) - so they make it harder for students in this area.

There's also a bit of affirmative action going on. Provinces like Tibet, Xinjiang get easier tests and easier entry into the top universities. There's a joke that you can sell your house in your current province and buy a house in Tibet just to get easier tests - it truly is a test that can decide your future.

Day 60

09.06.18

So I've hit the two month mark of my stay in China.

No more NBA
Woke up this morning after a bad nights sleep to some rain and when the rain stopped, and a very very loud fight between two men that I assume woke up the whole neighbourhood (at 7am in the morning). I'm on the top floor so I've got a good view of everything that's going on and when the fight started, people started to pop their heads out of their windows. A lot of expletives were used and the screaming match lasted a good 5 minutes before people restrained them. I was eagerly waiting for Game 4 of the NBA finals, believing that the Cavs could win one game at home. That was not to be. Lebron is definitely leaving in the summer.

Saturday afternoon classes
Three classes today.

1. Upper intermediate - we talked about the pros and cons of online shopping. 
2. High school - there are these really cute Year 7 kids, 4 girls and 1 guy, who are just a treat to teach. They're always having fun in class and everyone contributes. Their English is also amazing for kids in Year 7. 
3. Free talk - this is a public lecture where I'm just facilitating discussion, we went through topics ranging from food safety in China, weekend activities...

On a side note, I'm beginning to make a name for myself at this school. There are always students who come up to me to talk and to ask when my next class is so they can attend.

Positive thinking please!
After class, I went to my friend's house for dinner. She had just come back from a trip to Yunnan to get away from all her problems here. She told me she went to the hospital and the doctor still told her to take pills. She's still being very very very pessimistic about life.

A new level of intimacy
My bowels felt so done at my friend's house that I felt like I needed to visit the hospital. Texted old mate Doc and she told me she was working. I had nothing else to do on a Saturday night, so why not get my poo tested? My friendship with Doc has entered a new level. She now knows everything about my bowel movements and has seen my poo! Talk about great bonding.

Day 59

08.06.18

Office Mike
I'm doing work for some education company that has a really nice office in Xinjiekou and the people there are pretty social, so I decided to bring my work (for my main school) to their office and do it there. The offices of my main school are in an old building, they look terrible and no one really socialises, whilst this office is in a new building, there are Western toilets and the colleagues here are young. It's a great way for me to interact with some locals and practice my Chinese speaking skills.

Friday night teaching
During the afternoon, I got asked by my school to take on a few classes at night. Since, I had nothing to do, I accepted. I have mad respect for people who will go to school on a Friday night after work to learn English - I think it's admirable and it makes me want to help them even more.

Day 58

07.06.18

China's got me good

My bowels are absolutely done here. The oils, the hygiene here... got me good.

NBA with my student

Literally spent the two hours watching NBA Game 3 with my kid - had no motivation to teach him anything. Had to prepare for this corporate class I had in the afternoon, which I needed to make a good impression on.

Stay true to myself. 

So they've got me going to the sticks again for another corporate class. This is for a company called Jibao, they manufacture iPads and other electronics. Today, I would be teaching a bunch of workers who are in charge of foreign business trips to the factory - so they have to use English in their work. My colleagues told me that the corporate culture was quite strict and demanding and that they have this manager who sits in on the lessons to see if the teacher is doing a good job. Today, when I got there, I saw a crowd of people walking about the campus.  At the security gate, I had to wear a yellow vest to get in too. When I got taken to the room, it was like one of those really nice conference rooms that you'd expect an executive board meeting would take place. I could already feel the tension. And it got even more tense when the students started coming in. I saw that everyone was older and they were all giving me weird faces. I tried to make conversation with them but no one really wanted to talk. I was expecting the manager to come in any second, look at me, then tell me to leave. Surprisingly, that didn't happen. I thought to myself: I have to stick true to my values as a teacher and not let the environment control how I teach - if they didn't like my style of teaching then bad luck. 做自己. They told me to stick closely to the textbook. They told me not to speak Chinese. Broke all the rules within the first hour. I tried to engage everyone with the topic but no one found it interesting. They told me that they didn't enjoy the textbook and would rather do something a bit more fun. So I spent the second half of the lesson, talking about something completely unrelated to business English. We talked about travelling and our favourite places to travel. I figured that these guys get smashed during the day and then they have to learn another two hours of English at the end of their day? I would also be tired and disengaged if I was forced to learn something about email structure and formality. There was a chick from HR who came in half way and took photos of the class - I only found out at the end of the class that she was there to keep tabs on me. This didn't concern me because I showed that I could keep the students engaged until the end. After class, I had a good conversation with the HR girl and felt like she had a good impression of me. That's when I knew that I had earned my place there next week. I can't get complacent though, I have to think of new and interesting topics to teach to earn my spot as a starter. 

Day 57

06.06.18

Ya too old.
So I woke up early just to help train this kid for his interview with Geelong Grammar. One minute into the interview and he's been told he's too old for Year 10, and that if he were to get into the school, he'd be in Year 11 (and that would be too hard for him since his English is poor). I spoke to his mum, who legit looked like a posh mum. She was telling me how she has a 188 visa to Aus, an investment visa (where I later found out that you have to invest like 5m into Australia to get it). What it means specifically is that her kid isn't an international student when he goes to Australia - he can apply for public schools as well. So it's back to the drawing board for this kid, he has to improve his AEAS (English competency) score from 44 to 70, which is quite a fair jump. Good luck to the kid.

Perfect date
Did a fun exercise today with my students for the second half of the class. I decided to change things up by running a mini competition with a prize for the winner. I also wanted an interesting topic, something that could get the students engaged, so I chose 'Create the perfect date in Nanjing'. There was a presentation at the end, including an explanation as to why the date was perfect. I was really happy to see everyone invested in it and having a bit of fun. When everyone presented and spoke, I was proud to hear all the creative responses and proud of them for speaking for such a long time. I guess this is the feeling that teachers get when their students do well.

Put some respeck on it
As always, I was excited to play some football after my class. This time my friend didn't come so I was there on my own. We played a little round robin with 3 teams of 6 and kept switching after a few goals. I feel like I'm getting a bit more respect from the others, now that I've been there the past few weeks.

Day 56

05.06.18

7 hours of classes today.

• 1000: VIP 
• Spent the two hours talking about Western culture to the guy who's going to Canada for study. We went through Canada national sports: Lacrosse and Ice Hockey, famous Canadians (Drake), some hip-hop artists, Canadian cuisine (just poutine) and tipping (didn't know they also had a tipping culture)... Felt like I was the student today
• 1400: Pre-departure class
• The kid whos going to Ringwood finally wanted to learn something useful: he wanted to know how to say a solid self-introduction
• Then, I helped him set up Facebook, Instagram and Tinder and taught him some useful Internet slang
• Then we just listened to Western music and watched Victoria Secret fashion show
• 1600: Pre-departure class 2
• So the day before, I got an urgent request to teach this 15 year old kid who's about to go to Geelong Grammar School for Year 10 and has an interview with them tomorrow - they wanted me to prepare him. 
• Anyway, they got me to fill out a pre-interview questionnaire, pretending to be his mum and answer all these questions like ‘Describe your son's hobbies and interests’ or 'What is he like with interpersonal relationships'
• I found out that the kid is very impressive: he does swimming and tennis twice a week, can play the piano and saxophone, has won a National Award for traditional Chinese painting - thinking back to when I was 15... 

Nanjing is small?

So I never thought I'd bump into someone I know since there's just so many people and like what are the odds? When I was walking out of the shopping centre in Xinjiekou today, I bumped into a former colleague from Sanpower, who had literally just left the company and was about to move to Shanghai within the next two weeks. She told me that she had landed the gig not too long ago (since I last saw her on her last day a few days ago and she hadn't found anything) - again, I have a lot of respect for someone who can just pack their bags and go. I keep meeting people who make these kind of choices and it sometimes puts things into perspective for me - maybe it really isn't such a big deal moving over here (people do it on the reg).

Day 55

04.06.18

Full day of classes again.

• 1450: Upper intermediate private class
• Two students, didn't follow the textbook and instead focused on oral English
• 1800: Interview
• Purpose of this class is for anyone looking to transfer to a higher level of class - they have to pass an 'interview'. No one rocked up. I still get paid.
• 1900: Beginner class
• Didn't look at the textbook again and just chatted to the students. They thought I was a student when I walked in. Everyone was shocked that I was the teacher - took them 5 minutes to register what was happening. 
• 2000: Advanced private class
• Two chicks who I'm familiar with because I've taught them a few times. They're best friends and today we talked about the pros and cons of one of the girls who was thinking about moving back home. Was more of a deep and meaningful chat than an actual class

Livin paycheck to paycheck
Finally got paid today as well!!! My bank balance was looking real grim this morning. I had 20RMB in the account so I was sweatin for a while. Can finally treat myself (a little).

Keep!
Felt super tired after finishing work. Got home at 930pm. What did I do? Go for a run. Was super hot too. About 25 degrees. Really chasing those endorphins. Downloaded an app called Keep - it's THE fitness app to use in China. 3km run. Absolutely wrecked afterwards. Needed an hour just to cool off.

Day 54

03/06/18

Woke up with the taste of baijiu in my mouth. Really good weather though. 28 and Sunny. Walked down the stairs to see the remnants of the projectile. Liam invited me over to his place to watch the footy. Had some pizzas and finished our ACYA proposal. Went home and polished off the last few episodes of "Women in Shanghai"

Day 53

02.06.18 (Happy birthday to my uncle)

1050: English Corner
First class in the morning was a public class, supposed to be business related but ended up just talking random topics. It's hard to manage a public class when you've got beginner level and advanced level all in your class.

1340: High School
An absolute pleasure teaching some Year 7 kids - they're all well-behaved and cute! Found out that I also teach one of the kid's father too - their whole family has Mr. Liu!

1450: Beginner
It was hard to get going when no one in this class wanted to speak - so I would sit there and stare at people until they spoke more. Always preaching my 'speak more' rule.

1600: VIP
Had a kid who was about to go to Canada to study a Masters and just chatted to him for two hours, got to know him and what he's about.

Finally finished class and there were 13 people in the queue outside work to get a cab - Saturday nights are always busy. Luckily my cab driver knew how to navigate the congested traffic (cut in whenever you can).

My uncle invited me to his army mate's 50th birthday - it was also my uncle's birthday. The baijiu came out - I had a lot. Held my own until about 9pm when I was in the taxi home. Got to the stairs of my apartment - 7 levels to climb. I made it to Level 5 and then it all came out - lots of it. Level 6, still had more in me. Felt like absolute shit. Smashed the hydralyte only for it to come out. Not the best way to end the night, feeling like shit and being in bed by 930.

Day 52

01.06.18

Free money

NBA finals game 1 was today but I knew I had to teach right in the middle of it. I took the cab from mine to the school (usually it’s a 15 minute bike ride) because I didn’t want to miss a second of it. I’m watching it in the classroom before my student comes in. I know he likes basketball so I had the game on when he came in. Immediately, he got excited and wanted to watch the whole game. 2 hours went by very quickly – at one stage we were screaming and celebrating, at the end of the game, none of us were in a mood to speak. Probably the best lesson I’ve ever taught here so far.

He’s just some kid who wants to enjoy his last month in China before going to Australia and not want to be in a classroom for it all so I completely get why he’s not really keen to learn anything. Anyway, we left class a bit early because he was hungry so he took me to some fried chicken place that he rates – but I reckon it’s very mediocre compared to what you can get in Melbourne. Afterwards, I spent the rest of the day in the office chatting to some colleagues and working on an ACYA funding proposal. My colleague gave me a loquat (枇杷) to try today, some fruit that looks a bit like a mini apricot – interesting taste.

A very quiet Friday night

Knowing that I have a whole day of classes tomorrow, I decided to take it very easy tonight and watch ‘Women of Shanghai’, which is exactly the same as ‘Women in Beijing’  but the main character lives in Shanghai now and not Beijing. It'll keep me busy tonight...

Day 51

31.01.18

Rodger That

Caught up with one of my mum’s friends and old neighbour from Nanjing. His name is Rodge and he’s now the CTO of a subsidiary company of ZTE. There’s a lot going on with ZTE and US-China relations, which have damaged the company’s reputation and has massive implications on the Chinese economy if negotiations fall through. He said that all business has stopped indefinitely until agreements can be reached on the national level – it’s quite rare to see a company stop everything that they’re doing because of a dispute between two countries. Anyway, with a lot of spare time, Rodge and I had a lot to talk about and he provided me with some good advice – he said that I remind him of himself when he was about my age, moved his life from Nanjing to the big city Shenzhen and lived there for 6 years. He epitomises ‘doing what you like’ as he’s been doing something that he enjoys ever since his university degree – he has no concerns over his potential job loss as a CTO because he will always find a way to do what he likes. I have great respect for someone who has that type of mindset.

Visiting my old colleagues

After my meeting with Rodge, I walked a few minutes to the Sanpower Headquarters to see my old colleagues. As always, they welcomed me as one of their own, despite me only working there for a week. It was one of the team member’s last day today, who had planned to go back home or to Shanghai. She had moved to Nanjing just for this job but because of some reasons decided that the work didn’t suit her. I later found out that she had become the secretary (or bitch) of one of the executives who treated her very badly and was super high maintenance e.g. taking out the garbage and picking up her deliveries. Not the best job to be doing if you’ve just graduated from a well-known foreign university.

Quiz night

Every Thursday is Quiz night at Arcano, and yes, it is something I look forward to – despite having never attended such a thing in Melbourne. Tonight, Rory did the quiz and put a lot of VCE GAT questions in the maths section - which brought back bad memories. There was a music section on the golden oldies, 90s and 00s, so not really my forte – but it got everyone belting out the lyrics – especially for Natalie Imbruglia’s ‘Torn’ – the modern day Australian National Anthem as Rory said. Towards the end of the night, after a parma and a few VBs, we were playing darts and listening to some Australian classics – it was a good feeling being around people who know the songs.

Day 50

30.08.18

Why go anywhere else for lunch?

My go-to place for lunch is actually just at the gate of my neighbourhood. There are a few carts/stands set up there during lunch time. At the first stand, you can order whatever you like and add whatever extras you want from all the dishes they place out on the table. Today, I went to the one next to it and it was for 盒饭 which is basically Chinese cafeteria style food. They have a wide selection of meat and vegetable dishes. The deal is choose 3 veg and 1 meat for 12RMB. You get a big bowl of rice in a steel bowl. There’s a huge tub of some soup (tomato and egg) which is self-serve. And you can even ask the guys to put some of the dishes sauce on top of your rice to make it taste better. All this for a very reasonable price and a filling meal. The only problem is food safety and cleanliness. Trade-offs…

Class out in the sticks

After lunch, I had the one-hour trip to the factory to teach my Business English class. I powered through the textbook stuff in the first hour and left the second hour as a ‘free talk’ sort of thing. We talked about the Internet and how it affects our lives – a very relevant topic in a society reliant upon their smartphones. I really felt the effects of being in the suburbs (I call it the sticks because there’s nothing around) – my phone had poor signal and I couldn’t find a Didi willing to take me into town – so I hitched a ride into some civilised areas from one of my students.

Day 49

29.05.18

NBA Finals decided. 
Houston Rockets couldn't get it done today, which was disappointing. They had a great start but kept missing the 3-ball. Curry had a signature third quarter eruption that won them the game. Keen for Game 1.

More disappointment.
I went to get my passport today and had been warned that my phone might be checked for some incriminating evidence (e.g. me working illegally). I get there and there's no dramas, I get my passport, have a look at the residency permit that's been stuck on. 6 months! This can't be right... my company applied for a year, why are they giving me 6 months??? Apparently, there were 'issues' with my company so I only got the permit for 6 months. Great. Now I have to find myself another job within 5 months. I've still got time but less time than I thought I'd have.

Day 48

28.05.18

Great start to the morning
Watching Lebron James carry the Cavs past the Cees at TD Garden - one of the all time great performances.

Cold noodles are the go
The weather is getting hot, so the noodles you eat have to be cold. The joint below my apartment does nice cold noodles for a very reasonable price. 16RMB for a big stack of cold noodles and a fat pork cutlet - that'll do me for lunch.

How spoilt can you get
So I took my first pre-departure class for this kid going to Australia. Walks in 15 minutes late. With his lunch. Munching down his hamburger with no regard. His name is Cat. He has his headphones in. His eyes don't leave his phone. This goes on for the next 2 hours. I've never taught someone so disengaged and look like they don't want to be there. He'll be going to Ringwood Secondary College for Year 10. He'll be taking classes from Hawthorn-Melbourne English language school when he's over here. He tells me that he heard that Ringwood is a mountain area. He doesn't take off his headphones through the whole lesson. He said that he just went clubbing last night, was smoking and drinking and left the club at 4am, slept at KFC until he had class this morning. This kid is 15. His parents are paying for all these classes to prepare him for the Australian schooling system - this kid couldn't give less of a fuck. Anyway, I knew I couldn't really force him to learn what I wanted to teach so I used this opportunity to learn more about this kid.

He taught me about the tables that you could book in club. There are two choices: 1) 开招待 - requires no expenditure, only requires you to get there early and bring a few people and sit down, they will give you free sports drinks. 2) 开消费卓 - requires you to pay money. I assume the first tables are given out to give the impression that the club is busy. It concerns me that there are 15 year olds getting into these sort of clubs - getting into bars and clubs in Nanjing is very lax, they don't check your ID - I've also never seen bouncers.

So I'm with this kid for another 11 lessons. I don't think he'll change his ways. It'll be a good way for me to earn some easy money regardless, and maybe get Cat to teach me a thing or two about Nanjing

More classes
So I got called on last minute to take a few classes at night. Intermediate and Advanced. My first class was on the Internet. It was a very enjoyable class because there was good contributions from all my students. The second class was good too, only a pair of girls and we decided to scrap the book and just have a conversation. The girls are actually very close friends - both are not from Nanjing and met each other 3 years ago because they work at the same company, KIA. Now, they're roommates and classmates. One of them told me that she just found a job to go back home and we talked a lot about their futures. I was moved by how much they valued each other as friends here, especially both coming here not knowing anyone and becoming best friends in this new city. Now that one is leaving, they were expressing how sad it was. It was a touching moment.

FIFA night
After a couple of hours of classes, I headed to Arcano where they were having a FIFA competition to have a beer. Met some new people over there and stayed a few hours before calling it a night. Very busy day!

Day 47

27.05.18

Life discussions over dumplings
My friend Shirley just landed a job as a law graduate at a government office located in a new industrial zone in Suzhou, so we had lunch at a different alley near mine. When I rode down this alley at night to get late-night snacks, I would always see this dumplings restaurant packed, so we decided to check it out.

My friend told me of her interview process. Get to the centre in the morning, phones are taken. First, it's a written test. After the written test, only the top 5 candidates are selected through to the interview, a kind of panel discussion. She came third in the written but ended up coming first in the final stage. Although she is happy, she wasn't 100% set on Suzhou, despite it having good salary and conditions. She wanted to see if she could get into the department of a big enterprise here (even though the conditions are worse and pay is shit) - the reputation and size of your company is hella important when considering a job - especially your first.

After lunch, we walked a few minutes and what do you know, a new bubble tea place has opened up. Add this place to the 5 already different bubble tea joints within a 100m radius. It was quite busy since there was a promotion going on - buy one and pay half for the second. Most people were only there because of the promotion. The new joints opening up are all very similar too - the tea isn't that great but the overall aesthetic looks nicer and cleaner. What I got was rubbish, I was very tempted to walk 50m to get a 一点点 bubble tea.

A quiet day
I spent this nice and sunny afternoon finishing my drama Women in Beijing. The ending was quite abrupt and I was left a little disappointed. Then I got dinner delivered to me. After dinner, I went to the basketball courts to shoot some hoops.

Day 46

26.05.18

NBA takes priority
Woke up in the morning to watch Lebron put in a historic performance in Game 6 of Cavs vs Celtics - so glad that I watched the whole thing - he was hitting these impossible threes and I was just screaming out of my balcony. During the game, I get a text from my company asking if I could take a class in 30 minutes - I was considering doing it since it would be extra money but I decided that I couldn't miss a second of the game. 

First time teaching on campus
Today would be my first classes on campus - 3 classes from 2pm to 5pm without any rest. The way the system works in this company is that students don't get the same teacher every week - this is so that they can get used to different accents and different teaching styles. What this means is my classes next week might not have the same students as this week. Personally, I'm not a fan because it is more difficult to build rapport with your students when they're not with you every week. 

• Anyway, my first class was Upper Intermediate level. 4 students, all female. Most of them in mid 20s and early 30s. Their topic was 21st century entertainment. I decided to scrap what was in the textbook and talk about some more useful stuff. 
• My second class was for Beginners. 7 students, 5 females, 2 males. Almost all were high school students and one was like 30. The topic was food and drink. The students were definitely more confident in speaking English than my first class, even though their level was slightly lower (but not as bad as I had imagined).
• My third class was a public lecture. About 20 students in the class. Average age around 35-40. Everyone there wanted to learn English for their work. With the lessons, I can at least follow a textbook if I run out of ideas. With a public lecture like this, you really got to pull stuff out of your ass. My topic was Sports and Fitness. I bought some time by getting everyone to introduce themselves and letting them ask questions about my background - since no one can really come to terms with their English teacher looking Chinese. We talked about different sports, the benefits of sports, role models, etc. It was actually a very successful class because everyone wanted to contribute and it felt more like a discussion than a lecture. My role was more of a facilitator than a teacher, which is what I'm usually aiming for.

Inspired by my own classes
After 3 non-stop classes, I was well and truly drained. I was ready to call it a night, despite knowing that I have to be awake at 2.45am to watch the Champions League final and 9am to watch Game 6 of the Rockets v Warriors. Best way to wake up? Play some sport! At about 9.30pm, I headed to the nearest basketball courts and played some ball. Got home and chilled out, and before I know it, it's 2.30am. It was a shame that the game didn't really live up to my expectations and I was falling asleep after half time. 

Day 45

25.05.18

Something on the side...
I was introduced to a guy who runs an English language school in Nanjing, who was looking for an Aussie to run some pre-departure sessions for students who are about to study in Australia. Given that I'm not too busy, I thought it would be a good idea to make a bit of extra cash and to understand more about the lucrative industry of language schools. The owner has done very well for himself - he started off 6 years ago in a small office and now has two office floors as classrooms for students and is in the process of starting up an international school. Currently, I'll just be taking the one student, who is 14 and is about to go to Australia for high school. They want me to teach him about the lifestyle in Australia, which should be very cruisy. I start on Monday.

Note to self: Check weather forecast
The rain never eases in. It just starts going hard within seconds so you don't have time to prepare. When I was on my way home, the rain began to fall like crazy and I didn't bring an umbrella. Got absolutely drenched, from head to toe type of wet. It was a quiet night. Usually I'd be at the bar 5 minutes down the road watching the footy but decided to stay in and order takeaway, whilst watching a TV show called Women in Beijing - fun.

Day 44

24.05.18

Foot Massages 
So my friend wanted me to accompany her to get a foot massage/pedicure. Since I had no classes and had never done one before, I thought why the fuck not! It was actually not bad at all to get some treatment on those muscles that you use every day but kind of ignore. There were times where it hurt but after it all, you felt like you could sink into the sofa chair and enjoy a nice sleep... until you get called by your company to take on a class about 45 minutes away from town... in 2 hours... with a group of three 7-year old kids... who are apparently very loud and hard to control...I felt like I was a doctor on call, just always getting these last minute requests to teach - I was also given very late notice for my last class. Anyway, I was in a very YES mood that day so I accepted this challenge... which I later regretted.

FML
As with any travel you have to do outside the school, I had the luxury of having a colleague accompany me to the class for the 7 year olds. I never would have thought I'd cop the "Why is our teacher a Chinese dude?" but it happened. Not just the kids but the parents were WTFing as well. I've never wanted to leave as much as I did during that class. The kids were just so hyperactive and annoying - throwing books and toys at you, screaming their lungs out and just generally misbehaving. In my mind, I was thinking about the contrast between what I had yesterday (a bunch of well-behaved employees) to today (death). Literally, the longest hour of my life. I somehow managed to control the noise and get the kids to listen to me by setting up a points system, whereby whoever answers a question well (whoever behaves and shuts up) will get points - to which the total points will be tallied up and whoever is on the most points at the end of the lesson will get a star next to their name and the satisfaction of winning. You can't spoil these kids, they get spoilt enough by their parents. I don't think I can handle another class but I also think I have a choice - they will want me for next week.

Light at the end of the tunnel
So it was Thursday that night, which meant quiz night at Arcano - something that you can always rely on to relieve some stress. And that's exactly what I did. Couple of beers, some darts (the game and the ciggies) and some banter helped get me through what was a few hours of hell. It was the first time they trialled their burgers at the bar too, so got meself a quality burger too for dinner. Rory took us to some late night Xinjiang lamb skewers, which were very decent and the guy flipping the skewers was the whitest Chinese guy I've ever met - he was an Uighur, a minority in Xinjiang. They can speak like Russian, their Mandarin is terrible, they're Muslim, just a very interesting minority.

Day 43

23.05.18

And it's begun!
So I took my first class today. In front of 14 employees. For 2 hours. At a conference room in a factory about an hour away south of Nanjing in a district called Jiangning. The company was Nanjing High Speed and Accurate Gear Group Ltd Co. So my company organised someone to take me from the subway station to the factory and give me the lowdown on what the class is on. They said: You're the fourth teacher that's taught here. The first one, they didn't like his Indian accent. The second was a substitute teacher for a week, and the third (and most recent) has just taken leave for an extended period of time. You'll be their teacher for at least the next few weeks.

Great. So there's a bit of pressure on me to perform well. We get there and my colleague sends me to the gate and then goes back. I'm walking with the one in charge of the class and having a chat. The first reaction (and this happens every single time I teach a new class): "Why is our English teacher Chinese? He's supposed to be a foreigner."

Great. So not the best impression to begin with. It's 4pm, everyone's walking in and giving me weird looks. I'm also slightly intimidated that everyone is much older than me. So I start off with some introductions and get everyone to introduce themselves. Love breaking the ice. Then I ask the class what they're up to in the Business English course. I've prepared some materials based on what the company told me to prepare. I find out that they've already done the unit. Big stitch up.

Great. I've just prepared 2 hours of material that's already been covered. What do I do now? Do what I do best. Make up some bullshit. So I tell them: "Let's scrap the book. Let's talk about what you do for work and make sure you can be confident in talking about your work in English." Works an absolute treat. Everyone's getting involved. There's some good discussions happening. 2 hours goes by in a flash. Phew! I'm still not used to people calling me

It took ages to find a Didi back since it is literally a factory in the middle of nowhere - there was so much empty space - it was hard to comprehend ever since I started living in the city where there's a mini city within every little suburb.

My friend Andrew has invited me to play soccer with his work colleagues and I've been itching to play ever since I got here. The rooftop soccer pitch is very cool, it kind of reminds me of those ads in Tokyo on top of skyscrapers with the night lights - not as flashy but still a cool vibe. Good to have a kick and get the blood pumping.

Day 42

22.05.18

WeRun Update: 3411 steps

Truth.
My stay here just got a lot tougher knowing that one of my friends has depression. I was supposed to have dinner with her when I arrived in Nanjing and my friend would always push back on me saying that she was sick and this happened for the last few weeks. Until she told me she had depression - I later found out that she was in the middle of getting a divorce, she's lost all motivation to go to work and hasn't been to the office for months and she's losing custody of her two children. When I invited her to come over to have a chat, it really hurt me to see her in the state that she was. A couple of months ago, all seemed well when my mum and I met her for dinner - but little did I know that something serious was going down. She looked like a ghost and the way she talked - it was all negative, pessimistic, lost all hope in life and she sounded like she wanted to give up on life. She had been admitted to hospital and now is taking medications to control her mood (which I found very scary). Although, I wasn't close with her at all, when someone tells you something like this, you need to help out.

It really puts everything in perspective for me here. Everyone has their own issues, shit, I've got my own issues that I've been dealing with for a while now. You don't really think of the seriousness of it until it affects someone you know. In China, you can't really tell if people have mental health issues because here, people care about their face too much and they never want people to worry for them. It makes a lot of sense, but at the same time, the best way is to speak out.

I spent a whole day looking after and being there for my friend. I'm half her age and absolutely do not understand what it's like to go through these types of events. All I can do is be there for her and be a shoulder for her to lean on - because sometimes it's what people going through these types of issues really need. It's made me realise that sometimes we are really harsh on ourselves and we tend to look at things in a pessimistic light. When I was giving advice to my friend, I realised that I should also give the same advice to myself.

Our struggles make us who we are - if we didn't have hardship in life, our lives wouldn't be interesting - and if we didn't overcome our hardships, we wouldn't feel like we've achieved anything. Try telling that to someone who wants to leave everything behind, run away from her problems and drift away as if there was no life left in her. It hurts me seeing her like this but I truly believe she can get better and I hope I can at least bring some positivity and life back into her, even if it is for a short moment.

Why do we fall down? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up. 

Alfred says this to Bruce Wayne after he thinks he can't save Gotham anymore. Bruce replies with: "You still haven't given up on me." to with Alfred says "Never". During dark times, even the dimmest light can show you the way.

Day 41

21.05.2018

WeRun Update: 5264 steps

Lunch with Kenny
Thank god for competition in the ride-sharing industry here in China. I've been using Didi heaps and I've almost used up all my discount codes. Luckily, there's another player in town that's competing - Meituan Taxis. I'm meeting Uncle Kenny in the South Lake district where there's some good noodle joints and roast duck/salted duck shops. We get some duck and I've ordered some pork skin/pork kidney noodles (which was very delicious), then Kenny takes me to some sesame moon cake place which has a queue all day every day - also very tasty.

First class organised for Mr Liu
TESOL certificate has finally come through. They've asked me to run a 2 hr group training session for 16 people in Jiangning district (1 hour away from Nanjing). It'll be every Wednesday for the next three weeks, with the unit being on Telephoning. I've got my first classes at the school on Saturday - one beginner, one upper-intermediate and one public class (where I get to talk about a topic of my own choosing).

Getting me hair done
I struggle with having too much choice so I was having a hard time trying to find a salon to cut my hair, since you can find one on every street in Nanjing. To make the decision easier, I asked my uncle to take me to his salon (because I'm less likely to feel uncomfortable there and I've got my hair done there previously). I must say, it was a good experience. 1) The service wasn't over the top. 2) The hairdresser did not try to promote other services every second. 3) It was very cheap (50RMB) for a decent, no-frills wash, cut and dry. I'll take that any day of the week.

Day 40

20.05.2018 (Weekend in Shanghai)

WeRun Update: 9128 steps

China Footy
This morning, I went back to the ground to watch the AFL competition between the expats of different cities in China. There was the Beijing Bombers, Shanghai Tigers, Yangshuo Beerfish, Guangzhou Lions and two others. Beijing and Shanghai were all expats whilst the other teams were mostly locals. Although I didn't play, I did spend a lot of time having shots at goal and kicking it to other players who weren't on the field. The games were in AFLX format, on a soccer pitch - which I found really weird because I think it messes up the strategy. Anyway, the quality of footy wasn't amazing but I was very impressed with some of the skills of the locals. These are locals who had just picked up the game and still learning how to play but they attacked the ball hard and were very athletic and quick - which the older expats found trouble dealing with. They go to schools and colleges who specifically train them to play footy - and spend the rest of their time training their bodies - which means they're not easy to play against. Shanghai Tigers ended up winning the competition - they had the most talent and took their games very seriously with game plans and training sessions before the competition.

Expat Life
It was interesting to hear the stories and motivations of some of the expats who have been here for an extended period of time. I met this one woman who moved over here with her boyfriend, who had a goal in mind to work in Asia for 5 years. After working in Shanghai for a few years, they recently got a job offer to go to Singapore (from some people they met on holiday). I told her it's crazy how your career can change so quickly and coming from the most unexpected of circumstances. I've got a mate here who found a job in Saudi Arabia after being in Nanjing for 3 years. I have a lot of respect for people who can just move their whole lives to a different country when asked to. I think they would be used to moving around so it is just second nature for them.

Day 39

22.05.2018 (Weekend in Shanghai for the footy)

WeRun Update: 10324 steps

Today, I'll be heading to Shanghai to watch a match between Port Adelaide and Gold Coast. I actually never thought I'd be going to this, so I'm pretty pumped.

Got picked up by Liam's Didi at 7am for an 8am train to Shanghai, arriving at 940am. There's always lines at the railway ticket office to collect tickets (and we have to collect tickets there because we have passports), so foreigners can choose the shortest line and act like they don't know what's going on. I, on the other hand, could not get away with that because I look Chinese. Anyway, we didn't have to wait long because we went in the shortest line.

It is so hard to find a toilet at a railway station. What pisses me off is how big Shanghai Railway Station is - it's just so massive and inconvenient - and it took me ages to find a place to piss. Anyway, we're taking the subway to Jiangwan Stadium and along the way, I see a whole group of Port Adelaide supporters decked out in their complete gear - and they just look like your average Joe - and looked like they didn't belong in Shanghai. It was weird but almost comforting to see this in China - it gave me a feeling that I was on the train to Richmond about to head to the MCG to watch the footy.

We get to the ground and we meet up with the other volunteers (we will be pouring beers for the VIPs and making sure they are cold - unlike last year where the Chinese thought putting the beers on ice literally meant, putting the case on top of ice - so the beers were served warm). Anyway, there's no much activity outside the stadium, it doesn't look like there's going to be many people - looks like it's about to rain. Some kids are trying to kick the footy outside but it gets shut down by the police immediately - it's not the real footy vibe.

To get in the stadium, we pretend to be staff of the hotel that is catering for the event - they give us shirts to wear to look legit. Once inside, there's a few tents set up around the ground - undercover and with sofas and catering. It looks pretty nice. Heaps of corporates are coming through. I'm stationed at one of the three bars in the main tent and it's right next to the food, so it's busy all the time. They've got aussie champagne and wine, as well as Fat Yaks/VB/Pure Blonde for beers. I have to make sure the beers are poured into cups instead of giving out the stubbies - much to the disappointment of the Aussies. People assume that I can't speak English since I look like the rest of the helpers there so I'm getting a lot of people speaking very slowly and pointing at beers - which is fair enough.

The game was pretty close for 3 quarters, which was better than last years match where people were leaving at half time. I was able to enjoy the game with some beers by standing right next to the boundary line - I don't think I'll ever get as close to the ground as I did today. I was legit 3 metres away from the boundary line - which meant I could get a photo with Paddy Ryder at the end of the game.

After sinking some piss at the ground and having a chat to some people who had been sinking beers all day, I went back into town to check in to my hostel (Le Tour) in Jingan District, 100RMB a night for a bunk bed. Then, a couple of us were a bit peckish so we went to a nice little bar around the corner called Barbarian, which served good beers and very decently priced food (especially in an area like Jingan). Paid 88RMB for a very good umami burger and chips.

Afterwards, we went to Found 158, a nice little open bar area around Jingan to an Aussie bar called Little Creatures to meet up with some other Aussies. It's an underground district with heaps of bars and clubs. Despite the rain, it was still buzzing with people - it's definitely a place I would hit up again. I was with my mate Jenny and she's kind of a celebrity around here - there was a bloke who came up to us at the bar and wanted a photo with Jenny. He was like her No.1 fan - knew all her videos and activities and history - it was actually quite disturbing.

Day 38

18.05.2018

WeRun Update: 8134 steps

Dr. Liu
Met up with the Doc at Jinmao Hui in Gulou - a very modern looking shopping centre but absolutely empty - China's all about the flashy look but if you look inside there's no one there. Anyway, Doc wants me to help her translate some case report she wrote to English, which includes all these medical terms. She wants to get it published on a medical journal too. Might take me a while - I might even become qualified in medicine after reading this report. 

Nanjing weather can go from 0 to 100. 
After having dinner with doc, the rain just started bucketing down with no signs of stopping. I check Didi and there's 91 people ahead of me in the queue for a taxi. Absolute madness. So I ended up Mobiking my way through the pouring rain to Arcano to watch the Doggies vs Adelaide game, which was also an absolute shocker of a game. To make things worse, I got delivery Burger King and it took ages to come. When it finally came, the Whopper was dry as fuck and chips had no salt (which apparently is classic in China). 

Day 37

17.05.18

WeRun Update: 5166 steps

Another rough night sleeping
I woke up to some heavy rain at 3am this morning and again, sweating my ass off in 30 degree heat. Still pondering whether or not to leave the AC on for the whole night.

Morning routine
Breakfast is now eaten at home. Instant oats, some fruit and yoghurt. I'll have the NBA playoffs on. Fit in a quick ab workout during the half time break.

Nannar again
I'll have lunch at around 12pm - I've been hanging around Nanjing University Gulou Campus since there's a few decent joints to eat at. I had some dumplings today. Then, I decided to spend my afternoon at Nannar again. I'm about halfway through Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. I wanted to see what the hype was about. The book raises a lot of valid points, which I like.

Nightly activities
Caught up with my friends from Sanpower and had a Xuzhou local dish called 地锅鸡, which was served in a big pot (very authentic). Then I went to Arcano for the weekly quiz night for a couple of beers.

Day 36

16.05.18

WeRun Update: 3960 steps

Great day to sit in a cafe and catch up on writing my blog...
After having a nice tuna sandwich at Skyways for lunch, I've moved to Nannar Cafe outside Nanjing University to escape the 36 degree heat, although Google says it feels like 41 degrees.

Another basketball session...
Feel like the more I practice my jumpshot, the worse it's getting.

I should invest in a decent facemask 
The wind will often blow dust and other shit into your face when you're riding a bike or just walking on the street - it's actually practical to have one lol

Hot weather calls for cold noodles
The cold noodles here are a favourite for a hot day. They toss the noodles with some vegetables (bean sprouts, very thinly sliced cucumber, peanuts and some tofu) into a soy sauce dressing. Very refreshing and very cheap - 7RMB.

Day 35

16.05.18

WeRun Update: 5146 steps

It's 35 degrees at 7am in the morning and summer is not coming for another month...
It is very hot and sticky - getting a decent night's sleep is a challenge now. I'll wake up at like 5am sweating my balls off - Nanjing is really giving me a warm welcome ;) I'm still continuing my morning workouts - all about that summer body.

Some halal in Nanjing
Uncle Kenny took me to a restaurant called 李记清真馆 which translates to Liji Halal Restaurant where they serve only beef and lamb. We had some beef fried dumplings, beef noodles, dry-cut beef 干切牛肉 and some beef jerky. Very beefy but definitely rate.

Some good chat happening in Deji
My mum told me to bring over some medicines for a friend in Nanjing, and since my calendar is completely blank, I thought I'd call out the aunty for some afternoon tea. I never realised how big Deji Plaza is until today. There are two "phases" and they're huge and I'm pretty sure every luxury brand has presence in one or both of the phases. Apparently, it ranks really high in China in terms of luxury brand purchases. Anyway, we went to some London tea room located on Level 6 of Deji Phase II. Super expensive though. An iced lemon tea was 42RMB (8AUD). This aunty used to live in Melbourne before she moved back to China 8 years ago. She's by herself in Nanjing. Her daughter who recently got married now lives in Shanghai. Her husband has been working in Hong Kong for more than 20 years. The only reason she's in Nanjing is to take care of the family dog! Her mother is also here but lives in a nursing home because she has dementia. Other than that, she just stays at home, watches TV and doesn't really get up to much else. Every family member is in a different place - that's gotta be hard. Anyway, we chatted for 4 hours until we got hungry and then went to Nanjing 大排档 for dinner (I don't usually like to eat in Deji but if you forced me to, I'd go here). I never thought I'd be spending a whole afternoon catching up and gossiping with an aunty but there's always a time for firsts, and it was such good chat that I'll be calling her out again next time.

Day 34

14.05.18

WeRun Update: 7045 steps

The waiting game...
So it turns out that I have to wait another 2 weeks to start work. Only today did they send my TESOL application to Shanghai for processing. It takes about 7-10 working days to come back. When I get that, I'll have to update my work visa arrangements so that I'm a foreign language teacher and not a management consultant. Only then will I be able to start work. In the meantime, I'll just be kicking back...

I might as well...
To kick off another two weeks of waiting, I hit up my friend from NJU who was finally free after a few days of hectic preparations for an interview for a position in the government. We had some Peking duck close to campus - she's in that stage of thinking about what career and job she wants after graduation since there are a lot of options and a lot to think about. I reminded her that plans change and it's not the end of the world if you don't get the job that you want as your first job. I know that I wouldn't be here if things went differently after my own graduation. She wanted to watch The Avengers and experience 4D for herself, and since I had nothing better to, I decided to accompany her. I didn't really have any new thoughts after watching it the second time - just that it's a very long movie and you get worn out easily when you're being thrown around by the effects of the cinema. Dinner was some brown braised chicken and rice (黄焖鸡) which was surprisingly decent and you get free refills of rice.

Back at the courts
Since getting gastro, I hadn't exercised for a long time and not being able to shoot hoops made me a depressed man. Tonight, I was finally physically ready to play. The courts that I usually play at recently got a makeover, with the courts being painted in the LA Lakers courts and some banners of Kobe being put on the fences. Nanjing got hot recently and it was like 30 degrees outside at 10pm. It's actually quite nice with a breeze and without the sun. At that time, it was only me and Liam who I told to come down and shoot some hoops. In order to pay for entry, I have to download an app and pay through there instead of getting them to scan my QR code. It really doesn't mean much for me, but it's a sign that things are getting legit on the business side of things - easier to manage finances if it's all done through an app. 

Day 33

13.04.18 (Happy Mothers Day)

WeRun Update: 9803 steps

Fancy some table tennis?

A family friend’s daughter is in Grade 1 and her name is Fancy. Today, I went to visit her and watch her practice table tennis. It’s crazy how much Chinese parents will spend on their kids education and making sure they’re ahead of the curve from such an early age. Before I got to their place (about a 30 minute train ride away), she had been in piano class. Her mum tells me that she practices once a week with a recent graduate who graduated as a piano major in Nanjing. She charges 150RMB for 45 minutes and apparently has around 100 students. She would be making a killing! It’s smart because she’s profiting from a trend of Chinese parents sending their children to music lessons. Nowadays, it seems like every child knows how to play the piano. Fancy is also taking table tennis lessons. We went to Nanjing University Xianlin campus (which is one of the nicest university campuses I’ve seen) to take her lessons from this old uncle who looks like he has played table tennis every single day for the last 30 years. It’s a 1 hr lesson and Fancy doesn’t even rest. She’s bloody good at it as well. Thinking back to when I was in Grade 1, there is no chance my hand-eye coordination would be at her level. Then I’m looking over at the other tables and there’s this boy who is about the same age and he is just on another level. He’s beating all the OGs and table tennis players – I am sure he will be national champion some day, he is that good. It just goes to show that Chinese parents love to push their kids from the start. Fancy studies every day. Today, in between the piano lesson and the table tennis lesson, she was practicing something with her granddad. There was a Mothers Day dinner after table tennis but Fancy had to go study at 8pm for an hour before she goes to bed. It just puts things into perspective a bit – Chinese students get it quite rough from the very beginning!  

Chinese kids are the cutest in the world

I genuinely think Chinese children are the cutest – the mannerisms and the language make them seem a lot cuter than other children around the world. Fancy and another boy were at a Mothers Day dinner I was at and they were just innocently playing and having fun. It made me happy watching them play – they had nothing to worry about and just did whatever they felt like doing without thinking of the consequences. It was a pure kind of happiness, something that evades you as you grow older.

Day 32

12.05.18

WeRun Update: 5055 steps

Get up Blues!
Nothing to get me back in the mood than a win by the Blues over the Dons! Absolutely made my day. I spent my whole afternoon just watching the footy on my balcony with my newly built portable bedside table.

杭帮菜 Zhejiang Cuisine is trending
My friend took me to eat some Zhejiang Cuisine (Hangbang Cuisine) at a place called 外婆家 (grandma's place) in Xinjiekou, a place that has been trending since I came to China in January. There are always crazy lines for it and luckily my friend went early to line up for me. What makes the restaurant and cuisine special is that it really does has a homely taste: it's light (not spicy), it's fresh, it's tender and smooth. I think it's decent but not worth waiting more than 30 minutes for. But it was on the weekend and Xinjiekou is madness on the weekend.

When bored, go on Taobao
I've been very guilty of this. There's always a bargain buy there. I've been receiving packages almost daily from stuff I've bought on there. Today, I got some bedsheets for the incoming summer and a scale to monitor whether or not I've been getting fat. I thought I had lost heaps of weight from gastro but I'm actually the same weight so pretty pleased about that. The only caveat about Taobao orders is that they never deliver to my front door since you have to climb 7 levels of stairs - so I'm always going downstairs to collect instead. Nothing beats the feeling of something you've ordered coming so soon though, so I'm always willing!

Day 31

11.05.18

WeRun Update: 3376 steps

Back to routine
Friday night. Footy's on. I'm at Arcano. Watched a great game between Hawks and Swans. New boy Ronke kicks 7 straight. 

Avengers in 4D
I have never seen a movie in 4D and it just so happened that there was a screening at the cinema near my house. What an interesting experience! The next dimension is the effects in the actual cinema. The seats move whenever punches are thrown, air is blown at you when the characters are flying through space, the lights in the cinema flash at you when Thor's using the hammer. It truly gets you physically feeling the movie - which is different - although tiring at times. Sometimes, the action is already so hard to keep up - try being thrown around in your seat during it! New experience though, definitely something else!

Day 30

10.05.18

WeRun Update: 3708 steps

One month in Nanjing
Wow. It's already been 30 days. I feel like I've done a lot but at the same time, I feel like I've done nothing. I've become familiar with what's around me. I've been to a few places around town. I've made some friends. I'm slowly understanding the rules that govern the people here. And I'm understanding how different life really is compared to back home. But it's only been a month. There's a lot to learn and experience and soak in. Bring it on!

First business meeting
This morning, I had my first business meeting with one of the general managers in Sanpower, who wanted to collaborate with ACYA Nanjing to get foreigners involved in their promotions. The deal was to lend us some spaces in their department store (and toy store) for us to use for our events - free of charge. However, these spaces didn't really suit what we were about so we didn't really see the benefit of using it despite not having to pay anything. Although I wasn't involved with ACYA at university, I'm keen to help it rebuild its name in Nanjing - so we're looking for events to do.

Skyways
After our meeting, Liam took me to his favourite joint Skyways, a bakery run by a German. Had a ham baguette and I must say it was very good. 

An unlikely friend...
Had a coffee catch up with the same doctor I met at Zhongda Hospital the other night. It was really good just to talk about everything from learning English to her career to her childhood to her kid and family background amongst other things. She's probably 10 years older than me, but it's rare to find someone as genuine as her. I'm grateful for the time she gave me and I hope we can continue this friendship in the future. 

VCE in China?
Spending so much time at home the last few days has almost made me crazy. So, I decided to go to quiz night at Arcanos, which they hold every Thursday for a bit of fun and socialising. There, I met another Aussie from Melbourne - a bloke named Rory from Sunshine, who was an English VCE teacher in China for Firbank Grammar. Yes. A VCE English teacher working in China. I was gobsmacked! I didn't know that students here in China do VCE but apparently they do it so they can apply for universities in Australia. They sit the same exams as us. I think it's pretty cool to allow students to do that.