Day 10

19.04.18

WeRun update: 9303 steps

Kindle update: Onto the 4th rule whatever percentage that is

My 60-year old landlord follows the NBA!
The uncle came over to collect a few things and saw that I was watching the NBA playoffs and asked if he could watch the final two minutes with me. He had great knowledge of the players, I was so impressed. Mad respect!

Mr. Liu on hold...
Running into a few complications regarding my teaching gig - they want me to get TESOL certification. They're worried that Chinese students won't see me as a teacher since I'm so young and also look Chinese (won't take me seriously) - apparently a common issue for ABCs like myself trying to find teaching gigs. Anyway, this certification is like 120 hrs of learning and costs a bit, which is a bit of a hassle. As for now, I'm discussing what my role as a management analyst (for an English language school...) will entail.

If you wear shorts and sneakers and a cap, you are a foreigner.
So I asked my mate about Chinese guys not wearing shorts and he's like you only wear shorts if you're going for a run or exercising. There's no concept of wearing shorts in a casual fashion!

A regular at the bball courts
I've been going almost every day to shoot some hoops and meet new people there - they close the courts at 10pm at night so you'll get a lot of older guys coming to play after work. It's quite a social environment and it gives me better insight into what Chinese people are like. There's a company who operates a few sporting facilities for public use - it's a pretty cool concept but works only when there's enough demand (when the whole nation loves basketball, it helps).