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.