I am by no means an organized person, so if this blog turns into a mish-mash of words that don't make any more sense than an upside-down dada painting, then I apologize. Right now I'm sitting here with a Rush song playing on Pandora and one thought running through my head: "I'm in China, having all kinds of interesting experiences that most small town American boys never get to have and I enjoy writing. So, why haven't I written a blog yet?"
Well, here it is. I'm just about 2 months into my 10 month long adventure in this country, so my first few blogs will probably end up being a series of flashbacks and opinions about things that have happenned in these past two months.
Let me mention that even though I will be writing about the things that bother me along with the good stuff, I am, ultimately, enjoying my experience here.
I suppose the beginning is probably a good place to...umm...begin. That means Shanghai. No. It means New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Hampshire again, Boston, and then Shanghai. All the while with my brain telling me two very different things: "This could be a very stupid idea, Rob. Remember what happenned in Korea?" and "Don't be a coward, Rob. You want to do something with your life, don't you? Find a career? This might be it." I should mention that I attempted teaching English in South Korea back in 2005. It was hellish. I will definitely be comparing my experience here with my experiences there. I don't like admitting that my negative experience in Korea has left me with a sense of paranoia and with some trust issues, however I feel that those things may be useful to me. No one's going to screw me over this time. I'm too ready. I'm en guarde. Maybe it's paranoia but it's a kind of healthy paranoia. If my boss is going to try to cheat me out of my money and then fire me when I demand my check, leaving me jobless and homeless in the middle of Asia (exactly what happenned in Korea), I'll see it coming 10 miles away. I have no reason to believe that that will happen here, my situation here doesn't have that ominous feeling to it. But, it's hard to relax when you've experienced corruption from an employer.
I found myself strangely relaxed on the plainride to China. I guess that I had set myself mentally. I'd had plenty of time to think about what would happen if I chose not to try. I'd probably have continued on in the field of Environmental Education in some capacity. A nice field of work, but nothing I've ever wanted to make a career out of. After nearly 5 years of taking kids on hikes and saying things like "This is called an American Toad and it's skin has a poisonu.....Billy stop throwing sticks!" I just had to move on.
So, Shanghai. Dragging all of your bags through a Chinese airport and then onto a ridiculously crowded Shanghai train, riding nearly all the way across the city, and then carrying your bags for approximately half a mile is akin to the feeling of running up and down Mount Monadnock a few times. I don't recommend it. I finally got to the hotel where I'd start training only to find that they did not have a room for me. I ended up sharing a suite room with one of the other English teachers, a guy named Tom. Tom and I each got a free night's stay because of that and it was no big deal because we had a good time hanging out and drinking baiju (Chinese rice wine. ) I will write about baiju again and if I could put a vomiting emoticon next to the word, I would.
After two days of wandering my immediate area in Shanghai, the other trainees began to arrive. This is where I'll stop for now because it's kind of like a chapter break, but mostly because I enjoy eating even more than I enjoy writing. I'll blog more for sure. This is fun. I'll dose up on rice noodles and red pepper, work out, catch up on the last episode of "House", and come back to the computer either tonight or tomorrow. Like the Dave Mathew's Band song, "So much to say. So much to say."
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