next wednesday is China's national Liberation (uh...yeah) Day, so we get 7 days off, from 10/1-10/7. of course this is china, so they're making us teach this saturday and sunday to make up for two of the lost days. doesn't that kinda defeat the point of a vacation? apparently the gov't just decided this today, so every school in the country has classes this weekend. i've said it before...freaking commies.
this afternoon i was already kind of put out because the primary school had informed me in the morning that i had to work this weekend and our dog's been sick and not eating for a week, and then at the basketball game in the afternoon the 'coach' didn't play me at all in the second half (i'm not sure why) and our team lost by 2, our first loss of the semester. i was just feeling pissy so as soon as the game ended i left and rode straight back to my apt at the middle school. so i can't make fun of immature nba players anymore, just the funny looking ones.
it doesn't seem like much looking back on the events of the day, but today i felt kind of cramped and suffocated here for the first time. after dinner i asked xujun to take me for a ride in the mountains and he took me to some random strip of grass near the river and we laid down and looked at the (shooting) stars. the sky was much clearer than it is in town, it reminded me of all the other times and places i've laid down to watch shooting stars. i'd make a joke about being comforted by a guy taking me to lay down in the mountains to look at shooting stars with him, but there's not much i can really add to that.
one day i was in town and i said 'good morning' to some acquaintances and they just stared at me and said 'what' in chinese, so i repeated myself and they laughed and asked me why i was saying 'big brother touches you'. i guess that doesn't make sense if you don't speak chinese, but i thought it was pretty darn funny.
the chorus finally started this week. it's about 40 kids, which is what i requested. it's pretty fun, we meet in the afternoons after classes are over and i can teach them whatever songs i want; i pretty much have complete control over my little workforce, i mean chorus.
