More Changes and New News

     So, if anyone sees my Facebook page, they know that Bert got a new home with Jackson.  I had made sure that Jackson's mom approved before I sent him home with hammie, cage, bedding, seeds, and food.

Jackson had, in fact, checked with his mother, but his father said that Bert had to return.  It was a very sad and confused Bert that was returned to my office.  He refused to come out of his house and was just not happy.  The good news is that another little girl said her parents had actually BOTH talked about the notion of getting a hamster, so Bert went home with her.  WORST case scenario, there are 2,000 students at this school so I will be long gone before they run out of places to send him.

     I was stupid, I mean brave, I mean....never mind.  Last Tuesday I participated in an English Speech Competition for Nanshan District English Teachers.  The topic was, "Key to Success."  My speech started with my typical lawyer answer of, "It depends."  It was a reallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly long day of Chinese teachers and a few Western teachers saying the same things over and over.  We all agreed that in order to share a key to success, you first had to define "success", and I swear, every. single. Chinese, teacher. ended their speech with, "Thank you for your listening."  It really made my hair stand on end.  I came in second, but before anyone gets excited, the places were done in groups, so second place was only a small step away from the Chinese version of a participation ribbon!  The Chinese teachers were not necessarily thrilled that we chose a quasi expensive Western style restaurant for lunch.

All I can say was that I realllllllllly miss salads!  Hot veggies, mystery meat bits and bones, and white rice gets really old, really fast.

     This past Sunday, Chris (the only guy in the pic above and a fellow teacher at XiLi Elementary), his partner, and myself experienced the joy of a proper British Tea.  The tea was amazing, the cookies and sweets awesome, and the sandwiches, well, the entire country of China could use a lesson on making a sandwich.

This was not our tea set as I forgot to take a pic, but this was what I had, except I had hot tea instead of fruit juice and it was served in a small pot and I drank from fine bone china!  It was wonderful...until the screaming child arrived, and then it was time to run!

     Today, I went in search of a bank branch to print me out a bank statement.  There is no real mail in China, and the online banking site is all in Chinese, so even if I could set it up to view at home, the instructions are in Chinese so it is a waste of time.  Today, I exited at the Civic Center stop of the Red Line and this is what I saw.

I stopped in the food court in the Metro station and had sweet and sour pork and dumplings.  It was pretty good, and I remembered to NOT order white rice.  I managed to get my bank statements and man-oh-man was it a process.  I had to wait to speak with a bank service agent, and then give them my bank card and my passport.  I was finally given the 7 page statement, complete with red stamps.  The Chinese realllllly love them some red stamps!  ANY paperwork you get in China will bear the red stamp.  In Thailand, apparently the color is blue.

Updates...and another trip to HK

     So, I previously posted about the sorts and types of people you meet while doing this, but my prior impressions have only been further reinforced.  Recently, two new people arrived to our floor and I was told that everyone else on the floor pointed them to me when they asked where to find stuff in China.  One gentleman is tall and Jewish and actually very nice.  I will call him "G".  He has traveled extensively and has reinvigorated my curious side by taking me with on a number of new adventures.  The other guy (TOG) is not someone I care to really spend time with.  I will explain later.  Our most successful trip so far was to the post office in Hong Kong.
     For those of you who may not have read any previous posts, or who weren't really paying attention, mail in China is beyond a nightmare.  The package my father sent me the week before Christmas finally returned to him a week or so ago in Arkansas.  He received my Christmas card, but that was because it was the one thing the Chinese post office worker could understand I wanted to mail and was not restricted.  Yes, everything is restricted to send or receive in China, or at least that is how they make you feel.  The worst part is, if they do not speak English, and you do not speak Chinese, they will get extremely frustrated with you and simply refuse to serve you as they walk away.  Yup, happened to me a number of times.
     When I was asked to help my new friend find a post office in HK, I immediately enlisted the help of my Chinese co-teacher to get me directions.  So, of a Saturday morning, we headed out about 8:10 am and took a cab to Shenzhen Bay Port, where we bought bus tickets, cleared customs for both sides and boarded the #37 bus, whose second stop was "Central".  I was told the post office would be close by.  We arrived at our stop by about 10:15 am and I spotted a Starbucks across the street from the bus stop!  As I was pulling out my map, G told me to look out of the other side of the bus, and sure enough, there was the post office!  NO! I could NOT be this easy...right?  And a Starbucks????  You know what they say about being too good to be true.

    Both G and I had packages to mail, so we both set about addressing and labeling.  I had told him not to seal the box in case they wanted to assess the contents, but one of my "packages" was actually an envelope with a birthday card (Happy belated Nikka!).  I did not see boxes for sale for the other packages, but I figured they wouldn't be too hard to find.  When I approached the counter, the agent looked and me and said, "How may I help you?"  I SWEAR the angels sang!  I was able to mail my envelope and G was told to fill out a different customs form and seal his box.  While he was doing this I spotted what appeared to be padded envelopes behind the counter, and sure enough, I was able to mail everything.

     We were entirely finished with our main project and reason for coming to HK and it was only 10:40 am.  Starbucks.  Nuff said.  When we left the bux, (Joe McCune hates when I call it that), we decided to take the escalators up the mountain in HK and were told if we took the escalators up one floor in the building, we would be led to a walkway that would take us to the escalators.  

 These are shots from the series of escalators that take you almost to the top of the mountain.  To get to the peak, you need to take a shuttle.

G on the right, TOG on the left.

A tree growing out of a wall in downtown HK.

     This was a very successful trip and we managed to find more then one store selling Western food items, so I was able to stock up.  We also found a vendor selling actual LIMES!  In China, they only sell lemons, and the green things are actually, green lemons.  I was informed by TOG that he had a "thing" for Asian women, but Filipino women especially.  So, he spent his time talking up some random women we met.  I don't care that he is looking to get some, but he is relentless about it.  In subsequent outings, he will actually stop mid-sentence to ogle some woman walking down the street.  If he were a cartoon character, his eyes would pop out, his tongue would hit the ground, and you would here a funny cartoon sound in the background.  Don't get me wrong, he appears dedicated to wanting to teach, but his obsession with hot Asian women is nauseating at best.
     In other news, I have quit my third job at the language center because:  a) they did not pay me enough, b) they required me to working my days off, c) they sure as hell didn't pay me enough to give up all my weekends.  It was an hour commute each way, I worked from noon to 9:00pm, and it just wasn't worth it.  It took them a month and a half to finally stop putting me on the schedule, but I tried not to make waves until after payday.  They were 2 days late in paying me, and apparently some other employees, and it ruined my plans to spend the entire day off on Wednesday at a spa!  I had to settle for getting my nails done, and trust me, it was NOT a mani/pedi, it was a quick trim and paint job.

This was my first weekend off in MONTHS and I must say, it felt good to have NO PLANS! The decision to leave China is absolute and I am now applying for gigs in the Middle East.  Not my first choice, but the pay is the best.  I can finally save up enough for the down payment on a condo AND pay off all my credit cards to boot.  I will keep everyone posted.
     Finally, to end on a good note, I was finally able to make it to the Meow Bar in Shenzhen.  It is a "coffee cafe" with cats.  It is on the 21st floor of an apartment building in an apartment.  This way, the cats can wander in and out of the balcony, it offers a stunning view of the city, and you can catch a breeze as well.  It was overpriced beverages, but the cats were friendly, and they had free wifi.  I don't know that I would return, but I can say, been there, done that.

All Good Things...

  The ride to the airport in my hot pink cab, had these signs in the window.  This way, if you don't speak Thai, you can still get to where you want to go!

     So, having left the neither spa nor resort in a huff, and not a huff and a half, I was glad to be at the Bangkok Airport.  It makes O'Hare seem tiny.  You could LIVE there and I mean 24/7!  There were a million things to do, see, shop, eat, and explore.

     I spent hours wandering about and had a ball.  I spent a few hours, and a few bucks, to put myself in a private lounge.  You were not allowed to lay down, but you could use free wifi and were fed sandwiches and beverages.  If I could have laid down, I would have stayed a few hours more! By the time my flight started boarding around 3am, I was wiped and just wanted to get back to China.  Because I flew at such awful hours, the lines at customs were nothing and I was back in the dorms a lot faster then I would have been with normal times for my flights.

     When I got home, almost everyone had returned from their various vacations and there was much talking and sharing of photos and stories.  We had been informed before we left that SGC was being let go, and shortly after I arrived back in the dorms, she posted an email she had received from our employer letting her know that she was officially being let go.  It was a rough 2 days while she emptied out her stuff and said her goodbyes, but I was not sorry to see that door close.  She helped me a great deal, and did some great things for me, but even I have to admit that I can only eat so much ice-cream before I have to yell STOP!

     Because she will be gone from my school, I was nervous to go back to school.  After all, the devil you know...

Neither a "Spa" nor a "Resort"

     Because Mitch was leaving a few days before me, I went ahead and booked my last days at the http://www.13coinshotelsandresorts.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=95

The 13 Coins "Resort"/Airport Hotel advertised a spa and a resort atmosphere on the trip site I booked my stay at.  I chose this because it was:  a)reasonably priced, b) had an airport shuttle, c) included meals, d) said there was a spa, e) it looked nice in the pics.

WRONG ANSWER!

My booking was to be paid in cash, in full, upfront, at check-in.  I did not have any Thai Bhat left so I told them before I could pay I had to convert money.  They insisted I could pay in Yuan and they would convert it and give me my paid receipt.  I took out my phone, entered the conversion amount, and then gave them the FULL AMOUNT in Yuan.  I was told they would find the person to give me a receipt and take it to my room.  A few hours later, a person returned with a receipt that seemed to indicate paid in full and told me they owed me 300 Bhat for the key deposit.  Ok, hang on to receipt, got it!
     Let me begin with the room.  I have NEVER been in a more depressing room in my life!  There was only window at the far end of the room and it overlooked another building.  There was no natural light coming into the room, so leaving the curtains closed made no difference.  There WAS a tub, but I could never get the air conditioning cool enough to even think about it.  It turns out that the "spa" was a place down the road that was closed.  I had to walk about half a mile and cross an 8 lane highway (really, no kidding, they have few crosswalks and fewer overpasses) to get to a mall.  The mall was awesome and so I spent 2 days wandering the mall for lack of anything better to do.  So much for fun and relaxation.
     When I went downstairs to get my "included breakfast", they were very confused and brought me a check.  It was edible, but not very good.  At least there were good restaurants at the mall.  While I was wandering about I saw some folks walking around in costumes.  There was some sort of "show" going on, and all I could think was "OMG, MY GAYS~!"

 I did manage to find a club with live music and was able to watch a Thai blues player that was awesome and the cocktail with thyme was outstanding.

   

     I did manage to get a wash and blow dry, but that was about all I really accomplished.  I was terribly disappointed and wrote a scathing review.  I was so unhappy, I decided to check out at 11:00am and simply head to the airport.  I would rather hang out there for my 3:40am flight then spend another moment at the neither spa nor resort...LOL  When I went to check out, I was presented with a bill and they insisted I owed them for my entire stay.  I showed them the receipt and they insisted my meals were not included.  I opened my email on my phone and showed them the booking confirmation and the rate I was quoted.  After finally deciding that I might actually have paid in full, they wanted to give me the 300 Bhat for the key refund.  I told them to keep it and to let me leave to get a cab.  Apparently, the airport shuttle, or taxi, in actuality,  was not included either.  I told them I would pay for my own cab and left.  When I got home, I was contacted by the booking site and told the resort had reported me as a no-show and wanted the no-show fee.  I told them that was bull and sent the picture of my cab in front of the place!

BTW, cabs in Thailand are a bright pink!

Mini Vaca within my Vaca to Thailand

     So, I had 10 days to spend in Thailand.  I was going to depart on the 11th and return on the 21st.  Because I would be spending most of my time with Mitch and his family, I decided to break it up and not spend my entire time at their house.  I planned a weekend getaway to a resort called Koh Samet or Koh Samed, depending on which sign/map you were looking at!  Like Caye Caulker, it is reached by water taxi.  The bus, in downtown Bangkok, made the 3 hour drive to the water taxi a great time to relax and catch up on my reading.

     The whole countryside reminded me so much of my time in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize.  It was hot, humid, and muggy as hell, but it was so nice to be away from tall high rises and air that you can cut with a knife!  I was just in time for the water taxi and had enough time to spare to shop a bit, have a nice cup of real coffee, and buy some cold water for the taxi ride over.  Like China, few things are actually cold in Asia.

     Keep in mind, I ran away to Thailand to escape the billions of Chinese people back "home".  So, here is my resort.  I had my own little cabin overlooking the ocean, there was a great bar, and I was walking distance to "downtown nightlife".  It was heaven...

enjoying my cocktail and then.....the busload of Chinese tourists arrived...wah wah

     They were loud, they were noisy, they completely took over the place.  The staff at the resort were constantly apologizing to me for allowing the Chinese to come....LOL
      I found that the Chinese were more into organized tours so I was able to wander about the downtown area without much interference.  The second day I was there I decided to get a one hour Thai massage.  They are fully clothed and incorporate muscle stretching with the massage.  When I entered, there was me, and one other guy at the far other end.  Sure enough, 5 minutes into it, two Chinese women came in and insisted on being right next to me.  I mean, I could reach out and slap them!  So, after a few minutes of chit chat between them, I started to shhhh them.  I did it about 4 times at a low level.  When that failed to work, I hit them with an "anjing" (?), which is Chinese for quiet.  When that failed to get the one lady off the phone, I hit them with a more assertive "beadzway" (?), which is Chinese for "STFU"!  That seemed to work and the poor Thai massage lady was beside herself apologizing for the Chinese women being there and ruining my massage.
     It was a wonderful place to relax and the food was amazing.  My only suggestion is to NEVER TRAVEL ANYWHERE in Asia during Chinese New Year.