David

David Lancashire of AdsoTrans fame is in town this weekend. He wrote a little about Shanghai in his new blog.

My roommate Lenny is leaving Shanghai for Taipei tomorrow (with his new t-shirt!). I’m moving out of this apartment in early January. It’s been a great place, and I really like having the extra room for guests. These past few months we’ve had lots of visitors, like Mark of toshuo, Poagao, Alf, Greg (house guest extraordinaire), Lenny’s sister, and now David.

Lenny

This “free hotel” business isn’t going to last much longer, but until I move into my new place, I don’t mind it at all. With Lenny gone, this three bedroom apartment is going to seem quite empty.

• Greg of Sinobling is writing again. His new post entitled So What You’re Saying is You Don’t Have a Liver for Me is hilarious.

• The TTC heir apparent seems to be Sinocidal. The similarities are many, but I haven’t seen anything quite on par with TTC’s greatest hits. The Flopsy entry got my attention, though.

• Yellow Wings apparently has some kind of relationship with Sinocidal. The entry entitled How to write a China-related weblog was amusing, but I just couldn’t figure out which type of weblog to identify with… hmmm.

The last two are rather recent additions to the China Blog List. Since good China humor seems to seethe with negativity by default, I’ll balance it out a bit by finishing with a link to 10 reasons why living in China is great from another new one called Positive Solutions. But it’s not funny. Oops.

Man, I was just in Beijing Tuesday and Wednesday, so missed out on the free physical affection and its fallout. What I didn’t miss is the sociopolitical and cultural implications, thanks to Greg’s brilliant editorial on the incident: China Says “No” to Half-assed Attempt at Affection.

More on Beijing next post.

For those of you too lazy or too foolish to watch that clip, let me recap the hilarity contained therein:

1. Andy Lau is wearing a white cowboy hat and a wifebeater-blouse.
2. The song is a Cantonese version of “I Hate Myself for Loving You” called 我恨我痴心 (literally, “I Hate My Infatuation”).

Well, that’s all, really. It’s funny.

Oh, and just in case you need it, there’s also a karaoke version of 我恨我痴心 set to random boy/girl scenes that have absolutely nothing to do with the song.

• Saturday, Sept. 2, I stayed home and wrote a 4,000 character paper for a class.
• Sunday, Sept. 3, I stayed home and wrote a 4,000 character paper for another class.
• Monday and Tuesday nights, Sept. 4-5, I worked on a 3,000 character paper for still another class.
• Wednesday night, Sept. 6, Pepe helped me clean up my papers. Alf showed up.
• Thursday, Sept. 7, I turned in my three papers and attended my two new classes for the semester: Semantics and Pragmatics and Critical Discourse Analysis.
• Friday, Sept. 8, I went to meet Greg at the airport with Alf and John B.
• Saturday, Sept. 9, I went to meet my friend Nobuhiko at the airport.

Thoughts:

• Procrastination is bad. I know this. Sort of.
• Not much beats seeing good friends again. Especially over hot pot and beer.
• A new semester is here already, and I still have a list of linguistic topics I meant to blog about over the summer. (Does anyone enjoy the linguisticky posts?)

In chronicling my three years at ZUCC, I aim to do three things:

1. Create an easy reference for myself, since I’m very forgetful.
2. Provide a reference for friends and family with regards to ZUCC friends.
3. Provide an idea of what kind of salary you might expect. (Yes, I’m going to disclose how much I was paid for each semester I worked at ZUCC.)

2000, Fall Semester

This was my first semester as a teacher in China. I signed a one-year contract for 3000 rmb per month, no airfare included. There were no teacher dorms at that time, but I was given 800 rmb per month as a stipend to live off campus. I had a nice living arrangement with a friend of a friend, whose father wanted him to learn English, so I actually got free housing off campus. So my net income was brought up to 3800 rmb per month.

I was picked up at my apartment (which was quite a ways from the school) every day at 7:15am and dropped off back home at 5:30pm. Since I only taught 12 hours of class a week, I spent quite a lot of time in my office at ZUCC studying Chinese, doing lesson plans, or grading papers. There were no computers in my office.

I ate all my meals on campus or at cheap little cafeteria-style restaurants. There were four other foreign teachers at ZUCC–all Australian–but they were extremely unfriendly and routinely snubbed me. I practically never went to bars or other foreigner hangouts, so I had virtually no foreigner friends. I spent a lot of time at home studying Chinese and hanging out with my roommate. Practically nonexistent social life.

I taught second year English majors. Since there were no other teachers to show me the ropes, I had to figure out the teaching thing on my own. Sure, I had had some education in the theory, but there were so many other questions: How much homework should I give? How strict should I be in class? What should I do if they don’t listen to me? etc. I learned a lot, largely from mistakes.

2001, Spring Semester

Almost the same as Fall 2000, except the four Australians skipped out on their contract, which left me the only foreign teacher. My class load was increased to 16 hours, and class sizes doubled in many cases. It was not a happy semester. I resolved to become more active in the foreign teacher recruiting process purely out of self interest.

I took another part-time job teaching to earn some extra cash. I had no social life — what else was I going to do with my free time?

2001, Fall Semester

My pay was increased to 3500 rmb per month for another year’s work, and I moved onto campus, into the newly completed teacher dorm. Since I no longer got a housing allowance, I was effectively taking a 300 rmb per month pay cut. No big deal — living on campus was extremely convenient.

I had succeeded in persuading only one foreigner to join me at ZUCC, but my teaching load did decrease a bit. The new guy was named Dougal and came from New Zealand. Dougal probably remains the most quiet/taciturn person I have ever met in my entire life. Having a normal conversation with him was like pulling teeth. In addition, he thought going out into the street or going on any trips within China was “too dangerous,” so he mostly stayed indoors. I eventually gave up on him and let him retreat into his apartment.

I was still teaching English majors, and was experimenting with different teaching styles and evaluation methods.

Thus ended my “lonely years” at ZUCC… a period when I polished my teaching style and learned a lot of Chinese, but had pretty much no social life.

2002, Spring Semester

I had been much more successful recruiting my second time around. The first to arrive was Wilson, who would soon become my constant companion at ZUCC. Helene, my other recruit, also arrived that semester. On its own, the school found the infamous David as well as awesome Aussies Simon, Ben, and Len and Jo [mugshots].

That semester ZUCC began providing offices just for the foreign teachers, decked out with computers. Wilson, Ben, Simon, and I used those a lot (network StarCraft!). It was from that office that I first launched Sinosplice. Wilson got me into blogging (on Blogger). Partway through the semester Wilson and I bought new computers. I’m still using that computer.

The school also began taking its new platoon of waijiao on trips paid for by the school. That was fun.

2002, Fall Semester

Another year contract was at an end, and I was having a good time hanging out with Wilson. My teaching methods were getting a lot of favorable feedback, and my pay was increased to 4000 rmb per month for a one semester contract.

Unfortunately, the Aussies we loved so dearly all had left, but Nicola arrived to carry on the Aussie tradition and provide Helene with some much appreciated female company [mugshots]. Chris, a cool kiwi tai chi guy, also showed up. The Smiths, an American couple and their three sons (aged 6-14?), moved in across the hall for me. Matt, a sullen American with a Chinese fiancee, also claimed residence at ZUCC, but we almost never saw him. Wilson was going strong.

I think it may have been after this semester that David ran off to Shanghai.

2003, Spring Semester

Although I had beem having a good time at ZUCC, I was starting to feel the need to do something that allowed me to use my Chinese skills, very possibly not teaching. The school did not want to lose me, so it made a compromise: the position of foreign teacher liaison was created. I was in the unique position (among the foreign teachers) of being able to communicate pretty fluently with the school in Chinese, the English teachers in English, and the Japanese teachers in Japanese. My pay was increased to 5000 rmb per month for a one semester contract. I decided that I would use the money I saved that semester to finance a semester of full-time study, including HSK prep.

Wilson extended his contract by another semester. Chris stayed, and Nadya arrived from New Zealand to assist him with his study abroad prep program. The new Aussies were Andrew and Tom. Andrew was a zany, hilarious mathematician, and Tom was the straight man. Katherine flew in from Hong Kong for a semester of teaching, and Wayne brought his 2.5 years of previous teaching experience in China to ZUCC [mugshots].

More trips and good waijiao bonding this semester… Wilson and Chris founded the Flying Disc Club, and got students learning throwing mechanics and the beginnings of ultimate frisbee.

Although I was getting restless to try something other than teaching, my teaching style was clearly maturing. I was really in the zone, knew what would work and what wouldn’t, all the while experimenting with new methods that were continually producing favorable results.

This was the semester that SARS hit. At the end of it, Wilson left ZUCC. So did Helene and Nadya.

That summer I met my girlfriend in Shanghai, and visited Ben (Spring ’02) and Andrew in Australia with Wilson. It felt like the end of a golden age at ZUCC.

2003, Fall Semester

I went into this semester knowing it would be my last for sure. I was enrolled as a full time student of Chinese at Zhejiang University of Technology, and my class hours were reduced to only 6 (?) per week (plus foreign teacher liaison duties) in exchange for 2000 rmb a month. That was just enough for me to live on comfortably in my rent-free ZUCC apartment.

I was said that it was my last semester, because my blog had somehow successfully lured five new guys to ZUCC to teach! Alf, Greg, Carl, Russell, and John B. all turned out to be amazingly cool guys that got along with each other really well. Wayne, Chris, and Nadya had stayed too [mugshots]. Aussies Ben (different one) and Simone showed up for a one-semester tour.

I felt really torn this semester because I really wanted to hit the books hard and get an 8 on the HSK to get that out of the way, but I also really wanted to hang out with the new guys because they were a blast. I wanted to be part of the formation of the new group of teachers, but I knew I would be leaving them as I headed to Shanghai only several months down the road.

I ended up getting a 7 on the HSK, but I did get a fair amount of socializing in with the new guys, and those friendships have lasted. I found a job in Shanghai with the developer of English language learning materials for Chinese kindergarteners, and my half-year relationship with my girlfriend was about to get a lot easier.

I left ZUCC quietly after three and a half years. My future was in Shanghai.

Wayne also returned to the States, and the Smiths left too.

Epilogue

After I left, Jamie Doom showed up to join the team. Some pretty crazy stories have been told about that next semester and those to follow. Afterward, Jamie left China for the States. Carl and Alf left ZUCC for other work in Hangzhou. John B. went to Changchun to study. Russell eventually left for Japan. Carl moved to Shanghai. Wayne came to Shanghai. Helene returned to ZUCC. John B. returned to ZUCC. Greg didn’t leave ZUCC until last month, when he returned to the U.S. Chris is still at ZUCC.

Related: ZUCC official website, my ZUCC apartment (Fall 2001), ZUCC campus (Spring 2002), ZUCC students

Jamie is a man of many talents, but I am sad to say that Chunky Salsa design skillz is just not one of them. I knew, however, that Jamie (and quite possibly Greg as well) had some serious, borderline neurotic needs for online Chunky Salsa, so I had no choice but to go that extra mile and put together my own Chunky Salsa layout.

Get it while it’s fresh… it may not last! In the meantime, for those of you that need it, each new Sinosplice post can be a fresh bowl of China salsa for your minds. But this blog needs chips. You, the readers, can be those chips. Together we will boldly forge into uncharted Salsa-China blog territory!

Update: It works now.

I have completely moved into my new apartment in Shanghai, and it’s awesome. My ZUCC co-worker friends were all going to help me with the final move, but they all bailed on me at the last minute for lame reasons like “no money,” except for Greg. He was a great help, and strong as an ox, that lad. Alf tried to placate me by later showing up with a potted plant for me. What a charmer.

Anyway, I don’t hold grudges, so I’ll be happy to put any of them up should they feel like coming to visit me in Shanghai. Those guys are great, and I’ll really miss them. Sometimes it’s hard for me to explain even to myself why I would voluntarily leave such a great community of people.

I also met the notorious Brad (of BradF.com) recently. Very chill guy. Much more into music than I expected (if you read Chinese, make sure you check out his ideas for his new band!). Hopefully I’ll be hanging out with him again soon.

I finally bought a new hard drive yesterday. 80 GB of Seagate goodness. Works like a champ so far. I’ve actually found that I didn’t lose as much data as I thought I did, due to my inadvertently backing important documents up in the past for various reasons. That includes my book, to my extreme relief. My publisher has just recently informed me that they’ve finally made the official decision to publish it. Cool. Only took 3 months.

Hmmm, every paragraph is beginning with the word “I”. But not this one.

My ADSL internet access will be installed tomorrow, and then I can finally quit with this internet cafe hanky panky.

I paid a huge wad of cash for my apartment on Christmas Day. My new job doesn’t start until after Chinese New Year. I was getting paid very little all last semester because I was teaching very few clases to make time for my full-time Chinese studies. That all amounts to me being pooooor. My older sister Amy is coming for a visit next Wednesday. Fortunately she’s bringing funds. Everything’s gonna be cool, I’m sure.

Things are looking good. I have lots of ideas for Sinosplice in the months to come, but I’m gonna need that internet access first. Expect more pictures. My new surroundings have imparted new inspiration to me.

After checking out West Lake at night, we headed over to a very cheap bar I know of. The name is 西部小镇; Old West Town is their translation. There’s a cowboy hat on the sign. It’s in a prime location, in a string of little bars right next to West Lake. It’s not a great bar. It’s very loud, and the music is always bad. The bar serves little more than beer, despite the plethora of Western liquors on display. The bartender’s job is basically to pull out more beers and open them. The one saving grace of this bar is its beer special: 3 West Lake beers for 10rmb ($1.25). West Lake Beer is not the greatest beer in the world, but it’s always so cheap that in Hangzhou I find myself drinking it more than any other beer. Apparently it’s owned by Asahi now.

So we did what so many Chinese people do in bars — drink and play a dice game called chui niu (吹牛). It’s this game where everyone has a cup of 5 dice, and you have to estimate how many of a given number there are out there, under everyone’s cups. Ones are wild. Bluffing is key. It’s a fun game, but not quite fun enough to warrant its popularity in China, in my opinion. Anyway, it was good for the new Aussies, Ben and Simonne, because we played it in Chinese and they got their numbers down (kinda). We left a little while after the bar ran out of cold beers.

On the way to West Lake, I was given this flyer:

Restaurant Bar Club
Nothing Comes from Nothing.
Nothing comes from Nothing.

In celebration Z Bar begins a new chapter, in a new city
that mix our minds and drinks our souls.
We stamped the ground and strung the lights to launch this new theme Restaurant-Bar-Club of modern artistry.
Experience the sight, the sound, the taste,
the energy —
We welcome you to experience our
OPEN DOORS

I think English in China is getting better…