Day Seven in the Big Brother Homeland
So far: so great. All seems like a whole load of fun and games here, quite literally. I think I’ve learnt more random children’s games in the last week, than I’ve picked up pieces of food with chop-sticks. Which I may add, I’m fairly good at using these days. I can finish off a bowl of rice in just under an hour now. I’m almost on a par with the Karate Kid some say: Danielson lives on in China.
Mainly I’ve been getting all trained up and shizm. Watching classes taught by a group of thoroughly entertaining professionals, and great guys too. I’ve also been to a local play area for kids to ‘teach’ them how to be in a marching band – which I no next to nothing about of course. More importantly perhaps, this week, I’ve been ‘teaching’ them how to make sausage dogs out of balloons. A very serious industry, as you tell by the look of sheer determination on my face. ‘Every day is a school day’ as they say… In no line of society does this ring more true than in ours.
I’m still thrilled about getting started officially as a teacher here in China and settling into a proper routine. The first month or so in a new job, especially in a new career and/or a new country, are always a struggle whilst getting used to things. For one: the sheer size of the place. As a wartime Frenchman, named Charles de Gaulle, so poignantly put it: “China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese.” And boy he definitely wasn’t wrong in the slightest.
I’ve been getting all trained up and I’m almost ready to officially enter the big wide world of TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). First up, however, I must travel to Hong Kong to get all legit and stuff with the aim of securing my work permission… few days in Hong Kong? Oh I suppose I must…
Life here, for anyone who loves great food and good drinks at rock bottom prices, is certainly a reasonably-priced pleasure. The cost of living is minimal. My apartment is less than £100, am sharing with my man Johnny of course. To bum around all day on a bus throughout the city is just 10p per trip, regardless of how far you go. For smokers cigs are less than £1 for a pack of 20. The cost of an incredible meal might stretch you to £1.10, and – wait for it – the cost of a beer is around 20p! Boom, there it is.
It is, actually, cheaper than milk. Which, by the way, I was trying to consume more of as part of a new healthy lifestyle regime; now – for purely financial reasons of course – I’ll be having on beer on my cereal instead.
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