What the hell am I doing?????

Dear Marilla,

This is what I've taken to saying to myself EVERY SINGLE day. I'm currently scurrying to find plane/train/mule/motorcycle tickets to Hong Kong because my 90 day stay is up and I don't have any visa sponsorship...(no worries found cheap airline tickets across Hong Kong border in Shenzhen. I get there and take the subway over the water and cross the border into Hong Kong for a few few days, then fly back to Shanghai. Piece of cake...right?!?!)
Anyway...

I have 13 - 15 students that are as irregular as they can come with cancelling and rescheduling our class sessions weekly/daily/hourly. So my time going to the "head pimp" for more students is not necessary. I can't budget to save my life here. First, I've not been paid for hundreds of minutes of works (getting paid by every 100 minute is by far the most ass backward system I've encountered...whatever) Secondly, getting paid once a month IS INSANE. Thirdly, I'm too busy teaching folks English to stop and crack down on MY mandarin...ARGHH!!!! So frustrating.

I apparently need some niche or unique selling point in order to do anything in the fitness industry here. I'm not trying to pull some Billy Blanks marketing shit, so I need something low key AND I enjoy...I'm working on that now as well. For some reason many here seem to think that being a Black American means "you can dj at any random club", "you can find a job anywhere"...ummm yeah NO

The places I've interview with must realize that I just want to do yoga all day and not much else. Still trying to figure out how I've sent out my resume to over 100 places and had 19 interviews and nothing. Yes I've turned down jobs for middle of China, Indonesia, and some other 3rd world places. Because I'm not ready for that and its not what I want to do right now. (The pay sucked too. I have USD bills to pay still and making something equivalent to $400USD a month is not what I want to subscribe to...sorry)

Which brings me to a new fact that I've found out about myself: my standards of living ARE pretty f'n high. Yes I've decided to live in the freaking NYC of China and YES I am unemployed and YES I should be more compromising with my living standards...BUT I AM NOT. While chatting with another english teaching working "whore", we talked about our expectations of living in Shanghai (what we will put up with and WILL NOT) We agreed "the american" comes out at times and we proudly become the asshole Laowai (foreigners) when we have certain expectations on hygiene, common courtesies, and human behaviors that should be "understood" as wrong are being displayed toward us. I'm a reasonable person, most of the time. I'm respectful of culture, but I draw the line when simple things are over looked. If I'm paying over 40RMB for a meal, I will need you to wash your hands.(I know, but $6 IS a lot here don't judge) No ifs, ands, or buts about this. I've strangely found my patriotism while being here...hilarious.

*Steps down from high horse*

So the hot fellas that were coming out of the wood works are all out of town for the holidays, so my networking mojo is a no go. Which is fine because I need to focus on not getting shipped back to the US and go to Hong Kong. No one should be jealous of my absurd life...seriously.

Sorry this post is so long, but I've not posted as often as I wanted this month. I will post pictures soon of stuff and things. Btw I didn't mention Xmas because I worked and was sick. Plus I'm indifferent toward it anyway so it doesn't really matter. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday. I'm told celebrations here are from December til February (Chinese New Year). Gives me plenty of time to join in on some festive activities...blah

love, love, love from shanghai to all.

signed,

Anne Shirley running to the border :)

a different type of whoring around

Yes Marilla, I said it. I've been ho-ing around. I've become apart of the English teaching prostitution game here in Shanghai. By way of one of the fellas I've met (lets call him pimp for consistency sake) Since I've not been able to find a full time job, I've taken on part time work at a few language schools/centers...thus my journey into the dark side of English teaching has begun.

I get a text message anytime from 3pm to 10pm that guy X and girl B need a tutor at Y time that day or next day. The location is sent to me in Chinese and I'm to show the cab driver and they will take me to whatever god forsaken place I'm being ask to go to...(its been mainly millionaire families that have money to throw away and around to give their precious child EXTRA lessons. I'm not complaining)
The students/parents pay for the cab and I get paid, hopefully in a month (200RMB per hour and you get paid once a month. I'm still in my 1st month, ugh...i thank my fairy godmother for the recent help in my money issue that i can't begin to calmly go into) If I don't get a text, I'm suppose to call or go by the language center/school, along with the rest of the "English teaching whores" and find out where my next "john" (student) will be. Its a little competitive, but I'm not trying to "choke a bitch" over some teaching job...no ma'am. Nothing but class over here.

I've acquired 5 regular students (customers). A 3yro girl, 6yro boy, 9yro girl, 17yro guy, 27 yro married mother. There are others that are on my regular schedule that are thrown in from time to time, but these are my staple private students. I'm in the process of figuring out proper lesson plans to guide them. This is challenging and what I needed. The married mother only wants to talk about makeup and "how is it you don't wear any?" The 9 year old girl has full on ADD and refuses to speak English. 6 year old boy just wants to read to me (less work for me). the 17year old high schooler is being forced by his dad to study so its complicated (having to tell him to do his homework so we can go over it)

The 3 year old scares me to death. Not because she's a kid (I might be over that lil problem), but because English is her 3rd language and she's smart as hell. She was born in the UK (nice loophole to get around the 1 child thing here in China apparently) and her family lived in Germany. So she speaks Chinese, German, and English. Did I mention she's 3 damn years old. She laughs at my weak attempts at speaking Chinese to her to explain English words, while singing "the wheels on the bus go round 'n round"...Her name is Happy. She's the sweetest and cutest thing ever. We have discussions on Winnie the Pooh and how Eeyore should be more prevalent in the stories. She's going to be a force to recon with one day. I asked her "do you know what world domination is Happy?"...she looks at me with her big 3 year old eyes "what is a dommimation, we look it up". I pat her on the head and tell her "you'll find out soon enough when you're running things"

thus my whoring continues...