“I like you perm”

An ayi on the street told me this when I was having a big curly hair day. China weather is not ideal for my hair most of the time and I couldn't begin to explain to this woman that this was in no way, shape or form a perm on my head...good grief.

Day 10 in hilarious hostel...
The front desk people now bring me sugar for my coffee without me asking, know my first name, and ask when my boyfriend will visit again because they like that he can speak Chinese and they think he's handsome (seriously grown Chinese men blush when they see Joe. I don't understand it. I tell him not to get use to that...). Joe pops into town from work every few days or so to make sure I am fed and packing and have not killed anyone.
This is my life.
I've watched many people come into the hostel bright-eyed and naive about moving to China and wanting to live here and excited and completely unaware of how things work here. I wondered if I looked like this to anyone when I arrived...probably. People ask me what I'm doing here and I just say, “stuff and things”. I don't want to start telling my “ridiculous china story”. I'll just recommend they buy the book and do just the opposite of what I did.
One of the many roommates that have passed through the hostel asked me how old I was. I told her I was 33. I later stopped and did the math and realized that I'm 32. There is no reason for me to push things along and when did I become so bad at math. I don't even have hangups with my age. It seems the older I get the less interested I am about my age. Its very strange to think that “I'm in my 30s”.

So at the lovely age of 32, I will finally see Japan (albeit a very little of it with a 24hr layover). I will be blitzing through Tokyo on a budget of $0. Much like my China move, I will play it by ear. After that, its off to Dallas. Only place, for now, that I can actually go decompress, work on books AND be poor AND be unemployed for a minute.

Since I've mentally checked out of China, I go to the local cafes and look for jobs online and think of ways to do business. I'm not even trying to upload or work on my book here anymore. I go to upload somewhere or download some software for editing...Boom, crash. Something goes wrong. Its not in the stars for me to finish it up here. I will probably have better luck on the plane back to the States or something. I will not stress about it.

Currently I have 4 students that are pretty consistent about canceling, rescheduling, or no showing for classes. Whatever. I still enjoy my Balluff VP business English student. In our last class we discussed how he read research about how all humans originated from Africa by a Japanese scientist. (the fact the he is reading and really respects a Japanese scientist speaks volumes about him, because so many Chinese HATE Japanese people)
It was a very interesting conversation. Our many conversations have opened my eyes to the a more promising positive China that 'could be'. I asked him if he's very popular with his friends and he replies “no, not when I speak of these subjects and how “民主“ min zhu (democracy) will be the only way China can be prosperous”. I grin at him uncomfortably thinking, “easy tiger, lets wait til I leave before you start an uprising. Am not trying to step on government toes”
Even if this is one mans opinion, I think its representative of many here. This is a super capitalist country that is exploding with growth due to the fact that they are running before they can walk as far as development goes. In my honest opinion.

Current goals are packing and leaving. (packing seems to be the hardest thing EVER)

Motto this year “Realistic goal setting and step taking”