CHINA.......and doom

So I am back from China......and let me just say, WHAT A TRIP!

And this is not really in a positive sense. First off, I have never loved Japan more than when I was in China. Touching down from the airplane I was SHOCKED at how bad the pollution was. I had heard it was bad enough that many Chinese people wore face masks. Shockingly no one was, and I could not find any. But it was so bad I found myself hacking away just about everyday, and it reduced visibility to like maybe 200 meters at some points.

Also the smells, OMG the smells! In China its perfectly normal for children to have no bottoms in their pants. When they need to go they simply squat down and poop or pee...where ever they may be. Also, trash pick up seems spotty at best but to clean up for the Olympic games it seems that Beijing is trying to step up trash pick up at the main tourist sites. And so there are these cleaning ladies picking up trash everywhere, thus the Chinese people seem to dump trash where ever. Even on the great wall, people just carelessly threw their garbage in deep ravines, and the trash pick up ladies seemingly had to risk their lives to retrieve it. So it seems no matter where I went there were hideous smells...at every turn.

Also, like Japan's golden week, China also has a week long vacation that happens to coincide with Japans. Thus everywhere was PACKED with Chinese people. And man can they be rude. I have never been shoved so much in my life. I thought Korea was bad about the lack of standing in lines and the pushing, but in China multiply that by 10!

Also, I hear you need to barter to get around, but in China expect prices to be inflated 1000%. I am not joking you will get prices that are RIDICULOUS! I mean the first price they throw out will be more expensive than even America or Japan. And sometimes they will not budge. Its like they hear English and that the magic sign to throw out insane numbers. Also I had very little in the concept of money, the small denominations to me seemed like dollars so I'd fight to get 1 yuan off (which is apparently 1/7 of a dollar) But when it was in the 100's of yuan (Something like 16 dollars) I'd think yeah thats like what....2 dollars due to my adjustment of yen. So yeah, I got ripped off on EVERYTHING, at least thats how I feel.

So overall, I was happy to go to experience it. I didn't really have a strong compulsion to go, but I felt it was something I had to do. I got to walk the great wall, see the forbidden city, walk Tianamin Square. Very little of it had an impact on me. The great wall was nice, but I didn't even climb up it, since I went with the tour and most people in said tour preferred to take the buggy up. Also when I got up it was so polluted I could not down the valley. Also it was so crowded moving forward was slow going. But, it was still nice to see, one day I perhaps will go again, and this time with MUCH MORE CHINESE.

I did not learn a single word of Chinese, which I deeply regret. It was just ridiculous of me expecting to go with just English, and honestly I feel it was almost my own fault for making myself a mark.

Oh, yeah China can also be really scary. While trying to hitch a cab ride, some 8 random guys came up to me and my two friends. Ganged up on us, and then chased us down! They were trying to charge us a RIDICULOUS price for a cab ride, and instead of it being metered they were just content with trying to shove us in a cab. FREAKY!

Well, lets just say I am happy to be in Japan. I think for the next few weekends I will try to use my awesome car and travel around Japan more. I keep on saying this and I know it doesn't always happen, but I feel Japan has a lot to offer. I thought at times a lot of it was really touristy but in this world of global tourism I do not care where you go, there will be someone willing to exploit your dearth of knowledge of said locality. And things that may have been pristine paradises, will probably have become a hot bed of tourist exploitation... sounds miserable I know. But let's just say China has scared me for life! Hopefully the next place I go will be better... I don't want to be hating on China, but man...all I can say is China....WOW!

On another less sad note, I properly started my new first year lessons. Some classes are really genki and jazzed for English. So I am happy, my first lesson went really well. I was going to play the call response game and I didn't even need to! They totally answered all my questions, and after the class the new teacher I never taught with was really amazed that I did all the planing, print outs, and presentation. She also felt it went really well, YAY!

Something that makes me happy seeing as last year...my first lesson did not go so well. Power points, constantly changing things up etc, really helps. Sadly since I had a semi first lesson with one class, their technically second lesson but in order to keep the uniformity of other classes their first lesson was a kinda fail. Hopefully the scheduling will get better...which I doubt since I went through 2 random lesson changes with in the morning, without being warned and with it not being written up on the class schedule board. (Something that is in Japanese but which they have already told me to look at instead of the schedule they give me) w00t! Go my school!

They have even warned me that on Friday, I may have 3 classes back to back to back...or have Saturday school with the students. Oh joy. But at least it was a warning unlike today, which was Kristen the lesson schedule has changed! Then I go to the class and instead of it being what I was told in the morning it was completely something else. I love when its classes back to back to back...giving me basically zero time to improve them....

Well enough bitching! tomorrow is English Club, and another Oral Comm class (I am so unsure how it will go, since I still have not talked with that teacher I had a row with.....yikes!) So that means more planing and work so I'm signing off!

And yes sorry for the bitchfest, but wow. It in reality was not that bad... today that is, China on the other hand ....