May already
Well, hard to believe it’s Friday already. Profound words, I know, but my days have consisted of little more than prep prep prep. If I’m not prepping then I’m thinking about prepping. The bane of the first-year teacher. And I do call myself a first-year teacher because I’ve never taught at this level. So, will I stay? Sure. I don’t want to look for yet another job in yet another country.
Bored?
I was chatting with a friend I made while travelling and mentioned that I didn’t want to move around as much, even though Beijing isn’t my final destination. She said it didn’t sound like settling, it sounded like I was bored. And I suppose that’s a better term for what I’m going through and how I feel about my current placement. I’ve seen a lot. I’ve done a lot. What more can I possibly do? You have no idea how giddy I get when I wake up and see my toothbrush in the same place I left it the day before. Not only that, but the accumulation rather than the continuous distribution of money.
Dust and Cleaning
The one thing that shocks me, however, is the accumulation of dust. One of the few benefits of moving around a lot is that you don’t have to clean. On the other hand, once you settle down, as I have done, you begin to realize how fast dust accumulates. Didn’t I just sweep this floor? It seems to be worse in Beijing because of the smog situation, which pushes through the cervices in the windows and finds a place to rest in your home.
Speaking of which, they just cleaned the windows last weekend. You might wonder why I’d mention that fact but it was strange because they were adamant about cleaning them. Last Friday was the Labour Day holiday which was really just an excuse for my students to skip out on class on Thursday so they could have an extended 4-day weekend while I had to keep working. But they cleaned the outside of the apartment block first and then moved inside for the weekend. Who did it? Some team of Chinese ladies came in and swept, scrapped and washed the frames of windows and doors. Sure, my window needed to be cleaned, but why did the doors have to be scraped? I don’t know. As luck would have it, I slept in on Sunday, the day in which they got to my place and didn’t wake up until noontime. They finally came back the next day, as if it was an itch that just needed to be scratched and finally cleaned the window.
Lastly…
And it’s getting hotter outside. I’ve started to think about my summer plans and what I’ll do, nothing really decided just yet.
Ah, and finally, my Round 2 playoffs picks, again picked by nothing more than first place and patriotism:
Chicago
Calgary
Montreal
New York
As it stands, it doesn’t look like I’ll do so well in this round as Montreal and New York and currently down 3-1 in their series.