March 10th: hair cut and pyro indulgences
[ posted by mcdeviltoast ]
Day 175
Found a note under my door from Rose saying I was to be in a video that morning. I hastily showered, made some coffee, went to her office. The police station was making a video showing how satisfactory their processing of foreigners was. They filmed me walking in, and the lady said, "Welcome to here." To which I replied, "Hi, I'd like to get my foreign expert certification please." Then they filmed mesaying, "Their service was very satisfactory. The staff was very helpful." And that was it. They bestowed a couple odd keychains as gratitude and then we drove back to the school.
Classes went well, but in one class the CD player didn't work, so the lesson capper was shot. I sat disappointed and my students asked if I was very sad. I said yes. In all my classes they asked if I was cold. It was an especially warm day and I had broken a Hawaiian shirt out of mothballs. It's a cultural thing, the cold asking. Even the cops on the drive over to film asked me this, right after watching me remove my jacket. I went off on my last class for asking, I'm afraid. "No, I'm not cold! I'm very hot! If I was cold, I would have a sweater and a jacket and a hat on! I don't have them on, so I'm not cold!" Their answer: "Ting bu dong."
After classes I rode up to Dongzhou, met Heather, and we gave the money exchange thing another try. Rose had given me a copy of the contract with the added red stamps of officialhood. This time it worked even though it took forever for them to get my precious documents back to me. And then they asked if I wanted to convert the RMB to US dollars. Wasn't that the whole fucking point? I stopped to get my hair cut on the way back. I just wanted the back trimmed up a bit. That took about two hours. Heather stood sentry so I wouldn't be leaving with a big orange mullet.
We feasted at the tents. Andy crashed, then picked up the tab. I wanted to get some more fireworks, but we couldn't find the whizzers from last time. I got a 16 pack of comparable jobs and four little space shuttle thingies. The whizzers whirled into the air but gave no report. One was a dud and we kept trying to get it to light from the jettisoned flames of the working ones. No avail. One of the space shuttle guys refused to detonate as well. The other three worked just fine.They whizzed up in the air throwing off green sparks, but lifted only a little as if their payload was too heavy. Then, a thundering report. Those unassuming sonso'bitches packed a mighty whallop.
We were going to watch a film, but listened to Radiohead and fell asleep instead.
Found a note under my door from Rose saying I was to be in a video that morning. I hastily showered, made some coffee, went to her office. The police station was making a video showing how satisfactory their processing of foreigners was. They filmed me walking in, and the lady said, "Welcome to here." To which I replied, "Hi, I'd like to get my foreign expert certification please." Then they filmed mesaying, "Their service was very satisfactory. The staff was very helpful." And that was it. They bestowed a couple odd keychains as gratitude and then we drove back to the school.
Classes went well, but in one class the CD player didn't work, so the lesson capper was shot. I sat disappointed and my students asked if I was very sad. I said yes. In all my classes they asked if I was cold. It was an especially warm day and I had broken a Hawaiian shirt out of mothballs. It's a cultural thing, the cold asking. Even the cops on the drive over to film asked me this, right after watching me remove my jacket. I went off on my last class for asking, I'm afraid. "No, I'm not cold! I'm very hot! If I was cold, I would have a sweater and a jacket and a hat on! I don't have them on, so I'm not cold!" Their answer: "Ting bu dong."
After classes I rode up to Dongzhou, met Heather, and we gave the money exchange thing another try. Rose had given me a copy of the contract with the added red stamps of officialhood. This time it worked even though it took forever for them to get my precious documents back to me. And then they asked if I wanted to convert the RMB to US dollars. Wasn't that the whole fucking point? I stopped to get my hair cut on the way back. I just wanted the back trimmed up a bit. That took about two hours. Heather stood sentry so I wouldn't be leaving with a big orange mullet.
We feasted at the tents. Andy crashed, then picked up the tab. I wanted to get some more fireworks, but we couldn't find the whizzers from last time. I got a 16 pack of comparable jobs and four little space shuttle thingies. The whizzers whirled into the air but gave no report. One was a dud and we kept trying to get it to light from the jettisoned flames of the working ones. No avail. One of the space shuttle guys refused to detonate as well. The other three worked just fine.They whizzed up in the air throwing off green sparks, but lifted only a little as if their payload was too heavy. Then, a thundering report. Those unassuming sonso'bitches packed a mighty whallop.
We were going to watch a film, but listened to Radiohead and fell asleep instead.
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[ posted by mcdeviltoast @ 3/10/2005 12:25:00 AM ]
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The dumbtronica act Montana & McDeviltoast, along with their friends, keep each other updated on their activities. Much fun having by all, and Pockys fear for their lives!