Chapter 347

I woke up at 7 and took my time, so I cut the dog’s walk short. I wasn’t in too much of a rush though, and though I made it to work a few minutes late, I didn’t have first period so I settled in the office, drank tea and finished preparing my lessons. The morning went by normally.

At lunchtime I rode back home, and saw that the elevator was broken. So I started walking up the stairs to my eighth-floor abode. Halfway, I saw what caused it, some brain-damaged nong fucknuggets were moving and had propped the doors open with one of their cardboard boxes. When the doors stay open for more than a few seconds, they start beeping, and those Mensa candidates didn’t think anything of it. Now the elevator was stuck with its doors opened halfway and a constant high-pitched beep. Great.

In the early afternoon I had a double with the twelfth-graders, and then I got a message from the principal at the Canadian school I had interviewed at two weeks ago. He said they can’t match my salary demand (which is no more but no less than what my current school offered) and also their art teacher is not leaving, which means there’s no position for the girlfriend. Ah well. So I printed my renewal offer, signed it, and sent it to HR. One more year.

It’s a bit bittersweet, I was somewhat looking forward to a change of environment, after four years in this small city, but now I’m saved the hassle of moving, the awkwardness of having to announce my resignation, the joyless paperwork that comes with changing employers, and also I don’t have to worry about the possibility of “jumping out of the proverbial frying pan into the fire” and find myself in a workplace riddled with worse problems than the ones I have to face now, which are pretty minor. The girlfriend is a bit more bummed out, her job went from shitty to shittier, and only now do I realize it would have been a good idea to do a full-scale job hunt for the sake of her well-being, rather than just applying at my friend’s school for the hell of it. Now it’s too late. So, golden handcuffs for this boy.

I went to refill my water bottle and use the toilet. I heard voices coming from a stall, and two boys came out, bursting in laughter when they saw me there at the sink. The first few times I witnessed something like that, I was a bit weirded out, but now I don’t even think about it. I don’t even think they are gay, or going in there to smoke cigarettes, it’s just one of the strange quirky things Chinese people do. Then I went to the lab prep room and mixed the solutions for this week’s practical.  

I got home, relaxed a bit, and went to the gym. The Italian blue belt couldn’t come, so it was just me and two guys, a strong newly minted blue belt who constantly smashes me, and the new guy. We taught him a few techniques and live practiced them. A good time was had by all. I’m very happy with just giving back instead of being in a focused class where I can slowly level up, but I also have to say one of the reasons why getting a new job in a bigger city could have been a blessing is that they have actual BJJ schools there. Still, I’m grateful I get to train at all, even though this arrangement is hanging by a shoestring. I printed some little flyers and stuck them in the gym (with their permission), hopefully we’ll get new guys coming in eventually and sticking with it.

Then I went back home, walked the dog, and ate a plate of blood sausages and broccoli. I watched a Japanese deathmatch wrestling a friend sent
me, and it was absolutely bonkers, even by deviant Japanese standards. It took place outdoors, in a ring with an unpadded wooden floor that eventually got lit on fire, and involved a car and a semi truck. A teenage Jun Kasai was one of the protagonists, and at some point he dove off the truck’s roof, missing a table and landing on the asphalt. What a strange form of entertainment.