Chapter 358

I woke up at 6:30 and started my day. I browsed WeChat a bit and stumbled upon a news piece. A foreign resident of China was working illegally and when the rent-a-cops raided the kindergarden where he was teaching, he tried to escape by jumping over a fence. He got thrown in jail for 100 days and then deported and separated from his three Chinese-born children. You’re not supposed to be working on a tourist or spouse visa, and even if you do have a work visa, you can’t have any part-time employment. Usually the penalties are not that severe, for instance his coworkers just got fined a few thousand RMB, I assume it’s because he tried to flee. There was a time when it seemed every laowai in China had a few side gigs and expat bars were full of Europeans teaching English on the wrong visa, but word on the street is it’s riskier and not worth it now. I sometimes get offers for part-time work but I decline, I’m a law-abiding citizen and also I don’t need much more money, and enjoy my free time.

Between two classes, I ran into the Ugandan math teacher at the water dispenser. I showed him a meme which featured his fellow countryman TV inteviewer, famous for asking his guest about his homosexuality. I said out loud “Why are you geh?” just as a grade-12 student came out of the bathroom, and he stopped in his tracks to look at us all puzzled. Oops. I had to explain to him I was quoting someone, not literally asking the question.

I had a few review classes, and they went okay. Some students are getting lazier and lazier, and in need of a vacation and/or a serious dose of self-discipline.

In the afternoon, the internet gargled shit so I was forced to listen to the very limited selection of music left on my hard drive. I used to keep a variety of offline albums, familiar and new, for this frequent contingency. But now, the internet and VPN has been (mostly) working well in recent months so I’m not as prepared. I’m sure there’s a bigger, over-arching lesson to be extracted from this.

I taught Crazy Class, a last tough hurdle to jump over before the weekend officially starts. I still had to sit in the office until 5 but I was all mentally checked out, so I played a few games of chess. I won one, and lost three, though I can’t say I made as many stupid mistakes as before, it was just a long grind that ended up in an inevitable checkmate.

I went home, relaxed a bit, downed a pre-workout, and went to the gym. Chest day is everyone’s favorite. I listened to various bits and pieces of albums on my mp3 player, a notable one being the rapper Daibaojing (who also goes by Double J). Unlike most rappers who talk about consuming drugs and murdering people (and being unjustly targeted by rayciss police), her lyrical content is about her periods, how much she hates taking the subway, teenage love flings, and other concerns in the life of a young urban Chinese girl, but her flow is quite sick. I also put on Gravediggaz’s 6 Feet Deep, a great piece of NYC hardcore hip-hop with a dark soundscape.

Then I got home, ate the last of the pasta I made yesterday and packed my bag. Merry Christmas.