Constant departures...

3 ferries (66km), 3 flights (7846km), 3 trains (923km), one sailboat ride (about 20kms), 2 buses (1281km), multiple car trips (approximately 2134km), 2 bears, multiple eagles, one skunk, countless gophers, one osprey which outfished me, a mama moose, a gaggle of deer.

This was my summer in a numerical nutshell.

I've had big travel dreams for years. In the spring of 2000, when I made my first trip out to the west coast with the family, I knew there was something more to this desire to see everything I could lay my goggled eyes on. It didn't take long to realize that those desires were going to be expanded from seeing Canada to stepping foot on as much of the planet as possible. For what other reason could I justify the thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours that I've spent on flights, trains, buses, taxis, ferries, tuktuks, motorbikes, and rickshaws? Work? Not really... I can find places to teach at home if I desperately wanted to. Nope... there was something more there the whole time.

I've talked about it before, but part of it was definitely linked to the heavily-accented stories told by my grandmother as I grew up in the prairie lands. Often the rest of the family got bored or uncomfortable when, inevitably, the stories would turn tragic and would rekindle a deep sadness my grandmother felt. I'm certain there was a sense of abandonment there too, leaving and ensuring her own safety, all the while knowing that more people would suffer under the newly-communist former Yugoslavia, just after the war was "won" against the Nazis. One could spend a lot of time debating what it means to win a war.

Luckily for me, I didn't come from poverty and other than giving up the requisite trips to Disneyland that my more affluent friends and acquaintances seemed to have taken care of before the age of 15 (when I say "give up", I mean I didn't exactly have the opportunity and my McDonald's earnings sure weren't being saved to make it happen). I came from a family who did, however, think I was crazy for embarking on my Europe excursion and they still believe (after I've been overseas in China for going on 4 years) that I'm nuts for living on the other side of the Great Firewall of the PRC. But they know... they see the glint in my eye as I get ready to hop on a plane, and they can sense my oncoming and ever-enduring verbal diarrhea when I talk about the flights/people/adventures I've experienced. This life isn't for everyone, but it sure is for me.

My Canada trip took me across 6 provinces, from one coast to another, and into different beds nearly every few days. I was exhausted when I returned "home" again to Dalian and it was wonderful to retreat into my place of comfort again. I got to see Canada's most beautiful cities all in one (expensive) fell swoop and my life continues to be more rich because of it. When I finally got back to China, I noticed that the techno music hadn't gotten any quieter and people don't spit less often, but I have grown to love the land of the People's Republic. As with experience in novelty, one can grow tired.

Thus, here I am, enjoying free Wifi at Starbucks on Victoria Road in Singapore. No firewall, no spitting ($1000 fine if you do!), and no problems just being. Other than trying to sort out the free Wifi system they offer to all locals. I'm down in order to pursue potential jobs for next year with my lady in tow. I'm hoping for some good luck. For now, though, the cosmopolitan surroundings I'm indulging right now will suffice, It's easy to get lost in all the accented vernacular here, but I'll indulge nonetheless.

As always, from the road (which is ever-changing), much love.

T

Curious incidents...?

This is a story from a few weeks ago that is simply just too good to not re-tell...

I'm just arriving home on a Friday night with a couple friends in tow. We're planning to enjoy a few sodas before embarking on a night out with a bunch of the new teachers. MM is at my apartment getting some things ready.

So MM notices this weird wet spot on the floor in my bedroom, and since we'd both been gone all day, this is strange. She decides to investigate. She sniffs it. She touches it. Neither of these sensory endeavours yield information. Still uncertain, she decides to lick her finger so to taste the substance making up the mysterious wet spot. She's still confused... she mentions the fact that there's a wet spot on my bedroom floor. I'm thinking that it may have rained during the day and it came in the window. We hang out for a couple of hours, then head out on the town. Because we're busy, we forget about it. Coming home later, I step in something wet but I'm too tired to deal with it. It's late, I'm exhausted.

In the morning, I wake up with a start, I hear a loud sound coming from outside. Nope... inside. It's not just any sound... it's barking. It was the sound of a dog barking. Like, 10 feet away from my bed, in the hallway. In my apartment. The dog is barking loud. I get scared, put on some pants, and investigate. No dog. I go out to the patio. No dog. Then, though, I see the girl next door on her patio. Her pet pug is on the patio with her. I go back inside. I see a puddle against/beside the hutch in my entrance.

I then realize one of the consequences of living on the top floor of an apartment building in China, where apartments have connected balconies. A dog had been using my apartment for a pee/playground when I left my patio door open. I also realize my girlfriend licked dog urine.

T

Year #4 and another long hiatus

As per usual, the time seems to disappear without notice. In a mere two days, October will be over. Just last week it was summer, but yesterday we got our first taste of the cool north wind funneling down from the hinterlands of Siberia. And somehow, barely after being able to remember the names of my new students, I'm hopping on a plane for my first holiday of the year.

My new job as Department Head has been, well, full. I'm the head of English 11, which has about 12 teachers between Intro to Lit and English 11 classes. I've got a full load of English courses myself that are keeping me plenty busy, and since we've already sent home our first round of report cards, the month of September was anything but quiet. Multiple meetings per week with my department, the admin, and our new English coordinator... regular and ongoing emails with department colleagues, coordinating teaching strategies with the other grade levels, and trying to keep up on my marking/planning. It's hard for me to believe that in just my fourth year here, I'm considered one of the "olds"... full of wisdom, knowledge and guidance. What is the school/world coming to?? 

My new assignment also brought me a change of venue over to the Girls' Campus. This has been a weird but fun adjustment. I find myself much more calm in the classroom and the constant spitting in the hallways and lack of interest in the classroom aren't nearly as evident. Whether it's because of the DH job or that my classes (including my homeroom) are all taught in the same classroom and I don't have to share with anyone else, I'm not exactly sure what the reason is, but I know that things feel much better this year. I even have a couple of my old middle school students from 3 years ago in my English class. My decorating talents pale in comparison to my Zhou Enlai homeroom (top students in the grade), but the girls just take care of everything and make it awesome. The girls can be loud and boisterous and they like to laugh. I'd come to assume that it'd be like pulling teeth to get them talking. Nope... definitely not the case. I even feel like I'm finally starting to figure out this teaching thing. Who knows? Maybe I'll make a run at being a decent teacher after all.

But enough about work. It's vacation time! The wonderful MM and I are leavin' on a jet plane for Kuala Lumpur and Singapore for the next week. It wasn't exactly a financially frugal trip, but the hope is that we'll come back with more potential for jobs for next year in much more tropical, much more beautiful locales. Your duty (for those few readers who read this nonsense), is to cross fingers, say prayers, or burn some incense to inspire some good luck to float our way.

I have a post from the summer that I'll post soon about my travels, and another one about an an unexpected incident of a mystery animal in the nighttime. Those will come soon (quite possibly during layovers en route to the tropics). Until then...

T

I'm still alive (and a shout-out to Momsy)

As has been the trend this semester/year, distractions, busyness, and a general sense of contentment and fatigue have kept me from this place I used to frequent oh-so-much. A distraction is coming in the form of a, well, friend, and between playing baseball (I'm now an official member of the Jinshitan Jays, and have been starting at 3rd or 1st base the past few games) and practicing for volleyball and running tutorials and organizing my badminton club, I haven't had a tonne of down-time. And it's finally spring! And I'm only 7 weeks to Canada! So much is happening and there's so much to think about that, at the end of the day, neglect you (4 or 5) dedicated readers of my life.

I also just returned from a fantastic little vacation to Korea, and since returning I keep thinking to myself (a la Liz Lemon), "I want to go to there," again. Clean, fun, coffee EVERYWHERE, and some amazing entertainment at the baseball stadium (two games and the best fans ever) made it a destination I want to return to. Who knows... maybe even as a place of employment.

For the timebeing (knowing full-well that it's a few hours too late), I just wanted to wish my mom, Gran Mrak, Grams Miller, and all the other amazing women and moms I know that they're awesome... Happy Mother's Day!

Now, though, I must dash. More soon (I promise)... from your deadbeat but upbeat friend from across the street (and across the pond).

Much love from Chinaland.

T

Happy St. Paddy's (not St. Patty's)

At 1am last night (this morning?), my phone beeps and buzzes on my bedside table. Text message. I've been in bed for nearly 3 hours. I know, quite the impressive outing on St. Patrick's Day. I roll over, check the message and see that it's from my big bro back in Canada (obviously he's having trouble calculating the time change... I received one from him at 4am last week). It's a slightly random message to say Happy St. Patrick's Day, but he wanted to make sure that I knew it was "St. Paddy" and not "St. Patty". Thinking this was slightly ridiculous, the next day I show the text to my lady-friend MM (who is about as Irish as they come in Canada), and she concurs. Not really explaining why that's the case other than "Patty is short for Patricia, duh!", I argue with her. I was suspicious that it was a bunch of bollocks. We banter back and forth and I abandon it because I really have no idea which is right. And an Irish girl should know, right?

As I turn on my computer and check my emails/facebook, I realize that my brother has proof via interweb. I hate admitting he's right, but it seems that he is. And MM is quick to point this out. Not a surprise there :)

So if you want to know why it's "Paddy" and not "Patty", go here: http://paddynotpatty.com/

My family has a wee bit 'o the Irish in us, so I make sure I mention this bit at our gathering last night. Hopefully good luck will find me.

T

New days

A big blanket of a blue sky is filling the windows of my office. My officemates are chipper, although one of them is buzzing and tapping and is being a bit crazy from a caffeine overdose which hit him just before 3rd block. I just finished my PE block out on the field (teaching Chinese kids BASEBALL!) and was able to comfortably don a hoodie and scarf while my winter jacket sat idly nearby. The Ides of March have arrived, but not with dark omens... if anything, they bring brighter days as spring slowly springs into the greater Dalian area. Every year here, I wait (im)patiently

The fallout from Friday has been a mix of good and bad. Countless students have approached me asking if I'm okay, a couple classes have had conversations focused on the fact that they were worried about me and that they were happy to hear that I was alright, and the staff/admin at my school on both the BC and Chinese sides have been extremely supportive. Everyone seems to have made positive decisions in regards to what happened and I continue to feel safe and comfortable at work. On the flip side, I've run into a few problems with students here and there (I'm not sure how much is related to last Friday, but I'm working through the issues one by one), and my weekend away with the hockey guys didn't really help my immune system. Knowing that I was already feeling a bit sick last Thursday meant that my ingestion of a tonne of greasy food and too much, well, soda, allowed for the arrival of a fever on Monday night and forced me to take Tuesday off from work. I was at work on Monday. And I was back again yesterday (Wednesday). And I'm here today, on the road to recovery, mentally, emotionally, and physically. It's been a good day so far and I keep counting these little moments of contentment as victories. I live a pretty amazing life most of the time, and although I've been forced to face my share of rough water in recent years, I know that my life is full of amazing people and fantastic experiences.

I was asked via email if I was able to find a teachable moment in the midst of what's happened. I don't know if I have. It's tough. It hasn't been a collective tragedy for people to get behind and work together to sort out. There was no school assembly, there was very little discussion as a school, and although the students all know what happened, it's hard to guage how they're feeling about everything. Whether it's language or cultural barriers, especially for my grade tens (which is 75% of my teaching load), I'm not sure what's will come of all of this. Have I been able to connect with a few kids lately that I hadn't connected with previously? Yes. Have I become more aware of myself and my teaching habits and how I treat the boys? Most definitely. Do I think I'm to blame for what happened? No. Regardless, an opportunity is here, and once things settle, I think I'll begin to use it to make connections that I may have been more willing to neglect in past days/weeks/months with the continually hormonal boys I teach. I'm definitely more eager to build more bridges today than I was only a week ago. Just like everything, we get caught up in our own personal dramas and we neglect so much of what matters.

My office continues to be full of laughter, as it is almost every day. I have a ridiculously eclectic group of friends in the confines of these four walls and we're constantly howling with laughter. And there's the sunshine. And the scent of spring riding the wind. And the emails/phone calls/messages from people all over the world. And my cold is slowly disappearing. Did I mention the sunshine and two hours of baseball I get to play today? Yep, there's that too.

Thanks for all the messages, prayers, and worries that have been shared this past week. I'm doing well and I'll continue to do well.

I hope that my more humourous stories of China and the world will find their way back here soon. Until then.

T

I didn't expect this to be my first post-travel blog post.

I don't know how to begin writing this down. Two days detached, it seems surreal, like a dream, or an acquired memory from a long-forgotten movie. Like when your parents tell you a story about you as a child, and as you continue to hear the story you begin to believe that you actually own the memory. But it remains hazy, as if seen through the fog in a steam-filled shower before work.

Friday morning, I believed that my biggest problem was the fact that I had only had one cup of coffee before my first class at school and that I'd forgotten my computer's power cord at my apartment, thirty minutes away. I thought to myself, "This is not a good start to Friday." Luckily for me, I had a weekend planned with the hockey boys in Shenyang and fully expected to add to my stats sheet. My hockey playing career only started last spring and I hoped to lace up some skates for two or three more shifts with the Ice Dragons.

Again, as I think about how to actually go about telling the story I get stuck. I think about a million details that are irrelevant and even as you read these words, I'm fully aware that I'm having a hard time getting to the point. Thus, I'm going to write it in the simplest way possible. Just so you know, I'm fine and so is everyone else that was present on Friday morning.

A student, one of my students, pulled two knives on me at the end of a PE class on Friday morning. 

I know this seems ridiculous and impossible to believe. However, it's true. I still have a hard time getting past the reality of it. I did not get hurt/injured. No students were hurt. The student was disarmed by a group of teachers in the gymnasium. He likewise was unhurt.

After a blow-up earlier in the class (he was asked to sit on the side after refusing to participate, and then subsequently left the gym and was found in the campus restaurant), I spent about 10 minutes speaking to him, calming him down (he was extremely upset), and gave him a choice to return to class or to return to the main campus and wait for our VP who was in a meeting. He chose to head back to campus so I watched him walk across the street, enter the teaching building, and I returned to my class. He returned to the gym about 15 minutes later. There were approximately 80 students in the gym (3 other classes were there), plus my students were in the adjoining ping-pong room. I was speaking to another student in the main gym area just as the period was winding down. He strode across the gym calmly and approached me and the other student. I asked him to wait nearby, finished my conversation, sent the one student back into the ping-pong room, and confronted the boy, asking him if he'd had a chance to talk to our VP. He then pulled two knives out of his pockets and screamed that he was going to kill me. For a split-second I had the urge to laugh, thinking of how absurd the whole thing was. However, after looking at his eyes, looking at the blades (shiny, sharp, brand new, one in each hand), I took a step back. He took a step toward me. He kept coming so I ran and he pursued me across the gym. I was able to get a badminton net between us. In the next few minutes of making sure the teachers understood the severity of what was happening, we tried to contact our VP/Principal with no luck. Another teacher intervened, the other remaining teachers moved students out of the gym, and I ran to the second floor to get our principal and VP. After getting them out of their meeting and returning to my own class to get them sequestered, I returned to the gym and the boy had been disarmed by two teachers, our VP and a number of the Chinese staff.

As I sit here reflecting on everything that happened, I think a thousand thoughts. And I'm sure you all have a million questions. Had I had problems with the student before? Well, yes, but it had little to do with me. He's a student who's extremely "young" emotionally. He has also, from what I can gather, been the victim of bullying. Some of this happened in my class and he had a blow-up a few weeks ago. I got him calmed down, told him that I'm here to talk and support him and promised him that if I ever heard about any incidents of bullying that I'd help him and take care of it. After calming him down and allowing him the option to speak to his homeroom teacher, I had a lengthy discussion with my class about bullying, respect, and working together. I talked to a few individuals in this class as well, making it very clear that bullying wouldn't be tolerated. This was weeks ago and there was nothing that I could see that made me think it was continuous or on-going. He didn't bring it up with me again.

Did I think the boy was dangerous? No. It's still hard for me to believe it happened. Where did he get the knives from? Likely some sort of regular market. The knives were more or less brand new paring knives with very sharp blades. Not big, but big enough. 

And yes, I'm fine. I'm stressed, I'm a bit anxious about what my classes are going to be like on Monday morning, but yes, I'm okay. I don't know what's going to happen with the kid. I don't know what we, as a school, will do about this. I know that I'm not the only one who has experienced these sorts of things. And I know that I haven't given up hope in humanity. Not completely, anyway.

As a special word of thanks, to RS, RH, and DN, the other PE teachers in the gym with me Friday morning, you guys had my back and looked out for the kids. Thank you for that. Also thanks to all my coworkers and particularly to MM who has done everything possible to make me feel better since it happened.

On we walk.

T