Running For Buses

Running for Buses.   If I write a script, this would be the title for this experience (an indie film, of course).  Because even in the US when you run for a bus, you feel silly (a common feeling for me in China).  Everyone on the bus is watching you wondering if you'll make it and then you might or you might not.  Well in China, except for maybe two exceptions, I've never made it.  Even if I get there before the bus leaves, often the driver just looks at me and shakes his head.  Usually though the driver sees me running, and then leaves.  "It's not rude, it's just the culture," I tell myself over and over.

The alternate title is "Boxing For Buses".  This refers to when I am at the station waiting (not running) for a bus calmly with grannies, babies, children, and adults.  As soon as the bus pulls up, calm fades.  It becomes a mad rush for the bus.  Elbows out.  Eyes full of determination.  If a young Chinese man boxes out grandma, so be it.  If grandma boxes out a five-year-old, so be it!  What really gets me is this behavior happens at the FIRST STOP, when the bus is empty!  But the prize seats are the ones in the back as if one sits in the front, one will probably have to relinquish the fought-over seat for a senior citizen or mother-and-child.  So it matters, oh does it matter!

So this morning, when I ran to a bus and failed to get on board, I calmly waited with the others.  When the bus showed up everyone started forming the queue, which in China is just a mass of people competing for the starting point.  And there I was, the laowai (foreigner), being the gentle giant and being boxed out by grandma.  I need to learn to be more aggressive, though keep in mind this isn't aggressive, this is just the way things are here.  But usually, I don't want those seats as much as the others and fall to the end of the line.  Only a couple times have I had to box out.  And then I'm left feeling like I overacted. Maybe I'll learn.

Quick overview of LAST week:


SUNDAY
--woke up not feeling sore at all, which was confusing.  Shopped and wasted most of the day.  Spent far too long watching youtube trailers.  Then watched audition tapes.  Then suddenly I was reading/performing monologues in my apartment alone, excited that I could generate watery eyes for sad moments.  THEN, an existential crisis about life and China and what's I'm doing here.  Then determination that I should move to LA this week and just leave.  Then face-timing with surprised parents and calming down.  Resolving thought: I want to go act and will, just not now.  The desire is so big it'll eat me up if go and fail!  Need to learn more from life!

MONDAY
--Worked at Dipont
--showed NY Times Magazine article that Dad sent to office.  Generated great discussions with Lily, I'm better understanding my role here and the pressures.  Lily said no grades are ever changed her, which means some parents pull their kids and use different college services.


TUESDAY
--3 new kids showed up to my class.  They act like it's a joke and they may be trouble for me.
-- Confronted my class about plagiarism/academic dishonesty.  Tears were shed, not my best moment.  But all three kids suspected, admitted truth about getting outside help on a personal essay.  The kicker was that it wasn't a hard assignment.  But still, anger = never ever again in class.  Not fun, lesson learned.
--Felt like a (college) counselor.  Broke one of the Senior 1 classes into small groups to discuss passions, interested, and a light dash of college. The kids are only 15!  Good conversations were generated, which gave me insight and some points to raise to parents on Friday.

WEDNESDAY
--Spent the class day talking about plagiarism, overreactions, and gave an apology.  Two of the suspected students apologized for their dramatic behavior.  Class feels better, we discussed their essays and the need to eliminate "fluff".
-purchased Necessary Roughness from a cart.  Watched three episodes with Cynthia.  The show is about a cognitive behavioral psychologist getting a new job with a NYC sport team.  Makes me want to be a sport psychologist...now.

THURSDAY
--GREAT CLASS.  Best day of teaching to date.  We started discussing the nervous system.  Covered neuron structure (soma, dendrite, axon, myelin sheath, axon terminal buttons), and neurotransmitters.  Suddenly the kids were interested as I related Black Widow venom to ACh (thanks Professor Bean); MSG to glutamate, and salmon to serotonin.  It was fun!  The power point was good and worked!  Students even asked questions!
--Hung out with Sarah and her mother for dinner.

FRIDAY
--It would've been another great class, but I was almost late and my computer wouldn't connect in the room for the powerpoint.  But we finished the chapter and the students seem to get it
--Parent meetings!  I talked after Mr. Wang and Mark, to all Senior 2 parents and all Senior 1 parents.  I covered that preparing for college is stressful.  I had the parents raise their hand if they went to college (most did) and then those parents who studied in the US to raise their hands (no hands).  My message was one of support.  We all support your kids, we ask that you do the same.  If we all work together, your child will end up at a school he or she likes and you'll get the postcard home, thanking you for support.  I said the second half of that only to the Senior 1 parents and received applause.  Obviously, I made up the whole speech while speaking, but both went well.  Again, thank you acting classes.
--Pizza!  Instead of going out for pizza, Cynthia and I put our heads together and ended up with homemade pizza.  Delicious!  After that, we found the energy and went out.  On the way downtown, our cab ran out of battery and died.  So Cynthia and I pushed the cab from the middle of the road to the side and grabbed another.  The 1st cab driver ran to us and told the 2nd driver where we wanted to go and was very thankful to the laowai.  We met up with Steve, met Michael and Mary.  And boy, do these study abroad kids go hard.

SATURDAY
--woke up around 1:30pm and my first thought: "Did my high school teachers go out like this?"
--went to IKEA which was strangely uncrowded (still busy) for a Saturday and blasting American Christmas music.  I must have heard Rudolph at least twenty times, but I acquired baking tins!  Pumpkin pie is now a go.  I decided against the fake X-mas tree...it's November!

SUNDAY
--Made it to the big market at the North Railway Station where I should have brought my camera.  Full of people, food, clothes, decor, and more!  Purchased a cheap rug and some holographic pictures.

MONDAY
--swear I'll keep up better with this blog, and maybe try not so much in the future to focus on a list of what I did (see above) but more feelings/thoughts about what I'm doing.  More like the beginning of the entry.  But that will take blog discipline and more frequent posting.
--STEVE.  New Physics teacher supposed to be at my place now, but isn't.  Something about baggage expense and not having enough cash.  He's coming from Singapore and staying with me for a night? Maybe more?  Not sure.  We'll see if he gets here, but my whole place is clean with anticipation.

Maybe I'll have better bus luck home.  Always a battle.  Battle for Buses? We'll see...