The Wandering Monkey

Today was one of the more difficult days out here, but it ended alright. Expats out here have a thing called a "Bad China Day". No matter how much you may like the place, there are days you say to yourself, man if I see one more Chinese I'm going to burst.

I've not quite settled into my new place yet. I still don't have a few things like towels, silverware, plates, food, and such. Or a blanket. I'm living in a very nice part of town in a old neighborhood which is still in existence somehow. Right across the way is Plaza 66, a huge building with six floors of luxury Gucci-type shopping. On top of that is 60 floors of office building. It's one of the most modern-looking buildings in the city. I live right across from it, in a complex of six-story apartment blocks. None of them have elevators, but the area is basically clean and has some charm.

I am 'the white guy', as far as I can tell. I have caught glimpses of one other white guy, who may be living there or just a frequent visitor. I'm living on my own, which can be a bit of a challenge. When outide my apartment complex, I had gotten used to walking around the streets in public. But somehow I feel that awkwardness again when I am walking inside the complex. It's my guess that this area is one in which the Chinese do not expect to see foreigners. I have gotten a few dirty looks.

My landlord, on the other hand, has been enormously helpful. He does not speak English but his daughter does. They both came over today and literally spent two hours with me showing me how the bank works, where to go shopping in the neighborhood, and even fixed my cell phone and told me how the clothes washer works. I must admit their effort was above and beyond. After I left, I ran a load of laundry but the machine refuses to let me open the door. My clothes are still soaking in there to this moment. I didn't want to call the landlord because they had already spent the day with me!

And at the end of it I had to deal with the situation at one of our dancing nights. We had previously expected to have access to one of our venues on a regular basis, and we told all of our students to come there each week. As it turned out, a few days before our scheduled class the manager decided it was not OK to have classes there, which left us in a lurch. And, she cut our pay in half as well, which left us a bit confused and not feeling too positive. So this was my bad China day.

In the end it all went OK. Kellian and I agreed to meet and dance at the reduced rate. Many students were still coming, expecting a lesson. So we had explain to them what was going on. We did practice with them a bit until 9:45 when the band went on. The band was basically Jazz but they humored us with a few swing songs and changed the tempo on some jazz songs so we could dance. The audience responded very well. We made a couple more good contacts and most of our students were happy.

Kellian, through this kept a very good attitude. I was frankly quite pissed off and very grumpy. I felt very guilty for telling the students we weren't having a lesson and not properly warning some of them. But Kellian put a positive note on things. We danced with our students and helped a few of them learn some new moves. And, we found probably four more new students, too.

When we got to dancing, as sometimes happens, I took all of the negative energy and feelings that had been stewing inside me and I managed to turn them into positive energy for dancing. Really, honestly, if it weren't for swing dancing I don't know how I would handle this experience here in China. I don't know if I'd have the wherewithal to continue. Dancing is the one thing I do which always makes me feel good, and people who I cannot speak with I can still communicate with through dance.

So, in the end it was our last night at that club, as we had predicted. We are looking for another venue right now. But we left things on good terms. We can still pop in there and dance a bit and they don't mind if we pass out business cards and such. We handled it OK, with dignity and turned it into a positive night after all. I could not have done it without Kellian's positive attitude.

And so that's the end of my China day.