It's Raining Men (of course I exaggerate)

Before I start talking about the men...

I had dinner with some friends tonight in a Korean restaurant. Most of the restaurants here have private rooms where there's a videoke so one can sing while eating with the company of friends. Usually after everyone has eaten, someone would reach for the microphone and people would take turns singing. Tonight was no different. What was so surprising to me was there were actually OPM songs in the videoke machine! I have long since given up hope on that. It was hard enough to find 'singable' English songs, I was pretty sure nobody would even dream of putting OPM songs in those machines. Not in this part of China, I thought. Imagine my surprise when I saw Freddie Aguilar's "Anak" while I was skimming through the list. Scroll down scroll down, Eraserhead's "Ang Huling El Bimbo"! I couldn't pass up the chance. Off-key as I was, nobody could even tell. I was giggling at the double meanings in the song but they probably just thought I was very happy. After they sang several Chinese songs, I found myself holding the mic again. Scroll down scroll down, Regine Velasquez's "You Are My Song." I should go there with Marvin and Joy. We'll have a blast.

And now the men...

I'm still uncertain about the whole Andy-business. We go out once or twice a week but I'm beginning to think he isn't really interested in me that way. That's my defense mechanism for a just-in-case-he-isn't-so-I-won't-get-too-disappointed scenario. So there. We're friends.

There's this other guy whom I've been seeing on the side. Not as funny and charming and intelligent as Andy but very persistent and insistent. Rain hates him and tells me so every chance he has. There's something about this man that makes me almost feel sorry for him. There are rumors that he's married though, which he denies vehemently. Ho-hum.

And then there's another Andy whom I met months ago but only met up with the other night. Andy-number-2 speaks very good English which used to be one of my requirements. Now that my Chinese has considerably improved, it's not that necessary anymore but one can think of it as bonus points. Rain, my one-man screening committee, favors Andy-number-2 because "he's very relaxed" as compared to Andy-number-1 whom he described as "a pussy." The observation must have come from the time when I brought the first Andy to BeeHouse and he refused to drink beer. That's not being a pussy. That's not giving in to pressure. Hmp.

Now that I don't update my calendar anymore, I'll let you peek into how I spent the last few days and will spend the next few, in relation to the raining men:

Friday afternoon: museum with Andy1. The museum was closed so we went to have a drink (hot milk :p) and he tried to teach me Chinese from my HSK book. We didn't stay out long because he had a cold.

Saturday night: Andy2 wanted to meet up. We decided on watching a movie in my house but while he was on his way, Rain called to say that a bunch of them are going to BeeHouse so Andy2 and I went too. Ivy, Rain's girlfriend, whispered to me that Rain told her that I have many boyfriends. A little while later, Rain told me that the actual conversation was:

Ivy: So Joni can date different boys now?

Rain: Of course. She's a goodlooking foreign girl. She's on it like a fat kid on Smarties.

I don't know which is worse. He did say "goodlooking" so I forgive him. I'm easy to appease.

Sunday night: I watched a show sponsored by China Mobile (think of Globe or Smart) with Andy1 and some of his friends. All girls. One seemed to be really close to him. Mei shi. We're friends.

Monday night (tonight): Korean restaurant with the guy whose guts Rain hates.

Tuesday afternoon (tomorrow): Andy2 invited me to his demo-teach (of some sort) at his school.

Wednesday night: I'll be seeing Andy1 because I'm scheduled to give a foreign class to his class at WaiYan. Every once in a while, I give foreign classes to classes taught by Chinese teachers. This is the first time that I'll be giving one to Andy1's class.

I must remind myself that I have a test on Sunday. That should make me stay home on Thursday and Friday. I plan to spend the night in Shenyang on Saturday because I have to be at the test site by 7:50am on Sunday. Yes, I am shaking with fear.

New House

Also from Andy. My 10-year-old student gave the name. It means GrayGray.

My new house. I'll be sharing it with a new Pinay teacher pretty soon. I'm dreading it because I like living alone. Oh well.

On Moving

I'm now in my new apartment as I write this. And it's cold. I like this house better mainly because it's smaller and it doesn't take me as much time and energy to go from one place to the other (yes, I'm that lazy) but the cold! I'm wearing three layers of clothes now as I type.

Yesterday was the big moving day. The day before, I warned Andy that "我的东西太多. 非常非常多. (I have too many things. So many.)" He said he's strong so it's 没事 (no problem). So yesterday, his strength was put to the test. He was doing pretty good until he found out that my new house was on the sixth floor. Apparently, that knowledge proved a little too much for even his strength so he called a friend to come and help.

So after the four of us (Lynn, Andy, Andy's friend and I) ran up and down the stairs of my old and then new house, I treated them to lunch which was the least I could do. Andy's friend's girlfriend joined us for lunch. As most of the conversation was in Chinese and I was too tired to follow anything, I tuned out and concentrated on eating while not falling asleep. A little while later, Andy told Lynn to translate some of the things that he wanted to say to me. I wasn't looking at anyone nor was I paying attention to what was happening so this was Lynn's account of what happened: He was looking at Lynn while talking and she told him to look at me, so he looked at me then started looking at Lynn again. Lynn said, "Don't look at me. Look at her." He looked at me for a long time then said, "I forget what I wanted to say." I cannot believe how I was so clueless that this was happening right in front of me.

Later that evening, Andy would call to ask why I was sad during lunch. I said I wasn't. Chinese friends are always worried about people being sad. Then he asked if I left anything in the old apartment. I said yes but Lynn and I already went back to get them. He asked what. I didn't know how to say "the mattress" nor "the cushion for the bed" so I just said "that thing for the bed." I also left some of my shoes but I forgot how to say "shoes." Anyway, he didn't understand what I was saying. He then asked about the flowers. I started laughing and said, "在这里了. (Already here)." He said he saw the flowers and wanted to get them but his friend said they were not important so he didn't.

He gave me those flowers. When Lynn and I went back to the house for the mattress and some of my shoes, we had a discussion on whether or not I should take them. I was hesitant at first because we were already carrying a lot of things. But thank god I did. Saved me the trip to get them today. I think it's really cute that he was so concerned about them. Cute and sweet. After assuring him that the flowers were safely in my new house, he said he'd try to find time that night so we could play. I think he really just called about the flowers. Hehehe.

Andy's Site

http://nianjian1.blog.tom.com
How can I describe it? Everything's in Chinese. Is that enough description? Andy is the guy that I'm dating. His Chinese name is NianJian, thus the url. This site contains some of his essays and pictures. But you'll have to know what to click. Good luck!

Latest News

As if I don't have enough things to worry about with the test coming up and all, I was told yesterday that I need to move out of my house by Tuesday next week. I might have mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I'm living in the headmaster's house, while he lives with his parents. This house is the house that he'll live in when he starts his own family. It seems that he has found himself a girlfriend and might be starting that family pretty soon. I'll be moving to the northern part of the city. So, that means I need to get used to a whole new set of routes all over again. Not an easy task for me.

The other night while Wendy was helping me with my Chinese lessons, she got a call. She was talking in English so I knew it must be a foreigner. I thought it was one of her um, internet boyfriends. She told the person on the other end to talk with me because being a foreigner, I could understand better and I could get the address correctly. She gave me her phone while I mouthed, "Is it Paul?" She shook her head. I said "Hello?" "Hello." A female voice said nervously. I can't remember much of the conversation but one of her first questions was, "Pilipina ka ba?" I almost fell off my chair. I seldom hear Tagalog here and I was definitely not expecting to suddenly hear it from a stranger over the phone. After I'd recovered from my initial shock, we proceeded to talk in Tagalog. I got her YM ID, found out she's from Baguio and she said something about telling Wendy that she was sorry that she wasn't able to go online the night before. After the phone conversation, I said casually, "So Gao Shan wants to hire a Filipino now."

Wendy: You're so clever. Don't tell him I told you.

JC: Of course. I'd pretend I don't know anything. Have you seen her?

Wendy: No. But he saw her picture.

JC: Ooookay. She looks good. (Both a question and a statement.)

Wendy: Yes.

Then we started laughing hysterically. Back story: A little less than half a year of being here, Wendy revealed to me that at the time I applied, they were considering two other people. One was Pinoy and the other was a slightly older American woman. Guess why I was chosen. "She's beautiful. Let's hire her." I think I should be flattered. Okay, I am a little flattered. "I thought he was impressed by my credentials!" I complained to Wendy. "That too." "Yeah. Almost like an afterthought," I muttered. Apparently, he has this criteria in hiring teachers. I must say that he got really lucky with me though. What if I turned out to be really stupid? :p I guess that's a risk that he constantly has to take. There was a pretty teacher before who was hired because well, "she's very pretty," and they even dated for a while. Her English was... uh... let's just say that wasn't one of her best skills. But then again she was teaching English so there must be something wrong here... Let me see... Anyway, she herself knew that the reason why she was hired wasn't exactly because she could teach, or even speak the language that she was supposed to be teaching. She eventually got transferred to work at the headmaster's bookstore.

Moral of the story: Hire someone pretty. If she can't teach, date her.

Last night was date number three with Andy. First, we hung out in my place. I showed him my website, he showed me his. (I'm going to link it later.) He writes! Except of course it'll take me a longer time to read what he wrote. Note, longer time. Not impossible.

After that we played a little at the arcade in one of the department stores here. Then we went to JuBiYuan and he taught me how to skate. Freezing fun. It was pretty late so the park was deserted. That was good because I was/am definitely not graceful and I'd hate it for people to see me fall all over myself. I never really fell since he would always catch me before I even had a chance to.

At around 11pm, Rain called to say that they were in BeeHouse and wanted us to come over. He hadn't met Andy yet and he was quite curious about him. So we went and watched some girls pole-dancing. It turned out he also can't dance. Whew. The band had already finished playing and we were just in time to wave goodbye to Marvin and Joy, the two new Pinoy singers.

Backstory on Marvin and Joy: The first time I went to see them perform, that was weeks ago, somebody must have told them that there was a Pinoy in the audience because the minute they went onstage, Marvin looked straight at me and asked, "Are you a Filipino?" I didn't think anyone understood except me. "Pinoy ako!" was my reply. When it was his turn to sing, he got offstage and started walking to our table, all the while singing. I was thinking, oh no. Nononono. Reached our table, took my hand and led me to the stage. At this point I was thinking, ohmygodohmygodohmygod. He asked for the other mic and wanted me to sing with him. I can't even remember which Backstreet Boys song it was but no! I am not going to sing any Backstreet Boys, I don't care if it was for the Chinese audience. NO! So I said, "No, I can't I can't." So he started dancing with me onstage. I just wanted to die. I swear I looked like a stick swaying there. A bamboo swaying in the wind would be more graceful. After embarrassing myself with my fancy dance steps, I said, "I'm going back," pointing to our table. Rain teased me unmercifully but I got my sweet revenge when Marvin did the same thing to him after a few songs. Ha!

On other news, Lynn's back! One of my favorite assistants is back from her trip to Switzerland. She'll be helping me move. When I mentioned to Andy that I'll be moving on Tuesday, he said he'll come and help me. I tried telling him that a friend is already coming to help but I'm not sure now if I wasn't able to finish what I was saying or he misunderstood. Bottomline, he didn't know that Lynn will also be here. Which is just as well because Lynn wants to meet him so bad. Hahahaha! Actually, now that word has gotten around that I'm dating, everyone's really curious about him. Hmm...

And yeah, the test. Still trying to cram as many words as I can into my brain. Which reminds me, I have to turn the TV on.

I'm Crazy

I'm driving myself crazy. There are so many things to learn and I feel that I don't have enough time. And I don't know if my brain is capable of absorbing all these words. There are just too many! I am still on panic mode. Obviously.

I turned on the TV in the hopes that my ears will get more used to listening Chinese. I think the TV will be on most of the time from now until April 23. I don't think I talk to people often enough. I should make it a point to talk to as many people as I could every time I'm out of the house. I will talk strictly in Chinese to everyone except my students. I'll try to think in Chinese from the moment I wake up until I go to bed. Wait, I'm writing now so it's ok to think in English. But as soon as I finish this enty, I should switch on my Chinese mind.

I can't stop thinking of those Koreans in the HSK office. They've been studying for a year. As in studying in a classroom. With teachers. One whole year of nothing else but studying. And I only have less than a month. What was I thinking? Was I even thinking?

This is crazy. I'm crazy. Why am I voluntarily subjecting myself into this? Aaaaargh!

HSK Preparation