It's actually 3:30 now since I had to check Facebook and make TWO cups of tea before writing this. Though I just put an end to the parasitic lives of two mosquitoes with no less relish than I'd feel doing the same for a couple of their human counterparts in politics or the ESL industry, I was not awakened by high pitched whining in my ears. NHL playoffs are 5 hours away and as far as I know there is no rugby, curling, baseball, Olympics, golf or other sports of note happing at this time. I'm not even nervous, excited or stressing about a class I have tomorrow, which, might have caused the stress to compound with every hour of sleeplessness. This happens too sometimes, but not this morning. And I say, "this morning," because I have already slept a couple of hours. That might be all I get for a while.
It isn't all that uncommon in my new place for me to be up when I shouldn't be and for that matter, sleeping when I probably shouldn't be. I give at least some of the blame for this to the air here. Taiyuan can be a nice city to walk around in. Some days. Why, just yesterday the AQI was around 50 or 60 and I took a stroll down a very modern shopping road. It was mostly full of shoe stores and athletic apparel from huge name brands like Nike, Adidas and such. I was more interested in the shopper food that was available. It was just more of the wandering around I've done since coming to Taiyuan, and the fortification of the idea that there is nothing I am interested in buying here really. I mean, I DO need some running shoes, but I won't be buying them from a team of workers dressed in matching pastel athletic gear hawking overpriced merchandise made by companies that are already too rich at stores with spine-rendingly loud and popular music encroaching on any possible transaction and earning a dollar an hour if they're lucky. And thinking that is a fantastic wage! No, I just spectate.
But I've learned that when the AQI gets above 100, I probably shouldn't do any such wandering or spectating. Even when I stay indoors, I need to open a window or two and let some air into my apartment and I think that air, coupled with the fact that I pretty much seal myself into a small bedroom with an electric oil burning mosquito killer going the whole time, makes it so I need to wake up every couple of hours, open the bedroom door, replace at least some of the stale air with mildly better and cooler air, probably invite in a mosquito or two, then try to get back to sleep, is the reason I find the only time I am sometimes unable to sleep in Taiyuan is at night when I should be sleeping. Now, during the day when I can leave the bedroom door open without mosquito attack being a certainty, I can, and do sleep very well, thank you. My whole life I've loved the nap. I feel like stealing a couple hours of sleep in the daylight is like getting away with something. I've read that Taiyuan people are actually very fond of the nap too. The kids at school here get lunch from noon to 2:30 and almost all of them nap. I've got a couch in my office where I've napped and I have walked in on more than one teacher/cleaner/administrator/stranger using the couch for that same purpose. It's one of the things I see during my wandering as well. And it's one way I'm fitting into my new city.
This is a watermelon vendor in Taiyuan bagging some Z's between customers.
Here's a shoe vendor from Taiyuan doing the same. I have seen about 100 similar stores about town with the identical selection of shoes. NONE that I want. Shoes are difficult for me. They have to be wide enough, which rules out 99% of all shoes in Asia. Then if you find that rare shoe made for a man, not a Japanese geisha girl, you're really pushing your luck to hope it has ANY arch support to it. So generally, I HAVE to get my shoes from other countries. If I absolutely MUST buy them in Asia, I try to find a western shoe store, hopefully without brain-melting music and ten underpaid, hardselling students per customer sporting referee shirts or some other matching uniform.
Anyway, I don't think I'm the only one in this city who doesn't sleep the best at night. And even though I should be working tomorrow, (Saturday), but my Saturday student is sick, (yippee!), I won't feel like I've really had a day off unless I get enough sleep. And since I'm going to watch about 6 hours of hockey starting at 8 this morning, guess who has two thumbs and will be getting his main sleep at 2:30 PM instead of A.M.
It really is one of the sacrifices I have accepted for this job. I wake up at least once every couple of hours to cough, blow my nose, go to the bathroom, kill a mosquito, take off my sweaty shirt, let some cool, clean air into my sleeping dungeon, get a drink, or any combination of these. That's every single night. Not one time have I slept through the entire night since coming here. Not once. It isn't all because of the Taiyuan air, of course. The clogged head goes back years. I think the polluted air of Korea started that. I've tried medicine while in the drug pushing environs of North America, but nothing helped. I reckon I'm stuck with this for life. When I'm upright, I hardly notice but lie down and it feels like I've caught a cold. Usually when I get up in the morning it takes a while and a few sneezes and nose blowings to drain. So at night I'm a noisy, snoring mouth breather. Somewhere out there there is a gal who didn't marry me who is awfully lucky to be sleeping alone and in peace. I wonder if she knows...
Again, the new philosophy applies. That gal might think she's got it bad being lonely and single but, hey, at least she doesn't have a husband who's getting up 20 times a night and snoring when he's not up. As for me, I'm up to my elbows in this job and this city. I just finished paying for the first half of my year of rent on this apartment. I have lost my great helper, Faith. She has been replaced by a girl who looks as though she's in over her head. She has until May 19th or so to get all the Z visa stuff worked out and I have serious doubts about that happening. That's right, I STILL don't have my Z visa! My first paycheck was half of what I expected because I was purposely not informed of the two week stagger in payday and cut-off day. Or maybe that was created on the day I was paid. Then the second payday was a week late and even though they can't pay taxes without the government finding out I don't have the proper visa, taxes were taken off. I've already made two visa runs while employed here, at my own expense, may have to make another, and will be paying for the Z visa run so my kindness is definitely being taken advantage of by my employers. BUT, at least I'm not THESE GUYS!
While, I must say, again, new philosophy, Robert Flower may think this is bad now, but I have seen so few of these Korean wives with western husbands situations work out, he can surely count the possible cancellation of wedding plans as ONE positive to come out of this whole mess. On the other, the MANY other hands, this has been going on forever. It's happened to me in Korea, Indonesia, and even sort of in Canada. It's never the teachers' fault, but they are almost always the ONLY people who suffer. The business and the ministry that probably conspired to create the sketchy situation in the first place won't even get slapped on the wrist. They'll be opening up fake schools and issuing improper visas again before these poor teachers get back home. But if you think Korea's bad, why were these teachers who are qualified to teach in Canada over there to begin with? Because things are even worse in Canada. Gone are the days of full time work, summers off, great salaries and benefits for new teachers in Canada. Fully qualified teachers are just barely scraping by doing part time ESL gigs. CRAPPY ESL gigs! And that might be what these teachers will be forced to return to. Some might return to Vancouver where they are way too late but FINALLY starting to plumb the depths of the fraud the government has been allowing in education since it has been corporatized. That's why I'M over here. That and I'm too "nice" to do anything about it.
But hey, at least they're getting their trips home and salaries till June paid by the school! That's a free holiday! When Lincoln International School in Icheon, S. Korea jacked me up, I got an apology and two week's pay. When Wall Street English in Indonesia got busted for hiring teachers on business visas I got the promise of help finding a new position, (which was bullshit), the promise of a flight home, (which was bullshit), an apology and no extra pay. I have STILL not recovered from that disaster!
So these guys might think they've got it bad, but at least the glass ain't totally empty! And, it just might not be such a bad thing to be getting out of South Korea right about now. I'll tell you, the entire time I was there I had people asking if I ever felt nervous about war breaking out. I never did. NOW, even though I'm not there any more, I feel more nervous than ever before. I fear for the safety of my many friends in Korea. I think Trump is just the whackjob to start something up over there. I've seen all kinds of signs recently and have been waiting for breaking news out of Korea. Still nothing, but as election day rolls around in the South, tests always happen in the North. What will the self-imposed king of the West do?
The unplumbed shallowness of the mind of Donald Trump being what it is, I wonder if on some level, conscious or usual, he isn't almost angry at South Korea for impeaching their president and giving America such a good idea! It did allow the sneaking of the THAAD missiles into Korea, where they are highly unpopular, while the country is between presidents. But I still think the Trumpster might not want any country getting the idea that ousting a shitty leader is a good thing. Or maybe he just wants to blow some more shit up.
Immigration officials, businesses, schools, and governments should be allowed to completely fuck up the lives of nice people with impunity, shouldn't they? Our acquiescence, no matter how reluctant, makes their occupational sodomy consensual in their minds.
Leastaways, that's what I reckon.
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