lijunlaopo.com

I’m not a teacher.

I never trained to be one, I never planned to be one.

Because I was born in Australia, I have an automatic ticket to teach English in various places around the globe. This gives me an excellent opportunity to live in places like Hefei and Tokyo without having to do any real hard work, which I am glad for, but I don’t want to actually BE a teacher.

I get stopped in the street and asked to teach people’s children, which is somewhat reasonable, but I have also had strangers appear at my apartment door pushing their rather reluctant children into my home… not quite so reasonable.

I don’t dislike teaching in itself, although it is probably at the bottom of my list of jobs I would wish to do again. I just dislike the assumption that I am white, and in China, so that’s what I do.

I really am much more useful to the world doing what I am qualified to do and actually really enjoy doing… at the moment, I am feeling just a little bit used…

I think I am beginning to act like a normal bride-to-be.

I stamped my feet and waved my arms about in frustration in the dressmaker the other day. That’s what I am traditionally supposed to do… right?

I hope my in-laws appreciated my bride-like qualities there, they aren’t going to see so many.

After handing over the printout of my example dress I found during my five minutes of wedding dress search online I tried on a sample they had in-store (for some reason that wasn’t explained to me at the time).

They would have been better off not giving me the big white dress to try on as I felt like a complete dick and wished not to have to wear one again.

After I had changed back into my jeans and was quietly recovering with my steaming green tea, I spotted a pretty knee length green dress hanging to the side of the room. I picked it up and announced to Patrick that I had changed my mind and wanted that dress instead, at which he stood and looked at me for a minute looking a little bit amused and a little bit confused.

Once he decided that he had actually understood what I had said he translated to the rest of the room.

Everyone in the room burst out laughing.

“Don’t be silly! Hahaha. It’s a wedding dress! It must be big and white!”

“… Why?”

“Hahaha! Because it’s a wedding dress!”

“….”

“It’s tradition! Everybody wears a big white dress for their wedding! Hahaha”

So at that point I think I yelled a bit about “Who’s tradition?” and “..married for four years… a bit late for a white dress…” and generally confused myself trying to confirm the logic of a westerner following a Chinese tradition which is really a western tradition that westerners don’t really follow any more…

I lost the argument of course, but at least kept all in the store amused with my odd foreign antics for a few minutes.

In case you’re curious how odd I really look in a wedding dress, one of our original wedding photos (taken without the actual wedding of course.)

Patrick is back from Beijing, and I have dragged myself away from buffet breakfasts at the Hilton to return to our regular life.

I awoke this morning to find Chandler grinning away happily by the side of the bed, staring me into awareness while awaiting his morning walk. This wouldn’t have been so unusual had we not shut him in his room the night before.

Apparently Chandler can open doors.

This is a little annoying, but I am rather impressed that instead of whining and scratching at the door when we put him to bed, he quietly waits until morning then lets himself out without fuss.

Best of all, the door opens inwards. I wish I could see how he does it, there’s not a scratch mark to be seen.

After we collected Chandler yesterday afternoon, Patrick and I took him for a walk in the park. Patrick looked on in amazement as my grandma and grandpa park friends greeted me as we passed.

I think he is a little envious of my popularity.

I am getting bored sitting about in my hotel room, so have decided to upgrade wordpress and make some changes.

I am sure something will go wrong along the way, so my apologies if (when) it does! I’ll get it working again soon!

I have a little confession to make.

I really couldn’t cope with the painting and mess in the apartment any more, so I made my escape.

Patrick is in Beijing studying at the moment, so I packed Chandler’s overnight bag, sent him to his grandma’s and moved into a hotel. A nice hotel :).

I am torn between thinking it is a horrible waste of money and a very necessary move to protect my recently rather delicate mental health.

My main worry now is that I seem to have settled into this living-in-a-nice-hotel life very comfortably and very quickly.

Each morning, I head down to the breakfast buffet and enjoy my muesli, yoghurt, fruit and croissants while I read the paper. This may not sound particularly exciting, but in a city where I can’t buy muesli, plain yoghurt, croissants, unsweetened tinned fruit or English newspapers, that is REALLY cool.