thumb twiddling

It is indeed my last week of teaching classes here.  While still not officially confirmed, I’ve heard so from enough unofficial teachers and administrators that I’m going with it.

The reason for the early ending is that my students are all Junior 3s, and are all preparing for their high school entrance examinations.  From what I have gathered, this zhongkao is about as important as the gaokao college entrance examination, because in Shenzhen the number of high schools has been kept artificially low by the municipal government (which says the burgeoning student population is only a temporary generational flux, which most Shenzhen residents and teachers tell me is BS.)  The section of the zhongkao that justifies my employment is the oral English component happening this Saturday.  After it is over, I’m no longer needed.

So far, saying goodbyes to the students have been like little happy anticlimaxes.  My last lesson is a review of questions styled to be like those on the zhongkao, disguised as a Jeopardy-esque powerpoint game, and it’s been making me lose track of the time each period.  The bell rings, and I hurriedly say “thanks it was great meeting you all” in Chinese to them, and the students happily wave goodbye.  Some are undoubtedly glad to see me go, haha.  Others rush me at the podium with cute stationary pages that seem to serve as yearbook autographs here, and ask me to sign and fill them out.  They’re pre-designed with form prompts like “Name,” “Birthday,” “Horoscope,” and even “Blood Type.”  There are some odder translations too, like “Agname,” “Bithe Folon,” and “Bosom Friend.”  I sketch in my email address, skip the telephone number and hand it back.  “Write a message too!” the enthusiastic students instruct.  I have heard a few grumblings in Chinese as they receive their filled-out autograph pages and turn around to leave:  “aw, he wrote the same message to me as what she got.”  Sorry kids, there were 600 of you, and each of you had two names I had to try to remember.

In any case, I will be here for a bit longer, since my contract was a standard CTLC one giving me till June 15th, and I had arranged for a plane out of Hong Kong on June 24th thinking to give myself a week or so to say goodbye to family there.  The travel agency tells me that to change that ticket now would be enormously expensive, so I may have to just give up and settle in for a month of thumb twiddling.

With the month of downtime ahead of me I’m thinking of starting over on the book.  I don’t like the story of what I have so far, and feel constrained by it.  It’s a little galling to think of 8000 words wasted, but if I have to whip myself into writing it, then maybe there is no point.  Maybe it’s better to start anew with a story I’m passionate about.