bored bored SOOOO FREAKIN bored

[dessy]

so it is gonna be another weekend staying home cuz i never thought in the two week before i came here (2 weeks from applying for the job and getting on the plane IM SERIOUS) who i would travel with... grrrrrrr.... i however love love love my school..i teach grade 1 'n' 2 and the kindies too! so if anyone out there is as BORED as me let me now.. maybe i won't feel soo hopeless

CHEERS

[cool ice]

Go out! Let your hair down and meet some of the locals. Don't stay at home... it would be such a waste especially since you've just arrived.

[exported_kiwi]

Hiya Dessie, welcome to China! Depends on where you are as to how bored you can be, or not. However, arriving in winter kinda limits your options especially if you're in the north of the country.... really cold up there!

Boredom here is kinda the way it is though sadly. I live in Guangzhou now and unless drinking or clubbing are your thing, there's not a whole helluva lot more to do. My Chinese missus won't let me do either so I'm stuck in front of the damn DVD for hours on end watching Chinese films that sometimes have subtitles, mostly not though.

Last winter I was in a one foreigner city of approx 300,000 people, had to live in a students dorm, had no kitchen, nobody to talk to and even my dog wasn't allowed to live me. I survived by meeting the locals as cool ice suggests and by chatting on the net sometimes. After a while, the locals knew me and I found a coupla places I liked better than others so I'd go to those places and try to learn Chinese, teach English and stay sober at the same time, helluva challenge it was too! Hopefully, you can, at least, get some English language TV channels out of Hk or Guangzhou.

Good luck and once again, welcome to China, or as I call it, the "United States of China"

[dessy]

thanks to you both... good to know im not tottally alone.... no english channels but sometime we get english movies dubbed... lol... i alwasy get sucked into watching those just to watch some t.v. ..... there's one club here but i am not allowed to go to it... if it get back to the school i'll be fired sooo no drinking here... cheers

[cool ice]

Well, have you ever thought about internet TV? Free TV to your internet and no special hardware needed!

I use TVU Player and can watch some great programs. You can download it for free at TVUPlayer - live television programs around the world.

[exported_kiwi]

Huh, run that one by me again. You'll get fired if you go drinking at the one entertainment spot in town that you'd possibly be interested in going to? Where, in China, are you? Do they check your room/apartment to make sure you're at home and tucked in as well? I'd seriously consider getting the hell outta there if i was you because your time is yours, and if the place is that boring, and you're there for a year, then I'd sure as hell want something to do. I'd also suppose that you live on campus which means gates locked at 11pm too. Damn, sometimes, you just haveta shake your head and wonder what the hell we're expected to do when there's nothing to do.
Good luck and keep in touch Dessy.

[DebMuir]

wow, things must be pretty different if they have that much control. I am intersted in finding out more. Are all the schools that strict?

[exported_kiwi]

No Deb, not all schools are so strict. I've never been restricted in where I could go for entertainment, or what time I could get back into the school. I always made a point of teaching the gate guards a little English, they thought I was cool, so when I was late back, like at 06:00 or so, nothing was said and there was no problem either. Worked for me! Maybe Dessy is having being "protected" because she's a young woman and they'd say it's for her "safety". Maybe they're right, I don't know but we haven't heard from Dessy since. Hope she's ok!

[dessy]

hee hee YES IM ALIVE... and going clubbing this weekend.. you are soo right about it being sooo uptight becuz im a girl... my headmaster alwaya it's dangerous for pretty gurls.... but im exscaping to changzhou.... don't worry about it being uptight in china they have your best interest at hand BUT if you have the choice don't move into a small city HARDER TO GET AWAY WITH BEING NAUGHTY!

[exported_kiwi]

Heyyyyy, great to know you're still in the land of the living and sane! Yeah, a lot of the time, they restrict us ostensibly for our "safety". I imagine this goes double for young single ladies and I can certainly understand that attitude but it doesn't help when we're used to being free to do as we wish (within the law of course) does it?

Did you sort your contract out or are you just gonna bail on it? Changzhou, where's that, what province etc?

As for smaller towns, yep, agree fully with you on that! Last winter I was in a small town right up near Mongolia and I was the only foreigner in the whole place....talk about boring, no bars, no club, nothing at all! I was living in the boys dorms, couldn't wash my clothes, couldn't cook my own food, couldn't even buy food I wanted to cook! I couldn't keep my dog with me, school regs, and had to pay a school worker double his monthly income just so he could enjoy having MY dog and me paying for it all. Damn dog didn't know me after a while, but I still had to pay!

Best head for a mid sized city where there is a small community of foreigners I think, more fun and safety in numbers when "playing". This doesn't mean you can act the fool though as we're all lumped together as foreigners and if one does a stupid or bad thing, we all do, so be aware of this please and as always, be safe!

Have fun Dessy and great to hear from you again!