Tutoring

I have acquired a tutor to squeeze every last drop of Chinese learning possible out of my time here- which is fewer than 10 weeks left. She is currently studying how to teach Chinese at Qingdao University- a useful attribute in a teacher! She is not, by tutoring standards, very cheap but less than half what I ask for when I teach English and I have 10% her training so I can't complain...

Plus she seems very good. She is slightly older than me and seems one of the few Chinese who are interested in things outside their immediate sphere. She knew a surprisingly large amount about Diana for example. This mean that we had a lot more to talk about than I do with Vivien. Although at one point she leaned forward and whispered "er this topic is too dangerous!" when we were talking about islam.

Which amused me.

We had the lesson in a cafe on the campus of Qingdao Uni which is right next to my campus. Unlike my campus, which is in the process of being abandoned and sold, this one had students on it. Very strange! It also had pine trees and the smell took me right back to evenings in California.

An article of mine was published in Redstar magazine and I was paid for it. That makes me a proper writer, right?

An eejit jumped a red light and tried to run me over. Bad mood.

The dead cat has been moved away from the pavement. It had a lot of flies above it. I suspect every time I get off the bus, I will be treated to the gradual stages of decomposition your average dead cat will undergo. Yay.