Then and Now 72 - Stormy Interview
Time: Mid-2007, single and at the hostel.
Then and Now 72 is the second post that will detail a transition in my single life, from my unattached, free and happy times at the hostel, to the apartment where I set up my home base from where I made good money, had lots of fun, made many friends and traveled all around the country.
I detailed the two jobs that I interviewed for, got accepted to, but declined in Then and Now 30 and 38. The former was a school where I was going to be some kind of cog in a giant corporate machine filled with excessive regulation and rigidity, while the latter was a school where I had to room with some typically cold, jealous, angry and spiteful foreigners who were here only for sex and money, and who viewed me as nothing more than hated competition.
An agent found the third school for me, and it was exactly what I was looking for: it was a smaller school with only a few dozen students (later expanded to over a hundred thanks to our efforts). It was in a town outside of the main city so I had to take a train and a few buses on my way over there, though there was a very simple train-bus route that I could have taken to get there much quicker, but I ended up discovering it on a later date. At this school, I was more free to do my own lessons as long as I followed the school's basic rules, and I got to live in my own place instead of sharing a house with two pissy manwhores.
This interview came at the very tail end of my days at the hostel, and I was almost flat broke. My tutoring had allowed me to stay afloat for as long as I did while I was without work, but by the time I got this interview, I had only about two or three hundred dollars left in my pocket. I worried somewhat about not getting a place with such a little amount of money, but I also wasn't afraid to be homeless for a month until I got my first paycheck, so it didn't bother me too much. Because of this, I didn't actually take the train to the bus station like I was supposed to. After spiking my hair and dressing nicely, I left that day from the hostel several hours early so I could walk straight to the school and save myself some money.
Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention to the storm clouds above and left my umbrella back in my locker at the hostel. It started to drizzle, then sprinkle, then rain, and soon it was like the entire sky opened up to dump down an absolute ocean of rainwater. I was walking by a freeway onramp when the worst of the storm suddenly hit, and it was too late for my hair; the gel washed out almost immediately, and I was left with a damp mess matted to my scalp. I couldn't see it, but I knew it looked terrible.
I ducked into a convenience store to ask directions to the train stop that had the bus that went to the school. The local girl, a real cutie, told me that I should take the train directly there and that the station was really close nearby. But since I had already walked so far, I decided to just keep walking, and told her that I didn't have the money to take the train just yet; I was on my way to an interview to get set up, and I just had to hold out a little longer.
And then, this amazing girl smiled, reached into her pocket, and took out $2 and handed it to me. I didn't know what to say except to politely refuse her offer and thank her a lot. I wish I had gotten her number to thank her with coffee or a fun time out later on, but I was such in a rush to get to the interview that I wasn't thinking straight. I smiled my brightest smile at her, then headed back into the rain in the direction of the train stop I needed to get to. Completely drenched, I finally found my way to the station where I would have gotten off if I had taken the train, and soon found the bus to take me to my potentially new school.
It was a humble, nice looking place on a side street, and it had a large gate out front leading into a tiny outdoor play area. There was only one window that allowed a look into one of the classrooms facing the street, and a sliding front door that opened into the office area where a few local women were waiting. I went in the door and met up with my soon-to-be new bosses.
I absolutely nailed the interview. I had years of experience tutoring and being a TA, I was charming and confident, I had a working knowledge of the local language and I had all the right answers for all their questions. Natalie, my sub-boss, was a very cute girl, and I was starting to get really interested in her while I was doing the interview, but she soon let slip (I don't remember why) that she had a boyfriend. I suddenly felt a tight clenching in my chest, but I'll explain why in just a bit.
One of the other questions they asked was if I had any special talents. I told them that I used to play a little guitar, but I didn't know all that much. Natalie smiled and went downstairs to get an old acoustic that they had lying around, and offered it to me to play. It took a few seconds to tune the old instrument, but after I was done, I played a couple of chords and the breakdown from the Tristram Theme from Diablo, but that was about it.
The senior boss also made a strange, but unsurprising, request: they didn't want to see me hanging around any local bars or clubs and bringing a bad reputation to this newly founded school. I had no intention of doing pickups or anything like that and assured them I wouldn't, but I wasn't surprised at the request; I'm sure every other foreigner they had ever known treated this country as a brothel.
Finally, the big boss asked me what I wanted to do with my life, and I told her that I wanted to save up some money, get settled, then start donating to charity as soon as possible to give back for my excellent life. She smiled, but her body language told me that she didn't believe me. Flashing forward a year later when my contract was up, she confirmed what I suspected, but then said, with no qualifications, that she at last believed what I said and knew what a good man I was.
After a few more minutes, the interview was over, and bright smiles from everyone showed that I had gotten the job even before they had confirmed it by email a few days later. But just to clinch it, I noticed some students walking in during the interview to have a class, and when the interview was done, I asked if I could sit in on the class and see how they would like me to teach. About an hour later, I asked if I could do some vocabulary teaching for a while, and my new bosses let me do it for a few minutes. Finally, the kids went home, but I stuck around to help clean up and sort things out for the next day when the school opened again. All of that, plus my excellent interview, got me that job, and the apartment where I would spend some of the happiest days of my life.
But the day wasn't over, and the worst part of this Then and Now, and honestly during my whole single time, was about to come.
The clenching feeling I mentioned before came out full bore while I was heading back to the hostel, and for the next hour, I would have the angriest, worst time of my single life, and it was all my fault. For that brief time, I slipped back to the boy I was just a few years before. I walked through the night on that lonely street, thinking to myself that yet another girl was taken, and I would never date or have fun in my life, no matter where I went. I blamed God. I blamed myself. I blamed everyone in the world, and wrapped myself up in a comfortable anger as I continued my way back to the train station.
I completely forgot about other awesome girls like Nell and May. I forgot about all the things I had seen, and all the progress I had made. I pushed all of this out of my mind for the entire hour, and even as I came across the train station, I simply passed it up to keep walking straight back to the hostel, which ended up being a ten or fifteen mile trip, because I wanted time to think.
When the hour was up, I had calmed down. My optimism and confidence slowly returned, and I was back to living my life, shaken, but more or less content. The pivot that was my mental state was weighted far, far closer to happiness than the depression it was tilted towards during my high school and college days. It was simply a matter of waiting for the scale to tip automatically back to where it was supposed to be after something came along to shake me to my core. All of my work improving myself since I was 21 helped me to automatically settle myself and return to the greatness of being me, instead of defaulting to depression.
It was pitch black by the time I crossed the bridge to the main city. I didn't have a compass at that point, so I just wandered into a mechanic's garage that was still open at the late hour and asked the gentlemen inside where northeast, and the street my hostel was on, were. They gave me a vague pointing in the direction I was supposed to go, and after thanking them, I wandered in that direction until I found an intersection that was familiar to me.
A few minutes later, I was back in the hostel, showering and getting ready for bed. Just a day or two later, I said goodbye to the owner of the hostel and thanked her for everything she had done for me. Ken, May and everyone else I had known at the hostel were long gone, leaving me the only one of the original crew to pick up and find his new path in life. I called the elevator, took a last look at the place where I spent the best month of my life, smiled, then went downstairs to head out to my new apartment, and my new life. The last experience of Then and Now 42 picks up on my first night out, and my time as a working man with ample cash and time to follow his dreams.
As for today...
I woke up at 5:00.
I played video games.
I went to work.
I taught students.
I came home to an empty house.
I played video games.
My wife and son came home, so I turned off the game.
I watched internet movies with my son.
I did puzzles with him.
I roughhoused with him.
I went to work.
I taught students.
I came home.
I started a load of laundry.
I did the dishes.
I watched internet movies with my son.
I hung up wet laundry.
I slept.
Friday, July 26, 2013
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Then and Now 71 - To the Hostel
Then and Now 71 - To the Hostel
Time: Mid-2007, at my bud's aunt's place.
Over a year and dozens of blog posts later, this is Then and Now 71, the first in a final string of Then and Now posts that will detail the transition periods of the four great times of my life as a single man. This post will discuss the day that I went from a language learning house guest and burgeoning personality at my bud's aunt's place, to Then and Now 3 and 5 that detail my first days at the hostel, and my evolution into the confident, fun and happy person that I was during my single time.
My bud and I overstayed our welcome at his aunt's house by a week or two. She was starting to get tired of having us around (and even said she was drinking to fall asleep at night), so we both knew it was time for us to head out. About a week after the deadline, and a week before we eventually left, my bud and I decided to split our house finding duties between the two of us: I would go to a pay-by-the-hour internet cafe to find a long list of phone numbers for apartments that needed to be rented, and my bud would call them all and find the place for us.
It was very difficult for me, my language skill not being anywhere close to what it was a month later. In fact, I was really annoyed with my bud, because even though he was fluent in the language, he still expected me to find places on the net when I had little idea as to what the ads were saying. When I returned with the phone numbers, my annoyance turned to irritation when he basically put me on a complete blackout for an entire week as to whether he found us a place or not.
I didn't ask, assuming that if he said nothing, that it was good news and we would be leaving for a place together. But the night before we were ready to leave, when I asked him what was going on to make sure, he said he was going to move in with his grandmother in the main city, and that they didn't have a place for me. I asked him about the numbers I gave him, and he said that none of the places were still free. I got really nervous, then asked him what I was supposed to do for housing. He just shrugged, and said no more. At the time, I assumed that because we were living together for over a month, I guess I had started to get on his nerves, and my bud was trying to punish me or something for bothering him.
We slept, then woke up the next day with the morning sun shining through the window. I was still nervous as hell, but then he told me that he found a hostel for me to stay at while I looked for work. I told him that I didn't have the finances to stay for more than a week or two and that I might end up homeless, then asked him if I could stay with him at his grandmother's place. He flatly refused, saying that she was the one who was turning me away, and berated me for not finding more phone numbers. It was uncharacteristic of him to act like that, at least to me, but it was a harsh lesson well learned about never trusting other people with my life, and to always take proactive action for myself.
Before we left his aunt's place, we found a little lizard chilling on the wall of the room, which had been staying there for who knows how long. Both my bud and I tried to capture it with a plastic container to take it outside, but we had no luck, and just left it for his aunt to take care of. And finally, after giving his aunt the crystal sculpture that I had bought for her as a thank you for her hospitality, my bud and I were off to the train station.
His father was there to meet us and we bought tickets on a train that headed straight to the main city, but it turned out that our luggage was going on a separate train. My bud, again, decided to let me work out the bag processing on my own with the local officials, but I had only a partial idea as to what to say. Luckily, there were some really nice foreigners there who spoke the local language impeccably, and they helped me to get everything set up. After chatting for a few minutes, I PSP'd my way up to the main city with my bud and his dad, and then we were finally there.
We took the subway to a stop that I don't remember and walked among the tall buildings of the main city, and I was interested to see that while it seemed the same style as the city we had just come from, it still had little differences to make it special and unique: unlike my bud's aunt's town, the buildings were taller, and there were more signs advertising wares around. Also, there was a lot more bustle of people going to and fro, the streets were much wider, and while I had met approachable and friendly people where I had come from, this new place was full of quieter people who dressed more formally, but fashionably. After a few minutes walking in the heat, the three of us went to a steakhouse to have lunch. It was kind of sad because they served the steak in little pans shaped like cows. Still, although I never really liked steak, I had to admit that the meal was delicious.
The sun was starting to set then, and my bud's father left to take care of some business. Needing some supplies, my bud and I went to a local store nestled quietly among a line of quiet houses at the foot of some humble forested mountains, and went in to get some soap, shampoo and deodorant for our new abodes. Apparently, the market was only a few blocks away from the place my bud was going to stay at.
As I passed through the checkout, I realized I didn't have enough money to buy my stuff and a bag, because I was a few cents short. But out of nowhere, a smiling old lady appeared behind me and offered me not only enough money to buy a bag, but gave me her extra bag as well. I thanked her a bunch and packed up my new swag, flashed her a smile, then my bud and I went outside to get ready to take me to my new digs. It was a much needed show of graciousness for me when I was still pretty terrified about what was going to happen in my life from then on, and I'm still grateful to that woman.
A quick taxi ride later, my bud took me to the hostel where I would spend the greatest month of my life. I was really scared at the bottom floor, knowing my money was running out and I had to find work quickly, but I kept it all bottled up as my bud said goodbye. As he drove away in the taxi, that was the moment I started to really change myself, and I used this time of adversity to make myself as strong and happy as possible.
Then and Now 5 describes this change so I'll leave this post where it is, but there is one last thing I have to mention before I draw my experiences at my bud's aunt's place to a close: I couldn't have been luckier that things worked out the way they did. My bud's grandma is a shouting, abusive terror, and her caretaker and my bud received the brunt of it. At the same time, I was, for the first time in my life, a free man on his own, living in an excellent country surrounded by excellent people and adventure, and every day was another certainty to put a beaming smile on my face.
Were it not for my bud's tough love, and a little luck, I wouldn't have had nearly as great an experience as I did abroad, nor would I have had the tools to keep up the fast and fun pace that I had set for myself. Not just that month at the hostel, but the entire six months that I lived as a man abroad, wouldn't have been possible without my bud, and I'm still eternally thankful to him for that time.
As for today...
I woke up at 7:00.
I played video games.
My wife and son woke up, so I turned off the computer.
I played cars with my son.
I watched TV.
I ate lunch.
I roughhoused with my son.
I went to work.
I taught students.
I came home.
I cleaned up the floor and table.
I folded and put away dry clothes.
I did the dishes.
I played video games with my son.
I slept.
Time: Mid-2007, at my bud's aunt's place.
Over a year and dozens of blog posts later, this is Then and Now 71, the first in a final string of Then and Now posts that will detail the transition periods of the four great times of my life as a single man. This post will discuss the day that I went from a language learning house guest and burgeoning personality at my bud's aunt's place, to Then and Now 3 and 5 that detail my first days at the hostel, and my evolution into the confident, fun and happy person that I was during my single time.
My bud and I overstayed our welcome at his aunt's house by a week or two. She was starting to get tired of having us around (and even said she was drinking to fall asleep at night), so we both knew it was time for us to head out. About a week after the deadline, and a week before we eventually left, my bud and I decided to split our house finding duties between the two of us: I would go to a pay-by-the-hour internet cafe to find a long list of phone numbers for apartments that needed to be rented, and my bud would call them all and find the place for us.
It was very difficult for me, my language skill not being anywhere close to what it was a month later. In fact, I was really annoyed with my bud, because even though he was fluent in the language, he still expected me to find places on the net when I had little idea as to what the ads were saying. When I returned with the phone numbers, my annoyance turned to irritation when he basically put me on a complete blackout for an entire week as to whether he found us a place or not.
I didn't ask, assuming that if he said nothing, that it was good news and we would be leaving for a place together. But the night before we were ready to leave, when I asked him what was going on to make sure, he said he was going to move in with his grandmother in the main city, and that they didn't have a place for me. I asked him about the numbers I gave him, and he said that none of the places were still free. I got really nervous, then asked him what I was supposed to do for housing. He just shrugged, and said no more. At the time, I assumed that because we were living together for over a month, I guess I had started to get on his nerves, and my bud was trying to punish me or something for bothering him.
We slept, then woke up the next day with the morning sun shining through the window. I was still nervous as hell, but then he told me that he found a hostel for me to stay at while I looked for work. I told him that I didn't have the finances to stay for more than a week or two and that I might end up homeless, then asked him if I could stay with him at his grandmother's place. He flatly refused, saying that she was the one who was turning me away, and berated me for not finding more phone numbers. It was uncharacteristic of him to act like that, at least to me, but it was a harsh lesson well learned about never trusting other people with my life, and to always take proactive action for myself.
Before we left his aunt's place, we found a little lizard chilling on the wall of the room, which had been staying there for who knows how long. Both my bud and I tried to capture it with a plastic container to take it outside, but we had no luck, and just left it for his aunt to take care of. And finally, after giving his aunt the crystal sculpture that I had bought for her as a thank you for her hospitality, my bud and I were off to the train station.
His father was there to meet us and we bought tickets on a train that headed straight to the main city, but it turned out that our luggage was going on a separate train. My bud, again, decided to let me work out the bag processing on my own with the local officials, but I had only a partial idea as to what to say. Luckily, there were some really nice foreigners there who spoke the local language impeccably, and they helped me to get everything set up. After chatting for a few minutes, I PSP'd my way up to the main city with my bud and his dad, and then we were finally there.
We took the subway to a stop that I don't remember and walked among the tall buildings of the main city, and I was interested to see that while it seemed the same style as the city we had just come from, it still had little differences to make it special and unique: unlike my bud's aunt's town, the buildings were taller, and there were more signs advertising wares around. Also, there was a lot more bustle of people going to and fro, the streets were much wider, and while I had met approachable and friendly people where I had come from, this new place was full of quieter people who dressed more formally, but fashionably. After a few minutes walking in the heat, the three of us went to a steakhouse to have lunch. It was kind of sad because they served the steak in little pans shaped like cows. Still, although I never really liked steak, I had to admit that the meal was delicious.
The sun was starting to set then, and my bud's father left to take care of some business. Needing some supplies, my bud and I went to a local store nestled quietly among a line of quiet houses at the foot of some humble forested mountains, and went in to get some soap, shampoo and deodorant for our new abodes. Apparently, the market was only a few blocks away from the place my bud was going to stay at.
As I passed through the checkout, I realized I didn't have enough money to buy my stuff and a bag, because I was a few cents short. But out of nowhere, a smiling old lady appeared behind me and offered me not only enough money to buy a bag, but gave me her extra bag as well. I thanked her a bunch and packed up my new swag, flashed her a smile, then my bud and I went outside to get ready to take me to my new digs. It was a much needed show of graciousness for me when I was still pretty terrified about what was going to happen in my life from then on, and I'm still grateful to that woman.
A quick taxi ride later, my bud took me to the hostel where I would spend the greatest month of my life. I was really scared at the bottom floor, knowing my money was running out and I had to find work quickly, but I kept it all bottled up as my bud said goodbye. As he drove away in the taxi, that was the moment I started to really change myself, and I used this time of adversity to make myself as strong and happy as possible.
Then and Now 5 describes this change so I'll leave this post where it is, but there is one last thing I have to mention before I draw my experiences at my bud's aunt's place to a close: I couldn't have been luckier that things worked out the way they did. My bud's grandma is a shouting, abusive terror, and her caretaker and my bud received the brunt of it. At the same time, I was, for the first time in my life, a free man on his own, living in an excellent country surrounded by excellent people and adventure, and every day was another certainty to put a beaming smile on my face.
Were it not for my bud's tough love, and a little luck, I wouldn't have had nearly as great an experience as I did abroad, nor would I have had the tools to keep up the fast and fun pace that I had set for myself. Not just that month at the hostel, but the entire six months that I lived as a man abroad, wouldn't have been possible without my bud, and I'm still eternally thankful to him for that time.
As for today...
I woke up at 7:00.
I played video games.
My wife and son woke up, so I turned off the computer.
I played cars with my son.
I watched TV.
I ate lunch.
I roughhoused with my son.
I went to work.
I taught students.
I came home.
I cleaned up the floor and table.
I folded and put away dry clothes.
I did the dishes.
I played video games with my son.
I slept.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Then and Now 70 - Odds and Ends 12
Then and Now 70 - Odds and Ends 12
Time: Before I got married.
For the sake of this Then and Now, I'm going to refer to my wife as my girlfriend.
Nell and I met up at the underground mall one day to look around, and got a really excellent lunch at one of the restaurants down there. We went in to get some delicious spiced meat soup, and brought in a bowl of ice cream that we bought and shared together. The lunch was so nice that we met up again a few days later to have dinner together at a little local restaurant outside of the main station. We ordered some breaded meat and started to talk about our college lives when the owner came up to get our completed order slip.
"Give me the pen," she demanded in localspeak.
I raised my eyebrows slightly and silently handed it to her, then we she left, I looked at Nell.
"Wow, that was rude," she said. Then we both busted up laughing.
-----
I was wandering the main city one day, somewhere near the temple from Then and Now 18, I think. I got myself lost and was walking around the city to see if I could find anything interesting. Most of what I saw was a wide and empty road that went past a thick tree line on one side, and a humble field on the other.
It started to drizzle slightly as I walked down the street, and once I had been just a few hundred feet up the road, I started to see the outline of a huge, walled off building in front of me. Drawing closer to it, I found that it was just some boring factory or something, with a small security building and a lazy guard inside of it sitting just outside of the compound.
At that time, though, I guess the light rain was relaxing me so much that I saw the factory as some kind of hidden fortress in the woods, and that I had just wandered into another great adventure. It was stupid, I know, but it was enough for a flash of euphoria to hit and wash through me for the next few seconds, forever burning the image of the "rain castle" in my mind.
-----
I was out with Tina visiting a huge park area one dark night. It was a kind of dedication place to a local hero, and there were several huge arches welcoming visitors to wide fields of grass with a few cobbled streets leading between them, all the way to a massive set of stairs that led to a building that housed the hero's statue. Tina and I didn't go in that night, but I went there later during my 2012 vacation to see it more clearly.
That night, I took some pictures with her, then we headed down some quiet, dark streets towards the main station. The trees hung tall over us, the roads were emptying out, and it felt like we were all alone in the city. On the way, she taught me how to say "hate" in a cute way, but it was kind of useless because only girls really used it. Still, I figured I could recognize it when I heard it, so I nicked it and tucked it away into my memory.
After a long and peaceful walk, we were back at the main station, and Tina called a friend to find me the perfect bus that would take me directly back home. I was surprised, because I normally had to take two or three forms of transportation to get back. The ride was smooth, calm and easy, a perfect end to a gentle, easy night out with a good friend.
-----
Back at my bud's aunt's place, the both of us found it extremely easy to get lost. There were a lot of tall buildings around, especially where his aunt lived, so we often got lost wandering in the little lanes and alleys that went between them. As time went on we got better and better at navigating our town, but until we got the lay of the land, we had a clever way to find our way back to our place.
There was a building there, much larger than any of the others and somewhat near the ocean, that would sometimes tower far above the other ones at the right angle. We used that thing as a compass many times to get to and from the shopping mall where I practiced my local language skill, and my bud went window shopping. I still remember that beacon of safety rising in the distance to offer us a way back home.
We went into a mall next to it one day, and I went in to one of the stores to buy something. I don't remember what it was, but I do remember getting up to the cashier and trying to use my neophyte skill at the local language to ask how much the item was. I ended up saying something incorrect like "How many money?"
Unfortunately, either this guy was shocked to see a foreigner speaking his language, or was just a little slow, because he just didn't get it, even after I repeated myself and gestured to the item twice. My bud finally stepped up and said the correct phrase and the guy nodded in understanding to tell me the price, and I learned a new phrase for my own use. I still don't know what that cashier was thinking.
-----
After I started dating my girlfriend, I was still meeting people through the week, some of them girls. This day was no different. One weekend, I met up with a local college girl to see a famous outdoor market with a huge seafood marketplace in the middle of it. We met up in the train station and she was easy to spot, because she was the only local with her eyes glued directly on me.
She was an intimidating girl who hardly let me speak and didn't seem interested in anything I had to say, making me wonder why she even bothered to ask me to hang out, but at least I got to have a little tour of the market I wanted to see. The fish bazaar had a huge, high roof and was packed to the gills with people eating nasty fish in every direction at tables strewn about the place. I was interested to see the swimming sea creatures in their water tanks before they were prepared to be eaten, but I had more fun outside walking through narrow alleys past dozens of non-seafood shops.
We parted soon after, and a few days later, I got a strange email from my girlfriend. She told me that some girl I didn't know had seen me out with the college girl, and recognized me from my internet profile. My profile at that point said that I was dating my girl, and I provided a link to her profile there, so this unknown girl used that link to email my girlfriend to warn her that I was cheating on her. She added to "be careful" because her last boyfriend was a foreigner, and he had two timed her.
I explained the situation to my girlfriend, and she understood then (and later started a fight about it, but I've already talked about how I had the power in our relationship to shut her down then), but I felt more disappointed, and frankly not surprised, by the behavior of the other foreigners here. They always found new and pathetic ways to shame themselves, and I felt proud to break the mold that they had so selfishly set for any other visitor to this country.
As for today...
I woke up at 7:00.
I played video games.
I went to work.
I taught students.
I went to another school by train, and played video games on the way.
I taught students.
I came home by train, and played video games on the way.
I ate dinner.
I cleaned up the floor and table.
I folded and put away dry clothes.
I slept.
Time: Before I got married.
For the sake of this Then and Now, I'm going to refer to my wife as my girlfriend.
Nell and I met up at the underground mall one day to look around, and got a really excellent lunch at one of the restaurants down there. We went in to get some delicious spiced meat soup, and brought in a bowl of ice cream that we bought and shared together. The lunch was so nice that we met up again a few days later to have dinner together at a little local restaurant outside of the main station. We ordered some breaded meat and started to talk about our college lives when the owner came up to get our completed order slip.
"Give me the pen," she demanded in localspeak.
I raised my eyebrows slightly and silently handed it to her, then we she left, I looked at Nell.
"Wow, that was rude," she said. Then we both busted up laughing.
-----
I was wandering the main city one day, somewhere near the temple from Then and Now 18, I think. I got myself lost and was walking around the city to see if I could find anything interesting. Most of what I saw was a wide and empty road that went past a thick tree line on one side, and a humble field on the other.
It started to drizzle slightly as I walked down the street, and once I had been just a few hundred feet up the road, I started to see the outline of a huge, walled off building in front of me. Drawing closer to it, I found that it was just some boring factory or something, with a small security building and a lazy guard inside of it sitting just outside of the compound.
At that time, though, I guess the light rain was relaxing me so much that I saw the factory as some kind of hidden fortress in the woods, and that I had just wandered into another great adventure. It was stupid, I know, but it was enough for a flash of euphoria to hit and wash through me for the next few seconds, forever burning the image of the "rain castle" in my mind.
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I was out with Tina visiting a huge park area one dark night. It was a kind of dedication place to a local hero, and there were several huge arches welcoming visitors to wide fields of grass with a few cobbled streets leading between them, all the way to a massive set of stairs that led to a building that housed the hero's statue. Tina and I didn't go in that night, but I went there later during my 2012 vacation to see it more clearly.
That night, I took some pictures with her, then we headed down some quiet, dark streets towards the main station. The trees hung tall over us, the roads were emptying out, and it felt like we were all alone in the city. On the way, she taught me how to say "hate" in a cute way, but it was kind of useless because only girls really used it. Still, I figured I could recognize it when I heard it, so I nicked it and tucked it away into my memory.
After a long and peaceful walk, we were back at the main station, and Tina called a friend to find me the perfect bus that would take me directly back home. I was surprised, because I normally had to take two or three forms of transportation to get back. The ride was smooth, calm and easy, a perfect end to a gentle, easy night out with a good friend.
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Back at my bud's aunt's place, the both of us found it extremely easy to get lost. There were a lot of tall buildings around, especially where his aunt lived, so we often got lost wandering in the little lanes and alleys that went between them. As time went on we got better and better at navigating our town, but until we got the lay of the land, we had a clever way to find our way back to our place.
There was a building there, much larger than any of the others and somewhat near the ocean, that would sometimes tower far above the other ones at the right angle. We used that thing as a compass many times to get to and from the shopping mall where I practiced my local language skill, and my bud went window shopping. I still remember that beacon of safety rising in the distance to offer us a way back home.
We went into a mall next to it one day, and I went in to one of the stores to buy something. I don't remember what it was, but I do remember getting up to the cashier and trying to use my neophyte skill at the local language to ask how much the item was. I ended up saying something incorrect like "How many money?"
Unfortunately, either this guy was shocked to see a foreigner speaking his language, or was just a little slow, because he just didn't get it, even after I repeated myself and gestured to the item twice. My bud finally stepped up and said the correct phrase and the guy nodded in understanding to tell me the price, and I learned a new phrase for my own use. I still don't know what that cashier was thinking.
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After I started dating my girlfriend, I was still meeting people through the week, some of them girls. This day was no different. One weekend, I met up with a local college girl to see a famous outdoor market with a huge seafood marketplace in the middle of it. We met up in the train station and she was easy to spot, because she was the only local with her eyes glued directly on me.
She was an intimidating girl who hardly let me speak and didn't seem interested in anything I had to say, making me wonder why she even bothered to ask me to hang out, but at least I got to have a little tour of the market I wanted to see. The fish bazaar had a huge, high roof and was packed to the gills with people eating nasty fish in every direction at tables strewn about the place. I was interested to see the swimming sea creatures in their water tanks before they were prepared to be eaten, but I had more fun outside walking through narrow alleys past dozens of non-seafood shops.
We parted soon after, and a few days later, I got a strange email from my girlfriend. She told me that some girl I didn't know had seen me out with the college girl, and recognized me from my internet profile. My profile at that point said that I was dating my girl, and I provided a link to her profile there, so this unknown girl used that link to email my girlfriend to warn her that I was cheating on her. She added to "be careful" because her last boyfriend was a foreigner, and he had two timed her.
I explained the situation to my girlfriend, and she understood then (and later started a fight about it, but I've already talked about how I had the power in our relationship to shut her down then), but I felt more disappointed, and frankly not surprised, by the behavior of the other foreigners here. They always found new and pathetic ways to shame themselves, and I felt proud to break the mold that they had so selfishly set for any other visitor to this country.
As for today...
I woke up at 7:00.
I played video games.
I went to work.
I taught students.
I went to another school by train, and played video games on the way.
I taught students.
I came home by train, and played video games on the way.
I ate dinner.
I cleaned up the floor and table.
I folded and put away dry clothes.
I slept.
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