In my final online report, I have written two fictional days, one extremely bad and one extremely good, to give you an idea of the best and worst of what Macau has to offer. Although neither has happened in its entirety, everything I have written has happened at one point or another. And, of course, most days fall somewhere in between. Reflecting back, I would say that nine days out of ten are good days, but I thought this would be an interesting way to describe the full spectrum of life teaching English in Macau, China.
A Bad Day in Macau
At 7:45 AM, I awake to the vibrating sounds of a power drill in my adjacent wall. My new neighbors have been remodeling their place for five weeks now and, from the sound of it, they have just reached the fill-the-walls-with-lots-of-useless-little-holes stage. I snooze in and out of consciousness for another few hours before finally giving up and starting the day. Stepping out of my ice-cold, air-conditioned room, I find that the rest of Macau is a hot and humid 90 degrees. Because it rained in the night, my patio area has flooded with a mix of water, construction debris, and air pollution that leaves a nice black coat of gunk on the tile patio floor. All of the walls have a nice sweaty shine to them and the clothes I washed the night before have mold on them because they couldn't dry. Well, time to eat.
I breeze down my apartment hallway that smells like burnt dog hair and dumplings and get into the elevator. The elevator is broken, but luckily I only live on the second floor. Heading to the bakery, I find that all of my favorite treats are sold out and I must choose between pork floss buns or hot dogs on a stick. I'll skip appetizers, thank you, and go straight to the main. On to the local grocer, I pick out a rice box-lunch but, unfortunately, all they are serving today are different kinds of tofu, some chicken feet, and the guts of some plant/animal whose smell turns me off more than the sight.
Getting back home, I take a quick shower and have a shave. I cut myself shaving. Then I get ready for the day, digging through my pants to find the one pair that doesn't have a noodle-slurp stain on them. Then, I pick out a shirt that shows sweat the least and head out towards school. Although it is only a five-minute walk, by the time I get to the bus stop, I have completely sweated through my shirt. Of course, I get there just as the bus is pulling away, too. I decide to wait for the next one, but just as I do, I see the one student who wouldn't stop talking even if I paid him. I mean, this guy has covered conversational topics as useful and engaging as his favorite underwear store in Beijing. Needless to say, I spend the next fifteen minutes grimacing through a chat about how his favorite video game is the best because you can use magic and guns. Excellent. Then the bus comes, but its too full so I have to stand with my head stooped and my back smashed into some student's backpack.
Now in my office, I find three emails from students who want to discuss (read: bargain) their grades. Sigh. Heading off to class, I realize that I have forgotten to print out the handouts for the day, so it is either some on-the-fly teaching or a fifteen-minute delay while I go make copies. Better late than never, but as the lesson gets going I can't quite get the students interested. So it is a lot of calling on individuals, forcing answers, and hushing chats in the back. Same thing in class number two, only this time they are missing both interest and any discernable English language ability. Time to go home.
I grab a quick dinner of bland noodles before rushing off to rugby practice. But tonight only five guys show up out of twenty, so we sort of goof around for an hour before calling it quits. Then its back to my house to watch a new DVD I was looking forward to seeing. It doesn't work. That's what you get for a buck a movie, I guess. Well, off to bed. Tomorrow is Friday and I think I'll get up early and see if I can have a better day.
A Good Day In Macau
I wake up at 8:55 AM, five minutes before my annoying alarm goes off. I can already tell through the curtain that it is a beautiful sunny day outside. Opening the window, a cool breeze blows through my room, clearing out the stale air-conditioned air and moving the construction air pollution away. I toss on some running shorts and pop across the street for a newspaper, a BBQ pork bun, and some chocolate milk for breakfast. After I leaf through the Op Eds and the funnies, I take a five minute jog down to the hill/mini-mountain where I run. I jog around the lush, green running path while cicadas drown out the noise of cement trucks the foliage hides the junk pile below. Back to the apartment in time to catch a live NBA play-off game and a fit in a quick Playstation football match with my roommate, who is also a teacher. Well, time to eat.
I breeze down my hallway that smells like incense and dumplings and then jump into the elevator, which happens to be waiting for me on my floor. I walk just a quick minute around the corner to my local grocery store, where I get a boxed rice lunch. Today they have all my favorites: curry chicken and potato, BBQ pork, and peppered bak choy. Can you believe I get a big full meal for only a buck fifty? I finish my meal on the patio, put some laundry in the sun, and read a few chapters while lying in my hammock before getting ready for school. No need to shave since I did yesterday, so I just throw on a shirt and tie to celebrate the last day of the working week, Formal Friday. It is quite hot as I walk to school, but there is a pleasant breeze that keeps me cool. Ah, I arrive at the bus stop just as its pulling up to take me to class. Oh, and it looks like the only open seat left is the one next to the cute Teacher's Assistant. I believe I'll sit there.
Arriving in the office, I have some snail mail waiting for me from some friends back home, as well as an email from a student telling me how they enjoy class. Thanks, student. Because I have been running the same lesson all week, there is no need to prepare so I head down to Mary and Candy's office (the wonderful international office in charge of Erika and I) to see how they are doing. Candy has some chocolate for me. Now off to my favorite class of the week, full of bright and eager students who enjoy participating. Class flies by and I feel like I actually taught them some things as well as just having fun performing romantic comedy skits. Since I only have one class on Fridays, I take off early and head down to the beach in Coloane. I play some Frisbee with another teacher friend from the rugby team and have a quick swim until Candy and Erika meet us for juice drinks at the beach.
Now dinner time, we all head into Macau for some cheap sushi and frozen yoghurt. Then, we meet up with John, the head of the English dept. to go bowling and have a beer. I bowl a 235. We move on to the movie theatre and watch the latest comic book movie adaptation. The one part where is does the cool flip thing is sweet. At midnight, I catch the last bus home to Taipa. It was a good day and I am tired. As I fall asleep, I wonder if spending all of tomorrow at the beach is too much of a good thing. Sounds just fine to me.
