long time

so it's been an extremely long time since i've posted last.
China has been crazy. In the last three months, a lot has happened. I guess the most significant thing has been my job situation because that has effected everything else. About two months ago I was assured a job at 中国戏曲学院 which is a college for the arts and culture. A well known one which holds beijing opera twice a week for free. They told me I had the job and we were going through all the paper work and such. I signed the contract and was waiting for the official 'okay' to move in. The day before I needed to move out of my apartment, they apologized and told me I could not work there. It was because Beijing didn't declare me an 'expert teacher', it turns out I am lacking previous university experience. So Chinese... they told me the day before I had to move out of my apartment. Mind you, they had my resume for 2 months.
Anyway, I now have an apartment in 积水潭(jishuitan) which is a nice location and a job at an elemantary school (2nd grade and 5th grade) a bus ride away. I also teach on saturdays at a korean-owned school. I'm hoping to fill up my weekday mornings with some one-on-one tutoring. Everything seems to be falling into place.
Ross and Ariel have been dragging me out of my house which is good. I was a little bit of a hermit for a while.


Last week was my birthday and many people treated me to food. Thank you Ruby and Lix for the pizza, thank you ross and ariel for the beer, thank you 만영 for the icecream cake:D, thank you 도형for the barbeque.