in a valley

I've been having a pretty shitty China day. Meaning that earlier today I was swearing of everything Chinese. The language, the people, the food, the culture, the entire country.

This started with a simple task of getting a new monthly time card for one of my teaching jobs. I arrived at the building and asked the secretary. She then called three other people over who made a phone call. The person was on the phone. So I waited for about 10 minutes. Finally she came out. I asked her. She told me I should have asked the receptionist. Who did she think called her?

Anyway, the entire time I was looking at the time cards which were in the box labeled 'timecards'. I wanted to just take one, but it has to be stamped with a red chop and apparently the Chinese are the only people that can do this.

I turned to leave but couldn't walk out the door for another 5 minutes because some workmen were removing the door from its frame for some reason.

I've developed a patience for events like this, but today I couldn't stand it. For the rest of the day I just walked around getting more and more pissed off every time someone bumped into me or cut me off or something and dreaming of the day I'll leave here and how I'm never going to return or speak of China again. Sadly, this is probably not the case at all.

So I decided to stay in this evening and take it easy. I went down to my local convenience store and bought a Coke. The courtyard inside my apartment complex is usually quiet and has few people at night, and since it was a nice night I decided to sit for a bit and sip my drink.

Some guy came and sat on a bench swing across from me. He talked on his phone for a little bit and once he was off we were both silent for about 2 minutes.

"Hello?"
(Every time I Chinese person says this I ignore it. We weren't facing each other, he was just about 20 feet to my left.)
"Kiss me?"
"Fuck off."
"Hello lady, can you give me a kiss?"
(I get up at this point and start walking to my building.)
"I'd like a kiss."
"Fuck you. Do you know that English?"
"Oh. Okay."

God damn this place.