Day 49 - Tutoring DnD

Sunday, March 27th, 2016

Smog Level: All 3 Mountains

Turning Green

Slept in, hoping to kick the cold. I think it’s getting better. Either way, I’m going back to the gym on Tuesday. Despite walking 8-10km on average per day and generally avoided desserts, I’m fairly certain that I've gained weight since arriving. Great. Maybe it's just all the salt and oil making me bloated? Denial might just be the answer to everything!

I tutored one of my students, and have used Golf (card game) to motivate her. She wants to play that, and really doesn’t want to do any work other than just  basic conversation. That can only go so far when speaking with an 11 year old, so now we alternate rounds and learning/writing a vocabulary word. Upon reviewing at the end of the session, I don’t think she learned as much as she should, but at least her parents have a piece of paper with vocab work on it. Appeasement.

The train to and from this place is like 45min-1h. So for what would be ¥400 of 2 hours of work has become that same amount for 3.5-4h of time commitment. This is why I mean I’m getting sick of this transportation and running around. Given that the mall across the street is the 2nd biggest in the mall, people know it as a landmark. Come to this landmark. I’m not going to you anymore, especially after talking to my colleagues about how much they’re able to pull from simply talking online. It seems people are a lot more desperate for foreign English teachers than I am for students. I won’t scalp them (some go for ¥500), but I really need to streamline this BS and stop wasting my time.

Shimou and I went to that muslim restaurant that I had checked out last Monday (Day 43). I couldn’t find what I had that day, but I did notice that they have cheap yogurt and quan [chwar], which is meat on a kebab. Seems like a good place to go after a workout, if I’m lazy, especially since lamb is the cheapest meat they have.

After factoring in the cost of my mandarin lessons (¥200 for 3h), I realize that I’m running low on money. I should be alright. Probably.

In the mall. I've seen every one broken by someone other than myself.

Shimou and I left for Maan Coffee for my tutoring lesson in Mandarin. I slammed the door closed as we left. I realized that the keys are still on the inside of the lock. The door handle locks automatically. Goddamn it. After contacting Ms.Handler, I find out that it’ll cost ¥100 if they can just push the key out through the lock and open it, but ¥300+ if they have to change the lock. Well, so much for scraping by. Why should things change when I come to China? I can’t wait to finally get paid and settle my debts, stop borrowing. Josh tried to push my key out with his, but it no luck.

I'm supposed to meet a guy at the mall for 8pm, and the locksmith hadn’t arrived yet. I gave Shimou what money I had and left her to take care of it. Good thing, too, because she was able to talk the guy down to ¥300, since he had wanted more.

Who’s the guy I’m meeting? A guy named Bob. I’m getting into the DnD world again, having been craving it lately. My coworker had introduced me on Wechat, and I found a group that was just starting for beginners. Sweet.

Bob paid for the cab (phew (though I felt a little guilty)) to liu dao kou [leo dow ko], another part of town that I’ve never been. One of the guys owns a business there, so we could use that location for as late as we want. Sweet.

[Nerd Stuff Begins]

Until it’s set, I’m not going to bother detailing any of the characters. Only thing that’s set in the game so far: we were kidnapped from various places by an underground race of “evil” beings that usually sacrifice people to their stupid spider god, or sell them into slavery. Sweet. (Drow, in case you were wondering)

Random Cardboard Box Structure in the Mall

The cage electrocutes and knocks unconscious anyone who touches it. Inside the cage with us are two guys, one who has a russian accent, and one who doesn’t speak because his tongue has been ripped out. Tongueless does have, however, an explosive hidden in his eye socket, under his eyepatch. We agree to blow the lock and take care of the guards.

Go time: monk takes out most of the guards while the rest fumble with the lock on the chest containing our gear. Me? Nope.

I’m playing an alcoholic, street urchin, halfling (hobbit) wizard. We’ve been kidnapped for a couple days, so I’m eyeing up the barrel of grog. Instead of doing anything productive, I dive into this open barrel of swill, and am very pleased with myself. I do, however, know that I’ll be getting sick very soon from how terrible this stuff is.

After beating all the guards, and gearing up, we put a pin in the session.

[Nerd Stuff Ends]

There were 6 of us playing. One had to jet at 1:30am, and the owner stayed behind to lock up. I left with Portuguese Ana, British Louie, and American Bob. They helped me get a cab back to my apartment. My fingers were crossed that it wouldn’t cost more than I had in my pocket.

In pocket: ¥45

Cost of cab 20 minute cab: ¥37

Words of the Day

English - Mandarin [pronunciation]

Mr - xiānsheng [she-ahn shung]

Ms - xiǎojie [she-ow jee-eh] (literally: little sister)

Editing Music

When I'm Small

Phantogram