A student asked if I know "Mr. Black" who is supposedly going to teach English here. But I know nothing about it. People are still applying to teach here and the department of education has to make final decisions on the schools receiving teachers too. So either they're bringing in someone on a private contract or they're talking about Mr. Li, a current English teacher (his last name is a word that can mean "many" or "black"). Who knows?
I was also told that I need to think of what I want next year in case I cannot come back to my current school. I want to because I enjoy the students, and yet if they're bored of me now and giving me trouble...eh, I need to be much stricter anyway. It's a little sad to think of the possibility that my school may not have a teacher next year, but I don't know anything right now.
I don't count the time I have. I know what lessons I need to do and I focus on doing them since I laid out my plans back in February. My time to say goodbye will come when it comes. It's another one of those times when I don't think about how fast or slow time moves, when I don't ask for it to go faster or slow down partly because I know it will do what it will. Asking for it to change its pace is irrational and a waste of time. Time will not change for me so I need to change for time.
In other news, I wondered why ChinesePod has not had any updates so I went looking. I wasn't sure if it was a long hiatus like before or not, but now it looks like some of the podcasts I enjoyed for free became part of the paid for content on their website. On the bright side, I downloaded and saved them before they were removed from iTunes so I can still use stuff like "KTV Time" that I couldn't otherwise use. Those are my favorite, though I've only been to KTV once. I'm no good at singing and don't really like singing in front of others, though that's such a big thing here. I don't have a go to karaoke song and I've learned that there are ways I'm comfortable socializing outside of karaoke and clubs. I've accepted that there are times that require I just put my discomfort aside for others to meet them partway, I've also learned the value of saying no and creating other opportunities that are more my pace. That and I've tried learning songs in Chinese. My Chinese isn't great, trying to use the right tone while singing is difficult, but when I try to speak without singing when it's a song I know well, I fall into the tune naturally and have to fight to just say it in a normal voice for a while. Tong Hua (Fairytale) is particularly hard to just read and say without thinking of the song's rhythm and pitch.