Right, damnit. Now I’ve got the Scorpions stuck in my head. I swear my head is a sponge for craptastic music … wait, that’s not true. It’s just a sponge for anything that drifts by… I’ve had Three Little Birds stuck in my head for days and that’s a great tune.
All arachnid-named 80s bands aside, change is defintely the theme around here. With only two weeks in Jinzhou left, departure plays a role in that – but it is not the biggest change.
First, staffing. For some reason, currently being pulled out of top management by a somewhat rabid Doris, Future School head office has decided to can all the support staff at our school. Maggie, Doris, Annie and Sherry were all told the other day not to bother showing up for work anymore. It has long been known to me that Chinese employees are essentially treated like so much stationary, but I’ve not witnessed it so personally until now.
The big question on everyone’s mind is “why”, as no reason was given. The school has been having ups and downs with construction, management, competition, etc., and this may have affected enrollment – making lay-offs neccessary, but the way in which it was done was completely without class.
The second big thing changing is my relationship with Maggie. After a somewhat awkward confession of my long-growing feelings for her (I checked my journal. First entry in China: January 14th, first entry mentioning Maggie: ditto) at the beach on Thursday, we’ve been spending more and more time together. It’s lacking a whole lot of grace and/or foresight but it leaves me smiling a stupid-looking grin when I’m alone (and often when I’m not as well).
Simply put, there’s never been a girl I’ve languished over for so long and not said anything to. I could list all the reasons I didn’t say anything, and some of them were even pretty good, but it doesn’t really matter now does it. I’ve not held back at all, deciding (actually on a word of advice from Freddy) that if I try to guess what she’s thinking or how she’s going to feel then I’ll be doing what seems to be a Chinese girl’s favorite past-time: Guess Your Emotion And Make All Decisions Based On It. I told it all to her.
So… what happens next? Aren’t we all curious to know.
