This last week has been very busy for me: I’ve tutored almost every night. No complaints here. My assignment with Cissy wraps at the end of this month, so I’m on the lookout for the next gig. Fortunately, someone heard about me through JobWeek (yes, that publication back from January). On Friday afternoon, I had an interview with a Dutch-Chinese company called Rainbow Consulting. Their managing partner Ms. Zhu Dan is interested in hiring me as an English teaching consultant. Basically, Rainbow does HR consulting– executive assessments to help HR select appropriate workers for their needs, competency training, and organizational management. Dan has an interesting background–born in China, earned her masters in education from Emory, got her MBA in the Netherlands, worked in jewelry sales in Europe, and now heads this training group. We got along quite well during the intereview. We both blunt kinda women. Hopefully, this will materialize into a good opportunity. Dan said she’d get back to me in the next week or two.

Today John and I hit our fave local Chinese restaurant– Dynasty. Had our usual four dishes: fish-flavored eggplant, kao fu (spongy tofu), fried beefchops, stir-fried noodles. AFterwards, we biked to Xiangyang Market– yeah the fake market, the place we try our best to avoid. Well I had to get a watch to replace my Skaagen watch. I love my silver Skaagen, but 1) I can’t read the damn thing– I’m always off by an hour because of there are no ticks on the dial; 2) the mesh band got cut and one of the wires kept catching on everything–including my skin. John and I followed some sketchy dude across the street into an old house, where each room was a fake boutique, so to speak. Anyway, I got myself a fake Omega watch. Nai would be proud– that’s her favorite watch brand. Of course, Nai would think it real– even if the 100 RMB price makes betrays any logic of it being authentic. Needless to say, John was a tough bargainer. They asked 480. I think we could’ve gotten it down to like 60, but I’m ok with 12 USD. I warned them that I would return if I had ANY issues with it. The watch is functional. Not the most stylish, but I’ve learned my lesson. This one has bright, silver big-ass tickmarks against a dark gray face. Hope the thing lasts me a few months. 🙂

After Xiangyang, John and I dropped by Ka De Club where we get DVDs. They actually had Nip/Tuck, which made John very happy.

My god, it is still so damn hot these days. My face is all red from biking today. I wore my hat, but I had trouble keeping it on the whole time. Now I’m sitting here trying to update Goodbers, but my mind is distracted. Sweat beads are running down my face. I know, just turn on the damn AC. But John’s here too, and it’s a competition to see who crumbles first. I know, our silly little games.