Wandering Misfit: Part 19 ... and the list goes on

     It isn't only the locals that choose strange and unusual English names. Even amongst foreign teachers I have seen some odd choices when giving out names to students.

     The first one that comes to mind was a class I took over from someone else. When the class was brand new it had started with 11 children. For some reason, presumably known only to themselves, the foreign teacher in question had decided to give all of the students names beginning with T. This meant that for the boys for example there was Tom, Tommy, Tim, Ted and Tony. While the girls were called Tina, Tessa, Trudy, Tania, Tami and Tiffany. Altogether it made for a rather confusing situation.

     Other classes I have taught or at least covered for others included ones where all of the students were named after characters from a specific tv show and ones where the kids were named after places.

     Overall it really doesn't make a big difference after all they will most likely go on to choose new names for themselves as they get older if they continue with learning English. Somewhere in my mind though it just made me slightly uncomfortable both handing out new names because I was too lazy to learn their real names and also making the sole judgement call on what that name would be.

     By the time I was a year in I had gotten to the point where I simply refused to do it and made the T.A., kids or parent come up with names. Usually this worked pretty well, they often chose names that sounded as close to the poor kid's actual name as they could. Sometimes however it went badly wrong with kids choosing names like sheep and parents going for names like Ilex (pronounced Aleth according to the paretns involved by the way).

     All in all names to me ended up being something I tried to avoid after all it is hard remembering 100+ names when you only see the kids once a week without adding the strange and unusual to the mix. Personally I've never been good with names but I can't count the amount of times I have called a student by the wrong name so I always tried to make it as simple for myself as possible.


     Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger. 

Wandering Misfit: Part 18 ... the student formerly known as Lucy

     Staying with names I was reminded writing the last post of a great student I had who had a terrible time with her name.

     I took over a class from the previous senior teacher and one of the girls really disliked me for replacing him. The kids in the class were in their early teens and so were just starting to get a little angsty. When I took over the class the girl's English name was Lucy. A little plain but overall pretty much okay.

     After 3 weeks of refusing to speak to me Lucy finally calmed down and decided that maybe i wasn't all that bad. She decided though that now she was old enough to pick a name for herself and that now she had a new teacher it was the perfect time.

     The name she settled on was Candy. Now I tried really hard not to groan or to discourage her after all she had only just decided to stop sulking in the corner and talk during class.

      The very next week though she came storming into class, walked right up to me and yelled "I hate you" right in my face. Not sure yet what exactly I had done to receive this kind of venom I waited to see what would come next. The T.A. looking a little worried went off to talk to Candy. Sitting in the corner chatting the T.A. suddenly started to laugh.

     At this point I was feeling a little hard done by and out of the loop so I set the other kids on a writing task and headed over to see what was up. It turns out that Lucy/Candy was upset because I didn't tell her that Candy was  stupid name. Apparently my instinct the week before had been dead wrong.

     At this point Lucy vowed once more to change her name but this time she said she would do her research first.

     Next week eventually rolled around and in walked Lucy. "So what is your new name?", I asked. "I thinked a long time and I want my name to be Reborn because that is what I am", was the answer. Turns out that when she said she was going to do research she really meant she was going to use a dictionary.

     Thinking back on the result of her last odd name choice i tried to explain that maybe she was being a tiny bit too literal, but she wasn't having any of it.

     From that point on she became to all but herself "the student formerly known as Lucy". As far as I know she still calls herself Reborn and no-one else in the class ever got the Prince reference.

     Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger. 

Wandering Misfit: Part 8 ... meet the Boss

     The "boys" as someone affectionately called them were a strange bunch. A mix of nationalities and ages with people from Ireland, the US, UK, South Africa, Australia and even Zimbabwe. Altogether with me included there were 14 of us.

     Even though Dongying is as I said before a fishing village transformed only in the last decade or two into a city it had at the time the biggest Shane English school in China. The secret was oil. During the 80's oil was discovered nearby and since then the area has become the second largest oil field in China and as such bee catapulted into mega rich status.

     Villagers made rich is a pretty good description of the place actually and like all the locals who have flooded the city in recent years the foreigners too have come seeking riches and a good time. Even though I was going to be working with these guys and I had just had dinner with them Tony forbade me from going out on the town with them. When I asked him why he didn't seem too inclined to answer just telling me I "needed sleep".

     So after a brief round of hellos it was back off to my lonely little hotel room and an early start planned for the morning. The next day was going to be a big one with a talk from the manager, shopping for basic necessities with Tony and a tour of the school and city.

     After what turned out to be a surprisingly good sleep I headed out the next morning to meet my new, and so far rather mysterious, boss. So across the main road we went (a scary challenge for a novice) and into a rather nondescript building on the other side. The building we entered looked old but as I was to find out it wasn't really it seems buildings in Dongying just start to look old the second they are built.

     Up 4 flights of stairs and through a weird metal door into a tiny office space crammed with boxes and paper we went. Here in amongst all of the flashcards, books and cassettes (yes real honest to god cassettes) was Summer my manager. Summer turned out to be a short, petite middle aged woman with as I now recall the strongest grip I have ever felt.

      Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.

Wandering Misfit: Part 7 ... enter the other misfits

     I am still, to this day, not really sure what I was expecting when it came time to meet my fellow wanderers and misfits. I think somewhere I had the impression of them as people who just wanted to do something different. That maybe they would be tied together by the bond of choosing uncertainty and adventure over calm certainty.

     In some ways I was disappointed but in others I was pleasantly surprised. Nowhere to be seen, at least in that initial meeting, was the drive to see the world differently I had in some naive way hoped for. Instead what I found was a general joyous abandon. Also at this first dinner I saw some of the gluing together of people who under other circumstances would not have given each other the time of day.

     An odd bunch indeed. It is strange to recount that this was less than 5 years ago, but even so recently China was a different place, especially in a backwater like Dongying. This was before Chairman Xi came and started his war on corruption, before the real drive began to make it more difficult for foreigners to enter the country. I say that it has become more difficult because it has but perhaps suggesting that it has been made that way is wrong. Instead I should say that all of the little loopholes have been closed and all the blind eyes turned now stare unblinking.

     Going back to that I myself had at this time not come into the country on a work visa but instead a tourist one. Admittedly I never worked illegally on that visa but to be honest you aren't supposed to, and can't now, have these visas changed over in country. There was a brief stage where people would duck off to Hong Kong or even Thailand to get it changed but even that now has gone by the wayside as in a later tale I am sure I will complain bitterly about.

     I digress however. This veritable mix of humanity sitting before me were to be my new colleagues, friends and only "real" contact with the world for the foreseeable future.

      Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.

Wandering Misfit: Part 6 ...Chasing Smoke

   As I am sure most of you know sitting in a hotel in a foreign country with no-one to talk to and nowhere really to go is pretty high on the list of most lonely experiences on earth. Sitting there though I had time to reflect on the enormity of the leap I had made. Unable to sleep despite being exhausted I took a quick shower and decided to go and see what I could find in my new home.

   Slightly worried about getting lost in a new city where I knew no-one I decided to stay close by the hotel. Just across the alley was a supermarket, always a great place to get a feel for local culture. In I headed determined to find something to eat and hopefully a packet of cigarettes to boost my dwindling supply.

   It didn't take me long to realise that even the simple task of buying a packet of smokes was going to be a bit of a chore. In China you see supermarkets don't sell cigarettes the way I was used to. Instead of simply going to the counter, deciding what I wanted and paying I had to go through something of a wild goose chase. When you buy certain items in a Chinese supermarket you go to the counter and decide what you want as usual but from there it gets odd. Instead of paying and getting your stuff you are given a receipt and sent off to another desk to pay. Coming back with the receipt you have to hand that in at the first desk before you get what you paid for.

   This doesn't seem all that difficult but when your understanding of the local language doesn't even reach to numbers it presents something of a challenge. Lots of hand gestures, scowls and a personal escort later I emerged feeling slightly dazed. At this point unbeknownst to me I was observed by my new boss, a woman who I was yet to meet. Seeing me wandering around slightly lost she quickly phoned Tony and sent him out to see if I needed any help.

   In response to this summons Tony, who always seemed short on time decided the best option was to deliver me into the hands of some of the resident foreigners and let them deal with me. So grabbing a cab we headed out to yet another restaurant to meet the rest of the guys.

  Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.  

Wandering Misfit: Part 5 ... and there was lunch

     There I was standing outside this "hole in the wall" restaurant after a journey that had at this point taken around 24 hours. Even though it was lunchtime locally and in fact was only mid afternoon in Australia I was feeling pretty washed out.

     Food and then a good sleep seemed like a great idea so in I wandered to find the by now almost mythical Tony. After sitting me down at a table in the back Tony proceeded to order what seemed like half the menu. Now I have eaten "Chinese" food in a few different countries but nothing quite prepared me for this. It took me a long time to find out most of the food available at restaurants in the west is not only southern style, which makes it very different from the food in the north, but that it is also changed to appeal to more western palates.

     Most of the dishes brought out were pretty good albeit slightly on the greasy side. Insects featured in one dish and a whole chicken, head still intact in another but I had eaten far worse and despite being stared at by a decapitated hen I was thoroughly enjoying myself.

     The discussion was kept light and Tony seemed to at least realize I was too worn out to care about getting down to business. Towards the end of the meal though he called the waitress over and ordered one more item. Now Baijiu (literally white alcohol) has a well deserved reputation amongst foreigners in China. I am sure at some point I will have an entire episode devoted to just that topic but for now just let me say that I will never, ever drink Baijiu again.

     In fact I have even gone so far as to tell people in China that I am allergic to alcohol just to avoid having to share a drink of the local brew. Perhaps this is the point too where I should state that if you don't drink or smoke, and you are a man, life can get complicated in China. On the other hand if you do and you are a woman it can be even worse.

     Needless to say I drank the stuff I was offered, a fact I would later regret. The fact that between us we managed to down an entire bottle of what turned out to be 40% alcohol (with no mixer) seemed to amuse Tony.

     Shortly after he took me across the street to the hotel I would be temporarily living out of until they found me an apartment. Grateful as I was I was still a little edgy about the place it wasn't for another couple of years that I would realize why. Only about 18 months after i stayed there the place was condemned and ripped down glad I was only there for a couple of days.

       Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.

Wandering Misfit: Part 4 ... a journey into the unknown

     So there I was, I had wanted to get far away from my life in Australia a goal I think I had pretty much covered, despite possibly jumping in too far down the deep end.

     China is not, as many of my friends have since said, a completely different world but it really is unlike anywhere I had been before. Having done a fair amount of travel (I believe China was my 42nd country), I very quickly understood I had really gone out on a limb this time.

     If I had headed off to Beijing or Shanghai, or even along the southern coast I think the differences would have been mostly cosmetic. Instead I had chosen a "town" off the beaten track in Shandong in northern China. Now Dongying where I chose to live is not small, not by western standards anyway. In fact it is a bustling oil town of around two and a half million people. The thing to consider though is that not only is Shandong one of the oldest and most traditional of Chinese provinces but that Dongying itself had been a mere fishing village 20 years ago and to be honest in many ways it still is.

     Getting on a bus from Beijing to Dongying was, in a word, an experience. At this point I was surrounded by people who didn't speak a single word of English (beyond the ubiquitous "Hello"). To make matters just a little more stressful I had no contact with the outside world, no idea where I was and had not heard from Tony who was supposed to be picking me up.

     After a somewhat bewildering 6 hours or so I was dropped off at a dingy looking depot in a dirty looking city only to be picked up by a guy who's only real communication was "Tony tell me bring you". So, and I realize only now as I write this how stupid it sounds, I jumped in the back of his van and took my first real trip on inner city Chinese roads.

     Even being half asleep as I was at this point I believe I spent most of the trip white knuckled and sweating. Many people will tell you that the Chinese are scary drivers. As a nation though I have to say they are not that bad, they are very unpredictable but road rage seems basically non-existent beyond gratuitous use of horns and as a general rule they drive slower than many other countries.

     The guy I was unlucky enough to be picked up by though seemed to think he was on a racetrack somewhere not a crowded city street. Fortunately he did seem to know his stuff and after around 10, miraculously incident free, minutes he dropped me off outside a restaurant on a little side street off one of the main roads through town.

      Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.

Wandering Misfit: Part 3 ... don't try this at home

     The decision to up sticks and leave everything I had, not that it was much at that time, and head to China came in the end very quickly and as a shock even to me. I remember making the decision to get out of Oz but I never really decided where I was going to go.

     I went and did my TOEFL course and told my then boss I was getting ready to go. She was really good about it, in fact she was the best boss I've ever had in a lot of ways. I'd had some job offers mostly in Russia and South Korea but I had passed them up because as much as I like the sound of both I really just wanted to go completely off the beaten path.

     Coming home from work one night I got a call out of the blue. On the other end of a crackling line and in badly broken English there is a man offering me a job. Now most people, most sane people would have probably hung up at that point or at least been very, very wary. I however was apparently not having a sane day.

     After chatting with "Tony" for about 20 minutes not only had I agreed to take the job but I had promised to try and be in China within a week. Before I go any further I want to say that I really don't recommend trying this at home.

     Anyway a hectic 8 days later I was in China. Yes, I had literally taken a job sight unseen halfway across the world and headed out only a week later. A decision that would later prove to be both one of the best and one of the worst decisions of my life.

     Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.

Wandering Misfit: Part 2 ... the great escape

     So now you all know where I am, the question just remains as to how I got here. It is as with most strange stories a long one. So I am going to try and break it up a little. I also want to apologize in advance for the fact that I am probably not going to keep to any kind of chronological order.
Sometimes we need to express where we are before we get to how we got there and sometimes we can just explain the how without ever needing the where.

     The first part of our story I think needs to be a little bit about who I am, or at least what has made me the person I have come to be.

     I was born in Scotland, grew up in both Scotland and Australia and have traveled a fair bit in between. Most of that travel has been less a case of itchy feet and more a desperate attempt to find that hallowed place called home. Admittedly I have seen some amazing things in some even more amazing places and I wouldn't trade it now for the world but honestly at the time I wasn't out to see the world I was just looking for somewhere to settle down.

     Before I get cries of "but you are the luckiest person alive", I know that being allowed to live in Australia as well as the entirety of the EU is a blessing that many wish for. Australia is a wonderful country, equal measures of quirky and beautiful. The UK and especially my beautiful native land are safe, civilized and sane. All of that and more was open to me but strangely I never really felt at home.

     In fact only last year I had to return to Australia to get a work visa for China and spending a week in Melbourne made me more depressed than I had been in years. I don't want you to think this is the fault of Melbourne or of Australia as a whole. It is as the old line says "not you but me". For all it's charms and the wonderful people who make it their home Australia only holds old ghosts for me.

     Scotland too, for a long time brought with it memories I would rather have left buried. Nothing terrible, no deep dark secrets, just a spreading sense of unease. So I yearned for somewhere new because the grass is always greener.

     Eventually I simply decided I needed to go completely off the map. A decision which led me to China, the love of my life and some completely unforeseen events.

      Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.

Wandering Misfit: Part 1 or where it all started

     I am not famous and I am definitely not special, many other people have similar stories and quirky lives. In fact it is the very fact that I really am no one special that makes me want to share my journey. You see all to often we follow the lives of celebrities or we gush over the quotes and tidbits of the wildly successful. It makes sense we want to rub shoulders with those giants, we hope that a little bit of their "magic" will rub off on us.

     What we must never forget though is that our journeys and our stories are just as important. We, far more than the famous and the infamous, make up the world we live in. We all have a story somewhere that can inspire or can move people to action and in a way it is our duty to do just that.

     To explain why I want to lay bare my sometimes embarrassing journey to where I am today I need first to explain where I am. I am a 29 year old who has only just found their place in life. I didn't go to university, I floated around the world and I wasted my twenties on making plans for my thirties.

     Many of my friends are settled with kids, a lifelong job and a mortgage and for a long time I felt kind of left out. It as some of you I am sure know can be hard being the odd one out. Being embarrassed at parties when people ask how's work, and do you have kids yet?

     Recently though I started to realize that maybe the joke was on them. Working 9-5 to pay back the bank for a house that they will be lucky to own by the time they retire. Slaving away in a cubicle or in the case of many of my school friends working their fingers to the bone in manual labour.

     I know that a desk job is important and many need the security. Believe me I've been there. In fact only about a year ago I was craving the very same thing. I promised myself if I could find a halfway decent desk job in a quiet office I'd be a good boy and settle in for the long term.

     All I can say about that now is thank god I didn't find that job.

     What I found instead has made all that wasted time all that jumping from place to place worthwhile. You see not long ago (about 3 months) I found something to be truly passionate about. Even though I am "under educated" by modern standards I am passionate about education. I have for most of the last 10 years been involved with education in one form or another and what I found Online was an education that finally opened the doors I had thought were locked.

     Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.